One of the most important features of understand your world's history is that it creates a great deal of additional detail you wouldn't have access to without having worked on it. It's especially helpful in understanding social movements, which is very much at the heart of how I write my stories. My goal in devising these periods will be showing a progression of ideas, and most importantly, a guide to the changes in everyday life in my setting.
Pre-recorded History: This period of time stretches from about four thousand years before the beginning of recorded history (the year 0) to the beginning of the first technological advancements of known history. In this period, the only significant technological developments were the beginnings of horticultural work--specifically, the breeding of certain plants for size, taste, and growth--and the early work that is now believed to have been the first widespread creation of weaponry--basic clubs and spears for the most part.
The most notable events in pre-recorded history are of course not recorded, but modern day historians have gleaned that a variety of wars most likely led to both of the period's notable technologies. Weaponry was created in order to defend or conquer; the increasing numbers of soldiers depleted agricultural laborers, meaning that advances had to be made if the growing armies were to be fed. One other notable event uncovered by modern historians is the use of primitive construction techniques to build temples and shrines to the gods, perhaps the only known use of free time and resources in the period.
The social movements of this period are largely unknown, but it does appear that towards the end of this period, large-scale migrations began, spreading racial populations across the land; by the end of the pre-recorded era of history, there would be dozens if not hundreds of new settlements of diverse people across Evanoch. These migrations gave Evanoch the shape it has today, and the notion of "voting with your feet" became one of the primary notions of individual agency in its time.
Stone Age: This period of time stretches from the beginning of recorded history (the year 0) to about 850. The first technologically-notable period in Evanoch's history, the Stone Age saw the rise of several new and important technologies. The most enduring was the development of agriculture as we know it today; stone tools, made possible via the early stone hammer, allowed people to more easily prepare fields for sowing and to create rudimentary fences with stone axes to protect crop fields. These stone tools also allowed for an increase in the production and quality of available weaponry, most notably via the warhammer and early archery weapons. These new weapons led to increased bloodshed in conflicts, making many people less hungry for war.
The most notable events of the Stone Age include the first of the documented wars between the elves and orcs, the horrible Shorgon War, which was begun when elven troops and orcish troops clashed in the Shorgon Forest just north of the orcish homelands. The conflict left tens of thousands dead and is said to have truly begun the rivalry between the elves and the orcs. Also notable was the increasingly organized practice of religion, which had been an incredibly private thing until the early years of the Stone Age. Early carved stone relics of faiths are still found today in the remains of these ancient settlements.
The social movements of the Stone Age seem to revolve around the increasingly individualistic ethos of the continent. This can be seen chiefly through the ways that the emerging lower classes moved away from the relative safety of the kingdoms and towards the relative freedom of the developing settlements away from the kingdoms. But also notable was the rise of racially-focused religion--the non-racial deities were largely unspoken of during this time period, while the racial deities (Corellon Larethian, Moradin, Garl Glittergold, Yondalla, and Gruumsh) ascended to not just personal religious worship, but beyond into public life.
Smelting Age: This period of time stretches from about 850 to about 1375. The age is named for its development of smelting technology, a change which allowed a massive progression from the Stone Age's more primitive tools. Modern day Evanines think of the Smelting Age as having cleanly developed modern methods of metallurgy, but the truth is that tools were slowly developed over time--the appropriate methods for cutting stone into clean shapes took nearly two hundred years to emerge, for instance. But these technologies changed the landscape of Evanoch: a new class of building emerged, agriculture became more advanced, and even common tools were quite more powerful and durable. The Smelting Age is thought of by many as the infancy of modern life.
In the Smelting Age, warfare again developed into a more deadly form--the first forged weapons appeared, which in turn led to the development of a class of warriors who needed more specialized training. This was in part because combat prior to metal weaponry required strength; new forms of fighting allowed for reliance on dexterity as well. This was particularly important for elves, halflings, and gnomes, who could suddenly defend their settlements against stronger opponents. Another change was the specialization of labor--tools allowed people to spend less time on easier work, but at the cost of training. This would lead to today's market economy, in which people work as individuals rather than part of a community.
The social movements of the Smelting Age were diverse and sometimes contradictory. The improvement in material comfort that better construction, tools, and agriculture offered raised the quality of life for the upper classes, but not everyone could afford the new technologies--as a result, classes became more stratified. At the same time, the increased free time amongst artisans who used these new tools meant more time to make choices on one's own, and this period marks the beginning of games and other public diversions which were open to the public. Thus, the upper and lower classes began to see each other as truly different, sparking much of the class division that would mark later periods.
Classical Age: This period of time stretches from about 1375 to 2150. The age's name refers to the development and spread of philosophical ideas that dominated it, though there were also important technological advancements as well. Chief among them was the refinement of smelting technology to include not just strong metals, but also decorative ones--the earliest examples of gold and silver work in today's museums come from the Classical Era. This is also the era that dwarves and orcs began to refine smelting technology into the forms that are still practiced today. Also notably was the beginning of serious scientific efforts, which helped to increase the output of farms and established the beginnings of modern medicine.
During the classical era, there was a great consolidation of the powers of kingdoms. This came in part from the public push for individual liberties, which the kingdoms generally opposed; in order to maintain control over the people, the kingdoms pushed to expand their borders and reincorporate settlements that had left the kingdoms in generations past. This led to increasing public conversations about civic responsibilities and rights. A school of thinkers of various backgrounds called the Low Council held public discussions on the topic--they were generally beloved by the public and hated by governments. Due to the efforts at consolidation, settlements increasingly defined themselves by whether or not they affiliated with kingdoms, and many moved even further from governments to seek their peace.
The social movements in the Classical Era are what largely define it as a period. Although the Low Council only operated from the early 1400s until the early 1500s, its influence on public thought lasted far longer. Many important ideas were introduced in this period, particularly the notion of self-understanding. People often said in this time that the first step to knowing how to live was in understanding yourself. Due to these ideas and the cultural impression of them, public education was experimented with, developed, and eventually made standard in most civilizations by the end of the period. The Evanine independent streak is very much a product of the Classical Era.
The Dark Era: This period of time stretches from about 2150 to 3000. This period is remembered as a step backward for civilization as a whole, a time when kingdoms responded to the growing dissension among common people by expanding their power. As a result of the increased reach of kingdoms, people increasingly identified either as a subject of the powers that be or as resistance against it. This period is marked by incursions of governments into public affairs, public hangings of resisters, and an increase in armed conflicts between royal armies. By the end of this period, essentially all land on Evanoch would be claimed by at least one kingdom, forcing small settlements to work either with or against royal powers.
In addition to the changes in governance, this period saw a rise in religious activity and a decline of public education as many former schools were repurposed into religious academies. Many of the ideas of the Classical Age fell out of favor--they were in fact outlawed by the dwarven and elven governments--and adherence to racial deities reached an all-time high. Religiously-motivated violence escalated, most notably among the elves and orcs, but many settlements of the time period became more racially homogenous in response to the changes in faith.
The social movements of the Dark Era called for people to recognize themselves as the social inferiors of those in power; the dominant concept of this idea was that people served their royal as an ant serves their queen, and much art of the time depicts ant colonies in a reference to this. There was also a movement which was deeply underground which sought to smuggle known dissenters to places where they would be safe from persecution. This movement was called the Lower Council, a reference to the Low Council who they admired. By the end of this era, there was a great amount of public dissatisfaction, which led to the tumultuous era that followed.
The Great Rising: This period of history stretches from about 3000 to 3725. This period was a response to the Dark Era--people began to once again widely resist the control of distant governments, largely inspired by the resurgence of Classical Era ideals. This era is easily divisible into two parts. In the first part, until 3214, people became once again driven by individuality and the new notion of personal identity (separate from public identity). This weakened some of the control of the kingdoms. Then, in 3214, Faninites arrived from an island to the north, sparking a new debate about what it meant to be an Evanine. By and large, the Faninites were accepted, especially by their elven neighbors. The appearance of an Other in the form of the Faninites largely united the people of Evanoch around their shared home. The Faninites also brought with them several unheard-of woodworking technologies, which quickly spread across the continent, ushering in an age of looking back to more simple workmanship.
The key events of this area aside from the landing of the Faninites was a revolution in thinking. Across the land, religious orders were shunned in favor of public education once again, and the newfound Evanine solidarity lead to a great sharing of previously withheld information. The Great Rising is remembered fondly by academics, whose information was suddenly of both public interest and easily spreadable. The sharing of technologies meant that dwarven and orcish smithing became a fixture across the land, that gnomish farming techniques increased food yields for all, and that halfling medicines spread to everyone. As a result, the average quality of life on Evanoch meaningfully increased for a span of several hundred years, nearly to where it is today. Also of note was the Treaty for Universal Currency, the first major move in shaking off the powers of the kingdoms--following this, all of Evanoch would share a common currency, enabling trade to exist in ways previously unheard-of.
The most important social development of the Great Rising was the creation of half-elves from elves and their new Faninite neighbors. Half-elves slowly spread across the continent, and by the end of the era, they were a common part of life for practically all people. This led to a divide amongst elves over their opinion of the new half-elves; most accepted them as brethren, but some regarded them as corruptions of elves. This complication to racial identity led to many (though not all) thinking about race not as their defining feature (which would be their individual identity). Beyond this major change, people began to demonstrate publicly for the end of kingdom rule.
Industrial Age: This period of history stretches from 3725 to 4720 (the current day). This period is named for the substantial changes to ordinary life created by the widespread adoption of industrial tools. Technologically speaking, the Industrial Age is matched only by the Smelting Age in terms of changes to everyday life--the development of steam power and various gadgets have markedly changed the way people go about their businesses. One of the most notable changes is the mark left on agriculture; tools which can easily plow fields or harvest plants have allowed an increasingly specialized workforce that does not need to devote half the population to farming to meet the public need. Of course, the changes to textile creation and smelting, as well as the invention of the printing press, have been a more noticeable change. This age has largely matched the Great Rising's effect on improving everyday lives.
The key events of this period are many--it is the time period that truly transformed Evanoch into what it is today. In 3869, the Common Worship Charter was adopted by all kingdoms, effectively protecting the religious worship of any Evanine--this motion was key in allowing for the diversification of settlements into what we have today. In 4067, Daltoners arrived on the east shore of Evanoch and began militarily conquering various settlements; by 4402, they would be contained by a coalition of gnomish, dwarven, and elven forces, and forced through the Dursbury Accord to restrict their imperialist efforts. From 4229 to 4238, The War of Kraal raged between the elves and orcs, and the conflict left nearly a sixth of the continent's population dead. Shortly thereafter, in 4240, the Treaty of Caspian Ardor recognized the bloody nature of kingdoms and dissolved all royal holdings beyond the capital city's limits. Within about 250 years, the settlements of the land had stabilized, and no royal conflicts have occurred since. Finally, the Magic War raged from 4692 until the following year; the matter at hand was the freedom of practicing magic, and the forces that wished to abolish or regulate magic were vanquished, leading to a world which is today somewhat divided about the practice of magic.
The social movements of this time period have been tumultuous and many. Most importantly was the dissolution of kingdoms--all but the elves and a few dwarves no longer remember life under the kingdoms, and individual settlements now define themselves more by their public life than by allegiance to a power. The addition of the imperialistic Daltoners to the continent created for many a reason to be suspicious of humans, and the unspoken tension between Faninites and Daltoners remains in many communities today. Finally, the advances of the Industrial Age have allowed even further additions to quality of life, improving the yields and workload of nearly all the continent's workers. People today have more free time and resources than people in any other period.
There you have it--a guide to the seven epochs of time in my homebrew setting. I'm looking forward to addressing in-world history now that I have this information, and brainstorming new parts of that history will be that much easier now. Doing the same for your world can give you all those benefits too--just think about the ways that you might reflect on your world, and you'll have a great history in no time.
That's all for now. Coming soon: varying descriptions of common items for variety, a guide to the craftspersonship of each culture in my homebrew setting, and a one-shot based on the movie Face/Off. Until next time, happy gaming!
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