Many ages ago, Men lacked the gift of speech, and were hairy and stooped like the animal of the wilderness. They dwelt among the untamed wilds, and went in great fear of their masters. These masters were hairy, cruel, warlike, and proud, related to Men as Men are related to the ape of the forest; their name for themselves is not passed down to us from those times, except perhaps to those sorcerors who dabble in the foul magics which involve these beings, but we style them now the Nonmen, those unlike us. During this age, the Nonmen had no use for the growing things of the Earth which sustain Men, nor for plowing or tilling; instead they let the land grow wild and become dark forest. The Nonmen ruled the Earth cruelly, and often rode forth in chariots with weapons of bronze and chipped stone to make bloody war on each other and raid their brothers’ dark hill Mansions. It was a time of great fear and bloodshed, of great wars and terror and savage barbary. Nonmen whipped Men before them, and overawed them with terror to be slaves; Nonmen committed great cruelties against Men, and unspeakable acts were committed in the darknesses of the Mansions’ innumerable basements which Men still shudder to recall.
This age we call the Red-Sky Age, or the Age of Stone Knives, or the Age of the Hairy Ones, or the Age of Darkness; these and many other names the Tribes of Men call this age.
Of The Condition Of The Age
In this Age, the sky was full of darkness and swam with swirling unwholesome black clouds; the sun was red and the light was the color of blood. This light encouraged unwholesome growth in the plants of the Earth, and the whole world that was not utterly desolate was crowded with outrageous growth. The towering forests, dark and foul, covered entire nations of the Tribes; unwholesome things dwelt in these forests, among whom, the blasphemous Books Of Nurh’ht The Eldering One shuddersomely say, the Nonmen were the least (and frightening indeed is it to think that even in this strange era there dwelt creatures more wicked and mad than the hairy ones!). Elder things from times before the darkest memories of Men dwelt in the wildernesses which the blood sun and the Nonmen encouraged, and in the dark places where the sun was too fearful to shine.