The previous section gives a concise recounting of the Lands’ history, of the sort any schoolchild could recite and all folks remember. Beyond this, the detailed study of history sadly lags: the Sages who keep the knowledge keep a detailed chronicle of the events of every year since the landing of Hope, but few have ever tried to draw this together or make sense of it. Hardly anyone studies the past, and certainly for the most recent age (The Age of Peace, covering the period from nearly two thousand years ago to the present day) little of great note has happened.
But since the events of the early-to-mid 1990s ADR, most learned folk agree that the Age of Peace (or Emptiness, to some) is ending and a new age has begun, called by some the Age of Adventure. Hardly anyone intends that term to be complimentary, and the general sentiment among the Sages and Preachers of the Lands is that a troubled, cursed time has fallen. The tumult has led, however, to greatly increased communication and exchange among the various enclaves of study and records across the Lands, and some of the more enterprising Sages are attempting histories of a sort. In some cases the patrons of these historical studies are the unwelcome adventurers themselves, who for all their quirks and unwholesome habits are as a rule rabidly interested in histories, which they scour for clues to guide their expeditions.
As a rule only the deeper histories are of interest to them, principally the Ages of Despair and Balance. As more reports and collations of the historical record are produced, they will be posted here for the general delectation.