Millions of years before the start of the Magelands, there was no Star Continent. It was formed by the collision of five separate sub-continents, a process which lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. Approximately 10,000 years before The Queen’s Executioner, the new continent began to settle down. Each of the five ‘points’ of the star was edged by high ranges of volcanic mountains at their border with the newly-formed central region, making travel and communication impossible beyond their frontiers.

There were land-shattering earthquakes in the final stages of the collision; these are still remembered in the archives of the Rahain Republic, the only civilisation that retains any memory of such ancient events, although there are folk songs from other regions that bear traces of a great catastrophe from long ago. There was a belief for many years in Rahain that the earthquakes marked the date of the actual collision, and so the era prior to then is referred to as ‘pre-Collision’. However, the collision had commenced millennia before that, and the ‘pre-Collision’ era is in fact a lull in tectonic activity in the latter stages of the formation of the Star Continent.

The Magelands begins not long after the volcanic activity on the continent has subsided, allowing the five peoples to travel outwith their borders for the first time, and meet the others who share the landmass. The two civilisations that survived the collision best are the first to meet – the Rahain and the Holdings.

Recorded timeline:

10,000 years before – Rahain archives tell of the destruction of fourteen cities across the Republic, leaving just seven remaining.

500 years before (Year 1) – the Creator is able to communicate to the first Prophet of the Holdings, and assists in the unification of the Holdings into a single Realm, following centuries of fighting between warlords (Holders). This becomes Year 1 in the Holdings calendar, on which the years in the Magelands series are based.

From the Ashes begins in Year 504.