Bals Obentia

Bals Obentia was an Archon of Paramacca and the instigator of the Northern War, which lead to the destruction of several major settlements in the northern Centrelands. He was a Polman native whose family had an Argaivan ethnic background, tracing their ancestry back to the Archons of Ak-Polona and Ruby City in the era of the Argaivan Empire.

Originally a captain in the Polman military, Bals staged a military coup and became the penultimate Archon of Paramacca. He was an Argaivan nationalist and ethnic supremacist, whose stated aim was to re-unite the Argaivan Orient and form a new Argaivan empire.

Historians have typically framed Bals as an unhinged megalomaniac, in particular citing his outright destruction of Ruby as evidence that he had no boundaries when seeking political dominance over the Orient and beyond. However, following the discovery of the Balsian Journals, which revealed the destruction of Ruby City may have been an accident, modern historians have reconsidered him in a more nuanced light.

His son, Bals Gricos, was the final archon of Paramacca and was responsible for the destruction of Alasorra.

## Rise to Power

Bals happened upon the Eye of Paramac when raiding a bandit camp near Polma. He staged a coup and took over as Archon of Polma. He renamed the city Paramacca, in worship of the god Paramac (the predominant deity in the region at the time). He espoused Argaivan nationalism, culture and ethnic supremacy. He also outwardly stated that he would re-unite the former Oriental colonies such as Ruby and Alasorra.

## The Northern War

Following the rebuttal of Bals' demands for Ruby to join the Oriental Empire of Paramacca, Bals took the Eye of Paramac and a contingent of his close retainers to the outskirts of Ruby City. Bals used the power of the Eye to almost entirely destroyed Ruby City, as a demonstration of the Eye's power and as a warning to other city states not to refuse Paramacca's demands.

*Twas a warm eve when I sat out on the prow, for I could not sleep that night. But a few hours until we reached the Sapphire coast, suddenly the sky lit up in a dazzling flash, as if the heavens themselves had been lit afflame. As the dazling rays subsided, they were replaced by dancing flames, reflected off newly formed clouds of pitch. By the time we reached what was once the harbour, the city was naught but ash and smoldering ruin.*

Following the destruction of Ruby City, an ultimatum was issued to the other settlements of the Argaivan Orient ordering their capitulation. He also issued an ultimatum to the Lesser Kingdom of Pem, demanding that he be elected as High King.

The ultimatums stated that Ruby's destruction as a result of its defiance and highlighted that Paramacca possessed unparalleled power. However, the Balsian Journals (Bals' own private record of his time as Archon) were partially recovered from the ruins of Paramacca at the end of the Innovation Era. The journals paint a different picture from the official line, indicating that Bals intended only to demonstrate the eye's power by destroying the Ruby City's fort. Bals' journal stated that he considered Ruby to be 'the greatest surviving Argaivan city' and that he was deeply distraught at its accidental destruction. This is particularly due the fact that he had killed a great many people of Argaivan descent (whom he espoused as ethnically superior) and had destroyed many of the remaining architectural, academic and historical records of Argaiv that had escaped the Catastrophe.

1. ↑ **Bals Obentia, the Unhinged Megalomaniac of Paramacca.** Robert Vindictive. 239BGE.
2. ↑ Gwynelin of Smeagol's recounting of the destruction of Ruba City. ***End of the Sapphire Sea**.* Boreas Apios. circa 700BGE.

As later recounted in ***Ruby City, the final days.*** Dr Henry "Rubellium" Jones Jr. Sr. 7GE.