From time to time I find it useful to repost these two timelines:
Present year 1627
- 10 years ago – Lunar Empire invades Hendrikiland
- 25 years ago – Boldhome falls to the Lunar Empire
- 50 years ago – Battle of Grizzly Peak
- 100 years ago – Apotheosis of Sartar
- 300 years ago – Belintar unites Holy Country
- 500 years ago – the Dragonkill War (1120)
- 1000 years ago- the Kingdom of Dragon Pass. After this came the EWF.
- 1500 years ago – the Second Council. The Theyalans dominate Genertela and war with the Pelorian horse people.
- 2000 years ago – I Fought, We Won, and the Unity Battle. After this, came the Heortling kingdom, which lasted about 800 years (until Gbaji destroyed it).
- 2500 years ago – The Chaos Age, which lasted until the Unity Battle.
- 3000 years ago – the Ice Age
- 5000 years ago – the Vingkotlings
- 10,000 years ago – Orlanth kills Yelm
Compare this to a Greek at the time of Alexander (330 BC):
- 10 years ago – Philip founds Philippopolis
- 25 years ago – the Sacred War
- 50 years ago – Battle of Leuctra (371 BC)
- 100 years ago – start of the Peloponnesian War
- 300 years ago – fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
- 500 years ago – the neo-Assyrian Empire
- 1000 years ago – the Trojan War
- 1500 years ago – height of Babylon
- 2000 years ago – Sargon and the Akkadian Empire, Proto-Greek arrives in the Greek peninsula
- 2500 years ago – Gilgamesh is king of Uruk3000 years ago – Menes units Egypt (first dynasty)
- 5000 years ago – Neolithic cities like Catal Huyuk and Jericho
- 10,000 years ago – beginning of Neolithic age
So when you look at a source like Glorious Reascent of Yelm or Heortling Mythology, you are looking at stories that were assembled some 1500 years before now. Those sources might get acknowledged or at least a nod to by scholars and antiquarians, but they aren’t living sources. And the immortal beings that remember those events occurring might remember them differently or might even compress them with other events or view them with gloss of many centuries of lived history
The point is we can look back and see – how much did any educated Greek know about the rise of proto-Greek or similar events? And then perhaps think that our Gloranthans might not be able to debate the fine points of First Age history.
Remember that the mythic event that one participates in is eternal, not historical.
For example, you might participate in a God Time event where the lesser descendants of Orlanth fought alongside him (aka the Vingkotlings) or where you witness the first king of the Middle World being given the Sword and Helm by Orlanth. That stuff is likely part of a worship ceremony and a regular activity. But what cult is dedicated to experiencing the Last Royal Betrayal? Most of that pre-history stuff is archetypal, not historical.
How meaningful is any measure of years prior to 0 ST? Events prior to the Dawn are part of the eternal God Time and hard-wired into the cosmos. Events after the Dawn are merely historical. But mortals that exist within Time cannot help but construct chronologies. The dates given above give you an idea how far away those events are if you think of them as chronological events.