Arc Prasata

Arc Prasata (Shevrandi for "Great Jade") was a giant empire which controlled most of the continent of Barram for centuries before it fell.

## The Valedwellers

It seems strange to some that it was only 900 years ago that the face of Barram was completely altered by the rise of her mightiest empire yet. It began as a league of independent, democratic city-states in the Vales region of southwestern Barram; it would grow into Arc Prasata, the Great Jade Empire. At its head was the apparently immortal Amaranthine Empress, who held the entire continent in her hands at one time. And when the Empire fell, it would tear itself apart in a devastating civil war.

The Vales were insular and ancient, an enclave of humans and their elven, half-elven and halfling allies. One of the oldest human settlements after the fall of Shevrandt, it was founded by wandering tribes slowly migrating south from the Valley of the Sun. Each of the twelve Vales (“mun appa,” or “little valley,” in the Shevrandi tongue) was home to a separate tribe. When their fellow slaves, the *Ysïa* (Ees-eeah) elven tribe, arrived, they were given territory in the Vales as well. The Ysïa were no longer considered “proper” elves by their own race, after long, long years of slavery. Their cultural identity was as much Shevrandi as elven, and they had been unable to settle with other elves. When they were joined by nomadic halflings, who had failed to secure their former homeland in the south thanks to the large numbers of gnolls who had occupied the region, the Vale's curious hybrid culture was firmly established. The local language was a mixture of *Alún* (the elven tongue), *Hin* (the halfling tongue) and *Shevrandi*, and eventually it would be known as “Common speech,” a trade language spoken across the width of Barram, carried there by Valedweller merchants. The Vale settlements became fantastically wealthy in a relatively short period, and though visitors to the region were generally unwelcome, masked and robed Valedweller merchants roamed the continent, trading with nearly all intelligent races. The Valedweller culture was intensely pragmatic and caste-driven; though one could change castes, doing so was extremely difficult. The merchant caste was divided into two classes: *huru* and *ahuru*, literally "those who remain home" and "those who wander." The *ahuru* merchants seen outside the Vales occupied a complex position in society; those who left the Vales and had contact with the outside were considered outcasts, yet the *ahuru* were not only wealthy themselves, but a source of great wealth for the coffers of their former home cities. A great many were half-elves, so many in fact that in the Prasatan Empire “ahuru” became a formal term for a half-elf.

The source of the Valedweller wealth was threefold: first, their forests were one of the only places that “living steel” could be harvested, and the pattern-welded living steel weapons and armor they crafted were in great demand; second, their elven allies brought with them the art of producing from certain plants native to the Vales a great many medicinal extracts and drugs which became incredibly popular, especially with the constant fighting amongst the various tribes, city-states and nations which had sprung up on Barram; and most of all, beneath the Vales, hidden in its cliffs and under the dense brown soil, was jade of an intensely green hue and unusual purity. The properties of this jade were such that magic could be easily be bound to it, it could be sculpted into intricate forms, and its rarity – found only in the Vales – made it as costly as diamonds. With the jade came plenty of enemies; from barbarian tribes to the mountain orcs, everyone wanted control of the lucrative mines. The outcome seemed inevitable, until an entire tribe of centaurs, the Banewood, wandered into the Vales without warning on a summer day.

An alliance was swiftly struck between the Banewood and the Valedwellers; the centaurs would serve as the powerful cavalry, some two thousand strong, and would train Valedwellers in their fast, harrying style of fighting. Meanwhile, those Valedwellers skilled in mystical arts were hard at work, creating a new weapon for their defense, one that would pave the way to the reclusive jade-miners becoming the greatest empire the continent had ever seen.

A strange tree native to the Vales was the basis for the weapon, but the method of its creation was a closely-guarded secret, known only to the elusive Sacred Root Cabal. The wyrwoods – named for the tree that they were made of – were intelligent, free-willed constructs. From the moment of their birth, they were engrained with loyalty to the twelve *Tharavads* (the landed, noble joint families who ruled each Vale) and extensively instructed in lethal combat skills. Armed with wyroot weapons and encased in living steel armor, the deceptively-small wyrwoods bounded into battle, incapable of fear (but given a coldly rational mind capable of self-preservation) and trained in a blending of martial and arcane disciplines. The enemies of the Vale soon learned to respect the Valedwellers' brutal, lightning-fast cavalry charges, backed by heavily-armed infantry fighting for their homes, and spearheaded by the wyrwoods who disappeared and reappeared seemingly at will.

But it wasn't until the birth of a singular half-elf woman in the Hazmata Tharavad that the story of the Vales - and in time, that of all of Barram - was truly, and irrevocably, altered.

## Ystera Ilhazmata n'Hazmata, the Dragon of the Vales

Legend holds that Ystera Ilhazmata was born on the night an eldritch green comet streaked through the sky, and that she did not cry as normal children did, but was born with her strange amber eyes open and a serene expression. She grew quickly; by her ninth year she was taller than all her brothers, and her lithe strength was sufficient to bend her father's longbow by her twelfth. In many ways, Ystera was uncanny, with a ferocious appetite for learning and a distinctly competitive personality. She studied magic with elves and battle-tactics with her mother's wyrwood honor-guard; Ystera learned the way of the blade and the bow from her father, counted first amongst the mightiest warriors of the Vales, and she was schooled in alchemy by her mother, one of the most formidable members of the Sacred Root. Her powers grew until her seventeenth birthday, when she simply ceased to age. It was quickly discovered that she recovered in mere moments from any injury, and sickness and poison made absolutely no impression upon her iron vitality. Assassination and kidnapping attempts (considered natural hazards for the children of a powerful Tharavad) proved fruitless. She was spoken of in whispers, speculated to be an avatar or a demon; but her magnetic dynamism, apparent invulnerability and fae beauty won her as many supporters as enemies.

It is said that when she was only six, she stood on a huge map of the continent that decorated the floor of her tutor's study, and spread her arms out so that her shadow fell across Barram. She would always claim that this was the moment that she realized she would one day hold all of Barram in her hand. And she would one day set out to do just that.

As was the tradition for nobility in the Vales, she took several spouses from other Tharavads, courting and winning each in a manner tailored to the individual with eerie precision. Little by little, she began to unite the city-states of the Vales, her influence spreading with each husband or wife she took. Her wealth allowed her to be generous with the common people; her prowess won her admirers amongst the all-important military caste; her political savvy won her followers amongst the merchants and manipulators in the Vales' complicated society. When she was only thirty, she began her campaign of conquest. She gained the service of nine heroes, the *Brahdma* (a Shevrandi word meaning, roughly, “war-counselor” or “retainer.”) who served equally as her advisers, generals and personal honor-guard. The descendants of those *Brahdma* who were not as long-lived as an elf or Ystera would, in time, become the Blade-sworn, the elite personal guards of the Empress.

## Birth of an Empire

Where she could, she won other rulers over with wealth and assistance against their enemies; where she must, she combined a flair for treachery and theatrics with military cunning to crush nations long thought impervious to assault. Those sovereigns who agreed to swear fealty to Ystera were favored with positions of power in her burgeoning empire. Those who resisted were destroyed with lethal efficiency. A recalcitrant prince would fall from his own battlements in the dark of night; a swaggering barbarian warlord might be trampled by her favorite mount; even when she carried it out herself she made sure to make a show of it. When the dwarven jeddak Kazrym Redaxe openly defied her from the wall-top of his iron citadel, she smiled sweetly at him from below... and fired a single black arrow through the eye-slit of his great helm from 12 double-paces away, slaying him instantly. A moment later, she fired twice more, killing both of his heirs as well. The war-council immediately surrendered the city to the Valedweller army. This came to be known as the *Battle of Three Arrows*, and became part of the legend surrounding Ystera Ilhazmata.

It took but fifteen years for Ystera to complete her ambition. All of Barram bowed before her, the Amaranthine Empress, and her empire, Arc Prasata. Those most loyal to her were made *zamindars*, powerful landowning aristocrats, and given control of noble clans, also called Tharavads in the Valedweller tradition. Eventually, the four greatest Tharavads contributed the husbands who would father four of her heirs. Though she waited more than 800 years to do so, there had never seemed to be much urgency. After all, the Empress was indestructible.

## Children of the Dragon

In time, the leadership of the Ren, Agu, Zet, and Rau clans would be usurped by the Heirs, who won high honors and ranks through military service as was the norm in the Prasatan Empire. They climbed from *paravan*, a commander of a single *vyuha* (a basic military formation consisting of ten soldiers) to *reidh* (a knightly position given to high-ranking field officers) to *naidu* (military leaders given control of large estates; many clans subordinate to the largest clans were headed by *naidu*) to finally become *zamindars* after challenging and defeating the Consorts themselves. Once they had climbed the social ladders, their identities as Imperial Heirs were finally revealed (it had been kept secret to protect them during their struggle to power) and they became deeply embroiled in court politics. The entire Empire was kept as taut as the strings of a harp, and played with dexterous skill by the Empress, offsetting each faction and race, balancing power and privilege so that none could overcome any other, and none posed a serious threat to her throne or the stability of the empire. Veritable armies of retainers were held by the most powerful clans, including those of the Heirs, but none could move without risking the wrath of the Imperial Army.

The Empress did not name any of her Heirs publicly as first to the throne in the unlikely event of her death; instead she simply surrounded each heir with a skein of spies and assassins. Since they knew not which of even their closest followers truly served the Empress, they dared not move against one another.

There was also the matter of the Fifth Heir, Phraena, whose father was unknown. Phraena had left the imperial capital of Angkor Arjet shortly after her fourteenth birthday to pursue a solitary lifestyle of contemplation and study in the distant and strange Suspended Isles, and had never involved herself in imperial politics. She came to be known as “the Hermit Queen,” for the Suspended Isles were unquestionably under her control, yet she dwelt alone, issuing her few commands through dream spells. She was out of the reach of her siblings, and had shown a marked disinterest in politics, but fighting a civil war to dethrone the Empress would have been a wasted effort if the victorious Heir could not account for the loyalties of the Hermit Queen. (This was to become a decisive factor later.)

The Heirs do not appear to have inherited the full invulnerability and longevity of their mother, but did age slowly and are each in their own right vastly more capable than most ordinary mortals. They all also seem to have the Amaranthine Empress' intellect and natural talent for leadership.

The eldest daughter of the Empress is Dashka Agu n’Agu. Dashka is as fierce and intractable as the Yellow Bear that symbolizes her; while slow to anger, she is even slower to forgive. Though the eldest sister was always thought of as a simple brute by her siblings, but they learned otherwise to their cost  later. She may prefer things to be kept simple, but she does not lack for deep cunning. An avid hunter and athlete, she is known to be generous to those loyal to her.

Mitru Ran n’Ran heads the family and clan called Ran, and his home has always been in the misty forests of the Brightcloud Mountains. Mitru has always been considered an eccentric by noble standards; he is the only one of the Empress' children likely to be found at physical labor, as he cultivates his own strains of orchids, working to improve their yield and durability, as a sort of hobby. His Gray Falcon banner reminds those who see it of his surprising insight and deliberate detachment from events below the mountain-tops. Mitru is famed for his stature and physical strength; he is the only Heir to ever best Dashka in a physical contest, and in his heart burns a ferocious anger that makes him quite unlike his siblings. Like his half-sister Phraena, he considers the welfare of the people who follow him to be his foremost priority.

Loa Zet n’Zet is the second-youngest of the Heirs, and was the first Heir to take control of her family and clan, the Zet. She was born and raised amongst the nomadic peoples of the Sea of Grass. Here the finest landships and the most skilled windrunners are found, and she spent her formative days traveling between the numerous caravanserai of her unfettered country. Loa herself is strange and removed, her cold and calculating nature making her hard to know and harder to trust. It is said of Loa that she spends more time in the saddle or aboard a landship than she does anywhere else, and it is easy to believe it. Naturally she took for her banner the noble White Horse, symbolizing her dreams of living unfettered on the Sea of Grass.

Jerris Rau n’Rau is the youngest Heir, and was the last to lead a family and clan, the Rau. His father willingly gave over the Rau leadership to him, a point his siblings sometimes tease him about. Jerris is courageous, like his emblem the Red Lion, and often to the point of recklessness. He is constantly curious and intimidatingly well-read. He is fascinated by clockwork and commerce; he loves inventions and innovation. Jerris ruthlessly punishes failure and rewards competence without comment (he famously gave his own sword to Reidh Larric Ashur n'Rau for his work in improving Swordcleft, without saying a word).

Of the Heirs, however, the one least-understood is Phraena Ironhair, also called "the Hermit Queen." She was born between Mitru and Loa, and departed the Palace of the Dragon when she was only twelve years old. She is often said to be very like her mother: tall, slender and deceptively strong, though she is also held to be gentler than the Amaranthine Empress. She lives the isolated life of an ascetic, seemingly having no interest in leading a Tharavad or in being Empress, concerning herself little with the region she governed on the part of the Empire, the Suspended Isles.

## The End of a Golden Age

The Prasatan Empire was a bright spot in the long and blood-soaked history of Barram. Despite frequent skirmishes with barbarians and an occasional abortive invasion attempt from the distant continent of Hykklos, the dominance of Arc Prasata was an era of relative peace and stability. The Empress guided the empire with a fair, if occasionally ruthless hand, assisted by her advisers and the governance of the Heirs over various districts. A strict legal code prohibiting a large number of offenses against the common folk of the Empire was enforced by the Imperial Army, and outside of paying their yearly taxes, most citizens of the Empire were largely left alone.

Since a place in the noble caste was dependent on military service, even the humblest farmer had, at least in theory, a chance to ascend to wealth and greatness. More than one *reidh* earned his or her spurs by patiently climbing the ranks from lowly foot soldier to mounted knight with a manse and lands of their own.

Sadly, this period was not to last forever. In the midst of a speech from the balcony of her palace before thousands of imperial citizens gathered for the occasion of her 945th birthday, the Amaranthine Empress suddenly collapsed. She had fallen into a profound slumber, and all attempts to rouse her proved fruitless. (It is said her person was no less impervious in this state; attempts to use injectors of the latest design to introduce medicine directly into her blood failed, as the needle-tips simply bent on her skin.) Medicine and magic alike failed to awaken the sleeping sovereign, and after seven months in this state, she died in the midst of an immense thunderstorm that damaged numerous buildings in the capital.

The death of the Amaranthine Empress did more than rob an empire of its beloved (and sometimes feared) ruler; she had never named a successor from her five Heirs. The four who dwelt within the Empire  refused to yield the throne to one another. Each was backed by a military faction woven out of the close, stabilizing clan bonds that had once kept the Empire together along with mercenaries and even common citizens who saw the Heir who governed their particular providence as the rightful new ruler. The bloody civil war that followed would last for a full decade, the fighting growing and ebbing like a relentless tide. Two entire clans were wiped out in the Succession War, and with the siblings fighting amongst themselves, barbarians made regular and violent inroads upon any isolated city or village that could not raise sufficient militia for its defense. The war would cease only with the sudden entrance of Phaedra Ironhair, the Hermit Queen, and her Vas’Rati’Den ('Black Wolf Faction') and an unexpected alliance between the Fifth Heir and her brother Prince Mitru.

Though she had lived the quiet, lonely life of an ascetic and was more interested in contemplation and mysticism than warfare, there were uncanny echoes of her fierce mother in the Hermit Queen. With unorthodox but effective tactics, a deft hand at diplomacy, and more than a few razor's-edge risks, she eventually quelled the fighting long enough to bring her siblings to the peace-table. When that grueling meeting had ended, the Empire which had dissolved in the flames of war reemerged as the Five Nations, each ruled by one of the Raol (a Shevrandi word meaning “ruler,” roughly analogous to a prince) kept from each others' throats by the Hermit Queen. Each nation would be controlled by, and named for, one of the Heirs' tharavads.