Belteshazzar (Polesia)
The Belteshazzar are a tribe of humanity that somehow managed to surpass the typical limits of their race. A unusal breed with dusky skin, auburn to red hair, and strange rust colored eyes, they also live lifespans between 200 and 300 years and seem in all ways to be physically and mentally superior to their lesser kin. Originally part of an ethnicity known as the Avaladh, who founded the ancient empire of Ghōl and later after its fall helped raise Shahar-khet to prominence, they are believed to be all that is left of that ancient and powerful bloodline. The Beleshazzar are very insular and try to keep their traits as prominent as possible. Despite their efforts there only a few families that can say they have more or less pure blood, though many times more can claim Belteshazzar heritage and with it many of the gifts of the ancients.
A History of the Beleshazzar and their Immortal Rulers
Unknown (sometime between -9,000 and -8,600 CA): The kin of Belteshazzar, displaced by the Kakrimi, seek a means to avenge their kinsman and somehow awaken a great power that is passed through their blood. It is, however unreliable as it rarely expresses itself, unless a parent with this mythic power deliberately weakens themselves in order for it to pass to a child upon conception.
-8,600 CA: Kamen Thal-Ortho manifests the new power of his family. He is raised with high expectations and becomes a powerful leader amongst the Avaladh.
-8,500 CA: Kamen Thal-Ortho decides that it is time for him to take down the decadent sorcerers that have all but sold their nation to the aboleths. He gathers a fairly powerful force and marches to Ghōl, yet is out maneuvered and to save face is forced to take his men to the front lines of his people’s war with the serpent folk.
-8,498-8,496 CA: Leading his men on adventures that will in time become myths for millennia to come, Kamen Thal-Ortho actually succeeds on his endeavors on the front, not only holding off the serpent folk incursion but actually taking ground and driving them from strongholds that even the elves had thought were impregnable.
-8,495 CA: With the help of the elves and with his followers and a massive army of outlaws and dissidents, Kammen Thal-Ortho lays siege to the serpent folk capital and within several months manages to take it and kill Vesshelkhal, earning him unparalleled honor and prestige amongst both elves and his own people. The elves swear to aid him in retaking Ghōl and ridding it of aboleth influence. During this year, he also evacuates most of his kin and their followers, knowing that the sorcerer nobles will attempt to use them as hostages.
-8,494 CA: Ghol is destroyed along with Kammen Thal-Ortho. The Belteshazzar, now leaderless, move east away from the ruin of their homeland and the horrible memories now associated with it.
-8,490-8,000 CA: After centuries of nomadic living the Belteshazzar cross the Kalladian Mountains and enter the eastern deserts, hoping the start again and build a new civilization. To this end they ally themselves with the local tribes and elevate them with Avaladh secrets. Some of them mingle their blood with the locals but many choose to keep themselves distinct, rarely brining in outsiders except when necessary to avoid inbreeding, thus keeping their Avaladh traits prevalent.
-7,950-7,400: The child Enkil is born and soon manifests the gifts of the Belteshazzar bloodline. It is he who first realizes that this power actually makes its recipients immortal and at the age of four hundred years (looking no older than he did in his late twenties) he truly begins to build his nation’s power, naming it Shahar-khet and slowly expanding its borders as well as gleaning knowledge from ancient sources to try and discover the reason behind this mysterious power.
-7,202 CA: After living nearly eight hundred years, Enkil is slain in a border war with the nearby elven nation of Aredhel.
-7,200-6,595 CA: No one in the Belteshazzar manifest their bloodline’s power and it becomes a thing of legend. Many of the kings attempt to awaken it but all efforts lead to failure. Some actually blame Aredhel, thinking that through some powerful magic the elves managed to steal the power when they killed Enkil. Hostility between the two kingdoms grows and there are constant wars. The kings start turning to necromancy in order to gain even a taste of the immortal power of their legendary line. These kings however, languish in their undead state and after a few centuries abdicate their thrones to living heirs, while they retire to their mausoleums to study and occasionally advise the living.
-6,500 CA: Pharizon the XII is growing old and desperate. Hungering for life eternal but not wanting to become a lich, he contacts an outer horror called Nyarlathotep and begs the monstrosity for the keys to true immortality. In response Nyarlathotep teaches Pharizon the secrets of Chaos Magic.
-6,300-1,100 CA: As the devastation brought on by Pharizon the XII wracks Shahar-Khet, many of the Belteshazzar flee the devastation going south into modern Eshtorah. Much of their history is lost in this time but they manage to hold on to their bloodline and are content to stay out of the fray as the Pallishar and Thesian Empires come and go.
1,050-0 CA: The Belteshazzar found the small nation state of Narem-Kumat. A man named Harasin unlocks his mythic potential and rules his people for the longest recorded period to date. Trying not to fall into the trap of his predecessors, he secures the border of the nation state and tries to keep them as isolated from the world as possible.
0 CA: The Lataneran Empire expands east into Eshtorah and even into Narem-Kumat. The current immortal ruler Harasin is slain and his people flee east across the sea to Kmet-Tha. It is during this year that Haman is born to Enlil and Salome.
20 CA: Kmet-Tha is made into a practical fortress, and its location is a closely guarded secret by the Belteshazzar that have dealings with the outside world for supplies and information. Several families within the Belteshazzar share power and rulership, Enlil’s being the foremost.
25 CA: Enlil burns Haman’s lover Jessa alive, and Haman in turn slays his father in a rage that manages to awaken the power of his bloodline. When his father’s contemporaries move into punish him for this, he kills them as well and becomes the sole ruler of Kmet-Tha.
400-1000 CA: For events on Absalom and Mordechai see Mordechai’s timeline.
1055 CA: Haman begins to take advantage of the confusion caused by the war between Latanera and Avandor. He slowly begins to enact his centuries long plan for ascension, while also searching for rumors of the auburn haired emperor whom has been rumored by some to be the incarnation of the god Atalos.
