The Age Of Severed Crowns Timeline

Eon XLV — The Age of Severed Crowns

Steppe Conquest, Plague and the Breaking of Inherited Rule

The Age of Severed Crowns begins when the fortified kingdoms of the previous age discover that walls, titles and sacred inheritance cannot stop a faster imperial order—and ends in 1454 CE, with Constantinople conquered, artillery remaking war and the campaign world standing inside the consequences.

Time Frame: 1200–1454 CE

Common Name: The Late Medieval Period, though the term does not describe every region equally

Theme: Steppe conquest, dynastic fracture, plague, revolt and gunpowder destroy confidence in inherited authority without replacing it with one stable world order.

The Age of Severed Crowns follows The Wars of Dominion. The earlier age built successor kingdoms, sacred institutions, fortified settlements, archives and armed households capable of surviving imperial collapse. This age tests those structures until many break, transform or become weapons in the hands of new rulers.

Temüjin unites a hobgoblin-led steppe confederation and creates an empire whose cavalry, intelligence, discipline and succession law overturn states from China to the Rus lands. The empire fragments, but its successor khanates continue shaping trade, tribute, diplomacy and war.

The Black Death follows routes made safer and busier by conquest. Its rare sister infection, the Red Death, turns a small minority of unresolved deaths into corpse hazards and undead outbreaks. Labour becomes scarce, inheritance becomes contested and communities learn that the recognised custodian of a body may matter as much as the recognised heir to land.

Gunpowder spreads into artillery, hand weapons and siege engineering. Printing begins multiplying texts in Europe while East Asian printing traditions remain older and more developed. Courts tax more deeply, borrow more heavily and employ professional soldiers, lawyers, engineers, physicians, translators and spies.

The age is global but not uniform. Mali, Great Zimbabwe, Kilwa, Vijayanagara, Majapahit, Yuan and Ming China, the Ashikaga shogunate, Mexica city-states, Inca Cuzco, Māori settlements and Australian sacred communities follow separate political, technological and religious histories.

Nonhuman peoples remain historical actors. Hobgoblins build empires and successor states. Orc confederations bargain, raid, serve and resist beside them without becoming the same people. Dwarven holds sell artillery metal while sealing plague roads. Elven courts withdraw from broken treaties or intervene through dynastic blood. Gnomes become printers, engineers and physicians. Halfling leagues gain bargaining power when labour is scarce. Goblin and kobold communities control mines, ruins and urban works. Serpentfolk alter genealogies while undead claim inheritances the living thought extinguished.

The age closes at the playable present. Its wars are recent memory. Its plague pits are still guarded. Its treaties remain enforceable. Its artillery masters are alive. Its displaced heirs still seek thrones. Its gods have not withdrawn—but rulers no longer mistake divine recognition for immunity from history.

The World at the Beginning

The Eastern Roman Empire still possesses Constantinople, but western armies and merchant powers threaten its authority.
The Holy Roman Empire contains competing princes, cities, sacred colleges and dynastic claimants beneath an imperial title.
Song China is wealthy and administratively sophisticated while facing strong northern states.
The Seven Wells imperial world is divided among Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuk and regional successor powers.
Delhi is becoming the centre of a northern Indian military state while southern kingdoms retain their own sacred and political systems.
Angkor, Pagan and maritime Southeast Asian powers control separate river and sea networks.
Mali has not yet formed, though Manding communities, Sosso power and trans-Saharan trade already shape the western Sahel.
Great Zimbabwe is growing into a major inland centre linked to Indian Ocean trade.
Cahokia is contracting but remains inhabited; Maya successor states and Andean polities continue independent histories.
Polynesian voyagers have not yet permanently settled Aotearoa.
Temüjin has not yet received the universal steppe title.
The Black Death and Red Death have not yet entered the age.
European artillery and mechanical movable-type printing do not yet define warfare or the distribution of texts.
Constantinople’s ancient Roman wards still recognise an emperor seated inside the city.

1204 CE — The War of the Broken Eagles

A western coalition assembled for an eastern expedition becomes trapped by debt, Venetian transport agreements and Roman dynastic intrigue.

The coalition attacks Constantinople, sacks the city and installs a short-lived Frankish regime often called the Empire of the Broken Eagle.

The conquest disperses relics, manuscripts, treasury objects, craftsmen and refugees throughout the Mediterranean. Roman successor states survive at Nicaea, Epirus and Trebizond.

Binding campaign ruling: debt, dynastic claims, merchant calculation and control of sacred routes drive the war. Roman, Frankish, Hellenic, Venetian and regional divine institutions judge the coalition’s acts according to separate laws, and several formally deny the conquerors custody of objects they physically possess.

c. 1200–1450 CE — Great Zimbabwe Reaches Its Height

Great Zimbabwe becomes a major political and trading centre through cattle wealth, gold, craft and control of inland routes connected to the Swahili coast.

Stone enclosures express authority and community organisation without mortar or foreign builders.

Shona ancestors and territorial spirits recognise several related centres rather than one simple palace government.

c. 1200–1454 CE — Maya Successor Kingdoms Endure

Maya political life continues through cities and kingdoms including Mayapan and numerous highland and lowland courts.

Trade, warfare, tribute, dynastic marriage and sacred calendars remain active after the decline of many Classic-period centres.

Mayapan’s league and later internal conflicts do not represent the end of Maya civilisation.

Binding campaign ruling: abandoned temples may retain calendrical obligations, but living Maya communities remain the recognised interpreters of those obligations.

1206 CE — Temüjin Proclaims the Great Steppe Empire

Temüjin unites dominant steppe confederations and receives the title Chinggis Khan.

In campaign history, Temüjin is a hobgoblin war leader raised within a mixed political world of hobgoblin clans, orc cavalry peoples, Turkic communities, human tribes and subject forest groups.

His empire is not a racial horde. It is a military and administrative confederation built through decimal organisation, intelligence networks, disciplined command, religious toleration, hostage law, protected envoys and the redistribution of conquered wealth.

Binding campaign ruling: hobgoblins dominate the imperial command but do not constitute every army or population within the empire. Orcs remain a separate people with their own clans, languages and rulers. Human, Turkic and other steppe communities may serve, resist or hold office.

1206 CE — The Delhi Sultanate Is Established

After the death of Muhammad of Ghor, Qutb al-Din Aibak establishes an independent military kingdom centred on Delhi.

In campaign history, the sultanate combines Turkic military households, Persian administration, Seven Wells law, Indian revenue systems and negotiated relationships with Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and local sacred institutions.

The new state controls important northern routes but does not govern all India. Rajput houses, Bengal, the Deccan, southern kingdoms, forest communities and Himalayan powers retain separate histories.

Binding campaign ruling: conquest transfers taxation and supreme military authority where it succeeds. It does not extinguish village, temple, naga, river or ancestral claims that the conqueror has not lawfully addressed.

1209–1215 CE — Northern China Is Forced Open

Steppe armies attack the Western Xia and Jin states.

Campaigns combine cavalry manoeuvre, siege specialists, intelligence and the recruitment of engineers from conquered peoples.

The capture of Zhongdu in 1215 reveals that fortified capitals can be isolated, starved and breached by an army whose commanders learn quickly from every enemy.

1215 CE — Magna Carta Limits One English King

English barons force King John to accept a charter defining selected obligations concerning taxation, judgement, inheritance and royal conduct.

The charter protects established elites more effectively than peasants, foreigners, nonhuman communities or the landless.

Its later reputation becomes broader than its immediate terms. Copies, confirmations and political memory turn a failed peace agreement into a durable symbol that kings are bound by law.

1218–1221 CE — The Khwarazmian Realm Is Destroyed

A trade and diplomatic dispute escalates after officials seize a steppe caravan and kill imperial envoys.

Temüjin’s armies invade the Khwarazmian territories, destroying cities, irrigation systems and ruling institutions across Central Asia and Iran.

The violence is immense, but not every city receives the same treatment. Communities that surrender, provide specialists or meet tribute terms may survive under new governors; resistance, betrayal and strategic importance often determine harsher outcomes.

Binding campaign ruling: the execution of recognised envoys is remembered by steppe law as the offence that justified the war. That legal grievance does not excuse every massacre committed afterward.

1223 CE — The Battle of the Kalka River

A reconnaissance army defeats a coalition of Rus princes and Cuman allies.

Rival commanders fail to coordinate, and the steppe army uses retreat, intelligence and mobility to divide them.

The victory warns the western steppe and Rus lands, but many rulers interpret it as a distant raid rather than the beginning of a new imperial order.

1227 CE — Temüjin Dies and the Succession Holds

Temüjin dies during a campaign against Western Xia.

The empire does not immediately collapse because succession, regency, assembly and command have been institutionalised.

His descendants inherit territories and armies, but they also inherit rival maternal lines, personal followers and incompatible visions of imperial expansion.

Thirteenth Century — Cahokia Contracts and Its People Reorganise

Cahokia’s population declines and central institutions lose authority.

People move into other Mississippian communities and reshape regional traditions rather than disappearing.

Binding campaign ruling: the mound alignments remain active sacred and astronomical works. Their custodianship passes to descendant communities and cannot be claimed by outsiders who treat the city as ownerless ruin.

1235 CE — Sundiata and the Rise of Mali

Sundiata Keita defeats Sosso power and establishes the foundations of the Mali Empire.

Mali draws strength from Manding agriculture, cavalry, goldfields, river routes, trade and a political assembly capable of recognising lineage, office and obligation.

Binding campaign ruling: Sundiata’s strength, disability, exile and return are historical. Later epic performance preserves true supernatural encounters but reshapes their sequence according to the needs of each recitation.

Nyama, ancestors, territorial powers and regional gods remain active within Mali. Seven Wells merchants and jurists gain influence without replacing Manding sacred law.

1237–1242 CE — The Rus Lands and Eastern Europe Are Invaded

Steppe armies under Batu and other commanders destroy or subordinate major Rus cities and campaign into Poland and Hungary.

Principalities that survive become tributaries and political intermediaries. Some rulers gain advantage by cooperating against local rivals.

Poland and Hungary suffer major defeats in 1241. The armies withdraw from central Europe after the death of the Great Khan creates a succession crisis, not because one western battlefield destroys them.

1240s–1260s CE — The Golden Horde Takes Shape

Batu’s ulus becomes the dominant steppe power over the western plains and many Rus principalities.

The Golden Horde collects tribute, confirms princes, controls routes and maintains cities as well as mobile courts.

Hobgoblin dynastic houses lead the khanate, while orc, Cuman, Kipchak, Bulgar, Rus and other populations retain distinct identities and legal customs.

1250 CE — A Military Household Seizes Kemet

Elite slave-soldiers and commanders overthrow their former ruling house in Kemet.

The resulting Mamluk state is reconstructed within the Seven Wells world as a military household regime whose rulers claim authority through defence of Kemet, custody of caravan law and control of the Nile capital.

The system raises captives into military elites while continuing to purchase and exploit new captives. Individual advancement does not make the institution non-slaveholding.

1250–1300 CE — Māori Settlement of Aotearoa

Voyagers from East Polynesia establish permanent communities in Aotearoa.

Settlers adapt crops, hunting, fishing, building and social organisation to colder islands and unfamiliar ecologies.

Iwi, hapū, ancestors and local atua develop through settlement histories rather than one founding fleet or one king.

New sacred agreements are made with mountains, forests, rivers and coasts already possessing their own power.

c. 1250–1454 CE — Banking, Universities and Measured Time Expand

Italian and other merchant houses develop bills of exchange, account books, public debt and international credit capable of financing trade and war across several jurisdictions.

Universities, court schools, temple colleges and guild workshops expand the organised teaching of law, medicine, philosophy, mathematics and languages.

Eyeglasses extend the working lives of scribes and craftspeople. Mechanical clocks begin regulating courts, markets and civic labour with a precision that older seasonal and liturgical systems did not require.

A debt recorded in several cities may be enforceable through merchant law without becoming morally legitimate. Clock-regulated labour also creates new disputes over whether a ruler may redefine customary working time by mechanism alone.

1257 CE — Samalas Erupts

Samalas on Lombok erupts with extraordinary force, destroying nearby settlements and sending sulphur-rich material into the upper atmosphere.

Cooling, unusual skies and disrupted weather follow across several regions during the succeeding years. The effects differ by location and do not explain every famine, migration or war of the period.

The eruption is a natural event of the Material Plane. Courts and cults interpret it through local omens, while responsibility remains with neither god, kaiju nor sorcerer.

On Lombok, the buried city of Pamatan becomes a sealed disaster landscape whose surviving territorial spirits distinguish rescue, archaeology and theft.

1258 CE — Baghdad Falls

Hülegü’s armies capture Baghdad and end Abbasid political power in the city.

Libraries, districts, estates and irrigation works suffer severe destruction. Scholars, craftspeople and officials are killed, displaced or incorporated into successor courts.

Binding campaign ruling: the fall breaks the Abbasid claim to direct imperial leadership within the Seven Wells Compact. It does not end Arabian, Persian or Mesopotamian scholarship, nor does it silence the gods and sanctuary courts rooted in other cities.

1258–1288 CE — Đại Việt and Champa Resist the Steppe Empires

Steppe and Yuan armies repeatedly invade Đại Việt and Champa.

The Trần rulers of Đại Việt use evacuation, scorched supplies, river warfare and the refusal of decisive battle until conditions favour them. Champa combines resistance, diplomacy and movement through terrain poorly suited to northern cavalry.

In 1288, forces under Trần Hưng Đạo destroy a Yuan fleet on the Bạch Đằng River using concealed stakes, tidal knowledge and coordinated attack.

River dragons and ancestor powers protect recognised channels. Mortal planning, local logistics, weather and the willingness to abandon capitals temporarily remain decisive.

1260 CE — Ayn Jalut Checks the Western Advance

Mamluk forces defeat a steppe army in the Levant.

The battle prevents immediate conquest of Kemet and demonstrates that steppe forces can be defeated by disciplined cavalry, intelligence and favourable logistics.

It does not destroy the Ilkhanate or end warfare between the rival powers.

1261 CE — Roman Rule Returns to Constantinople

Forces from Nicaea recover Constantinople from the Frankish regime.

The restored Roman Empire inherits a damaged city, reduced resources and contested Mediterranean position.

Ancient offices and ceremonies are revived, but several wards no longer recognise the restored custodians because relics, seals and legal chains were removed during the sack.

1260s–1290s CE — The Empire Divides into Successor Khanates

The united steppe empire fragments into the Yuan realm, Golden Horde, Ilkhanate and Chagatai territories.

Each claims inheritance from Temüjin while adapting to different populations, economies and sacred landscapes.

Common diplomatic practices and dynastic kinship survive, but civil wars make the idea of one obedient empire increasingly ceremonial.

1270 CE — The Solomonic Restoration in the Ethiopian Highlands

Yekuno Amlak overthrows the Zagwe dynasty and establishes the Solomonic royal line.

SpiralWorlds retains the dynasty while reconstructing its sacred legitimacy through Aksumite royal ancestry, celestial highland powers, ancestor law and custody of ancient stelae and regalia.

Rock-hewn sanctuaries, highland sacred houses and regional lords remain important to government.

Nubian kingdoms continue along the Nile under pressure from Kemet, desert powers and internal rivalry. Their decline is prolonged rather than one sudden disappearance.

1271–1279 CE — Yuan China and the Fall of Southern Song

Khubilai establishes the Yuan dynasty and completes the conquest of Southern Song.

China becomes part of a wider steppe imperial system while Chinese administration, cities, agriculture and scholarship continue under foreign rule.

The Yuan court uses ranked legal categories, privileged military households and officials drawn from several regions. Those classifications shape taxation and office without making every member of a ranked group equally powerful.

1274 CE — The First Invasion of Japan Is Repelled

A Yuan-led fleet carrying hobgoblin, Korean, Chinese and other troops attacks northern Kyushu.

Japanese defenders resist at the coast while the invading force struggles with unfamiliar terrain and supply.

During the withdrawal, the sea kaiju Mizuchi-no-Arashi rises beneath the fleet. Its passage breaks formations, overturns ships and forces survivors away from Japan.

Binding campaign ruling: the kaiju does not serve the shogunate. Shinto shrine coalitions and coastal kami persuade it that the invasion threatens the balance of the western seas. Its intervention saves Japan while causing destruction to Japanese fishing communities and sacred shores.

1281 CE — The Second Invasion Meets the Great Kaiju Storm

The Yuan court launches a much larger invasion using separate fleets and extensive preparations.

Japanese fortifications and prolonged resistance delay a decisive landing.

Raijin, Susanoo, coastal kami and the sea kaiju act through a destructive storm that scatters the invasion fleet. Mortal weather, poor coordination and ship construction also contribute.

The victory protects Japan but leaves the Kamakura government with debts and warriors expecting rewards from a defensive war that produced little land to distribute.

1287 CE — Pagan Falls to Invasion and Internal Fracture

Yuan pressure, regional revolt and weakening central authority end Pagan’s control over much of the Irrawaddy plain.

Temple estates, villages and regional rulers survive the fall of the capital’s dominance.

Local nat spirits continue enforcing land and water obligations recorded in older foundation grants.

1293 CE — Majapahit Is Founded

Raden Wijaya manipulates a Yuan invasion of Java, uses it to defeat a rival and then turns against the expedition.

Majapahit emerges as a powerful Javanese court whose authority spreads through warfare, marriage, ports, tribute and maritime relationships.

The later scale of its claimed influence remains debated; port recognition, trade priority and ceremonial submission do not always equal direct provincial rule.

c. 1299 CE — The Crimson Crescent Begins

Osman establishes a frontier principality in northwestern Anatolia.

In campaign history, the ruling military house is hobgoblin-led and grows from the interaction of Turkic migrants, steppe veterans, Persian administrators, local Anatolian populations and Seven Wells frontier institutions.

The polity becomes known as the Ottoman House and, more symbolically, the Crimson Crescent.

Binding campaign ruling: its success comes from discipline, frontier recruitment, negotiated surrender, artillery investment and dynastic continuity. It is not the inevitable racial destiny of hobgoblins.

1300–1330 CE — Dynasties Harden Their Courts

Across Eurasia and North Africa, royal government becomes more dependent upon financiers, household officers, lawyers, tax farmers, engineers, translators and mercenary captains.

Inheritance disputes are increasingly fought through documents and court factions as well as battle.

Serpentfolk agents exploit genealogical archives, falsify extinct lines and offer rulers evidence that cannot be safely verified.

1312–1337 CE — Mansa Musa and Mali’s Imperial Wealth

Mansa Musa rules Mali at the height of its wealth and international reputation.

In 1324 he undertakes the Great Circuit, travelling through Kemet to the western sanctuaries of the Seven Wells world with a large retinue and immense quantities of gold.

The journey displays wealth, secures diplomatic relationships and brings scholars, architects and legal specialists into Mali.

Binding campaign ruling: the Great Circuit is neither submission to foreign religion nor the replacement of Manding gods. Musa presents himself as a ruler capable of honouring international sanctuary law while remaining bound to Mali’s ancestors, Gbara and territorial powers.

1314 CE — Bannockburn Secures Scottish Independence

Robert Bruce defeats a larger English army near Stirling.

Terrain, disciplined spear formations and failures of English command contribute to the result.

The victory secures the Scottish kingdom’s survival without ending border war, dynastic conflict or English claims.

Celtic sovereignty traditions, Norse-Gaelic island powers and feudal law continue to overlap within Scotland.

1315–1317 CE — The Great Famine

Persistent rain, flooding and poor harvests create a severe food crisis across much of northern Europe.

Seed grain is consumed. Draft animals are slaughtered. Livestock disease deepens the shortage. Prices rise beyond the reach of many households.

Communities migrate, poach, raid storehouses and renegotiate obligations. Lords, towns and sacred estates that hoard grain gain short-term power and lasting hatred.

Famine spirits and predatory powers gather around starvation without creating the weather or crop failures. The worst supernatural outbreaks occur where rulers deliberately conceal stores, break relief oaths or sacrifice dependent communities.

1324 CE — Tenochtitlan Is Founded in the Basin of Mexico

Mexica settlers establish Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco under the sign of Huitzilopochtli.

Causeways, canals, chinampas, tribute and military organisation transform a difficult site into a growing city.

The Mexica remain subject to stronger regional powers before becoming founders of an imperial alliance.

1320s–1340s CE — Gunpowder Weapons Enter Western War

Knowledge of gunpowder reaches western Eurasian workshops and military courts.

Early guns are unreliable, expensive and difficult to transport. Their noise and impact matter before their accuracy does.

Artillery develops beside longbows, crossbows, cavalry, infantry and mining rather than replacing them at once.

1333–1336 CE — Kamakura Falls and Ashikaga Rule Begins

The Kamakura shogunate collapses after rebellion and failed attempts at imperial restoration.

Ashikaga Takauji establishes a new military government in Kyoto.

Japan contains overlapping authority among the imperial court, shogunate, provincial warrior houses, estates and Shinto shrine networks.

The political exhaustion caused by the Yuan invasions remains one factor in Kamakura’s loss of legitimacy.

1336 CE — Vijayanagara Is Founded

Vijayanagara grows into a powerful southern Indian kingdom centred on a fortified sacred and commercial landscape.

Its rulers support Hindu temples, irrigation, markets, armies and international trade while employing people from several sacred and linguistic communities.

The kingdom is a new political formation, not the automatic continuation of every previous southern dynasty.

1337–1453 CE — The Hundred Years’ War

Rival claims to the French crown draw England, France and their allies into prolonged dynastic war.

Campaigns involve major battles, sieges, chevauchées, naval conflict, taxation, mercenary service and devastation of the countryside.

The war strengthens royal administration while repeatedly exposing the weakness of kingship.

1338–1346 CE — Plague Moves through the Steppe Routes

Deaths recorded around Lake Issyk-Kul in 1338 and 1339 mark an early known outbreak connected to the lineage that becomes the Black Death.

The disease moves through wild reservoirs, caravan networks, military movements and densely connected settlements before reaching the Black Sea and Mediterranean worlds.

Steppe rule does not create the disease, but imperial routes allow people, grain, animals and infection to move over exceptional distances.

Binding campaign ruling: the Red Death is not present in every early outbreak. It appears only after the plague lineage encounters particular failures of death, burial and supernatural custody.

1338–1347 CE — Bengal and the Bahmani Deccan Become Independent Powers

Bengal consolidates as an independent sultanate after breaking from Delhi’s effective control.

In 1347, the Bahmani Sultanate forms in the Deccan, challenging both Delhi’s inheritance and the growing power of Vijayanagara.

Both states combine Persianate court forms, Seven Wells law, Indian revenue systems and regional sacred agreements.

Neither conquest nor royal conversion cancels the rights of village assemblies, temple estates, river powers, nagas or ancestor communities unless those rights are specifically judged and renegotiated.

1346 CE — Crécy

An English army defeats a larger French force through position, discipline, archery and failed coordination among its opponents.

Early guns appear but do not decide the battle.

The victory strengthens the reputation of the longbow while encouraging false later claims that one weapon alone makes cavalry obsolete.

1347–1353 CE — The Black Death

The Black Death spreads through Eurasian and North African trade, military and maritime routes.

Its main western pandemic wave reaches Mediterranean ports in 1347 and kills immense numbers across cities, villages and courts over the following years.

The disease is caused by infection. It is not created by demons, necromancers, offended gods or persecuted minorities.

Quarantine, flight, burial, nursing, food supply and public order become urgent political questions. Effects vary greatly by region.

1347–1355 CE — The Red Death Appears

The Red Death emerges as a rare sister infection among a very small proportion of plague cases.

Victims may suffer failed death: the body dies incompletely, retains hostile reflex, carries corrupted memory or rises under specific failures of burial and custody.

Most Black Death victims do not rise. Most abandoned villages do not become undead realms.

Binding campaign ruling: Red Death outbreaks require infection plus a failure of death’s completion. Concealed murder, unnamed burial, corpse theft, broken funerary custody or deliberate necromancy increase the risk.

Death-witness gods, ancestors, psychopomps and funerary authorities become important where names, testimony and lawful handling can prevent a death from being stolen. Their identities remain regional.

Within North American traditions, Tia governs warning and witnessed death. She does not become a universal plague goddess outside those traditions.

1348–1370 CE — Labour, Land and Inheritance Are Rewritten

Population loss leaves farms, workshops and offices without enough labour.

Workers and tenants demand wages, mobility and better terms. Landholders and governments attempt to freeze obligations, regulate pay and compel service.

Mass death creates inheritance disputes involving missing bodies, uncertain order of death, remarriage, orphaned children, extinct houses and property held by the undead.

Binding campaign ruling: an undead claimant does not automatically retain every right held in life. Courts judge continuity of mind, lawful death, predation, oath and recognised personhood.

1351 CE — Ayutthaya Rises

Ayutthaya becomes a major mainland Southeast Asian kingdom linked to river agriculture, ports, diplomacy and warfare.

Thai, Khmer, Mon and other traditions contribute to the court.

Royal authority incorporates local spirit law and Indian-derived sacred models without making the kingdom culturally uniform.

1356 CE — Poitiers

English forces defeat a larger French army and capture King John II.

Ransom, taxation and regency deepen political crisis in France.

The capture proves that a sacred crown does not protect its wearer from becoming a negotiable prisoner.

1356 CE — The Golden Bull Defines the Holy Roman Election

The Golden Bull formalises the role of prince-electors in choosing the Holy Roman emperor.

The settlement reduces some disputes while confirming that the empire is a negotiated polity rather than a centrally inherited kingdom.

Sacred colleges, cities, princes and dynasties continue contesting jurisdiction beneath the imperial title.

c. 1356 CE — The Hanseatic Cities Coordinate Their Power

Trading cities around the North and Baltic seas deepen the cooperative institutions later called the Hanseatic League.

Merchants use privileges, convoys, warehouses, diplomacy and economic pressure to defend routes and legal rights.

The League is not one state. Member cities pursue separate interests and sometimes refuse common action.

1358 CE — The Jacquerie

Rural communities in northern France rise amid war, taxation and elite violence.

Noble forces crush the revolt with severe reprisals.

The rebellion becomes part of a wider age in which peasants and towns increasingly recognise that inherited obligation can be resisted, even when resistance fails.

1363 CE Onward — Valois Burgundy Builds a Court between Kingdoms

The Burgundian state expands through inheritance, marriage, purchase and war across territories between France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Its rulers create one of Europe’s wealthiest courts while governing lands with different laws, languages, cities and loyalties.

Burgundy’s splendour depends upon finance, cloth towns, ceremony and careful exploitation of the Hundred Years’ War.

1368 CE — Ming Rule Replaces Yuan in China

The Ming dynasty drives the Yuan court from the imperial heartland.

Former Yuan rulers continue beyond the Great Wall; steppe power does not vanish.

The Ming rebuild administration, fortifications, taxation and military settlement while presenting themselves as restorers of legitimate order.

Chinese gods, ancestors, Daoist orders and Confucian schools are reorganised within the new court without becoming one identical institution.

1368–1405 CE — Timur’s Conquests

Timur is a hobgoblin warlord who forges an orc-dominated Timurid Empire through cavalry war, siege, dynastic manipulation and calculated terror.

His forces defeat rival steppe and settled powers from Iran and the Caucasus to northern India and Anatolia.

Orc military houses form much of the empire’s field strength while Persian administrators, human cities, Turkic communities and many subject peoples sustain its government and economy.

Timur’s court patronises architecture, craft and scholarship while his campaigns destroy cities and populations. Hobgoblin leadership does not make every orc subject politically equal or every conquest a shared racial project.

1370s–1450 CE — Sorcery Accusations Become Instruments of Rule

Royal, civic and sacred courts prosecute harmful magic, corpse violation, unlawful summoning, curse-work and pact-breaking.

Some cases address real supernatural crimes. Others arise from inheritance disputes, political rivalry, prejudice, failed medicine or fear after plague.

Binding campaign ruling: accusation is not proof. Legitimate courts require evidence of act, intent, effect, witness and jurisdiction. Confession extracted through torture is unreliable and often magically contaminating.

1377 CE — Metal Movable Type Prints the Jikji in Korea

Korean printers produce the Jikji using movable metal type.

The achievement belongs to an established East Asian history of paper and printing rather than to European invention.

Goryeo and later Joseon printers use woodblock and movable type according to text, cost and institutional need.

1378–1417 CE — The Rival Roman Custodians

Disputed elections divide the western Roman sacred hierarchy between rival high custodians based at Rome and Avignon; a third claimant later appears.

Kings, cities and sacred colleges choose sides according to law, politics, debt and regional allegiance.

The division weakens claims that one western sacred office can speak with unquestioned authority for every participating realm.

The Council of Constance ends the principal division by removing or securing the withdrawal of rival claimants and recognising a new Roman custodian.

This dispute concerns Roman sacred jurisdiction and imperial inheritance. Its settlement binds participating western institutions without governing every god, sacred order or people.

c. 1380–1454 CE — Kanem–Bornu and Songhai Gather Strength

Kanem’s rulers shift their political centre west of Lake Chad and rebuild authority through cavalry, tribute, agriculture and trans-Saharan exchange.

Songhai power grows around Gao as Mali’s control weakens in some eastern territories.

Neither state simply replaces Mali across all western Africa. River towns, pastoral peoples, Hausa cities and regional rulers continue separate political histories.

Binding campaign ruling: imported Seven Wells courts coexist with ancestor law, royal ritual, river powers and territorial spirits. International trade law does not grant foreign merchants ownership of wells, grazing routes or sacred ground.

1381 CE — The English Peasants’ Revolt

Communities rise against taxation, legal inequality and attempts to preserve labour obligations after plague.

Rebels enter London and compel negotiations before royal forces regain control and kill leaders.

The revolt fails to abolish lordship but demonstrates that ordinary communities can organise across counties and articulate political demands.

1385 CE — Portuguese Independence Is Secured

Portuguese forces defeat a Castilian invasion at Aljubarrota.

The victory secures a new dynasty and strengthens a maritime kingdom that will invest increasingly in Atlantic islands and African coastal routes.

Royal ambition, trade and navigation—not a universal religious mission—drive the coming expansion.

1389 CE — Kosovo Deepens Crimson Crescent Power

Serbian and allied forces confront the Ottoman Crimson Crescent at Kosovo.

Both rulers die, but the Ottoman state replaces its commander and continues expanding through stronger institutions and deeper reserves.

Serbian lordships survive under changing combinations of resistance, tribute and vassalage.

The battle becomes a powerful memory of sacrifice and sovereignty without reducing the region’s later politics to one inevitable outcome.

1392 CE — Joseon Replaces Goryeo

Joseon rulers establish a new Korean dynasty.

Confucian statecraft, land reform, military organisation and court institutions become central to government.

Korean gods, ancestors, mountain powers and local rites continue beneath and beside the official philosophy of rule.

1396 CE — The Crimson Crescent Defeats a Western Coalition

At Nicopolis, the Ottoman hobgoblin-led state defeats a large western army.

The battle demonstrates disciplined command, cavalry, infantry and the ability to use captured and allied forces effectively.

The victory strengthens Crimson Crescent claims in the Balkans without making conquest uncontested or complete.

1398 CE — Timur Sacks Delhi

Timur invades northern India and defeats the Delhi Sultanate’s army.

Delhi suffers massacre, enslavement and destruction before the conqueror withdraws.

The attack weakens the ruling dynasty without creating lasting Timurid government over northern India.

Regional states, cities and sacred institutions survive the catastrophe and compete over the political vacuum.

1402 CE — Timur Breaks the Ottoman Army at Ankara

Timur defeats and captures the Ottoman ruler Bayezid.

The Crimson Crescent enters a civil war among rival heirs.

The state survives because provincial institutions, military households and frontier alliances are stronger than one ruler’s defeat.

1405–1433 CE — The Ming Treasure Voyages

Zheng He commands large diplomatic and trading fleets through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

The voyages display Ming power, carry gifts, transport envoys and intervene in regional disputes.

They do not prove permanent Chinese rule over every port visited.

c. 1400–1450 CE — Great Zimbabwe Transforms

Great Zimbabwe remains important but political and trading centres shift.

Population, environmental pressure, route changes and regional competition contribute to transformation rather than one sudden mysterious collapse.

Later powers inherit trade and sacred authority without becoming foreign founders of the stone city.

1400–1454 CE — Swahili Cities and Indian Ocean Exchange

Kilwa, Mombasa, Mogadishu and other coastal cities connect African inland goods with Arabian, Persian, Indian and Asian merchants.

Coral-stone towns, harbours and merchant houses operate through African languages, kinship and local authority as well as international trade law.

Seven Wells institutions influence contracts and scholarship without erasing African ancestors or sea spirits.

1410 CE — Tannenberg Breaks the Hell Knights’ Expansion

A Polish-Lithuanian coalition defeats the Teutonic Hell Knights at Tannenberg.

In campaign history, the Brüderbund is a corrupted military order whose leaders combine German colonisation, coerced sacred conversion and infernal discipline.

Not every knight or settler serves Hell, but the order’s ruling structure has accepted infernal aid.

The defeat weakens the order while leaving fortified territories, debts and undead commanders in place.

1415 CE — Agincourt

Henry V’s army defeats a larger French force during a renewed English invasion.

Mud, constricted ground, archery, discipline and French command failures shape the result.

The victory restores English momentum but does not decide the war permanently.

1419–1434 CE — The Bohemian Sacred Wars

Bohemian reformers challenge the wealth, jurisdiction and military power of imperial sacred colleges.

After the execution of a leading reform teacher, urban and rural movements build field armies, fortified wagon tactics and alternative sacred institutions.

The Holy Roman Empire and allied princes launch repeated campaigns against them.

Binding campaign ruling: the wars concern access to sacred law, corruption of temple estates, vernacular teaching and whether imperial custodians may silence regional divine traditions.

1419–1434 CE — Atlantic Islands and Cape Bojador

Portuguese-backed expeditions establish settlements on Madeira and later the Azores.

These islands become laboratories for crown grants, plantation agriculture, maritime supply and the coercive movement of labour.

In 1434, Gil Eanes rounds Cape Bojador, weakening one psychological and navigational boundary on the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Sailing past a cape or reaching an island creates no lawful ownership. Settlement requires judgement of existing human, ancestral and supernatural claims, including those ignored by royal charters.

1428 CE — The Mexica Triple Alliance Forms

Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan defeat Azcapotzalco and create a military and tribute alliance.

The three cities retain distinct rulers, though Tenochtitlan grows increasingly dominant.

Huitzilopochtli, Tlaloc, Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl and other powers support different institutions and factions rather than one unified divine policy.

1428–1429 CE — Joan of Arc and the Relief of Orléans

Joan of Arc, a young French visionary and war leader, persuades the French court that her visions carry a lawful command to relieve Orléans and restore the king’s legitimacy.

Her arrival strengthens morale and political resolve. French forces force the English to abandon the siege.

Binding campaign ruling: Joan receives genuine visions from a coalition of Gallic sovereignty powers, ancestral guardians and the war-goddess Bellona. The visions give her a defined command concerning Orléans and royal legitimacy; they do not grant unquestionable knowledge of every military or political decision.

1429 CE — Patay

French forces catch and defeat a major English field army.

The battle destroys the belief that English archery formations are unbeatable under every condition.

It also allows the French royal campaign to move from survival towards reconquest.

1431 CE — Joan Is Executed

Joan is captured, transferred to hostile custody and tried through a politically controlled sacred court.

Charges concerning visions, clothing, obedience and sorcery are manipulated to undermine French legitimacy.

Binding campaign ruling: the trial is unlawful. Her death creates no automatic resurrection or universal sainthood, but her final testimony becomes a powerful ancestral and political relic.

1431 CE — Angkor Is Taken and the Khmer Centre Shifts

Ayutthayan forces capture Angkor after prolonged regional conflict.

The Khmer political centre moves southward. Angkor’s temples, reservoirs and local communities remain active rather than becoming an instantly abandoned lost city.

Water guardians continue enforcing ancient duties after the royal court has moved.

1438 CE — Pachacuti Begins Inca Imperial Expansion

Pachacuti defeats a major threat to Cuzco and reorganises the Inca state.

He expands authority through warfare, diplomacy, road-building, labour obligations, resettlement and sacred kingship.

The Qhapaq Ñan incorporates and extends older Andean routes, linking extreme environments through bridges, storehouses and relay stations.

Binding campaign ruling: conquered communities retain local gods and ancestors under negotiated hierarchy. Refusal, rebellion and forced resettlement remain real features of expansion.

c. 1440–1454 CE — European Mechanical Movable-Type Printing Develops

Johannes Gutenberg and other craftspeople in Mainz combine cast metal type, oil-based ink and the press into a commercially effective printing system.

Printing begins multiplying grammars, calendars, legal forms, short sacred texts and larger books.

The technology does not make manuscripts obsolete. It changes the speed and economics of reproducing selected texts.

Binding campaign ruling: printers can accidentally reproduce magical seals, but identical visible form does not always carry identical authority. Ink, material, lawful custody and public recognition still matter.

1441 CE — The Crimean Khanate Emerges

A western steppe successor state separates from Golden Horde authority.

Its population includes hobgoblin dynastic and military houses, orc and Tatar cavalry communities, settled towns, merchants and subject agricultural peoples.

The khanate’s politics revolve around steppe legitimacy, Black Sea trade, tribute and relationships with the rising Crimson Crescent.

1444 CE — Varna

The Crimson Crescent defeats another western coalition near Varna.

The victory confirms Ottoman recovery after the crisis caused by Timur.

It also leaves Constantinople increasingly isolated between rival merchant interests and a disciplined expanding state.

1450 CE — Formigny

French forces defeat an English army in Normandy.

Artillery contributes significantly by forcing movement and disrupting defensive deployment.

The battle marks the collapse of most English power in Normandy.

1453 CE — Castillon Ends the Hundred Years’ War

French artillery and field fortifications destroy the final major English army in Gascony.

The battle demonstrates that cannon can organise a defensive position rather than serving only as siege weapons.

English kings retain the title “King of France,” but title and effective rule have become visibly separate.

1453 CE — Constantinople Falls to the Crimson Crescent

Mehmed II leads the Ottoman hobgoblin ascendancy against Constantinople.

Large cannon, mining, naval pressure, disciplined infantry and sustained assault break the city’s defences.

The last Roman emperor dies during the final defence. Roman political rule in Constantinople ends, but Roman people, law, language and identity survive in conquered communities and successor claims.

The Crimson Crescent establishes the city as an imperial capital. Roman officials, Greek-speaking inhabitants, merchants, Seven Wells jurists, hobgoblin military households and other communities enter a new legal hierarchy.

Binding campaign ruling: the city’s gods and wards are not destroyed. Several recognise the conqueror after he lawfully assumes custody of gates, hearths, water and public order. Others withdraw, resist or remain bound to the missing Roman regalia.

1454 CE — The Campaign Present

The age ends one year after Constantinople’s fall.

The Hundred Years’ War has ended. The Crimson Crescent controls the ancient capital. The Holy Roman Empire remains divided. France is recovering. England faces internal strain. Iberian maritime states look outward. Mali remains powerful but faces shifting trade and regional rivals. Great Zimbabwe is transforming. Ming fleets have ceased their greatest voyages. Ashikaga authority is fragile. The Mexica alliance and Inca state are expanding rapidly.

The Black Death remains within living memory. Red Death sites remain sealed or disputed. Printing presses are beginning to spread. Bombards are expensive but decisive. Steppe successor states still control enormous spaces.

This is not the end of history. It is the exact world in which campaigns begin.

The World at 1454 CE

Europe and the Mediterranean

France has survived the Hundred Years’ War with stronger royal artillery and taxation. England has lost most continental possessions and faces a crisis of succession and noble power. Scotland remains independent. The Holy Roman Empire remains a negotiated structure of emperor, prince-electors, cities and sacred jurisdictions.

Italian communes, republics, lordships and merchant powers compete through banking, diplomacy, mercenaries and naval trade. The Roman city remains symbolically powerful without ruling the whole peninsula.

The Crimson Crescent holds Constantinople and much of the Balkans and Anatolia. Roman successor claims survive at Trebizond, in exile and within the imperial archives.

The Steppe, Rus and Central Asia

The Golden Horde has fragmented. The Crimean Khanate and other successor powers compete over tribute, trade and legitimacy. Rus principalities remain shaped by centuries of steppe rule while Moscow and rivals gather power.

The Timurid Empire is an orc-dominated state ruled by hobgoblin dynastic and military leadership. Its court remains brilliant and its succession unstable.

Timurid courts dominate parts of Central Asia and Iran but depend upon unstable dynastic succession.

Africa

Mali remains one of the world’s great gold and river powers, though Songhai is growing around Gao. Kanem–Bornu controls routes around Lake Chad. Swahili cities command Indian Ocean exchange. Ethiopian highland rulers preserve Aksumite inheritance, Nubian states remain under pressure and Great Zimbabwe’s political centre is shifting.

Ethiopian highland kingdoms and Nubian states continue through reconstructed local sacred systems of ancestors, Nile powers, celestial gods and royal law.

South Asia

Delhi and successor states contest northern India. Bengal is independent. Vijayanagara dominates much of the south while the Bahmani state and other Deccan powers compete across the plateau.

Temple estates, guilds, ports, cavalry markets and agricultural communities remain as important as royal capitals.

East Asia

Ming China has replaced Yuan rule but still faces steppe powers. Joseon governs Korea through central administration and Confucian statecraft. Ashikaga Japan is politically divided beneath a military government whose authority weakens with distance from Kyoto.

Shinto gods and kami remain Japan’s public sacred foundation. The memory of the kaiju-defeated invasions shapes coastal fortification and royal legitimacy.

Southeast Asia

Majapahit, Ayutthaya, Khmer successor courts, Vietnamese states and island port powers compete over trade and tribute.

The decline of one capital does not erase regional communities or sacred landscapes.

The Americas

The Mexica Triple Alliance is expanding from the Basin of Mexico. Maya states retain distinct courts and rivalries. Mississippian successor communities endure after Cahokia’s decline.

Pachacuti’s Inca state is transforming the Andes through roads, labour and resettlement while local peoples continue negotiating or resisting imperial demands.

Oceania and Australia

Māori iwi and hapū govern Aotearoa through kinship, land, warfare, exchange and sacred relationships. Other Polynesian societies maintain separate island histories.

Australian peoples continue complex territorial, kinship, fire and water custodianship beyond the monarchies and gunpowder states of other regions.

Peoples and Nonhuman Powers

Hobgoblins — Imperial Discipline and Successor States

Hobgoblins are central to the age but do not share one empire or ideology.

Temüjin’s dynasty creates the Great Hobgoblin Empire. Its successor khanates develop separate courts in China, Central Asia, Iran and the western steppe.

The Ottoman House creates the Crimson Crescent in Anatolia and the Balkans. It draws upon steppe military inheritance but is not a direct continuation of the Great Khan’s empire.

Hobgoblin political strengths include disciplined command, logistical planning, written orders, military households and the incorporation of conquered specialists. Their states also suffer succession conflict, elite rivalry and the exploitation of subject peoples.

Orcs — Confederations, Cavalry and Distinct Law

Orcs remain distinct from hobgoblins.

Some orc clans become major cavalry components within steppe armies. Others resist hobgoblin rule, maintain pastoral confederations, serve as frontier guards or establish independent warlord states.

Human chroniclers frequently call every eastern rider an orc or hobgoblin, concealing real differences in language, kinship and political allegiance.

Dwarves — Artillery Metal and Sealed Roads

Dwarven holds face strong demand for copper, tin, iron, saltpetre, cast bronze and specialist engineering.

Some sell cannon metal and train founders. Others refuse surface contracts after rulers seize mines or bring plague underground.

Dwarven artillery secrets are not one universal technology. Different holds develop distinct alloys, casting methods and safety law.

Elves — Broken Treaties and Long Memory

Elven courts witness mortal dynasties claim ancient treaties after losing the lands, languages and offices named in them.

Some courts withdraw into Britain, Scandinavia and hidden territories. Others intervene through marriage, fosterage, prophecy or selective military aid.

Plague affects elves differently but does not leave them immune to isolation, food shortage or the loss of mortal allies.

Gnomes — Printing, Medicine and Siege Engineering

Gnome enclaves become important to press construction, lenses, clocks, surgical tools, surveying and artillery mathematics.

Courts compete to recruit or confine them. Several enclaves establish neutrality charters defining which work may be performed for besiegers, defenders and plague authorities.

Halflings — Labour Scarcity and Rural Bargaining

Halfling agricultural and river communities gain leverage after plague reduces the available workforce.

Some leagues obtain wage, tenancy and market rights. Others face forced-service laws, enclosure and violent retaliation from landlords.

Goblins and Kobolds — Mines, Ruins and Urban Works

Goblin and kobold communities salvage ruined cities, maintain sewers, work mines and serve artillery trains.

Their expertise becomes valuable while their personhood remains contested. Several cities grant collective charters to underworks communities without granting individual residents equal status above ground.

Giants and Ogres

Depopulated uplands and ruined frontier regions allow some giant and ogre rulers to expand.

Others lose territory to artillery and organised states capable of breaching old mountain forts.

Each conflict requires specific judgement. Giant ancestry does not prove tyranny, and human settlement does not automatically create lawful title.

Serpentfolk — Genealogy and Court Poison

Serpentfolk infiltrators exploit extinct dynasties, disputed wills and plague-created gaps in archives.

They offer manufactured heirs, altered bloodlines and recovered “ancient” regalia.

Their strongest weapon is often not venom but a document that makes a false claimant look lawful.

Fey Courts

Fey crossings are wounded by broken oaths, abandoned villages, plague roads and expanding royal forests.

Some courts close their borders. Others demand fulfilment of obligations from dynasties that no longer remember making them.

The Fey World remains near Britain and other old crossings, but passage becomes more dangerous when mortal and Fey calendars disagree after mass death.

The Undead

Undead are not persons by default, but status depends upon mind, conduct, language, custom and recognition.

A revenant pursuing a murderer, a plague corpse attacking the living and a vampiric court collecting tribute present different legal and moral problems.

The Red Death creates hazards; it does not excuse indiscriminate killing of everyone suspected of illness.

Gods and Sacred Authority

Europe and the Mediterranean

Roman, Celtic, Asgardian, Slavic and local gods remain active through cities, lineages, sacred colleges, assemblies and territorial rites.

The Roman pantheon remains tied to Constantinople even after conquest. Janus recognises lawful transitions reluctantly; Vesta’s public hearth cannot simply be carried away as loot.

The Celtic gods influence sovereignty, land and the visions surrounding Joan of Arc without creating one French national cult.

The Asgardian gods remain important in Scandinavia and northern settlements, though royal centralisation changes their public institutions.

Africa

The African pantheons, ancestors and territorial spirits operate through many independent traditions.

Mali’s rulers honour Manding powers and international sanctuary law. Great Zimbabwe’s ancestors govern cattle, stone and land. Swahili cities recognise coastal spirits beside imported legal traditions.

East Asia and Japan

The Eastern gods, ancestors and celestial powers remain distinct from mortal governments.

Japan’s Shinto order recognises Amaterasu, Susanoo, Raijin, Ame-no-Uzume and innumerable kami. The kaiju interventions of 1274 and 1281 become sacred precedents, but no shogun commands the kaiju.

The Americas

The Mesoamerican gods shape the rival institutions of the Mexica alliance and neighbouring cities.

The North American powers remain connected to land, ancestor and community beyond the decline of Cahokia.

Andean gods, huacas and ancestors negotiate Inca expansion through local custodians rather than becoming mere provincial versions of Cuzco’s cult.

Oceania

The Polynesian gods and ancestors remain tied to voyages, islands, genealogy and sea routes.

Settlement of Aotearoa creates new local relationships; it does not place every island beneath one Oceanic religious order.

Law, Plague and Personhood

Conquest and Tributary Law

Steppe rulers often preserve local law where tribute and military obligations are met.

Conquest changes the supreme authority without making every local judgement void. It also creates conflicting appeal systems between khan, prince, city, clan and sacred court.

Envoys and Safe Conduct

The killing of envoys remains one of the age’s gravest interstate offences.

Safe-conduct documents may protect merchants, healers and diplomats across enemy lines. Forging one can provoke war.

Quarantine

Ports and cities create isolation rules, health passes, burial teams and restrictions on movement.

Quarantine may be medically useful and legally abusive at the same time. Officials can protect a city while exploiting foreigners, the poor or politically weak districts.

Burial Custody

Red Death risk makes the legal custodian of a body crucial.

Custody includes naming, witnessing, examination, transport, burial and the settlement of final oaths.

Corpse theft becomes both property crime and a threat to public safety.

Inheritance after Mass Death

Courts confront uncertain order of death, missing heirs, unborn children, remarriage, abandoned land and extinct houses.

A forged survival record can redirect estates and magical wards. A genuine revenant may expose the fraud without being entitled to resume ordinary life.

Labour and Serfdom

Labour scarcity gives workers bargaining power.

Governments attempt wage controls, travel restrictions and compulsory service. Resistance ranges from negotiation to flight, riot and organised revolt.

Mercenaries

Mercenary companies become political actors capable of protecting or devastating regions.

Contracts define pay, ransom, loot and duration, but unpaid soldiers often seize what rulers promised from other people’s land.

Artillery Ownership

Bombards require metal, powder, transport, engineers and secure storage.

Cities, rulers, guilds and dwarven contractors dispute whether cannon belong to the crown, the founder, the community that paid for them or the commander who captured them.

Sorcery Prosecution

Harmful magic is real, but fear does not identify it reliably.

Sound procedure requires physical and magical evidence, competent witnesses, proof of jurisdiction and a distinction between taboo, fraud, failed healing and deliberate supernatural harm.

Magic and Technology

Steppe Communication

Relay posts, remounts, written orders and protected messengers move information rapidly across enormous territories.

Some stations incorporate ancestor or sky-spirit oaths that punish theft of official mounts.

Maps and Travel Records

Conquest, pilgrimage, diplomacy and trade generate more route descriptions and geographic knowledge.

Maps remain political objects. A route drawn through another people’s land does not create ownership.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder becomes increasingly reliable through controlled ingredients, standard measures and specialist crews.

Magic can ignite, cool or strengthen artillery but cannot replace casting quality, powder discipline and logistics.

Printing

East Asian woodblock and movable-type traditions remain mature. European mechanical movable type begins spreading at the age’s end.

Printing multiplies law, propaganda, technical diagrams and magical errors as readily as truth.

Plague Medicine

Physicians, herbalists, temple healers and practical officials test isolation, sanitation, nursing and symptom management.

Magic can aid particular patients, reveal supernatural complications and preserve bodies. No common spell ends the Black Death.

Red Death Containment

Containment requires infection control and correct death ritual.

Burning every corpse can worsen some outbreaks by destroying names, evidence and lawful custody. Local rites must be adapted rather than replaced with one universal method.

What Changed During the Age

Constantinople is sacked in 1204, restored in 1261 and conquered by the Crimson Crescent in 1453.
Temüjin creates a hobgoblin-led empire spanning much of Eurasia.
The Great Steppe Empire fragments into powerful successor khanates.
Đại Việt and Champa resist repeated steppe and Yuan invasions.
Rus principalities and eastern European states are reshaped by steppe tribute and war.
The Delhi Sultanate establishes a powerful but regionally limited northern Indian state.
The 1257 Samalas eruption produces widespread climatic disruption without determining one universal outcome.
Mali rises under Sundiata and reaches global prominence under Mansa Musa.
Great Zimbabwe reaches its height and begins transforming by the age’s close.
Kanem–Bornu and Songhai gather strength in the Sahel.
The Yuan conquer China and are later replaced by the Ming.
Two Yuan invasions of Japan are defeated through mortal resistance, storms, kami and kaiju intervention.
Kamakura falls and the Ashikaga shogunate begins.
Pagan declines, Majapahit rises and Ayutthaya becomes a major mainland power.
The Black Death kills across connected regions.
The rare Red Death creates failed-death and undead crises.
Labour scarcity changes wages, movement and land obligations.
The Great Famine of 1315–1317 deepens hunger, unrest and pressure upon rural society.
The Hundred Years’ War strengthens artillery, taxation and royal administration.
Bengal and the Bahmani Deccan emerge as major independent powers.
Timur, a hobgoblin warlord, builds and devastates an orc-dominated Central Asian empire.
Metal movable type is used in Korea before European mechanical printing develops.
The Holy Roman Golden Bull formalises the prince-electors.
The Hanseatic cities deepen their commercial league.
Rival Roman sacred custodians divide western sacred authority until the Council of Constance.
Portuguese settlement of Atlantic islands and the rounding of Cape Bojador widen maritime ambitions.
The Teutonic Hell Knights are defeated at Tannenberg.
Joan of Arc relieves Orléans, helps restore French confidence and is unlawfully executed.
Maya successor kingdoms continue after the Classic-period transformations.
The Mexica Triple Alliance forms.
Pachacuti begins rapid Inca expansion.
Māori settlement transforms Aotearoa.
Gunpowder changes siegecraft without making castles instantly obsolete.
Printing begins accelerating the spread of law, technical knowledge and political argument.
The world enters 1454 with old crowns surviving but no longer appearing invulnerable.

What Survives into 1454 CE

Roman regalia missing since the sack of 1204;
Constantinopolitan wards divided between Roman and Ottoman custodians;
steppe safe-conduct tablets still recognised across several khanates;
Rus tribute records claimed by dead and living rulers;
Sundiata’s charters preserved through oral and written law;
Mansa Musa’s foreign contracts and gold obligations;
Kanem and Songhai caravan agreements witnessed by well and river spirits;
Great Zimbabwean stone and ancestor claims;
Cahokian mound routes active under descendant custodianship;
Māori genealogies recording first settlements and territorial agreements;
kaiju warning stones along Japanese shores;
Yuan-ranked legal categories surviving under successor courts;
Samalas ash records and buried claims from Pamatan;
grain-store oaths broken during the Great Famine;
Red Death quarantine sites with disputed ownership;
plague wills written by people later discovered alive or undead;
halfling labour charters won after mass mortality;
dwarven cannon contracts and unpaid royal debts;
serpentfolk genealogies hidden in noble archives;
Timurid craftsmen, orc military grants and displaced scholars;
Hell Knight fortresses whose infernal commanders survived defeat;
the Golden Bull’s electoral seals and disputed copies;
Hanseatic privileges claimed in ports that left the League;
rival Roman custodian seals declared invalid by competing courts;
Joan’s testimony and battlefield standards;
Mexica tribute claims and divine obligations;
Inca road stations and resettlement orders;
movable-type matrices capable of reproducing official seals;
mercenary contracts still binding companies after their employer’s death;
Atlantic island charters that ignore earlier supernatural custody;
cannon powerful enough to breach walls built in the previous age.

Campaign Legacies

The Missing Roman Crown

A piece of regalia stolen in 1204 can command one of Constantinople’s oldest wards. Roman exiles, Ottoman officials and a Venetian family each claim lawful custody.

The Khan’s Safe Conduct

A metal tablet grants protection across every successor khanate descended from Temüjin. One state insists it also grants the bearer authority to requisition horses and execute road thieves.

The Red Village

A village sealed in 1349 has begun ringing its bell. The inhabitants insist they survived; neighbouring records say every resident died and the land legally passed to another lord.

The Kaiju Debt

A Japanese coastal shrine discovers that the rites used in 1281 promised the sea kaiju a harbour that has since become a major town.

Sundiata’s Lost Clause

A griot recites a forgotten provision granting an entire gold district to a lineage erased from imperial records. The land’s spirits recognise the claim.

The Dwarven Bombard

A royal cannon has cracked. Its dwarven founders refuse repair until a century-old contract concerning mine labour and hostage apprentices is honoured.

The Joan Relic

A standard carried at Orléans begins answering questions in Joan’s voice. Several answers contradict the legal record of her visions and trial.

The Hell Knight Commandery

A defeated Brüderbund fortress continues collecting taxes through undead agents. The surrounding villages have receipts proving the payments are legally current.

The Printed Usurper

A press produces hundreds of copies of a genealogy proving a false claimant’s right to a throne. Each public reading strengthens the succession magic.

The Famine Granary

A sealed civic granary contains grain withheld during the Great Famine. The oath-bound storehouse refuses to open for descendants of the officials who falsified its accounts.

The Three Custodians

Three rival seals from the Roman sacred schism each command a different portion of one temple archive. Destroying any seal may erase legitimate rights along with fraudulent claims.

The Bạch Đằng Stakes

Ancient river stakes rise again in an estuary now used by peaceful merchants. The river guardians believe another Yuan fleet is approaching through a displaced timeline.

The Cape beyond Ownership

A Portuguese charter grants an Atlantic island to a noble house. The island’s wind spirits recognise only the navigator who promised that no permanent settlement would be made.

The Last Gate of Cahokia

A mound route opens towards an ancestral court during a rare celestial alignment. Descendant communities ask the party to prevent foreign treasure-seekers from turning visitation into conquest.

Historic and Mythic Context

The Age of Severed Crowns combines documented history, archaeology, oral tradition, later literary preservation and binding campaign divergences.

The sack and recovery of Constantinople, the historical Mongol conquests, Samalas, Đại Việt and Champa’s resistance, Mali, Great Zimbabwe, Yuan and Ming China, the invasions of Japan, the Great Famine, the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War, Majapahit, Ashikaga rule, Māori settlement, the Mexica Triple Alliance, Inca expansion, Atlantic navigation, European printing and the fall of Constantinople provide the historical framework.

SpiralWorlds alters several foundational identities. Temüjin and the ruling core of the great khanates are hobgoblins. Orcs remain distinct steppe peoples. Timur is a hobgoblin warlord who establishes an orc-dominated Timurid state. The Ottoman House is a hobgoblin-led successor power called the Crimson Crescent. Its conquest of Constantinople is historical campaign canon.

The failed invasions of Japan retain their material causes and historical dates while adding binding intervention by kami and sea kaiju. These powers aid Japan without becoming controllable weapons of the shogunate.

The Black Death remains an infectious pandemic. The Red Death is a rare sister infection creating failed death under particular ritual and supernatural failures. Neither plague is caused by undead.

Abrahamic religions do not exist in the setting. Political developments historically associated with Christian or Islamic institutions are reconstructed through Roman, local European, Seven Wells, Persian, Indian, African and other maintained sacred systems. The material history remains recognisable while sacred law and divine relationships differ.

Dates for Māori settlement, Cahokia’s contraction, Great Zimbabwe’s transformation and the reach of Majapahit remain broad where evidence and interpretation do not support false precision.