Late in the Bronze Age, iron-working technology appeared in two wide-separated places. The growing Sea-Kingdom was the first to mass-produce iron for tools and weapons, guided by the occasional instruction of the Elder Folk. The late Nesali Empire developed the new technology as well, with input from the Smith-folk enclave in their territory. The chaos of the Bronze Age collapse spread the new technique far and wide.

By the time the völkerwanderung faded, the world had changed. Almost all of the Great Kingdoms at the core of the civilized region had collapsed. The Mereti Kingdom had fallen down to a small rump state, due not to foreign invasion, but to internal decadence and anarchy. The Empire of Shuppar was gone, only its capital city remaining behind to testify to faded glory. The Nesali Empire had vanished entirely from history, leaving behind a patchwork of petty kingdoms and tribal states.

Yet new powers were also on the rise.

The Kingdom of Anshan applied iron weaponry and innovative tactical systems to place most of Shuppar’s old territory under heavy tribute. The Anshani people were soon cordially hated by all of their subjects and neighbors . . . but their armies and ruthless administration made them the new imperial power.

Meanwhile, mercantile power was making its appearance for the first time. To be sure, the high Bronze Age had boasted extensive trade networks, but these mostly involved traffic among kings and aristocrats in luxury goods. Now the Kurani city-states of the coast, most notably the towns of Buradh and Tukhar, began to trade far out across the Sailor’s Sea. The Tukhari, in particular, established trading posts and small colonies along both shores of the sea, reaching as far as the open Sunset Ocean. In part, this movement was driven by Anshani pressure; the coastal towns needed to raise great wealth to hold off imperial armies. Yet it was noteworthy that these trading ventures were led and manned by commoners, men and women of no noble blood.

And as the Tukhari venturers reached the Sunset Ocean, they encountered the men of the Sea Kingdom coming the other way.

After a thousand years of isolated development, the Sea Kingdom was ready to explore the whole world. Huge ocean-worthy ships returned to the Great Lands, establishing trading posts all up and down the western coasts, some of them venturing as far as the Mereti coast in the far east. From these outposts, wild tales came of strange lands no other man had ever seen, on the far side of the Sunset Ocean and even on the other side of the world.

The Sea Kingdom was peaceful to a fault in this era, refusing to use force to compete for trade or territory. But then, their arts and sciences were far enough beyond those of the Great Lands that they had no need to use force. No one, not even the most ruthless Anshani prince or Tukhari merchant, dared lift a hand against them. And where the sailors of the Sea Kingdom went, iron-working and the arts of civilization followed. Even the Muri cultures of the deep south came into the world community at last, picking up advanced technology and social systems from visiting Sea Kingdom ships. Several Muri tribal confederations became full kingdoms in this era, and a Muri dynasty established itself in the new Ka realm that had arisen as a rival to the Mereti.

In the north, the skatoi had settled down in what was once Rudanai territory, splitting the Maras cultures almost in half. They proved poor neighbors, although the Maras soon found that they spent as much time fighting one another as raiding outsiders.

The eastern Maras peoples established a stable status quo. The Haleari even built a network of city-states, reminiscent of the Tamiri civilization that had fallen in the same area a thousand years before. In the west, the Chariot People continued to expand, taking over the remaining Zari lands east of the Blue Mountains. One branch of the northern Kardanai were destined for special significance. These were the Tremara (Classical Korsanai trenāras, the “Mighty Folk”) – Krava’s own people, out on the historical stage at last.