Argos

## The Great Exodus

Before the city of Argos the people of Azgonath called another place home: Valaris. It was the grand capital of the empire beyond the border of known world, that is by now fallen into the ruin. Valaris was a massive sprawling city that had a massive wall, the size of mountains, holding back an ocean. It was riddled with bridges and roads connecting it to the other islands which formed the empire.

However, about 300 years ago a cataclysmic event happened, which shook the empire to its core and wiped its presence off the face of the map. A series of famines, which were followed by a mysterious disease that turned the population against each other, effectively turning everyone into cannibal. It was in these dark times that two sons of the king Faraeon the 2nd, VaIerion and Cytryn escaped the capital and sailed away to find a new home. Later they named the event The Great Exodus.

## The Journey

After losing their home, family and people to the devastation that was The Great Exodus, the two princes thought to themselves, where to go next. Cytryn, the elder of the two, suggested to use the ocean currents to guide us to the new home. And so they drifted for days, the situation began to look hopeless. The people of Azgonath had an unique feature, that other mammals don't have: they could drink the salty oceanic water, however it would make them more prone to hallucinations and exhaustion.

After 4 days they finally spotted a land mass, it infact was the Alokhradi desert. Both princes thought to themselves if it would be better to just go around the desert, because their kin wasn't built for scorching hot sand. They let the current move them around the peninsula and they finally reached an abandoned island.

## The Voice in the Deep

After settling VaIerion started to hear deep echoes coming from the shack. At first he thought that he must be hallucinating from drinking the salt water, however it kept on getting louder and darker. One night he went out to check out if he was going insane or if it was actually real. He opened the shacks door and now the place, where the ladder stood, was emitting a dim dark red light. VaIerion quickly ran back to the house and woke Cytryn up. Both of the brothers raced back to the shack. The voices kept saying the word "Arrodeth", which terrified the brothers. They went closer to the ladder, until they were able to peak their eyes into the hole and then, the curiosity got better of them.

Both of them slowly climbed down the ladder until the reached a large cavern, which emitted blood red colors. In the middle of the cavern there was a liquid red mass that looked like a star, but suddenly it took a form of a humanoid. It took the shape of a warrior and then it spoke the words: "Arrodeth, the Bringer of Order". The liquid underneath it suddenly started to storm towards the brothers and consumed them. Both VaIerion and Cytryn had their eyes begin to glow red, hair darken and voices deepen. Both of them then kneeled to the godlike being that stood in front of them. From that point on the brothers started to worship the God of War and Order, Arrodeth.

## Construction of Argos

After the encounter with their new overlord, the brothers started to work on the town. First the toppled the old, mossy and cracked walls that were in awful shape. Cytryn was more of a diplomat and gatherer, he usually went out to forage for food, mine resources for the fortress and conducted the diplomatic inquiries in the surrounding region. VaIerion on the other hand was the chief architect and builder of the fortress, he was responsible of bringing Argos on par to Valaris. In the process of building the brothers recruited some people, who came and sadly went inactive.

VaIerion built a massive statue infront of the main keep in honor of their protector, Arrodeth. It resembles him at that moment, when they were in the deep cavern and saw his warrioresque physique. Few weeks after that the Great Wall was also finished.

## Joining Aristios

One day VaIerion went out to gather more resources, since the island was quite scarce. On his way north he encountered many abandoned ruins. However, there stood a mighty city of Hatayashi and infront of it was its mayor MrOMurder, whose eyes wandered endlessely into the waters below. VaIerion approached the man and he snapped out of it and greeted him back. After some chatting, VaIerion wanted to show the progress of Argos to MrOMurder. Both of them sailed on a boat back to Argos.

Once they reached the town though, MrOMurder revealed that, he was the governor of the province of Yurki, which belonged to the greater empire of Aristios. Brothers assumed, that they too belonged under the rule of Aristios so they thought that it would be good idea to join the nation as well.

## War between Vereden-Aristios

After couple of years, the province of Yurki fell into a decline. It felt abandoned, lonely and cold. Argos itself was growing slowly and soon the main circular wall, which guards entirety of the town, was finished. However, the capital of the Yurki province, Hatayashi, fell into ruin and its gates were wide open for looters, robbers and vandals to pour in and steal anything and everything that was valuable. Seeing that the neighbouring nation of Vereden called upon its allies to take the islands, that had fallen into dispair, and fix them up under Vereden supervision. Thus a war was inevitable.

Only city that was in any way capable of defending from attacking forces was Argos, but it lacked troops. Emperor Otto pledged a force up to 27 to guard the walls. However, because of miscommunication, only 2 defenders actually arrived. VaIerion, who was now the mayor of the Argos, had a difficult task. In order to insure that Tortuga won interfere in the fighting, he had to gather 4 noble Aristios souls and 4 book signed by those same nobles. However, he brought 4 common folk souls, which didn't satisfy Pirate Lord, who called upon his forces to mobilize for war.

In a last ditch effort to stop the destruction of the city, he went to talk with Pirate Lore TheSexyCanadian personally, to join his nation. In doing this he hoped that he would spare Argos from annihilation. Vereden and their allied troops were hungry for blood though. The deal was struck though: Battle will happen, but city itself will remain intact, Argos shall join Tortuga and everyone, who wish not to fight, should not come anywhere close to Argos.

The battle itself was bloody and quick. Both of the defenders got easily overwhelmed and squashed down by the incoming army. Vereden won the war, for now.