The Founding of Chos

Before Great Ocem was formed, some ten thousands years ago, Chos, as it is known today, did not exist. Instead, a vast jungle stood in its place, a dense wilderness housing all manner of vegetation and wildlife. Of its creatures, the most deadly were the elementals, beings formed of Cyros’ very foundations, with a seeming hatred for all mortal men, attacking any that were unfortunate enough to cross their path.

Out of all the elementals that threatened the Chossians, none were as feared as the fire elementals. Made up of Sol Imperii’s grand flame, the very nature of these beings brought about ruin and destruction. Cruel and bloodthirsty, fire elementals lack the aspect Sol’s kindness, and in an act of malicious rebellion, created an inferno within the jungles of Chos. The wild flames raged for weeks before before subsiding, and where once stood a great jungle, now was only a scorched desert.

Few could survive Chos during the following centuries. The powerful kingdom seen today had not yet risen from the sands, and instead the desert was home to small nomadic tribes, who never settled in a singular place, for fear of being found and slain by the elementals.

These tribes hardly resembled the civilised Chossians of the modern age. Instead they lived as pagans, without the guidance of Sol, or any of his teachings. They would sacrifice animals, hoping to appease the terrible elementals, to bring fairer weather to their tribes, or to stay the hands of rival tribes. These tribes eked out a petty existence, small and insignificant, they were doomed to live as frightened savages, clinging to survival. This fate was staved off, however, with the emergence of Solmor, of Angel’s Blood.

Claiming to be a divine-made-mortal, an angel in the form of man, Solmor sought to guide the Chossian tribes and their people into the light of Sol Imperii, from whom he was descended. He rejected the pagan ways of his own tribe, and was shunned and exiled, sent into the desert to his end. Very few were capable enough to brave the punishing deserts by themselves. Even fewer were capable of doing so and surviving. Knowing this, Solmor fell to his knees, the scorching sands burning his skin, and pleaded with Sol to grant him aid.

It was then that the First Emperor granted him clarity and guidance. With newfound purpose and direction, Solmor travelled to the tallest hill in Chos and sat at its peak. He remained atop the hill, in the blistering heat of the day, and the freezing colds of the night, for twenty days and twenty nights. With no food, water or shelter, Solmor perservered, sustained only by his faith and determination to turn the tribes of Chos away from their pagan beliefs, and to bring them closer to the light of the Sun God.

At the dawn of the twenty-first day Solmor opened his eyes, to be met with a concerning sight. Before him stood three elementals; one of earth, one of air and one of water. It was a strange sight to see the three creatures not attack one another, and stranger still that they had not yet slain Solmor himself. He knew it was a sign that they had been sent there with a purpose. With a hand outstretched and his divine blood pumping, Solmor bound the elementals to his will.

Some among Chos’ spellcasters had attempted to control the elementals before, even attempting to create them, but none had ever found success. Each attempt led only to chaos and death. But being as blessed as he was, Solmor was able to do what none had done before. With the three elementals bound, Solmor returned to the tribe that had shunned him, eager to prove to them the power of Sun God, Sol.

His home, where he had grown up, where he had learned and played, where he had been shunned for being a child of the heavens, was gone. Nothing but ash remained in the wake of Solmor's tribe, for the fire elementals had burned the tribe whole, with not a single man left alive. Though he had lost a great deal, Solmor allow himself to succumb to despair. With a sense of retribution, Solmor beckoned to the elementals that were bound to him, and made way to exact revenge upon the fiery elementals who had destroyed his tribe.

After this victory, Solmor did not allow himself the luxury of rest. These rebellious sons of Sol's flame had to be extinguished, for their great misdeeds demanded great punishment. Travelling into the deserts once more, Solmor gathered what tribes he could muster, and uncovered his mastery over the elements at his command, these primordial beings who were the bane and terror of the Chossian tribes.

He spoke to them of his purpose, given to him by the Sun God, of the tribe that the had lost to the flames, and of his vengeance over them. From this display, Solmor had found the first of the faithful among the tribes. Though a great number of the tribes remained adamant in their old beliefs, Solmor began to gather disciples, followers to whom he taught the grace and splendour of Sol, as well as the new ways of Elementomancy, the art of creating and binding elementals.

It took much time for Solmor to teach his followers to master the elements as he could, but with great patience and determination, his followers soon too became adept at the arts of Elementomancy. With this, Solmor and his disciples set off to scatter the fire elementals from Chos. Despite their fiery power, the fire elementals found themselves outmatched by the combined might of their kin, and were felled. Great many were destroyed, and many more were exiled from the deserts they had created.

After this decisive victory, inarguable proof that he was descended from the angels, Solmor, of Angel's Blood, declared his intent to unite all of Chos' scattered tribes, and bring about peace and prosperity to all, in what would later become known as, the Golden Age. Shortly after, the Solmor Sultanate was formed, made to guide Chos and its people with Solmor at its head, and the chieftain's of Chos' greatest tribes as his trusted advisors.

During the Golden Age, Chos prospered under the guidance of the Sultanate, becoming one of the most influential powers in all of Cyros. With the use of elementomancy, the people of Chos erected grand cities and ports, where trade and commerce flourished. Arid land was turned fertile, allowing crops to grow. Tribal rivalries soon faded, and the scattered cultures became as one people. But most importantly of all, the elementals who had once terrorized Chossian tribes were now made to protect their settlements, guarding them from whatever threats came close.

Life was good for those who were faithful to Solmor, and even the Empire of Ocem benefitted from Chos' rise to power, finding itself a new country to trade and do commerce with, even if the Church of Sol Imperii disregarded the claims to Solmor's divinity. All was well within Chos as decades passed under the rule of the Sultanate. Until one day, with no warning at all, Solmor had disappeared.

The search was great and filled with panic. The streets were scoured, sewers delved into, and every home explored, yet none could find Solmor. He had simply vanished without a trace. All that was discovered was a final writing from him.

***"If one must have the object of their faith present to keep believing, then he is not truly faithful."***

The remaining members of the Sultanate took his final words to heart. They came to the decision to select one among them, and raise them up to take the place of Solmor, as the head of the Solmor Sultanate.

So life went on in Chos. The crisis had been averted and the faith remained stalwart. As the centuires passed, more insights were gained from Solmor's lessons, before his disappearances, such as the belief that the angels of Court of High Elysium were not just mere lieutenants to Sol, but his own children.

Another such prominent belief, is that elementals of all kinds were, in fact, divine beings. To this day they are believed to be synonymous with angels, within Chos, sent by Sol to Cyros to allow mortal men access to his divine power, so long as they've the faith to earn it.

Such teachings were deemed incorrect and heretical by the Church of Sol Imperii, not believed within the empire of Ocem. And though such disagreements usually did not strain the relations between the Ocemi Empire and the Solmor Sultanate, this changed after one of the most recent interpretations from the Sultanate came forth.

The Sultanate found its leaders, the nobles and esteemed entrepreneurs alike, supporting a new movement within the government, the Resurgens ad Divinitae. This belief re-interpreted some of Solmor's teachings, and claimed that they spoke of the ability for man to become closer to Sol, through divine blood, just as Solmor himself was.

And so the Solmor Sultanate declared that it was so, and in the span of a few years came forth the practice of Haemomancy, finding itself commonplace among the nobility of Chos, as well as the consumption of the blood of the Celestials. Upon learning of this new practice, the Church of Sol Imperii declared such acts unholy, a heretical sacrilege that greatly offended their "First Emperor", Sol Imperii.

It was then, that the war between the Solmor Sultanate and the Ocemi Empire broke out, spurred on by the Imperial church. Despite this conflict, many of the commonfolk of Chos do consider the act wicked as the Church of Sol Imperii claimed it to be, believing that Solmor would never approve of such an act, with only small sects partaking of the consumption of celestial blood.

As if the prospect of war was not terrible enough, a new plague had risen within the land of Chos; demonic cults. Though such sects proved difficult enough to stamp out in any land, within Chos, these cults have begun to grow, offering the peasants and the commoners a way to become closer to Solmor, and to Sol, providing them with the blood they so yearn for.

Yet often such honeyed promises come with eerie consequences and twists, for the blood that these cults offered the the commonfolk was not the blood of celestials, but that of devils. Through this trickery these sects have found themselves a vast source for sacrifice, as well as new recruits to their vile patrons.

The Solmor Sultanate has, of course, sought to stem the tide of cultists and errant sects, yet with war looming over their borders, their resources are spread too thin to tackle both threats to their lands. And so these vile cults run rampant, rotting away at the heart of the Solmor Sultanate, as well as the Chossian people.