Timeline

The Pre-Ezentarian Period The time before the Empire of Ezentar was established, over 900 years Pre-Catalclysm. Very little is known about this time period, and most of what is known is contested or comes from unreliable sources. The most recent breakthrough was 80 years ago when the Archaeologist's Guild excavated an ancient demilich who called herself Aldamiria; she was raving mad, but seemed fairly lucid when explaining that the civilized races had a means of creating new islands. Unfortunately, Aldamiria's physical form was destroyed during an attack by cultists of Nol, and her phylactery (where she would reform) had not been found.

The Reign of Ezentar
The Empire of Ezentar unified the world through conquest and diplomacy and ushered in an era of prosperity for approximately 900 years. Technology prospered, and economic development allowed even small islands to host a multitude of inhabitants. Ezentar was destroyed, still at the peak of its power, in a mysterious and highly controversial event known as the Cataclysm. The cause of the Cataclysm is unknown, but most of the core islands of Ezentar were almost completely purged of life over the course of around ten years. The islands were repopulated, primarily by formerly nomadic human tribes who had skirted the edges of Ezentar's domain. As a result, the population of humans (who had until recently been a minority) multiplied rapidly and outstripped the other races. The Reign of Ezentar is considered to have continued until the year 28 F.C., when the Lesser Cataclysm (commonly referred to as the "Double Tap") destroyed the remnants of Ezentar and sunk the island-city of New Ezentar beneath the Sea of Clouds, along with all of the knowledge which had been recovered from the Cataclysm.

The Modern Era
The Modern Era emerged slowly from the ashes of Ezentar. Nomadic groups of humans settled down on the now scarcely-occupied islands, adopting what culture they liked and adapting their own traditions to suit their new surroundings. Because the human nomads made use of airships to migrate from island to island, flight technology remains far more advanced than other areas. Additionally, other factors influenced how each island developed, and there are significant disparities in economic and political power. Because the technology for inter-island flight is expensive, island governments usually shy away from inter-island politics. Instead, large organizations are the major players at the global scale.