Dark Eras are historical settings for the various gamelines of the Chronicles of Darkness, similar to the Dark Medieval of the Classic World of Darkness.
Overview[]
For 2014, Onyx Path did not present a new game line- instead each of the previous nine game lines (i.e., the lines up through Demon: The Descent) was expanded with an evocative and appropriate historical period. Each Dark Era was created by a developer and writer; for example, Ethan Skemp took his award-winning Changeling: The Lost to France during the Era of powdered wigs, treachery, and flashing blades. For the first time, Onyx Path used Kickstarter to construct this book using direct feedback from the fans during the process and increase some Eras’ word-count or add entirely new Eras as the community pushed for their favorites.
In 2017, Onyx Path started a new kickstarter for a new set of Dark Eras, incorporating experiences from the previous kickstarters into them.
Published Dark Eras[]
- Eras included in the main book, Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras:
- MTAw & WTF: "The Sundered World": Neolithic (5500 -5000 BCE)
- MTAw: "To the Strongest": Alexander's invasion of India (330-320 BCE)
- CTL & GTS: "Three Kingdoms of Darkness": Three Kingdoms China (220-280)
- WTF & GTS: "The Wolf and the Raven": Viking Era (700-1100)
- DTD: "After the Fall": The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (1453-1458)
- Skinchangers & DTD: "Beneath the Skin": Aztec Empire (1486-1502)
- VTR & CTL: "Requiem for Regina": Elizabethan England (1587-1593)
- HTV: "Fallen Blossoms": Samurai Era Japan (1640-1660)
- CTL: "Lily, Sabre, and Thorn": Three Musketeers (1648)
- HTV: "Doubting Souls": Colonial New England (1690-1695)
- CTL: "A Grimm Dark Era": Nineteenth Century Germany (1812-1820)
- MTC: "Ruins of Empire": Collapse of the Ottoman/British Empires (1893–1924)
- PTC: "A Handful of Dust": The Great Depression/Dustbowl (1933-1940)
- GTS: "God's Own Country": 1950s New Zealand (1950s)
- DTD: "Into the Cold": Cold War Germany (1961)
- WTF: "The Bowery Dogs": New York City in the 1970s (1969-1979)
- Eras included in the Companion:
- MTC: "The Fall of Isireion": Cleopatra's Reign (69 BCE – 30 BCE)
- WTF: "Forsaken by Rome" (9–12)
- VTR & PTC: "The Soulless and the Dead": The Black Death (1346 – 1353) (resurrected through backers)
- MTAw & MTC: "Princes of the Conquered Land": Mutapa Empire (1501 – 1568) (resurrected through backers)
- GTS: "Foreboding Lands": Colony of Roanoke (1585 – 1590)
- PTC: "When the Horsemen Rode": 30 Years War (1618 – 1648) (backer suggested era)
- PTC: "The Year Without A Summer": Germany/Switzerland (1816)
- BTP: "A Fearful Lesson": Reconstruction (1865 – 1877)
- Second Sight: "Lifting the Veil": Age of Spiritualism (1885 – 1890)
- DTD: "The Master’s Tools": Russian Revolution (1917)
- Eras included in the following main book, Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2:
- BTP, WTF & PTC: Necropolis of Hawara (1604-1204 BCE)
- CTL & PTC: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (100-50 BCE)
- VTR, HTV & CTL: King Arthur's Britannia (400 to 500)
- VTR & BTP: One Thousand and One Nights - Islamic Golden Age (750 to 1258)
- DTD & HTV: Empire of Mali in West Africa (1360-1390) (resurrected through backers)
- MTC & GTS: Scandinavian Witch Trials (1450-1750)
- MTAw, DTD & DTR: Light of the Sun - Italy (1630-1640)
- HTV & MTC: Rise of the Last Imperials - China (1644-1911)
- MTAw & GTS: Golden Age of Piracy (1716 to 1726)
- VTR, DTD & MTC: French Revolution (1789 to 1799)
- MTAw & CTL: Wild West (1865 to 1895) (resurrected through backers)
- WTF, PTC & GTS: The Great War: Western Front (1914 to 1918)
- WTF & DTR: Golden Age of Science Fiction (1938 to 1946)
Proposed Dark Eras[]
- Additional stretch goal eras that were proposed for Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras:
- VTR: 1893 World's Fair
- GTS: Wild West
- Innocents: The Blitz
- HTV: Middle East in the time of the Book of Judges
- MTAw & MTC: French Revolution
- The American Revolutionary War
- GTS: Golden Age of Piracy (later brought into Dark Eras 2)
- Wars of Scottish Independence
- HTV: in the Spanish Inquisition
- HTV: WWII in the Pacific
- VTR: On the Orient Express
- HTV: 1830s India
- GTS: Haiti in the 1970s-80s
- VTR: Jazz Age Requiem
- Additional stretch goal eras that were proposed for Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2:
- Epic of Gilgamesh (2100s BCE.)
- Jazz Age (1920s)
- Mississippi Steamboat Era (1811 to 1861)
- Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BCE)
- Early Medieval Ireland (750-850)
- Voynich Manuscript (1400-1450)
- Rise of the Maurya Empire (321-329 BCE)
Other CoD Historical Eras[]
- Being published before as 1st Edition supplements, the following supplements could be regarded as prototypes to the Dark Eras:
- VTR: Requiem for Rome (around 360)
- CTL: Victorian Lost (1837-1904)
- MTAw: Mage Noir (1940s)
- VTR: New Wave Requiem (1980s)
- The VTR books Ancient Bloodlines and Ancient Mysteries presented historical settings for a variety of eras:
- "Rise of the Covenants": Ancient Egypt (Circa 1279 BCE)
- "Black Streets of Babylon": The Seven Spirits (625-539 BCE)
- "Clash of Empires": The Crusades (1095-1300)
- "Father Governs Child": The First Kingdom of Thailand (1238 – 1368)
- "Iberian Nights": Grémio de Corajoso (1415-1580)
- "The Lost Generation": The Thirty Years’ War (1618-48)
- "Feeding the Fire": The Haitian Revolution (1791)
- "Blood Flows West": The Montrose Party (1839-69)
- "Age and Treachery": The Great Rebellion (1857)
- "Goodbye to All That": The Great War (1914-18)
References[]