Time in Anatos is measured strangely, and parts of it do not fit neatly into our normal calendar system. Minutes, Hours, Days and Weeks are measured the same way you would recognise, but the term Years and Months don’t exist. Instead Anatos measures the flow of time in ‘Cycles’, which start and end during a lunar eclipse. Within a cycle there can be any number of seasons, each with their own unique weather patterns, and typically last around two to six weeks. During a Cycle there is typically between one to eight seasons, leading to some Cycles being quite short or lasting a long time.
Because of this recording the exact amount of time that has passed between cycles has proved extremely difficult. Most people in the city don’t care much, they are much more concerned with the present and the future, but it has made the life of ‘historians’ extremely difficult. Other forms of date keeping have been suggested, even using the sun's rotation to count the seasons, but all of these have proved inaccurate to marking the beginning and ending of a cycle of seasons.
Much of the world's history was lost during the great calamity, and for generations many people in Anatos held no desire to document the past of the city. Almost all of the city's history is recorded in murals and the stories they tell each other, enacting great ballads to celebrate and educate the people about their past.
Very little is known about the world before it was flooded, what knowledge does exist all come from paintings and the dream scapes left behind by ancient civilizations. People are aware what the old world might have looked like, with it’s great green valleys, tall mountains and endless seas of sand, but for the people today those visions might as well belong to a totally different world.
Due to some great sin now long forgotten Varasha, the god of destruction, flooded the world. The other gods banded together and granted their power to six champions who built the city of Anatos in order to safeguard what little survived the flood. When Varasha came to destroy it the six champions battled them and eventually succeeded in sealing them beneath the city. Shortly afterward the champions vanished from the mortal plane, ascending to the stars to become one with the gods constellations.
With the old world destroyed and only the city of Anatos left standing it’s people began the long struggle to survive in this new nearly inhospitable world. Stories of this early age are filled with a sense of sadness and triumph, that it was a time of great suffering but also one of great heroes. Led by the Elder Council, the oldest and wisest survivors from the age of Calamity, the people banded together and managed to build the city up to what it is today.
It was during this age that the first guilds were formed, as people began to organise themselves into powerful groups able to help foster the prosperity of the city.
After many generations came and went it seemed like Anatos had finally reached a sense of stability, the people had proven they could survive in this new world. Even so there were cycles where food was greatly scarce, harvests died or simply didn’t blossom in time, leaving many people to starve.
This age of suffering spurred on a fisher to set off into the ocean and hunt the great beasts of the sea that lived beyond the city. When he returned he brought back with him such a great bounty it kept the people of the city fed for an entire cycle.
Previously it had been taboo to even consider venturing out beyond the city but the fishermans success caused many people to flock to his banner, forming the Fishermen guild. In time more and more people would begin exploring beyond the city, testing it’s dangers and hauling back treasures from the old world.
As people explored further beyond the city they started to come across strange edifices sticking out of the sea, tall black towers made out of a mysterious metal. As the seasons went by these towers would rise and sink into the ocean periodically, and for many cycles people avoided going near them in fear they were cursed grave markers of the old world. No one knows who first started venturing into them but eventually rumours began to spread that inside these towers were large dungeons, filled with treasures and monsters. Soon enough these rumours reached the Guilds, who quickly began fighting each other over the right to claim the bounty’s hidden inside them.
Tension between the Guilds had been growing for cycles, but the discovery of the dungeons only served to escalate the situation. Inevitably these feelings bubbled over into open conflict and the first ever Guild wars began. For an entire cycle the city was dominated with scenes of bloodshed and terror, culminating in the total destruction of one of the original guilds.
The loss of this guild and it’s prowess was too much for the city to bear and so the Elder Council intervened and demanded a stop to all hostilities. After long days and nights of discussion the Elder Council and the leaders of the guilds all agreed to sign the compact of peace, an ironclad law that would prevent a tragedy like this ever happening again. Few know what the contents of the pact say, but ever since the guilds have never fought openly against each other.
A terrible ice dragon, Xiao-Sen, escaped from a dungeon and began laying siege to the city. Forming his own tower out of ice the dragon demanded offerings and fealty from all the residents of Anatos. For a whole season the people suffered under the dragon's demands, who laid waste to the old district before a defense could be marshalled. In the end it took a combined effort of champions from across the city to finally defeat the dragon and free it from his icy grasp.
In the aftermath of Xiao-sen’s defeat the champions who had defeated him each denounced the guilds squabbling, laying the blame for the cities suffering on their inability to work with each other. To ensure something like this could never happen again they approached the Elder Council to form a new guild, one dedicated to protecting the city and securing the dungeons. With some reluctance the council agreed, forbidding the other guilds from intruding on any future dungeon without permission from this new guild.
The new guild was named the Heartseekers, who welcomed people from all other the city to aid in their mission.