Time before the beginning of the old calendar is roughly recorded. This record of Iris’s history begins with the first dated entry ever to enter what is now known as the Buriman Grand Library.

Pre-History of Iris

“We must wonder how many kingdoms and empires have been lost to time. How many names were given to these lands before they were Burima, Kilyan, Medos? The Medosi are a tradition beyond thousands of years, but still, they were not here when the first of us stepped Iris.”

— Zasha Burima, Lord Keeper of Burima

Before the recorded history of Iris, thousands of empires came and went on its lands. The Speakers of today only know of the last such empires, whose names are lost to time.

Old calendar year 1

The battle of Ahirim’s Pass concludes with the South victorious, sending the Northfolk fleeing into the snowy wastes. It is unknown how long the war lasted, but the Speakers of today assume it to be at least three generations. This event is said to have sparked what we now call the old calendar.

Old calendar year ~150

Re-forming clans of Northfolk appear in what is now known as Burima.

Old calendar year ~550

A southern merchant takes the northernmost land of the South and fills its borders with mercenaries. He claims his own nation. The exact year this occurs is unknown, but the name of this merchant is recorded as Vekheth Kilyan.

Old calendar year ~580

Vekheth Kilyan burns the borders of his nation into the soil and claims it as the Kilyan Dynasty. He sails to the southern mountains and returns to his nation with slaves, which he frees to be his citizens, earning what he believed to be eternal loyalty. The southern mountains are given the name Vekheth’s Wall.

Old calendar year ~600

Vekheth Kilyan dies of natural causes, and his son, Mika Kilyan, begins the successor line of the Kilyan Dynasty as the nation’s second emperor.

Old calendar year 1427

The first dated record of Iris is written. A Kilyan emperor sends his cousin a message regarding the procurement of steel in the language now known as Old Kilyan.

Old calendar year 1620

Traders of the South develop a written language for merchant use. The original name is unknown, but it is now known as Medosi.

Old calendar year 1724

The Cicadia clan of the Northlands flees the eternal cold of the North and sails east into the Gray Divide. They find an island and colonize it. The matriarch of the Cicadia clan is crowned the first Queen of Cicadia.

Old calendar year 1730

The Jhej clan of the North follows the Cicadians east and has the first naval war of recorded history.

Old calendar year 1735

The Cicadians sink the final Jhej clan ship and cement themselves as a power in the East.

Old calendar year 1745

Cicadia’s Queen offers the Dukedom to whichever Cicadian creates a boat capable of sailing to the southern reaches of the continent.

Old calendar year 1760

Cicadia sends a fleet south to Medos and begins trade to bring steel and copper to their island nation.

Old calendar year 1842

The unrecorded clan history of the Northlands is broken as a western clan creates a writing system to speak with their ally clan. The language is known today as Buriman, the language in which these records are written.

The record confirms feuds between northern clans.

Old calendar year 1910

The bayfaring clans of the North boat south to take land. In only a month, they are completely defeated by mercenaries of the South.

Old calendar year 1912

The traders of the flagless South merge into the trade group Medos. Their greatest merchants earn the title Za’ruk, and the Za’ruk council is the only rule in all of Medos. They standardize a trading system on metallism, causing precious metals to accrue significant value.

Old calendar year 1914

War breaks out over the precious metals and resources in the North. This war will last for nearly a thousand years.

Old calendar year 2132

For the first recorded time in history, adventurers enter the untraveled mountains east of the landlocked sea. They do not return.

Old calendar year 2245

Two clans fighting over the Ashelaad mountains merge into the Burima clan. They control the entire mountain and begin to accrue exceptional wealth.

Old calendar year 2302

Buriman scholars record that seven clans attempt to attack their fortress in the Kivika pass. There are terrible losses, and the Northlands lose seven clans this day.

With the light of history, we know that the Burima clan was exceptional at metallurgy and created some of the first great alloys. With better armor and weapons, they defeat all foes. At this time, no force is as feared in the North as the Burima clan.

Old calendar year 2742

Sikan Burima is born in Ashelaad.

Old calendar year 2758

Sikan Burima becomes a soldier in the seemingly endless resource war in the North.

Old calendar year 2760

Sikan Burima begins to unite rival clans against their enemies to the West, believing that the Northlands can survive without trade with Medos. Many join his cause, and many stand firm against him as the Burima clan and its young leader set out to end a thousand-year war.

Old calendar year 2762

Sikan Burima cannot gain the loyalty of the southern clans. He gambles his life to earn their trust by entering the mountains east of the landlocked sea. He is believed dead until he returns with the body of a giant beast whose bones can be forged like metal.

Old calendar year 2763

Sikan earns the loyalty of the southern clans, who now revere him as a chosen one, the first to walk into the Desolate and live.

Sikan brings the metal-like bones to the Artisans of the North. He commissions them to create an arsenal of the greatest weapons from the materials.

Old calendar year 2766

The Artisans complete the weapons now known collectively as God’s Arsenal, which Sikan divvies up to his generals. He himself wields the greatest blade of them all in their coming battles. This great weapon is named The Billion Blade, for the unfathomably unlikely circumstances leading to its creation.

Old calendar year 2770

Sikan Burima gathers many soldiers and mercenaries and develops his own flag with the goal of stopping the war.

Old calendar year 2793

Sikan Burima ends the resource war in the lands now known as Burima and creates a government based on serving the people. 

Sikan becomes Burima’s first Lord Keeper.

Sikan begins developing the world’s first universal currency to create independence from Medos.

Old calendar year 2797

Sikan Burima dies from natural causes. 

Sikan’s son, Meleidas, succeeds into the role of Lord Keeper.

Old calendar year 2800

Burima begins manufacturing their own currency known as Sikans, named after Burima’s founder.

Meleidas outlaws trade with Medos.

Old calendar year 2984

The Buriman Grand Library is built by Tetis Burima.

Old calendar year 3125

A Za’ruk finds uninhabitable islands south of Medos. He sends his greatest warrior, Cainh, and a hundred female slaves to populate it so Cainh can produce amazing warriors for the Za’ruk’s son.

Old calendar year 3170

After a failed first batch, Cainh is able to produce three warriors for his Za’ruk’s now aged son. The Za’ruk is outraged until he finds the three warriors as capable as sixty. He commissions Cainh to make many more, and the Isles of Cainh become a breeding ground for Medos’s most feared warriors.

Old calendar year 3260

Centuries of Buriman peace and prosperity come to an end as bands of Cainhish warriors are sent to the Sorried Plains. The warriors of many eastern clans are lost.

It is unknown which Za’ruk sent the Cainhishmen to Burima, but modern Speakers believe it was done as a warning to get Burima’s Keeper to lift the trade ban with Medos. This assumption is based on later correspondence regarding Medosi bitterness over trade bans in the new calendar’s War of Wars.

Old calendar year 3689

Akari the Wordless is born.

Old calendar year 3697

Akari, a girl from Kilyan who wanders the street without ever saying a word, begins drawing on scrap papyrus used for construction drafting. Workers attempt to shoo the girl away, but she returns every morning to draw. They begin to ignore her until a worker, named Eji in Akaristic writings, notices what the girl is actually drawing. Soon his fellow workers notice too, and Akari receives attention for her skill. Many people bring her food and water throughout her days, and the tiny piece of paper expands as the townsfolk of Ryoco bring her more and more.

Old calendar year 3708

After years of work and growing support from the people of Ryoco, Akari finishes her drawing. The giant, stitched papyrus depicts a hand emerging from a single wilted flower in a garden of fully bloomed flowers. The scale and detail are unlike any artwork done before, and many patrons begin approaching Akari for her next work. 

While many offer for Akari to draw or paint, Akari refuses until a merchant of Alikai grants her a piece of stone to make sculptures. Akari begins work on the stone, deciding to create one giant sculpture.

Old calendar year 3722

Akari finishes her sculpture after fourteen years. The statue is a giant figure pushing against a stone wall as another pushes back. The scale and detail of the sculpture go beyond any piece of sculpture that has ever existed, and at this point, word begins to spread about the amazing artist Akari from The Kilyan Dynasty.

For her next work, Akari begins her first painting. Thousands of traders and patrons around Kilyan wish to host Akari’s next work, and she begins painting within the dome ceiling of Kilyan’s palace.

Old calendar year 3743

Akari finishes her painting. It encapsulates the entire main concourse’s domed ceiling and is split into four scenes. The first scene includes a child looking into the vast sky above, the second shows the child taking to the air, the third shows the child flying away into the clouds on beams of sunlight and the fourth shows the child stopping to look at a barren garden below. 

Thousands of people all over the world begin to travel to Kilyan as Akari becomes its greatest resource. Kilyan has long been known for its artists, but never has an artist been so masterful in so many mediums.

Akari begins to accrue researchers and critics who begin to find similarities in her works.

Akari begins working on her next artwork, a carving. In northern Kilyan, an ancient world tree from thousands of years ago began dying. The tree fell partway up, leaving its giant dying stump in the ground. Thousands watch on the hillside as Akari brings only a chisel to the tree.

Old calendar year 3764

Akari completes her carving, a garden of wilted wooden flowers that could only be seen from above. Upon completing the work, Akari began to be heralded as a sort of messiah, as somehow, the dying tree that she carved into became invigorated with life. As if through magic, the tree’s bark stopped deteriorating.

Akari begins working on her next artwork, a symphony.

Old calendar year 3780

Akari completes her symphony. She creates the most advanced system of musical notation and the piece of music requires instruments that Akari conceived of in drawings, including the piano and violin.

The symphony, when played as the sheet music intends, lasts for one hour and moves through many scales and styles. Many consider it to be the greatest piece of music ever conceived. Critics believe that the second last section of the symphony acts as Akari’s requiem for herself.

Old calendar year 3786

Akari dies in her old age.

The Akaristic Church is created in The Kilyan Dynasty, and the story of Akari the Wordless is spread to every reach of Iris.

Her works carry such scale and grace that many believe in Akari’s divinity. The Akaristic Church heralds Akari as a messiah, and the day after her death, the new calendar begins. 

New calendar year 1 

Elijah, the world’s first weaver, is born the day after Akari’s death. Elijah’s twin brother, Ivrael, is born that same day as a weaver.

The power of these new humans is not yet known in the world.

New calendar year 7

Elijah and Ivrael display powers for the first time. Odd powers begin to appear in select children, only those born after Akari’s death.

New calendar year 12

The powers of these children begin to grow as Elijah and Ivrael curb the initial fear of these new powers by assisting local farmers. They call for others to do the same.

These children are officially named weavers by Burima’s Keeper.

New calendar year 14

A young man with a weave is set to have a child in the upcoming months, but he is killed in a battle before his son is born. The child is born with the same weave as his father. This is the first time that a weaver is passed on through a bloodline.

Many circles begin to realize that weave powers can be passed through birth.

New calendar year 25

Elijah and Ivrael become exceptionally powerful, sparking the interest of the entire world. Many weavers flock to them for help with their abilities. History notes that Ivrael leaves his brother as he wishes to monopolize weave power, not spread it.

New calendar year 27

Governments around the world begin to recognize the reality of weavers and start testing for them at birth using blood tests.

New calendar year 28

Keeper Eidel Burima secretly commissions the creation of glass eyes created using weaver blood. The eyes provide unpredictable powers but are extremely dangerous to use.

New calendar year 30

Elijah approaches Ivrael’s strength, meets Nadine Burima, the heir to the Keepership, and starts to build a city-state for those who have weaves.

Elijah creates guilds for weavers and other powerful warriors and minds across Iris. These are said to replace militaries, and he gives them the name rivin.

The world’s most prominent mercenary guilds are recruited as the first rivin guilds.

New calendar year 34

The rivin guilds become fully supported by Burima’s Keeper, and the greatest of all the guilds, Soliloquy, is formed with the Keeper’s eldest son as its first member.

New calendar year 36

Elijah gets engaged to Nadine Burima. 

The city-state Elijah becomes officially sanctioned by Burima, and Elijah creates the headquarters of all rivins within its borders.

New calendar year 37

The Artisans finish the Glass eyes.

Before Elijah can finish his city and marry into the Burima family, he is murdered by his brother Ivrael. None saw the battle, but it is believed to have been of such grand scale that it turned the flat plains of the East into what is now the endless hills of the Weave.

It is believed that Ivrael murdered Elijah because he wished to use their powers to destroy Burima instead of unite with it.

After killing Elijah, Ivrael entered the Buriman palace and left without any bloodshed. Ivrael is shunned by his own kind for the murder of Elijah and enters into the Desolate to repent.

New calendar year 38

The Elijahn and Buriman governments create a guild tournament to stimulate interest in the rivin guilds. The tournament is in honor of Elijah.

New calendar year 40

As the first wave of weavers grows powerful, groups begin to unify under Elijah’s lost ideals. Empires of Old become threatened and begin forcibly marrying male weavers and weaver inheritus into their bloodlines to create powerful soldiers.

New calendar year 42

Old Empires begin hiring weaver mercenaries and rivins for exorbitant prices, and they stoop to killing male weavers to increase the speed of bloodline generation. Weaver children are even sent into battle. Many are absorbed into guerilla forces.

New calendar year 50

With the guerilla battles in full effect, Empires of Old unite against the weaver alliance, also called the Weavilla, starting the Chosen Wars. Burima is the only empire that does not declare war on the Weavilla.

New calendar year 53

The Burima family successfully abstains from the Chosen Wars by marrying weavers into their bloodline slowly, never resorting to inheritus killing. To the end of survival, Burima establishes multiple family bloodlines and alliances of weavers to deter any threats.

New calendar year 56

The Chosen Wars begin to favor the Weavilla as their numbers grow and past transgressions cannot be forgiven. The Weavilla sees the Empires of Old as a threat of power over humanity, and now that weavers can break the cycle of power, they plan to do so.

New calendar year 57

The Kingdom of Cicadia loses dukedom after dukedom until King Dren Al’asur is killed in single combat by Desdemona Dra’gul of the Weavilla. Desdemona being born of Cicadia shows that all country loyalty is now lost in the wars between weavers and weaveless.

Many weaveless join the wars against weavers willingly, preferring the ways of Old Empires to the possible new empires held by supernatural powers.

Weavers begin to incite hatred reminiscent of their first arrival on Iris.

New calendar year 58

The Kilyan Dynasty falls as Iliyain Kilyan is assassinated by Azen Uzhul of the Weavilla, and a people’s government takes over the lands it once held. The Republic of Kilyan is formed.

The Cicadian Kingdom is kept as such, but the political legitimacy of the monarchy is lost, leaving the land only led by dukes and duchesses of old.

Peoples of the Old Empires begin to sway under the lenient rulings of weaver conquerors, and many leave the frays of battle.

New calendar year 60

With the guerilla weaver forces destroying shipments and kidnapping many lords and nobles, the majority of Medosi Za’ruks yield their resistance in favor of peace. 

New calendar year 61

With few resisting kingdoms and empires left, the Chosen Wars seem almost over until three of the largest Za’ruks violate their peace terms with the Weavilla and trade in both flesh and drug under the table.

In a grand display of power and coordination unseen until this point in history, the Weavilla find and kill the families of each of the three Za’ruks in a single night. Za’ruks are known for their impenetrable security and unbelievable caution, and this feat strikes the final fear into the last Empires of Old.

All resisting groups surrender to the Weavilla’s terms, including a ban on drug creation, slavery, inheritus killing, and much more.

The Chosen Wars end.

The Laws of the Akaristic Church are set into place.

New calendar year 65

The Weavilla has broken and held the Empires of Old, keeping them accountable to terms of peace. However, without a true leader and no cause to stand behind, dreams of power begin to corrupt some formerly devout weavers.

New calendar year 70

With their mission complete, many weavers leave the Weavilla, becoming rivins.

New calendar year 80

The Weavilla publicly disbands. The new cultural norms have made their terms law, and the Church of Akarism in Kilyan enforces them. Akarism and weaver law become one and the same.

The first Emertie, a scholar of early Akarism named Jodeki Meisa, is given leadership over the Akaristic Church.

New calendar year 85

A child’s abilities are unknown for the first time in the history of weaver blood testing. Another child is found soon after to have the same traits.

We know now that these were the first of the Incarnates, weavers with unique powers. Love Incarnate and Detest Incarnate are born.

New calendar year 106

Emertie of the Akaristic church, Jodeki Meisa, creates a group of scholars to search for Akari’s final artwork, something he believes exists and that would bring all of Iris together under the banner of Akarism.

New calendar year 121

More weavers with unknown powers are born. A Speaker of the Grand Library follows one of the children from birth and finds that they have the power to control darkness. Such power is unheard of with traditional weavers, and he searches for the other child born the same day with unknown powers. That child has the power to control light.

The Speaker theorizes that these are unique weavers who embody the inexplicable powers of Iris, and he calls them Incarnates.

New calendar year 150

More Incarnates are reported, many as false claims, but researchers find that some are born in pairs and some are born individually. The Akaristic church begins spreading a message that Incarnates are the chosen among the chosen.

New calendar year 189

Medosi soldiers kidnap Minkav Burima, a young Buriman royal who recently inherited the newly discovered War Incarnate.

Burima declares war on Medosi Za’ruks, and the sides come to the decision to fight in what is now known as Illgate to avoid causing damage to Kilyan and incurring divine wrath.

The war earns the name The War of Wars.

New calendar year 191

The war between Burima and Medos begins to favor Burima as their higher number of weavers and increased firepower with early powder guns gives them the advantage.

New calendar year 194

The War of Wars concludes with Medosi Za’ruks giving an all-out surrender. Minkav Burima is returned to Burima without having given any child to the Medosi.

The gate, now known as Illgate, is torn asunder, its soil and land all but demolished in weaver warfare.

The Keeper of the day, Edav, reinstates trade with Medosi with his famous quote, “If our first deal is for my son, then we shall trade for all time.”

New calendar year 196

Sympathizers of the Old Empires enter Illgate and begin to colonize it despite its sparse resources. In only a few months, word gets to many, and the lands begin to build quickly.

New calendar year 197

Colonizers coin the war zone Illgate and sanction it as a nation.

New calendar year 214

At the 44th Quadrennial guild tournament, a new guild from the Republic of Kilyan called the Mutes, enter. They dominate the proceedings, even beating Soliloquy handily. They meet with Burima’s Keeper and never join the proceedings again.

The Mutes are soon active across Iris as law keepers of Akaristic law.

New calendar year 220

The Buriman Grand Library begins working with the Mutes to record history around the world.

New calendar year 392

A group of Blood weavers began finding their own kind and forcibly adding them to their bloodlines, breaking weaver law.

New calendar year 423

Blood weavers attack a Za’ruk to steal his daughter, a blood inheritus.

New calendar year 424

Blood weavers are hunted by the Mutes in what goes down in history as The Genocide of Blood.

Blood weavers are all but extinct.

New calendar year 502

Fourteen Incarnates have been born and sometimes reborn since their inception, and none more. Akaristic scholars and Speakers begin to believe that Justice Incarnate, the fourteenth to appear on Iris, is the last new weaver to be born.

New calendar year 758

Vladof Burima is born as War Incarnate.

New calendar year 783

Abram Burima is born as the first son of Vladof Burima. He is born weaveless.

New calendar year 785

Zasha Burima is born as Justice Incarnate.

New calendar year 809

Abram Burima elopes from the Burima household to marry.

Zasha Burima becomes next in line as Lord Keeper. 

New calendar year 812

Vladof Burima passes away, and Ymir Burima, Zasha’s son, is born as War Incarnate.

New calendar year 814

Apollo Arieh is born.

New calendar year 818

A new guild, Fang, wins the Elijahn guild tournament.

New calendar year 824

Jodi Dullpetal is born.

Emita is born.

Sehreen is born.

New calendar year 832

Apollo Arieh joins Soliloquy to follow in her mother’s footsteps.

New calendar year 834

Apollo Arieh wins the 199th Quadrennial Guild Tournament.

Apollo enters the Buriman palace of Burakos and leaves with the largest bounty in the history of Iris. None know why.

New calendar year 838

Jodi Dullpetal meets Apollo Arieh, and the events of The Vilified begin.