By 9,000 years before Krava’s time, the Ice Age was in full retreat. Although a remnant of the ice sheet remained in the far north and west, most of the northern continent was becoming greener and more hospitable with each generation. Tundra turned to open steppe, and then to deep forests, spreading inexorably northward.

Both of the humanities living in the Great Lands took advantage of the new springtime.

The Smith-folk enclaves grew, and more of them took root in congenial mountain valleys exposed by the retreat of the Ice. Some of these enclaves attained populations in the low thousands, with complex social systems and even a few permanent structures in stone or wood. These enclaves had not yet acquired the mighty fortifications of later millennia, but the structure of the latter-day holdfast was finally becoming clear.

Meanwhile, the Smith-folk had become accustomed to the presence of the taller, more versatile Common-folk sharing the wide lands. They taught the newcomers (some of) their ancient knowledge, and gave away tools and artifacts of power in exchange for meat and hard-to-find materials. Some Common-folk bands even set up trading relationships, carrying light goods and ideas among the Smith-folk enclaves. The result was a tenuous network of trade and communication that stretched across two continents. This system gave rise to a variety of high Mesolithic cultures.

In one small area, the first hints of something even more significant had appeared. At the eastern end of the Sailor’s Sea, some of the Common-folk began to supplement their otherwise-typical Mesolithic lifestyle with the harvesting of wild grains. This was not agriculture – not yet – but it enabled the Common-folk of the region to attain population densities impossible elsewhere.

One of the centers of this pre-Neolithic activity was at a place called Tar-Kuran, the “high place” where a dozen disparate tribes came together to build a common ritual center. The center of Tar-Kuran was a great ring of carved standing stones, the result of thousands of man-years of back-breaking labor. When completed, the “high place” became known among the Common-folk tribes all across the Great Lands, and people came from incredible distances to see it.

What the elder peoples thought of Tar-Kuran is lost in the depths of time. It’s possible that some of the Smith-folk of the southern continent aided in its planning and construction. They could not, however, have been prepared for some of the consequences. For at Tar-Kuran, the placation of land-spirits and hunting-spirits, and elaborate rituals for the grain harvest, gave rise to something genuinely new. Some spirits invoked at the “high place” thrived upon the attention and fearful supplication of the Common-folk . . . becoming the first gods to dwell in the Great Lands.

Here’s a link to the DeviantArt page for this map.