Era III – The Saffron Renaissance

Year 621 – 980 High Magic Theory & Early Machines

Science moves so far, in fact, that universities and colleges are all centres of learning where star maps, esoteric geometry, and philosophies that compete with a divine word are analyzed. Technology has advanced as well, with windmills, waterwheels, early optics, papermaking, refined steel, and just the very beginning of the clockwork machine. Now, power derives from the city leagues, from scholar-princes and merit academics, rather than from those who have entered power from birth. Important developments include Thalen’s growth circles and Miraen’s artificers, who map the world’s living currents. The churches become scholarly pursuits: Life (biology), Purity (chemistry), Memory (history), Craft (engineering), Health (medicine), and Growth (ecology). The first automata — not self-thinking robots but clockwork servants and ritual-driven implements — round out the technological evolution.