I've noticed most of you are from a world called Zindu. Interesting coincidence: so am I. I'm just from centuries in your world's future. I was cast back in time as an active historian for, well, let's just say that mistakes were made. I was a professor of temporal mechanics at Central Alzhrin University, which made me a mite unsuited for my new life of exploration in this Mythic Age. I coped in the best way I knew how: embracing the assignment. I studied the people and places of this land. This Guide to the Mythic Age was the result. Though I've now left that world behind for studies in the greater cosmos, I present this tome both as a way to understand some of your fellow travellers as well as a sort of vindication. I completed my assignment and have moved on. I hope the university finds my work useful.

Here is the introductory page from the Guide:

I suppose it would be of interest to those reading this to know who I am and where I came from. At least know that one person you sent was successful.

My name is Vining. I still use Professor Vining because I'm still in the employ of the university, I suppose. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm Professor Vining, formerly of the Chronotechnological Institute of Ai'drea. I used to teach a rather niche subject to undergraduates, one which was probably closed down after the accident.

On that topic, I was removed from a teaching position so as to not misapparate any further students. I continued my research, however, because I can assure you it was (and I hope still is) of great importance and interest to the country. Further accidents ensued over the following months. I was dealing with rather temperamental forces of the world, and they required delicate handling.

I know what was done to me only by inference, my familiarity with the process. It was done, naturally, while I slept. I found myself here, in this Mythic Age, stripped of all accoutrements indicative of my native time. Pinned to the inside of my jacket was a badge marked "involuntary historian".

I intend to continue my studies when possible. I have a hope that the greater access to sorcery that this Age provides may allow me angles I found previously inaccessible. However, I also intend to fulfil my intended "reassignment". I'm going to document this Age, in the hopes that I will one day return to modern times and deliver it to my colleagues. It will allow for a more detailed understanding of this Age than we previously had any access to. I'll be remembered, for this document if not for my research into the nature of our world's timestream.

Our modern concept of Ages is familiar, in its essence, to young children. We students of chronology, however, possess slightly more information on the subject than the average citizen. I offer a brief outline here as introduction to this book, my Guide to the Mythic Age. The world has gone through several Ages, many of which, we presume, are unknown to modern folk. The Age you reside in is the Modern Age. It is the Age stretching from the end of the Doom Wars to the modern day into the unforeseeable future. The previous Age was the Mythic Age, which extends into the dim past. The Mythic Age was a time of gods and barely-mortal heroes, when deities and beasts of unimaginable power roamed the land. Magic is said to have been wild and unbelievably potent during this time, not having yet been tamed by scientific understanding. Due to these factors, many of my colleagues believe that the Doom Wars was a good thing for the world, though they wouldn't say so in public so I will refrain from identifying them. Sometime even before the Mythic Age was the Draconic Age. This was an age of dragons and daemons, before the rise of humanity. We're not sure how or why it ended and we are not sure how long, in total, the Mythic Age lasted. I hope that I can shed some light on that topic in my investigations.