Hyborean Era

Appx. 15,000BC-5,000BC

"...between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Areus..."

During the darkest age of human history, humanity had never been closer to perishing. Much of the Hyborean Era is lost to the sands of time and considered apocryphal. Virtually no history of the era persists to the modern day.

After Atlantis sank in 15000 BCE, a brutal ice age wracked the Earth. The portions of the land easily habitable were confined to narrow regions near the equator, principally the Mediterranean Sea; Mesopotamian river delta; the Indus Peninsula and the Yellow River valley of China. Scattered attempts at civilization were made but the basis for much technological understanding had been completely lost with the sinking of Atlantis. Humanity huddled in the ruins of once great realms. The ancient languages of Atlantis became incomprehensible gibberish as humanity became more isolated. Only a very few remnants of Atlantis persisted, most of them hidden or sealed away from a world of frightened primitives. Societies would rise and fall-- entire civilizations lifting up from the mud only to collapse under their own weight again, leaving nothing but dust and tombs in their wake.

In 5,000 BCE, the Cosmic Cube was found and used to restore the Demiurge and brought magic to Earth. The godlings made fleeting contact with humanity and slowly helped them rebuild the world, though the flow of magic was weak and the paths of Yggdrasil often in flux. Those pantheons closest to mortal realms-- the Ennead, the San Huang Wu Di, the Tuatha de Danaan-- guided many cultures into forming the agrarian societies and then into the development of civilization itself. This marked the end of the Hyborean Era and the start of the Age of Mythology.