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Age VI: The Wars of Dominion

When gods faltered, kings sharpened their swords.
~1,200–800 years ago (c. 800–1200 CE)

Theme Statement

Faith fractures, and fire spreads. As crowns hunger for dominion, the age is written in steel, salt, and sorrow.

Overview

In the waning light of forgotten pacts, ambition blooms like wildfire. Realms that once traced lineage from stars and song now turn to conquest and dominion. This is the age of war-chariots and siege towers, of empire-born hunger, and the long silence of retreating gods.

Across continents, civilizations crumble. The legacies of Teotihuacan vanish in smoke and ritual fire. Rome splinters into memory and marble, while the once-mighty Gupta Empire withers beneath internal strife and foreign blades. In China, the Tang dynasty begins to fray. In the Americas, the Maya abandon stone cities to the jungle’s creeping silence. In their place rise dominion states: harsh, pragmatic, and armored with stolen relics.

The world quakes beneath the feet of vast armies. River sanctuaries drown beneath iron bridges; ancient groves are cleared to feed a thousand war-drums. Imperial might reshapes sacred landscapes—holy ground paved with road, chain, and tribute. Fortresses crown every hill. Banners rise not for spirits but for taxation and blood.

Legends and history blend: Alexander’s ghost rides east, Hannibal’s shadow darkens Alpine passes, and Trojan myths echo in shattered cities. The Nine Immortals of Wudang stride through storm and silence. Eagle standards are trampled in Gaulish mud. Zoroastrian flames gutter in winds stirred by foreign tongues. The Lady of the Lake weeps in mist-choked forests. The Rainbow Serpent coils beneath red deserts.

Griots in Mali chant Sundiata’s rise; Norse skalds whisper of Ragnarok’s first breath. Greek tales of the Titanomachy and Vedic hymns of Mahabharata echo in the god-wars of the Sapphire Steppe. Babylonian magi invoke stars for omens that go unanswered. Polynesian navigators dream of drowned lands and divine wayfinders. In Japan, the Heian court witnesses strange portents. In the Hindu Kush, spirits vanish into blizzards. It is a time of war and wonder, of fading prophecy and rising paranoia. The heavens grow silent. Mortals answer with empire.

Land & Climate

  • Ashen Fields: Former breadbaskets scorched and taxed into desolation. Mirrors Mesopotamia’s salt-poisoned lands, the Nile Delta’s decline under Rome, and the Sahel’s abandoned granaries.
  • Broken Highlands: Mountains mined for war-metal, their spirits exiled. Evokes the Anatolian ironworks, Andean copper vaults, and Balkan deforestation.
  • The Star Wastes: Land cratered by magical strikes. Comparable to Tunguska scars, Libyan Desert glass, and Celtic tales of skyfire.
  • Shadow Coasts: Naval empires rise as did the Phoenicians, Chola, Srivijaya, and Viking sea-kings.
  • The Silent Steppes: Plains once crossed by horse-nations now echo with imperial drums and scorched treaties.
  • Cursed Forests: Once sacred woodlands now haunted by memory. Recall Druidic groves, Siberian spirit-trees, and African baobab sanctuaries.

Peoples & Cultures

  • The Iron Mandate: Dynasts claiming the stars’ blessing. Echo Qin’s brutality, Ashoka’s moral writ, and the Pharaohs’ god-kingship.
  • The Daughters of Flame: Barefoot seers with burning breath. Recall Berber queens, Boudica’s revolt, and Rome’s Vestal virgins.
  • The Crimson Hosts: Nomads made emperors. Kin to Mongol warlords, Scythian horsemen, and Chichimeca raiders.
  • The Oracle-Marines: Diviners from drowned temples. Their tales echo Atlantis, Polynesian wayfarers, and Delphic visions.
  • The Twilight Court: Aristocrats preserving ancient magic. Reflects Byzantium’s decline, Olmec mysteries, and Gupta twilight.
  • The Hollow Clans: Survivors of vanished cities who wander the ruins, speaking half-forgotten tongues.
  • The Sable Phalanx: Armored legions with cursed standards. Echoes Roman eagles, Assyrian brutality, and Spartan oaths.

Magic & Mysticism

  • Astral Siegecraft: Mages hurl constellations like catapults. Like Vedic fire-arrows, Jericho’s fall, or Archimedes’ solar mirrors.
  • Divine Interdiction: Gods withdraw. Temples fall. Clerics grope in silence. Like Delphi’s fading oracle, Zoroastrian fire extinguished, or Shinto kami lost in ash.
  • The Book of Teeth: Bone-carved tome that curses empires. Mirrors Mesopotamian hex tablets, Gnostic codices, and Etruscan necromancy.
  • Chainbinding: Spirits shackled into weapons. Resembles Solomonic seals, African jinn rituals, and Babylonian demon-snares.
  • The Forbidden Tongue: A script said to command reality itself—banned under pain of erasure.
  • Dream Wars: Shamans and seers fight in the sleeping world. Reflects Aboriginal Dreamtime battles, Inuit spirit journeys, and Egyptian afterlife duels.

Creatures & Beasts

  • Chimeric War-Beasts: Vault-born horrors: aurochs-horned, wyvern-winged. Kin to Scythian gryphons, Egyptian sphinxes, and Aztec jaguar-shifters.
  • Ash Serpents: Born of volcanic fire and siege-magic. Recalled in Krakatoa legends, Pele’s fury, and Quetzalcoatl’s burning flight.
  • Oathbound Revenants: Undead kings risen for ruined thrones. Echo China’s terracotta warriors, jiangshi lore, and Kushite tomb-wights.
  • Star-Jellies: Void-born aberrations. Like Inuit sky spirits, Indra’s slain demons, or Lovecraftian terrors reimagined.
  • Abyssal Lions: Vault guardians with radiant manes. Mirror Mesopotamian lamassu, Yoruba lion-totems, and Ethiopian temple beasts.
  • Bone Crows: Ominous flock-creatures that speak only to dying generals.
  • Blood Stags: Red-antlered guardians of fallen realms. Whispered of in Celtic lore, Siberian hunts, and Arabian sand-myths.

Conflict & Memory

  • The Jade Purge: Arcane inquisition. Libraries burn. Lines unweave. Mirrors Nalanda’s fall, Rome’s suppression of Druids, and Qin’s book-burning.
  • The Ten Kings War: Ten dynasts, one throne. Ends in a starfall. Parallels Kurukshetra, Alexander’s successors, and Tahuantinsuyu’s collapse.
  • The Truce of Blackglass: Empires bury their dead in silence. Echoes the Olympic truces, Lakota peace feasts, and Egyptian jubilee renewals.
  • The Hollow Pilgrimage: Ash-walkers flee, build a hidden kingdom. Reflects the Aeneid, Exodus, and Mayan underworld cities.
  • The Shattered Choir: A celestial host breaks ranks and falls to earth, refusing a divine edict.
  • The Chain Wars: Magical slavery causes uprising. Echoes the Haitian revolution, Thracian gladiator revolts, and African maroon wars.

Artifacts & Ruins

  • The Iron Halo: A crown that sears unworthy minds.
  • The Sunken Codex: A drowned book of erased truths.
  • Scales of the Just: Measure intent, not just action.
  • The Gilded Tongue: Persuasion perfected—at a terrible cost.
  • The Stepwell of Whispers: Kings bathe here to hear their ancestors. Parallels Persian cisterns, Saharan oracle wells, and Roman font sanctums.
  • The Eclipse Mask: A helm that shows the wearer every betrayal to come.
  • The Tower of Flint: A black spire built from melted blades.
  • Thrones of Bone: Each throne bound to an ancient beast’s death.

Basalt gates covered in forgotten script. Obelisks cracked by storm-fire. Tombs sealed with silence. Mosaic floors still glowing beneath saltwater. The world remembers.

Legacy of the Age

From the Wars of Dominion, the world inherits the ache of greatness and the fear of its cost. Empires rise on ruin, and knowledge now walks armored. Many of today’s boundaries—both sacred and profane—trace back to lines drawn in ash. It seeded global tongues, laws written in flame, and taboos no one dares name aloud.

Sidebar: How This Age Is Interpreted Today

Chroniclers call it “The Burning Age.” Sages read the bones of kings and see prophecy in the soot. To some, it was the silence of the gods. To others, the forge of civilization. Its scars, and lessons, remain. Poets speak of it in verse; warlords read it as scripture.

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