From the introduction:
The Elder Crossing, an event that takes place once took place every hundred years, but in relatively recent times has begun to occur every ten years. Elder Dragons from the old world cross the vast oceans in order travel to the New World, a distant and mysterious continent.
Our story begins forty years in the past, as the Hunter’s Guild sponsors the creation of the Research Commission, an expeditionary organization that would track the migrating Elder Dragons across the sea to discover the purpose of the Elder Crossing and its hastening.