Tale of Diep:The Old Era

The Old Era is the most recent history of The Tale of Diep universe, as the story takes place in The Middle Era. The Old Era began when tanks went into hiding from Panzer, after escaping the wrath of his sons ruling over the districts of the realm. In hiding, they conquered the city-state of Arena, and there they managed to hold out for thousands of years before the ritualists, one of them ironically being the Archprophet, sealed away Panzer, beginning the Middle Era. The Panzer Era is precedes it, and The Middle Era follows it. The Old Era spans from the 16th millennium to the 27th millennium.

Events
The Old Era began at the end of the Panzer Era. What specifically brought the end of the Panzer Era is debatable, but many agree that it is when tanks mass-migrated out of the controlled city-states, and conquered Arena, a weak city-state on the outskirts of the realm, under control of the weakest, now permanently deceased, Son of Panzer, The Veil. This made it hard for Panzer's forces to find them. As such, tanks as a society truly found time to establish themselves in the world.

Huge advancements in technology, culture, and society broke through during this era, as tanks could finally do things other than work or fear in their free-time. Dr. Lacus at the time, wasn't the feared icon he is today, but was still a nefariously mad doctor secretly out to end tank-kind and appeal to Panzer. He created the sub-realm of Laboratory Mode, permanently trapping tanks in a pocket dimension where they were gods, assuring they would never return to reality. Other than that, many new weapon types were being developed, based off of the Sons of Panzer, who ruled over them so... they figured that they would have to become stronger to fight back against them, so tanks created their new weapons based off of the only things they knew: The Sons. This is why the Level 45 tanks are the way they are. The Sons came first, and the Level 45s were inspired after.

Eventually, tanks began spreading outside the city of Arena, converging in on nearby leaderless city-states. They were easily conquered, and the Tank Empire had formed, at the edge of the world where Panzer couldn't find them. The Tank Empire grew so powerful so fast, that The Veil had actually gathered the forces of nearby Panzer-loyal cities and came back to attack, resulting in a small war that lasted majority of the 21st millennium. In the final battle ending the war, adding more cities to the Tank Empire's territories, The Veil had fallen, Panzer refusing to revive him due to his stupidity. Panzer never found out about the 1000-year war until the 27th millennium... the last one before he was sealed away.

The tanks knew they had to act FAST, before Panzer absolutely annihilated him with the millions of creatures under his will. Keep in mind that tanks were the only race to break from Panzer, as they were the only ones mistreated and seen as lesser by his other created species, so it was the Tank Empire vs. The World. Within the next 400 years, tanks gathered the strongest ritualists in the land, and gathered them all in one place, where they enacted a ritual that sealed the Great Dark One away. One of these sealers was the Archprophet himself, who went on to found the Cult of Panzer in The Middle Era, and base his entire rule on freeing Panzer from the dimension he helped seal him in.

With Panzer gone, the Sons disbanded for a while, going on to form their own regimes for a while, still having some influence due to their status, but when The Middle Era begins and the cataclysm clears, and the Cult forms, they align themselves with the Archprophet. Tanks officially become the dominant species in the land, all others either being genocided out of existence by tanks, becoming submissive to them like the Drones, or going into hiding as the tanks once had. When Panzer was locked away, the skies burned and the seas boiled, making the realm uninhabitable for a long time before the Middle Era truly began. The time between the two Eras where the world sat still, is called the Dormancy Period, but is commonly attributed to just being a portion of the Middle Era. Thus began a new age...