Age of Ruin IC: The final battle

[Lycar]

Ismal

Ismal is clearly starting to enjoy this.

"You're comparing interbreeding with a demon with the raising of a milk cow? Hubris, my dear Magus, hubris. If anything, it's the other creatures who have bred us to be more like them. Since we are, by your analogy, the product rather than the producer, I'd say we are even less able to take credit."

Orin

(Ah, but has not hubris become the defining quality of nobility lately? To think that one could traffic with the likes of Gothul and not be swept away by him... But then again, maybe it is a bit of desperation and wishfull thinking too?

And are we really so much product, if we choose to intermingle our paltry human blood with that of fantastic creatures of mythology? To gain a sample of their wonderful powers? Certainly, there were deals made, prices paid. But if the result of such... let us call it, interracial exchange lets us, the nobles do our duty of leading and protecting our less-well-bred brethren and cousins?

Sadly then, that davethran nobility, and I do not exclude my own family here, mind, did choose to rather neglect that duty to pursue... what? Senseless acts of hedonism? As if they never knew what the point of being a noble is. Or maybe, just not know anymore.

But what good does all that power do you, when you end up like Gothul and Govan? Or his ... aide... Cofaos.)

Orin chuckles.

(Emorik Cofaos... too bad I didn't get to... well, I wanted to warn you to be carefull around that guy...

You don't want to slip on the slime trail...)

Lycar

[Toliudar]

Ismal

"Funny. Cofaos seemed to provide perfectly good traction for Stampy. Are there friends of his at court that we might need to watch out for?

"I doubt we'll see eye to eye as to how well some of our upper classes are bred. Or who was doing the breeding. Regardless, I need no further reminder that all the temporal power in the world is useless when you are temporally challenged - that is, when your time is up. All the more reason to try to live well, as opposed to living for oneself, along the way."

[Ozzy_G]

The group go to Sarin, where they find and slay Grimhalde, a Gnomish necromancer who did terrible things in Draven's past. They discover that the release of Calamesh, God of Earthquakes and Storms, has caused many buildings to collapse. Over the years, they learn that in the lands beyond Davethra, to the north-west, many areas of land have been sunk or raised from the sea, with disastrous effects on the cultures of those places. But that is far away.
Having defeated Grimhalde, Draven and Kaleff travel to Zrek Kazal, while Orin and Ismal travel to Orin's home on lake Stillwater. They meet Orin's wife, who tells them of the details of Ralm. It seems that Govan's unpopular, scheming son has taken over the city. Ismal starts her own power play, and with the help of Orin and Draven, and the occasional accident near Kaleff, drives the members of House Govan from the city. As the new Archmage of Ralm, Ismal turns the former sprawling, crime-ridden slum into a beautiful city where the children of nobles can attend a magic academy which they'll probably actually survive.
Kaleff becomes influential amongst the cultists of Imshaeroth in the area. Their philosophy changes, deviating from the line of the Priests on the Zahn Isles, revolving around the idea of uncaring Gods, but they support the anti-demon policies persued by Ismal, and the allies she makes in other towns and smaller cities. They search for many years for Ruchion, but never find him. Orin serves as Ismal's diplomat, and is famed for his eloquence.
Meanwhile, Draven turns Zrek Kazal into a place where different Dragon Clans can meet and trade. It is yet to be seen what effects this will have on their nomadic culture. Certainly fights between clans reduce, as they can gain resources from each other through trade rather than raids.
New leaders arise. In Qusa, a war between wizards and anti-wizards is won by the anti-wizard faction, led by a scholar named Rego Vel. The wizardry academies are closed. Only women, which Qusan culture considers to be less ambitious, are allowed to learn magic, and they must serve in the army.
However, Qusan internal struggles cause them to lose all their territory on the western coast of the Bitter Sea to expansionist Davethran nobles.
The Mokai fight each other, as they have been doing from the end of the Empire, and gradually form 3 kingdoms, Oga, Moka, and Goza. These 3 kingdoms fall into a wary ceasefire.
20 years after they defeated Gothul, Ismal receives a messenger at her court in Ralm. He claims to represent the Davethran Emperor in Zardis, who demands fealty. She asks her best diplomat, Orin, to go and see this man, but she discovers that he has just recently disappeared mysteriously. So instead, she sends one of Orin's sons, who goes to see the Emperor. He returns to tell Ismal of a mad Emperor, living in a crude palace of stone built by elementals, squatting in the midst of ruined Zardis. It is Azakan Zere, all compassion and fear gone, a man of pure, raging ambition. Those who have seen him often remark that he shows the effects of a man affected by long-term enchantment effects, which have twisted his mind.
The new Emperor gains some support, slowly, from minor Archmages eager to gain precedence over the more powerful ones, such as Ismal of Ralm, Rega Xan of Varon, Jakar of Sarin, Govan (the grandson of the Archmage who died in Zrek Kazal, who was forced to flee Ismal's power in Ralm) in Nomak. But over time Azakan's power grew as more and more people joined his forces, and his opponents had mysterious accidents. Eventually, the most powerful Archmages, finding that he survived all the assassination attempts they sent, decided that it was too much trouble to deny him the title of Emperor. Once they accepted giving him the title, Azakan lost interest in doing anything to them, content to concentrate on rebuilding Zardis. It was in no-one's interest. His son, Azakan II, was a decadent libertine with little interest in actual ruling, and after he accidentally fell onto a hail of crossbow bolts, his daughter became Empress. Narian Zere is a woman who enjoys torturing peasants, and is rumoured to secretly worship Isana, goddess of madness. Her sons and daughters scheme and plot to become the next Emperor or Empress, and while they're all distracted and doing basically nothing in Zardis, the most powerful Archmages, along with Davik Vul, the imperial vizier who has outlasted 2 Emperors, sort out peace treaties, trade deals, and rebuilding and patrolling the roads.
Qusa was a peaceful land, except for troubles with underground wizard societies trying to overthrow Rego Vel, but a few months ago, the senile and aging tyrant mysteriously abdicated in favour of Archmage Govan's daughter Sarn, who appears to have links to the Zahn government, and has been seen with a pair of Dwarven advisors. While every Qusan who remembers the Davethran Empire is dead, the cultural memories are still there, and Qusa is embroiled in a three-way civil war, between Qusan nationalists such as the Black Witches, the former rulers of Qusa known now as the Eldritch Brotherhood, and the forces of Sarn Govan. She is also trying to sieze back territory lost to the Mokai of Oga, to shore up support amongst the Qusans.
It is now 60 years since the release of Calamesh the Storm Lord. Things are different in many ways, but all too similar in many others.