Introduction Welcome to Dark Eras 2. Much like Dark Eras and the Dark Eras Companion, this book explores chapters of history through the Chronicles of Darkness. Each chapter presents two or more game lines set against a backdrop of historical intrigue and events. The materials presented in the chapters are compatible with Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition rules. Following a description of the eras, a list of historically appropriate Skills has been included for use in your chronicles. What’s in This Book? Dark Eras 2 consists of 13 eras, at least one for each Chronicles of Darkness game line. The eras are presented here in chronological order, beginning with the oldest: We are not • Promethean: The Created/Beast: The Primordial/Werewolf: The makersWe areof history. not Forsaken — Hunger in the Black Land (1806 BCE): Sobekneferu was We are made by history. the last pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, ascending to power during a makers of history. time of transition. Her father built a pyramid and a mysterious labyrinth — Martin Luther King, Jr. at Hawara, near Shedet (modern-day Faiyum), but she completed the We are made by labyrinth and may be the only one left alive who knows its secrets. The h i s to ry. Greeks will later call Shedet “Crocodilopolis,” for the crocodile god Sobek and his children reign supreme there. The Forsaken fight a war Martin Luther over territory and pride with their reptilian cousins, while Prometheans deal with the disparity between the Nepri — worshipped as kings and King, Jr. gods — and the others, evading mortuary alchemists and mummified animal Pandorans. Meanwhile, the Begotten seek allies to deal with the rise of senseless violence among Heroes and the waking Insatiable of the Nile. • Changeling: The Lost/Promethean: The Created — The Seven Wonders (286–226 BCE): As the locations of the most significant manmade struc- tures in the world are revealed, adventurers from Greece and beyond seek them out to bask in their glory. It is tragic, however, that some wonders must be kept secret. The Gentry do not respond well to their Hedge being disturbed, and the seven wonders are coated in thorns for the unwary. There is no telling what they will do when they encounter the Created, who have heard of these wondrous places immune to war, the ravages of time, and Disquiet. Though the Created seek to protect the wonders like a mother would a child, the Gentry have their own reasons for safeguarding them. • Hunter: The Vigil/Changeling: The Lost/Vampire: The Requiem — Arthur’s Britannia (400–500 CE): You’ve heard the stories of King Arthur Sampleand Mordred, Merlin and Morgana. Inspired byfile medieval romance, the Arthurian myth lives on. Get behind the myth, find the source of these tales, and adventure in Great Britain during the legendary King Arthur’s 10 introduction rule. For, in the Chronicles of Darkness, nothing is • Mummy: The Curse/Hunter: The Vigil — Rise of what it seems. The shadows we explore will expose the Last Imperials (1644–1661 CE): The last Imperial darker secrets that follow King Arthur and his Dynasty, the Qing, was established by Nurhaci fol- Knights of the Round Table wherever they roam. lowing the takeover of Beijing. Masters of northern China, the powerful Great Qing successfully usurped • Beast: The Primordial/Vampire: The Requiem weakened Ming rulers, but their rule was marked by — One Thousand and One Nightmares (832 CE): their treatment of the Han Chinese. Despite this, the The Islamic Golden Age during the reign of Caliph Shunzhi Emperor, assisted by his co-regents Dorgon al-Ma’mun is a time of great advances in science and Jirgalang, began to preserve centuries of Chinese and culture, but it’s also a time for getting into the arts and literature while searching for mummies ru- mystic as the House of Wisdom brings the One mored to be active in the area. Caught between the Thousand and One Nights tales into the light, expos- present and the distant past, mummies clash with ing records of true supernatural events and sparking rival Arisen, sweeping Han Chinese hunters into unprecedented human curiosity about the unknown. their wake who must face many threats to uphold The Begotten reach out to help their vampire kin the Vigil. (and others) cope with the mortal situation that’s swiftly turning the tide against the night’s horrors; • Mummy: The Curse/Geist: The Sin-Eaters — the Islamic covenants must decide how to redefine The Scandinavian Witch Trials (1608–1698 CE): the Masquerade in a changing world. During this Scandinavian countries quickly adopted the witch time, the powerful Al-Khayzuran, mother to the trials from Germany after the Reformation, and were Caliph, ensures the tales’ power over human imagi- even more cautious about magic and witches, as they nation through her mysterious connection with the knew they lived closer to hell than most other coun- Primordial Dream and the ancient queen Chehrazad. tries. Magic was no longer seen as a tool to alter fates or change the course of lives, and it was no longer • Hunter: The Vigil/Demon: The Descent — Empire directly linked to communication with gods. Those of Gold and Dust (1337–1347 CE): Founded by King wielding magic were no longer respected and sacred, Sundiata, the vast Mali Empire was formed after but were hunted and condemned by society, friends, several smaller kingdoms were consolidated and and family, as witchcraft became directly linked with lasted from 1230 to 1600 CE. At its height, the the workings of hell. A constant paranoia dominates empire stretched from the Atlantic coastline, past the Nordic countries. No one knows when it might Timbuktu, to the edges of the Sahara Desert. Ruled be their turn to burn for heresy. Sin-Eaters struggle as a monarchy, the Empire of Mali was multilingual to balance their will to live against their need for and multiethnic, with Islam being the dominant revenge, while the Arisen awake to a dangerous world religion. This period is a time of turmoil. Following and must decide what role they play. the death of the legendary Musa Keita I in 1337, the empire suffered from a series of short-term, faulty • Mage: The Awakening/Geist: The Sin-Eaters — reigns beginning with his son’s four-year rule. With The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1716 –1717 CE): Like the empire’s security and prosperity at stake, the the Great Below and the many mysterious places creatures of the Chronicles of Darkness are on the mages roam, the ocean’s depths are seen only in move. glimpses, filled with wondrous and terrifying things that never see the light of day — but willworkers • Deviant: The Renegades/Mage: The Awakening/ and the Bound have the means and the will to stare Demon: The Descent — Light of the Sun (1630–1640 into these abysses. Although there’s nothing kind CE): Galileo. Kepler. Newton. On the heels of the about cutthroat pirates, the promise of equality and Italian Renaissance, reason and belief clash at every honor among thieves appeals to those downtrodden turn. Scientific discoveries proving heliocentrism are by the system, whether that’s the British Empire, subverted and deemed heretical. Scientists, mages, the Diamond, or the Kerberoi. Mage society teeters and astronomers are arrested by the Inquisition, and on the brink of civil war as the Silver Ladder allies their books are banned. In response, intellectuals with the Seers of the Throne to stamp out Nassau’s on the brink of discovery turn to alchemy and the Nameless Order, while the Bound sail with their magical arts, and create deviants to defend their brotherhoods to stop marauding Reapers and plumb laboratories and universities. Not all in this age the haunted seas. agree violence is the option, however, and worry the SampleChurch’s power is too strong to fight. What’s more, • Vampire: The Requiem/Demon: file The Descent/ no one expected the deviants to have a mind and Mummy: The Curse — The Reign of Terror will of their own. (1793–1794 CE): Enlightenment philosophies and revolution shake the long-standing institutions of 11 Whats In This Book monarchy and hierarchy in France to their core. Brackett, Ray Bradbury, and Jack Vance. Though Immortal Kindred hidden within the House of these stories are works of fiction, it is often said that Bourbon scheme to hold onto the power and privilege all tales have kernels of truth. In the Chronicles of they crave, while the beginnings of the Carthian Darkness, experience the Golden Age of Science Movement scheme to kick in some fangs and make Fiction as you never have before, through the eyes the elders bleed alongside disenfranchised mortals of its creatures. yearning for liberty. The Arisen question whether they, too, should rise up against their Judges, drawn to Paris by the mysterious Empire of the Dead in the catacombs below the city. The God-Machine Skills has its own plans for the catacomb’s Lifeweb, and The following summarizes pre-modern Skills presented while mummies work with vampires and demons to in Dark Eras. unearth its secrets, the Unchained Agendas splin- ter into factions over whether the revolution is the Archery Machine’s way of cleansing France, or an opportunity to openly defy it and finally find Hell on Earth. The Firearms Skill didn’t exist before 1500 and didn’t completely eclipse the Archery Skill in ranged combat • Changeling: The Lost/Mage: The Awakening — until the mid-1800s, when cheap and reliable hand-carried Mysterious Frontiers (1874 CE): Five years ago, the guns became available. Characters born in the transition First Transcontinental Railroad was completed, period may have training in both Skills, or just one.