GALEN EARLY HISTORY

~22,000 years ago

Possibly the birth of the modern Galen race, It is thought that sentience was not developed over time gradually as a result in increased mental faculties, but a sudden and unexplained development in an existing non-sentient species mind, a sort of mutation that led to previously non-sentient species to develop a rapidly growing sentient population. The difference between the non-sentient Galen and the modern sentient form is very hard to discern, but around this time we begin to see the rapid expansion of the modern Galen, and the rapid extinction of the other.

~19,000 years ago

Pre-sentient Galen subspecies disappears from fossil record, some remains found prior to this time show trauma consistent with weapons, though it is thought that the sentient Galen out competed them, rather than killing them that led to their eventual extinction.

~12,000 years ago

First Galen artifacts start being found, many pieces suggesting art and mythology, though much of this prehistory is very poorly recorded and is scattered only very narrowly on one region of the home continent.

~10,000 years ago

Remains of first Galen settlement discovered in forest regions, structure of settlement is inconsistent with the form that would later come to dominate Galen culture.

~6,000 years ago, few settlements found in isolated region, looking like the more modern Galen settlements, total Galen population was still thought to be below 2 million, and the occupied land was thought to be an area less than half of the founding Peninsula.

~3,200 years ago

The Great Dispersal, archaeological records show a rapid expansion of the Galen settlements from their initial origin, spreading across the major land mass of their home continent in less than 300 years, modern ruins still stand to these early periods, other records suggest that by this time an established system of language had been developed that was common to all Galen, the limiting factor of their expansion was mainly the slow growth of their population.

~2,900 years ago

The first flush of settlements had been agrarian based, settling in regions where food was easily obtained, by 2,900 years ago we see the first non-agrarian settlements develop, which started to produce mineral and metal goods, their existence was supported by the agrarian settlements. It is unclear whether at this stage a primitive economy was working, as throughout most of Galen history settlements have cooperatively worked with each other to distribute goods rather than developing currencies and concepts of money. It was thought at this time that the manufactured goods of these early metallurgical settlements formed the foundation of a primitive money system, which was lost by 6,500 years ago when communities took as a whole exchanged goods for the resident citizens (personal wealth has never really been a concept in this civilization, but towns as a whole could be wealthy, especially so if they were a net exporter, as other communities owed them thanks)

~2,900 years ago

First large sea going trading craft begin in this era, before this settlements were trading mainly on land routes, as settlements were all located on the same landmass. But now we see the development of small trading craft which plied the settlements along colonized rivers which traded high value machined goods for food offers, into huge ocean going vessels providing large volume relatively high speed transfer between adjacent peninsulas. Though this kind of nautical technology has been seen as far back as 7500 years ago, ships were mostly small and were used to either navigate rivers or for fishing.

~2,500 years ago

Modern Galen system of economy established, no actual currencies existed but communities would trade with each other to provide for all their citizens, and citizens themselves would work for their communities, in return everyone would be given equal access to food and resources.

~2,400 years ago

The start of the ‘Sea Races’ a number of short-lived civilizations, though some of their structures still persist to this day. As the seas between the peninsulas are relatively shallow (in places a few metres deep only) people started to build into these waters, and to these constructed posts they started to tether the floating plant communities that team these warm seas, over time these artificial islands could become quite extensive and home to quite extensive populations. Like most Galen settlements they were quite self sufficient and traded with the numerous sea trade routes set up in these times. These Sea Races are also the most religiously advanced of the modern Galen civilizations, though now only their temples remain

~2,100 years ago,

The age of mysticism, The Sea Races had developed a highly structured religious system, which was now on the decline, along with their population, but before this these ideas had not spread much beyond their islands. In this period we see much spiritual development, with the foundation of hundreds of different working philosophies, and a wide spread belief in magic. Some have labeled these times to be dark ages where technology and science had stopped advancing (which was not true, in these times we see some of the most rapid development in medicine and especially chemistry), but Galen civilization was in fact growing ever richer in culture, these times had provided the foundations for most of the varied Galen societies we see today, before this time most of the civilization was quite homogenous, but after it we see great diversification in art and philosophy.

~1,900 years ago

For the first time in Galen civilization we see the shutting down of settlements, with communications between settlements becoming increasingly erratic, there are even one or two hostilities between settlements. There is some formation of city states, and even larger countries consisting of bands of communities that would only trade with each and no-one else. These divisions were thought to emerge from the fact that the growing Galen population was putting pressure on the relatively limited agricultural system (which was mostly around settlements, not extending deep into the countryside). This age however has given rise to regional names, and groups of communities that act in a very similar way to human countries, with certain ideas and philosophies being unique to these groups.

~1,100 years ago,

The country groups have by now opened up to global trading again, but the systems that have arisen in these times led to modern ideas of governance, with representatives of individual communities and of groups of communities discussing the development for their region, which in later centuries would be developed on a global scale.

~1,000 years ago,

Though technology had been advancing fairly rapidly, it from this point that the true technological prowess of the Galen is realized, achieving in what took humans centuries to master, the Galen managed to develop in decades without the need for war as a catalyst or huge populations. This march of successful science and technology would only ever speed up.

~900 years ago,

Exploratory science vessels discovery the far continent, its impact would lead to the most significant events in modern history, these craft also discover numerous distant islands as yet uncolonised, but more surprisingly discover some settled communities which have been out of touch with Galen civilization for centuries (as communities have always been very closely linked it was quite a shock to discover communities that have lived independently for some time). Some of these communities had been formed in the vague years of the age of mysticism where whole communities had set off for prophesized islands, others had been formed through the collapse of sea trading routes. The unusual development of these civilizations would play a major feature in fictional work to this day, and indeed the ideas and cultures of these communities have kept Galen anthropologists busy for centuries.

~700 years ago

Widescale colonization efforts of the far continent, though these early communities encounter a dangerous life form, the Natara, which had once lived on the home continent, and were perhaps connected with the birth of Galen civilization, a certain amount of mythology existed about these animals in the Great Dispersion, and some remains have been found in the more polar peninsulas, it is thought that the Natara sometimes seasonally cross the polar seas to the home continent. This rediscovery led to a sort of mystical renaissance, and some of the finest enduring constructions to be created in Galen history, the Natara were also domesticated and can be found now as pets rather than fierce predators of the Galen (not all species of the Natara were dangerous, and unfortunately many of the more aggressive species were killed by 1,500 years ago).

~500 years ago,

Established ports on the new continent led to huge amounts of transcontinental shipping, with any hundreds of thousands of new immigrants arriving each year to fill out the small colonies. Examination of the native flora pushed ahead their concepts of evolutionary biology by centuries, as well as providing a new wealth of medicinal plants.