[HoneyBadger]

Age of Wisdom:
Technology level is approximately (very roughly) that of 1250 A.D.
While there are no gunpowder weapons as such, fireworks have been invented and are used in battle by Tien'Chi. Occasionally an independent Pyromancer offers her services to the highest bidder, and within a century the pyrochemical arts will likely be widespread. Crossbows are at the peak of technology, and come in many different forms. Ship-building and sailing have reached new heights and many nations can cross deep water. Larger and more complex weapons are used on the battlefield-it is the age of the machine. The nation of Ermor has finally been obliterated, but it's legacy has affected most other nations, and several are direct or indirect descendants of the empire. Races tend to be well-mixed in this age. What one does and how one lives is far more important than who your grandfather was, as the power of kingdoms and monarchies has forever been diluted. Fewer than ever before claim, or are particularly proud of, the so-called "purity" of their bloodlines as feudalism begins a long fall into disfavor. Even the divine right of religion and the place of the gods is being questioned, as the literary works of the sceptics of old Arcoscephale are rediscovered. Pretenders of this youngest age are wise to open their arms to all who choose to worship them, as this is also an age of questions. Humans are now in decline, as so many races of the past have been. Hoburgs are now rising as the dominant race, and there are no less than three major hoburg nations.
The most militant hoburgs form a society, originally and ostensibly to protect hoburg villages from the undead hordes of the last age. Drawing from the tactics and strategy of ancient Ermor and the fanaticism of Marignon, they have far surpassed defensive goals and now rank upon rank of pike and crossbow wielding, chain-mail clad hoburgs march across the countryside, leading pogroms against human ghettos, burning jotuns at the stake as witches, and making war on all who oppose them, in the name of hoburg security. Beyond their carefully measured borders, the most warlike sell themselves to the highest bidder as mercenary companies, while other tough hoburgs guard caravans of goods which flood in to the capital of what was once called Midgard. The second hoburg nation strides through the endless jungles and savanna, perched upon the mighty backs of armored elephants. Allied with the dwarven steelworkers who make the great beasts' armor, exotic tribes of flying monkeys, and all manner of refugees, vagabonds, and hangers-on, they are a nomadic merchant people on an endless caravan, who only build walls to defend their winter villages and sacred elephant graveyards. The third hoburg nation fled underground to escape the ravages and disease of the last age. Having merged with the remnants of Agartha and with the earth-gnomes, earth-worshipping hoburgs riding giant black bats now patrol the underworld.
The dead too have their nations: Ulm has been eaten from the inside by it's vampire rulers and gone the way of cursed Ermor. It has swallowed what was left of Marignon up, and Ulm's death-knights and ghost-ships haunt both hills and high seas, hunting for any sign of rebellion because to them such is the signal to a feast of souls. They are opposed by the stalwart slayers of Man, who, with refugees from lost Marignon, have sworn themselves enemies of all undead.
A nation of ghouls has dug itself up from beneath the ruins of ancient C'tis to feast upon the innumerable dead, and now that they've gorged themselves on the dead, they'll feed on those who's blood still runs warm. They've already devoured Pangaea and Patala, and now set their hungry sight on anything else that breathes.
As though to signal the welcome end of the last age and the beginning of the new, the long-dormant Smouldercone of Abyssia has erupted, burying their cities and the high aeries of Caelum perhaps forever beneath a blizzard of black ash. The Abyssians fled far from their homelands and into the desert, mixing freely with other races, especially Caelum refugees and humans, and now worship their new masters, the demon Afreit. Machaka, having turned away from the spider and to the lion continues to flourish under the guidance of benevolent voodoo priests, although many among them have not forgotten the old ways, and some have turned to even darker paths of hoodoo. Jotuns, long diminished and now persecuted by the hoburgs, have formed a secret society who's hidden members guard the greatest magical powers still remaining in this world. For years they had no true homeland and few safe retreats, but the powers at their command are as vast as were their ancestors, and they've found dark and bloody allies in the mountain jungles of Mictlan. Jomon, having turned into itself for centuries, has decided to turn outward towards conquest. Seeking a weapon to conquer the whole world with, they now attempt to reopen the Oni gate. From out of the frozen wastes came the hunters of Atlantis. Affected less than other folk by the madness of R'lyeh, they became one with the Dreamlands. Having helped R'lyeh conquer old Arcoscephale, the seers, mystics, and cultists of R'lyeh seek to share their bizarre visions with everyone, under the guidance of their dreaming god. Other Atlantians held on to the ways of the cold lands, and learned to summon up mighty and deadly spirits of the past. Finally, as the ashes of Ermor were finally extinguished, a lone consul escaped the purifying fires. Fleeing far north into the endless steppes, he discovered a Pretender overlooked by all others and, through acts of worship most terrible and foul, became forever Corrupted. Now more awful than even the undead and at the head of a Corrupt army unlike any ever seen, he seeks to purify the world in a different kind of fire.