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Halfling in the Playground
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Re: Land between the Rivers [PF][PEACH]
History
For purposes of the time and calenders, the dating system is set to before the death of Gog and after words. The year 0, or the first year of the current era is marked immediately after Gog's demise.
The Historical Record of the Inan
The history of the Inan is long and colorful. At times much of its early history is more mythic then objective fact. Perspectives vary, and spin does happen. This is an overview compilation of the history of the Inan, spanning 8,000 years. For this I'd definitely like notes and opinions on. With this I tried to be a bit more literary, having occasional citations from texts interspersed with the actual story.
In the beginning...:
Spoiler
The exact origins and creation of the world are unknown.
For the Inan, what created it is unknown, but the arrival of its first people is somewhat known. Tamazian legend holds that they came from the south along the coast and by sea. Their ancient texts describe them as a people who swam and lived on rafts and boats. They describe how the land was harsher then the sea, describing endless rocky wastes and coast-lands inhabited by hostile people and animals. People whom worshiped two sister deities, Anash and Enki, who the Tamazians followed on their flotilla at sea. When 8,000 years ago they were shown to the “Garden of the Mermaids,” as they called it. Thus ending their endless wandering. The marshlands now called the Tamaz Delta and the Mezek forest. There they built homes made of reeds, feasted on fish, and learned to till the fields and grow grain, and most importantly write down their thoughts with a written language. The fertile marshy plains the Mermaid Goddesses showed them, they called the land Inan, which literally means “The vulva of the world,” as it was wet, fertile and full of life compared to the drier grasslands of Molhar or the rocky coasts elsewhere around the Sea of Dilmund.
To the north, the Sabylians have little known history. Unlike the Tamazians they had no written language at the time. The Vabbians later adopted writing from the Tamazians and made their own alphabet. Vabbians describe the now Vabbian Desert as a grassland and the Sea of Thirst as the Lake of Ammon. Sinatic peoples on the other hand are recorded as having built two grand cities, one being Ur-Bekk and another whose a name has since been stricken from all records, though it was in the Aserian wastes. From this time, little is known save for what the Tamazians wrote down as only their records survive. This era is hard to pin down as claims about its wonders are often beyond belief. It is said one of the kings of the Ammonites lived for three centuries for example.
Gog, and the Rebellion against the Gods.:
Spoiler
While the Historicity of Gog and the rebellion against the Gods is in question. Tamazian and Vabbitic texts survive from this era that tell of this clash between the Gods and rebellious men of Aseria whose very names are not written, believing it to be forever cursed. They are thus called Aserians as their true name is unspeakable. This epic has however left both textual clues and physical landmarks which are still visited today, even though the event transpired around 10 BCE or roughly 7,000 years ago. The bones of Gog can still be found in the Magog mountains. The events of the war are mostly held in the Tamazian Book of Ages or “Puran,” in Tamazian.
“The men of Aseria grew impatient, wanting to know ever more secrets of the cosmos. To which the Gods would not reveal to them. They in their arrogance contrived a plot to steal this knowledge from the Gods. Unto themselves they built a golem unlike any before seen. One as great as an red greater wyrm dragon in both size and ghastly visage. They called this being, Gog, and the men of Aseria gathered to worship their creation.” (Puran 1:10–13);
The reason for the arrogance of Aseria is widely attributed to their discovery of powerful magic. While at this time people across the world were discovering spell-weaving and other mystical arcane arts, a few people of this era were true masters. Weaving magical wonders and building walled cities that “bedazzled all who looked upon them.” The Aserians were speakers of a Sinatic dialect, similar to the people of the Mulhar savanna who had build the city of Ur-Bekk.
Gog is described as a metallic golem, with the proportions and form of a great wyrm dragon, typically described as being like a red great wyrm in size and shape. Gog would, according to legend, shake the foundations of the world and confidence of the Gods in mankinds virtue. His construction would cause the fall of a God and the creation three powerful fiends. For it is said the men of Aseria had planned to send Gog to the planes of the Gods to subdue them and extract from them all the secrets of the cosmos. One of the Gods, Enlel, had already found mankind and his capacity for learning disgusting. Thinking it some cruel joke that a mere animal could do anything similar to a divine immortal being.
First the men of Aseria called the peoples of the nearby lands to join them in worshiping Gog. However none heeded their call for conversion, and so they set Gog to conquer them first.
“When the people of Tamaz and Molhar refused to worship Gog, the Aserians set Gog to display the awesome might of Aserian magic to them, They set Gog to subdue the nations of the earth, the false god unfurled its metallic wings and came to the city of Ur-Bekk, from its mouth a mighty ball of fire left the city charred in the blink of an eye. The ball of fire burnt so bright that all who looked upon it went blind, and the people of Ur-Bekk had only pale ivory shadows left of them. Ur-Bekk became no more and was never rebuilt, the land cursed by Gog's fire.” (Puran 2:17–21);
When Gog destroyed Ur-Bekk and turned his attention to the delta, he is described as threatening the small cities of Tamaz and Ur-Mezek. However the Goddesses Enki and Anash set loose upon Gog a primordial titan, a being from the ages before man. A creature listed in the Book of Ages as the “Tarrasque,” which would face Gog in single combat. The Tarrasque emerged first among the Aserian wastes and consumed the men who made Gog and laid waste to everything around them. Gog then rose up to face this beast. The two battled on the peaks of what is now called the Magog mountains by Sinatic tribesmen as it is where Gog would ultimately fall. However, Gog would not fall before smiting down the Tarrasque on the seventh day. Scattering its bones into the Aserian wastes.
Gog was damaged in the battle though. The primordial titan ripped from his ribs many bones, and tore his left wing from his back. From one of Gogs bones was made a spear that would pierce Gog's heart. By Tamazian legends, the spear was made by Enki, Vabbians say it was Kikatnu, but whom ever the craftsmen there is no disagreement as to whom ended Gog's life. Gog fell before Asher, the God of the Hunt. With spear in hand he came out from the Planes of Gods and pierced Gogs heart, shattering it and causing Gog to fall with a mighty roar. With the people whom made him dead, and with his heart in pieces, Gog fell into a deep chasm, there would be his tomb.
The death of Gog however did not end conflict, for in the Heavens among the Gods, the creation of Gog led the Gods to wonder if mankind was a threat to themselves and the world they dwelt upon.
The War in Heaven:
Spoiler
The rebellion of the Aserians was ample proof to the then storm God Enlel that "... mere animals..." should never have been allowed to discover arcane magic. Enlel had always been ambivalent about allowing humans to exist, he brooded and feared the possibility of mortal creatures capable of being like Gods. With Gog and the attempt by some humans to subdue the Gods, Enlel resolved then to flood the lands and possibly the whole of the world. Enlel's arguments persuaded the great warrior God Hasatan to join him, and together the two released another primordial titan Tematu and whole hosts of beings were compelled to believe his position. When he did this, the other Gods recoiled in horror. Anash and Enki protested that their followers did not build Gog, Nazrael and Ziel also protested that their people should not suffer for the Sins of Aseria. Anash and Enki created a barrier beneath the rising seas so that her people would not drown but instead be safe in a bubble beneath the waves. Nazrael used the heat of the sun and her fire to boil the clouds and rain, and Ziel used the moon to pull the tides away. Anshara blessed man with the ability to breath water.
The Gods tried to reason with Enlel, But he maintained his position. The Gods dissipated his flood and saved mankind. But Enlel was insistent saying "They are but foul imitations, beings that we should destroy not nurture, less they try again to usurp and destroy us." Anshara, the Demi-Goddess daughter of Enki and a mortal man, tried her best to heal the people and help during the drought that followed as Enlel refused to bring the rain after his flood had failed. Enlel, found Anshara's aid to mankind so enraging that he kidnapped Anshara. If he could not drown mankind beneath the waves, he would put curses on them. He forced Anshara to bare three children. Akhkzomet was the first, fiend of disease and pestilence who double humanities suffering from disease. Sazomet was the second, he doubled mans madness and drove humanity to avarice, hate and discord. Finally Batzomet who would take Gog's place as the destroyer of worlds, Batzomet wielded the raging heart of hate and war and would make war on mankind. Anshara however could only be bound for so long, she broke free and broke off Enlel's right horn. Which the God Mizarom used to fashion the Key of the Damned, he and the other Gods then banished Enlel into the darkest pits of the Ethereal-Shadow, there to was bound his lietenant Hasatan and the Titan Tematu.
Asher, Anshara and the Cat Goddess Izel rose then to clean the mess left by Enlel's sin against Anshara. The Gods dueled Batzomet, Akhkzomet and Sazomet in the heavenly plane. Anshara gave one appeal to them to change and reject their father Enlel, however it was to no avail. The stories tell of the wickedness they inherited and Tamazian legends hold that Akhkzomet spewed "Vile curses," upon her own mother. Ultimately Batzomet was no mach for three deities and the spear crafted from the very bones of a beast made to subdue Gods. Batzomet fell to the ground leaving a pit and bones behind. However Akhkzomet and Sazomet fled the from the heavenly realsm and retreated back to other Ethereal-Shadow, hiding their faces from Asher.
The other Gods prevents Asher from hunting Akhkzomet and Sazomet, finding that even though Enlel was ghastly in what he had done, his point was partially valid. That mankind if allowed to exist in such paradise like conditions as before would only become arrogant in time and rebel.
From Myths to Cities: ( 1 - 4500 )
Spoiler
In the world after Gog, Enlel and the others, a new order began to emerge. One that would shape many future conflicts to come. The conflicts between cities and the country, urban vs. rural, and agriculture vs. pastoralism. The Tamazians two primary cities at the time were Tamaz and Ur-Mezek. However as the colonized more of the then marshy plains, they built Eppon, Ukit and as far north as the Sabylian Hills they built Ur-Kasdem. Ur-Kasdem became an economic hub for the gathering of a rare snail from the lake of Elon and along the northern banks of the Anash. The snail could be used to make purple dye for clothing and became a hot commodity the Tamazians of that city traded in. The city of Tamaz became a focus for copper and tin coming out of the Sinat peaks, Ur-Mezek was a hub for lumber from the Mezek forest. Eppon came to become a hub for farms that lay scattered throughout the central Inan plains. In this time the Tamazians developed a social order that was a sort of quasi-socialism. Farmers fed their grain to collective grain storage across the Inan that were distributed nearly evenly to the nearest population centers. Artisans, stone cutters, metal workers and general non-farmers and farmers alike were thus paid a wage in grain. Farmers got the goods of the cities, and the city people did not need to farm. Tamazian society was then ruled over by its religious caste, the clerics, witches and oracles oversaw the social order and divined the will of Gods.
This city building and increased agriculture brought Tamazians headlong into the Sabylian herdsmen and conflict arose over land. The Tamazians writings tell about the savagery of the Sabylians and their over all levels of ignorance. However they are described as being herdsmen whom rode many animals and tamed large beasts which vexed the Tamazians whom for the most part did not ride horses and whose diet was almost exclusively grain and fish. Unfortunately the Sabylians were not quick to adopt writing, thus no written accounts exist from their perspective. Numerous wars were fought, between the growing agricultural and urban Tamazians and the Sabylians herdsmen. The main advantage the Sabylians had was their mobility and command of animals. On horseback they could cover great distances, and they tamed might dire bears that could wreak havoc on a Tamazian army. The Tamazians meanwhile had fortified cities, more people, and could count on the then wetter Inan plains to bog down the Sabylians who could not maneuver as easily in the swampy wetlands further south. The Sabylians at this time came to be composed of three major tribes. The Sabronites who lived near the woods of Sabrin and the Lake of Elon who most often warred with Ur-Kasdem. The Margonites were the second tribe who lived along the base of the Rhondesh Mountains and the eastern side of the Enki river. Finally the Elamites who lived around the Izel woods and along the Enki river.
To the west conflict for the Tamazians began to arise from another mostly pastoral nomadic people, the Vabbitic speakers beyond the Red Gap. For the 4,000 year period after the death of Gog, the land beyond the Red Gap became increasingly arid. Driving the Vabbitic speakers into the Inan plains. Ammon, a small city that had been built, destroyed, and rebuilt in the various clan warfare among the Ammonites, finally was abandoned in the year 4200 as the last of Lake Ammon dried up and never returned. The land became a dust bowl and was dubbed the Vabbian desert. As this happened successive waves of Vabbitic speaking herdsmen moved into the Red Gap and into the Erudun plains. At first most stayed on the western side of the Anash river, building small settlements such as Sargesh and Erudesh. But by 4000 CE the trickle became a flood as mass migrations of people fled the desert for the greener Inan. In all directions the Vabbitic speakers fanned out. Crossing the Anash and conquering the scattered farms and villages of the Tamazians. The Vabbian invasion was on, and for the next few 3 centuries it would fill the Inan with a new culture, new language, and new cities. Unlike the Sabylians, the Vabbians quickly adopted the city building, agricultural ways of the Tamazians. However unlike the Tamazians the Vabbitic speakers devised a system of taxation, and a form of private enterprise in which farmers could produce as much as they wished and sell the grain, all they had to do was give their local King a cut of the profits. Also with them came worship of Nazrael and Ziel, the sun and the moon deities. More over these pastoral folks had assimilated agriculture similar to the Tamazians and would continue their wars with the Sabylian.
The Reign of Vabbitic Kings: (4500 )
Spoiler
The Vabbian invasions were a stunning success for the Vabbitic speakers. They were aided by three factors, first being iron and primitive steel when the Tamazians had only bronze, second was the Vabbian art of spell-weaving and arcane arts which the Tamazians rejected, third was that not only did their original homeland become drier but so did the Inan. The Inan became more of a green grassland then an extensive marsh, and the Anash and Enki rivers began to flood on more predictable cycles.
Their weapons, magic and more tolerable climate propelled the Vabbitic speaking invaders to make quick work of any resistance. However they did not annihilate those they conquered they merely absorbed them. Over the next 1,000 years the Vabbians began building and expanding. The city of Erudesh became massive, quickly controlling trade routes that went west and merchant caravans coming from the west would always stop in Erudesh to resupply. Nimeresh became a major hub for agriculture and would constantly war with the Tamazians of the delta and try to control the Mezek forests, however Ur-Mezek and Tamaz remained Tamazian ruled strong holds and the delta continued to elude the conquering Vabbians for another couple thousand years.
To the north the city of Arkech would be built by an elite circle of master spellcasters. Led by King Gideon the Stoneshaper, and the first Council of Twelve, Arkech rose as a center of learning and magic. It also rose to control the mines and quarries of the Yazden mountains and the trade of purple dye. Though they would war with Ur-Kasdem, Sabronites, and the Elamites who had themselves begun building a city to the north east. These wars however were difficult for the Vabbians to win as the Sabylians had begun using a chariot as well as mounted archers allowing them to deliver lightning campaigns against their enemies. The Vabbians, while also originally pastoralists were slow to adopt the Sabylians saddles and bridles and the chariot. In fact it is said in 4623, that the Arkechens fled the field when they saw the roaring chariots crossing the plains south of Elam. They fled to their allied city of Urakesh and hid from the roaring charioteers. This would see the first Arkecho-Elamite war in which Arkech was defeated and had to retreat south. However the Arkechens did have superior defenses. But often the Sabylians would raid and exact tribute from farmers. Especially the then Elamite King Ikkan who demanded monthly grain tribute to Elam. Arkech, then smaller and with fewer practiced spellcasters could not overcome the larger numbers of the Sabylians and their mobility on the field and thus capitulated. Urakesh however continued to war as they had a city in more defensible position, sitting on a rocky butte.
Erudesh would continuously pick at both Arkech and Nimeresh for centuries. The Mt. of Elyo and the plains to the west of it seeing many thousands of battles with massive armies of chariots and archers fighting at the steps of the hill. By year 5000 the Vabbians had adopted the Sabylian chariots and horse riding, frequently making it their own in the flat plains. However, the Sabylians continued to be the dominate raiding force, as the hills proved impossible to attack for long, and the Sabylian city of Elam, in spite of three separate siege attempts by Arkech in 5003, 5007 and finally in 5010, continued to stand as the king of the northern plains. However Arkech had ceased paying grain tributes to Elam. In 5028 Nimeresh fell to Erudesh, however Margesh had become the heart of farming by then and a year later Nimeresh experienced a plague outburst which the Oracles interpreted as divine wrath from Mizarom for taking an improper census that year. Likewise the city of Shinesh in 5067 was said to have been plagued by the undead for failing to offer a proper sacrifice to Nazrael that year after a good harvest. Nazrael commanding Mizarom to not let the earth take their dead. For a full year the fields of Shinesh were plagued by the walking dead. Wars between Arkech and Elam would flair up from 5200 onward, nearly every decade would have at least three major battles somewhere between the two cities. With only a brief pause in battle during a drought in 5340 to 5343, to which the Arkechen magi Yoseph ibn Aziz wrote “The Goddess Nazrael grew bored of seeing us fight, and wished to see if thirst and hunger might be more entertaining.”
Wars waxed and waned, cities flourished, faded and rose back up. Ur-Kasdem fell, was rebuilt, fell again, began to be rebuilt and then earthquakes took it out in 5432 after the last siege attempt from Arkech. Around 6000 CE even Tamaz fell, however not to armies but to a great earthquake that shifted the rivers flow and sank the city into the mud. Tamazian culture shifted exclusively to Ur-Mezek and by the year 6000 the Tamazians began having a new saying about the land, “Vulva of the World,” started also saying “... The world is always menstruating.” However it is assumed this saying had existed throughout the land for eons since the first wars with the Sabylians.
Rise of Sinatic Kings: ( 6000 )
The 12th Arkecho-Elamite war (The Battle at the East Gate): ( 6212 )
Spoiler
For the next 25 years fighting waged as the foundations of Akkash and Kemi were settled, likewise in the north a desire to deal with Arkech grew amongst the three tribes of Sabylia. The Elamite King Kaden renewed his efforts and began building better siege equipment. An order of oracles and clerics practiced a cult of Necromancy, popular amongst the Elamites which had allowed them to unleash new found havoc on the Arkechens. Previously in 6190, a major battle ended with the Elamites being trounced when the Arkechens had used a spell to conjure a cloud of poison over the plains. The Elamites were trying themselves to delve into magical mysticism. Their own court of Magi, the Circle of Bones also formed which practiced various arts of Divination and Necromancy. This upset the Arkechens who tripled their sacrifices to Mizarom, pleading with their patron God to teach them such magic. Indeed Necromancy was an art still alien to their spell-casters who were mostly conjurers, transmuters and elementalist mages. In 6212 a new war flared up, King Kaden was intent to not make the mistake of his father Hozai who had suffered a route do to the Arkechen mages new found conjurations. He would counter with his own magic, and in the summer of 6212, King Kaden massed his charioteers and his magi and swept through the plains. Then Arkechen King Gideon the 5th, looked with horror and wrote “They have bound spirits of the netherworld into clay jars, and release these shadows unto any in their path. They command these dybbuk [foul spirits] and can bind them to do their bidding. Sapping the strength of our warriors whom few have the magical means of fighting.” King Kadens siege of Arkech looked to be a stunning success. Few of their magi could enchant weapons that could fight spirits, The Clerics of Mizarom worked tirelessly to bless weapons and turn back the foul spirits of King Kadens necromancers. Quickly Arkeches skilled alchemists devised an oil that could make weapons magic and means of mass producing it. Quickly the Arkechens worked, as the Elamites soon breached the walls of Arkech and had toppled one of the cities great minarets that empowered spells when cast from it. With the newly empowered weapons, the Arkechens drove the Elamites from the city after three days of house to house combat. However lingering beyond the city were also risen skeletons and Elamite warriors whom had volunteered to be risen as the Elamites “Immortal Warriors.” It is written then that the Arkechen King pondered his options and with the Council of Twelve began trying to craft a curse or some means of turning Kaden back or worse, turning Kaden against the Elamites. Kaden lacked children at the time so it was thought that with Kaden gone the Elamites would have a war of succession and thus give Arkech time to deal with the Elamites new found might. First the Council summoned and bound numerous mephits of earth, fire and glass. Second they had concocted a “blood pox.” The curse was cast upon King Kaden via a suicide caster who would get close to Kaden and cast the spell. The name of the caster is recorded as a boy named Azuman. The curse turned Kaden into an undead, a blood craving vampire. Ideally the Arkechens hoped to drive the Elamites from their fields as King Kaden turned on and consumed his own people in frantic bloodlust. The Gods must have taken pity of Kaden as he was able to resist and continue the battle, instead feasting on the blood of farmers and peasants outside the walls of Arkech, and also a good number of their warriors. But ultimately the summoned mephits and one particularly powerful glass mephit was able to thrash the Elamites. The battle at the gates of Arkech was costly and bloody, with both sides being heavily depleted and sapped by it. King Kaden noting his dwindling numbers of men, and unable to match the conjurations of Arkech turned back. Fat with blood, he took many wives and was able to create offspring for a time. Impregnating many women, as he dreamed that the Gods would bless him with children should he decide to end his own life afterward. He created the Dhampir nobility of Arkech, spawning whole family lines and securing a House of Kaden to rule over Elam. However, with great regret, he had to end his own life as part of the deal.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, Elam found itself with a whole line of nobles, carrying a unique bloodline. From each woman was spawned an entire noble house baring her name. Originally each woman was lower class, or widowed, or orphaned by the war. The House of Kaselem for example birthed not just powerful necromancers but Dhampir whom practiced a blood enriched magic called Cruoromancy or that made their power over life and death all the greater and founded whole covens of Witches.
For Arkech the aftermath was more direct. Arkech had nearly lost their city and been defeated. The ongoing wars between Elam and Arkech would no longer be ones fought between a people who had powerful sorcery and one with little magical aptitude. No, now the Elamites were no mere raiders demanding grain tribute, they were now competitors in the field of arcane magic. Moreover they weaved spells that the Arkechens themselves were not very good at. Divination and necromancy proved their weakness, were as transmutation and conjuration were their strongest suites.
From 6213 onward repeated wars would be fought between the two cities of magic. Leading to an off again on again 200 year period of wars called “the spell wars.” The wars would not cease until 6421 with the coming of a comet read as a bad omen by both sides.
The Hyperian Invasion and Occupation: ( 6424 - 6543 )
Spoiler
In the year 6421, a ghastly omen appeared in the sky. For 2 days a comet hung in the sky striking terror across the Inan. The Oracles divined that the Gods had grown weary of mankind and would send a great cataclysm. With the exception of the Tamazians whom believed the sign was a good omen that a flood would soon wash the Inan clean the Vabbitic and Sinatic tribes that currently lorded over most of it. However three years came and went and no disaster happened. Leaving the priests puzzled.
Then in 6424, a new invasion came. A conquering imperial race unlike any the Inan had witnesses. Referring to themselves as "Hyperians," they are described by the Tamazian chronicler Anjarban as having bronze or olive skin and nearly all possessing hair that was silver blond, almost liker are platinum. The were a people from the west. A foreign historian, Justinian Sylva of Lydia would later recount that they were from the western most tip of land that any man could walk to.
The Hyperian conquers employed a mix of shock and awe and lightning speed movement against the most powerful armies of the Inan. Arkech, Erudesh, Uthesh and Nimeresh were quickly brought to bare. The might of their spell-casting was greater then any the Arkechens had managed to weave for themselves. Exact records are difficult to piece together as the Hyperians themselves made sure to rewrite and suppress any accounts taken at the time. It is said Arkech only held out for four days before capitulating to the invaders, and Erudesh fell within hours of their arrival. Their armies are described as having control a small number of dragons, and many of their fighters also wielded spells. When the major Vabbitic Kingdoms fell, all the surrounding lands quickly surrendered less they feel such awesome and terrible wrath.
The Hyperians cast the invasion as a noble enlightened race coming to liberate ignorant peoples. However the real reason for their presence in the Inan was clear from the get go. They had come for the grain, and nothing else. By 6426 the occupation was in full swing, the Hyperians had renovated the irrigation canals and had new ones made. They built the city of Zabyl in the north east, naming it after the people of that part of the Inan. However Hyperian "S" sounds are said to sound like "Z" in their language. They also quickly built Zabaalem, a monastic city at the base of a mountain inhabited by many dragons which were emblematic of their culture and society. While they worked on establishing a colonial foothold in the north east, they also established a a citadel in the south west, near the Mezek forest. Said to be a major lay line nexus, the fortress served as the major means by which the Hyperians were able to rule over the Inan, and indeed many other territories across the globe. By Anjarbans account the Hyperians had devised a spell that allowed them to travel vast distances in mere minutes. A Hyperian could have his morning bread in the Inan, sail in the Sea of Galilipe in the early afternoon, have lunch on the Athonian isle of Vesperion, and return to their homeland for dinner. However the means of rapid travel worked, it was a secret jealously guarded by the Hyperian overseers. Apparently before the conquest of the Inan, they allowed others to use it to facilitate rapid trade, however it quickly also became a means of organizing rebellions. The Hyperians thus used these magical teleportation circles to move only their own people around. It became key to their occupations which required few actual on the ground forces in any given province. A small oversight force and security force for colonists was all that was needed. If a rebellion happened in any given province they could flood soldiers through these citadels via the teleportation circle and quickly be able to crush any rebellion. And without the use of the circles, would be rebels had a difficult time organizing a mass rebellion throughout the Hyperians rather large empire.
The hold the Hyperians had over the Inan was ironclad. They exacted large tribute in the form of grain, draining nearly 1/3rd of the grain produced at the beginning. Though they had increased yield, they left the locals in a state of relative food scarcity in spite of it as the occupiers confiscated grain in ever greater amounts. Redistributing the food throughout the empire. The overseer put in charge of the Inan after 40 years was a man named Katar. A powerful mage who was a ruthless technocrat. He calculated the bare minimum amount of grain needed to sustain farm labor and limited the Inan's access to its own produce to that. He also intended to end local religious cults, he sent out troops who pilfered ziggurats and temples of holy items. To the Inan, the occupiers were thieving godless usurpers.
He also tightly controlled the use of magic by the Arkechens and attempted to exert some influence over the Vabbitic tribes whom lived in the Vabbian Desert. During this age Katar earned himself few friends, even among some of the colonists of his own ethnic group. He became detested in Zabyl and Zabaalem by the colonists whom had over the last 40 years somewhat integrated with local Sabylians forming a fused culture. However Katars magic and broad mandate to collect grain made him nigh unquestionable. Katars job was to feed a world spanning empire, and that was it. However a definite rift between those who settled the region and those who came for resource extraction definitely formed. By year 6490 Katar was completely despised locally by those he oversaw, among the colonists there was division between those who settled permanently (Growing to hate Katar) and those who oversaw the farms and grain silos (Who saw him as an excellent administrator). However, his support elsewhere in the empire, specifically among the rather mysterious "Tribunal," as the Hyperians called their ruling body and his grain yield made him well received outside the Inan.
In fact, while the Inan suffered, the world actually came to prosper. The Lydia Historian, Justinian wrote that over the next 100 years that the Hyperians ruled the Inan plains the populations of other provinces rose as the rising food supply could feed vast numbers of people. The pressure to keep Katar in place was far greater then any concerns from subject people or a small population of far flung colonists. Katar was free to administer as he saw fit and indulge his hobbies. In fact one personal quest of his was investigating the bones of Gog. He had a fascination with the magic that could have created such a mighty golem. He is even said to have gone on an expedition to find if any ruins of the Aserians might still survive to give clues as to Gog's construction or the metal he was made from.
The Fall of the Hyperians: ( 6543 )
Spoiler
By 6540 however, the Hyperian occupation ended. With an abrupt calamitous bang. While Katar managed the grain shipments and dabbled in magical experiments, something terrible befell Hyperians Homeland. A cataclysm, felt around the world happened there. No scholar know for certain the exact cause, as anyone who may have known died in the disaster.
The Hyperian homeland was utterly annihilated. It sat on an oblong peninsula which had cracked and parts of it slid into the sea. Other parts were charred and left blackened and ash covered. Mysterious magical anomalies gripped the area, spells came to life, and in some areas the physical laws of nature seemed warped. Areas of wild magic and some spell blights appeared. More importantly the citadels became damaged. Within hours tsunamis washed into nearly every coastal city, even Ur-Mezek (Now Mezekesh) was damaged. Via merchants its believed these waves happened across the globe in lands as far away and exotic as Tolmek and Peji. More over earthquakes and aftershocks rippled across the Inan, and the globe, leaving cities damaged and a high death tole. In the immediate after shocks of the Hyperian cataclysm, its believed well over a million lives perished not counting however many died in the initial blast. (No census data survived to give an accurate estimate)
Katar in fact was forced to disable the teleportation circle that linked the Inan to the rest of the empire. Within weeks news filtered into the Inan about the disaster, and that other citadels that did not de-activate the teleportation spell were within days suddenly blasted by a strange destructive magical force. In quick succession the citadels fell, fanning out from the nearest to the Hyperian homeland to the farthest corners of their empire. What had caused this is unknown, even to this day nobody has even come to a satisfactory conclusion.
In the first year of the post-Hyperian cataclysm the Inan recovered from its 100 year artificially imposed famine. Katar no longer had anywhere to ship grain. However this had the inverse effect outside the Inan. To the west, the other provinces had a massive famine. Populations had risen dramatically with the influx of grain, with it suddenly gone the swollen populations elsewhere suddenly began to starve. Within a year it was estimated that 1 in 4 people starved to death in the former Hyperian provinces. Likewise food riots and wars were spawned as in many of these provinces the Hyperian colonists hoarded the food supply, that is in provinces that still had any. Many colonists settled near or around the citadels. Most of which exploded in great arcane fire. Meanwhile in the Inan, the opposite happened. The citadel survived intact, the heaviest concentration of colonists was further away, and food was now plentiful. However, the natives were due to deliver payback.
In 6542, uprisings quickly overtook the Inan. Katar and the other administrators took to defensible positions, generally either the citadel in the south or fortresses in the Sinat and Azun mountains. However a sizable chunk of Hyperians rebelled with the Inan natives. Those whom lived in Zabyl and Zabaalem joined the uprising and after a month they had Katars fortress stronghold now dubbed "Tyrants Crown," besieged. Hyperian administrators either made it to the citadels or other bunker fortresses or were killed by the armies of the Inan. Indeed pretty quickly it became ethnic cleansing.
In the winter of 6542, during the siege of Tyrants Crown, an elite group of warriors, led by Ravi of Ur-Mezek, broke through the battle lines and into the fortress. Ravi wielded an enchanted trident, blessed by the priesthood of the Mermaids, and a shield made to resist spells. He and his party met and killed Katar, Ravi earning the title of Mage Slayer for ultimately killing him. However even with Katars death, the siege of Tyrants crown continued into the spring of 9043. Until the Tyrants Crown itself exploded like the other citadels elsewhere in the world are said to have done. Some investigators allege that the remaining Hyperians were hoping to re-activate the teleportation circle to try and flee to safer grounds.
Thus in 6543 ended the 100 year Hyperian occupation. All that remained of the Hyperians in Inan was the small colony around Zabyl which became the tiny, reclusive Kingdom of Balaria. Named for the mount of Bal. A small Kingdom made up of some of the last living Hyperian descendants.
The Fall of Elam: ( 6562 )
Spoiler
Not long after the collapse of Hyperia, did the old conflicts of the Inan flair back up. Namely the Arkecho-Elamite conflict. The dominate struggle of the plains for thousands of years, before Arkech or Elam were even built the northern Inan was a point of contentious struggle. Things came to a head with the House of Darzi which occupies the 6th seat on the Arkechen Council of 12 devised an incantation that would ideally summon some form of elemental or divine being into Elam to destroy it.
The goal was the use an incantation to create a gate between the material world and Ethereal-Shadow. Arkech rallied its armies and its ally Urakesh and got close enough to Elam. But did not engage, instead they used a device made of many lenses to focus a spell at the city. Overhead, near the south gate to Elam they conjured a gate. The incantation worked, soon terrifying monsters poured from the gate into Elam. The spell however had unintended consequences. Many parts of Elam became phase shifted into another plane, and the spell to close the gate did not work. Seen as a punishment from the Gods, the Arkechens abandoned the quest to take Elam. The Elamites meanwhile were forced to finally abandon their hard fought city and flee north to Azar Izel where the Elamites remain to this day. The gate incantation remains active and still the city and surrounding area is under a heavy misty miasma filled with strange demons and extra-planar demons.
For Arkech this was the final victory over the Sabylians. Without Elam, Arkech stood as the most powerful city in the northern plains. However, the city became a dead ruin, and the surrounding farmland un0tillable as no farmers would settle in lands haunted and cursed by strange beasts and vengeful dead Elamites. The city of Elam sits a gloomy eerie empty place. Often called the City of Ghosts to the brave few who go into it.
The Failed Lydian Invasion: (6730)
The Fall of Ur-Mezek and Rise of Mezekesh: ( 6980 )
Spoiler
After a relatively peaceful century for the Tamaz, an Erudeshen merchant warlord named Sulieman looked upon the Tamaz as fertile ground to establish his own royal dynasty. Due to his unfortunate birth, he was not even sixth inline to inherit his fathers position in the House of Keshem, the family that ran the shipping boats in the city of Erudesh. He instead gathered a motley crew of mercenaries and bandits and looked south to Ur-Mezek, believing that instead of a big overwhelming army, a smaller more organized force could break the delta.
Indeed, in 6976, with a combination of alchemical wonders, boats, being unbound by political squabbles, and facing a fairly weak and incompetent King Algeraj, Suliemens force was able to take the ancient city of Ur-Mezek. He crowned himself King Sulieman Al-Mezek and renamed the city Mezekesh. He brought with him his wife Jasmin, and in their newly conquered city they had a son Khaleed. With Sulieman on the throne he introduced Vabbitic culture to the newly subject very conservative Tamazians. Attempting to liberalise the ancient caste system, impose worship of Nazrael and Ziel as the supreme deities, introduce more modern taxation similar to the Vabbian Kingdoms in the north. However Sulieman did not live very long. Born in 6955, he was 25 when conquered Ur-Mezek. His reforms were not popularly met, and his reign required an increasingly fierce army of inquisitors acting as secret police and enforces. Before he could have a shrine to Nazrael and Ziel put into the Coral Ziggurat in now Mezekesh, he died. Many suspected assassinations. In 6980 he died of a strange illness leaving only his wife, Queen Jasmin and his infant son Khaleed on the throne. Soon his allies whom had supported him began to plot to kill the infant prince and dispose of Jasmin. However Jasmin was cunning. Though she suspected Tamazian Zealots poisoned her husband, she accused his former commanders and underlings of being behind the plot, publicly denouncing them as murders.
Queen Jasmin then proclaimed that she had a religious conversion, seeing a miracle of Anash and Enki and commanded that the work to renovate the Coral Ziggurat be stopped and the idols of Nazrael and Ziel be thrown into the swamps. She also began agitating against the other Vabbitic nobles who were plotting to usurp her. She had spies and friends in high places and was tipped off of the plots brewing fairly early, and instead of accept her fate as the wife of an unpopular conqueror soon to be replaced by another unpopular occupier, she instead turned the tables.
She instead rallied the Tamazians, even learned to speak the Tamazian language and arranged to marry her son to the niece of the former King Algeraj. She also vocally proclaimed the supreme glory of the Mermaids, and denounced the sinfulness of Vabbitic lords. Quickly Tamazian opinions turned in her favor, after a few Oracles concurred that she was sincere and that the Goddesses willed her reign. She accused the Vabbian lords of everything the Tamazians considered sinful, pedophilia, homosexuality, eating impure foods, blaspheming Anash and Enki ect ect... some of the accusations may have been true, one of the Vabbian lords named Sayed is said to have kept male prostitutes as well as female ones. Whatever the pretext Jasmin sparked a civil war. The Vabbitic lords sent word to Nimeresh to rally support. Jasmin meanwhile prepared the Tamazians knowing Nimeresh would employ Suliemans tactics. She also sent word to Kemi and Akkash to back her reign.
Late one night, weeks after her supposed conversion and agitation, bloody riots murdered or drove out the former commanders that followed Sulieman. Nimeresh did not send reinforcements, neither did Erudesh who supported Jasmin and thus Khaleeds crown. Queen Jasmin continues to reign over the thrown. She later did enact some of the reforms her husband wished. She has worked to loosen the Tamazian caste system, has a more tolerant approach to other pantheons, however she has mostly adopted the conservative and traditional attitudes of Tamazian culture.
More to come.... a little bit more, we are almost done.
Last edited by Tzi : 08-30-2012 at 07:39 PM.
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