Time Before
The Time Before is an undocumented age of very ancient history. It takes its name from being the time before an event called the Mistake. What exactly this Mistake was is not fully known, but the outcome caused the near annihilation of civilization across many worlds.
ZenToYa explains this to AsaHi in the Dreigiau story:
“But yes, anyhow, there was a Mistake. No one’s quite sure of what it was, but it messed a lot of things up. Apparently before we ever existed, there were other civilizations, lifetimes, beings… it’s referred to as the Time Before,” he spread his hands as if to illustrate the magnitude of it all.
AsaHi tilted her head, leaning back on her palms. Her green eyes were wide with imagination.
“Who they were and what they were like, I don’t know that we’ll ever find out. All I do know is when this Mistake happened, it took almost everything with it.”
“What caused the Mistake?” she asked.
“Zemi never really said,” Zento shook his head. “All I can be sure of is that many of the living creatures were destroyed, including most of the Arweinydd themselves. A group of young Arweinydd that were somehow protected managed to make it through… again, we don’t really know how.”
Conflict in the Time Before
Though little is known of the events that caused the end of the Time Before, it’s thought that it was directly related to conflicts between the Dragon-kin and the Arweinydd. For much of the Time Before, the Arweinydd race was used as an energy source by the Dragon-kin.
When it was discovered that the Arweinydd had the potential to develop into sentient lifeforms, this was denied and discarded by the Dragon-kin clans who sought the power consuming the Arweinydd provided. An opposing Dragon-kin faction fought to protect the Arweinydd instead, and some even hastened the development of Arweinydd in order to allow the energy-form race to defend itself.
Somehow, in the middle of all this, the first Sygni were created – a being of both Earthian and Arweinydd energies. Little is known about the early Sygni, including whether these were creatures created or born, aside from the fact they were extremely unstable. Still, these Sygni were used in battle by the Dragon-kin clans of both factions.
The culmination of these conflicts is thought to have led to the Mistake.
Survivors of the Time Before
There were very few survivors of the Mistake who remain in current times. One such was small group of Arweinydd, who were not self-aware during the Time Before. These include:
Some Dragon-kin survived with help of a time jump through the Vision Stone, including the clan lead by Zoe and Dunstan. This clan now makes a home on the Nefolian world in Dragon Haven. These Dragon-kin were of the faction who supported the freedom of Arweinydd.
Finally, a handful of the people of the ancient shape-shifting clan told of in Flames of Bedlam still remain. These survivors include powerful entities such as Bahamut and Leviathan, who likely hold the most knowledge about the Time Before, though they rarely share.