The one sentence summary is “Modern fantasy with cold war tensions, magic, and gods.”

Here’s a modified high level timeline focusing on the world itself and less on Nathan.

• 2001
  • Mid August: Realmfall. The Realms dimensional realignment with Earth occurs. All of the affected areas instantly see all electronics and most modern technology cease to function. To the rest of the world, they just ‘went dark’. The initial confusion on every side (Gods, locals in realms, people out of realm) results in chaos, lots of violence and forcemarking in the realms from the god followers and creatures who arrived with them, and a number of expeditions into the affected areas from out for various reasons (humanitarian, counterattack, etc.). The expeditions vary in levels of organization in such, ranging from a few hotheads to at least one military offensive under NATO Article V. Overall these are failures and even the successes are relatively limited, as the realm border where the rules change proves a substantial issue to both sides.
  • The closing of the Suez canal and the Bosporous due to realmfall result in massive economic turmoil around the globe; recession soon follows. Countries that fell largely inside the realm cease to function meaningfully; some retain governments in exile, others have their remaining government try to maintain control and fail. In-realm, cities become stronger polities and social and support structures are reestablished quickly by the various pantheons in order to avoid total collapse.
• 2002
  • Russia invades and occupies the remaining land of Finland and Sweden, under the guise of assisting the world with security over the new, outside threat. Fighting together, Sweden and Finland are able to stall for some months but eventually fold as external support is limited and they’re fighting on two opposite fronts.
  • In realm, forcemarking is at its peak. By the end of the year the incidence has dropped significantly, mostly due to the fact that its no longer worth effort. Marks at this time do not involve any visible sign of allegiance (if no species change)
  • Economic downturn continues. This and the forcemarking (and associated human rights abuses) lead to extensive flame-fanning out-realm. As realm border countries turn to their neighbors for help with the crisis, the EU rapidly expands in response to the threat. The realm border becomes militarized with refugee camps, tripwire troops, and a no-man’s land near the edge. Over the next several years the EU becomes more and more powerful,, including developing a military; while member states retain autonomy, the EU by 2015 is no longer merely an economic consortium, and more of a nascent superstate. Similar blocs develop in Africa and the Middle East.
  • The United States is largely unscathed due to distance. It supports the EU somewhat, though over time this slackens off for many reasons.
• 2003
  • Tensions continue to increase the rest of the decade. Some gods attempt diplomacy through various means including occasionally sending their avatars out of the realm.
• 2004
  • Wepawet sends his avatar to the USA to speak at the UN in an attempt to turn the temperature down, but the speech never occurs because the avatar is destroyed on US soil before arriving at the UN by rogue elements. Increased tension following this results in further deterioration of relations, paranoia, and both sides begin preparing for a hot conflict, full scale.
• 2005
  • The first realmwalking organizations are established. At this point, they act largely as private military contractors for tasks requiring realm travel and knowledge, such as site recon, target acquisition, infiltration, security operations (escorting key personnel as diplomats or researchers), extraction, and wetwork. The initial recruits are largely former military, veterans, special operations, and people from the criminal underworld.
• 2006-2007
  • Situation is tense and rising. The term ‘realmwalking’ is coined by “RRealmwalkers Incorporated”, founded as an offshoot of the prior PMC organizations. RI sells their services directly to consumers on the open market; a lot of the initial work is related to retrieving lost property, tracking down missing family/relatives, and similar things. At this point they are more of a contractor for specific services; tourism is not under their purview.
• 2008-2009
  • Three more god avatars are killed in various outrealm excursions and tensions continue mounting. In November 2009, a group calling itself “Mordant Cadre” destroys the avatar of Eris inside of Hellas, and release a statement urging more of the same. While few tears are shed over Eris, the proof of concept that their avatars are not invulnerable in realm results in the gods taking a step back to analyze the situation further.
• 2010
  • A unified delegation containing high-ranking clergy from gods of all three pantheons arrives at Brussels on February 16th to request a diplomatic parley. Not all gods are committed to this effort, but almost all of them are watching. The project is led in realm largely by Forseti, Heimdall, Freya, and Baldr in Midgard, Eirene, Hebe, and Harmonia in Hellas, and Shu, Maat, and Horus in Kemet. As a show of seriousness, the delegation announces the travel and planned route ahead publicly, and RI is contracted by them to provide security and transport while traveling, this being perhaps the first “Sciencewalk”.
  • Details of a larger scale meeting are negotiated over the next few months and a provisional forum is established to occur starting on August 13th amd run through November, with delegations from both sides traveling to Istanbul.
  • These initial talks are productive enough to bring down the overall temperature of events, but despite efforts, a final agreement cannot be reached before the forum ends in November. All lead god avatars are present in Istanbul at some point (thought not all simultaneously) during these initial talks. However, further talks are agreed to, with a date of May 15th, 2011 as start. The second round of talks are set to be held in Athens at the Acropolis, with relevant security provided. This location is pushed for heavily by Eirene, and ends up chosen for centrality, historical nature, the general stability of the location, and the fact that Athene (who had already not been doing much forcemarking) agrees to forswear further forcemarks, ban the practice in Athens entirely, and offers to have several of her top clergy exit the realm and be held in trust during the negotiations; the avatars of Eirene, Forseti, and Shu also agree to be in trust during this time.
• 2011
  • Despite no official forum, work continues in the background to nail down more specifics of the upcoming meeting in Athens; progress reports circulating in realm result in more gods publicly joining in to the effort, and many make various pledges or temporary concessions on various conditional bases to engender good will. A few even offer to serve as further mediators, or make outright full concessions as shows of good will up front.
  • By the time the second round of talks start, the general expectation is that there will be an agreement and that the negotiations are largely just details. The Inter-Realm Diplomatic Framework Accords are signed on June 15th, 2011, establishing framework to create a permanent forum for further cooperation and dispute resolution, to be completed by December 21st, 2012.

Will work on this further, but this is where we are now.