The arc of history

[mysterycellist]

Ok, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the timeframes in the setting. For example, Nex and Geb went to war in -892. Nex disappeared in 576. That's almost 1,500 years of war! And then the nation of Nex itself just hangs out for the next 4,000 years?

I'm new here, so I suspect that there's a long discussion thread somewhere that I'm missing, so maybe someone can link me to that, but how do other GMs reconcile these essentially geological timelines with their games? I'm having a hard time selling the idea of what seems to be pretty static civilizations that stretch timelines that have a similar duration to recorded human history.

[HappyDaze]

Unlike our world, there has been almost no technological development to change society. Several of the societies are still more or les the same as they have been for millennia, and while humans are the majority in most of the Inner Sea region, they have contact with numerous races that live 2-3 (or more) times the lifespan. The passage of time needs to be considered in this context.

[Nickolas Russell]

The Nex and Geb regions are especially good examples of when NOT to compare recorded human history. The archmage Nex was so powerful that even today his magic still prevents outside forces from conquering it. Geb is still alive to this day, the one and only ruler his country has ever known. I like to think that Nex is still controlling his land very subtly and from a vast distance.

[William Ronald]

Some societies change very little. Some farming techniques have persisted for thousands of years.

I would argue that in the case of a 1,500 year war, much of it may have been a "Cold War" with a few skirmishes.

[HappyDaze]

Or a proxy war fought with fleshforged vs undead in the area now known as the mana wastes. Events that reached the population centers of either nation were rare and noteworthy.

[Psiphyre]

Remove a digit (or zero): preferably from the right-hand side (i.e. the units digit). That's what I do... And it works most of the time.
^^

Carry on!

-- C.