Editing Timeline (Polesia) (section)

==From the Ashes to the Skies==


'''-8,082 to -8,007 CA:''' In central Zumwalla, the warlord Bokinda began conquering all neighboring tribes, leading hordes of bird riders in rapid assaults that could not be matched by his rivals. His son and grandson continued his example and consolidated their power creating the Ghamali Empire that ended up covering most of southeastern Zumwalla.


'''-7,725 to -7,614 CA:''' Fleeing the destruction of their homeland, Belteshazzar refugees form a new empire by uniting the dissidents and outlaws in the desert to the southeast of the elven territories. With their secrets and the natives' numbers, the growth of this nation is astounding. Ensconcing themselves into the upper social hierarchy the Belteshazzar rule this rapidly expanding empire as sorcerer kings in the Avaladh tradition before its corruption by the aboleths. Many other traditions form their homeland were still evident as well, but for the most part they mingled their ways with the natives, speaking their language in most affairs and reserving their own ancestral Avaladh tongue for sacred ceremonies. Within several centuries the empire spread across the desert and displayed rapid advancement in architecture and arcanology, erecting enormous monuments and pyramids to honor themselves and their sorcerer kings. This empire is called Shahar-Khet after its enormous capital.


'''-7,714 to -7,665 CA:''' The Bokinda dynasty was slowly overcome by rivals, led by the noble Adebaeze and his spell warriors. They then began reorganizing the empire around ancient serpentfolk ruins from which they learned their magics. The ancient basalt temples became the new capitols of the empire and the nation gained new insights into magic and the nature of the universe, learning about the Old Ones and the higher natures of reality. 


'''-7,531 to -7,327 CA:''' The wizard nobles of Ghamali built the first of their wonderful flying cities, grafting new magical theories into old serpentfolk magical traditions. Using the arcane powersource within the basalt temple of Usulu, they tear a significant portion of the earth around them into the sky, with which they travel throughout their province, collecting taxes and giving aid to the common people and protect their lands from barbarian raiders. Over the next couple centuries, the other provinces of Ghamali made their own flying cities, with over a dozen roaming the skies, but only a few ever rivaled the power of Usulu and it was taken by the king as the new mobile capital of their empire.


'''-7,202 to -7,199 CA:''' While raiding a long abandoned aboleth stronghold, Sorcerers from Shahar-Khet stumbled onto the Obelisk. The king and nobles of Shahar-Khet were convinced that this monolithic structure held the secrets to immortality, little knowing that the Obelisk was influencing their weaker human minds. While they managed to prevent all out corruption, Shahar-Khet did not do gain much the Obelisk as had the aboleths or the serpentfolk, and only managed to coax the secrets of lichdom from it after they managed to reverse its corrupt energies. This event destroyed an entire city in a wave of negative energy turning all its inhabitants into ghouls and resurrecting Domhu Stross as one of Polesia’s first liches. Domhu Stross was responsible for making the first translations of the ancient aboleth texts relating to the Obelisk. After the destruction of the city the Obelisk was considered too dangerous and with the advancement of necromancy inconsequential. It was taken far away and buried in the foothills of the modern Kaladian Mountains, at the time a wild and unknown land. This causes a great civil uprising in Shahar-Khet as Obelisk worshipers, called Disciples of the Fallen Star, try to “liberate” the Obelisk . Most are slain, and the cult is dispersed.


'''-7,150 to -6,921 CA:''' Due to advances in magical studies, the people dwelling in the floating cites of Ghamali have less and less need of the farmers below, able to create their own food and water. As a result they spend less and less effort to protect their people from the ever increasing raids of the bird riders from the northwest (the modern day Zamodi Grasslands). Along with this, the semi-isolation of the island dwellers and earth dwellers causes a division of culture and technology, with the best and brightest minds taken from the farms below and sequestered in the floating cities above, leading to an overall decline throughout the land-based portion of the Ghamali Empire.


'''-6,806 to -6,625 CA:''' The Belteshazzar descended rulers of Shahar-khet continued delving into lore that their elven enemies were wise enough to pass over, the sorcerer kings made the first metaphorical deal with the devil and started treating with the Great Old Ones. While this sparked their rapid development it also plunged the nation into sociological decadence as they gorged on unearned knowledge. The first human cults of Cthulhu were formed and in time the last king of Shahar-Khet, Pharizon II contacted the extraplanar being Nyarlathotep who taught him the secrets of Chaos Magic.


'''-6,572 to 6,282 CA:''' More and more, raiders from the northwest rose unchallenged in Ghamali, overrunning what order remained on the ground. While the land based cites slowed their advances and managed to drive them off in many cases, this drove them further from their sky dwelling cousins, who soon found their authority challenged during the rare times they came to collect taxes and tribute. When one of the sky cites was brought down by an alliance between one of their own cites and the bird riders it became clear that they had lost their land based holdings. From then on the sky cities kept to their own affairs, trading amongst each other and only occasionally interacting with land below, usually in the form of raids or deals conducted behind spears and magical defenses. 


'''-6,302 CA:''' Under Pharizon II the people of Shahar-Khet had several glorious centuries during which they decimated the nearby elven nation of Aredhel, breaking their hold over the region in such a manner that even to this day the elves have never recovered fully. However the Chaos Magic wielded by Pharizon began to have noticeable and devastating effects across the empire. The king himself lost his ability to retain a fixed form and became the first chaos beast, and from him the affliction quickly spread as did other blights from his Chaos Magic. Within a decade of this Shahar-Khet was no more than dust in the wind and crumbling necropolises, in which some the first human undead were the only inhabitants. Many people fled the devastation, some went east and establishing the isolationist country of Sholashomu, some Beleshazzar went south and eventually founded the city state of Narem, and one lich, named Mel-Ketekk left the devastation and traveled the world finally ending up in what will be modern Lacaeta.