Frog Fractions 2/Lore

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The lore of Frog Fractions 2 is fragmented and not everything is certain, but there's a few things that are given to us

Zagmar, the Sigil Master, and the Styrgin Empire

In the library of Joshua's decayed login was the first mention of Zagmar and the Styrgin Empire. The login is presented a s library with some links clickable:

RECOVERED A.H. DOCUMENT LIBRARY
The Four Hounds of Sarnath
Walking in the Wilderness
Words of the Last Dragon
A History of the Styrgin Empire
Nightmare of the Abyss
Testament of Zagmar
Overheating: The Risk of Too Much Sun
Rules of a Gunslinger
Spiral Folklore
Curses and Purification
Doomsday Reincarnation
Undeadening and Dark Matter
Vampires: A Bloody History
Wrack and Ruin: The Final Years of the Celulitte Church
Magical Excavating Machine
Magic Cards: An Introduction to Tarot
The Troll Princess
Fundaments of Remembrancy: A Primer
The Great Collapse of Ragnarok
Yggdrasill's Illusion
How To Become A Wizard

THE FOUR HOUNDS OF SARNATH (p42)
said, "Ye four shalt be my greatest, and the Empire shall quake before your might." Sarnath thus christened his knights, who would over time come to be known across nations.

Gleeok the Multifarious, the most junior of the Hounds, was deployed to Ashwall on the outskirts of the Empire's encroachment to ensure that no enemies would breach the Church's territory. Over time, the ancient structure acquired the name Dreadfort, and stories of the monster within haunted the dreams of imperial soldiers. Ilthor the Sagely, wisest of the four, eschewed martial prowess in favor of magical knowledge. Though slight of build, his forces were amongst the strongest the Church could deploy. Through his enchantments, each man fought with the endurance and strength of three normal soldiers. Ragnasaurth the Unbreakable, second in command, was known not only for his prodigious size but also for his greatshield, against which scores of foes dashed themselves in vain. When he finally fell on the field of battle, none were strong enough to move his corpse, for it is said his bones were denser than any known metal. The leader of the Hounds was the (next page)

A History of the Styrgin Empire (p23)
It was not for many years yet that those individuals who would rebel against the Church's corruption would be born, for in this period the Church remained benevolent. In 542, Pontiff Urzarath II ascended to the popehood, and began a program of wealth redistribution that was widely popular with the peasant and merchant classes. Based upon his philosophy of universal access to basic resources, heavy taxes were placed upon the nobility of all nations controlled by the Church, and though the aristocrats grumbled and when intoxicated were known to drunkenly rail against the church, it cannot be denied that at this point the lunacy of Zagmar and resulting rift between Church and Empire was unthinkable. Despite differences of opinion between the papacy and the imperial house, both maintained cordial relations. When Urzarath II died in 558, he left behind a legacy of stewardship that future Emperors took to heart, and ultimately led to the (next page) 

The Testament of Zagmar (p68)
This world is untempered steel, and we shall be the hammer that shapes it.
Our Divine Master has shown us a new path forward, forged in flame and darkness.
We shall release those suffering from their bondage, and show them the new path forward.
The whispers of our Lord shall become a mighty roar, and incarnations shall walk the earth.
It will be a joy and an honor to surrender to his touch, to give ourselves in totality.
(next page)

Wrack and Ruin: The Final Years of the Celulitte Church (p347)
last, the Empire's armies surrounded the grand cathedral of Amour Lardo. From his chambers at the cathedral's apex, Zagmar paced and glared down at the gathered armies before his gates, gnashing his teeth in insane fury. The cathedral of the gods had never been breached, had already survived many hails of explosives, and the Pontiff yet felt secure in the knowledge that the heathen forces would be driven before his faith. Church officials, having realized that the war was lost, were furtively abandoning their posts and surrendering to the Emperor himself, who stood at the head of the host. Zagmar, however, had a final trick left: a (read more) (next page) 

Fundaments of Remembrancy: A Primer (p5)
course, as every schoolchild raised in the Empire knows, a position as a remembrancer is one of the most honored, most coveted, and most competitive positions one can hold - it requires extensive historical knowledge, mastery of several schools of magic and the ability to step through time itself if required to obtain critical information. It is no surprise, then, that many journeymen remembrancers fail to achieve employment in their chosen profession, and also that even professional remembrancers are often slain in the line of duty. As a result, (read more) (next page) 

The text found in Firewatch appears to refer to the ascension of Zagmar

(The text of this book appears to have been writen by hand a very long time ago)

Religion and State: Five Centuries of Church Policy
p402

twelfth year of Sendanis III's papacy that the beloved figure succumbed to old age, being carried to the divine meadow peacefully in his sleep. After the traditional mourning period concluded, the conclave of bishops convened to elect a new pontiff. Thus began the longest and most hotly contested papal election in the church's history. Traditionalists and those with strong family ties to the nobility demanded that now was the time to roll back [this name is illegible] controversial reforms, while the church's progressive wing was aghast at reversing course after more than a century of dedication to the less fortunate.

The conclave argued for one hundred and eight days, as all church business languished in anticipation of the impending regime change. Finally, a compromise was reached: a dark horse candidate, one of the youngest ever elected to the Fawn Seat, was chosen. The young bishop, Kyklot of Yornus, took the papal name [this name is smudged beyond readability], and began a reign that would ultimately spell disaster for the church and spark a war with their closest ally. No bishop who sat in judgement that day could have conceived of the new pontiff's ambition, and none were aware of the madness bubbling just

Zagmar managed to get to 5142 in Resistance's timeline via a left open portal

#1: Uh-oh
How did you all get in here? This is a secure area. Leave at o
#3: Are you there Brown? Respond? What happened?
At last, a new world to which the light may be spread...
Quickly, bring more through the portal!
These strange metal creatures are no match for our sorcery!
Do not falter before their counterassault! This world is ours for the plucking!
They are as wheat before the scythe! Burn them all!
Useless curs! Do not retreat!
Fah, fortify this position and wait for reinforcements! They will not contain our fury for long...
This is... compromised... send assist... #1 out..
Open their holding cells! Turn their prisoners against them!
Bishop, retrieve the explosive metal tube from that corpse. I would examine this weaponry.
What is this necromancy? We killed that one before, but he has returned to bedevil the faith again!
These soldiers possess strange metal skin on parts of their body... more than passing curious. We must take some alive. 
Their enchantments may bolster our own in the crusade against the Empire!
This prisoner has offered to join our cause in exchange for freedom... he claims he has been imprisoned for years.
The prisoner has told us much... of many possible worlds to which we may bring the holy fire!
So speaks your Pontiff: Once we finish with this world, we will move to the next, and the next!
The intruders have been contained in sublevel C. We have reclaimed communications channels.
Intruders are recieving assistance from prisoner JC101-B. Contain and eliminate if necessary.
Casualties are limited. Our superior technology has triumphed.

Emails between resistance members talked about locking down portals to ensure he doesn't return:

Roth, 
The boys downstairs have really stuck their foot in it this time.  A routine resource run went sideways and some crazy followed them back with a small army.  That's the reason for the communications outage yesterday.
We've contained the extradimensional intruders in a lower level for now but may require military backup.  Will update you soon.  
-Hearn

Roth, 
You're so lucky being located upstairs.  It's been a real crapshow down here over the past five days.  We managed to starve the crazies out and they retreated through the portal, but we can't seem to get the thing closed.  They took the prisoner with them.  The crazy one that appears to be their leader screamed some nonsense about returning soon with more forces, so we need to get this shut down before we have an army in our base.  We can't fight a war on two fronts and the soldiers don't need this distraction from the true enemy. 
I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew with this stuff - again.  This time we can't let it turn out as badly because we won't get a third chance.  Any support the boys upstairs can provide would be greatly appreciated. 
-Hearn

November 14, 2016, Patrick Klepek received the following email from the Sigil Master Lorakis:

The great cathedral lies now in rubble, its halls no longer filled with glorious song.
Doubt not my words.

In an AIM conversation, he also mentions the Fawn Seat of the Pontiff:

Alas, were there still a pontiff upon the Fawn Seat!
He could answer such a question with grace and ease.
I am a weak vessel. My apologies.
Lorakis, last acolyte of the Celulitte Church, thanks you.

In conversation with Austin Walker:

The work of Imperium once brought low our greatest. Be wary.
 The blessing of the church fathers upon your struggle, as little as it may be worth in these fallen times.

From these texts, the following timeline appears:

542- Urzarath II ascends to popehood, the Empire is working with the Church at this point
Sedanis Papacy
Kyklot ascends as Zagmar
Zagmar starts a fight with the Empire because he's crazy
Twitter Invasion?
The Empire has Zagmar surrounded at the grand cathedral of Amour Lardo, the Empire is winning, Zagmar pulls a final trick (result unknown)
Sometime later - Sigil Master Lorakis' existence?

Chrono-Imperium

At the Berkeley Event, Jim was arrested by people from the Chrono-Imperium

Top Hat Guy: Alright, enough of this! James Crawford!
Jim: Not again!
Top Hat Guy: In the name of his majesty, for your time-crimes against the chrono-imperium, for your distribution and   production of bug porn, for your association with agents of Bug Mars, for your fraternizing with frogs, and for your other crimes, you must be held accountable!
Jim: Wait, what’s going on?
Top Hat Guy: Come on.
Time Traveller 1: There’s no time!
Time Traveller 2: Stay back! Do not interfere with the timeline!
Jim: Save yourselves…
Top Hat Guy: Do not interfere with the timeline!
Time Traveller 2: They’re coming! Go, go! Stay back!
Opposing Time Traveller: Wait, the disks, the disks

Jim was later found by Zagmar as a prisoner of the Resistance, leading some to believe the resistance becomes the Chrono-Imperium. Remembrancers in the Empire know how to "step through time itself if required", but that seems contradicted by Zagmar's surprise at the technology during the twitter invasion.

the Resistance

From the Gadsby login:

Welcome new recruit! Congratulations on your wise decision to join the human resistance movement and help rescue all life from the enemy.

About the Resistance
Our nemesis is one you know all too well; the decay has changed the landscape of the earth and irreparably altered the  path of mankind. As we are unable to combat our foe head-on, the resistance exists to win humanity's liberation through covert operations and advanced technology of types unavailable even to our most powerful enemies. United, we stand between the decay and the sparkly annihilation of our species.

From Justin's GDC business card:

They arrived at dusk. The experiments had been wildly successful, more so than we could have hoped or feared. At first, we welcomed them. The people of Tunisia are friendly and, generally, we expected that our visitors would treat us with the same wonder and amazement with which we regarded them. That could not have been further from the truth. They did not care about our presence, or lives, or cities, or us. They went about their brutal business as if we were ants in their path: with a complete disregard for our existence. Their capability for warfare thwarted our greatest weaponry, and their unearthly abilities countered the strategies of our greatest military and scientific leaders. As the decay radiated out like a cancer from the Tunisian coast, those in power around the world watched in helplesness, knowing that soon their nations would suffer the same fate as outs. There are at this point in history few of us remaining. Those who survived have banded together under the guidance of we original six, though at this point only four remain. Our numbers are smaller by the day, and our enemy has all but forgotten us. Their victory was total, an[d] out defeat pushed our species to the brink of extinction. We now resist the decay. We hide. We wait. And we plan. -Excerpt from An Oral History of the Decay, Interview 8674-B 

From THD 14: Discharge:

"Stardate 1982: just a little joke. Research proceedes as planned on the Chrono Temporal Flux Fusion Engine. We were encouraged when a rice cake appeared in the machine's primary servo dock informing us that several minutes later we would succeed in transporting a rice cake backwards in time. This is a step forward as we previously have only been able to transport inorganic matter. Dwayne and I celebrated with drinks and a viewing of Blade Runner. Rutger Hauer's final speech is brilliant, especially five drinks in. Tomorrow we plan to attempt to transport a living insect, our first test of a live specimen. Wish us luck!" 

From the Party Lounge of Number Six's login:

This seems like a secure place to hide information, so here goes: watch out! You may be using this Party Lounge to take your mind off of the grueling reality outside this base. You may be secure in your position as a high-ranking resistance officer. Be warned: danger lurks in even the safest of places. Do you know what relationship Numbers 1, 3, 5 and 6 have to the decay? Have you never wondered what happened to Numbers 2 and 4? Have you questioned the abductions of individuals from prior eras, or the futures you are trying to prevent? Stay alert. I'll be in touch as I am able, but do not look for me - it may be some time until my next communication is able to get through to you.

The email to Gustav-

Hey Buddy
You should be getting notification of a delivery of goods pretty soon. Central hopes to have it out within a week. Let me know if anything goes wrong.
Stay frosty,
Samuel
PS: Tell Dwayne he still owes me a rematch on the court and that this time I'm bringing a ref to make sure he doesn't commit any personal fouls.

The emails are dated as 5142 after Zagmar's twitter invasion

$ list email
E51420813, E51420815, E51420820, E51420827
$ read E51420813
Roth, 
 We've lost contact with Brown down in portal experimentation.  There's something going on down there.  Do you know  anything? 
 -Croft
$ read E51420815
Roth, 
 The boys downstairs have really stuck their foot in it this time.  A routine resource run went sideways and some crazy followed them back with a small army.  That's the reason for the communications outage yesterday.
 We've contained the extradimensional intruders in a lower level for now but may require military backup.  Will update you soon.  
-Hearn
$ read E51420820
Roth, 
You're so lucky being located upstairs.  It's been a real crapshow down here over the past five days.  We managed to starve the crazies out and they retreated through the portal, but we can't seem to get the thing closed.  They took the prisoner with them.  The crazy one that appears to be their leader screamed some nonsense about returning soon with more forces, so we need to get this shut down before we have an army in our base.  We can't fight a war on two fronts and the soldiers don't need this distraction from the true enemy. 
 I think we may have bitten off more than we can chew with this stuff - again.  This time we can't let it turn out as badly because we won't get a third chance.  Any support the boys upstairs can provide would be greatly appreciated. 
-Hearn
$ read E51420827
No. 6, 
 Speaking in my capacity as military liason to science, I want to let you know that the latest anti-sparkle suits are a rousing success.  I'll have an official report on your desk by Tuesday, but yesterday's field operation allowed us to directly take full exposure for half an hour with no adverse effects.  Tell the boys in the lab great work, and look out for the report soon.  
 -Lt. Samuel

Following the twitter invasion, another email to Gusstav

Howdy partner, 
I just let No. 6 know that the suits worked out great, and we need like 20 more fabbed asap. I put a work order in so you should see that coming through on your terminal, but thumbs-up on the new metamaterial. Works great. 
Stay frosty, 
Samuel 
PS: Did you hear about the crazy portal accident down in Research? Those clowns almost compromised the entire base. Nuts.

Propaganda Posters are advertisements for the Resistance.

Sigil Master Lorakis' time seems beset by the Resistance

Charles Foster Ashby

Charles Foster Ashby appears to be some form of out of time person and has many chronological impossibilities to his story (such as Chevetonge monastery only existing since 1939).

The following is the informatiion found on the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio's about page:

The Ashby Brewery was founded in 1777 by Charles Foster Ashby, a Belgian philosopher and entrepreneur. From the age of 5, Ashby had lived among the monks at the Chevetogne Abbey near the city of Liege. During his stay among the devout, Ashby studied and perfected the Trappist brewing techniques for which the monks of Chevetogne became so well known.

Following the destruction of the abbey during the Blue Revolution of 1738, Ashby booked passage to the New World and made his way to what is now known as downtown Berkeley, California. Bringing with him ancient yeast strains and the knowledge of the Chevetogne monks, Ashby started up a rudimentary brewery on the future site of the Ashby Brewery in South Berkeley. His efforts attracted local businessmen and game designers, who spun tales of a grand salon where new diversions would be crafted, along with delicious ales and lagers, for consumption among the colonies of New California and Jefferson State.

As Ashby’s reputation for creating high quality beer spread, so did the legends that surrounded the man himself. Ashby was notoriously long-lived, having reached the laudable age of 122 before retiring from public life in spite of his youthful appearance. When asked by a young Mark Twain what had been the secret to his success, Ashby famously declared, “I bring you a message of great importance!” The author didn’t know what to make of this, and the legend of the Ashby Brewery grew.

At the Ashby Brewery and Indie Game Studio, we continue to spread Charles Ashby’s vision of radical new games and brews. We start with pure filtered water from the high hills of outer Berkeley; we add organic malted barley from Oakland community garden spaces; our hops come from a hidden slope of Albany Hill known only to Ashby himself; and the yeast, still the original strain from Chevetogne, dates back to time immemorial.

We hope you will join us for a pint next time you come to the Bay Area. In addition to our classic Cherry Wheat and Shamrock Stout, we hope you will enjoy our Summer Blueberry Pilsner, Press ‘A’ to Continue Ale, and C. Ashby’s 2x Multiplier Dubbel, centuries in the making..