Abassi

Abassi

The actual city of Abassi still stands relatively unchanged, a reminder of times gone by, It has many names but most use whatever words in their tongue hold the meaning 'first City' Another of its names is The Eye of Myr, for until attention shifted further and further west it truly was the center of the known world. Modern day children know Abassi for the ancient and wondrous desert oasis that it was not for the crumbling ruin it has become.

Widely thought of as the cradle of civilisation, agriculture and writing the Abassans started out like any other nation, as large groups of farmers with a small nobility.

They had already been ruling the surrounding area for thousands of years before they stumbled upon the practical applications of Nivium. Supposedly the ruling Pharaoh, rich in gold, Nivium  and every metal and jewel under the stars was still resigned to melancholy because the queen he so loved had committed suicide, jumping down into the Wyvern's tail (A canyon of depth and width of no equal in Myr) wanting to join her the Pharaoh (still dressed in gold and Nivium) had jumped where his wife had, half way through the fall he regretted his decision and begged the gods to forgive his folly.

A giant eagle, A male Horus with golden feathers swooped down for him to land on his back. But his weight in gold was too much and bird would not rise.

At that moment the Pharaoh's Nivium hummed and the Pharaoh knew that the wind would obey him, so he commanded the wind to let him rise. Up out of the canyon he flew on the Golden Horus, flying on its back became sweeter to him than any woman. Open were his eyes to the beauty of the world the gods had made, and looking down upon it all the Pharaoh became certain his destiny was to be the equal of them.

The more outspoken of storytellers would have you believe on that very first flight he visited every realm in Myr to tell them of the might of Abassi and the Stormriders he planned to send forth to collect from them their deserved tribute. How exactly he was able to communicate in the hundreds of languages the storytellers fail to elaborate.

The tale of the first Stormrider is as wondrous as the old Abassan empire was, a version of it has a Green Horus with a happy red dwarf that comes during the winter solstice every year to drop presents down the chimneys of well behaved children that say their soulvowell every morning.

Though the specifics of the tale can be doubted what cannot be doubted is that the Abassan empire was unlike any other and that they absolutely had some kind of great eagle mounts that they called Horus, their ‘giant golden and silver eagles’  there is no plural for the word in Abassan for their mounts for they saw each one to be a representation of the god Horus.

Estimates based on skeletal remains puts their wingspans at 12 to 15 metres. The species is not yet extinct, but sightings are rare, and the secret to taming and controlling the beasts seems to have been lost, even after all of the scientific advancements made by mankind over time.

The Abassan empire did not function like say the empire born out of Romatuos. Instead of great vast armies, conquered land and bitter subjects. The Abassans would simply send out envoys to assess the communities and areas all over Myr and decide what the most valuable possessions were and how much one of their eagles could carry. They would then make their demands and send out Stormriders to collect such payments. Should lord, elder, king, emperor or shaman refuse the Stormrider would lay waste to everything in sight of the place that had defied him.

A Stormrider did not even have to be close to a town/village to cause serious damage. Inescapable windstorms and currents of destructive force could be weaved from above while they circled the area on their eagles. Houses, trees children warriors alike would break and blow around in the wind like toys until every bone in their body was broken.

Villagers that sought refuge underground in great intricate tunnels would think themselves clever until the Stormrider worked the clouds and rivers for days to bring about rainstorms that would never end, drowning them in their crowded starving holes.

Stormriders did not even have to land to regain power or rest in worry that their power consume them as Fyremances do. Their Aeromancery required only that they have wind running through their Nivium inlaid armour to maintain their power over their element. Arguably the simplicity of this Mancery was its strength. Even without a mount an Aeromancer is a dangerous foe. Controlling the air around an arrow, bolt or knife allows them to never miss a target and their enhanced agility in combat even in full metal plate is something that has to be seen to be believed.

Being the birthplace of civilisation itself, so too was it the birthplace of religion, as seen by the Saivrose Soulvowell and its origin story involving Abassi. Originally there were only two deities you could swear your soul to, the Black one and his many angels or the White one and his many angels, not representing good and evil however they merely represented a balance in nature, one requiring the other to exist itself.

A people of ancient blood, Black of hair, Dark of skin and eye of amber.