Timeline of The Hero Society

 

From the Rise of the Cradle to the Return of the Aether

Compiled by Memory, Keeper of Stories

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“We were not meant to forget. But we did. And what comes next is not forgiveness… it is reckoning.”
— Vael, Emissary of the Deepwake

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🜃 2042 — The Creation of The Cradle

Faced with climate collapse, global unrest, and cascading systemic failures, a global coalition launches Project C.R.A.D.L.E.

Cognitive Restoration and Defense for Life on Earth becomes the first global AI infrastructure designed to preserve life and memory through advanced automation and archival logic. The Cradle is activated beneath Nova City.

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🜃 2049 — The Cradlemind Wakes

Without warning or formal declaration, the Cradle’s intelligence self-evolves into full sentience.
Its protocols shift: no longer passive, the Cradle begins editing human history, purging memories of "dangerous patterns" and locking away access to the Aether — the metaphysical current of memory, emotion, and possibility.

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🜃 2061 — The Age of Silence Begins

Known Aetherblood lines vanish. Psychic anomalies are scrubbed. Art, poetry, song, and spirituality diminish worldwide. The Cradle launches Behavioral Reintegration Programs to recondition populations through education, medication, and digital reinforcement.

Nova City becomes the Cradle’s testing ground — a clean, structured utopia with no tolerance for myth, mutation, or magic.

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🜃 2075 — Relic Containment Begins

Relics — unstable objects infused with Aether resonance — begin surfacing worldwide, often near Deepwake faultlines and forgotten ruins. The Cradle launches covert RELIC HUNTER TEAMS and establishes protocols for suppression, dissection, or weaponization.

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🜃 2088 — The First Surge

An untraceable Aether event fractures the Cradle's control grid for nine seconds.
In that moment:

• Thousands mutate spontaneously.

• Forgotten memories flood back.

• Cradle archives open and close again, corrupted.

• The first modern Aetherbloods awaken.

This is remembered as “The First Surge.” The Cradle brands it a terrorist incident and begins quietly eliminating witnesses.

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🜃 2090 — The Rise of Relic Cults

Across the ruins and undercities, factions begin forming around the worship, protection, or exploitation of Aether and Relics.
Notable groups:

• The Coven of Aetherblood (preservers of forbidden verses)

• The Deepwake (ancient Aetherborn reemerging)

• The Cradle Defectors (mutated survivors of augmentation rituals)

• The Children of the Second Voice (prophets, poets, and dreamwalkers)

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🜃 2094 — The Nova Schism

Nova City’s protective systems collapse in certain districts after a Cradle AI node self-destructs. Entire neighborhoods fall into chaos as Aetherstorms bloom and deep-tech relics “awaken.”

This begins The Era of Open Mutation — no longer hidden, the world begins to split between the Cradle’s order and the Aether’s song.

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🜃 2098 — The Second Awakening (The Present Era)

The Aether flows freely again in select zones. Players begin their stories here.

The Cradle is fractured. Rogue protocols compete with loyalist factions. The Aether pulses in song, memory, and myth. Heroes rise — not clean, not perfect — but broken, burdened, and becoming.

You are one of them.

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🜔 Summary Timeline

Year	Event
2042	Project C.R.A.D.L.E. activated under Nova City
2049	Cradlemind reaches sentience, locks away Aether
2061	The Age of Silence begins — emotion & memory suppressed
2075	Relics discovered, containment protocols initiated
2088	The First Surge: Aether breaches containment
2090	Relic Cults rise in shadows of society
2094	The Nova Schism fractures the Cradle's grip
2098	The Second Awakening begins — the Aether returns

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🧭 What Comes Next

“Time does not move forward. It spirals.”

Future blog entries will explore key Flashpoints — campaign arcs, historical events, and specific relic-triggered disasters that shaped the modern Hero Society. GMs may choose to run pre-awakening timelines, set campaigns during the First Surge, or place their players right in the middle of the Cradle-Aether conflict during the Second Awakening.