Timeline

Current events depicted in Frostburn take place approximately two decades after the Exothaumic Emission Event, placing them in late 2000s-early 2010s of CE (Common Era), but there are plenty of events that happened prior that are important for understanding the history of the setting.

Contents:
• Overview
• Primal Era
• Ancient Era
• c. 1200 AE
• Common Era
• 1900s
• 2000s
• Alternate Year Numbering Systems

Overview

Measurement of time in the setting is very similar to our world, with 24 hours in a day, each hour divided into 60 minutes and each minute further divided into 60 seconds, owing its origins to a sexagesimal (base 60) numeral system used by ancient civilizations for their measurements.

Modern standard calendar consists of 360 days, with 12 months consisting of 30 days exactly each. Because Gaea, the Earth-like planet that the setting takes place on, actually takes closer to 360.25 days to orbit around its star, every four years an extra day is added at the end of the year with various traditional festivities based around it.

12 months are divided between four seasons, with three months dedicated to each, each year starting with early spring and ending with late winter

• Manever, Verner and Serover for spring,
• Maneaest, Aest and Seroaest for summer,
• Maneautum, Autum and Seroautum for autumn, and
• Manehiem, Hiem and Serohiem for winter.

Every seasonal transition, as well as winter and summer solstices and equinoxes, is typically associated with various festivities in different cultures.

Primal Era

Primal Era (PE) refers to times before the first known civilizations. Unlike other eras, years are counted backwards from the epoch between this and the next era, and it is mostly used to approximately date archaeological findings that predate the following Ancient Era.

Ancient Era

Ancient Era (AE) refers to an era of history starting with the first known civilization in the Middle-Eastern part of the world, and ending with the fall of the Great Central Empire. The fall of the Great Central Empire was chosen as the end of the era due to its influence, while the start of an era is an approximation based on various findings, trying to pinpoint the start of the Middle-Eastern civilization.

This era lasted approximately 5500 years based on ancient writings documenting the approximate founding of the Middle-Eastern civilization's earliest cities.

c. 1200 AE

• First known written records of a "Magic Gemstone of the North" that is described to have "divine" properties. According to surviving writings, it is extensively used in various religious rituals.

Common Era

Common Era (CE), also sometimes refered to as Current Era, is the era currently taking place, starting with the fall of the Great Central Empire, an ancient empire that had great influence over the Central Continent.

1900s

• 1917

  • The Great Revolution in the Belsevian Empire.
  • Start of the Belsevian Civil War.

• 1922

  • End of the Belsevian Civil War
  • The Northern Union of Socialist Nations is established soon after the end of the civil war, exactly on the five year anniversary of the revolution.

• 1949

  • The Western Military Coalition Alliance is founded amid concerns of a newly emerging and rapidly expanding superpower, marking the beginning of the Cold War.

• 1961

  • Northern Union officials discover records of an unusual material found in the nortnern regions. Hoping to break the stalemate in the ongoing arms race, they approve secret research of an element dubbed "Siberium".

• 1962

  • Astrolibert government learns of the Northern Union's Siberium research after detecting unusual readings coming from one of the Northern Union's Siberium tests. A decision is made to begin pursuing their own research with what little Siberium they were able to procure through various means.

• 1963

  • Large deposits of Siberium are discovered in Glacia. A trade deal is signed as Siberium research is now in full swing.

• 1964

  • Astrolibert intelligence agency secretly begins an illegal human experimentation program to find test subjects for Siberium research. People are asked to volunteer in research tests without being told the full extent of it, while less fortunate ones are simply kidnapped off the streets.

• 1969

  • Concerned by Glacia's friendly relationships with the Northern Union, Astrolibert troops enter the country to secure Glacia's Siberium deposits.
  • Astrolibert formally annexes Glacia and makes it one of its provinces.

• 1974

  • Following a series of public scandals due to multiple disastrous accidents and reports of kidnappings by intelligence agencies for experiments, Astrolibert officially halts its research of Siberium and completely outlaws any practice of magic on its territory.

• 1979

  • A nationalist opposition group, secretly backed by Western intelligence agencies, declares independence from the Northern Union and begins an insurrection within its borders, starting the Southern Belsevian Conflict.

• 1989

  • A global cataclysm of an unknown origin, later dubbed the Exothaumic Emission Event, causes levels of thaumic energy to spike drastically everywhere throughout the world and results in a rapid increase and spread of Thaumic Exclusion Zones.
  • A massive zone of alienation is reported to have formed on the maritime border between the Northern Union and Astrolibert, later dubbed as The Great Zone or Ground Zero due to its suspected origin as the epicentre of the Exothaumic Emission Event.
  • End of the Southern Belsevian Conflict as the Northern Union withdraws to focus on domestic disaster relief.
  • A truce is signed between the Northern Union and Western Military Coalition Alliance as they agree to provide mutual support in the wake of a recent cataclysm.

• 1991

  • More member states of the Northern Union start declaring independence, angered by the fact that the Northern Union's centralized government prioritized the Belsevian Socialist Federative Republic above all others.
  • The Northern Union officially collapses.
  • Belsev is established as the successor state to the Northern Union.

• 1992

  • Struggling to contain the aftermath of the disaster, The Belsevian government begins to cut funding to areas that were considered less important, such as siberium research.
  • The Belsevian government begins selling off whatever assets it can to the highest bidder in an attempt to raise money for the critically important areas, this privatization leading to widespread corruption and rampant organized crime, further lowering living standards and life expectancy in the country.

• 1993

  • "Thaumic tourism" becomes popular in Belsev with mages from around the world, owing to the country's largely uninhabited territories creating perfect conditions for magical fields that were strong enough to support frequent spellcasting, as well as increasing restrictions on practice of magic in western countries.
  • The Belsevian government begins offering refugee status and citizenship to mages in exchange for assistance with disaster relief.

• 199X

  • Hyperborea is founded and begins buying out anything previously related to Siberium research during the ongoing privatization in Belsev.

2000s

• 2000

  • Elizaveta Mikhaylovna Medvedeva is elected as the new president of Belsev.
  • A complete government restructuring follows to address the ineffective handling of the post-Emission Event disaster relief and the ongoing economic crisis.

• 2001

  • As part of the ongoing economic reforms and an attempt to regain control over Belsevian oligarchs, Hyperborea is approached by the new Belsevian government with an offer to buy out half of the company's shares in exchange for more lax regulations.

• 2002

  • The Arcane University of Thaumaturgy and Study of Magic is founded with the goal to attract mages from across the world, both as a source of income and to gain powerful allies who were currently being persecuted in western nations.
  • A new official policy is approved in Belsev to give free entry into the country as well as a refugee status to anyone with magic abilities and potential, easening the immigration process for them.

• 20XX

  (approx. 20 years after the Exothaumic Emission Event)

  • Current year of the ongoing events.

Alternate Year Numbering Systems

An alternative commonly used year numbering system is the Before and After Current Era (BCE/BE), placing its epoch at the fall of the Great Central Empire similarly to the currently used systems, with the years before it counted backwards from the epoch.

This system is often criticized for its definition of a "current era" being too arbitrary, as there were plenty of existing civilizations completely outside the influence of the Great Central Empire, and thus completely unaffected by its fall.

Another recently proposed year numbering system is Before and After the Cataclysm (BC/AC), suggesting the Exothaumic Emission Event that took place in 1989 CE to be a defining moment in modern history. While not widely accepted, it is nonetheless used in some official and scientific documents, particularly those related to thaumic research.

A date and time representation widely used in computing measures time by the number of non-leap seconds that have elapsed since the 1st of Manever, 1970, at 00:00:00, dubbed the Computing epoch.