Tale of the Twin Cataclysms |
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| Posted on Mon, August 19, 2002 by Dogadmin |
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Hunter writes "This is something I wrote for my upcoming
campaign. My take on what could have started the
war between the ancient Suel and Baklunish empires.
Author: Hunter
Tale of the Twin Cataclysms
by
Hunter
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.
The Keepers
In far distant lands long, long ago, there existed two ancient kingdoms - both great in dominion, influence, and terrible power. Two kingdoms, the Suloise and Baklunish empires. Great nations, and great enemies. All but lost to the mists of time is the great schism that set the stage for their destruction, each wrought by the others hand.
The Baklunish Empire started as a simple people with a simple way of life. From the modern day lands of Zeif, Ekbir, Ull, and the Dry Steppes - ancient tribes dotted throughout hailed from the coasts of the great Dramidj ocean and the fertile plains of the Paynims. Other groups also migrated to these lands perhaps from the fabled Bakluni First Dynasty, widely rumored to come from a lost city now known only in myths as the spires of Azor'alq. Once scattered and independent tribes rallied together to fend off roving bands of humanoids, monsters, and their ilk. Bloodlines merged. The ancient Baklunish people, culture, and influence began to grow. It is also widely known that the Bakluni also wielded great magicks, perhaps knowledge handed down from generation to generation also from the First Dynasty. Traditionally a peaceful society unless provoked, the Bakluni were shrewd but fair merchants, excellent sailors and shipwrights, and later master horsemen. Soon, their delicate power base strengthened. The first large cities were built, themselves becoming great centers of trade with other cultures of antiquity such as the Rhennee, Flan, and long-forgotten nations of dwarves, elves, and gnomes. The great trade-cities quickly brought vast wealth. Continuous contact with other cultures brought the fruits of wondrous inventions, and new insights of things both practical and arcane. With this knowledge, Baklunish mages and clerics built vast libraries of information gleaned from their earliest fragmented history to everything recently discovered. Citizens from the fledgling Baklunish nation began expanding south seeking fertile plains and rich farmland. As the mages and clerics grew in their arts, they made a fantastic discovery. A nexus of mystic energies was found, focused in an area that was on the southern reaches of their realm. Here, with the help of dwarven sages, a great structure was built on the edge of a vast lake. It held the greatest single library of magic lore, laboratories, shrines, and classrooms. After a century of construction, the great work was completed - named Tovag Baragu it became the center of all Baklunish learning. Although roughly only half the history of the Suloise Imperium, the now Baklunish Empire was a large and influential realm.
The Suel Imperium itself was the oldest human nation of known Oerth. Sheltered amongst great mountain ranges on all sides the Suloise nation had existed from its long-lost beginnings to stand for over five thousand years. They where a strong and proud people, and at the height of their empire had almost no equal in the magical arts in which they used in every aspect of life. From common household lamps to impossibly tall, thin, and intricate buildings bound together by the power of Suel mages and the energies of the multiverse. Great cities, temples, and public works all held monument to the power of the Suloise Imperium. And at the end, great evil. After centuries of easy life the Suel people, dependent both on slaves and the arcane arts, gave way to decadence. Arrogance. Pride. For all their power the Suel people could not cheat death, the Great Riddle. As all wise men know, the circle of life spins evermore - monarchs, heads of state, and noble houses all must succumb to frailty of the human body at the end, such is the natural order of the universe. But in their heart, all raged to the gods on deaths bed. Cheated, so they thought - of all of their earthly pleasures and power they had in life. With all of their power - the mages, clerics, and wisest men set about to free themselves from the fate that only lesser races should endure. Any concerns about compassion or morality that impeded this project was of no concern. All resources of the Imperium were set to bring about the goal to which they sought. Thousands of slaves where put to death; mutilated beyond recognition, experimented upon, or connected to wicked machinery. Several experiments took life and unlife of their own. But more and more slaves where needed to continue the work. And over time, the desire of their machinations bore ill fruit indeed.
It is perhaps this simple fact the Suel Imperium looked northward to see the rival 'upstart' impede upon its own expansionist schemes. All traded with the Baklunish, even the Suel. The Bakluni merchants did not deal in slaves however, and decreed that no slave trade of any kind would happen within their borders. Over time, several Suloise merchants were either imprisoned or exiled and their 'property' freed. In apparent response, certain Bakluni merchant guild masters either disappeared or had mysterious 'accidents'. In the years that followed Baklunish families on the southern frontier began to disappear without trace. Further investigation revealed that unknown persons had hired humanoids dwelling in the Crystalmist and Sulhaut mountains to raid the Bakluni communities. Of 'whom', through divination the mages of Tovag Baragu held no illusions, and that the missing southern families where now somewhere deep in Suel lands. The Bukluni Padishah and advisors set about a plan to hire humanoid mercenaries themselves - to raid and harry the Suel northlands. It would divert the humanoid hordes from preying on the southern communities, and while the Suloise where dealing with their supposed allies, the Buklunish army would begin the construction of bastions and other fortresses on their southern borders.
It was at this time that a great Suloise mage-priest Anun Anale servant of Wee Jas sought council and assistance from other planes of existence. Even among the halls of power within the Sueloise realm his name was whispered in hushed tones. For Anun Anale held close pacts and favors with many other-worldly beings. Not a few rivals had been slain by creatures who's power was clearly not of Oerth. But Anun Anale was also favored in the Sueloise royal court, for it was known that his dark experiments had yielded the closest answer to the Great Riddle. Within his power were the secrets that could sustain life far beyond a normal lifespan, but true immortality eluded him. It is not known when or how - for we The Keepers have held this, our closest guarded secret for millennia - but one dark winter night Anun Anale was granted an audience with the Suel Emperor Ad-Zol. Even We are not privy to the events that followed but some days later the Emperor decreed to his inner-council that a path to true, everlasting immortality was made known to him - and that such information and power was to be found mere leagues away from their boarders - in the great library of Tovag Baragu.
Within a fortnight, Suel forces began to march north to 'reinforce' the outposts and garrisons which dotted the boarders between the now Dry Steppes and the northern expanses of the Sulhaut range. Publicly, this was in response to the humanoid raids now occurring with greater frequency along the northern territories. The Suel, masters of deception and misdirection soon learned from their own sources of the double-dealings from their humanoid 'allies' and the growing interference from the Baklunish. The Baklunish intensified their plans to fortify their southern boarder, and several key strongholds were rushed to completion as others began. A guerrilla war began soon after within the passes and crags of the Sulhaut. Though neither nation declared such, their private conflict began to consume them.
Meanwhile, in the Baklunish port city of Udrukankar a vile cult that worshipped the Suel deity Syrul was discovered. Its leaders and followers were hunted down and before their execution all manner of information was revealed - including detailed plans of a raid on Tovag Baragu. The first put to death was the cults leader, Janna Mauk - niece of Emperor Ad-Zol, and noble of House Mauk a trusted and loyal house of the Empire. In his fury, at the advice of Anun Anale and backed by the council, Emperor Ad-Zol ordered the Shar-kal Legion - nine thousand strong, to march on Tovag Baragu. The Bakluni dogs would pay for this outrage. The Bakluni Padishah Ramif alerted by the Syrul cults discovery and his own network of spies ordered forces garrisoned in the south to gather and engage the Suel army before it could lay siege to the Blessed Navel*. The annals of battle are kept elsewhere within the archives of our Order, but this event was the spark to the eventual all-out war that raged for the next sixty years.
As the genocidal conflict expanded, the might of both nations crashed upon each other as hammer against anvil. Common people in the Suel north were caught in the middle and slowly, then in waves - refugee's began to escape east across the Hell Furnaces. In the Suel capital, close to the empire's twilight an unexplained sickness began to run rampant through the common population. The Emperor, loathed that his only son fled in secret nearly a year before, and after an un-naturally long life was now too weak to stray far from his bed chamber. Sustained even now by the mysterious elixirs brought daily by Anun Anale. With a bent and trusted ear, the Emperor appointed Anale high protector and general of the remaining Suel forces, the final victory was to be in his hands. Obsessed, Anale convened a emergency high-council of the greatest wizards, sages, and priests within the Suel homelands. In secret and seclusion the renowned Suel minds toiled while Baklunish forces drew closer day-by-day. One of our Order within this council reported that Anale possessed an artifact of undreamt power and unknown origin. Anale claimed it had been given to him by "Wee Jas herself to help the righteous in their hour of need." Our brother, before we lost contact with council entirely, described the artifact as "a cone-shaped device crowned with thorns along the fulcrum, a blackest black that absorbs all light, and as I stare - it squirms in my mind and a horror fills me I cannot describe".
One week after Anale and his secret council disappeared into hiding, the moons of Luna and Celene waxed full.
Little is known what came after.
What is known is the sad tale of two great nations wrought asunder by evil. That in a fleeting moment, madness brought the focus of an entire peoples' greed, envy, anger, and arrogance that slid toward the final conclusion that became the Twin Cataclysms. The earth heaved. The heavens fell.
And we The Keepers have sworn to keep such power from ever being loosed upon the Oerth again.
FIN
* - Tovag Baragu - "Navel of the Oerth" in Bakluni
Note: Tovag Baragu, Suel, Bakluni"
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Average Score: 4.57
Votes: 7
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