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| How it Came to Pass
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| Though we must be thankful for the here and the
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| now, we must always remember what was. Some
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| things must never be allowed to happen again.
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| -- King Varulus of Throal, 1438 TR
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| The following is abridged from a speaking by the
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| ork troubadour Storymaster Jallo Redbeard to a
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| group of dwarven scholar students in the great
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| library of Throal, 1505 TH.
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| Regardless of what one believes of the Therans,
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| the story of the lands we now call Barsaive would
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| not be complete unless we started with them.
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| Without the Therans Barsaive might have ended up
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| as nothing more than the scores of warring tribes
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| and city-states that dotted the land a thousand years
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| ago. Though the Therans brought us oppression,
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| deceit, slavery, and inhumanity, they also gave us
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| culture, politics, commerce, and a glimpse of the
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| power that unity can bring.
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| What we know of the origins of the Therans comes
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| from their mouths and their writings. It is their tale,
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| their legend, that we recount here. How much is
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| truth, how much is lie, and how much falls between
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| may never be known while the halls of Thera still
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| stand. Despite that, it is a tale worth telling, the
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| story of the creation of an empire.
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| THE MARTYR SCHOLAR
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| The saga of Thera begins nearly one century before the founding of the dwarven
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| kingdom of Throal.
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| The elf Elianar
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| Messias, who will
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| one day be
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| revered or cursed
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| as the Father of
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| Thera and the
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| Martyr Scholar, is
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| an honored
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| follower of the
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| elven Spiritual
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| Path. In addition,
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| Messias is an
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| important advisor
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| to High Queen
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| Failla of the Elven
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| Court at Wyrm
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| Wood, the center
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| of elven culture.
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| Messias has a
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| falling-out with
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| Failla over the
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| desire of the elven
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| nation of Shosara
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| to loosen the
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| cultural shackles
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| that bind it to the
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| Court. Messias
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| believes the elves
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| of Shosara should
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| be allowed to
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| develop their
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| national culture as
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| they see fit. Failla
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| disagrees: the
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| Court is the center
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| of elven culture
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| and all elven
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| nations must
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| emulate her. Failla
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| will allow no
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| exception.
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| Failla declares Shosara "separated" from the elven Court, an act of such gravity it
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| threatens to fracture that nation. Messias adamantly opposes Failla and her Declaration of
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| Separation and is banished for his challenge. Queen Failla casts him from the Court for
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| one hundred years, and orders that he may return after that period only if he "has learned
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| the value of heritage and a quiet tongue." Messias never returns.
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| As part of his banishment, he is dispatched to a small monastery set in the foothills of
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| what are known today as the Delaris Mountains in southeastern Barsaive. There, along
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| with a cadre of scholars dedicated to Mynbruje, the Passion of Knowledge, Messias
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| works to recover, translate, and transcribe volumes of books and scrolls recently
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| recovered from a nearby mountain cavern. The scholars believe this cache of knowledge
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| to be thousands upon thousands of years old, dating from early in the time when the
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| magical aura of our world still lay dormant, before it rose to become the vibrant energy
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| of our own time. What little learned men had deciphered of the works prior to Messias'
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| arrival indicated that the documents spoke of an even older time, when the world's aura
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| was as strong as it is now.
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| Messias focuses on a group of six books barely kept intact by the magic and climate of
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| the cavern where they are stored. The six are a set, matched in size and style, even down
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| to the odd, blood-inscribed rune on each of their covers. Messias can tell just by looking
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| at them that they contain powerful, probably dangerous, information. He also believes
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| them to be a warning, though against what he does not know. He devotes his life to
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| untangling their secrets. In the end those secrets eagerly take the life he has offered.
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| Late one evening some years later, his fellows discover his body twisted and wracked
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| with his dying agonies. Messias has torn his eyes from his head and then thrust his
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| clenched fists and their bloody contents into the fire raging in the hearth of his quarters.
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| He has also left a brief note nearby. It says:
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| These are the Books of Harrow.
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| They are our doom and our salvation.
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| Learn from them, or we will all perish.
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| That night, something horrid stalks the corridors of the monastery and six of Messias'
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| brethren die terribly. The next morning, an elder elven scholar named Kearos Navarim
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| takes the six Books of Harrow, three of his fellow scholars, and ample provisions, and
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| sets out on a long journey to the land of his birth far to the south and west of Barsaive. In
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| that place, in the protection that he knows he can find there, he intends to continue
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| Messias' work and unlock the secrets of the Books of Harrow. He and the others settle on
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| an island in the midst of the great Selestrean Sea and found a place of learning called
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| Nehr'esham, or "center of the mind."
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| This place marks the beginning of Thera, the beginning of the learning that would reveal
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| the Horrors to us, and the beginning of the great war of the mind to save us all.
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| THE ETERNAL LIBRARY
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| Word of Nehr'esham and of its Great Project to translate the Books of Harrow spreads
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| quickly throughout the lands of the world. The island soon becomes a gathering point for
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| magicians, adepts, and scholars of all types and races. Nehr'esham grows rapidly from its
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| humble beginnings into a small city. Though Navarim nominally leads the burgeoning
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| city, he keeps around him a tight circle of scholarly and magical advisors who administer
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| the city's needs. Navarim himself concentrates on unlocking the secrets of the Books of
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| Harrow.
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| Realizing that more books like the Books of Harrow must have survived elsewhere,
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| Navarim sends scholars and adepts out from the island to find these books and bring
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| them back to Nehr'esham. To hold these tomes and scrolls the city's overseers arrange for
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| the construction of what will become known as the Eternal Library. Magically protected
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| and controlled, it will be a place where these and other ancient works can be kept and
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| studied in safety for both the works and the reader.
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| Ironically, as the first stones for the Eternal Library are laid, thousands of miles to the
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| northeast dwarven miners are taking up permanent residence in the giant mines and
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| caverns that will someday compose Thera's greatest rival: the dwarven kingdom of
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| Throal. The Throal Calendar, by which Barsaive will one day mark its time, counts
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| forward from that day.
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| THE FIRST HORRORS
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| As the Eternal Library nears completion, one hundred and fifty years after the founding
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| of Nehr'esham, the first signs of the Horrors begin to appear in the world. In the city of
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| Majallan, in the human-dominated lands of Landis, dark wraithlike spirits stalk the
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| streets, driving men to violence against each other. For a year in the city of Draoglin, in
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| the ancient dwarven kingdom of Scytha, every dwarven child shrivels and dies before
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| reaching its first month of life, its essence devoured by something unseen. And across the
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| entire land that will one day be Barsaive, hordes of twisted, insect-like creatures are
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| found nesting in isolated urban and rural areas. In southern Barsaive their infestation is
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| so great that sworn enemies find themselves working side by side to destroy the
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| creatures. This time, known as The Burning, is the closest Barsaive comes to unification
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| prior to the arrival of the Therans. Hopes of unity collapse, however, in the face of the
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| tragic famine that grips Barsaive in the following years.
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| To the aged Navarim and his followers, the dreadful tidings from Majallan, Scytha, and
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| the city-states of southern Barsaive portend the beginning of something terrible. What
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| these awful signs warn of becomes frighteningly clear shortly thereafter. Navarim's
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| brilliant student and assistant, the dwarf Jaron, breaks through to understanding and
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| completes the translation of the first of the six Books of Harrow. This book, named
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| simply The First Book of Harrow, speaks of terrible days ahead, of the coming of the
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| Horrors, their nearly unstoppable power, and the possible ruination of the world.
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| The Horrors, the book says, are terrible spirits dwelling in the darkest corners of the
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| netherworlds. When the magical aura of this world reaches a certain strength, the Horrors
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| will be able to build mystical bridges between this world and the twisted realm where
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| they dwell. And then the Horrors will come. Terrible and powerful, they are beyond
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| reason. They seek only to consume. Some desire anything physical:
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|
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| THERA IS BORN
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| Word of the First Book of Harrow spreads quickly. The city around Nehr’esham begins
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| to swell just as quickly until it covers the entire island. It is soon renamed Thera,
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| meaning "foundation." In time, the island becomes a center of trade and commerce as
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| well as the center of learning and thought in the eastern Selestrean Sea.
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| The growth of Thera does not come without its price, however. Unable to support the
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| enormous tasks of physical labor required to keep up with the swelling population and
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| commerce, the Therans must import workers from other lands. Theran slavery begins
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| with these laborers. The great Theran merchant houses that arrange for the transport of
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| the workers maintain "control" over the workers they import. Financial arrangements
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| must be made with the merchant house for the use of the workers. Soon, "control" of
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| workers becomes commonplace as the powerful and influential arrange to import
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| workers specifically as servants and minor laborers. Within seventy years from the
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| arrival of the first work-ship, "control" becomes ownership and true slavery is as
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| common on Thera as the ocean breeze.
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| Within a year of the translation of the First Book, Navarim dispatches copies to all the
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| leaders in all the lands he has ever heard of in an effort to warn them. Few listen.
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| Meanwhile, work on deciphering the other Books of Harrow continues in the hopes of
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| finding some way to stop or defend against the Horrors. Early on, Navarim establishes
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| the School of Shadows as the center for this effort and charges it to find ways of
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| defeating the Horrors. From that School groups of adepts and magicians travel across the
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| known world to confront the burgeoning Horrors and learn what they can from those
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| confrontations.
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| At the same time, Thera’s leading citizens create a more formal organization to govern
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| the island. Navarim, named the Elder of Thera, presides over a body of advisors and
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| administrators known as The Twelve. This body controls and manages the various areas
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| of Thera and her growing influence. In one of their first acts, The Twelve establish a
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| military force to defend Thera against increasing bandit and pirate raids.
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| The research conducted at the School of
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| Shadows proves to have more uses than at first
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| expected. Theran scholars and magicians
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| discover insights and understandings into the
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| ways and makings of magic that have farreaching
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| ancillary results. Their research opens
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| up to the Therans the ability to work the
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| powerful elemental magic contained in the True
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| Forms of air, earth, fire, water, and wood. Using
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| that knowledge, the Therans build their stunning
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| cities, none of which could exist without the aid
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| of magic. They also create their airships, vessels
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| of all kinds that fly through the air. Their
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| research also gives them knowledge of magical
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| warding and protection, illusion and healing, the
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| transformation and manipulation of physical
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| objects, and insight into the deepest reaches of
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| the netherworlds. Thera becomes an island, a
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| nation, and eventually an empire built on magic.
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| THE THERANS AND BARSAIVE
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| As Thera grows, the land that will someday become Barsaive exists in ignorance.
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| Unnamed, the area is home to independent tribes and isolated city-states. Little trade
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| exists between these powers, the only real contact coming through intermittent attacks on
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| rich Thera by the poorer city-states. Occasional efforts by the Elven Court at Wyrm
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| Wood to bring the area under their control fail. Though rulers of a great empire, the elves
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| of Wyrm Wood do not see enough worth conquering in Barsaive to exert the necessary
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| political and military pressure. Their failure ultimately leaves Barsaive vulnerable to
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| Theran domination.
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| In the Throal year 212 TH, the Therans finally arrive in Barsaive. They first make
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| contact with the humans of Landis near the city of Vivane and what will someday
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| become Sky Point. From there, Theran representatives and ambassadors travel across
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| Barsaive making contact and trade alliances with every group they can find. This land,
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| they discover, abounds with the natural and magical elements and materials the Therans
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| covet. The Theran envoys promise a glittering future through trade to Barsaive’s citystates
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| and tribes; dazzled by the prospect of Theran riches, the local leaders sign
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| agreements without reading between the lines.
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| The arrival of the first Theran trading fleet in 216 TH comes as a great surprise to
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| Barsaive’s local powers. They had signed treaties and agreements with the Theran
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| envoys, but without any real understanding of the implications. The sight of dozens of
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| Theran airships drifting slowly through the air over their palaces, castles, and tents is a
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| literal and symbolic blow to them. A new power has come to Barsaive now, and it is
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| second to none.
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| BIRTH OF AN EMPIRE
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| The Therans enjoy their growing power. The island itself, its central citadel, the Eternal
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| Library, and other great works of architecture and culture are renowned across the world.
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| Thera’s position in the heavily traveled Selestrean Sea makes her an ideal port of trade
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| and commerce. For mystical thought and pure magical power, There has no equal. The
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| potency of her magicians and the skill of her adepts are envied the world over. She needs
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| little else to seal her position in the world. Nevertheless, Fate gives it to her.
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| Nearly four hundred years after the founding of Nehr’esham, in the Throal year 341 TH,
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| Kearos Navarim dies of old age. His body is sealed in amber and placed in the great
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| plaza of the citadel at the heart of Thera, next to the cenotaph of his friend Elianar
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| Messias. Word spreads quickly that Navarim died while putting the finishing touches on
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| the culmination of the Great Project and the researches of the School of Shadows. The
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| rumors are correct.
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| Five years after Navarim’s death, his successor as Elder of Thera, the human Meach
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| Vara Lingam, announces to the world that though the scholars have found nothing
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| beyond a keen blade and an iron will to defeat the coming Horrors, they have discovered
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| something to protect against them. Lingam unveils to the world Kearos Navarim’s
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| crowning and final work, Rites of Protection and Passage.
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| RITES OF PROTECTION AND PASSAGE
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| Despite Lingam’s brave words, the Rites of Protection and Passage does not offer any
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| truly effective methods of protecting against the Horrors, but it does present the
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| theoretical means by which that protection can be discovered. In his four-volume work,
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| Navarim concluded that isolation from the Horrors is the only true means of protection
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| against them. Because of their individual power and sheer overwhelming numbers, direct
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| confrontation with the Horrors would ultimately prove suicidal.
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| To hide from the Horrors, Navarim proposed to construct great underground fortresses.
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| Dubbed kaers, these dwellings would protect their occupants against the Horrors on the
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| theory that strong enough walls will keep out even the most physically powerful Horror.
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| The natural, solid, earthen walls of the kaer would also provide protection against those
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| Horrors that travel through astral space or by means as yet unguessed. However,
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| Navarim warned an earthen barrier might not be enough to withstand every Horror.
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| Navarim’s book also offered other means of protection. Cities could be shielded under
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| domes woven of True Air. Kaers could be built beneath the sea and protected by True
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| Water, and so on. Navarim believed that the underground kaer would offer the strongest
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| defense, though even it might be breached.
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| To shore up the kaers’ defenses, Navarim offered additional protections to defend against
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| the Horrors on a primal level. Navarim believed that magicians could learn to create
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| wards and runes that would "call" to a Horror through magic. Once the Horror examined
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| the rune, its mind would become caught in the magical web and mathematical maze of
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| the rune’s construction. Because the Horror comes from a place deep in the mystical
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| netherworlds, a Horror must always devote some degree of its concentration to keeping
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| itself in this world. A rune entrapping its mind would break the Horror’s concentration
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| and force the thing either to retreat or lose its grasp in this world and be flung back to the
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| pit from whence it came.
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| Unfortunately for Thera and her sister lands, only the theory for these runes and wards
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| exists. Navarim believed they could be devised and had charged the School of Shadows
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| with their creation just prior to his death. In the meantime, he recommended that kaers be
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| built wherever possible in preparation for the day when the infestation of Horrors would
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| become so overpowering that they would render the surface of the world all but
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| uninhabitable. This would occur, Navarim believed, in just over eight hundred years.
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| The School of Shadows continues to work on mastery of the runes, intending to make
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| them available to all once their secrets are unlocked. And unlock them they do, but
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| instead of sharing them, Thera closely guards the secrets of the runes. Soon she will use
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| them as a bargaining tool to extend the Theran sphere of influence.
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| The immediate reaction to Navarim’s work is mixed. Many dismiss its conclusions
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| outright, while others look upon it with almost religious reverence. Most, though, cannot
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| take seriously a threat eight hundred years in the future. They read Navarim’s words and
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| vow to prepare, later.
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| ORICHALCUM WARS
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| Thera, however, does not wait. The mighty, magic-rich island needs significant and
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| perhaps extravagant protection against the Horrors. To this end its leaders begin to
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| collect vast quantities of the magical metal orichalcum. The Therans begin striking
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| favorable trade agreements in order to obtain large quantities of the rare material. No one
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| can guess what manner of protection the Therans wish to build that requires so much of
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| that metal, but as long as they pay well for it, no one much cares.
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| For those who do not know, orichalcum can only occur from the natural mixing of
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| certain other earthen materials that combine in the presence of True Earth. Though not a
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| part of orichalcum, True Earth is always found in the same area as that rare ore.
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| Orichalcum must usually be mined, but occasionally nodes of it are found close enough
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| to the surface of the land to be gathered by hand.
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| Orichalcum trade with Thera proves profitable for the rest of the world, despite the hue
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| and cry of some deprived local magicians. It is so profitable that shipments become the
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| target of bandits and raiders. Sixty years after Thera has begun its extensive importation
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| of orichalcum, the trolls of the Twilight Peaks, called the crystal raiders, lead their
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| ramshackle airships in a stunning long-distance raid against Shosaran orichalcum stores
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| being prepared for shipment overland to Thera. Other raids quickly follow suit as the
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| crystal raiders hone their skill of raiding by air.
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| Rather than band together for protection against the raiders, the lords and leaders of
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| various lands take the raid as a signal to start their own plundering. The provinces of
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| Ustrect and Cara Fahd simultaneously attack Landis; Throal is nearly overrun by
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| marauding bands of orks known as ork scorchers, the Elven Court in Wyrm Wood fights
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| Scythan dwarfs and their human allies in a series of terrible battles. The wars last more
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| than 40 years. Nations switch sides with a shift of the wind, migratory tribes become
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| little more than mercenaries, and nobility plot against and betray their own kin. Only in
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| Shosara and Throal are the rightful rulers not at least temporarily deposed. For the first
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| 30 years, orichalcum and elemental mining and gathering operations are declared offlimits
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| by unspoken agreement; each side needs the mines, and no one would profit from
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| their destruction.
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| The ork kingdom of Cara Fahd changes hands when Landis retakes the area around a
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| lava field ripe with True Fire. In retaliation, the retreating ork commander, Cathon
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| Grimeye, unleashes every bound or trapped fire elemental present in the field. No ork
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| survives, most of the vanguard of the Landis army is destroyed, and the mines are
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| severely damaged. This action sets the stage for the final, brutal years of the war.
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| THERAN NAVY AND EMPIRE
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| As long as the flow of orichalcum and other magical elements remains steady, the
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| Therans care little about the war. As the Orichalcum Wars rage on, more and more
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| Theran mining vessels sail over Barsaive. These barges rarely touch down, instead
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| mining and gathering True Air from the clouds around the highest mountain peaks.
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| Using new techniques known only to them, the Theran miners are very successful. That
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| success makes them targets.
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| The crystal raiders, having set off the Orichalcum Wars, sit back and watch them rage.
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| Because the furious fighting has halted nearly all mining in the area, they make only the
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| occasional supply raid. The Theran air barges, however, offer them a target they cannot
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| resist.
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| The raiders strike quickly and often, plundering
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| and looting the air barges. Thera warns that
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| they will not tolerate further interference with
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| the air mining operations. The Therans begin
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| protecting the air barges with warships, military
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| airships. At first these ships are vedettes, air
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| barges expanded and armored for war. The
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| raiders thumb their noses at the Theran war
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| vessels; they continue attacking the convoys,
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| using their faster, more maneuverable airships
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| to escape back to the Twilight Peaks with their
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| booty.
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| The Therans then begin protecting the mining
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| convoys with kilas, sleek, stone-hulled vessels
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| built specifically for war. Despite mounting losses, the raiders step up their attacks. The
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| final straw for the Therans comes after they lose a massive fleet of air barges, vedettes,
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| and kilas to the raiders. Sixty days later the Therans reveal their true power.
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| As morning comes, the clan-moots of the crystal raiders awaken to the sounds of alarm
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| across the Twilight Peaks. Drifting across the great plain to the southeast of the
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| mountains, not far from Vivane, is the largest airship anyone has ever conceived of, let
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| alone seen. Devoid of a true ship’s hull and sail, the vessel is a massive shard of rock
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| nearly a thousand feet long propelled by raw magic in defiance of the laws of nature. The
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| Therans call this terrible machine of war a behemoth.
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| The crystal raiders are astounded by the sight, but swarm to their airships and move to
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| attack. The Theran airship commander dispatches a messenger spirit to the raiders,
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| telling them to surrender or be obliterated. Proud and defiant, the raiders destroy the
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| spirit.
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| Moving to attack, the raiders encounter a thunderous rain of weapons fire from the
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| Theran ship. Siege engines, mounted onto the ship’s stone hull and guided by magic,
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| catapult giant arrows of metal and wood at the attackers. Bolts of mystic energy lash
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| from the airship as well, as Theran mages focus their powers against the raiders. The
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| raiders scatter under the onslaught, straight into the waiting guns of kilas hidden in the
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| clouds overhead.
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| The battle continues for hours until the Theran behemoth finally reaches the edge of the
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| Twilight Peaks. Then, it turns its terrible destructive power away from the remaining
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| raider airships and directs it against their homes. The siege engines pound the moothomes,
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| magics tear into the raider families who attempt to defend the surface buildings
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| and caverns, and elementals unleashed from the Theran ship ravage what little defense
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| remains.
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| Stunned at the massacre they are witnessing, the raiders surrender. They are taken
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| prisoner aboard the stone airship, to be brought back to Thera as slaves in chains. The
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| Theran forces burn their airships, though they do not bother to destroy the few remaining
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| survivors in the Twilight Peaks. With what will become known as the Battle of Sky
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| Point, the Therans prove they are a power to be reckoned with. No longer content to
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| simply conduct trade and commerce subject to the whims of local lords, the Therans use
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| Sky Point to show the world what awaits those foolish enough to interfere with Theran
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| desires and aims.
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| One hundred days later, in the nine hundredth and forty-third year of Throal, the thenhuman
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| Elder of Thera, Thom Edro, proclaims the Theran Empire. Thera declares the
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| lands of Barsaive a Theran province, promising all those who swear loyalty to her
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| protection from the ravages of the Orichalcum Wars, as well as first rights to new
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| enchantments to defend against the Horrors. To enforce their power, the new Empire
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| places a permanent Theran military presence at Sky Point and founds the provincial
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| capital of Parlainth in the northwest corner of the land. Dozens of smaller city-states and
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| kingdoms quickly submit to Thera. More powerful kingdoms submit more slowly, but
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| visits from the Theran Navy prove persuasive.
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| A leading citizen of Thera, the human Kern Fallo, is named the first Overlord of
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| Barsaive. Though Thera controls the province, Fallo sees the practical value of local
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| administration and calls upon the dwarfs of nearby Throal to assist him. Throal,
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| unwillingly allied to Thera out of need for the Theran enchantments against the Horrors,
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| agrees.
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| Through this administration, Throal mediates between the Therans and Barsaive. The
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| dwarfs provide a buffer between the governments of Barsaive and their Theran overlords,
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| defusing much of the tension between them. Also through this administration, Throal
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| spreads and promotes the dwarven tongue as the trading language of Barsaive. For the
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| first time in its history, citizens of various Barsaive regions can communicate with
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| relative ease.
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| JARON AND THE SPHINX
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| When Thom Edro establishes the Theran Empire, he installs himself as its First
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| Governor. Many know it is only a matter of time before Edro secures the backing to
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| proclaim himself Emperor.
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| Other grumblings surface as well, rumors that Edro is using unnatural magics to extend
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| his life and those of loyal human and ork followers. Of course dwarven adepts had long
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| ago developed life-extending magics for themselves. . .but this is different.
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| Magic had extended the life of the dwarven
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| scholar-magician Jaron as well, though it left
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| him less energetic than previously. He fears
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| that Edro s turning Thera into a mockery of
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| the teaching of Elianar Messias, called the
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| Martyr Scholar. Each time Jaron voices his
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| objections, another of his followers
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| vanishes. He realizes that despite his
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| deciphering of the First Book of Harrow, the
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| expanding Theran Empire no longer
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| considers him an asset.
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| The night after the disappearance of Jaron’s
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| closest apprentice, a great working begins in
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| the open park across the harbor from Thera’s
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| central citadel. Three Great Form earth
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| elementals tear rock, stone, and True Earth
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| up from the very foundations of the island
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| and begin to sculpt them under Jaron’s
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| watchful eye. Theran imperial guardsmen
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| and magicians rush to the area, but a
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| powerful shield surrounding the park holds
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| them back. They gape in wonder as a giant stone sphinx takes form. Its head is sculpted
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| turning downward and seemingly asleep. As the sphinx is completed just before
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| daybreak, Jaron turns to address the masses gathered in the park. He speaks to them of
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| the teachings of the Martyr Scholar and the dreams of Kearos Navarim. He also speaks
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| of the dangers of power and the dark path he fears Thera is beginning to walk. He has
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| constructed the sphinx, he tells them, to watch over Thera and her governors. It will
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| remain in the park as the guardian of the beliefs of the past and an eternal reminder to the
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| future. As Jaron falls silent, the shield protecting the park dissolves. The three earth
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| elementals gather Jaron within themselves and together the four merge with the sphinx.
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| The crowds rush forward, and the sphinx slowly opens its stone eyes, which blaze from
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| within with a blue-white light. The sphinx lifts its head to stare out across the main
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| harbor directly at the central citadel and the heart of Thera. From that moment on, it
| |
| remains in that position.
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| Theran magicians examine the sphinx’s construction, but its magical weavings baffle
| |
| them. None can penetrate it enough to even glimpse the sphinx’s True Pattern, much less
| |
| learn enough to gain power over it. Because they cannot predict what may happen, they
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| fear trying to manipulate or unmake it.
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| To this day, the great sphinx sits staring out over the harbor of Thera as a reminder to all
| |
| who come and to all who rule there. The leader of Thera remains the First Governor.
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| None has dared call himself Emperor.
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| THERA AND THE DRAGONS
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| Thera’s domination of the cultures of the Selestrean basin and neighboring areas is not
| |
| total. Kingdoms and peoples continue to search for their own solutions to the problem of
| |
| the Horrors because success means greater independence from Thera’s increasingly
| |
| oppressive rule. They sponsor eager scholars and brave adventurers to seek out dragons,
| |
| for the creatures are known to have survived the last Scourge (as the invasion of the
| |
| Horrors has come to be known) remarkably intact. However, many dragons have no
| |
| desire to share their secrets, greatly reducing the population of eager scholars. Some
| |
| dragons, through bribery or entreaty, share the method of creating the dragon lair, which
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| scholars believe protected them. A rare few actually contact kingdoms on their own,
| |
| offering to help for their own dragon reasons.
| |
| The leaders of Thera see the dragon actions as a challenge to their power and position.
| |
| Proposed responses spark fierce debate; Edro has no desire to antagonize the dragons at a
| |
| time when Thera should be using all its power to prepare for the coming Scourge. But the
| |
| factions that profit most from the trade in magical elements mount effective pressure.
| |
| The Theran Navy organizes strikes against three powerful and influential great dragons.
| |
| The first two succeed in killing the target dragons and destroying their lairs, though the
| |
| action costs the Therans one of their mighty stone behemoths for the first time. The third
| |
| strike, against the great dragon Icewing, fails. The Therans find only his lair, largely
| |
| empty of anything of value and power.
| |
| Theran ambassadors pass firmly worded communiqués through discreet channels; they
| |
| refuse to tolerate dragon interference in Theran domestic policy. The dragons appear to
| |
| retreat; Theran merchants and guild adepts do a booming business as new orders for
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| Theran protective enchantments flood in.
| |
| Then, one sunset, sailors and dock merchants spot a dragon atop the head of the sphinx.
| |
| As the Therans hesitate between staring and fleeing, the dragon flies off. The next
| |
| morning twelve citizens are found dead. Two are provisioners to the navy, one an earthelement
| |
| smith, one a clerk to the treasurer, two guild adepts, one a moneylender, and five
| |
| are principal contractors for protective enchantments. Each of the twelve had agitated for
| |
| or profited from, the action against the dragons. Over the next two weeks the dragons
| |
| strike twice more. Two dozen more leading Therans die. Theran diplomatic channels
| |
| convey a second message: Therans are to leave dragons strictly alone. No further Theran
| |
| raids will be planned or executed. The dragons apparently take the Therans’ message to
| |
| heart and cease to disclose what they know of the Horrors and the coming Scourge.
| |