Historical Timeline

Moon-year 75: On the morning of the summer solstice, in a small fishing village on the Sae duChaad, a boy is born in jail to a young whore, who dies in childbirth before she can even hold the baby. Local rumor has it that the baby was fathered by a bishop of Phaelas (the puritanical god of Death and Justice) in violation of his vow of chastity. Fueling this rumor, the priest takes the boy in and names him Malicean ("Malice's child").
Moon-year 57: After a violent disagreement with his father, now the head of the Temple of Phaelas, an increasingly bitter Malicean leaves his childhood home and runs away to the Island of Lost Souls.
Moon-year 42: Malicean, now known as "the Chaste", rises from obscurity to become leader of the Church of the Sun and Moon.
Moon-year 37: The first blow is struck in the Rising of the Sun, Malicean's jihad to restore harmony and root out evil and, not coincidentally, the other churches. Leading a ragtag bunch of refugees armed with nothing more than makeshift weaponry and ingenuity, Malicean takes control of the mainland port nearest the island temple. This battle is later to be known as the Battle of Wild's Reef.
Sun-year 1: The Council of Five, led by Malicean, achieves dominion over the continent
Sun-year 7: The Day of Harmony is celebrated for the first time. (See Religion for more details)
Sun-year 25: On the morning of his 100th birthday, the Holy Prophet, Malicean, is killed. The remaining four Council Members personally hunt down and execute the assassin, a half-orc named Mako.
Sun-year 126: Luminaux founded by the Elvin Bard Cornelio BlueCloak as a haven for the arts.
Sun-year 204: After more than two centuries of under-representation, the Halfling Tribal Congress is officially recognized as a "regional" government.
Sun-year 341: The Scourge of Bruxcels, a great plague, strikes the "red-light" district of Daneasus and spreads quickly. Estimates place over 75,000 as dead before year's end. The Church declares the Scourge to be the wrath of ORB, called down from on high to punish sin and iniquity. The entire Mountain City of Daneasus is closed to all traffic.
Sun-year 343: Though the Scourge only lasted the one season, Daneasus is still closed to traffic. Civil unrest begins to ferment, but is put down by several divisions of the Order of the Sword of Malicean.
Sun-year 356: Daneasus is reopened to traffic.
Sun-year 401: Gnomish City of Ferrodyne burns to the ground with many casualties. Gnomish Ministry of Engineering issues a formal statement: "Oops. Sorry about that."
Sun-year 402: Rebuilding of Ferrodyne commences. Gnomish Fire Brigade, first Division, Founded.
Sun-year 421: Stone-Fist, a Dwarven Paladin, kills Veleka, thought to be the last of the Great Dragons, but is wounded fatally in the process. On his deathbed, the paladin tells of a nest with one last egg, but expires before he can reveal the location. Although numerous expeditions were launched, no nest is ever found.
Sun-year 650: Worship of all gods besides ORB is declared heretical, and punishable by exile, imprisonment, or death. Beginning of the Shadow Era, marked by religious unrest and a loss of clear historical records.
Sun-year 725 (?): The Order of the Sword of Malicean, (Paladins) given official status above the law, with a mandate to root out heresy wherever it is found.
Sun-year 746 (?): Drandeleus, Elvin High-Priest of Phelas, is executed for heresy of the highest order. His last words are, "You cannot suppress the Gods forever. Your time will come."
Sun-year 814 (?): College of Mages accused of heresy and the promotion and teaching of necromancy. Ordered to disband immediately and give themselves up to the mercy of the Church by Sundown on 1 Jewel of the next year. The College does not comply.
Sun-year 815 (?): At sundown on 1 Jewel, the Council declares Arcane Magic of all kind to be a sin, and gives its Orders the right to execute, without trial, anyone suspected of using arcane magic. Let the witch-hunts commence. The war beings in earnest on the 28th of Freedom, when the College strikes back by unleashing a meteor swarm of epic proportions on the Spire. Huge casualties are recorded, although the Spire itself was undamaged, protected by the Holy Power of ORB.
Sun-year 843 (?): The Scarlet War ends, with the final stroke by both parties. Right before the Church takes the Jade Tower, the College causes the Holy Temple at Daneasus and all its priests and servants to vanish without a trace. This act is the last expenditure of the Arcane power stored at the Jade Tower. The crater where the Temple used to be is considered the holiest of ground, and left as a sort of shrine. Families of those lost take to throwing flowers in to the hole, every year on the Night of the Moon.
Once the Tower falls, the College of Mages is forcibly disbanded with heavy casualties, never to recover. The Order of the Sword of Malicean is instructed to bring in all the remaining renegades, who will continue to plague the Church for another thirty-five years.
Sun-year 868 (?): Shinn the Sorcerer turns to the dark arts, and raises an army of the dead from the Valley of the Magi to augment his Spellswords, and fight the forces of ORB. In the longest and bloodiest battle in Crescent's history, the forces of the Sun triumphed, but at great cost. The battle decimated a great tract of land, which to this day is an arid wasteland. At the last, the Warlord Shinn sealed his tower with powerful magicks, and leaped to his death on the rocks below.
Sun-year 872 (?): The Order of the Fist of Reverence brings in the last of the Master Wizards, Davilan the Scribe. The Council of Five without trial executes him. Council Member Agonitus, also leader of the Fist, sees the Sword's failure to capture the last rogue member of the College of Mages as a political opportunity. He uses it to force the revocation of the Sword's above-the-law status. This sparks a bitter rivalry between the two orders that lasts to this day.
Sun-year 1000: Citing a vision from ORB himself, the Council declares this the Golden Era, to be a time of regained peace and prosperity. After much arguing between scholars, the Council also officially proclaims it to be Sun-year 1000. Most sages today believe they missed the mark by at least two years.
Sun-year 1122: The Horse-Men of the Plain of Stiles report heavy casualties from an Orcish raiding party. Although the Orcs have occasionally raided along the coastline before, this is the first time they have penetrated inland with any sizable force. They are the first of many.
Sun-year 1131: A partial message is received from a scout operating in the Star Islands. It reports that a strong, non-orcish leader, who has united several islands worth of tribes, is leading the new Orcish offensive. The rest of the message was lost.
Sun-year 1220: Maxaen established as a fortress guarding the mouth of the LightningStroke River. Although the city is primarily military, it has grown with record speed, three times requiring expansion of the walls. Although primarily a human city, there are now permanent communities of dwarven and gnomish stonemasons who do nothing but build walls and defenses.
Sun-year 1334: The whole of Jewel is declared to be a time of mourning, in remembrance of the priests and parishioners of the Holy Temple at Daneasus, destroyed 500 years ago by the College of Mages.
Sun-year 1336: Present Day