My oversimplified take on Earth history
History doesn't repeat itself but it rhymes. All across the world, mighty civilizations grow, reach a peak, enter a period of decadence and corruption being victims of their own success, and then either decline or are conquered. At any given point in Earth history there are civilizations at different stages of rising, plateauing and declining.
For Western Civilization, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire was a tentpole historical event. It is a matter of debate for just how dark the so called "Dark Ages" were, but there certainly was a lot of romanticism or nostalgia for the glories of the Roman Empire. Roman ruins were raided for building materials through the Middle Ages and even up through the 1940s before the process was shut down by acheaologist. Every era of Earth history has genuine historians and short-sighted relilc hunters.
This general tendency applies to Scarterra.
Ancient Ruins in Scarterra
The First Age was known as the Age of Dragons. Dragons were the dominant race of Scarterra and built great cities and mighty kingdoms that warred on each other and with the newer races being created,
most were created by Greymoria specifically to hassle the dragons.
Then a foolish dragon queen tried to harness the full power of
the Elemental Plane in an ill-advised mystical undertaking and accidentally unleashed millions of maddened elementals which ravaged all of Scarterra, drastically altered the landscape and killed about 90% of all living things. This was called the
First Unmaking.
The Nine a new race
elves and elevated them into the new dominant race until history repeated itself and an foolish elf king tried to make himself into a god with an ill-advised mystical undertaking which accidentally opened things up for the
Demon Lords and armies to invade Scarterra and kill about 90% of all living beings with souls about 50% of all beasts. This was called the
Second Unmaking.
The Nine that the created
humans to be the new dominant race and they are hoping that the relatively shorter lifespan of humans will prevent any single human from acquiring enough power to destroy the world.
While some Scarterran doomsday preppers are looking for signs of the Third Unmaking, others look to the past.
Second Age Ruins and Artifacts
Unlike the
First Unmaking, the
Second Unmaking killed a lot of people but it didn't drastically alter the landscape, at least not as much though the
Void demons did destroy most Elven cities they came across, they didn't completely wipe them off the map.
But Void Demons, especially those commanded the Demon Lord known as
"the Vandal" specifically tried to erase cultural artifacts, but many artifacts were lost to carelessness or ignorance rather than malice. A historian may view an ancient tome as a priceless artifact but to an iliterate peasant on a cold winter's night, it is simply fire starter.
Between the Unmaking itself and the early
Red Era, a lot of artifacts of history were lost. A lot of metal items were melted down for scrap or treasure if it was gold or silver, it was only during the Feudal Era where demand for
intact Second Age artifacts really took off though unsurprisingly the surviving modern elven enclaves of course covetously guard whatever ancient artifacts they still hold.
Ancient elven cities and contemporary human cities
required similar resources and had similar buildiing priorities so if a location is ideal for an elven city, it is probably an ideal location for a human city. Many of the largest human cities in Scarterra are sitting on top of the ruins of ancient Elven cities. A lot of buildings are built out of repurposed bricks and stones salvaged from ancient ruins. During the
Red Era. Many cities have ancient catacombs and sewers left over from the Second Age elven cities and these artificial catacombs have sense merged with the wild naturally occurring caverns of
Scarnoctis, so they are filled with strange beasts and mortals unlike their original builders.
Ancient Second Age texts are highly valued though in most cases the best a historian or collector can hope for is a copy of a copy of a copy and there are many forgeries and fakes are circulating around. Gold and silver artifacts of Second Age origin are often worth up to twenty times the raw value of the precious metals themselves to the right collectors and there are even a few functional magical items of ancient origin.
There are Second Age relics that lie untouched and forgotten but most of these ancient relics waiting to be discovered are in remote and wild places as the ancient in settled areas have been pretty well picked over. There are lots of legendary McGuffins enticing treasure hunters such as
Queen Ameria Ravakas' Atlas of the Known World
Surviving First Age Relics
There are even fewer artifacts surviving form
the First Age and most of these artifacts are sitting in dragon's hoards jealously guarded by modern dragons holding on to the glories of yesteryear. Nearly every single dragon in the Third Age claims that they are the direct descendants of dragon kings and queens even though elven and human histories believe that the dragon peasant equivalents were disproportionately likely to have survived the Unmaking.
Even items that are practically garbage are considered valuable if they date back to the First Age, including things like a damaged helmet or a stone tablet with an inventory of an ancient granary. Most of historical records of the First Age are actually suriving tomes written about the First Age by Second Age historians who were very biased.
To find untouched First Age relics, the best place to look is in the darkest caverns of
Scarnoctis or the ocean floors of
Scaraqua. Rumors of truly ancient still functional magical items crafted by dragons continue to tease the imaginations of Scarterran storytellers and treasure seekers.
Bones and Fossils
Scarterra has many extinct species, including extinct mortal species. Remains of these lost species are prized by naturalists, historians and private collectors.
A majority of the extinct mortal species were creations of the goddess
Greymoria, and a lot of the remains of her monstrous children and kept in the vaults or even display at various Greymoria temples.
Unfortunately most of the relatively intact remains for extinct species tend to up in the hands of necromancers who just seem them as "rarified materials to make powerful minions".
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