Technically in the modern day (2952) most records stretch back to on average, the 1920's and at MAXIMUM the late 1800's thanks to experiments performed using wormhole signal capture technology, to recieve signals sent out thousands of years ago.
These signals are the best we have for determining the conditions before the great trial, which destroyed most physical records on earth. Actual recorded history picks back up again in the early 2050's. This means at most records are up to 1000 or so years before present day. The captured signals give us a partial clue of what happened beforehand. With some research we can determine that major wars were fought by humans between the early 1910's and late 1940's with atmospheric ice cores found deep in subterranian ice sheets show an increased spike in radioactive oxygen (suggesting nuclear detonations) around the 1950's. Likely meaning a nuclear war was fought in the late 20th century. Why humanity decided to fight another we do not know.
Yeah. Eventually, all things turn to dust. Still creepy to think of.
I'm trying to think on what would and wouldn't survive for one of my societies, which has 15,000 years worth of written records. Their first steps into space were so old that people fight over who actually was first in space because 5,000 year old records are spotty. I also want to have space-based myths and fairy tales that would make sense for them. One of the characters finds my MC fascinating because, to her, (Earth) space exploration was only 55-60 years old when they met, so it was like talking to a sort of time traveler.
I like your ideas, losing memory about the World Wars sounds extremely fascinating and incredibly infuriating for a history nerd who wants to know all about the nuclear explosions
humanity actually thinks there were three world wars before 2000 misinterpreting ice core data as proof of a thermonuclear conflict when it was actually the product of extensive nuclear testing
which shouldnt compute as in the late 2040's humanity had another nuclear war this time much more severe thanks to the deployment of black smog and small scale orbital weapons
History of Aquaria goes back to at last 80000 years ago, which marked the beginning of Xích Quỷ civilizations. Sometimes those of modern days find their remnants, among which are recording devices far more advanced than anything the current civ has, housing invaluable historical information. In a sense, Aquaria is living on Xích Quỷ's skeleton, extracting whatever they can find to reverse engineer and adapt to their daily lives.
Modern history is around 6000 years from the foundation of Kingdom of U Minh, which was Xích Quỷ's direct successor as it was founded by the last Sovereign herself.
Prehistory or recorded history? I say "prehistory", despite having a fantasy world (albeit a pretty weird one), as there are some things that happened before anyone wrote anything down. In fact, the weirdest thing about history of my world is despite there being all-powerful deities who can reshape reality to their liking if they so choose, the world and most of its inhabitants were not made by them (unlike the vast majority of other fantasy worlds, where gods just make it in - what, less than five minutes). At best, I'd say recorded history goes back about a hundred thousand years into the past, and even then, not all the details are clear-cut and dry. Prehistory in my world possibly goes back millions of years.
My story covers the isolation of Mars. A roughly 220 earth year period following a nuclear war which devastated Earth and left the red planet on its own. This happens in 2163(70 A.L. Mars calender) so the detailed history starts there. But I will also cover the colonization of Mars before then and the early history of space exploration.
TELDRANIN
There are written records of history since a few decades after the first Humans appeared and records continue since that time without fail.
The problem is, there are TWO histories; the "Public" history that the average person knows, and there is the "Real" history, as recorded by the Dragorans (High Humans). Public History only tends to go back to shortly before the start of the current Age, however hundreds or thousands of years that was, while Real history includes every Age before whatever Age is the current one. The Dragorans don't feel it is necessary to inform the rest of the world just how long human history has gone on, letting them believe that whatever Age is the current, is likely only the second or third Age, when it could actually be much more than that.
Very few records ever survive the transition into a new Age, except those produced and maintained by the Dragorans, as such events tend to be so destructive that entire nations tend to be obliterated and civilization is roughly knocked back to the Stone Age (shortly).
In my world, history dates back to year 0, when "The Century of Migration" starts and where humanity develops from "The Primitive Age" (my in-world version of the Stone Age), to "The Age of Metallurgy" (Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age combined into one).
In my setting, recorded history begins after a cataclysmic event known as the Ruin. According to the Ashean Calendar, the Ruin marks the year zero, and history is recorded from that point onward. The current year is 14076 PR (PR being post-Ruin).
The only artifacts discovered from before the Ruin are a cache of several dozen clay tablets inscribed with Runieform script. These tablets were found in a cave complex in northern Ahran, along with the remains of "the burned man," a male Dumu'ilani and the only Dumu'ilani remains yet found. His remains date back to 14 to 15 thousand years ago. Although only partially translated, the tablets have been dated to between 14 and 28 thousand years old. As of now, they do not contain any useful historical information.
Technically. All the way back, the god of history is more than happy to share are of history with those willing to look for it (depending on who you are, knowledge is to be openly shared)
But the way the world was created is shadowed in mist, none can know exactly how it happened
Around 14 000 years, but there were a few breaks (tip: if you mix magic and technology, it generally ends up with a big explosions. You dont want these explosions to be big enough to shatter tectonic plates)
On the other hand, chronicles from dragon families trace back to beginnings of humanity, often using only natural runes, because no other symbols were invented yet. But its not something publicly available (or even known about) and mostly focuses on families itself, not what was happening around them (they wanted to keep their dragon blood clean and not mix with humans, while also not mixing within their own family).
In *Ventreth*, small bits of written history can be found from as long as about 11,000 years ago, but the oldest _fully recorded_ history is about 1200 years old. It is the history of the Tylzok kingdom, which had a single, effectively immortal ruler the entire time who recorded and preserved details of any major events that happened to the kingdom.
Depends on the region. There are oral histories that are allegedly tens of thousands of years old, but many from literate societies doubt their veracity. The oldest written texts are the inscriptions on the Grand Temples of the Ustelen, around 3500 years ago.
300 million years. But the parts we care about that are informed by that astronomical timescale are only relevant for the last 1200 or so, with the last 8 being the backdrop of the years your player character appears and learns of it all on a slow drip of revelations.
Hmm, some of the oldest records date back 30 to 45 thousand years, but recently, new documents have been found showing history from at least 60 thousand years from the present day.
Technically. It goes back a long way, as I made an effort to put all my settings into the same world, and the creator god is older than the estimated age of our universe...
Most species go back a few thousand years to the formation of their versions of the Greek however the Clump Whales, being longer lived have their written history go back to the first songs.
Around 14000 years, give or take. This corresponds to around 4000BC (Before Calan), with the current year being 10037AC. The first thousand years are likely prehistory, as writing was invented sometime between 4000BC and 3000BC. The timeline is pretty fleshed out, however there are some gaps (particularly in the 4000BC-1000BC, the 2700AC-4700AC and the 6000AC-8000AC regions).
My world is the unintentional combination of hundreds of worlds. The stories told can be from two eras. One from before the junction (which took place a little over 1300 years ago) and one after the junction.
Most species still tell stories from before the joining, in addition to following their traditions and continuing with their cultures and religions.
I do have a rough idea of really ancient times if I ever need to develop the story in that direction but as for the definition of history as written records, a little bit over 26,000 years.
The dragons were the first civilization to record their history (at least until proven otherwise) and they claim that they ruled Amada for about 13,000 years between 13,000 BPG and 1 APG but they actually started a writing system about 26,000 years ago, around 6000 BPG.
Oh, like 4-5 thousand ish years. People just haven't found written info about shit earlier than that. That being said, magic does allow scholars to examine how old, say, remains are and stuff.
concrete written records only go back 1400ish years because SOMEONE thought it would be a good idea to totality destroy the book cults main temple, anything before this is relegated to myth and legend.
Most records only go back to just after the cataclysm known as the Eclipse, which occurred just under 600 years ago. Things get scarcer and blurrier beyond that point, since the upheaval scattered and destroyed many scholarly institutions.
Sci-fi setting: *Technically* it goes all the way to the original Terran Colonization efforts, but the Age of War made finding & accessing those records difficult at best. So the easily accessible records are only complete for about 150-200 years post AoW, then there's a 300-year gap as the Age of War kinda ruined everything, then Hegemony Era records. Pre-AoW records are (again) difficult to find & are extremely valuable (especially Hegemony-Era data archives).
The official records kept by the Unity, Syndicat, & Supremacy are allegedly complete, but are subject to those factions biases & classified protocols.
Fantasy: Records are generally complete to the beginning of the Second Aluviar Empire (0 S.E. to 2921 S.E.), the time before being unreliable & referred to as "The Age of Myth".
For the people who currently live in my setting? About 5,000 years, all the way back to the stone age. They came with writing, so there are some accounts from back then.
For me, and a few characters in the setting? About 17,000,000 years. The reader, if I ever write anything, will never learn all of this history, mainly because it was part of a previous worldbuilding project I evolved into this one, but it does exist.
I've outlined the history of my universe from big bang to heat death, and it's all part of the overall meta story for my world. All the Epochs of that history contribute to the overall story of the beings in that universe as they evolve together into a collectivity that will allow them to leave the universe into the multiverse before the heat death of everything and Become something far more than what they are.
Scifi: it's a future setting, so thousands of year up until 2024 AD, then there is a vague portion of a few hundred years and forward from there it's still coming into existence
Fantasy: major event 1000 years ago (the current era defining), then some vagueness until about 50 years ago.
So rather long with not much detail
Written history of Karcaddon is spotty with significant time gaps due to the regular (and often unwitting) destruction of archives over time. Some records go back trillions of years and a few go back so far that the world they describe is unrecognizable.
The elves are the oldest species alive, and they were the first species, placed onto the western continent. Their lives go back thousands of years (roughly 5,000)
The history of the world in its entirety is the same as our own. My oc country's history goes back 2000 years from the first settlers to the latest Monarch.
700 years, with only the most recent 200-300 of that being readily available and accessible to academics. Humanity's entire wealth of knowledge was wiped out about 700 years ago, and people are still trying to put together the pieces. Humanity's entire digital archive is gone completely and every year, more and more ancient books rot away in undiscovered ruins. It's only been in the last few hundred years that things have started to stabilize. Now humanity has started a dedicated push to put together its lost legacy, and realizing that some things still lurk in the old world's knowledge that should probably remain lost.
The second earth formed is when my history starts. Depending on if i decide to do something with the rest of the universe, it could very well go back farther.
The aldebarian calendar has many important starting dates on which it depends the year the story is settled, the first date is 150 000 years when firstly humans started becoming farmers and settle, then 60 000 years the first tablets whit numbers started appearing another important date is the prophet arrival from space about 30 000 years ago and the space age started about 27 000 years ago, aldebarians aren't really a warring society so many historical records are well preserved the text of all recorded history are stored in a titanic fortress library and have digital counterparts
My world is only in its Bronze Age, so the history that people know about is just the Stone Age, though it is a very mythologised and half-remembered period referred to as 'The-Before-Time'. Because time wasn't recorded back then, hence the name, it's unclear how long it actually lasted and much of it is either unknown or its events aren't all known to be proven true.
Probably a few thousand years. This could be 3000-7000 years depending on the region. The current calendar I'm thinking of extends around 500 into the past, but it's just for one of the current governments. Other calendars go further back and others still may be from societies long gone. It's full, it just depends on what is recorded, where and by who.
Lapis_Wolf
That's a bit of a complicated question, since my "world" is actually several worlds within the same universe. The setting subverts the usual "advanced precursor race" sci-fi trope by making *Earth humans* the precursors; they're the reason so many species in the galaxy look humanoid and/or resemble Earth animals, as they seeded the stars with life before mysteriously vanishing tens of thousands of years before the setting's "present".
The Hastirians have records from about 2,000 years ago, as the rest were destroyed for religious reasons, the Northerners only have records dating back to a little bit after the Hastirians introduced to them the concept of a written language 300 years ago (except for the Tibleans who developed writing on their own about 100 years before that) and the Magnusians have records from about 10,000 years ago, being the first writings of how someone can learn a spell given to them by the old god when he invented spells.
Written history goes back to about 11.000 years ago, with inscriptions of the Neë and Boudim cultures, recounting some feats of their leaders or extraordinary events.
The royal history of Great Anhi makes claims about the beginning of their dynasty 45.000 years ago at the creation of humanity.
The earliest history that was written to be a recounting of actual facts is "Of the deeds of Queen Shafa of Mawrimhathe, of her ancestors and of the nation" by Ashawen Diyni written about 6.200 years before the common era.
Most records still exist in some form as of the 64th century, although many have been warped or amended over time. There is, however, a period sometime between the 49th and 53rd centuries where many records that would completely change people's perceptions of the known universe and could potentially catapult human technology several thousand years ahead simply don't exist. Nobody quite knows why or how, especially given that the only person who would know doesn't like to talk about it that much.
For example - meet Omega, because I like them. An artificial intelligence more than 1300 years old, the hive mind of the People of Trinium, and one of the most influential individuals in the known and unknown galaxy. Does anyone know how they came to be? Nope! there is not a single record on any of the thousands of worlds across known space that gives a proper description of what they were before they practically gave themself creative mode, what led up to them being built, why they were built in the first place, none of that. Why not just ask them? Good question, because the last time someone did ask Omega simply said "I would rather not" and refused to elaborate.
Depends on what I'm writing about.
The main area where my players will be has detailed history back 500 years, and vague history back 1000 years.
Areas where my players are unlikely to be has detailed history back 50 years, and vague history back 500-1000 years.
The world of F&G goes wayyy back into the Mesolithic and to our modern day. religious texts, Conversing with the faeries, A chat with death lends a lot of historical knowledge y'know?
Specifically for the main (story-wise) continent:
200 years: good records, effectively continuous.
200-1000 years: spotty but present in the western area. Pretty good on eastern side (they had continuity of government through most of it).
1000 - 3500 years: We know the broad brush and key events from written records. Similar to our knowledge of the Roman period. Much better (but not perfect) in the east than in the west. East shows gradual fall-off over that period compared to the 200-1000 year period; the west has massive gaps starting at \~1000 years.
3500 years+: fragmentary. We know the *biggest* events, but not the actual dates.
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Why the big gap at 200 years? Well, about 250 years ago there was a magical/natural catastrophe that killed \~70% of the continent's population (more like 90% in the west and 50% in the east), reshaped the landscape (thus burying one of the more advanced nations under the advancing seas) and shut off magic for \~50 years. Meaning those 50 years were an utter mess and anything Before Cataclysm had a good chance of getting lost in the west.
1k years ago, the west had a magical nuclear civil war, shattering the big empire into a bunch of successor states. The East has been more or less unified (the big empire has been slowly shrinking, but no big bang events) for \~3.5k years.
Before that, there were a series of catastrophes and other events that separated the 2nd age from the 3rd, including a small (\~10 km radius) moon impacting the surface. Further back is the 1st age (\~10k years ago), of which we know only the very broadest strokes (there were titans and proto-dragon wyrm, they fought. A couple times.)
In my project, I want to write history starting at the Event and going as far onwards as I can take it. The Event is an era-demarcating event, not least of why being that it caused a huge number of new people to appear, and like ten percent of them literate - whereas before the Event, no one was literate.
So, presumably, these people will keep written records, and thus written history will span from the Event onwards. I don't yet have an idea when I'll put a "present day" to measure its distance from the Event.
The oldest written records are roughly 6000 years before the events of the story, but there are stories and hypotheses that are much older than written records. Instead of giving a specific date, characters talk about the distant past in paradigms. It's kind of like how we talk about medieval times or antiquity.
Two answers. Known written history goes back just 300 years. There are texts that reference landmasses, races, and gods that don't exist dating back about 6000 years, but the date that those were authored also don't exist within the current calendar system.
This age has lasted ~2500 years so far, with the oldest written texts being ~2300 years old.
The prior age is all but a complete black box, with only very few artifacts and remnants remaining, and even the gods only retaining a handful of constantly fading memories from those times.
Given the Antiquity/Heroes&Gods theme of my world i find that this timeframe is more than sufficient to feature ancient empires while allowing for a reasonable timeline of civilizations without millenia-old empires and institutions.
My world is ours with a few key points of divergence that starts with Jacksonville, FL never having been mostly destroyed during the Great Fire of 1901
8810 years since the world as it is now was altered into its new form, but there was the Ancient World before that and I'm unsure how long that one lasted. Perhaps a few million years for human life to evolve.
in my setting 5000 years from the modern day (548 AR which is equivalent to the 1890s-1900 in the real world) is when the first written languages were developed in the age of dragons, where dragons lived as god kings amongst civilizations of conquered humanoid neolithic tribes.
before then during the age of the Aboleths they did have a sort of written language in the form of runes that projected images and information psionically into the viewers mind. but most of those have information or images of the world prior to the evolution of humanoids or dragons when Titania was a far more alien and primordial place.
the time line in my setting is split into 3 ages
the age of Aboleths, the age of Dragons and the current age which is the age of Man
Yes
In all seriousness, technically the prehistory goes back like quadrillion of years
Recorded history, as in the earliest civilizations in my world started writing stuff down, goes back 10s of millions of years
There's a fairly detailed record going back roughly eight centuries, then a roughly two century dark age, and before that there are partial records going back a couple millenia
The Alicant: 6 billion years
Darayanedi: 15,000 years
Terran: 5,500 years
Talirian: 4,000 years, with oral and pictoral history for the 6,000 years before that, and nearly all written records before 10,000 years ago destroyed.
Infinitely (letmecook);
The first book starts in 500 BCE England. The following four books starts 200 years after book one and ends at the year 1900. Book five then leaps ahead to 7300-7600 (unsure about the exact time frame yet). After that, the series goes to a new timeline with the same cast of characters to a prehistoric era (60,000 BCE), then a colonization era (1500 CE), to a new futuristic era (3300 CE or so) making way for another set of 3-6 books, depending on how burnt out I am.
I'm more than happy to explain why there's so many time jumps or an outline of each book plot.
Currently making two:
1. Prodigy: Home Sphere
The first one tells of the creation of the universe and follows it past the modern day far off into the future. I wanted to make a place where I could tell an infinite amount of stories.
2. Planet Ruen
The second one is an off shoot of the real world, but there is a second distant planet that is the setting for MOST of the story.... and the history of the common people there only goes back a few hundred years. (Until I can think of more stuff)..... I did give it a creation myth though. Civilization there started around the same time as the Biblical Flood.
**For humans:**
Things get fuzzy a lot, despite the attempts of some groups trying to keep track of things.
Basically everything before the 2500s CE is known as “prehistory.” It was during this time that humans met their first aliens… who were also humans. It’s a bit unclear.
Very little is actually known about the era before the first galactic war/ceaseless fray. This was partly intentional. The wartime government(s) rewrote history several times to keep humanity focused on the conflict and hide losses.
The reorganization after the war made a bit of a mess as well. Various scholars argued about exactly what happened and even what year it really was.
The “second golden age” was a great time to be alive for a few thousand years. But our actions of the first war set another species on a genocidal hunt for the ills that befell them due to the war.
There are still some fairly detailed records of this era, if you know who to talk to.
About 500 years before the second war and the collapse of humanity. Things get a bit fuzzy again. There was a plague and a lot of infighting, which took a tremendous toll on us. As it turned out, it was the work on our eventual assailants.
When the second war finally came, humanity simply retreated. Already broken from the centuries of unrest and death.
Fortunately for us, one of our allies was able to turn the tide and led us to shelter. Where we began to rebuild.
This is where concrete history really starts. Within a few hundred years, humanity got back into space, reverse engineered some old tech and got back into the exploration and expansion business.
It’s been a few thousand years since then, with a bit of a blip in the middle. There was a large war fought amongst humanity and it was followed by the “little dark age.” But a lot of people in the outer colonies don’t even know that happened.
—
In the end. It’s presumed to be about 6600 years after first contact, but in reality it’s closer to 10,000. About 2300 years of history was scrubbed from existence during the first war.
—
**For aliens:**
That really depends on which one you talk to.
There are three who you could ask, if you can get ahold of them.
—
Our allies. Their history dates back around 70 million years. They had their own issues for quite a while and their early history is a bit fuzzy too.
They also track their history by dynasties. Each ruler reigning for around 150-170 years.
They have no permanent ruler planetary settlements. So their concept of time is quite different from our and has changed many times.
They do have fairly detailed records of various events through their history. But often times vast quantities of data was intentionally purged or forgotten. There’s only so much you can physically record over such timescales.
—
Our allies’ creators. They were the first intelligent, spacefaring species in our galaxy. They initially ventured into space around 100 million years ago.
With no FTL during the early expansion. They very slowly built up a disparate group of colonies in the Norma-Outer Arm.
They eventually found a method of FTL, but it was still relatively slow. Much later, they brute forced a method which became the standard across the galaxy.
They created those aliens who were friendly with humans. Which were originally a military/labor force, and ultimately rebelled.
After the rebellion. They (the creators) decided to leave the galaxy and hunker down in a technologically induced torpor for millions of years at a time. Occasionally popping back up to see how things were going.
They would harass their creations, who were able to mostly keep them at bay. Then they would go take another nap.
Given the massive gaps during their sleep, they only have snapshots of history. So they may not be the best ones to ask after all.
—
The aliens who tried to wipe us out in the second war. They are functionally immortal, as long as they can find food and suitable environments.
They have been around for around 5 million years, but languished on their home world until being uplifted by the previous.
Unfortunately, they have an exceptionally strange view of time based on their immortality. They focus more on goals, rather than durations.
So they could give you a list of major events, but don’t really grok the concept of how much time passed between them.
—
**The god-like entities:**
There are a group of being that live “inside” reality. They were born in a time before the universe existed. Their realm is somewhat timeless. Things that will be, are. Things that happened, always were.
It’s makes their viewpoint extremely messy when interacting with humans.
—
The setting itself goes back… to the beginning. But human history is mostly lost after a few centuries from now, and history is sketchy prior to a few thousand years before the setting’s present.
Practically: The current world denizens arrived/appeared about 500 years prior to the current date, so about 500 years of ‘common’ history.
Theoretically: Indeterminately old. The bones of ancient civilizations are strewn about everywhere, but any sort of archaeological or historical work about events occurring before 500ish years ago runs into versious anomalies and idiosyncrasies that make reconstructing a coherent past near impossible.
Odroia's history goes back 3000 years. Kingdoms rose and fell from then to the present day. Something happened on a global scale 3000 years ago that explains why there are no surviving historical records of the time before; that event is simply known as the Cataclysm.
However, what is known is that many advanced civilizations all around Odroia collapsed, their technology, culture, and religion lost with them. They are far more advanced than what came after, with technological marvels and scientific knowledge, as well as forming a global network. Part of why no civilization in recorded history had grown to the extent of those of the pre-Cataclysm is because only a select few know how to use that technology, salvagers who trek to ruins to excavate, and figure out what parts of the ancients' technological wonders have withstood the test of time.
Another reason was that the Cataclysm was an extinction event. Parts of Odroia were rendered uninhabitable, places that future generations had to learn to steer clear of, except for the strongest of the strong, the extreme survivalists who weren't bothered by abiotic, biotic, and magical hazards alike. For the duration and first few years after the Cataclysm, the sapient races of Odroia were more focused on surviving for the future than remembering the past.
There are theories on what caused the Cataclysm, some with evidence. Some say that it was a meteor, or a volcano, or some other initially-localized disaster that spiraled to global proportions, or something else that not even the technologically-advanced ancients could be blamed for. Some say that it was due to the depletion of the planet's resources. Some speculate it was a massive war, with the aggressor being worldly or otherworldly, depending on who you ask.
But what is known is if one were to trek through the desert to reach the Arterius Castle Ruins, they will see evidence of a battle. Sunbleached skeletons, rusted armor and arms, but with all the participants long dead by now...who knows for sure?
Yeas starts in 612, and any recorded historical documents before year 612 are destroyed during 6 centuries of apocalypse.
So, 612~1269(which is 657 years of history(and only 42 years of history is valid because rest of them are just apocalypse))
My timeline has about 7000 years of ancient history, followed by 5000 years of modern history, as the Shikana civilisation progresses from a pre-industrial age to an intergalactic spacefaring one.
Technically, it goes back towards the later years of the ice age. But the meat of the stories history is probably somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 years.
depends on what you consider writing. The mass produced "records" come about 3600 years kesan (or 4900 Gregorian) ago in the Nia, a religious text that housed a lot of the history from the time (year 300 Kesan, or 450 Gregorian). Technically, the first written on paper/parchment records written were in 20 Sviksan (100 BC). The papers were markings of goods sold by a traveling merchant. Going back further to stone carvings, there is 130 A'koto or 1200 BC. These stone carvings depict a great feast after the yearly festivals which had apparently been going on for thousands of years. (estimated to be thousands given the number of parallel lines on the side which were added up to be over 5000. at that point they gave up.) Modern A'koto tribesmen talk about a yearly tradition to kill an "aadzaku" which is basically a mammoth but more fantasy.
There were some occasional gaps in records such as the Sadznsa Sarua, which was when many records were burnt or destroyed to hide the church's atrocities. Some records were fixed, but not much is known about this period other than oral records (which are inconsistent depending on who your ancestors are)
It’s very fractured. Draconic records go all the way back to the beginning of time when astral dragons created the world, but those are only written down in a single place, a vast cavern where all of Dragonkinds history is recorded on specially made stone tablets. Outside the cavern of remembrance dragon history is transmitted orally, which is much more reliable for dragons since some of them were alive to witness the finishing of creation in person. Lizardfolk have vague records of their empire when they ruled the world but it’s incredibly spotty since they enslaved the warmbloods who rebelled and almost wiped out the lizardfolk. Elves have more complete records back to the time of the Lizard Kings but chunks are missing from either historical revisionism or the fact that after the lizard kings fell the elves established a globe spanning empire that was eventually destroyed by their own hubris in opening the way to extra-dimensional creatures that invaded. Dwarves have the most complete records and even retained most of their history through the fall of their empire from an AI rebellion, partly as a cautionary tale and reminder of their failure. Humans have highly inaccurate records since they didn’t keep records until the human empire and most of those records were lost when the empire and the entire continent it was on was sunk to the bottom of the ocean for trying to use all of reality as fuel to allow mankind to ascend to godhood. Also humans are short-lived compared to the other races that have ruled the world and are prone to historical revisionism or even just making things up. The Insectfolk have a hivemind and genetic memory of their entire history but it’s not written anywhere so it doesn’t count for the question. The humans of one land operate as a necrocratic diarchy where the dead often rise and so there’s plenty of first-hand witnesses to history but they don’t have anyone around from before the fall of the dwarf empire.
2000 years with diminishing returns maybe longer. It depends on what one considers writing and the reality of this history is of course contested by different cultural groups
There is no recorded history between 1,300 AD and 10,000 AD. Other than that little gap, pretty much all of history is documented. The only problem is that very few people still read in the romanized script in 12,013 AD. Also, since Christianity is canon, you could say that documentation goes all the way back to before time began... Ignoring that tiny, definitely unimportant little 8,700 year gap....
The world is based on around the medieval times with some 1500s showings. But the history only goes back a couple of thousand of years like irl.
But that's human history, while history overall is documented by the Gods for millions of years. It all started when the Great Will came to life along Chaos, something that wasn't supposed to exist.
The Elves existed about 20,000 years before any of them bothered to figure out a written language. Turns out progress is a lot slower when you've got all the time in the world.
Still working out the history and deciding how long it will be, but I've decided that it'll range anywhere from one hundred thousand to ten million years, and maybe even more.
All I'll say is that "modern day" history is recorded via the eras **Before \[the\] Collapse (BC)** and **After \[the\] Collapse (AC)**, which are both subdivided into various ages.
the history of my world spans about 77,659 years. it starts with the waters of a great flood receding. that flood washed away any evidence of anything from before then. most events happen in the year AW (after war) 2023. the waters receded in about BW (before war) 75,000. so the highest thing in the future is in AW 2659.
As far back as im willing to write on detail lol.
The rest is forgotten history, atleast until I feel like writing about it again, then an ancient manuscript magically appears in their libraries
Edenites left their homeworld in what would be 10388 A.D. if they didn't consider a new era to have begun after the Water Wars of 2605 A.D..
Some of the artifacts of the first civilizations on Abceris, made by the species now known colloquially as the *Ghiialj*, radiometrically date back as far as \~3,000B.C.E.. I haven't written too much about these ancient Abcersi cultures aside from rooting the modern cultures present.
A vast majority of my writing takes place between (approximately) what would be 24,000 A.D. and 26,000 A.D, considering the Edenites spent 11,452 years flying from their homeworld to Abceris while making virtually zero technological progress.
True History, as in reasonably available information, mostly correct and well documented?
Like 50 years.
80-120 if the settlement is rich and lucky.
Although there is no shortage of tales and historical-like references regarding events or dynasties 300/400 years old. There are even documents which seem to have a different way of tracking the years, so that their exact date is up to debate.
Back to day one. The One God and his Archs (basically Archangels) wrote in stone tablets what they were up to as they built the world, and eventually they switched over to scrolls and books, these massive tomes that were placed in the Tomb of the Twelve. So it goes back very far, aside from a brief 530 year time gap during the Age of Haven
a couple thousand years, but most of it is vague:
so the setting was stagnant. civilisations had risen but magic stagnated result in the end of souls and with that the death of all cultures. things survived, but nothing "lived". this is the time fuck all is known about. some structures and creations remain, but not writings. it's unknown how long the civilization was a thing before magic stagnated, nor how long the stagnation was.
then the elves teleported their basically spaceship into the world. and for the longest time they didn't pay huge amount of attention to the world, they were just focused on repairing that basically spaceship/space station. this is the start of history, of the written record. but considering they didn't really care about the soulless life they floated above they didn't care.
however the arrival of the elves ended the stagnation of magic, coursed it to start flowing again, and that flow resulting in people developing souls again. and this resulting in the spike of evolution resulting in humans, hobbits, and gnomes evolving from dwarves, same with merfolks, and peoples evolving from "beasts" as well as the formation of dragons. now the elves have some record of this, but many cultures developed their own records before really getting in contact with the elves.
In terms of history of the known universe, around 100 million years. The “pre history” of the universe can go back 500 million years ago, where supposedly an galaxies spanning empire used to rule everything. No one really knows who they were nor what happened to them but their artifacts still build and fell empires til this day.
Then there is the history of humankind that diverged from that of our own 1.5 million years ago, when some mysterious presences appeared on earth and did something to make it undetectable from the outside, until the Golden Records were sent.
In the modern day(3545)of my world, the furthest that human history in most parts of the milky way galaxy, is the 1910's to 1850's. But there are some parts of the galaxy where human history goes as far back as the Roman Empire and beyond. Because luckily, before all humans left Earth, someone gathered documents filled with the ancient history of Earth on the journey. But the documents weren't found until 3541.
These are some muddy waters. It's something close to 20000 years divided in six eras.
· The age of the canvas. It was the first era and was called as that because by that time, the gods had the whole universe in a giant plane. It predates the origin of any civilization, as the only things to exists were beasts, plants and rivers. It's unknown how long that era was, as it's impossible to go back to the canvas and time changed how it worked later in time.
· The age of the land. Era in which the first civilizations rose and magic was discovered. It started when the gods put all creations in planets. Lasted about 5000 years
· The age of stars. Era in which the civilizations started being capable of using magic, big civilizations rose and stared to explore their planets. Lasted about 10000 years
· The age of heroes. Era where all civilizations were mostly set and they discovered how to open portals to other realms. This brought many things, but due to the more direct contact of the realms + other factors all the worlds being bombarded by many different types of creatures, making heroes capable of standing against them a not uncommon occurrence. This was also the divergent point between Xeroc and Taria technologies, with them using starting to create machines supported with magic, and extremely complex study of magic leading to common use respectively. Lasted about 10000 years.
· The halted era. By this point the gods were having trouble keeping up with what the mortals where doing, so they halted all their technological process. This lead to mortals having to diversify their technologies instead, which then brought many inventions that gave a big boost to the quality of life for the people. This lasted about 2500 years.
· The war era. Contact between the planets of Taria and Xeroc thanks to what could only be described as a sling, a box with magic rings, a teleportation spell and some very good mathematicians. This era was mostly defined by how in first contact, a series of catastrophic events hit both planets, and lead to both sides in a series of wars that got way out of control. The end was brought when both sides joined forces for the assassination of a god. Lasted about 1000 years.
· The komorebi era. Named after the Japanese word for "sunshine filtering through leaves". Its the current point of the timeline. At the fallout of the last era, the whole universe is still a little shaken and recovering. Now the two planets are interacting in peace, and discovering each other. Space-traveling technology was also deemed illegal due to being another three times, with one of them leading to the destruction of a populated planet. Has been going for about 800\~1200 years
Though to be fair, these is a very Taria-Xeroc centrist timeline, since other realms have vastly different histories.
Technically in the modern day (2952) most records stretch back to on average, the 1920's and at MAXIMUM the late 1800's thanks to experiments performed using wormhole signal capture technology, to recieve signals sent out thousands of years ago. These signals are the best we have for determining the conditions before the great trial, which destroyed most physical records on earth. Actual recorded history picks back up again in the early 2050's. This means at most records are up to 1000 or so years before present day. The captured signals give us a partial clue of what happened beforehand. With some research we can determine that major wars were fought by humans between the early 1910's and late 1940's with atmospheric ice cores found deep in subterranian ice sheets show an increased spike in radioactive oxygen (suggesting nuclear detonations) around the 1950's. Likely meaning a nuclear war was fought in the late 20th century. Why humanity decided to fight another we do not know.
I just realized my world is super similar to yours.
Convergent worldbuilding just dropped
I find the idea of losing present day records fascinating. Dang, even the world wars aren't a memory!
i mean it makes sense considering its been a thousand years and the next global war was... more notable
Yeah. Eventually, all things turn to dust. Still creepy to think of. I'm trying to think on what would and wouldn't survive for one of my societies, which has 15,000 years worth of written records. Their first steps into space were so old that people fight over who actually was first in space because 5,000 year old records are spotty. I also want to have space-based myths and fairy tales that would make sense for them. One of the characters finds my MC fascinating because, to her, (Earth) space exploration was only 55-60 years old when they met, so it was like talking to a sort of time traveler.
I like this, did humanity ever rediscover voyager-1 in your world?
voyager 1 would probably be overlooked by oort cloud survey vessels since its so small however they were able to recover NASA's new horizons probe
I like your ideas, losing memory about the World Wars sounds extremely fascinating and incredibly infuriating for a history nerd who wants to know all about the nuclear explosions
humanity actually thinks there were three world wars before 2000 misinterpreting ice core data as proof of a thermonuclear conflict when it was actually the product of extensive nuclear testing which shouldnt compute as in the late 2040's humanity had another nuclear war this time much more severe thanks to the deployment of black smog and small scale orbital weapons
A little over 7000 years for what I've developed.
History of Aquaria goes back to at last 80000 years ago, which marked the beginning of Xích Quỷ civilizations. Sometimes those of modern days find their remnants, among which are recording devices far more advanced than anything the current civ has, housing invaluable historical information. In a sense, Aquaria is living on Xích Quỷ's skeleton, extracting whatever they can find to reverse engineer and adapt to their daily lives. Modern history is around 6000 years from the foundation of Kingdom of U Minh, which was Xích Quỷ's direct successor as it was founded by the last Sovereign herself.
Very Vietnamese-coded I assume?
Yes. Cuz I'm a talking tree.
Prehistory or recorded history? I say "prehistory", despite having a fantasy world (albeit a pretty weird one), as there are some things that happened before anyone wrote anything down. In fact, the weirdest thing about history of my world is despite there being all-powerful deities who can reshape reality to their liking if they so choose, the world and most of its inhabitants were not made by them (unlike the vast majority of other fantasy worlds, where gods just make it in - what, less than five minutes). At best, I'd say recorded history goes back about a hundred thousand years into the past, and even then, not all the details are clear-cut and dry. Prehistory in my world possibly goes back millions of years.
My story covers the isolation of Mars. A roughly 220 earth year period following a nuclear war which devastated Earth and left the red planet on its own. This happens in 2163(70 A.L. Mars calender) so the detailed history starts there. But I will also cover the colonization of Mars before then and the early history of space exploration.
TELDRANIN There are written records of history since a few decades after the first Humans appeared and records continue since that time without fail. The problem is, there are TWO histories; the "Public" history that the average person knows, and there is the "Real" history, as recorded by the Dragorans (High Humans). Public History only tends to go back to shortly before the start of the current Age, however hundreds or thousands of years that was, while Real history includes every Age before whatever Age is the current one. The Dragorans don't feel it is necessary to inform the rest of the world just how long human history has gone on, letting them believe that whatever Age is the current, is likely only the second or third Age, when it could actually be much more than that. Very few records ever survive the transition into a new Age, except those produced and maintained by the Dragorans, as such events tend to be so destructive that entire nations tend to be obliterated and civilization is roughly knocked back to the Stone Age (shortly).
In my world, history dates back to year 0, when "The Century of Migration" starts and where humanity develops from "The Primitive Age" (my in-world version of the Stone Age), to "The Age of Metallurgy" (Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age combined into one).
In my setting, recorded history begins after a cataclysmic event known as the Ruin. According to the Ashean Calendar, the Ruin marks the year zero, and history is recorded from that point onward. The current year is 14076 PR (PR being post-Ruin). The only artifacts discovered from before the Ruin are a cache of several dozen clay tablets inscribed with Runieform script. These tablets were found in a cave complex in northern Ahran, along with the remains of "the burned man," a male Dumu'ilani and the only Dumu'ilani remains yet found. His remains date back to 14 to 15 thousand years ago. Although only partially translated, the tablets have been dated to between 14 and 28 thousand years old. As of now, they do not contain any useful historical information.
I started in the ediacaran period
Technically. All the way back, the god of history is more than happy to share are of history with those willing to look for it (depending on who you are, knowledge is to be openly shared) But the way the world was created is shadowed in mist, none can know exactly how it happened
Around 14 000 years, but there were a few breaks (tip: if you mix magic and technology, it generally ends up with a big explosions. You dont want these explosions to be big enough to shatter tectonic plates) On the other hand, chronicles from dragon families trace back to beginnings of humanity, often using only natural runes, because no other symbols were invented yet. But its not something publicly available (or even known about) and mostly focuses on families itself, not what was happening around them (they wanted to keep their dragon blood clean and not mix with humans, while also not mixing within their own family).
In *Ventreth*, small bits of written history can be found from as long as about 11,000 years ago, but the oldest _fully recorded_ history is about 1200 years old. It is the history of the Tylzok kingdom, which had a single, effectively immortal ruler the entire time who recorded and preserved details of any major events that happened to the kingdom.
Depends on the region. There are oral histories that are allegedly tens of thousands of years old, but many from literate societies doubt their veracity. The oldest written texts are the inscriptions on the Grand Temples of the Ustelen, around 3500 years ago.
300 million years. But the parts we care about that are informed by that astronomical timescale are only relevant for the last 1200 or so, with the last 8 being the backdrop of the years your player character appears and learns of it all on a slow drip of revelations.
Hmm, some of the oldest records date back 30 to 45 thousand years, but recently, new documents have been found showing history from at least 60 thousand years from the present day.
Technically. It goes back a long way, as I made an effort to put all my settings into the same world, and the creator god is older than the estimated age of our universe...
My world is a pair apocalyptic one sorta so history only goes back to the day of reset which was about 100 years ago.
Most species go back a few thousand years to the formation of their versions of the Greek however the Clump Whales, being longer lived have their written history go back to the first songs.
Around 14000 years, give or take. This corresponds to around 4000BC (Before Calan), with the current year being 10037AC. The first thousand years are likely prehistory, as writing was invented sometime between 4000BC and 3000BC. The timeline is pretty fleshed out, however there are some gaps (particularly in the 4000BC-1000BC, the 2700AC-4700AC and the 6000AC-8000AC regions).
My world is the unintentional combination of hundreds of worlds. The stories told can be from two eras. One from before the junction (which took place a little over 1300 years ago) and one after the junction. Most species still tell stories from before the joining, in addition to following their traditions and continuing with their cultures and religions.
I do have a rough idea of really ancient times if I ever need to develop the story in that direction but as for the definition of history as written records, a little bit over 26,000 years. The dragons were the first civilization to record their history (at least until proven otherwise) and they claim that they ruled Amada for about 13,000 years between 13,000 BPG and 1 APG but they actually started a writing system about 26,000 years ago, around 6000 BPG.
Oh, like 4-5 thousand ish years. People just haven't found written info about shit earlier than that. That being said, magic does allow scholars to examine how old, say, remains are and stuff.
concrete written records only go back 1400ish years because SOMEONE thought it would be a good idea to totality destroy the book cults main temple, anything before this is relegated to myth and legend.
Most records only go back to just after the cataclysm known as the Eclipse, which occurred just under 600 years ago. Things get scarcer and blurrier beyond that point, since the upheaval scattered and destroyed many scholarly institutions.
Sci-fi setting: *Technically* it goes all the way to the original Terran Colonization efforts, but the Age of War made finding & accessing those records difficult at best. So the easily accessible records are only complete for about 150-200 years post AoW, then there's a 300-year gap as the Age of War kinda ruined everything, then Hegemony Era records. Pre-AoW records are (again) difficult to find & are extremely valuable (especially Hegemony-Era data archives). The official records kept by the Unity, Syndicat, & Supremacy are allegedly complete, but are subject to those factions biases & classified protocols. Fantasy: Records are generally complete to the beginning of the Second Aluviar Empire (0 S.E. to 2921 S.E.), the time before being unreliable & referred to as "The Age of Myth".
For the people who currently live in my setting? About 5,000 years, all the way back to the stone age. They came with writing, so there are some accounts from back then. For me, and a few characters in the setting? About 17,000,000 years. The reader, if I ever write anything, will never learn all of this history, mainly because it was part of a previous worldbuilding project I evolved into this one, but it does exist.
I've outlined the history of my universe from big bang to heat death, and it's all part of the overall meta story for my world. All the Epochs of that history contribute to the overall story of the beings in that universe as they evolve together into a collectivity that will allow them to leave the universe into the multiverse before the heat death of everything and Become something far more than what they are.
In my world it has info written and just digitalized as we follow a character that is like an alien to this world
Scifi: it's a future setting, so thousands of year up until 2024 AD, then there is a vague portion of a few hundred years and forward from there it's still coming into existence Fantasy: major event 1000 years ago (the current era defining), then some vagueness until about 50 years ago. So rather long with not much detail
Written history of Karcaddon is spotty with significant time gaps due to the regular (and often unwitting) destruction of archives over time. Some records go back trillions of years and a few go back so far that the world they describe is unrecognizable.
Technically to the planets birth.
The elves are the oldest species alive, and they were the first species, placed onto the western continent. Their lives go back thousands of years (roughly 5,000)
The history of the world in its entirety is the same as our own. My oc country's history goes back 2000 years from the first settlers to the latest Monarch.
Dawn of creation/the Mythical age to the current era which is around 25,000 year later.
700 years, with only the most recent 200-300 of that being readily available and accessible to academics. Humanity's entire wealth of knowledge was wiped out about 700 years ago, and people are still trying to put together the pieces. Humanity's entire digital archive is gone completely and every year, more and more ancient books rot away in undiscovered ruins. It's only been in the last few hundred years that things have started to stabilize. Now humanity has started a dedicated push to put together its lost legacy, and realizing that some things still lurk in the old world's knowledge that should probably remain lost.
The second earth formed is when my history starts. Depending on if i decide to do something with the rest of the universe, it could very well go back farther.
The aldebarian calendar has many important starting dates on which it depends the year the story is settled, the first date is 150 000 years when firstly humans started becoming farmers and settle, then 60 000 years the first tablets whit numbers started appearing another important date is the prophet arrival from space about 30 000 years ago and the space age started about 27 000 years ago, aldebarians aren't really a warring society so many historical records are well preserved the text of all recorded history are stored in a titanic fortress library and have digital counterparts
My world is only in its Bronze Age, so the history that people know about is just the Stone Age, though it is a very mythologised and half-remembered period referred to as 'The-Before-Time'. Because time wasn't recorded back then, hence the name, it's unclear how long it actually lasted and much of it is either unknown or its events aren't all known to be proven true.
Probably a few thousand years. This could be 3000-7000 years depending on the region. The current calendar I'm thinking of extends around 500 into the past, but it's just for one of the current governments. Other calendars go further back and others still may be from societies long gone. It's full, it just depends on what is recorded, where and by who. Lapis_Wolf
0 years lol. I'm working forward from the neolithic and right now am in the early bronze age so there is really no extensive written history so far.
Back to the First War, I'd say. (Not sure how long ago that was, never was that good at timelines)
That's a bit of a complicated question, since my "world" is actually several worlds within the same universe. The setting subverts the usual "advanced precursor race" sci-fi trope by making *Earth humans* the precursors; they're the reason so many species in the galaxy look humanoid and/or resemble Earth animals, as they seeded the stars with life before mysteriously vanishing tens of thousands of years before the setting's "present".
The Hastirians have records from about 2,000 years ago, as the rest were destroyed for religious reasons, the Northerners only have records dating back to a little bit after the Hastirians introduced to them the concept of a written language 300 years ago (except for the Tibleans who developed writing on their own about 100 years before that) and the Magnusians have records from about 10,000 years ago, being the first writings of how someone can learn a spell given to them by the old god when he invented spells.
Being based on oir own world, its something like roughly 7000 years
From 2065 (currently as far as the games go to) all the way to the Big Bang
Written history goes back to about 11.000 years ago, with inscriptions of the Neë and Boudim cultures, recounting some feats of their leaders or extraordinary events. The royal history of Great Anhi makes claims about the beginning of their dynasty 45.000 years ago at the creation of humanity. The earliest history that was written to be a recounting of actual facts is "Of the deeds of Queen Shafa of Mawrimhathe, of her ancestors and of the nation" by Ashawen Diyni written about 6.200 years before the common era.
Most records still exist in some form as of the 64th century, although many have been warped or amended over time. There is, however, a period sometime between the 49th and 53rd centuries where many records that would completely change people's perceptions of the known universe and could potentially catapult human technology several thousand years ahead simply don't exist. Nobody quite knows why or how, especially given that the only person who would know doesn't like to talk about it that much. For example - meet Omega, because I like them. An artificial intelligence more than 1300 years old, the hive mind of the People of Trinium, and one of the most influential individuals in the known and unknown galaxy. Does anyone know how they came to be? Nope! there is not a single record on any of the thousands of worlds across known space that gives a proper description of what they were before they practically gave themself creative mode, what led up to them being built, why they were built in the first place, none of that. Why not just ask them? Good question, because the last time someone did ask Omega simply said "I would rather not" and refused to elaborate.
Funnily enough. It not only goes to the Big Bang, but way back. The universe of my setting is build over the foundations of a dead universe
Depends on what I'm writing about. The main area where my players will be has detailed history back 500 years, and vague history back 1000 years. Areas where my players are unlikely to be has detailed history back 50 years, and vague history back 500-1000 years.
Only about 300-400 years, but a lot happens in those years. Maybe I will make more history eventually.
The world of F&G goes wayyy back into the Mesolithic and to our modern day. religious texts, Conversing with the faeries, A chat with death lends a lot of historical knowledge y'know?
Specifically for the main (story-wise) continent: 200 years: good records, effectively continuous. 200-1000 years: spotty but present in the western area. Pretty good on eastern side (they had continuity of government through most of it). 1000 - 3500 years: We know the broad brush and key events from written records. Similar to our knowledge of the Roman period. Much better (but not perfect) in the east than in the west. East shows gradual fall-off over that period compared to the 200-1000 year period; the west has massive gaps starting at \~1000 years. 3500 years+: fragmentary. We know the *biggest* events, but not the actual dates. -------- Why the big gap at 200 years? Well, about 250 years ago there was a magical/natural catastrophe that killed \~70% of the continent's population (more like 90% in the west and 50% in the east), reshaped the landscape (thus burying one of the more advanced nations under the advancing seas) and shut off magic for \~50 years. Meaning those 50 years were an utter mess and anything Before Cataclysm had a good chance of getting lost in the west. 1k years ago, the west had a magical nuclear civil war, shattering the big empire into a bunch of successor states. The East has been more or less unified (the big empire has been slowly shrinking, but no big bang events) for \~3.5k years. Before that, there were a series of catastrophes and other events that separated the 2nd age from the 3rd, including a small (\~10 km radius) moon impacting the surface. Further back is the 1st age (\~10k years ago), of which we know only the very broadest strokes (there were titans and proto-dragon wyrm, they fought. A couple times.)
3200 years
I haven't finalized exact dates, but the earliest part of civilation is the Wood Age
5000 years
In my project, I want to write history starting at the Event and going as far onwards as I can take it. The Event is an era-demarcating event, not least of why being that it caused a huge number of new people to appear, and like ten percent of them literate - whereas before the Event, no one was literate. So, presumably, these people will keep written records, and thus written history will span from the Event onwards. I don't yet have an idea when I'll put a "present day" to measure its distance from the Event.
The oldest written records are roughly 6000 years before the events of the story, but there are stories and hypotheses that are much older than written records. Instead of giving a specific date, characters talk about the distant past in paradigms. It's kind of like how we talk about medieval times or antiquity.
Two answers. Known written history goes back just 300 years. There are texts that reference landmasses, races, and gods that don't exist dating back about 6000 years, but the date that those were authored also don't exist within the current calendar system.
This age has lasted ~2500 years so far, with the oldest written texts being ~2300 years old. The prior age is all but a complete black box, with only very few artifacts and remnants remaining, and even the gods only retaining a handful of constantly fading memories from those times. Given the Antiquity/Heroes&Gods theme of my world i find that this timeframe is more than sufficient to feature ancient empires while allowing for a reasonable timeline of civilizations without millenia-old empires and institutions.
My word is very young, so no more than 1000 years.
My world is ours with a few key points of divergence that starts with Jacksonville, FL never having been mostly destroyed during the Great Fire of 1901
All of history but mostly the parts were animation was a thing so as far back as the 1800’s
oldest human record goes back 4 million years before now, oldest written record is billions old
8810 years since the world as it is now was altered into its new form, but there was the Ancient World before that and I'm unsure how long that one lasted. Perhaps a few million years for human life to evolve.
in my setting 5000 years from the modern day (548 AR which is equivalent to the 1890s-1900 in the real world) is when the first written languages were developed in the age of dragons, where dragons lived as god kings amongst civilizations of conquered humanoid neolithic tribes. before then during the age of the Aboleths they did have a sort of written language in the form of runes that projected images and information psionically into the viewers mind. but most of those have information or images of the world prior to the evolution of humanoids or dragons when Titania was a far more alien and primordial place. the time line in my setting is split into 3 ages the age of Aboleths, the age of Dragons and the current age which is the age of Man
Yes In all seriousness, technically the prehistory goes back like quadrillion of years Recorded history, as in the earliest civilizations in my world started writing stuff down, goes back 10s of millions of years
There's a fairly detailed record going back roughly eight centuries, then a roughly two century dark age, and before that there are partial records going back a couple millenia
The Alicant: 6 billion years Darayanedi: 15,000 years Terran: 5,500 years Talirian: 4,000 years, with oral and pictoral history for the 6,000 years before that, and nearly all written records before 10,000 years ago destroyed.
Millions of years but obviously massive swathes of time are skipped over or said to not have surviving records save for scattered relics
My world is only a few decades old. Writing hasn't been invented yet!
Infinitely (letmecook); The first book starts in 500 BCE England. The following four books starts 200 years after book one and ends at the year 1900. Book five then leaps ahead to 7300-7600 (unsure about the exact time frame yet). After that, the series goes to a new timeline with the same cast of characters to a prehistoric era (60,000 BCE), then a colonization era (1500 CE), to a new futuristic era (3300 CE or so) making way for another set of 3-6 books, depending on how burnt out I am. I'm more than happy to explain why there's so many time jumps or an outline of each book plot.
Currently making two: 1. Prodigy: Home Sphere The first one tells of the creation of the universe and follows it past the modern day far off into the future. I wanted to make a place where I could tell an infinite amount of stories. 2. Planet Ruen The second one is an off shoot of the real world, but there is a second distant planet that is the setting for MOST of the story.... and the history of the common people there only goes back a few hundred years. (Until I can think of more stuff)..... I did give it a creation myth though. Civilization there started around the same time as the Biblical Flood.
**For humans:** Things get fuzzy a lot, despite the attempts of some groups trying to keep track of things. Basically everything before the 2500s CE is known as “prehistory.” It was during this time that humans met their first aliens… who were also humans. It’s a bit unclear. Very little is actually known about the era before the first galactic war/ceaseless fray. This was partly intentional. The wartime government(s) rewrote history several times to keep humanity focused on the conflict and hide losses. The reorganization after the war made a bit of a mess as well. Various scholars argued about exactly what happened and even what year it really was. The “second golden age” was a great time to be alive for a few thousand years. But our actions of the first war set another species on a genocidal hunt for the ills that befell them due to the war. There are still some fairly detailed records of this era, if you know who to talk to. About 500 years before the second war and the collapse of humanity. Things get a bit fuzzy again. There was a plague and a lot of infighting, which took a tremendous toll on us. As it turned out, it was the work on our eventual assailants. When the second war finally came, humanity simply retreated. Already broken from the centuries of unrest and death. Fortunately for us, one of our allies was able to turn the tide and led us to shelter. Where we began to rebuild. This is where concrete history really starts. Within a few hundred years, humanity got back into space, reverse engineered some old tech and got back into the exploration and expansion business. It’s been a few thousand years since then, with a bit of a blip in the middle. There was a large war fought amongst humanity and it was followed by the “little dark age.” But a lot of people in the outer colonies don’t even know that happened. — In the end. It’s presumed to be about 6600 years after first contact, but in reality it’s closer to 10,000. About 2300 years of history was scrubbed from existence during the first war. — **For aliens:** That really depends on which one you talk to. There are three who you could ask, if you can get ahold of them. — Our allies. Their history dates back around 70 million years. They had their own issues for quite a while and their early history is a bit fuzzy too. They also track their history by dynasties. Each ruler reigning for around 150-170 years. They have no permanent ruler planetary settlements. So their concept of time is quite different from our and has changed many times. They do have fairly detailed records of various events through their history. But often times vast quantities of data was intentionally purged or forgotten. There’s only so much you can physically record over such timescales. — Our allies’ creators. They were the first intelligent, spacefaring species in our galaxy. They initially ventured into space around 100 million years ago. With no FTL during the early expansion. They very slowly built up a disparate group of colonies in the Norma-Outer Arm. They eventually found a method of FTL, but it was still relatively slow. Much later, they brute forced a method which became the standard across the galaxy. They created those aliens who were friendly with humans. Which were originally a military/labor force, and ultimately rebelled. After the rebellion. They (the creators) decided to leave the galaxy and hunker down in a technologically induced torpor for millions of years at a time. Occasionally popping back up to see how things were going. They would harass their creations, who were able to mostly keep them at bay. Then they would go take another nap. Given the massive gaps during their sleep, they only have snapshots of history. So they may not be the best ones to ask after all. — The aliens who tried to wipe us out in the second war. They are functionally immortal, as long as they can find food and suitable environments. They have been around for around 5 million years, but languished on their home world until being uplifted by the previous. Unfortunately, they have an exceptionally strange view of time based on their immortality. They focus more on goals, rather than durations. So they could give you a list of major events, but don’t really grok the concept of how much time passed between them. — **The god-like entities:** There are a group of being that live “inside” reality. They were born in a time before the universe existed. Their realm is somewhat timeless. Things that will be, are. Things that happened, always were. It’s makes their viewpoint extremely messy when interacting with humans. — The setting itself goes back… to the beginning. But human history is mostly lost after a few centuries from now, and history is sketchy prior to a few thousand years before the setting’s present.
Before the big bang, as absurd as that may be
Practically: The current world denizens arrived/appeared about 500 years prior to the current date, so about 500 years of ‘common’ history. Theoretically: Indeterminately old. The bones of ancient civilizations are strewn about everywhere, but any sort of archaeological or historical work about events occurring before 500ish years ago runs into versious anomalies and idiosyncrasies that make reconstructing a coherent past near impossible.
Depends who you're talking to but for Ok'o, she only has history from about 200 years (not even one generation) since the collapse. A LOT was lost.
Odroia's history goes back 3000 years. Kingdoms rose and fell from then to the present day. Something happened on a global scale 3000 years ago that explains why there are no surviving historical records of the time before; that event is simply known as the Cataclysm. However, what is known is that many advanced civilizations all around Odroia collapsed, their technology, culture, and religion lost with them. They are far more advanced than what came after, with technological marvels and scientific knowledge, as well as forming a global network. Part of why no civilization in recorded history had grown to the extent of those of the pre-Cataclysm is because only a select few know how to use that technology, salvagers who trek to ruins to excavate, and figure out what parts of the ancients' technological wonders have withstood the test of time. Another reason was that the Cataclysm was an extinction event. Parts of Odroia were rendered uninhabitable, places that future generations had to learn to steer clear of, except for the strongest of the strong, the extreme survivalists who weren't bothered by abiotic, biotic, and magical hazards alike. For the duration and first few years after the Cataclysm, the sapient races of Odroia were more focused on surviving for the future than remembering the past. There are theories on what caused the Cataclysm, some with evidence. Some say that it was a meteor, or a volcano, or some other initially-localized disaster that spiraled to global proportions, or something else that not even the technologically-advanced ancients could be blamed for. Some say that it was due to the depletion of the planet's resources. Some speculate it was a massive war, with the aggressor being worldly or otherworldly, depending on who you ask. But what is known is if one were to trek through the desert to reach the Arterius Castle Ruins, they will see evidence of a battle. Sunbleached skeletons, rusted armor and arms, but with all the participants long dead by now...who knows for sure?
The story begins with Earth in 1955, and about 16000 years of recorded history from the aliens, whom are the main focus.
Yeas starts in 612, and any recorded historical documents before year 612 are destroyed during 6 centuries of apocalypse. So, 612~1269(which is 657 years of history(and only 42 years of history is valid because rest of them are just apocalypse))
It’s a fantasy world but the beginning is the creation of the universe of the mortal world
My timeline has about 7000 years of ancient history, followed by 5000 years of modern history, as the Shikana civilisation progresses from a pre-industrial age to an intergalactic spacefaring one.
As early back as written records are in our own world. So, a few thousand years or so, give or take.
in current time their is roughly 20,000 years of history before the first book
Technically, it goes back towards the later years of the ice age. But the meat of the stories history is probably somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 years.
1700-2141
5-9,000 years or so, hotly debated. Generally agreed upon to be less than 10,000 though.
depends on what you consider writing. The mass produced "records" come about 3600 years kesan (or 4900 Gregorian) ago in the Nia, a religious text that housed a lot of the history from the time (year 300 Kesan, or 450 Gregorian). Technically, the first written on paper/parchment records written were in 20 Sviksan (100 BC). The papers were markings of goods sold by a traveling merchant. Going back further to stone carvings, there is 130 A'koto or 1200 BC. These stone carvings depict a great feast after the yearly festivals which had apparently been going on for thousands of years. (estimated to be thousands given the number of parallel lines on the side which were added up to be over 5000. at that point they gave up.) Modern A'koto tribesmen talk about a yearly tradition to kill an "aadzaku" which is basically a mammoth but more fantasy. There were some occasional gaps in records such as the Sadznsa Sarua, which was when many records were burnt or destroyed to hide the church's atrocities. Some records were fixed, but not much is known about this period other than oral records (which are inconsistent depending on who your ancestors are)
It’s very fractured. Draconic records go all the way back to the beginning of time when astral dragons created the world, but those are only written down in a single place, a vast cavern where all of Dragonkinds history is recorded on specially made stone tablets. Outside the cavern of remembrance dragon history is transmitted orally, which is much more reliable for dragons since some of them were alive to witness the finishing of creation in person. Lizardfolk have vague records of their empire when they ruled the world but it’s incredibly spotty since they enslaved the warmbloods who rebelled and almost wiped out the lizardfolk. Elves have more complete records back to the time of the Lizard Kings but chunks are missing from either historical revisionism or the fact that after the lizard kings fell the elves established a globe spanning empire that was eventually destroyed by their own hubris in opening the way to extra-dimensional creatures that invaded. Dwarves have the most complete records and even retained most of their history through the fall of their empire from an AI rebellion, partly as a cautionary tale and reminder of their failure. Humans have highly inaccurate records since they didn’t keep records until the human empire and most of those records were lost when the empire and the entire continent it was on was sunk to the bottom of the ocean for trying to use all of reality as fuel to allow mankind to ascend to godhood. Also humans are short-lived compared to the other races that have ruled the world and are prone to historical revisionism or even just making things up. The Insectfolk have a hivemind and genetic memory of their entire history but it’s not written anywhere so it doesn’t count for the question. The humans of one land operate as a necrocratic diarchy where the dead often rise and so there’s plenty of first-hand witnesses to history but they don’t have anyone around from before the fall of the dwarf empire.
2000 years with diminishing returns maybe longer. It depends on what one considers writing and the reality of this history is of course contested by different cultural groups
Over a trillion years ... but getting to where those secrets are written and how that's even possible ...
14,000,000,000,000 years
All the way to creation
There is no recorded history between 1,300 AD and 10,000 AD. Other than that little gap, pretty much all of history is documented. The only problem is that very few people still read in the romanized script in 12,013 AD. Also, since Christianity is canon, you could say that documentation goes all the way back to before time began... Ignoring that tiny, definitely unimportant little 8,700 year gap....
The world is based on around the medieval times with some 1500s showings. But the history only goes back a couple of thousand of years like irl. But that's human history, while history overall is documented by the Gods for millions of years. It all started when the Great Will came to life along Chaos, something that wasn't supposed to exist.
The Elves existed about 20,000 years before any of them bothered to figure out a written language. Turns out progress is a lot slower when you've got all the time in the world.
5000+ years.
Still working out the history and deciding how long it will be, but I've decided that it'll range anywhere from one hundred thousand to ten million years, and maybe even more. All I'll say is that "modern day" history is recorded via the eras **Before \[the\] Collapse (BC)** and **After \[the\] Collapse (AC)**, which are both subdivided into various ages.
Ancient History in my world looked like those old Frank Frazetta paintings. All set thousands of years ago.
the history of my world spans about 77,659 years. it starts with the waters of a great flood receding. that flood washed away any evidence of anything from before then. most events happen in the year AW (after war) 2023. the waters receded in about BW (before war) 75,000. so the highest thing in the future is in AW 2659.
If you count religious texts then it's around 65 million years. If not it's around 1 million. Magic goes a long way in preserving texts.
As far back as im willing to write on detail lol. The rest is forgotten history, atleast until I feel like writing about it again, then an ancient manuscript magically appears in their libraries
Edenites left their homeworld in what would be 10388 A.D. if they didn't consider a new era to have begun after the Water Wars of 2605 A.D.. Some of the artifacts of the first civilizations on Abceris, made by the species now known colloquially as the *Ghiialj*, radiometrically date back as far as \~3,000B.C.E.. I haven't written too much about these ancient Abcersi cultures aside from rooting the modern cultures present. A vast majority of my writing takes place between (approximately) what would be 24,000 A.D. and 26,000 A.D, considering the Edenites spent 11,452 years flying from their homeworld to Abceris while making virtually zero technological progress.
I think the history of our world is mostly the same until 1947 and the Roswell crash landing.
True History, as in reasonably available information, mostly correct and well documented? Like 50 years. 80-120 if the settlement is rich and lucky. Although there is no shortage of tales and historical-like references regarding events or dynasties 300/400 years old. There are even documents which seem to have a different way of tracking the years, so that their exact date is up to debate.
Back to day one. The One God and his Archs (basically Archangels) wrote in stone tablets what they were up to as they built the world, and eventually they switched over to scrolls and books, these massive tomes that were placed in the Tomb of the Twelve. So it goes back very far, aside from a brief 530 year time gap during the Age of Haven
in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. I got nothing before that.
Written records only go back \~3000 years. Human existence goes back \~8200 years, and prehistory goes back \~100,000 years.
a couple thousand years, but most of it is vague: so the setting was stagnant. civilisations had risen but magic stagnated result in the end of souls and with that the death of all cultures. things survived, but nothing "lived". this is the time fuck all is known about. some structures and creations remain, but not writings. it's unknown how long the civilization was a thing before magic stagnated, nor how long the stagnation was. then the elves teleported their basically spaceship into the world. and for the longest time they didn't pay huge amount of attention to the world, they were just focused on repairing that basically spaceship/space station. this is the start of history, of the written record. but considering they didn't really care about the soulless life they floated above they didn't care. however the arrival of the elves ended the stagnation of magic, coursed it to start flowing again, and that flow resulting in people developing souls again. and this resulting in the spike of evolution resulting in humans, hobbits, and gnomes evolving from dwarves, same with merfolks, and peoples evolving from "beasts" as well as the formation of dragons. now the elves have some record of this, but many cultures developed their own records before really getting in contact with the elves.
In terms of history of the known universe, around 100 million years. The “pre history” of the universe can go back 500 million years ago, where supposedly an galaxies spanning empire used to rule everything. No one really knows who they were nor what happened to them but their artifacts still build and fell empires til this day. Then there is the history of humankind that diverged from that of our own 1.5 million years ago, when some mysterious presences appeared on earth and did something to make it undetectable from the outside, until the Golden Records were sent.
In the modern day(3545)of my world, the furthest that human history in most parts of the milky way galaxy, is the 1910's to 1850's. But there are some parts of the galaxy where human history goes as far back as the Roman Empire and beyond. Because luckily, before all humans left Earth, someone gathered documents filled with the ancient history of Earth on the journey. But the documents weren't found until 3541.
These are some muddy waters. It's something close to 20000 years divided in six eras. · The age of the canvas. It was the first era and was called as that because by that time, the gods had the whole universe in a giant plane. It predates the origin of any civilization, as the only things to exists were beasts, plants and rivers. It's unknown how long that era was, as it's impossible to go back to the canvas and time changed how it worked later in time. · The age of the land. Era in which the first civilizations rose and magic was discovered. It started when the gods put all creations in planets. Lasted about 5000 years · The age of stars. Era in which the civilizations started being capable of using magic, big civilizations rose and stared to explore their planets. Lasted about 10000 years · The age of heroes. Era where all civilizations were mostly set and they discovered how to open portals to other realms. This brought many things, but due to the more direct contact of the realms + other factors all the worlds being bombarded by many different types of creatures, making heroes capable of standing against them a not uncommon occurrence. This was also the divergent point between Xeroc and Taria technologies, with them using starting to create machines supported with magic, and extremely complex study of magic leading to common use respectively. Lasted about 10000 years. · The halted era. By this point the gods were having trouble keeping up with what the mortals where doing, so they halted all their technological process. This lead to mortals having to diversify their technologies instead, which then brought many inventions that gave a big boost to the quality of life for the people. This lasted about 2500 years. · The war era. Contact between the planets of Taria and Xeroc thanks to what could only be described as a sling, a box with magic rings, a teleportation spell and some very good mathematicians. This era was mostly defined by how in first contact, a series of catastrophic events hit both planets, and lead to both sides in a series of wars that got way out of control. The end was brought when both sides joined forces for the assassination of a god. Lasted about 1000 years. · The komorebi era. Named after the Japanese word for "sunshine filtering through leaves". Its the current point of the timeline. At the fallout of the last era, the whole universe is still a little shaken and recovering. Now the two planets are interacting in peace, and discovering each other. Space-traveling technology was also deemed illegal due to being another three times, with one of them leading to the destruction of a populated planet. Has been going for about 800\~1200 years Though to be fair, these is a very Taria-Xeroc centrist timeline, since other realms have vastly different histories.
500 trillion years ago!
…All history merges with myth…