New years are reckoned to begin on the Midsummer festival known as Banapis in the Kingdom of the Isles on the world of Midkemia in the First Circle. This Chronology does not record the narrative events that happen within the novels of The Riftwar Cycle, but the reader is referred to the proper novels, chapters, and pages in their appropriate places. Events that are referred to in the narrative but are not part of the narrative itself are recorded.
In existence is a prototype and precursor to Creation, a mathematical equation that defines and delineates the possibilities of cosmic reality, perceived by most mortals as a fantastical city. It will be known in Time as the City Forever and its Garden. This is the First Cause and the Cosmos is created. Woven into the Cosmos are two fundamental modes of existence: Order and Chaos.
There is a way of connection created between the Presence of the One and the Cosmos: From the Presence descends the Rainbow Vortex, from which descends the Crystal Highway, which passes through the Sphere of the Golden Moons before leaving the Sphere and coming to the Realm of Emergence. From there, the way later becomes known as the Star Walk, the Gateway Path, and the Hall of Worlds, and it descends and winds its way between the worlds of the mortal realms.
They also become the first mortals to walk the Hall of Worlds before they remove themselves back to their own place in Time. This aspect is fear and longing, and it is self-aware. Itself being outside of Mind and Time, yet also outside the Sphere, its sole purpose is to return to the Sphere, the state of Bliss and Oneness that existed before the First Cause. In order to accomplish that end, Mind, Time, and Creation must be reverted to the Bliss of the Sphere.
This aspect of fear and longing is given several names by mortals in the Creation: the Enemy, the Darkness, and the Dread. The Mind, also known as the Ultimate, creates the Second Cause, a being of majesty, power, and light, known later as the Shining One, among many other names.
