1010 AH: Augustus Flagg, 37th descendant of Clan Nibelheim, assumes the Emperor's throne in Wutai after a great time of public renewal and mysterious weakening of the other clans.

 

1020 AH: After years of debate in the council halls and a worsening condition in the outlying Wutai region, supposedly because of financial troubles among the linchpin factories, council drafts an in extremis amendment, giving industrial sectors much more freedom to produce higher technology without previous confirmation. Across the waters, the Followers of Mako are alerted to this condition, though hang back to investigate before moving in.

 

	1021 AH, 'Five Minute War': After opening seed factories in the outer regions of Wutai, the industrial sectors comes through as promised, with the new irrigation and seeding operations and procedures functioning marvelously. With famine averted, the settlements settle back into quietness. And, on a mission to uncover the secrets of the machine plants, an FoM (Followers of Mako) agent barely escapes a running gunfight with re-fabricated BH technology and copied FoM weaponry. The FoM decides to react, planting bombs in several of the factories, which de-stabilize the farming region. Revolution begins now as the industrial sector holds up their hands, smiles, and says that there is nothing they can do. Driven by starvation, peasants revolt, and when the Council drafts an army to suppress, the private companies of the Industrial sector occupy the Imperial City. Holding the government hostage until a proclamation can be drafted eliminating the council in favor of a 'democratically decided' government, the Industrial sector restores farming service to the outlying settlements.
	1023 AH: The FoM, seeing the results of their sabotage, holds off their plans in order to investigate the source of the new technology that's holding power in Wutai with bought-and-paid-for votes. Wutai slowly becomes a socialistic dictatorship, with technology improving at a breakneck pace. FoM Agents discover more and more signs of advanced technology, with precious agents never coming back from investigations into the central Industrial plant of the Wutai Imperial City.
	1027 AH: Growing desperate, the FoM stages a night-time raid with three separate platoons of Magitech armor, and is met by a superior force of fortified artillery. The fight spills over into the surrounding city alleyways, leaving much of the residential areas scorched with magic and napalm. Pointing a finger straight towards the Capital, the President of Wutai decries the Church's unholy combination of magic and technology. Church leaders are aghast and eagerly try to seek out their own scapegoat; the FoM retreats further in obscurity, pulling field agents to avoid discovery.
	1029 AH: Another war between Wutai and the Empire begins to seem like more and more of a reality as Wutai Occupational Forces invade several Valente islands on the fringe of the Empire's domain. Technology in Wutai has swung up towards a 1950's state, with one particular Valente island, perilously close to the economical center of the Empire's colony, vanishes in a fury of light.
	1031 AH: Emperor Highwind issues a state of emergency when the Wutai Occupational Forces violently overtake the Barbarian Continent, hunting and purging out the nomadic tribes while integrating select few captives into little more than breeding stock with the world's first sub dermal implants and brain modifications. Most are unsuccessful and only result in corpses, violent psychopaths, or catatonic cases fit just for breeding. Worse, a few succeed.
	1033 AH: The Church, growing desperate, issues a proclamation legalizing the use of technology and endorsing mechanics as Mother Gaia's 'Avenging Children.' Still, Wutai technology makes it appearance in the hinterland of the main continent, sufficiently supplied for a Sitzkrieg where open commerce is conducted with villages far removed from Empire and Church influence. Logistics is not a problem, but on the Wutai homeland, rationing is harshly imposed 'for our overseas troops,' despite rocketing supplies in warehouses.
	1038 AH: Emperor Highwind and select members of his inner cabinet, as well as a charming and annoyingly cute animal that fights with a bar stool, fly an airship on a near-suicide mission into the Presidential Palace of Wutai. It is rumored that fighting was intense, leading in the assassination of not the President himself, but one of his elderly family members. The culmination of the fight triggers a subatomic bomb kept in the basement of the palace. No survivors reported.
	1041 AH: The Wutai Occupational Forces splinter without a strong leadership element previously enjoyed. Fighting is fierce, but eventually the troops are withdrawn to the Wutai homeland and the new colonies beginning on the Barbarian continent. Though, Emperor Highwind never reappears, leaving no heirs and fracturing an age-old line. Technology left from the war is slowly assimilated into a distrustful culture, first in museums. And next by troops, finding new uses for tank engines in drawing water and harvesting their fields. Wutai becomes reclusive, cutting off all trade while further exploring the Barbarian Continent.
	1070 AH: Trade resumes after decades of mistrust. The Empire little more than a memory to the older citizens, the former cabinet of Emperor Highwind tries to piece together the communication lines, but eventually, there are only kings and vassal states. War is a common occurrence among the subjects of the former Empire, as various Kings compete in trying to find the secrets of the old Wutai war machines, while financing 'heretics' for their own, new innovations. The Church loses ground quickly, instituting stricter prohibitions against when to use technology, and also what one is allowed in their daily life. Promises of reincarnation become more fanciful as the years pass.
	1120 AH: Steam-driven carriages, pioneered by King Mercinus of Yevret, decimate the armies of the Red Baron in a neighboring kingdom. More importantly, the design is quickly stolen by spies of neighboring kingdoms. Roads are rebuilt in what unintentionally becomes the first co-operative effort of the feuding kingdoms in close to fifty years. Trade improves, slowly, with further invigoration by the return of the Wutai trading companies, offering a rich surplus in precision-made machine parts, which are a welcome relief to the Kingdoms which have not yet discovered industrialism.
	1220 AH: Slowly introducing new methods and improvements to the various kingdoms, and always at a higher cost than before, Wutai brings the remains of the Empire up to an industrialized society, although one still deeply rooted in agragarian commerce. Wutai merchants and traders use their wealth in order to establish themselves into local politics. Soon, a few kingdoms become plutocracies, with their merchant traders reinventing laws to favor themselves. All traders seem, upon historical review, remarkably similar in their methods; the 'Head Office' theory is a favorite among crackpots.
	1300 AH: The ambient levels of magic continued to slowly decline as the planet, roused from Holy, finally slipped back into its slumbering and dormant state. At about 1,300 AH, the planet gave a mighty earthquake, then fell silent. 'Shock' casting became totally impossible, and innate magic became increasingly difficulty with each passing decade. With public confidence already shaken from the sudden magic drought of 1007, magic quickly falls in popularity as it becomes more and more cumbersome and unwieldy. It was also at this time that the Northen lands became hospitable. With the magic plugged up, gaia's wrath became, largely, a thing of the past. By coincidence or purpose, as the planet fell into slumber, animal hybrids across the world found themselves giving birth to humans instead of other animals. Social chaos swept sharply for a generation as the hybrid folk largely died out. Some rare few blood lines resisted this shift, remaining hybridized to this day.

1560 AH: The last vestiges of Monarchy have faded by this time period, replaced by a merchant prince philosophy. The Unity Group, a faction of intellectuals and scientists, push for a cohesive central government for the central continent, with their efforts linking various cities and forgotten villages together with the new Wireless Telegraph service. The Barbarian Continent, long since domesticated, is reached by an overseas telephone call in this year, sparking celebrations worldwide. Plans are made for an overseas train track.

1700 AH: The World Foundation convenes for the first time, and flexes it's power as a co-operative law making body. Trade restrictions, across-the-board health requirements, social security, and taxes are discussed, revises, and accepted. International currency is suggested, voted upon, and passed, thus reducing inflation and providing a stable foundation for the new economy to build upon. Technology is the main product of many kingdoms, with agricultural demands met and exceeded by wild margins with techniques pioneered by the land-poor Wutai state.

1700-2000 AH: Monsters became less of a concern thanks to advanced weaponry in later years, but are still an ever-present nuisance. No matter how many are wiped out in raids and sweeps, more seem to sprout up wherever a city isn't residing. Mages are a rare lot. Forced to use extreme measures to get enough energy to fuel basic spells, few bother with it when technology offers an easy alternative. Blood magic, sacrifices, or just reliance on physical objects make magic working an inconvenient art. The church, as a global power, has fallen. People still believe in god and reincarnation and such, but they're not willing to put their lives on the line for it anymore. To keep with the times, the church is a registered corporation, offering religious services of all kinds to any clientele willing to pay. The city of Neo-Junon now rises with two tiers. The lower holds the working lower class. Poor, living with pollution, and fighting for the right to live. Above them, the coporate stiffs file through red tape, taken care of by the four major corporations of the city.