Historical account
The creators withdraw
At the close of Cycle I, the Genesis Council judged its direct work of creation complete and withdrew from the nascent world. When Cycle II opened at Edict 0, the distant presence that had framed the first age receded into what later generations called the Great Silence.
The age of choice
For the peoples of Aethelgard, that silence was both frightening and liberating. Population and ambition began to grow without the same sense of divine guidance, while the Tier III and Tier IV Celestials watched mortal society with increasing interest. The world’s next structures would be built through the choices of its inhabitants rather than through the first acts of creation.
Historical significance
What changed here
Cycle II begins the historical world visitors recognise: an age of cities, government, ideology, inequality, and conflict shaped by beings who can no longer rely on their creators to decide every path.