Hortense

1. The Story of the First Lightdancer
-Mythos connected to the creation legends
-Creation of the tree
-Creation of the first two lightdancers
-Scientific viewpoint is that of skydancers from Light being blown adrift in a storm, some survivors discovering island as a refuge.

2. The Long Peace
-Relatively idyllic primitive forager society
-Evolution of symbiotic relationship with the tree
-Probably a regression to bare minimums by the survivors of the storm

3. New Contact with Dragonkind
-War wages, a group of pacifists and refugees wanting no part of the quarrel escape conflict and happen upon the tree
-Initial tension between lightdancers and immigrants
-Communications breakthrough, cross-cultural contact
-Establishment of settlement

4. Beginning of the Tree of Dawn
-Banding together and organizing against external threats and crises... food shortages, storms, massive pirate attack, emperor
-Arrival of skilled dragons including war veterans and civil officials escaping unrest and persecution
-Growth of settlement from immigration and movement of dragons and gives rise to rudimentary governance, trade, industry
-Founding of the Watch as a ragtag defense group practicing and training with each other

5. Rise of the nation-state
-Rapid modernization from establishment of flight routes and increased contact with Cloudsong and Beacon
-Development expansion with use of knowledge of construction techniques brought in through immigration and returning dragons
-Education, higher industry, academies established
-Organization of the Secretariat, a ruling body with skydancers and imperials
-Watch organized into professional combat forces
-Construction of Central

6. The darkest hours
-Racial unrest between skydancer groups and between skydancers and imperials erupts, violent riots, attempts to install an imperial monarchy
-Massive infighting and splintering of government, nascent institutions crumble, control over situation is lost.
-Many mixed-lineage dragons are murdered in hate crimes. Destruction is rampant. Food shortages.
-Act of arson causes a wildfire that destroys Central, consumes the centre of the tree and threatens to destroy the entire canopy; Lightdancers drop veil of secrecy on their arts of light energy working and manipulation, use it to terrifying effect in self-defence, saving the tree in the process.
-Ceasefire is brokered but arms race and tension between factions threatens to boil over. Rapid development of technology and elemental training in each faction. Major factions include Lightdancers, Nightdancers, Cloudancers, Imperials and Moderates (consisting of pacifists and immigrants who don't fit in any of the other racial factions). Small incidents threaten to reignite. Political maneuvering as parties representing different idealogies fight for control.
-Female imperials break stride with males and demand an end to madness, renounce monarchy aims, sides with moderates and attempts to use leverage to end conflict. Hardliners see it as their final stand. Fighting erupts again and chaos ensues.
-Everyone is tired and hungry by now as trade and food supply had dwindled to nothing. Lightdancers side with moderates and attempt peace and reconciliation.
-Nightdancers attack coalition; they're decimated, warlord is killed. Successor is a secret moderate, pledges allegiance to a female imperial in the moderates but otherwise remaining apart from everyone. Coalition successfully negotiates end of hostilities with moderate clouddancers, using political processes to create dialogue, and the latter wins the popular support of their faction and ejects the extremists, who band with hardliner male imperials to continue fighting.
-Dissolution of old government and reconstitution of a new parliamentary government with representative democracy from all races, for the benefit of all races. Reconstitution of the Watch, and establishment of intelligence and security apparatus in the Eclipse Branch due to their unique expertise in it. Rapid steps taken to ensure inclusion and peace.

7. Reconstruction
-Extremists and royalists still plot and orchestrate terrorism, but the New watch weeds them out and exiles them.
-The gaping gap at Tree Centre is used as the construction site for the institutions of the new state. Great Library and Secretariat is built. Lightdancer lightworkers create an artificial sun at the centre of the void to provide light for all dragons in this part of the tree, where the sun's light doesn't reach due to the thickness of the outer canopy.
-Factions are already deeply rooted into their sections of the tree; rather than rile everyone and try to relocate or interfere, the various sections are officially designated for each group: Light Branch for the Lightdancers, Cloud Branch for the Clouddancers, Eclipse Branch for the Nightdancers, Sun Branch for the Sundancers, and additional zones.
-Female Imperials befriend and, through diplomacy, become representatives and helpers from the central government in all the different Branches by nomination of the respective representative groups. They are organized into the Guides and constituted as a lower house of parliament, one that handles civil administration.
-During the dark times, nightdancers had excavated and explored the subterranean parts of the island, as a literal "underground". This knowledge is fully divulged to the Parliament, and a great survey and exploration effort is launched. The additional space is developed for the Watch, storage and industry.
-The Tree settles into a new era of relative peace. Trade is reopened. New education policies encourage tolerance, open-minedness and worldliness by making school graduates spending a period of time in another part of Sornieth mandatory as a rite of passage for adulthood at the Tree.

8. Modern History
-Emperors and the effects of return of the shade are a new threat the tree is rising to meet.
-Experimenting with a nexus of energy in the subterranean system beneath the Tree, energy workers and engineers open a portal to somewhere else deep under ground (the other end of the portal being literally dirt). Excavation up to ground level commences; it's discovered that the surface of that other space is devoid of intelligent life, dragon or otherwise, at least within sight. The cave is expanded and used to house the massive hoard; expansion plans are made for an above-ground colony of residences and facilities as the population increases.
-Extensive trade and diplomacy has led to the Tree of Dawn being a thriving island city-state of commerce, modernity and stability.
-Engineers at the Tree construct the Orrery and Halo, and the Watch begins patrols and expeditions, extending the sphere of influence and aid outwards from the Tree to the Cloudsong on one end and Beacon of the Radiant Eye on the other, providing emergency services and guarding against Emporers and other aberrations in this expanse.
-Consulates are established in both the Beacon and the Cloudsong.

Present
-The Band arrives.
-It is a time of peace. Visitors and pilgrims come and go, trade and creativity blossoms, dreams and stories are woven, love is found and new life comes into the world, and a particular band of dragons find their home at the Tree and perhaps learn and grow into the next steps of their journeys.