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Dark Ages

created by Pseudo_Intellectual

(thing) by tkatchev (6.6 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Wed Jul 04 2001 at 12:25:43

In actuality, the "Dark Ages" are far from a barbarian time of decay. European civilization has been formed during the "Dark Ages", and almost everything that we usually think of as Western Culture has been invented during the "Dark Ages".

Here are just a few examples:

This is of course far from a complete list, but should be enough to show the importance of the "Dark Ages" in a global context. We are all, in fact, children of the "Dark Ages" culturally and socially. (At least those of us who have European ancescestors.)

(thing) by Wuhao (1 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Tue Feb 05 2002 at 9:43:13

 Dark Ages is an online role-playing game by Nexon, inc., also known for their real-time strategy MMPOG, "Shattered Galaxy". Founded in early 1999, it (allegedly) draws its inspiration from various H.P. Lovecraft works. I say allegedly, since I have not actually read any H.P. Lovecraft. It is not set in any particular period, and is only named "Dark Ages" due to the fact that the original administrator just happened to have darkages.com registered. The overtone is a midieval world, with cities in Celtic, Greek, and French styles. Gaelic is considered the "ancient tongue," and is used to title all priest and wizard spells.

 An underlying theme for the game is the idea of a user-run community -- The game features political and religious structures for players to join and administer. The political system is of particular note, since it takes on almost all of the rule enforcement tasks normally left to the owner. This system, while widely criticized by many players as being corrupt and abused, works surprisingly well considering that it brings dozens of community administrators for absolutely no cost.

 Consistantly billed as being a "serious RPG," Dark Ages starts off with a tutorial informing you that you can and will be shunned and/or forcibly removed from the community if you break character. While Dark Ages indeed has the stiffest role-play community I've ever seen in an MMPOG, one will only see 4% or so of the players engaging in any serious form of roleplaying.

 Perhaps the most intriguing element of Dark Ages, however, is it's moderate size. With about 700-1,000 individual players, Dark Ages hits what I feel is the "sweet spot" in terms of community size: A world large enough to have an endless supply of new faces, but small enough so you get to know dozens of old faces, too.

 Dark Ages is built to encourage a strong social life amongst its players. A new player will immediately notice that you literally cannot get started without the assistance of others; To choose a character class, one must be initiated by an experienced character of that class. Once guided, one cannot gain many levels fighting alone. Other pursuits in the game, such as politics or religion, involve social contact by their very nature.

 Unfortunately, while interacting with people is an integral part of Dark Ages, not all of the people are fun to interact with. This will rapidly become apparent to players of female characters, who will be innundated by marriage proposals, sexual harassment, and general unregulated teenage boyhood.

 The in-game political and religious systems provide seemingly endless potential for thought, exploration, and development. While it can be frustrating that 96% of the players do not make any effort to role-play, one can quickly identify and connect with fellow role-players, particularly in these systems. The simple unpredictibility of the social element can keep one entertained for months.

 Dark Ages is not particularly extraordinary in any individual fashion. The graphics are extremely basic, working on a 256-color palette. The music (if you choose to download and enable it) is very nice, the first six-hundred times. The message boards more often than not center around usenet-style flame wars, rather than any interesting content.

 But, somehow, despite the lackluster nature of all these things, they all somehow add up to the single most addictive game I've ever played. Perhaps it is the intrigue of the in-game political system, or the chance one has to become famous amongst the players, but the game has a certain appeal to it that I cannot resist.

(thing) by legbagede (1.8 d) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 10 C!s Thu Jun 20 2002 at 18:27:35

The term 'Dark Ages' is a poetic analogy infrequently employed by contemporary historians, although it is still often found in colloquial use. The epoch is generally treated as stretching roughly 475 to 1000 AD; and hence is not a terribly useful label, even if usually set in intellectual opposition to the High (1000-1350) and Late (1350-1500) Middle Ages.

This period was set aside and labelled Dark (in much the way the intelligence community refers to a source "gone dark" or telecommunications refers to unlit, dormant "dark fibre") - to convey first and foremost a distinct lack of sources, formal writings or specific information. Historians writing during and after the Renaissance (ca. 1350-1500) had rediscovered all manner of material covering antiquity, and could be relatively clear on the events of the past century or so, but there seemed a vast, impenetrable gulf of time between the Hellenic-Roman sources and these recent writings. It became rather difficult to establish what precisely humankind had been up to in Europe for those occluded five centuries, so scholars began to postulate and build up a narrative for a half-millennium of wanton barbarity, deadly plague, infernal savagery and little else.

The myth they built was so popular, historians swallowed it whole, and repeated it like a mantra right up into the 20th century. However, archeology, palaeontology, numanistics and diplomatics have all contributed greatly to the understanding of the period over the last century - which has in turn spurred modern historians to revisit what were their most accepted understandings about the period. Clearly much more cultural and economic exchange had been occurring than was once thought, so that the familiar image of a battered, insular West under the thumb of the Church seems simply lax historical interpretation in hindsight.

Why 432 as a start? Why 1091 as a end date? As outlined above, the very notion of assigning strictly delineated epochs is fairly arbitrary; most historians of this century have criticized the practice as intellectually misleading, archly conservative and narrowly uncreative. However, between these two dates, as hopefully is shown below, much of the West was dangerously adrift. It took almost six hundred years of incursions, intrigue and ingenuity for the exchange of the old Mediterranean world to re-establish itself. By 432, the Pax Romana was a distant memory in many parts of the former realm; and not until 1091 would Europeans be confident or united enough to emerge from their shell, to begin to question institutions, rediscover their world and innovate radically in the arts and sciences. That said, this chronology is far from complete, so should you notice any glaring omissions (inventions, texts, births & deaths, etc.) or errors, please let me know.

Sources: Thomas Brown, "The Transformation of the Roman Mediterranean, 400-900", Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe (London, 1988), pp. 1-62; R. Hodges, Dark Age Economics (London, 1982); Gerald Simons, Barbarian Europe (NY, 1968); Robert Delort, Life in the Middle Ages (NY: Lausanne, 1973) ; also recommended J.B. Bury, A History of the late Roman Empire from the death of Theodosius... (NY, 1958), 2v. and W. A. Goffart, Barbarians and Romans, 418 - 584 (Princeton, 1980).

432: Saint Patrick, an Irish peasant taken as a slave boy to England by Roman legionnaires (and there known as Patricus) returns to Ireland a literate and Christian priest. Meanwhile, the Northen Vandals have swept through Agricola, Gaul, Spain and managed to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. The looting of Roman North Africa begins, and coincides with Saint Augustine`s parting for his long home. Across a Mediterranean world teetering on chaos, church councils and synods meet to condemn the early heresies of gnostics, Monophysitism and the Nestorians.

450: The Lamentations of the Britons: the Britons appeal to Aetius to aid them (now that Roman forces have quit Britannia for good) as the Northern Saxons, Angles and Jutes pour across the Channel into England. However, Flavius Aetius has more pressing concerns than Anglo-Saxon hooliganism, as he prepares his under-paid troops and crumbling fortifications for Attila`s travelling road show. Aetius and his Romano-barbarian garrison manages to fight the Huns to a standoff at Chalons-sur-Marne, which in turn forces the now-starving Huns to turn their attention to northern Italy, which they invade in 452; Aetius is blamed for this and other sundry disasters, Valentinian has him summarily executed. Shortly thereafter, as Gaiseric the Lame leads his Vandals through the north, he emperor himself is assassinate by vengeful partisans.

476: Romulus Augustulus, the last titular western Roman emperor, deposed by the German chief occupying most of northern Italy.

486: The Franks, under Clovis, defeat a force under Roman General Syagrius, the last remnant of Roman power in Gaul. The Franks now control the land to which they'd give a name.

493: Theodoric the Ostrogoth brings to peace to Italy by making peace between the Romans and Gothic tribes (with the secret financial backing of the Eastern Emperor Zeno). Meanwhile, in Gaul around this time, King Clovis of the Franks is baptised and officially brings his people under the faith of the Latin Church.

529: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle sets to this date the establishment of the Kingdom of the West Saxons, Wessex, with Cerdic its first ruler. However, the Gewissae people and their fledgling nation may have been on British shores much longer. Meanwhile, Clovis has died, leaving Gaul divided among his four sons, while similar fragmentation continues throughout the Italian state. Slav tribes migrate in the worsening climate from the Western Asiatic region into the Balkans; given their people have represented the bulk of the Roman slave trade for several centuries, they feel little warmth towards their new neighbours and wreak havoc as they go. Emperor Justinian closes the Academy of Athens. Writing in Monte Cassino, Saint Benedict finishes the composition of his Monastic Rule for communal monasteries. With this simultaneous but contrasting divestment, from public philosophy to private theosophy, the Dark Ages officially begin. Soon after, crowds of racing spectators loot and burn in Constantinople in the Nika Riots, and civil disorder becomes endemic despite all the emperor`s legal reforms.

533: Justinian, seeing the Eastern Empire as truly overrun and floundering, dedicates his energies to ensuring the survival of his own realm. He commits his finest general Belisarus to the task of wresting Carthage and her navy from Vandal clutches, hopefully before the barbarian menace takes to the high seas and threaten his control of the Mediterranean. Justinian urges the Franks to move against Burgundy, while sending his own troops into Sicily, then Naples, then Rome itself which have been surrounded by large settlements of Ostrogoths.

537: Battle of Camlann, according to Annales Cambriae. Death of Arthur and Medraut; widespread plague in Britain and Ireland (according to Geoffrey of Monmouth).

550: The Persian armies in the east have reopened hostilities throughout Anatolia - Syria and the Byzantines find themselves fighting wars at either end of the Mediterranean. Eventually, however, they subdue the last of the Ostrogoth warlords in Italy (until the Lobard tribes invade). Plague swirls throughout northern Europe. Cassiodorus founds a monastery and establishes a scriptorium at Vivarium where pagan works are copied and preserved, which stands out as a fairly controversial but enlightened stance for a clergyman to take in the midst of the Dark Ages.

570: Death of Gildas. Full scale war erupts between Byzantium and Persia.

577: The Britons make a valiant push against the Anglo-Saxon invaders but are driven into Wales and defeated at the battle of Deorham (Dyrham, near Bristol).

585: The Sirmium (roughly modern Slovenia) peoples are annihilated as the Balkans overrun by Avar horsemen and their Slav allies. At the same time, the Visigoth king Leovigild expands from Gaul in the Suevi lands of northern Spain.

590: At the request of Pope Gregory the Great, Columban and other Irish monks begin their missionary work on the continent, establishing monasteries on the frontier lands and preaching in pagan northern Europe. Around this new monastic communities, localized barter economies and self-sufficient villages spring up, as wasteland is cleared for small-scale farming. Gregory of Tours, writing in his Historia Francorum details the exploits of the Messiah of Bourges, an early Robin Hood figure living around Arles, who stole from the rich, gave to the poor, claimed to be a Christ, and ended up drawn & quartered.

597: With slightly rejuvenated prospects in Britain after the ruinous wars, Augustine, Archbishop of Canterbury begins the conversion of Kent, beginning with the reigning King Ethelbert; while across the Channel, the Merovingian kings set the boundaries of the Frankish nation. Meanwhile, Persian raids continue to devastate the farms, towns and trade routes of Byzantine Anatolia.

600: Welsh bard, Aneirin, writes Y Gododdin, a poem alluding to Arthur's warrior prowess. Rise of the Kingdom of Mercia.

614: Columban established the tiny abbey and chapel at Bobbio, in the shell of a pillaged church destroyed by the Lombards, but was "the nucleus of what was to be the most celebrated library in Italy." First hand-copied pao, reports of court affairs, circulate among the educated civil servants of Peking.

620: Wei Cheng writes the bibliographic section of the official Sui Dynasty History, dividing the books into four categories - Confucian classics, historical records, philosophical writings, and miscellaneous works.

622: The evacuation of Muhammad, from Mecca to Medina (the Hijra, or Hegira) signals the beginning of a new faith; however the Byzantine court is busy defending its northern flank from a protracted siege by several united Avar and Slav chieftains.

630: The Persians return and defeat Emperor Heraclius in a battle near Nineveh. In Visigothic Spain, the first specific reference made is made to a quill pen, in the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. In Britain, King Raedwald of the East Angles is buried at Sutton Hoo.

632: Isidore completes his vast Etymologia, which becomes one of the pivotal workds of history, science and cosmology for the next four centuries. The prophet Mohammed dies in Medina. The desert Bedouin tribes and urbanites of Arabia, many who have taken up the faith of Islam, begin to argue doctrine after the Prophet's death.

633: Al-Muthanna (ibn Haritha), chief of the Banishaiban clan, steals into Persian Mesopotamia and begins siege of Hira and then drives his army west to Damascus. Christian troops are dispatched from Constantinople by Emperor Heraclius in response. Meanwhile, St. Aidan arrives at the monastery in Lindisfarne.

635: Damascus falls after Khalid and his army arrives. He then leads his troops into Jordan and defeats the Byzantine army massed against him at Yarmuck.

638: Dagobert, last of the powerful Merovingian kings, dies without a clear successor. Gaul is thrown into confusion. At the same time, Islamic armies swarm Jerusalem after a 600 day siege of the city and soon control most of the Holy Land.

640: Arabian troops cross into Egypt, and by September control Alexandria. Amr (ibn Al'as), the general now in command, writes back to the Caliph in Mecca. King Rothan of the Italian Lombards issues an independent law code.

649: Arabs take Cyprus and begin a naval war with the Byzantine Empire. The Chinese invent Porcelain.

653: The lessons of the Prophet are for the first time officially compiled into the Koran (Qu'ran).

664: Islamic armies besiege Constantinople for the first time. Contans II order Byzantine troops to invade southern Italy. Meanwhile, in Britain, the Synod of Whitby establishes the predominance of the Roman Church over the Irish clergy in regard to affairs in Britain.

670: Under Caliph Mu'awiya, the Moslem armies march 10,000 cavalry across Egypt, through Libya and into Tunisia. The establishment of the Bulgar Khanate in the Balkans. Oswiu, King of Bernicia dies.

685: A Byzantine treaty officially recognizes the Lombard kingdom for the first time and brings a temporary cessation to hostilities in Italy. Civil war erupts in Persia, with two opposed Caliphates, one in Damascus, the other in Medina. An army from Northumbria is led by Ecgfrith against the Picts - the northerners carry the day in the Battle of Nechtansmere.

700: Carolingian supremacy is established in northern Gaul, while Arab armies have stormed the walls and dockyards of Carthage.

714: By this point, the Saracen armies have now crossed the strait of Gibraltar and seized most of Spain. Charles Martel inherits the Frankish post of mayor of the palace to replace the weak southern Merovingian king. Sensing the threat of the Arab armies massing in the south, he shrewdly reappropriates much Church land and uses the manors as payment to assemble an army. The radical Islamic, Seljuk caliph Jezid III orders all images within Christian churches of his realm destroyed, quoting the Qu`ran: "Images are an abomination of the work of Satan."

730: Revolution has erupted in Byzantine Italy. The Venerable Bede begins using AD-BC dating system and finishes his Ecclesiastical History of England. The Iconoclast Controversy begins to spread through the Eastern Empire, as mystical Persian influences seep into the communities of Byzantine Christians. Iconoclasm forbids any graphic representation of living things and the debate surrounding the question leads to the exile of many scholars. Leo III bans "every likness whis is made out of any material and colour whatsoever by the evil art of painters." In 732, Charles Martel and his troops meet the Arab & Basque armies at Poitiers, stopping their advance.

740: Aldebert of Soissons, a wandering healer, travels through the villages of France distributing potions, curing peoples ailments in fields, preaching, etc. and claims to have the celestial support of a powerful angel. Soon, the peasantry are exchanging scraps of his clothes and hair as relics, and start building special altars & crosses for his use in the woods near their villages. By 744, this had triggered an investigatory Church synod, which orders all the sites put to the torch. Aldebert was said to have escaped into the forests, where he lived another two years as a hermit.