The Saga Of The Monster Empire(1)
When the Shadowmoon fell, the Storm abated to catch it's breath,
The Empire crumbled upon itself until Nothing was left
and it was the Nothing that ruled.
Nothing had a name, and that name was Ragnaglar, the Evil One,
come forth from the Chaos Basin(2).Ragnaglar flew up on captured Vrimak(3) to the Moon,
and with the hordes of all Hell, savaged that peaceful land.
The Moon Palaces(4) were destroyed and razed,
the Moon Forest burnt, the elves killed, the plants sundered,
and the Fourth Chamber cursed.
Ragnaglar broke into Jakaleel's Red Lead Moon Palace
and from the depths brought forth the Black Moon(5).
Ragnaglar took Sedenya as His bride
and raped the fair Red Goddess before binding her to the Moon by chains of Tarnished Silver(6).
The Red Emperor, whose throne has since been ruled by Sheng Seleris,
was dead, and his Council was cast to the Void by Canis Chaos.
The New Council were
Thed New-Skin, who wore Gorgoma's Hide,
Malia the Second, who had once again turned from the Light to the Dark(7),
Rashoran, who came again from the tears of a dying world,
Ogre Father, the demon who ruled the Armies of the Lands,
Kajabor, who was a more effective weapon than Death,
Vivamort and his brother, Humakt, who is on every council of war.
Their Red Emperor was Ralzakark, the Black Emperor(8)
Their Council was the Council of Jotimam.
They were the Seven Mothers(9).
Their leaders was Ragnaglar first, then the Devil,
their toy was the Red Goddess,
Ragnaglar's child was Wakboth, who later slew him.
The Moon turned Black, and all the Fair Gods died(10).
They were the First.
In the Mortal Realm the shadow of Mahaquata fled across the Land,
the People of the Empire saw the Second Coming of Jokbazi
and had no Emperor to protect them when the Fifth Hell came.
But those who resisted were crushed by the Devil's Hand
whose Horned Servant flew on the Eyeless Bat(11).
Then the worlds of mortal and immortal clashed
as the Evil Gods walked the earth.
In the Northern reaches ruled Wowander
In the South ruled Krjalk
In the West ruled Undranda
In the East ruled the Beast of the Hills(12)
Twisting in the Sky was Tyram atop the Amethyst Dragon(13)
And from Below ruled the Spider Anathema, Krarsht.
For years no-one said a word
and Kazkurtum was the Emperor.
Then All changed when the Something knew the dangers of the Nothing,
Yelm summoned his Empire to his side
and Dara Happa rallied together as Shargash.
But just because it works once, doesn't mean it works twice,
as the Devil came on an Evil Wind,
and slew every last one that they themselves had not.
The Godless Ones(14) came, and summoned a great spell,
greater even than the one they had used to revive the Sun,
but the spell was Old, and the Devil was New,
and it was Change that blew Death back at the Godless Ones.
The High King's Lands(15) were destroyed,
and all were locked away in the Lands of the Dead.
It was then that Arkat returned to save us,
the Saviour,
the First Hero,
the Last Hero.
He rallied the Cosmos to His side,
for Arkat could Change faster than the Wind,
Arkat Chaosbane knew what to do.
The Battle that was fought was long and harsh,
and many mistakes were made
such as sending the Lightning Troop(16) to their doom,
and the Blue Llama to Oblivion.
But worst was the Seven Dragons which attacked the Black Moon
but the Moon was Nothing and was merely filled by the Dragon Bodies,
so now we cannot see it at all, and it hangs invisible in the Sky.
Eventually the Oldest ways, Older than All, were better than the New,
and the King re-enacted an Ancient Rite
that distinguished between Man and God.
The King had already gone to Hell,
and become His god so that the Shadowmoon could be brought back,
but now he would win by being Mortal rather than Immortal.
In the Dying Embers I Fought We Won
and in Hell the Net was thrown.
But Chaosbane knew that gods were the problem
and thusly, to ensure victory for all time, he slew them all,
They were the Second.
All had Changed, but the battle was won by Mortal Kin.
The Devil had devoured the Cosmos
and now waits in the Void,
for Mortal Men to bring the Final End(17).
1=This has an unknown origin, but was probabley penned in the early nineteenth century before the Illiteracy Era began. It is likely to have been written by someone possessed of both Dara Happan and Orlanthi histories, quite likely a citizen of Saird. It was found in a lead box with a sheath of other papers describing the Monster Empire in a ruin on the coast of Dragon Pass.
2= Dorastor
3=Vrimak was later strung up on the walls of the Moon Palace as a trophy.
4=There were supposed to be seven Moon Palaces, six for the Seven Mothers, except for She Who Waits as she had not yet come, and the last for the Red Goddess, her son and all her daughters.
5=Jakaleel's Moon Palace has a depthless basement formed from a Shadow and within was placed the Black Moon, which few could even stand to exist.
6=Other documents say it was Thanatar who held the Red Goddess in place in his grasp, stopping her from using her powers.
7=Malia was orignally a Healing Spirit in Godtime, before she turned to evil and chaos. The Red Goddess reinstated her previous position within the Lunar Empire, but again she turned to chaos.
8=In a single picture it is shown that Ralzakark led the Monster Empire as the Unicorn Emperor, known to be slain in 1629 ST.
9=In another text it is described that :
Jakaleel became Thed, and was locked in her basement,
Deezola became Disease, and was locked in contempt,
The Grey Sage slid away from the Cosmos like the Western Lord,
Yanafel was fought and defeated by a man who claimed to be his old mentor,
Danfire Xaron refused to change, and was killed,
Teelo Norri was slain out of hand,
She Who Waits has Come!
10=That is, the Lunar Pantheon.
11=It was said that the Crimson Bat became the Eyeless bat underneath the rule of the Monster Empire as the enlightenment it had gained when the Red Goddess found it, was lost and with it all the eyes the Goddess had given it, closed.
12=Possibly the Leader of the Tunnelled Hills?
13=A Beast from the East. It was reported to have flown across the sky, over the Wastelands, and to land in Glamour, devouring it in one bite of each of it's heads.
14=The Malkioni of Seshnela and Fronela (and possibly Brithos).
15=Dragon Pass, Saird and Holay according to our documents.
16=Most likely Garundyer's followers.
17=Scrawled hastily as margilina was a note reading "And so it shall" in thick, caked blood.
As transcribed by Calax Merngarvan of New Boldhome.
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