This article is in need of a touch-up! It provides a complete overview of its topic, but the clarity could use improvement! You can help expand it by commenting or suggesting an edit through GitHub issues!
The Dying Period was a 17 year period of time, beginning with the First Death—the start of the God-War Era—in the year 177 BT and ending after the first season of 145 BT, coinciding with the end of the Great Poleward Fog Migration. An estimated 70% to 80% of all Gods to ever exist perished during the period, gaining it its name and making it the most deadly period in recorded history.
Historians typically use the terminology of “violent” and “peaceful” Gods to explain how the Dying Period came to happen, though these terms are not reflective of the actual behaviors of the Gods.
Prelude
The Quickening, shorter than a single season, resulted in an exponential and influential increase in the number Gods. This event, documented in the Quickening System, resulted in the creation of an estimated fifteen billion Gods. Overlapping domains and cramped space would cause tensions to rise and culminate in the First Death, initiating the Great Dying.
Documented in Death’s Star the First Death would trigger an epiphany among the Gods, realizing their own mortality many would attempt to grasp control of the situation. Some would choose to secure their own lives by any means, including killing those who threatened them. On the contrary some would look to cement their legacy, publishing the stars which would form Death’s System. These are referred to by historians as “violent” and “peaceful” Gods respectively.
Mass Casualties & Aftermath
The death toll of the Dying Period is unknown, though it is estimated by many modern theogenists and astronomers to be profound—building the foundation of the Plane’s geography. Low estimates range in the millions, while the highest estimates range in the low billions. All that is known, by account of various stars in Death’s Star System, is that approximately 90% of all Gods passed during the cataclysm.
Over the course of the Dying Period an estimated 11.2 billion Gods would pass away1. As the space between territories grew and the number of “violent” Gods decreased, a descent in the number of deaths would begin. Though it would only drop off to the numbers seen through the rest of the war after the end of the Dying Period.
The Dying Period would see the introduction of religion by the God of Chromodynamic Energy following the First Convening, though it would only be as the population of Gods stabilized into the 160s BT that religious institutions would be able to settle and develop.
Though Gods had died across the entirety of the Plane the corpses of the Gods who died appear to have accumulated mostly around the central pole. The reasons for this are unclear, but many historians and geologists believe it was the winds which carried the corpses or other Gods. Oher time tectonic activity caused the mountain of bodies to drift apart and form the continents of today.
See Also
This article is considered complete for the moment, and it’s unclear if it will need to be revisited in the future! If you think it’s time for a review make a suggestion through a GitHub issue!
