Diaemus

Diaemus is a planet within a larger universe, formed from a planetary nebula and orbiting a sun-like star. It is a world of winding deserts and barren deserts; of frigid tundras and humid, life-brimming rainforests; it is a world of meticulously arranged civilizations dotted across an untamed landscape populated by the most exotic, wildest of beasts. It is, most of all, a world of possibilities.

Regions

 * The Emeezim Region
 * The Twilight Ocean
 * The Asohos Region
 * The Arkrom Caverns

Lumuoles
The most unique, and arguably most notable, branch of life on Diaemus is the lumuole clade. Lumuoles are tiny microorganisms through which magic can be channeled and used; as a source of free, nigh-infinite energy, they are cultured in the bodies of most Diaemite lifeforms.

Fauna
In many ways, native Diaemite animals are a skewed reflection of life on primeval Earth. Dinosaurs and other clades found in the Mesozoic Era are quite common here, particularly nodosaurs, iguanadonts, and predatory carnosaurs.

Relatively recently in the planet's history, human beings and other large mammals were deposited on the planet by an unknown force. This prompted much ecological turmoil, but the landscape ultimately settled; nowadays, dinosaurs and great lumbering mammals can be found in equal numbers, hunted and whispered of by a great number of native sapient beings.

Sapient Beings
The sapient beings of Diaemus evolved from non-sapient wildlife, and in most cases belong the same clades that are found in the fauna. There are exceptions, however; the evolutionary lineage of the Nixos, for instance, is hotly debated due to their lack of resemblance to other Diaemite animals.

Dromeans are the most prevalent of the planet's native sapients, being highly intelligent members of the dromeosaur family. Similar to the raptorine dinosaurs of Earth's distant past, Dromeans live in large packs that make up the basis of their social structure, and are strictly carnivorous.

Underneath the green landscape of the surface is an entire underworld of labyrinthine caverns, ruled by the many-legged Rachnyx. These spider-like beings are perhaps the most ancient of the planet's intelligences, though they have only recently shifted from being solitary predators to social, even civilized creatures.

Other noteworthy sapient beings of Diaemus include:
 * Nixos
 * Skitches
 * Haornithi
 * Water Drulgas

The Wild Age
This was the primordial dawn of Diaemus. In this era, which stretched millions of years from the beginning of the world to around two million years ago, wild things struggled in a game of tooth and claw, forging the modern dinosaur-dominated ecosystems that make Diaemus distinctive. The caverns were opened up, allowing many unique forms of life to evolve within their cavities. Lumuoles appeared and began bonding to flora and wildlife across the globe, and the first Rachnyx intelligences began dreaming from inside their deep underground webs.

The First Age of Wisdom
The wildness of early Diaemus gave way to the Dromean Age, a time when the first anatomically modern Dromeans began exerting influence over the world. This era began three million years previously and ended twelve thousand years ago.

Also known as the Dromean Age, this era was marked by the evolution of most of the notable sapient beings of Diaemus' surface. Anatomically modern Dromeans emerged at the beginning of the age, quickly spreading across several continents and founding varied cultures and societies. (Most of these were hunter-tribes, but this would be the ideal age for any ancient advanced empires that anyone would like to incorporate into their region's history.) Presumably Haornithi, Skitches, water drulgas, and Nixos also arose in this period, though probably not in the precise cultural configurations that distinguish them today.

The key to understanding this time period lies in its mixture of budding civilization and an endless wild frontier. A massive Haornithi empire could hold court on one end of a forest, while a primitive tribe of Dromean hunters resided on the other. The evidence of both cultures could either be preserved in the fossil record, or washed away by the hundreds of thousands of years that separate the First Age of Wisdom from the modern day. The First Age of Wisdom would be the time of proliferation for most of Diaemus' unique species, and the time when they were channeled into their modern forms. Most of its history would be lost to the millennia, but cultural remnants, artifacts, and even gods could be leftover from its wonder and splendor.

The Time of Seeding
This was a particularly chaotic time, and extremely recent too--this occurred only twelve to thirteen thousand years ago. Nonetheless, it shook the delicate primordial balance of the First Age to its core.

Unknown forces, presumed divine or magical but ultimately unfathomable, "seeded" an entirely new species onto the surface of Diaemus. Human beings were sprinkled seemingly at random across the surface, left naked and without any form of oral tradition on every continent and in nigh-on every biome. The occurrence was completely inexplicable, and most of the prehistoric inhabitants didn't believe it until the hairless primates were already on their land, spearing game animals and crafting tools out of wood and flint.

The result was a long, slow period of unrest. In some areas, humans got along swimmingly with the natives. (Twi's tundra would be a prime example of this.) In other areas, brutal tribal wars might break out between staunchly entrenched holdouts from the First Age and the alien invaders. There were no set victors. In some areas humans became dominant, in some they were driven out, in some they allowed to live by benign but superior overlords, and in a few they began to peacefully coexist with equal but radically different neighbors.

The Time of Seeding also brought with it an unknown cataclysm which resulted in the toppling of the subterranean ecosystem, which prompted the Rachnyx to leave the safety of their webs and to begin forming civilizations.

The important part of this era, to us as worldbuilders, is that it brings humans into the world and provides an element of chaos for us to work with. Do you have a group that chose to live in isolation from the rest of Diaemus because of a mysterious catastrophe? Clearly they were out-competed by humans or by another group displaced by the humans, or else they thought it was the end of the world or some such mythology. Do you have a group that lives among the ruins of an ancient kingdom that fell long ago? Clearly the Time of Seeding wreaked the fall of this kingdom.

If we wanted to spark maximum drama, we could even say that the non-dinosaurs of Diaemus, like some of Seonid's beasts and Mailliw's otters, were also brought to the planet during the Seeding. Maybe mammals wreaked enormous havoc with the ecosystem, sparking further famines and other hardships that would shake the world to its foundations.

The Second Age of Wisdom
Finally, the dust settled. Humans (and possibly their mammalian cousins) found their roles within the planet's ecosystem, and no longer did cruel, savage Darwinism drive Homo sapiens' interactions with other intelligent beings. The wars slowed down and became less severe. Famines halted as the ecosystems resettled themselves. Life on Diaemus was going back to normal.

Two thousand years ago, a handful of human societies learned how to grow grain crops, and began to form the peculiar social structure we call civilization in the Diaemite ecosystem. Cities were built from the ground up. Some humans began smelting metals like copper, bronze, and even iron, much to the amusement of the handful of Dromean societies which already knew how to do it. In time, bustling trade routes started criss-crossing the map, as goods were produced and shipped across the continent.

This is the modern era, a second golden age. It is largely medieval in feel; merchants and a handful of travelers might see the outside world, but by and large most people regardless of species prefer to stay at home. It's a dangerous world, with roads packed with bandits and wild beasts. Occasionally, the skies are darkened by the smoke of wars and marching armies. This new age promises advancements and discoveries never dreamed of in the First Age of Wisdom, but with those promises come the tidings of strife and turmoil.

How will Diaemus fare now? Will the diverse cultures of the world learn to get along in peace and harmony, trading goods and culture as they forge a better world? Or will the planet be plunged into war by an angry empire, or consumed whole by one of the foul ancient gods whispered of in legends? Will this age flow into an age of heaven, or is all of our work merely the calm before the storm?

Well don't ask me. That's for you to figure out.