Unknown Lands

A continent unknown to the people of the Alexandrian Mainland, sometimes referred to as the Outlands. Like the mainland, it is a single large continent located in the Southern Hemisphere, roughly on the exact opposite side of the globe.

There are five major polities in these lands, plus several large areas dominated by pastoralists or semi-nomadic societies, as well as the mysterious "City on a Monster".

The Five Kingdoms

• Wa, a cold and mountainous kingdom in the south. (Fake Japan)
• Po, a small but wealthy kingdom situated along the eastern central coast, where two great rivers outlet into the sea and are connected by a great canal. (Fake Coastal/Southern China)
• Zha, a small and remote kingdom commanding the central highland plateau. Once a land of pleasant mountain valleys, since the Raising of the Range it is rugged and difficult country. (Fake Tibet)
• Lang, a tropical kingdom in the far north, dominated by jungles, with a long coastal lowland and a steamy mountainous interior. (Fake Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)
• San, the youngest kingdom, a breakaway of Po. Although larger than Po, it is landlocked and more mountainous so far less wealthy and populated than Po. (Fake Inland/North China)

Additionally, there are three noteworthy island structures in the civilized eastern part of the land. There is a large archipelago to the east of Wa populated by pirate villages, trade centered city-states, and monster communities. In the temperate waters east of Po, there is a great primal island that is the home of the last great dragons and other fell and mythic beasts, as well as coastal communities of maritime humans with ironclad warcraft. (Fake Korea) Finally, in the tropical waters off of Lang there is another great island, although smaller than its neighbor, dominated by a thick, swampy jungle. Once the final redoubt of the necrocats, it is a broken and cursed place and none go there willingly.

The far western side of the three great ranges was once a series of grass steppes and verdant lowlands, but the raising of the mountains has turned the western third of the continent primarily into arid and dusty scrubland. What human settlements were once there have all been destroyed by the pressures of the environment, the God-Mountain, and the centaur tribes forced to adapt to new food sources. While no doubt many humans live in this region, especially in the thick forest that has grown up at the foot of the great mountain range, they are mean people, disorganized and feral.

An Alexandrian Understanding of the History of the Outlands as told by the people of Wa

Eras of Outlander History

(Very) Rough Character Estimated Timeline of Narrative

1. End of First Dynasty/Beginning of Second Dynasty (~1400-1500 years ago?)

2. End of Second Dynasty/Beginning of Third Dynasty (~1200 years ago?)

3. End of Third Dynasty/Interregnum (~900 years ago?)

4. Advent of Fourth Dynasty (~800 years ago?)

5. End of Fourth Dynasty/Warring States (358 years ago, apparently 1044 FI by the Mainland Calendar. This particular date is well remembered, as it represents both the beginning of the common reckoning of the mainland - year 1 - and the week long festival of its celebration kicks off the new year.)

The First Dynasty: The Cat People

Like the Mainland, the history of this land is defined by conflict and religious turmoil, at least the last 1,500 years or so. Before that time, the land was divided into a strict racial caste system with the Catfolk as top dogs. Two of the three catfolk subraces acted as the priestly and leadership/martial castes. The entire apparatus was ruled over by an Imperial family/catfolk subrace created from interbreeding between the priestly and martial castes.

Mining and craftwork was performed by a short, hearty race that lived below the ground that has gone extinct. Sort of. (see below) The massive groves, vineyards, orchards and other sorts of high-quality agriculture were performed by a small, jovial race of hill folk who have since gone extinct. Sort of. (see below)

The toil of heavy agriculture - cotton, rice, wheat, millet - was performed by humans. So many humans.

Mercantile activity and trade between the regions of the Great Empire was performed by a dog riding miniature human who have gone extinct. Entirely, not sort of.

This was the divine system set up by the two great deities, Emperor of the Day and Empress Night. Who were, of course, Catfolk.

So, anyway, according to Hoyle, that was basically the scheme of things from forever ago until about 1,500 years ago. Their history, at least as far as this guy knows, doesn't have an eight or a divine war or any of that bonkers shit. It was a time of peace and order and nothing bad ever happened to anyone anywhere. The fact that all surviving histories and records of this time come from Catfolk historians probably plays a large part in that perception.

Anyway, that situation above was basically How It Was Before. The doom of this order came in the form of a comet, a dragon, and a fleet, in that order.

The comet wasn't a surprise. Or, rather, it shouldn't have been. As befits a celestial order formed during the ordering of the universe, the heavens and all their mysteries were mapped out with exacting precision. The problem came when one of the comets *didn't* appear as predicted. The Blood Rider, as the comet was known, did not appear according to its regular, centuries long tradition.

As you might imagine, this caused great consternation and concern in an empire formed on stability and more stability. Eight days later, when the comet finally *did* become visible, the discussion only intensified. Three days after the comet's appearance, the great dragon Tsuki-Musume (Moon Daughter) descended upon the court. She told the Emperor that the comet was an omen and that he must construct a massive and mighty fleet, equipped for war, and sail east. The effort required the efforts of the entire empire and the harnessing of colossal magics: not only to raise the fleet, but also to control the weather and tame the mighty monsoons that otherwise prevented sane people from this endeavor, as well as to avoid the Equatorial Storm Belt which no implement of man or magic can penetrate.

The construction lasted far longer than the comet stayed in the sky: five years. The great fleet completed, the Emperor boarded the flagship at the head of a fleet of 10,000 ships: a veritable nation taking to the sea. Guided by Tsuki-Musume, the fleet sailed east. 9,000 of the ships and zero of the dragons returned.the following year. For a half a decade of effort, tens of thousands of men lost, and the loss of Empress Night's oldest daughter, the Last Emperor had won his prize: a 14 year old girl. Not even a catgirl. Just a girl-girl, and not a particularly noteworthy or beautiful one at that. Her name is not recorded, but she is known in the tales as Kuchiku-kan (Destroyer).

As you might imagine, the immediate reaction to this news was shock, horror, and disbelief. Talk that the emperor had gone mad. When he presented her before the Imperial Court, her actions only made things worse. On the months of the return voyage, she'd begun to learn the language, and so was able to speak in clear if simple language before the assembled. She claimed dominion and sovereignty over all of the humans of the Empire and demanded the remaining ships in the great fleet be turned over to her so they could all sail back east together.

She was laughed into a furious and fuming silence. She would not be getting any fleet, she would not be going back east, and she would be staying in the palace while the emperor rounded up wise and important people to figure out what the great moon dragon had wanted with this girl. A week later, another great dragon came to the capital.

Taiyo-Musuko (translation unclear Son), the brother of the fallen moon dragon, had come to collect this girl for which the emperor had spent his sister's life. The emperor refused, and so Taiyo-Musuko began to lay waste to the countryside. As all this was happening, the emperor's once sacrosanct position began to come under political and practical assault and unrest was beginning to spread across the empire even before all the dragon nonsense. After several days of rampaging, the Emperor knew he would have to relent and agree to turn the girl over. By the time he realized this, however, he could not: she'd escaped from her house arrest.

In the days after her rebuke at court, the girl had gone on a hunger strike and fallen into a deep meditative trance from which no means - mundane or magical - could rouse her. Since shortly after this, a dragon started rampaging across the empire, she wasn't paid very much mind. On the fourth day of her trance, when the guards came to check on her, she was gone.

When the Emperor tried to appease the great sun dragon with this news, he was having none of it and threatened to rend the great capital stone from stone until he uncovered her. So, the emperor pleaded for time to find her and the dragon gave him one week. The word went out across the land and an incredible reward was offered to anyone - anyone anyone, not just catfolk anyone - who returned her to the capital.

The day before the great dragon was to return, she returned herself to the capital. She appeared in the throne room as easily as she had disappeared, despite all of the magical and mundane protections a continent wide empire provides. This time, however, she was not alone. She had with her a withered old man - a fixture on Outlander holy symbols, usually represented as impossibly old, of very small build, and bald with a long beard. He would come to be known as Shokunin Rosoku (Roadside Craftsman).

He stood behind her, but said nothing.

Kuchiku-kan stood before the emperor and made a new demand: she would claim the bounty on her own head, not in gold but in ships and men. The next day, she said, when Taiyo-Musuko returned, she would go out to meet him and kill him. The Emperor agreed, since the likely outcome of her becoming dragon food would also secure the empire's security just as well. The next day, She and Shokunin Rosoku went out to meet the great sun dragon.

They spoke of his lost sister, who Kuchiku-kan said died in a great and important battle across the ocean. She begged him to convert his rage towards a useful cause, join her, and take revenge on those Tsuki-Musume had died fighting against. Besides, the girl chastised, Tsuki-Musume's life was hers to do with what she wanted and the sun dragon had no right to go around demanding vengeance against people who had nothing really to do with Tsuki-Musume's death.

In the end, after an entire day of discussion, he was convinced. The great sun dragon agreed to check his wrath and return from whence he came, abandoning his demands for her life. When Kuchiku-kan returned to the Emperor to collect her reward, she was refused. In the first place, she didn't actually kill the dragon. In the second place, Emperors do not make deals with little girls, and so her reward was her life and she should just leave and consider it a great deal.

Her eyes flashed red with anger and a sword sprang into her hand from nothingness, something that should have been impossible as the Emperor's throne room was built around a small anti-magic zone. In moments, the Emperor and his court were slain and Kuchiku-kan began to quickly and tirelessly stalk the halls, killing any catfolk that she came across. By some power, the portcullis gates and doors of the Hidden City were held fast and the Imperial catfolk were left helpless to listen to the screaming, crying, fighting back, and/or pleading for mercy of their kin while waiting for their own inevitable reckoning.

And so ended the Imperial line of the Great Cats, and so the eternal order from time immemorial was shattered.

Kuchiku-kan and Shokunin Rosoku left the Hidden City and walked out of the city. In the wake of their actions an Empire would shatter, an eternal celestial order would collapse, and old religions would die while new faiths would rise in during the Great Awakenings.

The Second Dynasty: The God-Emperor

When last we left off, Kuchiku-kan and Shokunin Rosoku had fled the Hidden City after murdering the Imperial family. PART I of the story - more or less - is basically the same no matter who you ask.

As an appendix to the previous part, the Sun Dragon in the previous installment agreed not to kill Kuchiku-kan and stop his rampaging. He did NOT agree to follow Kuchiku-kan and just went home. That was probably unclear.

Moving down the chain, there might be substantial variations on the following material depending on who you ask. You are taken to understand that this section, particularly, is going to differ substantially between individuals depending on what sect of Outlander Religion they subscribe to. Your are taken to believe that this land has a LOT more religious divisions than the Alexandrian/Petaran/Zapatist sects of the Mainland.

Also complicating things is the fact that, unlike in Mainland religion, there is no canonical text or scripture comparable to the Canon of Orthodoxy (and, I suppose, the heterodoxical Testimonial of Sayid). That is not to say there are no holy texts: compared to the Mainland, there are multitudes of religious and philosophical texts, schools, and traditions. However, most religious texts are more abstract in nature as opposed to the chronicling religious tradition in the mainland.

So, as always - but now especially - realize this is PoV history and not What Actually Happened history. Mostly because What Actually Happened history does not exist.

After the breaking of the Imperial line, the Catfolk elites were thrown into chaos. Although the Priestly and Warrior catfolk lines would show solidarity for a time, their infighting eventually exploded into a full-on civil war, Red vs. Blue style.

For now, though, the two have only just done their deed. Afterward, they immediately quarreled and went their separate ways. Kuchiku-kan retreated to a monastery, by most traditions somewhere in the remote western mountains of modern Zha or San. Shokunin Rosoku, on the other hand. . . Well, we'll put a pin in that.

There are a few readings of the imperial slaughter and subsequent argument in Outlander tradition. This is one of, but certainly not the only, disagreement between faiths, and the two most common are:

1. Kuchiku-kan was fully controlled by Shokunin Rosoku. The Outlander proverb "It is the mind that wields the sword," acquires a double meaning in this reading. In this reading, of course, the source of the quarrel is Kuchiku-kan's denial of agency and/or her horror at being made to kill like hundreds of people some of them who probably didn't strictly deserve killing.

2. Kuchiku-kan and Shokunin Rosoku worked together to destroy the Imperial family, because they were both of a mind to "Break the Wheel" and quarreled after the fact because of their different views on how to manage that task. The most obvious axis of this disagreement might be seen as active and passive approaches, and manifest today most obviously in Ascetic (Aestetic?) vs. Secular traditions of this particular sect.

So, in either event, we have Kuchiku-kan joining a monastery in the mountains. She'll be absent from the narrative awhile.

This is where the God-Mountain awakens and enters our story.

The God-Mountain was a giant beast that would sleep for decades and then awaken to rampage across the land for months or years. Part of the purpose of the eternal order and hierarchy outlines in part 1 was to raise the resources needed to give regular tribute to the God-Mountain and placate it into slumber before it could wipe out the more urbanized and populated east (what is now the Kingdom of Po).

As you can imagine, with all of the resources spent raising the Great Fleet and the rampaging of the Sun Dragon's in part 1, coming up with adequate tribute would have been very difficult. Add to that the loss of the main group in charge of collecting and preparing that tribute and the result is pretty obvious.

The God-Mountain went apeshit and plowed straight into the urban heartland of the East. For the next 5 years, the God-Mountain would destroy cities, devastate croplands, and displace whole peoples. At that point, as you can imagine, society basically full-on broke down and the old order was fully demolished. This is often referred to as "The Breaking of the Wheel." As the catfolk struggled to maintain any semblance of the old caste system, productivity essentially halted and all of the peoples of the land spilled and mixed together in desperate flight followed by desperate flight. What the God-Mountain did not destroy, chaos and famine and conflict often did.

During this 5 year period, two things were happening.

1. In what is now the lands of northern Wa and western San and Zha, the reach of Kuchiku-kan's monastery was growing. As many of the displaced fled to the west, the monastery she joined set up camps and tended to the refugees, all the while spreading her message among the people. She rejected the old gods of Sun and Moon and rather preached a message of self-reliance, a rejection of materialism and the material world, and a millenialist armageddonism. At the core of her message was a of a coming final battle in which would be decided the fate of the world. It's worth noting that she was never the leader of the order. Generally speaking, the the monks deferred to her suggestions not because of her exalted place above them, but rather on account of the clear wisdom and persuasiveness of her arguments.

This group would make up the core of those who who would travel east with her two years later in the Great Flotilla. We'll pick up with them later. Those who remained behind would develop into a salvationist sect dedicated to rebirth into a "Pure World" via poverty, good works, and the ritualistic utterance of small mantras and prayers.

2. Beginning in Po, and then moving into the northern mountains and jungles of what is now the Kingdom of Lang, Shokunin Rosoku began collecting followers of his own from among the refugees and displaced. Between Kuchiku-kan and Shokunin Rosoku, the latter was by far the more powerful, and was able to attract many to him by offering protection and order, and with a couple of years he had built his own enormous following and built around him a loyal council. In that time, they built around themselves a fortress named Tetsu no Kokoro (Iron Heart).

The other thing Shokunin Rosoku offered was Awakening. From among his closest followers he began to "light the candles." From the small core of awakened humans came the first Elan. Those who were awakened from the race of craftsmen and artisans became the Aleithian, who would later become the Duergar. From the arborists and grove tenders came the Pygmaei, who would become the Svirfneblin. The Dog-Man merchants, concentrated as they were in the Po Valley when the God-Mountain came and the stewards of great movable piles of wealth, did not survive this period of upheaval in any form, awakened or otherwise.

Shokunin Rosoku claimed to be the immortal steward of a new celestial dynasty, based not on race but on mental acuity and power. The new order was to consist of Shokunin Rosoku at the top as an immortal Philosopher-King, whose will would be carried out by a bureaucracy and ruling class of the Awakened, and everyone else would go back to their old roles. Except the Dog Men who were all dead. So, instead of reestablishing a mercantile class, the big brains of the Awakened and their Philosopher-King would just take it on themselves to make sure everything got where it needed to go without the need for "money" or "an economy."

To bring about this vision and to cement his own legitimacy, Shokunin vowed to tame the God-Mountain. He gathered about him his most powerful followers from among the Awakened and came to the place where the great God-Mountain was rampaging. A primal force of nature formed from the earliest chaos before time, it was indestructible. Only the most ancient and powerful weapons could even penetrate its hide and it resisted all magical powers, often returning magics back on their manifester. The mere sight of the beast up close was enough to break the morale of all but the most stalwart. Shokunin assured his followers, however, and they followed.

When the awakened races faced off against the beast, they brought no weapons nor magics. In powerful hypnotic trances, they arrayed themselves before the great beast. Aleithian and Pygmaei gave to Elani, and Elani gave to Shokunin Rosoku. Channeling the cumulative power of his most powerful followers, Shokunin approached the God-Mountain.... and was immediately swallowed whole. His followers did not break, however, and very soon thereafter the great God-Mountain stopped dead in its tracks and lay down, but did not sleep. Instead, it stared at the Candlemaker's followers.

A voice spoke to them in their minds. He ordered them to build a settlement on he back of this beast, a great and indestructible Bakufu. Shokunin Rosoku told his followers that he had not died, but rather had merged with the God-Mountain. The ancient tradition of tribute would continue, but now the Awakened must contribute their own power in the way that the unawakened must contribute their lives and property. The settlement came together quickly, and was occupied by the elites of the Awakened, who essentially formed a new high priest and political class. Most of the rest of the Awakened would live and work out of a new Imperial Capitol to be built around Tetsu no Kokoro.

To establish this new order, the Bakufu began to travel around the Empire to reestablish ties of fidelity and loyalty. Which you might also read as "conducted a rapid war of conquest against the remaining Catfolk strongholds and various newly arisen warlords." It only took a couple of months the bring the first two renegade provinces back under Second Dynasty control. The third territory they came to was that occupied by Kuchiku-kan's millenialist movement. Much as *he* had done several years before, she stood before the God-Mountain at the head of a small army of unarmed followers, and six years since they'd gone their separate ways, Kuchiku-kan and Shokunin Rosoku were reunited. One as follower and one as great God-Emperor. No one knows what words he spoke, for they went straight into Kuchiku-kan's mind, but she spoke her thoughts aloud, and they are well, if disparately, recorded.

"I did not ask for this land, or this war, or any other burden thrust on me. I have walked on the other side of death and stepped beyond the howling void!

My concerns are not of this land or of any land, but rather of all lands. Destroy us now out of pride and you can be the emperor of ashes!

I do not care for empire, and I do care about empire. If you would be King of this land, prove your reign is founded on wisdom and (not?) brutality.

Repay the Imperial debt. Give me my fleet. Let those who have done you no injury depart without injury"

The God-Emperor listened and was convinced. The monastery and its followers picked up their sparse belongings and began the long march eastward across the shattered empire as Shokunin Rosoku continued to reunite the same and continued his purge of the followers of the Old Gods. After six months of travel and preaching, the monastic order and its followers reached the old Imperial capital, much reduced in power and glory although still intact having never faced the direct wrath of the God-Mountain or Sun Dragon. They spent months preparing for their journey and making seaworthy the poorly maintained and aged fleet.

This Great Flotilla did not come close to matching the size or glory of its forerunner, and where once 10,000 ships set sail from the eastern shore, this time only 700 would launch. As it came time for the Great Flotilla to depart, the monastics began the logistically and emotionally difficult task of deciding who would board the ships and who would remain behind and wait, as by now the movement had far more than the 10,000 or so that could possibly board the fleet for the months long voyage.

During the deliberations, the God-Emperor's Bakufu was shaken by the announcement that the vast majority of the Pygmaei would be leaving with the monastics. Many of them had been swayed by Kuchiku-kan's words and wished to follower her.

The God-Emperor and the other Awakened high priests were stunned and a great but brief rhetorical - and later psychic and martial - contest would follow, leading to the exile of both the Pygmaei and their non-awakened grovetenders cousins: either across the ocean or into the lightless recesses of the underdark.

And so, eight years after the launch of the first, a second fleet sailed east. They never returned, although the Pure World sect above maintains that one day it will and bring the followers of the faith to a perfect new land.

And that is how the Second Dynasty rose out of the ashes of the first. A psionocracy reigned over by an immortal and all powerful God-Emperor that sat atop a new caste system and maintained power through high psionics and raw power.

This Second Dynasty would last almost two hundred years.

The Third Dynasty: The Awakened Bakufu & Enlightenment Wars

At the end of the last section, the remaining two Awakened races - the Aleithian and the Elan - turned on the God Emperor, Shokunin Rosoku, and destroyed him. As a consequence, the reigns on the God-Mountain were loosed and the Empire descended once again into anarchy and disorder as the beast returned to its depredations.

This period of turmoil would last more than two decades. During that time the Bakufu, situated as it was on the top of a rampaging monster, was abandoned and the awakened retreated to the safety of Tetsu no Kokoro and basically left the Unawakened to fend for themselves.

Also during that period, the Awakened at Tetsu no Kokoro were approached by representatives from one of the remaining enclaves of priestly Catfolk, now turned to necromancy and arcane magics to replace their lost gods. (Killed by the God Emperor in a previous episode)

In the centuries of exile, they had come across an alternate way to overcome the God-Mountain. The information had been useless, as the weakness would have been trivial for the God-Emperor to overcome... but the basically mindless engine of destruction? The necromancers and the Awakened working together made it surprisingly simple, so long as the Awakened did not mind working with and bringing into their inner circle the necromancer catfolk. And so the deal was struck. The necrocats moved into Tetsu no Kokoro and they all began work.

From the deepest caverns of the land and at great cost, they recovered a great specimen of rare jadeite. On this priceless gem, the necromancers wove dark, soul entrapping magics as the Awakened fashioned around it a psycrystal housing. When this project was completed, they again ventured into the darkest caverns, this time bringing back a great amount of adamantine. The greatest of the Aleithian artisans crafted a colossal statue, at the heart of which was ensconced the jadeite psycrystal. Again the wizards summoned their arcane power, this time focused on the colossus.

The soul of whatever creature next touched the statue, no matter how mighty, would be captured and trapped inside of the jadeite.

The Awakened used mental telekinesis aided by wizard provided flight to move the cursed statue into place. To prevent an accidental misfire due to a random passerby or wild animal or butterfly from ruining everything, the necromancers brought forth great clouds of death on the entire region, slaying everything with a heartbeat for miles and raising it again as undead, whose touch would not trigger the thing by accidental contact, with the added bonus that they would also kill anything that *might* accidentally trigger the thing by incidental contact.

And so the trap was set and sprung. The beast swallowed the adamantine colossus and collapsed to the ground, alive but empty. When the colossus passed through the system of the God-Mountain, the Awakened placed it in the center of a reconstructed Bakufu, and through it controlling the great creature by their combined efforts.

And so began the Third Dynasty, which would last (more or less) for the next 300 years, with a small court of necrocats, Elan, and Aleithians ruling as oligarchic triumvirate. It was stable in the way the Second Dynasty was stable, although with less legalistic cruelty and more autonomy to the people and localism. Of course the histories of the Third Dynasty were written in the Fourth Dynasty, by the winners of the conflict that is about to go down, so they certainly have reason to paint the dynasty they claim to be successor in a positive light.

Anyway, after a few centuries of rule, mistrust and fault lines had begun to develop in the Imperial court for all sorts of reasons, but I'm going to focus on the immediate trigger of the coming conflict rather than the slow poisoning of the coalition.

The biggest issue was immortality. In that the Aleithians were not immortal. Very long lived, as were those from whom they were Awakened, but not immortal. The Elan, however, did not eat or drink or sleep or die. They could be slain, but were otherwise immortal. During the Third Dynasty there still remained Elan who experienced the First. Likewise, since the end of the road for most powerful necrocats as lichdom, they were also functionally immortal, or at least the ones who operated at court.

As Aleithian old timers started to die off, a younger generation of Aleithians watched and grew fearful of their own end, centuries in the future it may be. They demanded to be made immortal, but it was not a gift that the Elan or necrocats could bestow. The Aleithians did not buy that for one second, and inevitably reactionary voices came to dominate the Aleithian section of the coalition. Their bellicosity and obstructionism forced the necrocats and Elan into tighter coalition and quickly it became 2/3 ruling in spite of the third.

As the Aleithians chafed under their permanent minority status, they plotted in secret. As part of this plot, they had contacted the ancient race that dwells beneath the earth, with whom the races of the surface have occasionally warred. (As a side note, this Elder Race, in fact, enslaved the orchard tenders and their awakened cousins who were driven underground in a previous episode. The same thing will happen to those who are about to be on the wrong side of this coming conflict, the Aleithians.)

In deep and secret caverns, the Aleithians who had been seeking immortality instead discovered another great secret. They learned how to Awaken. And, as Shokunin Rosoku had done before them, the Aleithians awakened a new army. (Sometimes referred to as the Newly Awakened.) It was an imperfect process, any many new horrors and aberrations track their genesis to these experiments. But, also the blue goblins and the ophiduan lizardfolk,

In exchange for their assistance, the Aleithians would also awaken the Elder Race. This is going to turn out to be a terrible idea.

And so Civil War came to the Awakened, sometimes called the Great War of Enlightenment due to it being the beginning of the Newly Awakened races and also out of a sense of irony as it would last a century and be incredibly destructive. Since the Elan and the necrocats won the battle for control of the Bakufu, they were able to command the power of the God-Mountain. It would be the decisive weapon in a grinding war of attrition that ruined the Empire in a way from which it would take almost a century to recover.

During this conflict, the Elan also began crossbreeding, although with far more discrimination and forethought. First were the Xeph, Awakened from a small tribe of dogrider survivors that had been enslaved for centuries by the elder race below during the collapse of the First Dynasty and liberated in a raid. The half-giants were also created during this time as front line warriors and commanders of the great Unawakened armies marshaled by both sides.

After almost 100 years, the Elan and necrocats won a decisive victory and drove the Aleithians and their unawakened cousins deep into the earth, where they, too, were captured and enslaved by the Elder Race below.

Almost immediately after victory was ensured, all the hidden conflicts between the Elan and necrocats exploded. The Elan and Half Giants wiped out the necrocats in a very brief and one sided conflict, securing the Elan total control of the Bakufu. The Xeph took no part in this conflict and retreated into the hinterlands of the world, taking little part in a world which they saw as corrupt and toxic.

And so came to rule the Fourth Dynasty, or the Elan Bakufu. It would rule the Empire for the next 400 years, beginning around 800 years ago and ending about 400 years ago).

It would also be the last Bakufu to claim sovereignty over a united empire.

The Fourth Dynasty: The Elan Bakufu & the Half-Giant Revolt

With the defeat or exile of the other Old Awakened and the successful purging of their necrocat allies, the Elan now possessed unquestioned mastery over the Bakufu, and thus the empire. They would rule it with all the skill and forethought that one normally associates with unquestioned authority vested in a minuscule elite.

The fact that the Elan Bakufu failed was probably inevitable, but the reason for its collapse ultimately flies counter to most decline narratives. One normally imagines collapse as a result of absolute power falling into the hands of an increasingly stable if ever dwindling competence as child emperors and those born to the purple lose touch with their empire. This could never happen to an Elani empire: The Elani may be killed, but they cannot otherwise die. As it happens, however, immortality alienates a ruling class even more thoroughly than does being born a mortal with absolute power. Even the cruelest emperor dies, providing at least a flicker of hope for future change. A ruler both despised and eternal allows no hope except through conspiracy, radicalism, and coups. Additionally, immortal beings often have an outlook towards mortal ones that might be described, charitably, as deleterious to civil order.

In other words, creatures that do not die naturally, but only through violence (a) do not overly value the lives of creatures that essentially have the effective lifespan of a housepet and (b) are super paranoid about that violence that actually will do them in one day.

And, frankly, they have reason to be paranoid. An infinite lifespan intersects with lethal accident well before the end of time in basically all cases, and being an arrogant, out of touch, immortal aristocracy ruling through control of a giant Kaiju monster plus psionics engenders the ill will of the populace as mentioned above. By the Fourth Dynasty, no Elan alive had living memory of the Great Awakenings or the First Dynasty, and those few left with experience from the Second Dynasty were killed leading the necrocat purges.

This might is probably why the Elan Bakufu was the most stable, longest lasting, and yet uneventful of the Successor Dynasties, lasting an impressive four centuries. It is also why, when the end came, it came basically overnight.

In this case, the new power structure went something like this 1. Elan at the top 2. Half-Giants as peacekeepers, soldiers, mid level bureaucrats, spies, intermediaries, and basically all of the positions of government between "labor" and "giving people orders." 3. Everyone else as everything else.

Over the centuries, perhaps predictably, the Half-Giants developed a tradition of interaction and friendship with the unawakened mortal populations, while the Elan overlords cultivated an opposite tradition, growing ever more aloof from and condescending of their subjects. As successive generations of Half-Giants were born, grew old, and died the Half-Giants began to grow closer to the unawakened than to the Elani overlords, and so it was only a matter of time before the Half-Giants begin to see their own water-carrying activities as unacceptable and a large cabal of them began to meet in conspiracy.

Contemporary Outland: The Five Kingdoms / The Warring States

The Elan, as unquestioned masters of the World Above and in full control of the God-Mountain set about to rebuild their empire after the long century of war. Their rule is remembered as aloof and legalistic. The Elan, though immortal, do not reproduce naturally and are instead created by a process of awakening known only to the masters of their race. As such, their numbers remained small and so their ruled from their weapon-city and instead relied on their Half-Giant servants to be governors, generals, and ministers of the empire. Though the half-giants often have a reputation for dullness, in fact it is quite undeserved and the Half-Giants took well to their new duties. Their Giant natures made them recognizable and powerful leaders, while their human sensibilities and mortal lifespans gave them a sense of empathy for those they ruled. This last, in fact, would prove to be the downfall of the Elan Bakufu.

As time progressed, the Elan became ever more distant and cruel while the Half-Giants in large part began to empathize with the subjects of the realm, as the Elan considered their immortal agendas above all others, and were demanding and inflexible overlords. As alluded to above, over time a conspiracy developed and spread among the Half-Giants. The insular Elan did not even notice the conspiracy forming among their servants, who could easily communicate plots in secret with their psionic abilities and preemptively arrest threats to the same. The Half-Giants had no wish to destroy the Elan. Indeed, they realized instantly that would lead to disaster as the God-Mountain being loosed of its reins would be catastrophic.

As the Half-Giants came to appreciate how much of the Elani's power was dedicated to maintaining control of their monstrous weapon, a strategem was hatched. Knowing the Elani overlords preferred to use their monster-city whenever possible, both to conserve power and project awe and terror. The Half-Giants supported a series of revolts in the empire that drew the wrath of the God-Mountain further and further west. As they marched, the Elan became more and more fearful about the planning and coordination of the revolts. Finally, at the arboreal edges of the empire, the Half-Giants conspirators convinced their overlords that the source of the revolts was a hidden fortress on the Centaur Plains, beyond the edge of empire. The Elan had no reason to doubt their servants. They pursued deep into the grassy steppes hunting the false headquarters.

When the God Mountain was several days distant from the edge of empire, the conspirators struck. United in common purpose, they converged in a great song of psionic and magic power, rending and reshaping the primal earth. They raised a great mountain range - The Wall of the West - and connected the Northern and Southern Shield ranges. The mountains were all but impassable to the giant creature, and so the Elani were forced to choose to remain in their banished monster city or to return to their empire without the benefit of their greatest weapon and try to wrest back control from the huge masses of unawakened and the traitorous half giants.

They have been in exile ever since. Though immortal, they are isolated and recruitment is tremendously difficult, so their numbers grow with great slowness.

The giants success, however, was the undoing of the Eternal Empire. The Half Giants had made no plan for governance among themselves, and very soon the conspirators began to feud with one another in the course of trying to administer the empire. Secondly, the raising of the Wall of the West dramatically altered the climate of the Empire. Monsoon winds that would have once swept through the continent were now instead trapped in the great bowl created by the three intersecting ranges, leading to a rainier climate. Since the raising of the range, once tranquil rivers now flood angrily and mudslides and disaster trouble once peaceful river and mountain valleys. (This weather pattern change probably also contributed to the desertification of Alexia).

Without the might of the God-Mountain, the mental and physical strength of the Half Giants was insufficient to continue their hegemony, and humans quickly leveraged their numbers into political domination of the continent, generally through violence. Between famine, flood, and political disunity, the first century and a half of this period was particularly grim and bloody. Additionally during this period, the various regions and warlords coalesced into a handful of reasonably stable kingdoms. For the past two centuries or so, most of the old empire is dominated by the Five Great Kingdoms that formed from the corpse of the fallen Empire: Po, Wa, San, Lang, and Zha.

Since that time, the kingdoms have feuded and allied with one another, but no one has been able to achieve supremacy over their neighbors.