This article encompasses both the lore and history of the creation of Nerasa, its shattering, and the subsequent evolution of the people's of this broken world. Additionally, it contains a timeline of major events in Nerasan history.

In the time before knowing, the Infinites existed in a realm of pure thought and untold possibility. Their will was made manifest without effort or resistance, and their every whim and thought made tangible, but for a time and lacking in substance. A realm of evanescent impermanence, every idea made manifest was just as easily dispersed by the flitting of attentions.

While many lavished in this everchanging, everlasting realm, some of these beings sought the solidity of the material and the freedom to create, iterate and explore beyond their already lofty means.

It was fortuitous then that the Infinites discovered what we call reality - a realm where their creations would persist and evolve without their constant supervision, and a world where the magics they held could be manifested in new and exciting ways. A world with primordial laws they could bend, yes, but would lend stability to their ever ephemeral existence.

Inspired by this realm, Infinites traveled to this new realm with a zeal to create. They forged stars and worlds, magics and wonders, and most importantly - life. Giving birth to creation, these gods enumerable set forth into the cosmos, subject only to their whims.

Among the waves of curious innovators that were the Infinites was a being of immense restraint and foresight. Known to themselves as Karimos, this Infinite sought more than to simply idle and explore, but to create something truly grand. They knew that while the power of a single Infinite was vast, they were still limited by their own imagination and scope. Karimos sought to gather many together, and in unison create something beyond what any one Infinite could.

Karimos gathered eight of their peers to form a Congress of like minds, but with independent goals and aspirations. Leading this body, Karimos granted their companions specific roles and goals in the founding of something truly great - a world of many minds, and of many potentials. They sought to create Nerasa.

In its founding, it stood apart from its sisters in not just scale but potential. A world filled with the magical energy of not one, but many Infinites, the world took to their machinations with ease. From its foundations sprung great cities, immense mountains, shimmering seas, and rolling green life uncontested in the stars.

Upon its majestic face was born first the Caretakers. The children of the Infinites, these powerful beings were granted a sliver of the Infinite and were simultaneously tasked with the minutia of building a world, but also the spark of inspiration to forge something of their own. Cities rose, civilisations formed, and stories were written for the first time.

The world ever grew, feeding on the potential laid before it by its creators, and ever reaching for greater heights. Were it only to last.

Among the Congress responsible for Nerasa, there was but one of their number responsible for the ever expanding and numerous life upon the world. Estilas, the Infinite of Life and Vitality, oversaw the forging and founding of every living thing that graced the world - from bacteria to plant, to the Caretakers themselves.

Estilas was, however, a creature of logic and reason. She sought an order to creation, and laid forth laws to the life that rose upon her worlds. She founded great Growth Engines, overseen by Caretakers, where new lifeforms were developed and tested upon the world before they could be introduced to the wilds. Problematic species were terminated, and only the ideals were permitted to flourish. It was a delicate ecosystem, and one painfully sculpted and managed by order and structure.

For time unknowable this system was welcomed by the Congress and Karimos, their peers happy for the ordered population of their perfect world. But not all were content.

Szekaris, the Infinite of Innovation, was charged with pushing boundaries. He was to bring to his fellows new ideas and to influence the creation set forth by the Congress to iterate and evolve. He was the force of change and adaptation - a force that he saw as plainly and painfully lacking in Estilas’ ordering of the world’s life.

At first, Szekaris beseeched Estilas to allow her flocks to grow more freely - for supposedly flawed creations to be given a chance to thrive alongside her perfect specimens. The request was soundly refused. Estilas was not keen on disrupting the world she had so carefully cultivated. The system worked, the world flourished.

For reasons unknown, however, Szekaris was not to be deterred. Perhaps jealous of Estilas’ power to create and birth new life, the Infinite was left feeling spurned and resentful. The Innovator went around his peers and, unbeknownst to even Karimos, supplanted into Estilas’ Growth Engines a spark of new magic and imparting new law upon the world; Change.

Change was a force drawn to mortal, living things, whose need for survival had a natural desire to adapt. It manifested quickly in Estilas’ gardens, and with the power of her Engines it began to spread and change its hosts quickly. Far beyond even what Szekaris expected.

Before even Estilas was aware something was wrong, her carefully curated gardens began to twist and mutate. Her beloved creatures transformed into monsters and beasts, and tore into one another as they adapted to the forces of chaos. The world began to change, rapidly. It began to twist. Corrupt.

As the world was consumed by Change, called Corruption by some, Estilas sought the aid of Karimos and the rest of the Congress. They looked upon their world in horror as its once flourishing and unending life now twisted and turned upon itself, threatening to undo all they had created.

Brought before the Congress, the Infinites ordered Szekaris to undo what he had done. Resentful that his gift was rebuked, and his ideas viewed as failed, he refused.

Without his help, the remaining forces of the Infinites united to try to undo what Szekaris had done, but the laws he had bound into the fabric of their reality were too strong; the world and its denizens adapted and changed, no matter what magics and forces the Infinites and their Caretakers could bring to bear.

They were left with no choice but to wipe the slate clean and start anew. With an outpouring of their combined magical energy, the Infinites sought to bathe their world in a wash of purifying energy. Unwilling to see his creation destroyed, Szekaris moved to intercede. Throwing himself upon the Congress’ power, the Infinite’s body was ripped asunder with a force so great that it sundered the world.

The Congress looked upon a world shattered and broken by the death of one of their own - an event hitherto untold of. Beholding such devastation the Infinites withdrew from creation and left only the remains of their great works in their wake; the shards of Nerasa.

While the Congress and Szekaris argued and fought over the fate of their world, one Infinite saw fit to look to the people and civilisations of Nerasa, and try to preserve them. Oristasz, the Advocate, forever cared for the Infinite’s children and their survival - his charge to be their voice in the founding of their world.

While the others bickered, Oristasz worked. Perhaps having seen what was necessary before the others had arrived at their grim endgame, he set to molding a back up plan. Weaving a realm alongside Nerasa, the Advocate sought to preserve all that made the world unique. This Other Nerasa was to serve as a contingency, should the Congress fail in its reordering of the first.

While Nerasa shattered, so too did Oristasz. Giving of himself everything he had to preserve this realm and keep it separate and safe from the devastation unleashed upon the original, the Infinite was fragmented and divided as this world was forever preserved.

Incomplete and lacking the power of the others this Other Nerasa was safe, it contained representations of everything that had made Nerasa unique… Except, not quite. In his haste to replicate, the Advocate created flawed approximations of reality, in an unfinished world bound by limited laws.

The shattered remains of Oristasz divided into what are known today as Otherlords; fragments of the Infinite’s ego and will, and charged with overseeing and protecting their realm. A realm known as the Other.

When the Infinites withdrew and left the Shards to a presumed fate, life stubbornly carried on. Perhaps it was simply the power of the Infinites that created the potential for life, now welling at the center of a broken world, or maybe it was some last remnant of Szekaris’ will to adapt and overcome, but life found a way.

As the time of the Infinites faded into the past, a new era of history began.

For seeming eons, the Shards were quiet. Drifting and settling into a steady circuit around the newly formed Core. The civilisations and works of the Caretakers shattered and destroyed, there was little to speak of. But on far flung fragments and in the depths of what remained, the first signs of life began to gather together.

This time is known as the Formation Era, which stretches onward into the past, and marks the time where the civilisations and peoples of the present were finding their footing in a broken world. This is an era not of storied histories or epic tales, but of recovery, survival, and adaptation - now studied by modern historians in an effort to understand where they came from.

Beginning roughly eight centuries ago, the Expansion Era is the modern epoch. Beginning with the gathering of Berusian families into an early iteration of what is today known as the Berusian Confederacy, the Expansion Era has seen significant development of civilizations, cooperation, and technological capabilities that has seen the people of the Shards coming together - for better or worse - and discovering the remnants that the Infinites left behind.

In comparison to the excitement of the 700s, the early 800s have thus far been quiet and peaceful - even to the extent of criticism by the detractors of the Accord and its allies.

With few threats beyond mild internal strife and the somewhat passive Sorrows, focus has been shifted to empowering the denizens of the Shards to uncover the Expansion Regions and continue apace with steady exploration and expansion.

It is the opinion of many voices within the Accord - and without - that the alliance has hit a plateau of quiet - albeit stagnant - stability in the early 800s. With passive leaders in Vasselern, a Berus still focused on internal development and recovery, the Sidsel still restricted by a cold war, and a number of once promising colonies finding a home instead in the Freehold Collective, the Accord has made little headway in expansion or development since the 770s.

The current Accord Chancellor, Astute Observation, has focused their efforts on the bolstering of the Sorrowgate outpost - a military installation of the AEF intended to prevent any creatures or vessels from the Sorrows from infiltrating Accord territory. While much of the Accord agrees the protection of its shards is critical, this has meant much of the AEF’s resources have been pulled from their typical exploratory efforts - leaving the bulk of the shards still unexplored.

For now, the Accord keeps the peace, and strives to maintain the status quo for its member states, leaving the adventure and exploration in the hands of free captains and brave pioneers. While this policy shift has its detractors, the push for independent exploration has brought about a renaissance for adventurers and freelance pilots.

To this end in 827 EE, as a response to the formation of the Freehold Collective, Sovereign Nia Francisca of Vasselern proposed the Accord Free Captains Act, which subsidizes independent exploratory and colony efforts with funding and support from the AEF.

Adventurers who register with the Accord as Independent Expeditionaries are granted a number of rights and privileges as outlined by the Free Captains Act, including discounted Gateway access, emergency support by the AEF, and the ability to seek grants for Spanships or supplies for establishing new outposts.

Independent Expeditionaries also have the unique ability to contract specific missions and assignments on behalf of the AEF - from running supplies, to exploring to regions - and be rewarded for their work.

While this program has been well regarded by many who were tired of stagnation and poor resource management in the case of the AEF, some have argued that this is simply an effort to foist the expansion of the Accord onto private citizens, and the elite reap benefits.

Either way, this program has brought about a wave of new Spanships and explorers headed for the fringes of Accord territory, and into the Expansion Regions beyond - eager to step into the unknown, and face what meets them.