Age of Dragons

The Age of Dragons is a mythical time period of uncounted years used by the people of Tian Xia who follow the Imperial Calendar, and follows the also indeterminate Age of Monsters. People believe that during this time, the continents of Golarion were ruled by dragons who had been appointed by the deities to act as stewards until humanity could take its rightful place. The age came to a close with the event known as Earthfall, which ushered in the Age of Ashes in -2793 IC.

The beginning of the Age of Dragons is marked by Shizuru sending her sky dragon herald Shinonome to gather as many imperial dragons as possible to the Solar Zenith Peaks. There the deity showed them the future devastation of the land if the yaoguai continued to wage war, and also announced that her designated inheritors of the land—humans—would arrive in 10,000 years. She tasked the dragons with preparing the lands in anticipation of humanity, and also with guarding them for another 10,000 years after their arrival.

Though stunned, the dragons agreed and enlisted celestial allies to help kill or seal away the yaogaui lords. They also learned how to pacify the kaiju of the south by infiltrating nagaji settlements, learned rulership from the munsahir empire in the Valashmai Jungle under the Jade Hegemon, which they practiced on early athamaru city-states.

Human migrants first arrived via land bridge from Sarusan, then from Azlant, and founding grand polities such as the Taumata empire. Celestials recruited and later formed families with mortals, and the impatient and entitled dragon caretakers became deeply involved with empire building and politics over the long years. Some even became rulers of the human realms they were tasked with helping or seeking adoration through granting wishes or otherwise interfering with human affairs—even growing upset when the humans themselves asked the dragons to stop.

While Shizuru was distracted with resurrecting her lover Tsukiyo, the dragons' disagreements escalated to wars and the constant destruction of the nations they had helped to build, effectively limiting human settlements to Taumata in the Minata archipelago and to land bridge to Sarusan.