Zakhema

Zakhema, Empire of the Stars, was the mighty dominion forged by the Azlan. With its capital at Navarao, Zakhema would eventually stretch across Altea, establishing colonies on other continents and even sending 'voidships' to explore the stars just as their Voru creators had done. Zakhema-of-the-Stars was first ruled by the immortal Yekkat, ancestor of all maedi, but he grew increasingly distant and his priests and sorcerer lords came to guide the empire in his stead. The greatest foe of the empire was the dwarven realm of Tir Urdun. But at the end of the Night Wars the Hundred Clans were exhausted and scattered and they were ultimately overcome in a sudden attack by the maedi. Chargiz, the general who seized the dwarven capital of Talamon was rewarded with noble titles by Yekkat. Chargiz founded the dominion of Adantu, and though it was but a province within Zakhema, it was also a semi-autonomous kingdom with its own ruling dynasty. The dynasts of Adantu would come to control much of the north, clashing with the exiles from Alba and forcing the dwarves into mountains and lonely places as the last of Tir Urdun disintegrated. All that were not maedi were considered lesser beings, fit only for slavery and service. The scattered tribes of man were put to work building grand temples and palaces, and when these slaves were no longer fit, they were culled and consumed in cruel, arcane experiments. 
Though Zakhema seemed poised to master the world its doom came from within, in the form of the slave revolt instigated by Irud. Within a few decades he brought Zakhema low, personally slaying Yekkat the Beautiful. The last of the Adantu dynasts, Akhei-Bel, worked with her court mage Yatavo Snakestaff to devise the ritual that would erase all humans from existence. The Tower Spell backfired, banishing the maedi to the Abyss and leaving Zakhema an empty husk that was quickly looted by the liberated humans and other former slaves. 
The Zakhemite heartland was in what is today the Tala Desert, in southern Altea. This was once a green and fertile land but the many experiments of the Navarao priest-lords wrought great devastation. The humans here descended from three tribes, the ancestors of the Khanites. Just as Irud freed northern humanity, the southern tribes were freed by a figure only remembered as Al-Khayeen, the Liar. 
Though Zakhema is long gone, its ruins litter the land, though the bulk of these edifices lie in Arapa, hidden behind the Dust Ramparts guarded by Basai dervishes. Some even claim Zakhema is not gone, rather it is only the Valan fragment that fell. But the star maedi established colonies on many worlds, and these far-flung dominions are the true Zakhema-of-the-Stars, enduring across the heavens. The truth of this is impossible to determine, as the wondrous voidships employed by the Azlan are no more, and their construction unknown. Perhaps some Azlan did escape the doom of Zakhema upon their astral vessels. Or perhaps this is simply the hopeful delusions of the present maedi, who still cling to the glories of their vanished imperium that once stretched over the stars.
Category:History
Category:Nations