The Dawn Age (創世暦時代?, "Genesis Era" / "Age of Creation") is a historic period in Auldrant's history in Tales of the Abyss. It occurred around 2,000 years prior to the events of the story and was an era of advanced technology far exceeding that of the present, though these technologies were eventually abandoned in the era's decline due to warfare.
History[]
In calendars, the Dawn Age is denoted with "B.D.", indicating "Before Dawn". This civilization's advancement in science and technology serve as a marvel to the modern populace, but the era also includes several noteworthy events and discoveries that have since been forgotten, leaving history doomed to repeat itself. With the discovery of memory particles in B.D. 2550; the Sephiroth War, history's first recorded war, in B.D. 2618; and the development of the Planet Storm by Professor Southern-Cross in B.D. 2677, the Dawn Age laid the groundwork for the planet's very first achievements and devastations.
In addition to Professor Southern-Cross's mark on history, his pupil Yulia Jue, born in B.D. 2693, became a controversial prophet during this era and ultimately formed a pact with the aggregate sentience of the Seventh Fonon, Lorelei, in B.D. 2707, twelve years after Professor Southern-Cross discovered it. This sparked history's second recorded war, the Fonic War, to determine the whereabouts of the Seventh Fonon in B.D. 2699. Far more disastrous than its predecessor, the Float War claimed the lives of nearly half the population due to the frightening rise in deadly weaponry, which put a strain on the planet and caused its core to vibrate, emitting a poisonous gas known as miasma in the process.
In B.D. 2709, Yulia read the Planetary Score to the populace and predicted 2,000 years of history, warning of the dangers of fonic weaponry and how the miasma would grow as a result of it. This prophecy ended the Fonic War, but the planet was still suffering from the miasma leaked during the war, so Yulia and her disciples proposed the Float Project, a plan designed to raise the land by using the planet's Sephiroth Trees. In B.D. 2712, the kingdoms of Ispania and Frank feared Yulia's influence on the world and bribed her seventh disciple, Francis Daath, arresting and imprisoning Yulia. Francis formed the Order of Lorelei with the support of Ispania and Frank but learned of his fate via the Score and regretted his actions. The era ended with the Float War, a war waged by Ispania and Frank against those who were in support of Yulia's Float Project.