[ANW - Civilization] The Azem

[Pericles of Athens]

Foundation of the Azem

Pre-History The Azem Blessed are the dominant human cultural, linguistic, and ethnic family in Midija Humid Oven. Their people are native to the fertile hinterlands of northern Midija, where the jungles of ancient Midija began to thin out as they gave way to the imposing peaks of the Kothbek Earth’s Spine. It is unknown when humans first entered Midija, but the first substantial evidence of human habitation comes into the archeological record around 30,000 AA. Evidence of this habitation begins creeping southward along the coasts, and eventually up the river basins, as the millennia push onward. This migration was likely prompted by increased food pressures on the populations, and stalled by the established presence of the Shem populations, known to the Azem as the Dowh Squirrels. These early Azem avoided the deep jungles, filled with dangerous beasts and the alien Shem natives. Like any pre-agrarian society they were hunter gatherers, living of the bounty of flora and fauna, the riverine and coastal groups relying more prominently on fishing and crabbing. Their communities in this period were small groups made up of anywhere from four to ten extended families and led by a Magi, a magically attuned individual who served as both religious and civil leader. Mythic Roots “...Koth shook the foundations of the earth, Urthal boiled the seas, Ancan brought a shower of stone upon the land...” - From the Baratotem, The First (known) Compilation of Azemic Mythic Tradition The earliest of Azem legend speaks frequently of a “time before time”. When humans once dominated Midija, and indeed dominated the whole of the known world, as a single monolithic tribe known only as the Antam Singular. The men of the Antam were unique in their mastery of the arcane, wielding great magics that the Magi of the early Azem could merely dream of. In this time the jungles of Midija had been tamed, and the coasts were dotted with cities that teemed with human souls as “numerous as the stars in the night’s sky”. These men grew increasingly powerful as the eons wore on, though the legend says they also grew bored of the mundane pleasure’s of this world. So in their arrogance they sought to eclipse the gods themselves, and in doing some committed an unforgivable transgression against the divine. The Magi of this great tribe sought to physically enter the Pare Beyond, realm of the gods. In order to do so they pooled their magic and tore the sky asunder, so they might walk among the heavens freely. The gods were, naturally, displeased. And sought to the destruction of their world. They sent showers of rocks that pockmarked the earth, waves of water that reshaped the lands, millennia of disease that lay men low, and many other ailments divided by a dozen-dozen gods. So that no trace might survive of their people or their deeds. Once the gods were done the world was still, for many countless souls had perished, and the great tribe was no more. This time would be remembered as the age of Aag Cleansing, and what followed would be the age of Naya Rebirth, there is no Azem word to describe the time before the Aag only vague and forbidden memories. This story was told and retold, passed from one elder Magi to another for millennia before being recorded in the written word sometime near 7,000 AA. This has led some scholars to question if this myth, or the numerous related myths across the continent, are based in any kind of fact. We cannot know what came before this Aag, but there seems to be strong evidence that the cataclysmic event itself did occur. One with magical aptitude need only venture to Midija for proof, as when properly situated one can feel the chilling reverberations from the Aag, countless voices crying out in terror only to be silenced without warning. Even a mundane person can see the effects of this event through abnormal geographic phenomena it created, like the Great Lake sitting at the heart of Mutaria. Foundations of a Civilization The Azem adopted agriculture sometime between 0 AA and 1000 AA, and a furious debate rages over the nature of their agricultural revolution. That being if agriculture was introduced to them, from the north by Awali or west from Omet, or if they developed the practice naturally on their own. However, the fact that agriculture appears along the rivers of central Midija long before reaching the peripheral coasts or hinterlands suggests an internal development. Whatever the case may be we can say with certainty that agriculture had spread throughly throughout the river bound basins of the sub-continent by 2,000 AA. The Ko-Azem Soil Blessed were however but one of the three major geographic communities on the sub continent. The others being the Wa-Azem Water Blessed, and the Ak-Azem Sky Blessed. The former being the communities along the coastlines, surviving predominately off fishing, and the latter being the “original” Azem living as semi-migratory clansmen in the more sparse hinterlands of the Kothbeck Mountains. These other two groups had only just adopted agriculture when the first cities began springing up along the rivers, between 5,000 and 5,500 AA. The first of these cities was named Urth, after Urthal the goddess of the lift giving properties of water. These first cities were likely a product of both convenience and fear. The record shows us that they were originally founded on the highest ground possible, and where high ground was not possible attempts were made to create an elevated space for the city. This shows that these communities were fearful of outside aggression, likely between each other, though the predatory fauna of the jungle and Shem raids (perhaps in response to the destruction of the forest) were likely contributors toward the move. They erected stone walls about the hill, using a combination of magic and human labor. Naturally the majority of people, laborers and indentured workers lived outside the wall, only coming there when trouble drove them from the fields. Priests and other people of import making generally made up the standing population. Eventually, as specialized jobs began to emerge, the cities became home to career soldiers, craftsmen, and merchants. Populations in these river basins exploded, with centuries of good weather leading to bountiful surplus. The Magi of the cities began taking this surplus and storing it behind city walls, to be distributed as necessary. And to account for the comings and goings of this material they created a shorthand for Azem words, pictographs written on clay tablets, which would eventually become its own literary tradition. As these cities grew, and their economies diversified further, it became impossible to house all of the cities’ inhabitants. In response residence would begin constructing homes and shops on the slopes of the hills, beyond the walls. Eventually, when the city had grown too much outside the walls, they would erect a new set of walls and so the process would begin anew. Eventually this process became unsustainable, building tension until a new development swept their society. Azem history speaks of a powerful Magi named Makius, claimed as a scion of many cities, some which had not been built in his day and age. No one knows exactly when he lived, but we do know that by 7,000 AA a new method of city structure had been adopted attributed to his reforms. Cities would be planned and structured around the terraced levels of their society. These three districts were, going from the center outward, the Sthaam Sanctum, the Durla Rares, and the Saman Commons. The first set of walls housed the Sthaam and would be inhabited solely the Magi and those that serve them, here you would find the temples and other administrative buildings, including grain storage. The second set of walls would encompass the Durlaand house skilled tradesmen and warriors, here you would find barracks, ceramic shops, and goldsmiths. The final set of walls would encompass the Saman and housed merchants and tradesmen of less esteemed occupation. Foreigners, unskilled laborers, and farmers were barred from living within city walls and would handle any bussiness within the Saman, with only foreign dignitaries being allowed further in. Now this is not to say a Magi could not live in a palatial estate beyond the city’s walls, in fact many did, rather this system officially separated the emerging classes and legally kept people from moving into sections of the city designated for their betters. We don’t know how people reacted to this societal reorganization, as no one recorded the thoughts of the opposition, but what we do know is this simple act created the foundations of the social caste system that would become inseparable from Midijan life. Civic Structure ”There is a natural order to things, a beginning and an end, a top and a bottom. Those that lead need those that follow, as those who are free need those who are slaves.” - From the Code of Makius Azem society is traditionally a Mageocracy. A rigid caste system with slaves squarely at the bottom and the magically gifted priests squarely at the top. Society was divided into five broad castes, Chotee Top, Shobah Lustrous, Madhy Middle, Ganda Dirt, and Sampa Property. The Chotee were the smallest of all the castes, encompassing chiefly of the magically gifted individuals that dominated high civil and religious life. The Shobah were significantly larger than the Chotee, many times over, and encompassed bureaucrats, academics, and warriors. The Madhy was made up of merchants and craftsmen, they were in an interesting position as a lower defendant of society but a strong economic driver. The Ganda encompassed laborers, peasants, small rural landowners, and servants. The Sampa were at the bottom of Midijan society, literally property they were beneath even the Ganda in standing. Members of the Chotee were either born into the caste, those birthed by magically gifted parents, or elevated to the caste when their magical talents emerged. When a member of a lower caste manifested magical abilities they would be adopted by a willing Chotee family, and officially they would cut all ties with their family and friends in their former caste. Even a slave would be elevated if magic manifested itself. Among the Chotee marriage was an arrangement between families, carefully planned to encourage the birth of more and better mages. Families would have hundreds of tablet describing in great detail their genealogy, without that proof of pedigree a family would be at a great disadvantage in marriage negotiations. The Chotee caste were priests, academics, and the highest level of civil and martial administrators. Chotee magi headed up the governing councils of Midijan cities. These Councils were made up of one representative from every clan within the Chotee caste, for most reasonably sized cities this would mean close to a dozen seats. These councils made laws, raised armies, set taxes, handled religious ceremonies, and assigned military leadership. One of the most important roles of the Chotee was their religious role. They would lead religious rites, perform sacrifices, and commune directly with the gods. Many Chotee filled academic roles as well, not the mundane recordings of history or bookkeeping, rather cutting edge experimentation into magical or natural sciences. Members of this caste had a greater deal of liberties and freedoms than others, but in exchange they were expected to succeed. The Shobath were, in many ways, the tools used to implement the directives made by the Chotee. The warriors of the Shobath enforced the laws, kept order between the castes, protected the council’s lands from the Shem and from the armies of rival cities. The bureaucrats of the Shobath were some of the few literate members of society. They ensured the smooth running of administration, they collected taxes and they kept records of supplies, they recorded histories, and researched mundane sciences that didn’t interest the Chotee. The Madhy were split into two groups, the Upper and the Lower Madhy. The Upper Madhy encompassed the skilled tradesmen, such as weaponsmiths, goldsmiths, glassblowers, and the like, these craftsmen were generally treated more like members of the Shobah than members of the Madhy. In contrast the Lower Madhy was made up of merchants and less desirable tradesmen. Ironically some members of the Madhy could be incredibly wealthy, especially successful merchants and craftsmen from the Upper Madhy. The Ganda were the lowest segment of “free” society among the Azem. They were peasants, small land holders, servants, and urban laborers. They worked the fields and they worked the docks, they were sailors and attendants in shops and private homes. Traditionally they made up the single largest segment of society. Life was difficult for the Ganda, as slaves often performed similar tasks. In hard times they had to perform dangerous work for those who couldn’t afford slaves, and sometimes slave holders would use them for labor if they did not wish to risk their own stock of slaves. Sampa had no rights, they were property of the Chotee, Shobah, or even Madhy castes. They could be murdered or beaten without recourse. These slaves had varied lives, many were forced to work mines or row in the par powered ships, short and painful lives, some were well kept trophies, but most would work the fields. The quality of life there varied by location, master, and even the crop being grown. These slaves were also used for human sacrifices, in religious acts and as a means to power blood magic. Some were forced to fight in a blood sport known as Aadar “Honor”, a form of pit fighting where familial clans would settle disagreements by fight through slave proxies. As empires began to form in Midija the Sampa caste eventually eclipsed the number of Ganda in size, toward the middle to late Bronze Age. Geography The lowlands of Midija are an unnaturally hot and humid place, with thick jungles dominating nearly the entirety of the sub-continent. To the north the Kothbek mountains divide the peninsula from the grasslands of central Muataria. The highest peak in the chain is nearly 30,000 feet tall, known to the natives as Koth’s Throne, its peak is nearly always obscured by the clouds. The coasts are bordered by shallow tropical seas, that serve as a breeding group for the monsoons that batter Midija in the wet season. The northern quarter of Midija (bordering the mountains) is dominated by an elevated and hilly terrain known as the Hinterlands. The land remains both warm and humid, but it is cut off from the monsoons that batter the coasts and the south, making the wet season significantly more tame. As the elevation increases toward the Kothbeks the night’s grow colder and the dry season more severe. Three major river systems were the central pillars in the early development of Azem civilization. The largest is the Sadak Path in the east fed by its three tributaries out of the Kothbeks, it’s waters irrigate the majority of the hinterlands. The second largest system is the centrally located Jeevan Lifeblood, though only half the collective length of the Sadak it is the Jeevan that gave rise to agriculture and sedentary life in Midija. Finally toward the western border with Omet there is the Bahan Sister, minuscule in comparison to its larger two sisters to the east, this small river system provides a natural barrier with the west.

[Pericles of Athens]

Rise of an Empire

Urth was but the first city that rose along the banks of the Jeevan. Dozens followed, being built both up and down the riverside, and by 5,500 AA urban centers had come to dominate the banks of the Sadak and her tributaries as well. The development spread westward toward the Bahan as well, though these early urban centers remained small there, even as populations in the neighboring river valleys began to explode. Conflict was not uncommon between these early cities, after all every major city exerted control over dozens of neighboring villages and towns, some even extracting tribute from other smaller cities, all of which was assured through violence and the underlying threat of violence. However it was not until 7,900 AA that the subcontinent’s first true expansionist state came into its own, centered on the city of Grokeechaya In the Shadow of the Grove. By the High Bronze Age the city was a wealthy one, founded in 7,500 AA by a group of Ko-Azem fleeing northward from the destruction of their original home. Built along a major bend in the Jeevan river the lands surrounding the city were well irrigated and fertile. It’s population was large and the magi that lorded over the city had close trade relations with a number of Princes controlling the aetherium trade out of the Kothbek mountains. Control of the aetherium trade down the Jeevan made the city prosperous, trade granted them an abundent supply of basic and luxury products, from a reliable supply of tin to craft weapons and armor to a wide diversity of spices and precious gems. The Chotee of Grokeechaya were content to remain a lynchpin in the horizontal trade system that defined life along the Jeevan. However, one man was not, a man born Karan ka Aankh. Naturally, he was a part of the Aankh clan, an influential family of Chotee. Their line came from the average farming town of Aankhen, taking a seat on the High Council in 7,775 AA when Sidrah ka Aankh (the first in their line to display a connection to magic) finished his apprenticeship under a senior member of the Council. By 7,860 AA the Aankh family controlled three of the five major trade treaties controlling the flow of aetherium into Grokeechaya, while they held smaller amounts of land and slaves than other magi families, their stranglehold over trade granted them influence over (if not the respect of) the other more prestigious families. Karan became the patriarch of the Aankh clan in 7,875 AA when his father died unexpectedly in his one hundred and tenth year, Karan was only thirty years old at the time. With no other relatives to take on his father’s position he became the youngest magi to sit on Grokeechaya’s ruling Council, and the only one who had yet to complete his priestly training before being granted a seat. In his youth he took far more interest in the study of magical sciences than he took in his priestly duties or the politics of the council. He spent little time in the city, preferring to stay in his palatial estate outside Aankhen, when the council’s schedule would permit it. He became obsessed with the natural power of souls and devising the means to harness that power. Karan predicted that, if given an automaton with functional parts, he could bind a soul with an inanimate object to create new life. His work first began with animals, thousands of which died in his research, and eventually he would graduate to human test subjects, slaves to be specific. After years of trial and error he finally bound a human soul to an automaton, his magnum opus.. a golem. The golem was hewn from white marble in the shape of a hominid, with carefully jointed limbs and emeralds for eyes, a delicate inlay of gold and aethirium crisscrossing the surface of its body like an artificial nervous system. The creature promptly killed his assistant and escaped the laboratory, loose in his estate it killeda half dozen servants before Karan was able to encase it in ice. Clearly he had gravely miscalculated, and the experience was disheartening enough that he seemed to scrap the project entirely as he made no mention of golems for many years after the incident. He embraced a more traditional role, and two decades later his fellow priests officially recognized his ability as a Dreamer, one who can meet with the gods in their plane of existence through dreams. Karan proved to be a vicious political opponent, he had a philosophy of making nice with his political enemies when possible, but showing no mercy when his offers of cooperation were rejected. By 7,911 AA his ruthless politicking had effectively created a triumvirate of himself, a childhood friend Samei ka Sehem who owed the success of his political career to Karan, and Karan’s former political rival Jahen ka Rojii who commanded the loyalty of many of the old blood in the region. The Sehem clan had little in the way of effective power, they lacked land and coin, but what they did have was influence through a genealogical claim to the city’s founders. The Rojii were not nearly as old a family as the Sehem, but considerably older than the new blood Aankh. The Rojii commanded the largest tracks of land, and held the rights to two of the five aetherium contracts with the Princes of northern Midija. The political monopoly that they had created was a fragile one, each family began jockeying for position almost immediately after the agreement had been reach, but by 7,920 AA it began to dissolve completely as Jahen the patriarch of the Rojj (who was significantly older than his two ‘allies’) took ill. Jahen’s illness was followed by Karan’s self imposed isolation in his country estates. This choice would have dire ramifications, as it raised suspicions that Karan had been involved in an attempt to poison and kill Jahen. Two years later the elder mage Jahen would die, being replaced by his son Rajen ka Rojj as patriarch of the Rojj family. Rajen proved himself an aggressive opponent and in Karan’s absence he turned public opinion among the Shobah, he was even able to turn Samei, the least powerful among the triumvirate, against Karan despite their bond of friendship. Samei had little in the way of practical resources to offer, but he did have a large amount of influence with the Chotee and Shobah castes due to his lineage, which he began using to great affect. Karan withdrew from political life, contemporaries say this was for one of two reasons, either he had contracted a flesh eating poison or he began suffering from severe aetherium sickness early in life. Whatever the case his skin grew sickly, sallow, and became marred by festering welts. In response he cut himself off from social and political life, in favor of the lonely solitude of his laboratory. When he rarely did appear in public he took to concealing his skin beneath an ornate bronze mask and a hood, the rest of his body was concealed beneath uncharacteristicly long robes among the Azem. He returned to his work in creating the perfect automaton with a renewed vigor, unwilling to allow his disability to cost define him. His work remained stalled however, it was beyond his technological limitations to discover the proper procedures involved in binding a soul to his inanimate creations. He would either bind the soul too loosely, and therefore allow the creature to rampage, or he would bind it too tightly and effectively smother the soul’s essence. Most of his time was spent in laborious study, time that wasn’t spent in research was spent in his waking dreams attempting to commune with the gods. Udyog, god of the forge, took an interest in Karan’s labors. The god deigned to make direct contact with him, through his waking dreams. And so the god of craftsmen formed a covenant with Karan, he would give Karan the knowledge he sought in binding souls, and in return Karan and all his descendants would honor Udyog and use their knowledge of animancy to drive their people ever forward. With the knowledge of the gods Karan was able to complete his work in 7,922 AA, for the first time he successfully bound a soul (or more accurately the essence of over a dozen souls) to one of his constructs. He began constructing new models of automaton as he contemplated a triumphant return to Grokeechaya. This however proved to be unnecessary, as his political rivals Rajen and Samei had gathered their strength, and by early spring in 7,923 AA they were ready to play their hand. They had raised a personal force of about five hundred Shobah warriors, over a dozen elephants, and a half dozen Magi (the two council members and their four apprentices) to march on Karan’s rural estate. For his part Karan had less than a hundred Shobah warriors under his command, his two apprentices, and a dozen golems of various sizes. The allied forces won a decisive victory at the town of Aankhen, the namesake of Karan’s family, and after setting fire to it they marched on Karan’s familial estates. The battle was bloody and decisive, the allied forces had numbers, but Karan was the most powerful magic user of his generation and his creations were both fearless and relentless. The battle was fierce with stone fisted golems flattening entire squads of allied Shoban, for their part the allied elephants were used to great affect as well, that was until Karan fried their brains causing a chain rampage into their own lines. The battle ended with a total rout, most of the allied forces surrendered right there on the field. Samei was taken in the battle, while Rajen was trampled to death by his own elephants. Karan pardoned the surviving apprentices of his fellow council members and took them in as his own responsibility. However he had a different fate in mind for his former friend Samei, who’s soul he later bound to a golem in order to study the ramifications of binding a mages essence. Of those Shoban that surrendered one in five were to be sacrificed to Udyog, popular tradition holds that Karan performed the sacrifices personally and that by day’s end his bronze mask was caked in human viscera, earning him the honorific The Bloody Mask. With his rivals dead Karan marched into Grokeechaya victorious, where he was named High Priest and Supreme Councilor. Upon his return he purged those that were too loyal to his old enemies, and took on a flood of new apprentices, eager to learn the art of animancy now that it had proved a worthwhile endeavor. Karan began constructing a small army of golems, the larger the construct the more souls it demanded, so most remained human sized though there were exceptions. All the same a river of blood flowed from his laboratory, and soon he had created a small army with which he might enforce his will. Despite his extensive efforts his golems still numbered under three hundred, so he relied heavily on Shoban warriors to supplement his forces. He conquered every city and town south of him on the Jeevan, and entered into a closed alliance with a number of friendly Princes in the Hinterlands. By 7,940 AA the entire Jeevan basin did homage to The Bloody Mask. In honor of his victories he took on a new name Karan ka Haumik Universal to mark his transcendence. However he was not satisfied with mere domination of the Jeevan basin, he desired more still. He sought to end Shem raids into his territory, and to that end he launched a lightning campaign into the heart of the jungle in the summer of 7,953 AA. Burning Heart Trees as he advanced and taking thousands of slaves, for the Shem were unprepared for such a well organized advance and had little to answer the Azem golems. The Shem Elders called up the spirits of the forest to protect them, but the Shem were too divided to make an effective stand, for the Shem of Central Midija had been engaged in their own internal struggles for some time. Despite this they put up significant resistance at points. Eventually the Azem reached the Heart of the World, the Vallendu. This monument to peace was not built to see war, and so it made an easy target and a monumental symbolic victory. The riches (both cultural and material) of the world’s greatest Heart Tree were plundered and the Shem present were chained and hauled back to the capital, the very soul of their people left as a smoldering ruin. Declaring victory in the fall of 7,954 AA Karan withdrew his forces back toward the Jeevan basin by the spring of 7,955 AA, plunder in tow. The continuation of the war would have been futile, the largest of their fixed positions had been destroyed, along with anything resembling a central authority in the region. To wage a guerrilla war against such a perfectly adapted species would have meant a long and bloody campaign ending in an inevitable retreat with minimal material gains. By the time his campaign against the Shem had ended Karan ka Haumik was over a hundred years old. But, he had yet to satiate his own desire for conquest. And by late 7,959 AA plans were already beginning to take shape, plans about invading the west, the Bahan river basin. The cities of the Bahan were deeply divided, both smaller and younger than their eastern eastern counterparts along the Jeevan. The High Priest Karan became convinced that victory over these cuties would be both easy and profitable, with the added benefit of solidifying his dynastic authority and personal legend. And so he assembled a grand army for the expedition. Records from the period claim the army encompassed forty thousand Shoban warriors from every tributary (including the fearsome “wilder men” of the northern princes), a thousand elephants, a “third of all the golems along the Jeevan”, and a hundred mages. More leveled estimates suggest the numbers were likely close to half those listed, a substantial force all the same. Karan had grown frail in his elder years and so granted command over this army to his apprentice and adopted son Ishde ka Haumik, a powerful mage and astute commander in his own right. When their forces arrived along the Bahan they headed directly for Ankur Sprout, noblest and proudest of the petty states of the region. When the city refused to surrender the mages and golems of Ishde’s army brought the walls of Ankur low, slaughtering the population and leaving but a handful of survivors to spread word of their deeds. The suffering of the population was said to be so intense that it attracted the attention of the gods themselves. Rather than break their spirits however, the fall of Ankur galvanized the defenders. They came together in a loose coalition and and began waging a disorganized guerrilla war, joined in their struggle by a number of Ometic tribals from the northern side of the river basin. In this darkest hour Aasha, the goddess of mercy, descended to answer the pleas of those who had passed on at Ankur. Aasha had long been resentful of Udyog’s involvement in the rise of Karan’s imperial system, she could not bare the suffering of those enslaved within the golems.. but the invasion of the divided states along the Bahan had been the final straw. She possessed a young and beautiful woman by the name of Pari, a survivor from Ankur. Pari was no longer herself after the possession, instead she became an avatar of the goddess. Her skin became luminous, her eyes and mouth hollow pits of burning light, and her voice became the meeting point between the coo of a dove and the crackle of thunder. Word spread that an avatar of the gods now fought among them, and as these rumors spread and a great army assembled around Pari. Few concrete records exist estimating the size of this forces, but we can assume it was somewhere around ten thousand strong, including both Azem and Ometic forces. Pari’s army had assembled outside the loyalist stronghold of Prachen Devar Old Walls in the north, an ancient fortress sitting nestled in the foothills of the Kothbaks. Ishde’s army came to meet them in the early spring of 7,966 AA. Bolstered by the presence of their goddess, and due in no small part to her own considerable magical power, the coalition of Bahan took the day. Ishde was roasted from the inside out when Pari placed but one hand upon him. The avatar of Aasha made a point of destroying the golems she came across, those constructs she found so abhorrent, and freeing the souls trapped with. Less than half of Karan’s grand invasion force would return to Grokeechaya. A few short weeks after their victory the Bahan Coalition was beginning to plan a counter invasion of the Jeevan basin when the goddess Aasha was unexpectedly stripped from her host, killing Pari (and any dream of unification of the Bahan) instantly. For her crimes Aasha was to face the summery judgment of the other Divines, for becoming directly involved in mortal affairs. For his part Karan had once again descended into a creative fever of madness after the death of his heir apparent Ishade. He locked himself in his lab for days at a time and would refuse to see his wife, his children, or his apprentices. He began drinking large quantities of opium, both day and night, to suppress the increasing pains of his age (and his afflictions) and to facilitate sleep. He began spending a great deal of his time in waking dreams, attempting to make contact with his Divine patron. However Udyog was uncharacteristically silent, unbeknownst to Karan the gods had recalled both Udyog and Aacan for judgement due to their involvement with mortal affairs. Karan became increasingly detached over the course of his waning years, due in large part to his feelings of abandonment over Udyog’s departure. His health deteriorated and his experiments grew sloppier and more costly in lives and other resources, until one day in 7,980 AA he simply fell asleep and didn’t wake back up. For a man who was larger than life it was an inconspicuous and decidedly ignoble way to pass. It is unknown if he was poisoned or if his body simply gave way under the pressures he had placed upon it, what is known is that his conquests would not last, he left Grokeechaya a city spread beyond its means of control and as the competence of his dynasty failed so too did the prospects of his fledgling empire. But, while his was the first empire to rise in the region it would be far from the last..

Ak-Azem: The Hinterlanders

In the depths of the Bronze Age the tribes of the northern hinterlands lived an exceptionally different life compared to the cities of the river valleys and coasts. These groups lacked the highly structured lifestyle of their settled mirrors, because they did not have the same level of complex urban development that their contemporaries possessed. Life in these tribal units was loosely structured compared to the rigged castes of their neighbors, and they were built around three more loosely defined groups, the mages, the free folk, and the slaves. Their communities were run by the Jakumar Princes, a hereditary place of authority that was detested by their lowland neighbors who believed in the division of authority among many competing familial units. Unlike the politicians, scientists, and scholars of the settled Azem the Jakumar were warrior mages, using magic almost exclusively for it’s utility in combat. The people of the hinterlands were more spread out, the towns that they did have were constructed on natural defensive spots like chokepoints and hilltops. Their economy revolved around hardy agricultural products, due to the rougher quality of their soil and their reliance on the dry-wet cycle of the jungle rather than rivers. They also possessed rich mineral deposits that only grew richer the closer one got to the Kothbek mountains, providing most of the copper and precious metals for the Midijan subcontinent and later providing a large portion of the iron industry. But, perhaps most importantly a few key communities possessed control of the vital aetherium industry, these mines were a constant source of conflict between the most powerful of the Jakumar. The relationships between these two groups was complicated, the lowland Azem looked down on these hinterland folk as unrefined savages, and in turn the people of the hinterlands viewed their lowland cousins as soft. Jakumar would at times raid the lowland farms, and in turn cities would retaliate against the offenders. Though in practice violence was rare and the two groups possessed a close relationship, mostly defined by the trade that flowed between them, as they extensively exchanged cultural, agricultural, and manufacturing products.