II - The Age of Empires - Feudalism

Divine magic faded from this world with the gods, leaving little trace.

There are forces older than divinity, however. Autumn herself and her elements; wind, water, earth, and fire. Knowledge once jealously suppressed by our masters was now unleashed to form the foundations of arcane arts. Powers used to sweep away the remnant monsters, and expand to every land.

Peace upon the surface world brought an explosion in population and social complexity, which led to the development of feudal orders patterned on the old gods and their rulership. Kings and queens rose up under new banners, struggling to carve out a hundred feuding fiefdoms in the fires of warfare.

The modern conception of war as a scourge upon humankind, to be avoided at all costs, was not the view of many feudal civilizations. War was the ultimate adventure, a game with lives at stake. The winners of that grand game prospered in the best lands, enjoying plentiful resources, fertile harvests, and huge harems.

Those who lost were subjugated, or expelled to the freezing and burning corners of the world. Tragically, this exodus often bore a racial characteristic. Before this point, the Ten Tribes of Autumn had come together, those races born of the light and the dark, but old hatreds flared up again, stoked from the top by leaders to justify still more wild conquest.

Another way to view it was different races exploring their unique climate tolerances; nekomata and usagi bore the cold of mountains and deep tundra, while drakken and lamia endured the heat of jungles and deserts. Even the elves found their home amongst the wild forests as guardians of the natural world.

Kingdoms gave way in time to the birth of empires, which took people far and wide for trade and conquest. We fashioned great galleons to take us across the turbulent seas in search of riches, and where there was plunder, piracy wasn’t far behind. The strong alpha conqueror or dashing handsome raider were not the only beneficiaries of this cross-continental trade, though.

Facilitating connections the world over would lead to revolution of every kind.