User:Captain Crawdad/secretlair

History

Prehistory

The Serioli lived for an unknown period of time as the only sentient species on the planet. At some point, Easterners arrived from another dimension, and settled on Dragaera. Relations between the two races, if they ever met at all, have not been described.

The reign of the Jenoine

The Jenoine entered the world in a similar manner as the Easterners and began to alter the world. Along with them came a species of servant beings whom the Jenoine mistreated. The Jenoine created the species of Dragaerans by magically crossing Easterner stock with various animals. They also altered jhereg to have human-level intelligence. The reasons behind these experiments have never been fully understood by the people of Dragaera. Ultimately, the Dragaerans, the Serioli, and the Jenoine's servants joined forces and rebelled. The Serioli created Great Weapons and Zerika the First, a Dragaeran, created the Orb. The Jenoine were ousted from the world of Dragaera, causing an eruption of power that creates the Great Sea of Chaos, a lake of Amorphia many miles wide in diameter.

The creation of the Empire

By the time the Jenoine had gone, the Dragaerans were divided into 31 tribes. The Jenoine's servants became the gods and decided to create a system by which Dragaerans would help them defend against future incursions by the Jenoine. With the help of the gods, the Dragaerans warred against the Serioli and nearly drove them into extinction. Through this fighting, the Dragaeran tribes merged into 16 Houses and formed an Empire. The gods created the Great Cycle as a system of running the Empire and the Paths of the Dead to collect Dragaeran souls and judge them on their use to the gods against the Jenoine. Kieron the Conqueror led the war effort to establish the Empire as the dominant political power in the world, while Zerika the First reigned as the first Empress, using her Orb as the lynchpin of the Empire's power. Kieron's brother, Dolivar, betrayed the House of the Dragon and was expelled. He created the House of the Jhereg, which outcasts from other Houses joined. Kieron allowed the Jhereg to survive because of the services they provided to his army. The Cycle corrected itself, creating the 17 Houses of the Empire that have stood since then.

The reign of the Empire

The Empire runs according to its purpose. Each turn of the cycle brings a new House to the throne of the Empire. The order of the cycle is constructed so that each new Emperor is naturally suited to correct the mistakes of the previous Emperor. The Empire frequently wages war on the kingdoms of the Easterners, but never conquers them and is always, eventually, pushed back. The Empire also wages occasional war with several island kingdoms off the Western coast, but never conquers these nations either.

The 18th Phoenix Emperor

Seventeen cycles pass, marking the end of the first Great Cycle in the Empire's history. Tortaakik of House Phoenix ascends to the throne as the first Emperor of the new Great Cycle. The events of The Phoenix Guards takes place, in which Khaavren and his three friends join the Phoenix Guards and share various adventures.

Adron's Disaster

Five Hundred Years into Tortaalik's reign, the Emperor has begun his inevitable plunge into decay as the Cycle nears its turn. The events of Five Hundred Years After take place. Adron e'Kieron, the Dragon Heir and next in line for the throne, attempts to seize the throne from Tortaalik before the Cycle turns. He uses Elder Sorcery in an attempt to wrest control of the Orb away from the Emperor. At the same instant, however, Tortaalik is assassinated by the Jhereg assassin, Mario, a feat thought impossible by most Dragaerans. This unforeseen event causes Adron's spell to backfire in a cataclysmic eruption of amorphia. Dragaera City is destroyed, and Adron along with it, leaving a Lesser Sea of Amorphia in its place. The Orb disappears and the Empire crumbles without its support.

The Interregnum

Without the Orb, Dragaeran society disintegrates and sorcery becomes impossible to all but the most skilled wizards. Many structures that required sorcery to hold them together literally crumble to rubble. Crime, disease, and petty warlords plague the people, while opportunistic Easterner armies find little organized resistance to their incursions. The former Duke of Kǎna, Skinter e'Teric, has the most success in reconquering territory and leads by far the largest consolidated power in the realms of the old Empire.

The rebirth of the Empire

The last living Phoenix in the world, Zerika, learns her identity and sets to recovering the Orb and restoring the Empire under her rule. At the same time, Kǎna contacts representatives of the other 16 Houses to negotiate the construction of a new empire without the Orb. Zerika and Kana come into direct opposition. Khaavren, his friends, his son Piro, and various other players come down on both sides of this struggle. Ultimately Zerika locates the Orb in the Paths of the Dead. She travels into the Paths of the Dead and negotiates the return of the Orb, along with herself, to the world of the living. She succeeds and restores the Empire. Those still loyal to Kǎna's cause wage one final battle against the restored Empire. Kǎna loses and the Empire flourishes once again unapposed.

Zerika's reign

Zerika the Fourth reigns from the new captial of Adrilankha, continuing the 18th cycle of the Phoenix that was prematurely cut short by Tortaalik's death. For unknown reasons, the return of the Orb from the Paths of the Dead has made sorcery far more powerful than it was before the Interregnum. Many feats, such as teleportation, become more easily achieved, while new feats such as "revivification" become possible. A little over 300 years into Zerika's reign, Vlad Taltos begins his adventures in Adrilankha.