History of Emsius
The history of Emsius.
Overview
A New God-King
A meteor crashed down in Emsius which unearthed a cavern full of Deep Ekati. A group of miners was sent shortly after to collect ore from the rock that came from the heavens, but one of the miners known as Nebu touched the raw crystal and came into contact with a mysterious being which referred to itself as Kino. Kino, a Toto-Karaihe who had been looking to understand why mortals feared death, offered Nebu what seemed like limitless power. Kino asked for nothing more than just to be able to see how other mortals reacted to Nebu’s terrible presence - even though Nebu was initially suspicious of the deal thinking Kino might have an ulterior motive, he accepted it. In an instant, Nebu absorbed the power of the Deep Ekati in the mine to become a living god gaining the knowledge of dark magic everything from manipulating emotions to binding demons to his will. He also claimed to have a vision of the future when Asmos planned to end all creation, looking upon a giant with four faces - a man, a bull, a lion and an eagle. Immediately, Nebu believed that he would become this giant and set about to fulfill his destiny as he believed to be designated by Asmos himself.
However, the power quickly went to his head. Using his newly acquired powers to his advantage, Nebu went on to usurp the throne become a god-king. Now on the throne, he demanded that a colossus be constructed to serve as a monument to his godhood. It would be constructed in the likeness of the giant which he described in his vision. Upon its completion, Nebu ordered that every man and woman in the land worship the statue, which he called the Grand Idol, lest they be thrown into a furnace.
Dariel's arrival
Sometime later, a mage warlord and devout Asmosian named Dariel and his company of men passed into the area to seek shelter from their long journey in the desert. However, Dariel was only faithful to Asmos and refused to worship any god but him. Once Nebu got word of Dariel's blasphemous acts, he was thrown into the furnace, but Dariel used his abilities to bend the fire around him and his men so that they were unharmed. Having never seen such skill with magic, Nebu challenged Dariel to a duel.
The exact nature of the battle remains unknown, but the legends describe it as one that lasted forty days and forty nights. Mountains were moved and tsunamis crashed on the shores, as many describe. But in the end, Dariel emerged the victor, but the victory did not come without great cost. The only way for Dariel to defeat Nebu was to seal him inside the colossus, but with that Nebu laid a curse on Dariel. For the rest of eternity, Dariel and his descendants would be cursed with unending nightmares and hallucinations unless he provided blood sacrifices to appease him. And should he find a way to remove the curse, then Nebu would return in the form of the colossus come to life and carry out his destiny as the bringer of the end.
Dariel's Empire
Soon, although Dariel tried his hardest to resist, he began to succumb to the nightmares and hallucinations eventually going mad. And thus, in his insanity, Dariel chose to round up his men and conquer the area that was once Nebu's kingdom. He ended up slaughtering thousands, and he slept with countless women. Overnight, he transformed from a pure-hearted devout Asmosian to a terrifying monster much like Nebu.
Decades later when Dariel grew old, he unwittingly realized he had become a father to a large number of children from his conquests all of which unknowingly bore the same curse that he did. Realizing that he had condemned dozens to his same fate, he decided to attempt to kill his own children in an effort to put them out of their misery and to prevent the spread of the curse any further. However, his men intervened believing that he would be going too far by slaying his own family. Thus, Dariel prayed to Asmos endlessly hoping to get the cursed removed by him and to undo the mistakes he made, but Asmos never answered leading Dariel to believe that he was denied forgiveness. Unwilling to deal with the consequences of his blasphemous act, he took his own life.
Decades later, during a clash between two Karaihe the region that was once Dariel's Empire became flooded burying the colossus beneath the ocean. Overtime, the legends became forgotten save what was written in the Book of Prophecy. After hundreds of years of being trapped under the ocean and forgotten by those that once worshiped him, Nebu would eventually go mad as his mind and soul deteriorated over time until he became a bottled up embodiment of pure hatred. His consciousness vanished as he became a being driven purely by instinct desiring the blood sacrifices not out of revenge for his defeat, but just to lessen the pain of his torment. Thus, Nebu ironically succumbed to the same curse which he bestowed upon Dariel - the difference being that Nebu could not die given that his soul was trapped in the Grand Idol, unable to go to pass on. Resurfacing of the curse It was thought that the entirety of Dariel's family was wiped out in the flood, but as it turns out, there were survivors. While the exact lineage towards Dariel remains unknown, it is believed that his descendants survived in isolated, roving tribes that occasionally invaded a large city to satisfy the urges of the curse. At the time though, they did not know that the curse was genetic as they were unaware of the events between Dariel and Nebu. As a result, the curse quietly spread across multiple bloodlines and heritages.
When the nation of Arguros was founded directly west of what was once Dariel's Empire, it was eventually discovered that the Carnelian noble family was in fact the descendants of Dariel, and thus bore the very same curse. With the sudden boost of Carnelian family numbers, the blood sacrifices and the nightmares became a sickness among them. However, since Dariel's time, knowledge on ekati and dark magic had greatly increased leading to numerous methods of dealing with the curse. The Carnelians focused on honing their mind to resist the nightmares and the urges to kill, while the offshoot family of Sardius sought to embrace the curse believing it to be a new path for knowledge and self-discovery.
Great Crusade
When Emsius thought ekati to be a rare resource for a long time, a remarkable discovery was made. By extracting certain properties from Deep Ekati, it was possible to artificially create new ekati with the assistance of magically gifted individuals. As such, many nations across Emsius began to streamline the process by having mages work in power plants where ekati could be produced en masse. Many of these nations opted to have these mages produce the ekati against their will, but combining the existing coal and steam power with the mass production of ekati-based technology lead to a revolution overnight. Steam trains and automobiles saw improvements and much of Emsius became industrialized into a modern society.
The Ekati Revolution not only led to a technological revolution but also a cultural one. No longer did the people of Emsius have to rely on relics given by the gods to fight. Now, they could produce their own. Thus, an endeavour to drive out the Toto-Karaihe took place. With the help of the Puru-Karaihe whom the Asmosians recognized as angels, the Toto-Karaihe were driven out of Emsius and into Subterra. This was an event known as the Great Crusade.
Dieselpunk Era
Curse of the Grand Idol
For generations, the Argurosian Carnelian and Sardius houses feuded over the methods of dealing with their inherent family curse tied to an ancient idol sunk beneath the waves. The curse forced both families to sacrifice humans in order to ward off an encroaching madness, although both of these families became gifted with inherent magical power as a result. The Carnelians, Alder's family, practiced discipline of the mind to make the sacrifices as infrequent as possible, while the Sardius family actively embraced it to increase their power.
Over the years, against his parents' wishes, Alder stopped attending the sacrifice rituals, believing he could find a way to put a stop to them for good. He discovered that if he were to end the curse permanently, it would actually awaken the Grand Idol itself, and it would proceed to destroy most of Arguros. Alder then collaborated with his half-brother Filbert to attempt to perform this ritual before he was caught and interrupted by Sardius assassins that realized what he was trying to do. In the confrontation, his half-brother was killed while Alder was turned over back to his father.
Alder's father Jasper, despite being utterly disappointed with him, decided to give him a choice to stay or leave. After all, Jasper had also challenged the system the Carnelians established during his own youth. Alder respectfully decided to leave and join the Arguros Militia, hoping that he could find more meaning in his life than just living off of human sacrifices.
Alder Carnelian joined the Militia, seeking a new path of life away from his cursed family and trying to disassociate himself with his past by now becoming a servant of the empire. At the academy, he met three other individuals: Crow Mahogany, Neil Illuvin and Darcy Lynette. Alder was initially disappointed by their overall lack of skill as soldiers, but he did his best to lead them. Having been living a life of isolated nobility, Alder only now got a firsthand glimpse of the everyman of the Arguros empire.
However, Alder soon quickly discovered that having gone so long without performing a sacrifice ritual had started to induce hallucinations in him. Thus, awakening with him was an urge for bloodlust, although Alder controlled it.
After only mere few weeks of training, the Militia sent Alder and the new recruits to deal with a plague on the island of Jacinth caused by a meltdown of an ekati reactor releasing Deep Ekati radiation. The radiation in the air mutated most of the locals into ghouls which ran rampant throughout the city. Though the plague had been quarantined behind the walls, the local police struggled to put rioting citizens in their place as no one is allowed to leave the island.
When Alder, Crow, Neil and Darcy were sent into the quarantined areas to remove some of the ghoul population, they discover the presence of Alder's rival cursed family, the Sardius, had been at work, rounding up innocent civilians and using them for their sacrifice rituals - a much, more blunt and straightforward way of dealing with the curse than the Carnelians.
Alder however got separated when he hallucinated a flying demon chasing him into Brunikor. Alder, about to become lost in his own madness, told his companions to flee from him. Thus, Crow, Neil and Darcy were forced to survive the ruined city without his guidance.
Alder, after his hallucination, found himself captured by the Jacinth police accused of the use of black magic which was outlawed in most of Arguros, especially Jacinth. Alder was put on trial, about to become executed for his crimes before Jasper intervened and vouches for him. Jasper was held prisoner in his place while Alder is free to go.
However, when Alder tried to explain that House Sardius had also been using black magic openly in public, he uncovered a series of backroom dealings and shady conspiracies. The current ruling house of the empire House Amethyst had contracted House Sardius to cause the reactor meltdown. Sardius would benefit from acquiring sacrifices while the empire would have one less political rival to worry about. And with that, Alder finds a new justification for unleashing the Grand Idol upon the world. His curse was directly causing Jacinth's suffering, and it would only be right to end it once and for all.
Alder proceeded to perform the ritual all by himself, awakening the Grand Idol and putting a stop to his hallucinations. But after House Amethyst discovered that he did, rather than imprisoning him, they decide to take advantage of him. Rather than sending in the empire's elite forces to take down the Grand Idol, they instead chose to let the Grand Idol level the entirety of Jacinth to the ground. And when the time was right, reveal that Alder was the one to have released the Grand Idol to turn the public against him.
Alder, however, using his own expertise in military knowledge, assembled the still relatively inexperienced militiamen to lead a rescue operation on his squadmates to save as many people as they can before the Grand Idol could destroy the entire city. But without outside support from the empire, they did not have the means to stop the Grand Idol. As a last ditch effort, Alder told Lynette to bathe herself directly in the reactor's radiation at the risk of becoming a ghoul, but she managed to acquire massive amounts of energy and power to become borderline demi-god, thus giving her the ability to destroy the Grand Idol.
Alder and company celebrated a bittersweet victory. Jacinth was totally destroyed and House Sardius exiled from the empire altogether leaving House Carnelian the only real remaining opposition to the corrupted House Amethyst. With his father now publicly discredited, Alder became the new baron of House Carnelian, and he consolidated the last of Jacinth's military force as well as most of the Militia under his rule to build a new House Carnelian.