Imaskar

The Old Kingdom

:-8000 DR to -6400 DR (approximately)

First arising in the 9th century before Dalereckoning, Imaskar was for the first several centuries a loose collection of city-states, each ruled by a philosopher-king of sorts, whose primary purpose was an anachronistic quest to achieve scientific and rational utopia. These city-states soon fell into conflict with one another, and after centuries of fighting, one emerges as the first God-Emperor of Imaskar: Imask, for whom the realm was named.

According to legend, Imask ruled for over a thousand years, an immortal being who transcended death by constantly renewing his spirit into young, new bodies. Along with a relatively small legion of honor guards and trusted priests (of Himself), He ruled over an Empire that would surpass 1,000,000 souls, most of whom toiled in slave labor building ever-greater monuments to His magnificence, some of which survive today as mighty pyramidal temples dwarfing any found in Mulhorand.

Per the same legend, Imask-Ra, as he was known (the -Ra suffix indicates divinity), ultimately perished due to a conflict over who would succeed Him. His favored new host, Zanz, a young man born into what constituted the "royal family" specifically for the purpose, was weak and dim-witted, in the eyes of his sister Kemet, whose purpose was merely to be one of the boy's many wives when he became Imask-Ra. She executed a coup, with the help of some of Imask's priests, and received the spirit of Imask instead of the boy, who was exiled. Though the line of spiritual succession remained unbroken, Kemet-Ra's personality as Empress was markedly different than her forebears, and most agreed she was effectively a new being, the first God-Empress.

In the 5th century before DR, the lands of Imaskar began to fade; plague and famine devastated the land, and, inevitably, war. Kemet-Ra had died without issue, and a distant cousin, descendant of Imask, succeeded her. His dynasty oversaw the gradual descent of the once-mighty Empire into ruin and decay. Ultimately, Sethek-Ra, last God-Emperor of the Old Kingdom, would be betrayed and murdered by his own priests, who would usher in a long interregnum, the so-called Middle Kingdoms period.

The Middle Kingdoms

:-6400 DR to -4200 DR (approximately)

Following the Shartra ("the darkness" or "the suffering" in ancient Roushoum), as the time of plagues, war, and famine was known, the realm of Imaskar stabilized as two successor kingdoms, known only to modern historians as Upper and Lower Imaskar. Solon served as the capital of the latter; of the former, Thakos (present-day Saikhoi). Both kingdoms are quite far removed, to the east and north, of what was once the heart of the empire, The Raurin Vale, now far less prosperous a land.

Some historians surmise that the original empire survived during this period, had its own roll of emperors, and even produced magnificent artifacts and wonders of architecture that would ultimately be destroyed and supplanted by future conquerors. Little evidence exists to corroborate this claim, as Inupras and all other surviving ruins consist entirely of structures known to have been built in the Late Kingdom period (see below), masking any influence of prior periods of history.

Despite the eastward shift, Lower Imaskar was not immune to the ravages of the Shartra, and did not enjoy the prosperity of Upper Imaskar, nestled safely in the Katakoro Mountains. Upper Imaskar diverged significantly from the cultural norms once known in the unified empire, and, as the Mulhorandi priests put it, were corrupted by their limitless, unearned plenty, to become petty warlords and tyrants, while the more virtuous Lower Imaskari people toiled honestly and humbly, ever praying for forgiveness from the gods. It was from this folk, forged in the Desert of Desolation, that it is said the Mulhorandi race arose, while the folk of Upper Imaskar would become the godless, magocratic lords who would oppress them in coming millennia.

Historians agree that the birth of Lord Artificer Omanond, first of the Oman dynasty, signalled the beginning of a new age of Imaskar.

The Late Kingdom

:-3920 to -2488 DR

The culture of Upper Imaskar had diverged much from that of the Old Kingdom. Gone was the single-minded focus on religion--casting the monarch as a god--and with it was gone the strong priesthood. Instead, their society was ruled by Artificers, those who grasped, as they put it, the fundamental laws of nature which govern all things, allowing them to work their will upon the world, in a manner understood today as magic, but thought of in their day as a science, rather than an Art.

Lord Artificer Omanond proved himself through his works, as was the way of the Upper Kingdom, but soon would prove himself as a conqueror. From an early age, he dreamed of recreating the glory of Old Imaskar, reuniting the estranged halves of the realm and reclaiming its ancient home of The Raurin Value. In his adulthood, he put his plans into action, raising a mighty army, replete with magical augmentations and a plethora of golems and constructs unimaginable by today's standards, and soon set to the conquering of Lower Imaskar.

To this end, he recruiting such illustrious artificers as Madryoch and Hilather, who would assist in the creation of the legendary Imaskarcana, seven great artifacts meant to hold and epitomize the pinnacle of the Imaskari craft: Artifice. These artifacts would become the most enduring legacy of the realm, and are sought after to this day.

Lower Imaskar, while lacking the magical might of its sister realm, fought with zeal and no small skill, unwilling to be conquered by the "godless heathens" of the north. To them, religion was paramount; they lived simple and humble lives, guided by priests, through whose guidance was their only salvation from the desolate conditions of their homeland. The northerners, to their perception, were graced with undue blessings from the very gods they refused to worship or even acknowledge. Despite this powerful conviction, they were ultimately overcome by the sheer technological advantage of the Upper Kingdom.

With the two halves of Imaskar reunified, Omanond continued with his goal, reclaiming the Raurin Vale, and most importantly Inupras. As Mulhorandi priests record, the Emperor (as they refer to him) drove them as slaves, bidding them to carry the rich stone of their own homeland over a thousand miles to Inupras, where they would toil for centuries to build for the Emperor his mighty palaces and blasphemous temples to Artifice.

Throughout the Late Kingdom period, a series of Lord Artificers ruled, in three dynasties: Oman (-3920 to -3680), Metos (-3680 to -3258), and Araj (-3258 to -2488). By the time of the last of the Oman monarchs, Azoros, Imaskar had reclaimed the Raurin Vale (what little land remained of any use) and had conquered the modern lands of Semphar, Murghom, Durpar, parts of northern Zakhara, and much of the Endless Wastes. At the height of the empire, during the early Araj dynasty, the realm would include modern Mulhorand, Unther, Thay, Chessenta, the eastern eaves of Chondath, much of the Shaar, and parts of western Kara-Tur.

The empire of Imaskar truly blossomed in the Late Kingdom period. Virtually all artifacts and magicks of the realm, known and surmised, arose during this period. It is said that their cities were as jewels in the sand, ever-watered in defiance of the parched land, with magnificent palaces literally soaring through the air, above the unexalted ground, all clustered round the unthinkably monumental palaces and temples of the ruling class.

And class remained a key issue in the Late Kingdoms, for the split between Upper and Lower Imaskar was never mended. Always, the Lower Imaskari, presumed to be the racial stock from which the Mulan people descended, were slaves of the Upper Imaskari, an altogether different race now thought to be virtually extinct. The lower class was uneducated, banned from ever learning a single glyph, and performed literally all manual labor, including combat in Imaskar's many wars, while the upper class floated above the lands, observing their mighty works and resting on the laurels of their success.

This class division would ultimately lead to the doom of Imaskar. As the empire reached its zenith, it found governing such a preposterously large empire was increasingly difficult, made even worse by the unexplainable and gradual failure of their Artifice, a fact they tried very hard to keep secret from their enemies. As they saw their first defeats at the hands of rebels, barbarians, and even other civilizations such as Jhaamdath, the slave race was soon emboldened; riots sprung up with increasing frequency, and soon the ruling class would have to contend with a massive, revolutionary force, fueled by a thousand years of oppression and a religious zeal that would shake the earth.

The rest, as they say, is history; the slave rebellion gathered steam, overpowering the ruling class and ultimately seeing the end of Inupras and the fall of the empire. No one knows exactly how it ended--the Mulhorandi priests insist that their gods laid ruin to the entire landscape of the realm, guiding them to a new homeland in the west--but the Raurin Vale has never recovered, and Inupras and other cities were never again settled.

The fall of Imaskar is known to have occurred in -2488 DR, a date corroborated by many sources throughout both the Imaskari successor lands and by Shou and Zakharan scholars alike. The latter two hint at a massive cataclysm, which may support the Mulhorandi claim of divine retribution, or may suggest many tantalizing alternatives.

Ultimately, the known history stands as a moral lesson to all who would use magic to oppress others: the magic of man is fleeting, but that of the Gods is eternal.