Time of Troubles

The name used in Western Noefra for the period between 6 Spring Dawning 254 AC and the present. Characterized by the dissolution of the Federated Nations and many of the nations that used to comprise that treaty body, as well as the aether fog that makes fast travel and communications difficult.

There are many major changes to situation of Noefra (especially) but also to the rest of the world.

Aether Fog

After the Searing of Kaelthia, a fog of luminous aether, almost like magical radioactive fallout has encompassed the globe. It's worse in western Noefra, but its effects are global to one degree or another.

The primary effect is that all long-range communication, transportation, and scrying spells have been hampered or nullified. "Long-range" here means "more than line of sight". Teleportation spells fail more readily (with often more gruesome results than before), the Portal Network is offline other than very-carefully protected and rare occasions (and even then is not entirely stable), and communication spells require paired tokens to function outside of a range of a few hundred yards. Scrying is unstable as well. This also affects interplanar travel.

Secondary effects include a substantial increase in the frequency and power of Abyssal incursions, as well as spontaneous undead manifestations. The fey have also become more hostile--less capricious and more malicious.

Divine Withdrawal

The events immediately preceding the final destruction of Loran Hae at the hands of the Ruin Raiders involved the heaviest divine intervention (sanctioned by the Great Mechanism) since the Cataclysm. And since the veil between the Mortal Plane and Shadow was already weak, this intervention (and the forces released at his destruction) threatened to destabilize the veil entirely. As a result, the gods have withdrawn even further. They only act now through clerics, and only guide clerics by vague dreams and visions. Even the Ascended heroes are more circumspect in their interactions, mostly leaving things to their mortal priests.

Politics

Western Noefra

• The Windwalker Confederacy completely disintegrated.
• The Duarchy of Kotimaa fell apart, with the short-lived Kingdom of Dreamshore taking half of the duties, but by 260 AC it has been replaced by a sequence of nations:
  • Axeholm, the mountain kingdom growing around Honedaxe and its port and the trade with the mountain realms to the east across the Sea of Dreams.
  • Elfhame, the last remaining home of "settled" ihmisi outside of Byssia, ruled from the port town of Rabbiton.
  • Pactland, the bucolic nation of herders and cattle-keepers under the careful watch of Pactum Grove.
  • Breeland, the bustling center of halfling and human culture, watched over by the residents of Hero's Rest
  • Eastwalk, the religious, human-centric nation of the north-eastern Sea of Grass
  • as well as a number of independent villages and small coalitions, mostly in the eastern Dreamwall Mountains.
• The Crisial Kingdom has given up some territory that it could not hold. It has started to develop a martial tradition, in part to stem the raids coming from the goblin lands.
• Rauviz has become a kingdom, absorbing some elements of surrounding nations.
• The Ungoverned Lands have mostly solidified into a few nations:
  • Freeglas, the coalition of villages in the northern portion, north of the Lowbridge Republic and south of Breeland.
  • The Lowbridge Republic, looking hungrily at the growing Uulani-Glass trade route across the Shield River, which is defended by...
  • Merrydale, the upstart trade kingdom centered in Merrybranch
• The Holy Kaelthian Republic has dropped the "Holy" and "Republic" portions of its name, calling itself just "Kaelthia". Still very religious, but slightly more pluralistic; still isolationist and communal, but slightly more open. They've allowed limited, begrudging trade through the passes into the Jungle of Fangs...or did until that pass started growing monsters. With the new trade routes, the high road lies mostly vacant. Which suits the Kaelthians just fine.
• Wyrmhold has absorbed more of the tribes of the north-eastern Nocthian Caldera, but have run up against the allied Sigani and Scalefoot nations, halting further expansion that direction. Externally, they're doing fine. Internally, pressure is growing between the legacy clan/tribe system and the Clanless. Currently, the Crown Loyalists still maintain power, but new factions are growing in strength.
• Byssia is doing well under the guidance of Yonas Akrotiz as Warder, but faces a struggle to band together as a coherent nation. Their eyes mostly turn to the Gap-tooth Bay, where they hope to counter any threat from Tlalocana. Trade is open to the east via Glorious Waters around Cape Dread, which provides another outlet.
• Auringon is facing the death of their formative king, Aurel III. How will they handle the transition? So far, so good. They've even started building a navy on the Westward Shore...but the transition from horses and knights to ships and the sea is not a trivial one.
• The Jungle of Fangs has undergone some consolidation--the Serpent Dominion has absorbed the broken pieces of Asai'ka and is slowly digesting them, hoping to bring some order to the chaos left behind by the Red Plague. The Sha'slar Autonomous Zone is still independent...and hopes to remain so.

Eastern Noefra

Not much has changed here, although the old behemoth Jinse Empire has awoken from its drugged sybaristic coma and has begun to re-assert control over its provinces. The Great Eastern Dustlands continue to heal...except the Dead Plateau which is the center of Abyssal incursions and is, if anything, significantly worse than before.

Soefra

• The Ship Folk are undergoing somewhat of a schism between the northern fleets (centered around Sentinel Island) and the home fleets (centered in the islands north of the Great Rift).
• Minor amounts of trade have started between Ikela and Noefra--only a ship or so every year in either direction.
• With the fall of the Portal Network, Ithemba has been left on its own. They have formed closer alliances with the mountain-dwellers, and some refugees from Kel'tan have emerged from the tunnel
• Kel'tan is in the grip of a full-scale-but-sporadic civil war. The aether fog has hit them particularly hard, as they were heavily reliant on such means for coordination and used many delicate spells...which now are unreliable.
• The other nations are fully asserting their independence now.

Oelfra, Perdatos, Aenimos

• Who knows?