Historic Timeline
In the beginning
Charmyr Historians have long been exploring the pastime of their race, learning about their roots and their origins as well as how tribes lived in the times gone by. History has taught the Charmyr much about their predecessors, however they are certain that it has only taught them a fraction so far of the potential they have yet to learn from History.
Year 001-180: Foundation Age
Historians mark the first species capable of inventing a calendar as the first sign of an intelligent race. Not only that, but it gives them a starting point to where to measure their first recorded "year" of time from. Historians called the species Ullak ("ul" meaning first or unique and "lak" meaning life-form or being).
The Ullak developed a cyclic calendar after the Shaman were prophesied to have studied the stars and the seas to work out the few "constants" in the world. The calendar divided a year into 5 seasons, each season containing 60 days, and each day containing 20 hours.
Of course, there was life before the year 1 (known as the negative years), however for timeline purposes, the "race" of Charmyr starts in the year 1, the Foundation Age.
Technology during the foundation age was prominent and innovative of it's time. During the foundation age, first evidence of building defensive fortifications and traps has been found, as well as the roots of religion, with the first temples devoted to widespread and well known religeons, most using the Stars to prophesize the future and explain the past.
Year 180-600: Forgery Age
Historians found evidence of Forges and Smithy-Works dating back to the late-2nd century, where stone weapons were being replaced by copper, bronze and iron. All the major tribes became masters of the Forge, or were promptly wiped out by nearby tribes who were. Empires flourished, but war was common.
Much design and innovation went into weapon and armour design, as factions tried to design armour that is effective against their enemies weapons, while their enemies design weapons that are effective against this new armour. During the Forgery age, many unorthodox weapons of all shapes and sizes were invented – most of which were thrown out, never to be used again.
Year 600-1100: Crusader Age
In the 7th century, historians believe Religion caused mass corruption to spread amongst most of the main cities all around the world. Various members of each town formed into guilds and cults, devoted to an alternate or young religion just beginning to emerge. These cults would try to overthrow the current rule of the city they were in and convert the civilians to the bright new light of original Religion which they now worship.
By the year 1000, more deaths had been caused in the last millennium as a result of Dervish Crusades and Religion disputes than actual warfare between empires. Citizens who refused to convert were tortured until they either succumbed to the new Religion or died in denial of it. Most empires had to make peace with each other in order to get enough troops into their major cities to prevent these rebellions from destroying every major military force currently in existence.
Year 1100-2500: Enlightenment Age
With Religion cults dealt with and with corruption quelled somewhat, a new age had emerged. Most of the powerful empires had signed a peace treaty during the Crusader Age to turn their attention to more urgent and important matters – and after the bloodshed required to sort all that out, most Empires remained at peace with one another for several centuries.
Some optimistic philosophers of the time claimed that the time of war was over, and now was the time to develop better medicines and research more into technology rather than trying to design the next best weapon. Most people enlisted in the military soon found themselves out of work and ended up taking on a different job.
However there wasn't a complete lapse in military technology. During sporting events, archery was taken to a new level in the year 1630 with the invention of the mechanical crank-bow. The cog, gear and crank was successfully designed in the early 1600s for the first time since attempts began nearly 2000 years before. Previous attempts were laughing stocks compared to today's inventions, but regardless, many a farmer still enjoyed pointing out that crossbow archery is a sport only around as a result of the invention of a mill.
Year 2500-3800: Conquest Age
The invention of a very good crank and gear system allowed siege weaponry to be taken to the next level. Certain empires which won archery competitions by designing better and more efficient cogs eventually knuckled down and invented some high powered siege weapons. The innovative gears could store massive amounts of energy, much more than simple torsion of rope could do. The result was a new line of siege weaponry, highly effective at taking out both armies of soldiers and fortresses of stone.
That, and the application of Oils as a fire weapon transformed the rules of warfare forever – and the Empires that couldn't design good enough weaponry were quickly wiped out by the more powerful armies, leaving a ravaged path of destruction in their wake. This saw many unorthodox siege weapons be designed and created – and many of those weapons are in heavily modified versions today in use with the current military.
Year 3800-4250: Dark Age
The Dark Age was thought by philosophers to be the sigh of exhaustion the entire world let out after over a thousand years of many Empires engaging in warfare on and off. 60% of the Empires present in the Enlightenment Age were either destroyed or captured by other Empires during the Conquest Age.
Gunpowder was first discovered in 3840, but nobody had any idea how to use it. Some armies even coated their weapons in it, believing it to be armour piercing. It wasn't until one unlucky soldier dipped his gunpowder-tipped arrow in the flaming oil before firing, that the true potential of gunpowder was realised.
However, none of the Empires could find out a way to utilise the explosive property of the new weapon. It seemed like every army was trying to launch the explosive to the enemy to take out multiple targets in a small area rather than using it to launch projectiles as their current Gear and Crank system was. By 3980, nobody had yet tried to use it as a projectile launching tool, until one innovative weapon designer reversed the design of a weapon and made a great discovery.
Year 4000-4100: The Black Age
The discovery of gunpowder as a replacement for Gears and Cranks in weapons was put on hold however when everywhere in the entire world descended into darkness. The sun set one day in the year 4000 and it didn't rise again for nearly a hundred years – a period of darkness that threatened to wipe out the entire race off the face of the planet!
What had actually happened, was that another planet was between the Charmyr homeworld and the Sun for nearly a century. This planet was the closest to the Sun in that current solar system, the Charmyr homeworld being the second. It was nearly three times bigger than the Charmyr planet – Jhaggar – and the oribital pattern would overlap for a prolonged period every 500 million years.
During this time, because Charmyr required sunlight to fertilise their eggs, they couldn't reproduce very efficiently at all, and this led many scientists to attempt to discover a way of creating their own "light" to keep their civilisation alive. Nearly eighteen years after the Black Age had begun, Charmyr Scientists had developed an artificial light source that produced sufficient radiation to fertilise the eggs, starting a Dark Age generation, where some number of Myrlak would live most of their lives without knowing what the Sun was.
Over Eighteen years in an age where reproduction ceased to succeed saw an estimated loss of two million lives as a result of eggs being left unfertilised. For many decades, most were certain that the sun would never rise again, that they were being punished for the thousands of years of warfare that had plagued the race almost since time began.
However, on the first morn of the year 4097, the sun was seen for the first time in nearly 100 years, and after another 150 years, the sun was no longer even partially obscured by the planet between Jhaggar and the Sun. "Jhaggar" was the name given to their homeworld after the event, which is a direct translation of the world "Unreliable".
Year 4120: The Founding of the Confederacy
During the black age, any factions that failed to invent incubation lights soon became extinct, as the citizens would lay their eggs, which would fail to fertilise, and then the faction would simply die off. By the time the Black Age ended, any survivors outside of Incubation-tech factions would be over a hundred years old.
Hence a situation arose after the Black Age was over where the majority of the population was within a couple of major factions. The factions were the Khaggar, the Ymirak and the Porskyre. The Khaggar had an estimation of 45% of the total population in the world, and 75% of the total population in the world of Myrlak under the age of 20.
Using the incubation technology as a bargaining chip, Khaggar formed a government system translated to a Confederacy – The clan was run by one main leader, supported by four high councillors and eight other advisors – none of which was elected by the public, but rather chosen by current members running the Confederacy.
The Confederacy was able to use their power to draw smaller factions clinging to life into their empire, and by 4200, the Confederacy boasted the ownership of 65% of the global population. However, the Ymirak and the Porskyre clans did not succum to the reign of the Confederacy and continued to operate individually and separate from the rest of the Empire for quite some time.
Year 4340: The Sovereign Empire
In the Year 4340, the Ymirak and Porskyre were threatened with the opening of warfare if they refused to join the confederacy this time. They again rejected the offer, and their diplomats met and engaged in a mutual agreement to form their own Empire. However, unlike the Confederacy, this empire will be lead by a government body chosen 100% by the general citizens in the Empire. As a faction that offered Freedom rather than the ignorance the Confederacy gave to their citizens, many called them the race of the free, or the Sovereign Empire.
This union triggered a few smaller villages to join their rule, as well as causing some towns under Confederacy Rule to rebel and join the Sovereign Empire too. This angered the Confederacy very much, and they conducted an extensive espionage mission before preparing what they would be an army necessary to wipe them out quickly.
The spies returned from their duty with terrible news for the Confederacy – during the Black Age, most of the surviving weapon developers and technological researchers were currently in employment in areas under Sovereign rule. They had progressed well past the match-lock musket which the Confederacy had just developed, and had instead worked on a "Wheel" method, which allowed the firearm to be used in one hand.
The Confederacy had to change their focus, as they had wrongfully assumed that they had the upper hand in technology. They started designing new destructive siege weapons – essentially large muskets on wheels for ease of transportation and setting up – they were virtually cannons, but with much bigger barrels. By 4380, the Confederacy had a battery of 200 cannons, which boasted a barrel size of 180mm, enabling them to launch massive cannonballs at their targets.
The Confederacy conducted a skirmish on a city under Sovereign rule in 4381. They positioned twenty 180mm cannons a safe distance away from the walls, and marched their army closer to the fortification. While the crew were arming the cannons, a Sovereign cavalry patrol stumbled upon the small battery of guns, and quickly took control of the guns.
Seeing their resemblances to the smaller, hand-held firearms, the cavalry dismounted and fired the loaded cannons at the oblivious Confederacy troops who were walking towards the castle – away from the Sovereign Cannons. The cannonballs killed a few men, but it caught the attention of the division, who turned around and began to charge back.
Seeing that they were a few hundred meters away, the Sovereign troops looked around at the supplies that were left near the cannons, and the first three boxes they opened contained nothing but musket balls. Knowing they didn't have much time, they crammed a few handfuls of balls in each cannon before firing them by the time the Confederacy got within musket range.
Although highly inaccurate, the sheer number of projectiles each cannon fired killed dozens of men in that one volley. Due to the poor technology of the Confederacy muskets, their reload time was nearly as slow as that of the cannons, and after the second volley of cannon fire, the rest of the Confederacy troops surrendered.
And where that battle left off, the next hundred years followed suite. The Confederacy finally invented their first rifle, however by then the Sovereign Empire had already begun work on a bolt-action rifle and begun looking into the concept of weapons that loaded themselves. The Confederacy invented the Semi-Automatic Rifle first in 4495, however by then the Sovereign were already producing prototypes of new innovative weapons such as Shotguns and Fully-automatic weapons, as well as side-arms.
4,500 – Blood Century
After some extensive training programs put into place in the last 30 years, the Confederacy decided that it was time to engage the Sovereign Empire in open warfare until they surrendered to the Confederacy. These training programs brought up some interesting results, which gave the Confederacy some tactical advantages in the war to come.
Firstly, the Confederacy dug trenches that were 30-40cm deep, so they were able to lie flat and be virtually concealed by enemy troops. In their test results, this allowed them to beat any other foe in ranged combat due to their near impossible nature to be hit. Little did they know the Sovereign Empire had invented a fragmentation grenade. The Sovereign Empire, being quick learners, dug their own trenches, and then lobbed grenades into the enemy positions.
Because their troops were lying down, they had a very low chance of evading any grenades that were lobbed into their trenches, and any who stood up were immediately gunned down by the Sovereign troops. This lead to a new idea in the Confederacy.
After losing ground, the Confederacy dug new trenches behind the older ones – however these trenches were 95cm deep, and allowed a crouched-soldier to run quickly if a grenade were to fall near them without having the risk of being seen or shot. Also, as the Confederacy designed their own grenades, the Sovereign troops moved into the shallow trenches, and soon began feeling the pinch – so the Sovereign troops dug deeper trenches as well!
In 4503, the first high-calibre machinegun was used by the Sovereign troops, which fired rifle-sized rounds over long distances. The Sovereign Empire had one machinegun for every kilometre the frontline was in width, and created an innovative ammunition clip, which was rolled up around a wooden stock and attached to a free-turning crank and gear system. As the machine gun fired, the bullets would constantly feed directly into the gun the instant the previous bullet left the barrel, allowing for high rates of fire and allowed continuous fire – as each stock clip (as they were referred to) held two thousand rounds.
With these machineguns in place, the Confederacy were unable to make any ground, and had no way to counter these. Some troops trialled some body armour, which was tested to be resistant against the Confederacy sub-machinegun rounds – but the Confederacy hadn't yet realised that the Sovereign machine guns fire the larger rifle-sized rounds, which easily penetrated the armour as though it wasn't even there.
Year 4508
The war wasn't going very well for the Confederacy, but they were not going to throw in the towel yet. In 4470 when the extensive training and development of the Confederacy Military started, a "Secret Service" of weapon development was founded, containing a branch teeming with young and innovative weapon developers and research engineers. Using information about what was happening in the battles, the SS Developers began working on projects that were to turn the tide of the war in their favour.
After finally creating their own rifle-calibre machinegun, the SS Developers began researching into ways to make their versions better. Since the Engine or the concept of a motor vehicle hadn't been invented yet, designing tanks to counter machineguns in trench warfare was not an option, unlike the Human Race's history in similar technological times.
Instead, they attached it to a cannon's axil system, allowing it to be mounted on wheels. Furthermore, they fitted 270 degrees of the weapon with 30mm thick armour – far too thick for a human soldier to wear without losing the ability to walk, but thick enough to render it immune to machinegun fire.
In 4509, eight of these weapons, called "Shell-guns" (The original idea came from the Turtles, as they hide in a thick impenetrable shell when in danger) were wheeled into the frontlines, but unlike the rest of the soldiers, these weapons were not in the trenches themselves. This meant other soldiers had to position planks and boards to allow the shellguns to traverse the trenches, but after realising they couldn't affect them (even with grenades), the Sovereign pulled back their forces a couple of hundred meters as they assessed the situation.
In the end the solution was simple – The Sovereign positioned field guns to face the shellguns that were approaching, and fired their massive 230mm weapons. These field guns were essentially older cannons, but the sheer size and weight of the shots they fired crushed the shellguns – as the armour was simply a plate and wasn't actually reinforced to deal with the weight of projectiles of that sheer size.
Both sides soon realised that troops in trenches were practically immune to both machineguns and field guns, and that machineguns and field guns had to be set up on the surface level, and as a result were very vulnerable. This led to trenches being dug deeper, and soon infantry squads on both sides were digging underneath the opposing trenches before digging up and attacking from underneath them.
By 4520, artillery was so well developed that it destroyed cities from miles away, which forced the citizens to dig their own trenches and eventually live underground. With the new invention of steel, and the Charmyr's surprisingly efficient ability to make it, dirt trenches were slowly replaced by steel corridors, and cities were rebuilt in amongst tunnel networks.
In the year 4530, all artillery projects were officially scrapped by both sides, as 90% of the major cities were now completely underground, and all battles were fought in intense corridors and close quarters. Sub-machine guns and Shotguns were used extensively, while semi-automatic rifles were useful at targets out of an effective SMG or shotgun weapon range.
Digging trenches was extensively slow and risky, particularly this deep. Engineers had to dig a few meters before erecting pillars and deploying steel plates on the walls, floor and roof of the trench. However, digging new corridors in a tunnel network allowed for sneak attacks, especially with the new development of the hack saw – which allowed the races to cut through the 50mm metal plates encasing the corridors on all sides.
Year 4550
This year marked several new technologies. The Confederacy produced an armoured fighting vehicle, however unlike their stereotype, these versions had no wheels or tracks, but instead used hydraulics and robotic limbs in order to move. It wasn't easy to train troops to use the walking mechs, but after they had mastered the system it was easy to see how useful they were in the war. Featuring armoured protection up to 35mm in some places, these mechs boasted great offensive capabilities along with excellent durability – particularly because of the new design supporting the armour plates with cross-beams and clever use of angles, to prevent the armour crushing.
Despite being different from the original Shellguns, these battle mechs were referred to as "Shells" by the Sovereign troops. These constructs were first built wielding the old field guns that were now obsolete in the war – however it was soon evident that requiring external troops to reload their weapons was very risky and inefficient, so the infamous SS Developers sat down once more and begun work on a new project.
The Shells would've completely turned the tide of the war if the Sovereign hadn't invented their own bright stars at around the same time. Sovereign Developers incorporated underslung attachments to their weapons, in particular their Sub-machineguns. The first model of this new breed of weaponry featured an underslung grenade launcher that was able to launch anything from flares to gas grenades – as well as the standard fragmentation grenades.
The Sovereign also invented a new type of grenade, called the Khry Orano (Translated litereally to "Can Opener") – which was able to penetrate armour up to 50mm thick effectively, and could be fired at medium range thanks to the underslung variants of the sub-machineguns that were now in production. These anti-armour grenades were very effective at countering the Shells which the Confederacy was producing.
However, the SS Developers accomplished what was probably their most successful three-year period in history. Between 4549 and 4554, they developed the first prototype of a Railgun – a large weapon that uses magnets to accelerate the projectiles much better than any previous methods. They also discovered the pioneer technological advances which soon led to space travel. The Confederacy took into space in 4558 and constructed their first space station between 4560 and 4571.
In the meantime, the new Railgun technology was quickly implemented onto the Shells left in the Confederacy to counter the Sovereign Mechs, which were based off the Shell design, but were modified to be equipped with two shotguns and a machinegun instead of a field gun – much better suited to infantry targets.
However, when the new Shells met the Sovereign Mechs, they quickly earned their name "Scorpion" because of the speed they were able to tear apart targets. The high velocity they were able to achieve with their new Railgun technology would send a projectile round through the middle of a Battle Mech's armour, out the other side and causing a dent in the corridor wall beside it. They were still vulnerable to the Anti-Armour grenades, but the Confederacy had finally developed a way to deal with the Sovereign Mechs.
Year 4575
The Sovereign invented space flight, and used it to create training grounds off the planet, as well as to manoeuvre soldiers to unsupported parts of the world. While the Confederacy made a hasty attempt to create their own space program, they were way too far behind, to the point where reverse-engineering the Sovereign tech was a near impossible task. The war began to skew heavily in the Sovereign favour, and eventually the Confederacy agreed to end the war and unionise the population if they were able to vote in a new leader. They also formed the Red Dawn council, consisting of 14 Confederacy members and 10 Sovereign advisors, in addition to the new leader of the empire.