From his crystal citadel in the realm of dreams, the wraithly demigod Daenivar watched the empires eye each other and saw within their suspicion an opportunity. He did not like any of them—not even his own former land, Lisalhan, for in his absence the power had shifted away from his priests and toward a council of mages who were all too friendly with Yezadra. Additionally, his brother’s cult was on the rise after the death of Szarnos the Bull, with many bull-folk turning to Rhehevrok’s brutal ways to seek revenge on the Death worshipers that had slain their spirit. Upon consideration, Daenivar hit upon a plan to enmesh all these lands in mutual destruction, and began in the empire he liked least: the Divine Protectorate of Altaera.
History 05: The First Empires, Part 4: Xiroacer
West of the Danarine Sea and south of the vast Border Forest lay the high plains, peaks and rocky hills of Death’s former domain. Though the goddess had departed for her nether realm like the other deities, her touch remained upon the land she had previously claimed, and the creatures there lived short, harsh lives–except for her chosen people.
History 05: The First Empires, Part 3: Yezadra
The lands southeast of the Danarine Sea, from the Varaku Tableland to the disputed border between nomad-claimed savannah and lizard-ruled rainforest, lay under the aegis of the Lady of Knowledge until the gods’ noninterference pact and self-expulsion. Knowledge removed herself to her vast library-realm, but left entrances to it open in many of the hundreds of libraries and courthouses she had established during her rule.
History 05: The First Empires, Part 2: Lisalhan
The second empire to coalesce in the post-godswar age did not do so easily. Based in the hills and grasslands south of the Danarine Sea, it had been the domain of Loahravi the Blood Goddess before the pact was made, and in the wake of her abandonment the many warlords and their conquests and slaves swiftly fell to infighting.
History 05: The First Empires, Part 1: Altaera
In the aftermath of the cult wars and the gods’ nonintervention pact, humankind was left to its own devices. The god-empowered leaders of the previous age had all fallen or stepped down to serve their deities in other ways. This power-vacuum sparked conflicts throughout the world, as warlords of all lands struggled to claim and fortify territory against their neighbors, and expand into whatever empty land they could.
History 04: The Cult Wars and the Gods’ Pact
Death’s offer of an afterlife—the first of its kind—helped spread her worship throughout the known world. Likewise, Vrin gih Dha’s healers and seers found their followings everywhere, and the Lady of Knowledge’s teachers and scribes were employed by courts within and beyond the Lady’s lands. Rule of Law found his knights often rebuffed from the neighboring empires lest they try to impose their tenets on the emperors, but sometimes they gained a foothold among the common folk displeased with their rulers’ sense of justice. The same could be said for Loahravi’s bloodthirsty cultists; within all civilizations dwelt militants and malcontents, and her followers whispered to them of blood and glory, trying to urge them against their too-soft gods.
It did not take long for such infiltration to spark civil wars.
History 03: The Awakening of the Gods
Vrin gih Dha’s rise to power set many events in motion, but none more world-shaking than the appearance of five new gods. Though their cults began in five disparate places, all originated in centers of human community within the wider territories of the skinchangers and beast-folk. Thus they were considered the humans’ gods—to either have spawned from humanity or been awakened by humanity’s presence.
History 02: The Torch of Truth and Freedom, Part 2
In the wake of Vrin gih Dha’s death or disappearance, her children and followers fled into the city beyond the amphitheater. Their ogre masters, blinded, were in too much of a disarray to have them pursued swiftly, and so they managed to go to ground among other slaves and servants sympathetic to their plight.
Gheshvan Alphabet
Since I was working on the numbers, I figured I should do some words in Gheshvan. But since Gheshvan is technically a pictographic language, that would mean thinking up a lot of little pictures…and I haven’t had brain enough for that recently. So, an alphabet instead.
History 02: The Torch of Truth and Freedom, Part 1
By the time the ogrish civilization grew beyond the boundaries of the Heartlands, the rest of the skinchangers had become suitably alarmed by their strength. Even more alarming was the speed at which humans procreated—for though many of the parent skinchanger races produced litters, many others did not, and swiftly found themselves overwhelmed by the number of hybrids competing for their niche.
The War of Memory Project 