Fifth Epoch
The current historical era of the world. The campaign opens in year 1349 of the Fifth Epoch, the longest sustained Epoch on record.
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The Fifth Epoch is the current historical era of the world in Lord of Mysteries. The campaign opens in 1349 of the Fifth Epoch, following the source material's chronology. The Epoch frame organises the world's history into long cyclical eras separated by cataclysmic events: each previous Epoch ended in a near-extinction-level supernatural disaster, and the Fifth Epoch's stability since approximately year 0 has been one of the longest sustained periods of mortal civilisation in recorded history.
The Fifth Epoch's calendar runs across roughly 1,400 years to the campaign's opening. Key reference points:
Year 0 of the Fifth Epoch: the cataclysmic boundary that ended the Fourth Epoch. Specific details of the boundary event are reserved for late-game and source-material spoiler content; the campaign references it through scattered hints and vision sequences.
Approximately 1143 of the Fifth Epoch: Roselle Gustav transmigrates into the world. Sparks the industrial revolution that defines the modern era's technological landscape.
Approximately 1300s of the Fifth Epoch: the formation of the modern political map (Loen as constitutional monarchy, Intis as republic, etc.).
1349 of the Fifth Epoch: campaign opens. Klein Moretti transmigrates into Klein's body, joins the Tingen Nighthawks, and founds the Tarot Club.
Late 1349 / early 1350 of the Fifth Epoch: typical campaign progression window for the Crimson Test beta scope.
The Fifth Epoch carries forward institutions from earlier eras even as new ones emerge:
Seven Orthodox Churches: established religious institutions with deep historical roots in the early Fifth Epoch.
Beyonder Pathway system: the 22 Pathways are pre-existing structures that pre-date the Fifth Epoch and survive across Epoch boundaries.
Industrial Revolution: a Fifth-Epoch-specific transformation triggered by Roselle Gustav's transmigration. Without Roselle, the Fifth Epoch would have remained a pre-industrial era.
Tarot Club: formed in the campaign's opening years, a recent addition to the world's Beyonder structure.
The Fifth Epoch's relative stability is a load-bearing thematic element. Characters are aware that previous Epochs ended in catastrophe; many of the Churches' doctrines and Beyonder secret-society structures exist specifically to prevent another Epoch-ending event. The campaign's main stakes ladder up toward this concern, with late-Act content (gated behind the Crimson Test scope) wrestling directly with whether the Fifth Epoch will survive intact.
For players, the Epoch frame provides scope. Decisions are framed against a millennial timescale. The Tarot Club's rituals reach across geographic distance, but the player's character is also reaching across historical distance: walking the same path that figures like Roselle and Klein walked, in a chain of transmigrators and revolutionaries that compounds over Epoch-scale time.