Kheshrin and The Blighted Lands
In the deserts of Kheshrin and the Blighted lands lie ancient mysteries of magic and sorcery that have remained unsolved for thousands of years. Among the desolate wastes rise dark cities of mystery and evil where cults to obscene gods still demand sacrifices of blood, and wizards perform abhorrent research. Demons stalk the darkened and narrow lanes of the cities that are surrounded by wastelands guarded by dragons and other inexplicable terrors.
This book will survey the desolate Blighted Lands that bake under the suns, the dark jungles where the black lotus grows, the volcanic mountain ranges guarded by dragons, as well as Kheshrin, the fertile lowlands near the Coral Sea, a source of rare spices treasured throughout Evisath.
THE FIRST EPOCH
The beginnings of the race now known as the Kheshrin have their true roots in the distant dim legends of the First Epoch, before the great calamities. In those days, the realm of men was divided into ## more civilized races. These peoples had clawed themselves out of savagery to build cities, and establish law; though there were many who did not.
The savagery of that age however, was not entirely limited to the uncivilized. Wars were common among the factions of men who had mastered fire, and the forge, and agriculture. And the victors of these wars plundered the fallen, taking whatever they would, including prisoners which they exploited.
In this way, the Eöthrin cities fell to attrition from both within, and from threats and dangers beyond the borders of their civilized lands. And when the Paelrin recognized the weakness of their brother tribe, they took advantage, enslaving the broken refugees who survived the destruction of their homes. The Paelrin were merciless overlords, and drove the Eöthrin peoples back to the brink of savagery.
At the end of the First Epoch, a catastrophe shook the lands of Eovrisath. The great cities of men were thrown down, as the land convulsed and contorted. The Eöthrin seized this opportunity to overthrow their captors, who had grown slovenly, even as their cruelty grew. Those Paelrin who survived the double calamity of the natural disaster, and the disaster of their own design were driven Sount to new and unexplored lands. The Paelrin were not wholly unmade by these misfortunes, however, and in these unexplored lands they discovered another race, just now escaping the darkness of savagery.
In the distant savannas and scrub-lands of the far Sount, the Shauroth suffered the same calamities the other races further Nordt had also experienced. Their cities were broken, and their priestly government was discredited because they could not explain why the gods brought this calamity to them. Their fledgling society wasn't able to endure the changes wrought by the calamity, and in a few years, the people began to succumb to famines and disease.
When the Paelrin discovered this new race, they had already reclaimed the strength they once had, and it was a warrior race that fell upon the Shauroth, conquering the lands without resistance. Few of the Shauroth, escaped in ragged bands to the Wenzt into that dark land of the Kûrneses.
THE SECOND EPOCH
The lands the Shauroth occupied were along the Nordtern edges of a great and arid savanna grassland that yielded to a trackless desert. The Shauroth had never explored deeply into these forlorn lands, believing them to be uninhabited, indeed incapable of supporting life at all. The savanna lands stretched along the more temperate lands from the Erizt to the Wenzt, defining a transition from the temperate Nordtern lands to the tropical and desert Sount lands. The lands of the Shauroth were closer to the Wenztern ocean, and so they only explored along those shores where they found lowlands with abundant rainfall and fertile soil.
In the arid grasslands to the Erizt and Sount dwelt the primitive Khesian peoples, who consisted of smaller familial tribes, never numbering more than a few dozens. As the harsh desert conditions continued to eliminate the wild game and other resources that sustained them, the Khesian tribes explored farther Wenzt, discovering the new kingdoms of the Paelrin.
This foreign people used a language uncouth to the Paelrin, and any concept of rulership or authority was alien to them. The two cultures eventually began to meld. The Khesian becoming a class of laborers to support a Paelrin upper class. As the centuries passed, the two cultures eventually merged, and the two peoples became a new race.
The Paelrin also began to explore the sea to the Wenzt. It was about this time that a new ruler of the Paelrin appeared who established the first Paelrin Dynasty. Under the rule of this new dynasty, the Paelrin made great advances in architecture, astronomy, magic, and the domestication of beasts. Though there were no sources for iron, they were able to alloy copper into a bronze that was of incredible strength. This also marked the beginning of the Paelrin practice of building great temples to deify their rulers after their death. The kingdom of the Paelrin became wealthy and powerful under the rulership of the Paelrin dynasties, and they took tribute from many various and sundry lands that occupied the continent to the south, as well as occupied islands in the Wenztern seas. The empire now occupied all of the lands from these islands in the Wenztern seas through the barren deserts to the coastal areas of the hostile Eriztern waters. The Paelrin dominion was eventually subdued for a time by invaders from the Raëoth, and their ancient religions became corrupt and depraved in the efforts to throw off the Raëoth oppressors. Eventually human sacrifice became common, first as a punishment for criminal offense, but as the population and needs of the society grew, it became more common as a method to appease the ancient gods and deified rulers.
However, when the Raëoth dynasty was finally overcome, and the Paelrin were once again free, these ghastly religions continued to grow in fervor and depravity. The Paelrin was now a great empire, spanning the continent from the Wenztern ocean to the perilous Eriztern seas, and far Sount into the desert lands. Once again the world of Eovrisath convulsed, and whole continents were moved setting the lands roughly into the forms they have today. The fertile lands of the Paelrin, dense with cities was plunged wholly into the Wenztern ocean, while the lands that isolated the bodies of water in the Erizt violently sank to form a new ocean.
HISTORY
At the end of the Second Calamity, much of the territory occupied by the Pealrin was lost to the great Wenztern ocean. The small seas and lowlands of the far Erizt were now flooded by a new ocean. In certain places, the calamity also raised new ranges of mountains. In spite of this, several remote communities and towns in the wild savannas still stood. With the final dynasties of the Paelrin wholly destroyed, by the catastrophe, these communities reverted to city-kingdoms, which contended with each other for the few resources that remained. They were not ruled by god-kings, but rather by councils of sorcerers and wizards. They called themselves by many names, but they are now generally referred to as the Kheshrin, and sometimes as the Zhemekh, as these were the two greatest empires of the region.
The savannas were now subject to more moderate weather, but the arid lands remained difficult to cultivate. Soon enough alliances and rivalries divided the lands among factions of wizards, all vying for ultimate control of the lands and limited resources. The old gods were still worshiped, but the god-kings of the previous dynasties were blotted out, and their bloodthirsty influence on the religions of the day were gone. A golden age of magic dawned on the Khesh, as the wizards were now free from the strictures the god-kings used to control them.
The mountain ranges that grew in the calamity eventually became valuable sources of stone and metals, and the Khesh used them to expand their cities and began once more to build great monuments and massive citadels and temples of stone aided by the powers unlocked through the studies of magic.
These lawless wizards opened new portals to strange and diabolical dimensions and planes, unleashing all manner of terrors upon the lands to make war against each other without consideration for the consequences of their wars. Some of these forces were beyond the reckoning of the foolish sorcerers who brought them forth, and remained after, becoming incarnate deities of death and chaos themselves; worshiped under fear and threat for the very existence of the people trapped under their dreadful power. Kingdoms and empires rose and fell in the region of the Kheshrin like sheaves of wheat as their battles raged throughout the lands. Whenever a powerful sorcerer arose, he was either destroyed by another more powerful wizard, or by some design of his own making.
These constant wars and pursuit of greater more devastating magics culminated in the final destruction of the fair and fertile lands of Kheshrin. Volcanoes thrust up through the mountains bordering the Nordt and Sountern boundaries of the kingdoms, belching foul vapors that choked and burned. The lands between became barren as waves of magical fire swept across them, consuming anything with life in it. Only a very few cities survived under the protections of infernal powers that the consuming fires could not breech. Aside from a small remnant along the Weztern coastal areas, and the few colonies that remain in the Blighted Lands, the people of the Kheshrin were effectively destroyed.
(to be continued)
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:47, Thu 09 Sept 2021.
