Barbaric hordes of Dakans from the North and Hutarls from the East swept over the land, overwhelming the native inhabitants and ravaging the countryside. Their integration into the society has changed the face of civilization.
Hutarl chieftains now control small tracts of land, and are the primary unit of power. While overlords and kings may claim ownership over regions, the real power rests with the new Lords and Barons of Hutarl lineage.
Transportation is hazardous, reducing trade to a mere trickle. The predation of thieves, brigands, and monsters no longer held in check by organized government has made any journey of more than five miles a deadly threat.
Ocean travel in the seas is now more dangerous than ever. The steady rise of the Caliphs in the East and their expansion over weakly-held Kadian territories has given rise to unprecedented piracy in the Eastern and Morovian seas.
Finally, there is magic -- with the destruction of the Empire, the tolerance most people had for the mystic arts is gone. There are those who blame the proliferation of magic for the downfall of the Empire, and kill "witches" and "warlocks" at first chance. Very few now can practice the arts, now that the great Schools of magic have been sacked and most knowledge lost.
With the fall of magic and the Empire, the gods have risen in strength. The priesthood is the new elite in the remains of the Kadian Empire, with gods freely granting powers to their followers to increase their temporal authority. But there is a schism developing in the Pantheon -- while before, all gods treated each other with at least a degree of respect, now certain gods are declaring themselves to be the only true faith. This conflict between monotheism and polytheism may rip the Pantheon itself apart.
Concordant with this rise of religion comes increased conflict with the Caliphates. Religious differences have already become open conflicts between nations on the borders of the Eastern Sea, and trade has decreased with the Caliphates for fear of reprisal.
The Caliphates are a loose confederation of Caliphs (princes), headed in name only by the Sultan at Puoele. With the fall of the Kadian Empire, they were able to seize significant power and lands away from Telegon and Ciliano, including Eretia itself (re-named Kharta in honor of the Caliph who took it). Officially they are called the Kingdoms of Puoele, but Westerners refer to the lands as the Caliphates.
-4000 First elvish settlements. -1200 First dwarven settlements. -900 First gnomish settlements. -800 First human settlements. -650 First halfling settlements. -230 Eretia founded. 1 Kadia founded. 180 Telegon founded. 399 Ciliano founded. 523 Kadians capture Telegon from Ulars. 590 Telegon made the capital of the Kadian Empire. 656 Kadians capture Ciliano. 789 First record of a monotheistic religious cult. 812 Expansion of Kadia to its greatest area. 934 Loss of Illaes to barbarian tribes. 1020 The Declining Emperors come to power. 1134 Massacre of Tortuga. 1175 Telegon is sacked. 1181 Eretia (now Kharta) is lost to the Caliphates. 1192 The Consul of Ciliano declares himself Emperor. 1193 The Eastern Empires declare loyalty to Telegon. 1200 Approximate end of Kadian power in West. 1237 Eastern Empires start to fragment. 1292 Holy war declared by the Caliph of Kharta on the Cilian Empire. 1315 Current year.Back to top of document
...No one definitive event marks the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Dark Ages. Neither the sack of Telegon by the Huturls under Targus IV nor the deposition of Marcus Terlius, the last Kadian emperor in the West, impressed their contemporaries as epoch-making catastrophes. Rather, the culmination of several long-term trends, most notably a severe economic dislocation and the invasions and settlement of the various Huturl tribes within the borders of the Kadian Empire had changed the face of Dage. For the next 300 years western Dage remained essentially a primitive culture, albeit one uniquely superimposed on the complex, elaborate culture of the Kadian Empire, which was never entirely lost or forgotten...
Ch. VII, "The Process Leading to Fragmentation of Authority"
...Although during this period the loose confederation of tribes began to coalesce into kingdoms, virtually no machinery of government existed, and political and economic development was local in nature. Regular commerce had ceased almost entirely, although the money economy never entirely vanished. In the culmination of a process that had already begun in the Kadian Empire, the peasantry became bound to the land and dependent on landlords for protection and the rudimentary administration of justice. Among the warrior aristocracy the most important social bonds were ties of kinship, but feudal connections were also emerging, which may have been rooted in the old Kadian patron-client relationship or in the Huturl 'party', the group of fighting companions. All such connections impeded any tendency toward political consolidation...