Introduction to The Continent Chronicles

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Unlike most works of fiction, The Continent Chronicles is not a book. Instead, it's an online encyclopedia.

This page was created in order to help new readers orient themselves in this unusual medium. It will provide you with enough basic information about the Continent, its inhabitants and the Chronicles so that you can begin exploring on your own.

The Continent

The outline of the Continent

Currently, the Earth has many continents. But as tectonic plates move, the configuration of the continents will changes. Eventually, they will form what is known in geology as a supercontinent.

The world that the Chronicles explore is exactly such a supercontinent.

There are a couple of things you need to know about it:

  • Its climate tends to be dryer in the center. This tends to be true for most supercontinents. In fact, the very center of the Continent is occupied by the desert Ouna, which is almost uninhabitable, with the average summer temperatures shooting over 45 degrees Celsius and average winter temperatures falling below -25 C. And there's very little precipitation.
  • The natural thing would be to assume that the equator divides the Continent horizontally. But, in fact, the equator is vertical. This means that its colder in the far east and far west, while central parts of northern and southern Continent are warm. This might be a little disorienting at first, but you do get used to it very quickly.

The dantrian calendar

Dantrian calendar

You'll sometimes see mentions of revolutions: first revolution, second revolution. But these are not political upheavals. Instead, this is a reference to the most commonly used calendar on the Continent: the dantrian calendar.

If you look at the image, you'll see that it has a spiral in the center. This is because the dantrian calendar conceptualizes history as "revolutions" of the spiral. So, revolutions refer to periods of time.

Every revolution is 2000 years. Present date on the Continent is 11th century of the third revolution. So, say, 1603 FR would refer to the middle of the first revolution - which would be 4000 years ago. Whole recorded history of the Continent is 51 centuries.

Superhero warriors

Probably the most notable part of the Continent are its superhero warriors. From time to time, individuals with incredible powers are born. These powers range from completely benign and sometimes even harmful to their bearer to devastatingly powerful.

For instance, a superhero warrior by the name of Darid Marven was able to materialize objects out of thin air. At the end of his life he created a whole chain of mountains known as Warlock Mountains that existed for several centuries.

There have been hundreds of documented superhero warriors, some of them influencing the course of history, some - fading into obscurity.

The Continent Chronicles

The Continent Chronicles themselves are a constant work in progress. It is quite alright to find pages that are in the midst of being written. But the Chronicles are being actively worked on everyday and the amount of content is constantly increasing.

There are many ways to read the Chronicles. The most basic way is to simply use the now usual toolset of an online encyclopedia: start somewhere and simply follow the links. You can take advantage of the "Random page" in the navigation menu.

Another way is to watch/listen to our podcasts about the Continent's history, which are based on the Chronicles.

Where to start

TBD: Provide a list of several notable stories that are already well written and can be explored.

How the Continent Chronicles is being worked on

TBD: The general order of writing the Chronicles, from Tarnarian history, to Darda and the Loodon Empire, to possible south and Western Dantria. What's next, and so on.

Canon, related works