The History of the Decline and Fall of Remuria

The History of the Decline and Fall of Remuria is a Book Collection found in Fontaine.
==Locations==
NPC Location Hubel.png|Hubel's location (Vol. 1 & 3)
NPC Location Hubel Context.png|Additional context
Point of Interest Palais Mermonia Map Location.png|Vol. 2's location
The History of the Decline and Fall of Remuria 1 Location Context.png|Additional context
==Vol. 1==
The ocean gave birth to all, yet also devoured everything.
Legend has it that in the first era, the earliest peoples were self-supporting in their virtue, needing no laws or authorities. The envoys of the heavenly city walked the earth, and with their guidance, the people enjoyed enduring peace, prosperity, and abundance from the ancient days.
This Heaven-blessed reign lasted countless generations until people grew tired of their inscrutable eternity. Their offspring ceased to listen to the oracles. Instead, they desired things never promised to them by the divine, trying to break free from their fate. Enraged by their behavior, Heaven sent gigantic waves to smash the settlers' cities. A hundred days of rain came afterward, and the roaring tides drowned all sin and arrogation, and thus were the early peoples brought to an end.
When the tide receded and the earth was revealed again, no cities nor civilizations now stood above the high waters. Survivors and the newborn alike lived amidst the forests and rivers, shorn of all knowledge and wisdom. Human lives were no different from those of wild animals on the earth or in the sea, driven on by the laws of nature — muddling through time with neither beginning nor end.
Untold years passed. The throne of Gurabad was established and overturned in the far south, and the noble kindred of the east once reached the rim of the high waters — all while our ancestors remained bound by ignorance and superstition.
Civilization and order were finally restored to the land named Fontaine the day the great king Remus descended upon Meropis in his golden Fortuna. He taught people how to farm and raise crops in the land, and built temples and cities with giant rocks to house the people. Most importantly, it was he who spread the beauty of music and art, which differentiated humans from other living things, causing them to see themselves as masters of all things.
With his immortal fleet, Remus conquered all the islands on the high waters. Even the great dragon beneath the abyssal depths submitted to his power. Those were the best days since the end of earliest peoples, and eternal prosperity seemed so near at hand.
The God King and his people indulged in the sweet dreams of carefree lives and fantasies of never-ending progress. However, the seers prophesied discord: "The greatest empire will face the most utter destruction, and this is Fortuna."
Thus did the God King derive the primordial plan from the seven-day rotation and the flowing winds of sea and land, and composed a harmonious symphony of prosperity. He believed that so long as all the cities echoed with this greatest of songs, they would escape the judgment of fate and at last reach the land of eternal bliss.
But thusly do the ancient writers concur — "Oceans will rise, empires will fall, and the only constant is change."
==Vol. 2==
Greatness and glory unto Remuria, and its immortal ruler, Remus, king of all under heaven and universal Harmost. Today, the glamor and luxury of the bygone Eternal City is beyond the imagination of even the most knowledgeable scholars.
As you sailed past the Ocean Pillars along the royal fairway to the giant port playing host to Fortuna the imperial ship, you would have first seen a lofty tower. The tower of Remuria was not built to receive heavenly oracles, but to guide ships traveling between islands in the high waters. It is said that the tower stood at the border of reality and dreams. Even if sailors were to be lured into slumber by sirens, they could follow the sound of the bell to break through the mist and find their way to Remuria.
Continuing along the royal fairway leading to Machimos, where the brave Remurian warriors lived. The grand temples and arenas were built with giant carved rocks to commemorate the city's glory and victory. The solid and towering walls are decorated with glaze and gold, bronze and marble statues arrayed the land, and gold, spices and specialties from the world over piled up in the markets.
Traveling through Machimos, you would arrive at Capitolium, the center of Remuria, overflowing with delightful aromas and beautiful melodies. It was a paradise for artists, where only the most outstanding intellectuals and musicians were allowed. Even among them, however, only a small fraction enjoyed the privilege of serving the God King. Here, all the theaters and palaces were established in shapes most harmonious, their beams and domes adorned with the most sumptuous and intricate carvings, and centered on a golden palace of towering copper pillars. The King, resting peacefully at the heart of the palace, listened closely to every melody and every note coming from every corner of the empire. Upon hearing any discord, the God King would correct it immediately with a pluck of his strings, bringing perfection to the symphony of his empire.
To keep all the people upon the high water from destroying the symphony of universal harmony, King Remus promoted four humans of great capability to high post. He shared his power and authority with them, making them his partners in governance, the Harmosts for all cities, to eliminate all discordant sounds.
To spread the harmonious symphony throughout the world, he built far-reaching fairways, which conveyed the melodies as never-ending ripples from Capitolium to every corner that sat above the high waters.
Yet fate's decree was not for even such as gods to defy, and to even attempt to escape destined judgment was a mortal sin. Amongst the God King's sins, the most terrible was the attempt to pass power that should have been reserved for the godly domain to humans. Thus, this power and status led to corruption and decadence, leading to violence and revolts.
Such is fate's cunning that it uses the very powers that rebel against it to its own ends. When the day of destiny arrived, Remuria, the grand immortal city, faced an inevitable end. Today, the God King's melody is played only in Capitolium, and his mighty reign has ended.
Thusly do the ancient writers concur — "Oceans will rise, empires will fall, and the only constant is change."
==Vol. 3==
Humans, in their naivete, once believed that the reign of the King Remus and his Eternal City would surpass time and fate to last thousands of years, just like the giant rocks comprising the ringed ritual sites.
Until that day, when the earth collapsed all at once, the tall tower was uprooted, and drowned in the titanic waves alongside the great hall of pillars. Until that day, when the royal fairways and temples were reduced to ruins, and the city, along with its residents, warriors, intellectuals, nobles, and even the golden palace, as glamorous as the shining sun, fell into a chasm of eternal darkness.
That was the moment when the absurdity of their "eternity" finally dawned on them.
Glory to our Noble Navigator, the Ruler of Rivers and Seas, and the Queen of All Waters. May she defend the law, and may her reign be long. Peace be upon all the realms of Fontaine, and all the people under the heavens. When the royal city collapsed, the great power shattered, and the people above the high water were perched on the precipice of barbarism and annihilation, it was our noble Queen who settled the conflicts between the tribes. Around the flowing springs we established cities new, and started a world guided by laws that has endured to this day.
The tragedy of Remuria occurred merely a century ago, but its history has already become concealed in legends and superstitions. This does partly come down to the fatal catastrophe that destroyed it — so ruthless and swift was the disaster that all the researchers and literature capable of passing down said knowledge now sleep beneath the waters with the Eternal City. Another key reason is the purposeful distortions created by the mysterious researchers who claimed to be descendants of Remuria. My job is to extract and reproduce the true, essential shape of this magnificent ancient civilization with the universal rationality of history.
In certain folklore that exists today, even the greatest of ancient scholars have been painted as soul-stealing magisters who entrapped mortal spirits within specially-made magical golems, binding them into service. To be sure, the Remurians did make such terrifying golems, which to this day may be found, ruined, out in the wild. But this may only be blamed upon the moral degeneration that came upon them in Remuria's latter days. Its people had forsaken their noble duties and embraced hedonism and debauchery, accepting the violence they inflicted on others — and thus were they also violently destroyed.
Just as the ancient writers concur — "Oceans will rise, empires will fall, and the only constant is change."
==Trivia==
* This name of this book collection is a reference to , a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon published from 1776 to 1789.
* The book's cover says FALL OF REMURIA in the Fontaine Script.
==Video Guides==
==Other Languages==
==Change History==
es:La caída de Remuria
fr:Le déclin de Remuria
id:Sejarah Jatuhnya Remuria
it:Remuria: Il declino e la rovina
ru:Закат и падение Ремурии
vi:Cuộc Suy Vong Của Remuria