A Brief History of the Ancient Empire Part 1

At the dawn of the First Age, the four greatest prophets of their faiths received many signs and portents of a coming catastrophe. They chose to meet at a predetermined time on the summit of the Undermountain. Those assembled included the Speaker of the Eon Worm, Basil of the Deep Root, Varyan the Starseer, and Grundle the First Hammer. Their meeting quickly devolved to bickering over difference in philosophies, but in that moment they each received a sign from their god, culminating in the very Sun itself growing dark. And they knew that none could survive alone in the face of the impending cataclysm. This came to be known as the Council of Passing Shadow.   As each of these prophets spread the portents of a coming doom and the message of unification to their people, gradually the leaders of each tribe or warrior-state became convinced to set aside their differences and unite with the greatest nation the world had ever seen, Nalizant. Together they formed The Empire, a bastion of hope for the peoples of Nalizant and Rabarri. But that hope would not last. The first Emperor was Grundle the First Hammer, leader of the Bloodhammer dwarves. Each of the four main factions, elves, humans, dwarves, as well as the strange creatures known as wyrwood, agreed to articles of succession that allowed a faction to hold the throne no more than 100 years. However, it was a little over a hundred years after the Empire’s founding that the prophesy of doom came to pass in the form of the Wyrmstar, a humongous orb of burning red iron that fell from the sky, obliterating the capital city and killing the human Emperor Nathis. Next in the line of succession was the elven high priest of the Deep Root, Mykalus, who quickly consolidated power, moving the seat of the Empire from the southern continent to the northern city of Lokar, and rallying the Empire’s forces to prepare for invasion. And he was wise to do so, for besides the destruction caused by its impact, the Wyrmstar was to bring even an even greater threat.   The dragons had long been the closest any mortal had seen to actual gods upon the face of their world. These majestic creatures had long nurtured the shorter-lived races through their primalcy, even the elves, who in this age still had lifespans of a thousand years. Though the dragons rarely meddled in the affairs of the mortal races, no one in those days could ever dream of the true horror that was to come. It spread like a sickness from the site of the Wyrmstar, corrupting the minds of the chromatic dragons and their dragonborn, turning them against not only their metallic kin, but churning a hatred for all the mortal races. The Dragon Wars had begun and would rage across the known lands for almost a thousand years. In its wake it left untold death and destruction. It would result in the complete destruction of the dragonborn, and the self-imposed exile of the remaining metallic dragons, who wished to prevent such a catastrophe from ever occurring again, should they too fall to corruption.   Thus ended the First Age of the Empire. During the ongoing threat of the Dragon Wars, Emperor Mykalus, now ancient even by elven standards, had dared not follow the rules of rotating succession and turn the throne over another faith in the midst of the conflict. And so after a thousand year rule, few questioned when his son Kyanin took the reins of power from the aging Emperor. Thus began the Mykalian Dynasty, perpetuating another 3,000 years of elven rule. It was in the time of Kyanin’s daughter, the Empress Shelara, in the Second Age of the Empire, that the halfling who would come to be known as Saint Killian the Blessed had a vision of the Gods’ Moot, the site of the original Council of Passing Shadow, and took his followers on a holy pilgrimage to the Undermountain. There he received a vision of a new, unifying religion and founded the Church of the Celestial. Within only a few years it had become the official religion of the Empire, supplanting all pagan religions that had come before. And though many of the old ways died hard, today the Church has become a way of life for all the Empire’s citizens.   It was in the Second Age also that the wyrwood merchants who had, together with their spiritual leader, Varyan the Starseer, helped found the Empire, discovered that whatever ancient magic had been used to create them was fading, and that they were no longer able to reproduce their own kind. Though virtually immortal, the surviving wyrwood saw their power and influence in the Empire diminishing, especially as they were the only one of the four founding races who had never held the seat of power. And so the wyrwood merchants quickly pledged allegiance en masse to the new religion and petitioned the Empress to recognize their leaders as a noble house. The canny Empress, knowing it behooved her to keep the wily wyrwood merchants on her side, granted the wyrwood noble house the title of The Green Trust, and making them the official bankers of the Empire. Little did she know the power she was truly bestowing upon them.   The Third Age of the Empire was once again one of war and bloodshed. The dwarven General Targo, longing for the glory days of the Bloodhammer Tribe, before the advent of the Empire, declared himself the new First Hammer and lead a like-minded faction of dwarves in a bloody war of insurrection against the Empire. Eventually the rebels were driven to take refuge deep within the Undermountain, where it is believed they remain to this day, perhaps plotting their revenge.   And thus began the Fourth Age of the Empire. In the year 4505 AE (Age of Empire) a dwarven explorer named Dolgrin the Seeker took an expedition to Rabarri to search for the Wyrmstar. Locating this mythical object of destruction, she brought her prize back to the capital of Lokar, presenting it before the elven emperor Arandolan. Little could she have suspected that the vile artifact held one more terrible secret; a plague. Within days the entire royal family and most of the population of Lokar were dead, their bleeding bodies shriveled and ravaged by the Red Wilting. The Mykalian Dynasty had come to an end, and the vacuum of power was filled by an unlikely source. The wyrwood quickly discovered that they were naturally immune to the plague. The head of the Green Trust, Abroshtor, as the highest ranking living noble within the capital, quickly reinstated the rules of succession, declaring himself next in line and crowning himself the new Emperor. For the first time in the Empire’s history, a wyrwood held the seat of power. But it had been a Pyrrhic victory. The Red Wilting continued to spread like wildfire throughout imperial lands. The elves, despondent over the loss of their Emperor and fearful that the Red Wilting was a curse upon their race, retreated to the great forest of Nikyonis. And in the territory of Nosirios, the imperially-appointed governor, Shokambe, declared himself Sand King, and Nosirios a sovereign nation. He expelled all imperial forces and citizens loyal to the Empire, including a regiment of Paladins of the Sun.   These were perilous times and the future of the Empire seemed uncertain…