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Breaking of the Sultan In the far reaches of the West there was borne a race called the Sultan. Their society was strong in the ways of duty and honor, and was held in captive fascination with the Way. The Way held such fascination of the Sultan way of life that most of the nation remained completely oblivious to the passing of the Unholy Wars which ravaged the whole of the rest of the world.
The Way was a method of living a worthy life. To the Sultan, the Way was the only path to divinity. Only one of Sultan blood could understand the many laws and hidden nuances which had been built upon since the Age of Chaos. The Way was a path of ascension in society as well, its foremost rule being to respect the path of those higher in social station. To progress through society was achieved by earning Pa - a concept of honor, and by losing Tor - a concept of ignorance; both were unique to the Sultan. By gaining Pa and losing Tor, a Sultan aspired to become Sultan-Lan, which meant to rise above being Sultan and enter the elite leadership of the nation. These leaders were considered divine in power and it was their sage decisions which shaped the course of Sultan history. To be Sultan- Lan removed one from the caste society of the Sultan, severed ties to one's Wah, or familial unit, and changed the person through a series of magical tests into a member of the elite society whose power was such that the ground they trod was called blessed by their bare, divine feet.
Darkness was bestowed upon the Sultan of the Sultan-Lan when one by the name of Kirrinda Loche-dar ascended to the Pedestal of Divinity, the highest position possible by any mortal of the Sultan. A very powerful wizard was he, and vastly knowledgeable in the ways of mysticism. A great leader he was, but his power was beget by that of demons and its hunger required the blood of the living to provide for the wonders he achieved.
Of his great many triumphs, Loche-dar built the fortress and city of Bithralania which lay upon the edges of the Golden Desert where the Demons of the Sand dwelt and wrecked havoc. With the might of his dark and powerful magic, the Sultan-Lan of the Pedestal of Divinity raised the fortress of Bithralania from the sands and for the first time in the history of the Sultan-Lan, the Pedestal of Divinity was moved from the sacred heart of Unsultinlan to the magnificent height of the Stone of Bithralania. The Sultans were aghast at the revolution that Kirrinda brought with that momentous movement, but all dissent to his power was silenced. Deep in the Halls of Bithralania, Kirrinda made bloody sacrifice of the Sultan who broke the laws of the Way. With the power of blood, the voices of his opposition were brought under heel with the mighty imprisoning of the Sand Gorgons, those horrid demons which had plagued the Sultan for so many millennia and generations. With a mighty display of power he bound the destructive demons into a Whirlwind in the middle of the Golden Desert. Only by call of a demons name could it be freed from the Whirlwind and only for a matter of hours before it was forced back to the Whirlwind.
Kirrinda, having bound the Sand Gorgons to his will then proceeded to execute the villains of the Sultan by placing an enchantment upon their lips which would force them to speak the secret name of a Sand Gorgon, summoning it from the Whirlwind to the Walls of Bithralania. Then, the unfortunate thief would be lowered over the walls while uncontrollably wailing the name of the Sand Gorgon who would home upon the calling of its name and smear the blood of the criminal against the Walls of Bithralania. Kirrinda secretly stowed away the power of the blood which fell upon the walls of his great city and when the time was right he began to teach his acolytes of the Sultan-Lan the ways of extracting magic from the blood of life.
At the same time, Kirrinda begat a great charm of persuasion upon the people and tightened the laws of the Way to suit his purpose. Kirrinda's Sultan-Lan began to preach a new interpretation of the Way which turned many to the belief that Pa was truly a futile for any of the Sultan to aspire to, and a more fitting topic to be pursued by the elite Sultan-Lan. Tor, on the other hand was a matter of duty to be rid of oneself. Such duty, reasoned the Sultan-Lan, under the persuasion of Kirrinda, that if a Sultan was truly of pure heart and wished to be rid of Tor and still gain a small amount of Pa, would sacrifice themselves to the darkness of death and release their Tor to the winds and in their final breath release their Pa to the glory of the Sultan and to the glory of the Pedestal of Divinity.
The practice of Blood Magic amongst the Sultan-Lan grew insidiously more and more common.
As the Sacrifice of Blood grew in popularity, the dissent of a number of the Sultan began to grow as well, fearing the wrath of the Gods upon them.
The Gods, Elders to the Sultan, were believed to be the spirits of those who had ascended the Pedestal of Divinity. They were not worshiped, but their presence in Sultan society was carefully observed and many sacred areas where only the Sultan-Lan could travel existed, the bare feet of the Sultan considered unfit to trod the earth where the Elders, Gods, also kept spirit.
Kirrinda noticed the growing dissent and called the Sultan who opposed his interpretation of the Way Siloths, heretics, whose lives were unfit to carry the honor of the Way because they did not understand its meaning and thus disagreed with it, and thus disagreed with the Pedestal of Divinity, and thus opposed Kirrinda, making them traitors to the Way and all aspects of Sultan society. Those who supported Kirrinda gained great honor and standing over the Siloths. Kirrinda, enforcing his persecution of the Siloths, further separated them from honorable society by calling those who followed Kirrinda's interpretation of the Way the Haruchi, meaning, the honorable.
The Elders waited silently, watching the growing evil within the Homeland, waiting for those who opposed the dark ways of Blood Magic and Kirrinda to rise to his destruction.
The beguiling charm which Kirrinda prevailed over the people and the blood flowed freely over the walls of Bithralania, the power giving Kirrinda further mastery over all he beheld. The Sultan, called Siloth, flew to the reaches of the world away from the greedy and bloody grasp of Kirrinda, but since the world would not have them after their many years of exclusion, the Siloth, rather then rebel against Kirrinda, fled beneath the earth to avoid the retributive eyes of the Elders and the Blood Magic of Kirrinda. There in the earth, Ren, the Siloth began to delve into the magical mysteries lost to time in hopes that a purer magic could be beheld with which they could return to the Homeland and defeat Kirrinda.
Kirrinda, in a fit of rage at the cowardly fleeing of the Siloth-Sultan, cursed them in the name of the Blood and sowed mistrust amongst their side with a mighty casting powered by the blood of thousands of fallen already executed Siloth. Though they fled in unison, once beneath the earth, the Siloth gathered their new- found magics to themselves and selfishly conspired against each other. The creatures of the earth-beneath took advantage of the unorganized Siloth and began to prey upon them relentlessly, destroying a great many of those who fled to the earth. The Siloth grew bitter and hatred grew in their hearts for all races which shunned them from the surface.
Forever until now, the Sultan had enjoyed the obscurity of the gods, following their interpretation of the Way freely by many who had ascended the Pedestal of Divinity, but according to the Way, each silently beheld the Elders who had passed from the Pedestal of Divinity to be above all that was known. By blessing his curse in the power of Blood rather than that of the Elders, Kirrinda broke the only tenant of the Way which was undebated by all of the Sultan, to hold the Elders above all.
The Elders frowned deeply...
Then, in the Spring of the Homeland, the whole of the Sultan, Siloth and Haruchi, beheld the fruits of their evil and cowardice.
Upon the Sultan called Haruchi, the Elders forever banished the power of magic from their understanding, cursing their minds so that only a taste of magic remained unburned from their souls, leaving the Haruchi with the power of Illusion, but without hope of ever again beholding true magic. Kirrinda was stricken insane and while crying the names of the Demons of the Sand he leapt from the stone Wall of Bithralania and met his death at the claws of the Gorgons, his blood staining the Wall forever in a shadow of red.
The Siloth who had retreated cowardly into beneath the earth, Ren, were forever cursed to cower from the sun and remain beneath the ground, their skin melting when exposed to the light of the world above. The Elders took pity upon them however and removed the curse of blood and mistrust which Kirrinda had placed upon them, though having fought for so long, paranoia still insinuated itself preventing any firm alliances.. To prevent their slaughter, an ancient Elder by the name of Shistar took the Siloths beneath his protection and gave them the name Silothreni, meaning Lost to the Earth. Shistar, a powerful Elder in the ways of magic, gifted his people with wisdom and intelligence so they might puzzle the ways of the mystical world wisely, unlike their Haruchi counterparts.
And so it has been.
Despite the ages past since those wicked times, the Silothreni and Haruchi still harbor tremendous hate, each for the other. << BACK
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