The Mortal Era

The Mortal Era is the longest age in the Aethereal Stories universe — the full span of human history from the emergence of the first hominids to the present day. It begins where the Primordial Era ends: in the aftermath of the great cosmic events that shaped the world, as the first human beings began the slow, improbable work of survival.

It is the era of the Aethereal Histories — the imprint that shelves the books recording the hidden history of the mortal world in The Unwaking Library. Official histories record what the powerful chose to preserve. The Unwaking Library records what actually happened — compiled across centuries by Ariaste and those who have contributed to the archive, and told without the distortions of reverence, distance, or centuries of retelling.

The Mortal Era does not end cleanly. It bleeds into the Modern Era — the age in which the ancient forces of the Primordial Era have adapted to a world they no longer openly govern. The boundary between the two is not a date but a shift in the nature of what is being recorded.

The Mortal Era is chronicled primarily by Ariaste — the immortal archivist of the Unwaking Library. Ariaste was present for significant portions of the history recorded here, and the rest was compiled from sources no other archive thought to keep. The voice is restrained, the vantage is long, and the record does not flatter its subjects.

Ariaste is the primary but not the only author of the Mortal Era's record. Others have contributed to the Unwaking Library across the centuries it covers.