Editing Timeline (Polesia) (section)

==Age of the Serpents==


'''-3,000,000 CA:''' A few of the surviving reptiles continued to evolve, and several varieties gained intelligence and became the forerunners of the serpent people and dragons. New mammals continued to arise, including one group of tree dwellers with opposable thumbs, the first primates. Dragons taped deeply into the core of the world and are transfigured into living engines of arcane power unmatched by any mortal creature before or since. The serpent folk in turn developed the first magical disciplines, much of which was learned through study of the natural forces, some of which was gleaned in ancient basalt carvings left by the yithians, and even a few tablets that survived the drowning of R’lyeh. The two races balanced each other, for while dragons were far more powerful individually, the serpent folk were more numerous and far more disciplined, and while there were terrible wars fought between the two they more or less left each other to their own devices.


'''-2,000,800 to -2,000,650 CA:''' Strange formless creatures known today only as arcanaplasms began incursions into serpent-folk territory. For centuries the two races fought a bloody war that costs countless lives. Then just as unexpectedly as their arrival the arcanaplasms simply vanished. The serpent-folk never discovered their origins or where they went, though some theorized that the creatures followed some unknown cycle or might have been driven up from the depths of the planet seeking more magic to feed on.


'''-2,000,000 CA:''' For the first time rudimentary sentience began to form in mammals, fascinating the serpent folk who dissect many to see if this budding species might have potential. Across the world mammals were beginning to cement their hold as the dominant animal class on Polesia, especially the hominid species which began to show rapid development to the astonishment of the serpent folk whose own evolution took nearly ten times as long.  It was later theorized that this rapid evolution was a result of the serpent people’s experiments and interference. Despite this fact the serpent folk did little more than continue their studies, not seeing these species as anything that could threaten them as their civilization had reached its peak. For the next million years, they were correct in this assumption.


'''-1,500,000 CA:''' A serpent folk expedition uncovered the Obelisk, buried in the an island somewhere between present day southeastern Antanides and Dhumarja. Like the aboleths they sought to use its power. For a time they learn from it much about the genetic structure of all living creatures and they create new varieties of creatures, some of which still survive to this day. However, unlike the aboleths, their resistance to the Obelisk's call was short lived and within a century it managed to spark dissent among them. Ksshethesh, the city in which it is contained, was almost completely destroyed and its inhabitants are turned into aberrants. The serpent folk nations raised Ksshethesh to the ground and their priests managed to counter the Obelisk's awesome power, quieting it for a time while they displaced it back into the ocean.


'''-1,000,000 CA:''' The upright walking apes, now dubbed homo primus by modern historians or Dawn People, began to develop complex communal bonds, very similar to that of the serpent folk. Even many wild specimens without training or prompting from their saurian betters evolved primitive societies. Some of them were influenced by escaped specimens that interbred and jacked up their development several notches, introducing rudimentary art, language, and eventually spiritual awareness that sparked a competing civilization seemingly overnight in comparison to their predecessors. The serpent folk began to grow concerned seeing that these inferior apes were growing out of their control and some groups began eradication programs to stem their spread across Polesia (accept in the far north where the climate was fatal, leaving homo primus there undisturbed, though the very climate and predators there would test them in other ways). However, this eventually backfired and started pressuring the hominids to evolve all the faster and different species began to flourish.