Condensed record
Primal Zurgarthian Era
Cycle 8,001–14,000. Sapience emerges before civilization. Small Zurgarthian bands learn fire, shelter, toolmaking, hunting, burial, and the decisive art of teaching knowledge instead of rediscovering it alone.
Expanded archive dossier
First culture
Oral traditions preserve routes, animal behavior, seasonal timing, and local geography. Hunters, gatherers, toolmakers, firekeepers, healers, and storytellers become the earliest recognizable social roles.
Living with the Turning
The mechanism of the seasonal rewrite remains unknown, but survival depends on anticipating it. By the era's end, permanent settlement and accumulated craft are sufficient to support the first true civilization.
English edition verified against the canonical source codex.