Equinox era

The Equinox era or Fourth Interdynastic was the period of Chotarian history from the fall of the Fourth Chotarian Empire in 324 CE to the foundation of the Fifth Empire in 586. The Equinox era was marked by a general fragmentation of the Chotarian cultural sphere in the wake of the collapse of the Fourth Empire, as the former empire's hereditary vassals asserted their independence and the peripheries in Tormetia and Argotea fell under the sway of indigenous warlords. Despite these circumstances, the Ishtinist ideal of autocracy was maintained and strengthened by an increasingly assertive priestly class, and a succession of competing rulers in the Chotarian heartland strove to keep alive the imperial claim to divine rulership. The period takes its name from the Middle Annals, the classic work of Chotarian historiography dealing with the period 324–610, whose opening sentence reads: 'As the rising sun must set, so the setting sun must rise; solstice becomes equinox, but the era of the equinox, too, must pass.'

History of Chotar
This article is part of a series
First Empire (c. 1600–1030 BCE)
Dark Age (c. 1030–760 BCE)
First Interdynastic (c. 1030–930 BCE)
Ukmai Empire (c. 930–850 BCE)
Second Empire (c. 930/760–359 BCE)
City and Kingdom era (359–220 BCE)
Third (Urumen) Empire (220–54 BCE)
Third Interdynastic (54 BCE – 58 CE)
Fourth Empire (58–324 CE)
Equinox era (324–586)
Fifth Empire (586–1052)

By the 480s, the rise and fall of successive claimants to the imperial title stabilised in the Chotarian Tetrarchy, a protracted confrontation between four states—three essentially Lacrean courts centred on Kozrat, Tizavar, and Vanad, which laid claim broadly to the north, west, and south of the Chotarian sphere respectively; and the Agar dynasts of First Ephgil to the east. This final phase of the Equinox era lasted for a century. In 573, however, the court of Tizavar collapsed entirely as the result of a bitter succession dispute; the Betrayal of Tizavar that ensued upended the balance of power as the state's territories were partitioned between the three remaining competitors. Finally, in a series of campaigns after his accession to the throne in 586, Čiron of Kozrat destroyed the court in Vanad and received the submission of Ephgil. Now the unchallenged hegemon of Chotar, Čiron drew on the influence of the rising Peribolast school of priest-intellectuals to begin a revolutionary transformation of Chotarian society, inaugurating the Fifth Empire. The storied diplomatic and military manoeuvrings of the Tetrarchs have given this century of Chotarian history particular renown in Outer Joriscian culture.

Preceded by Fourth Empire 58–324

Chotarian history Equinox era 324–586

Succeeded by Fifth Empire 586–1052