Mollusc Era

""With creatures of the surface driven to extinction by rising sea levels, the ancestors of Inklings were free to haul their 10-legged bodies up onto the abandoned land. This is how the Mollusc Era began.""

- Sunken Scroll 10

The Mollusc Era is the current time period in Splatoon. It began roughly 10,000 years after the earth flooded, causing all land-dwelling animals (with the exception of Judd) to become extinct, and appears to have followed a similar developmental process to that of humanity. The dominant species of the Mollusc Era appear to be Inklings, Octarians, jellyfish, sea anemone, lobsters, and horseshoe crabs, although many members of these species do not appear to be sentient.

History
When Earth's oceans flooded and eradicated a large majority of Earth's land-dwelling species, including humans, the planet entered a 10,000-year period with no intelligent life or significant advances. When this period ended, however, the water levels began to recede, forcing many sea creatures to evolve into intelligent, humanoid land-dwellers. Upon reaching this point, these evolved species began rapidly progressing, experiencing various periods similar to humanity's own progression, but in a more compressed amount of time.

At some point during this advancement, Judd was awoken from his cryogenic stasis chamber and quickly became well-known for his ability to judge ink battles, as well as being the only intelligent creature that did not evolve from a sea-dwelling species. The first recorded Turf War occurred during a period in Inkling history with many similarities to Ancient Egypt, roughly 2,000 years before the events of Splatoon began. This event is also the first known instance of Judd being used to determine the outcome of an ink battle.

The Great Turf War
As time progressed, the Octarians separated themselves from the other species of the Mollusc Era. They became dissatisfied with the amount of available dry land and waged war on the Inklings, the other dominant species at the time, to gain total control of the turf. The Octarians constructed a variety of large machines known as the Great Octoweapons and began attacking Inkling cities.