The Invasion of the Gates and the First Khlaovi Empire
The central continent of Arianja was sparsely inhabited, made up of various hardy tribes roughly equating to the post-Khlaovi nations. The most prominent of which were the war-like Vyjsig, who populated much of what is modern Reyjor. In the Gatanean exploratory missions, however, a TransWorld Gate was successfully anchored on the crescent northern isle of Czjmorin.
Since the island and the immediate areas of Reyjor near it were almost unpopulated, the Gataneans presumed that this was a barren world and began to use it as a place to dump any insurgents from other worlds they were conquering. Hence, for several decades, reckless, daring, and furious men and women plucked from various worlds and forced through the Gates and left to live or die in Arianja. Those who survived either traveled further west to help settle more temperate regions, or they made alliance or did battle with the Vyjsig - who largely sought to subdue the nearly daily influx of foreigners to their territory. At last, as Ylondas began freeing the sorcerers who were enslaved to the TransWorld Gates, a concentrated number of magic-users - many of them well-educated and of privileged families, who shared a common language - were suddenly thrust through to Arianja together. Faced with not only the increasingly tyrannical Vyjsig, but also with refugees and political exiles who exactly blamed the sorcerers for their own difficulties, the sorcerers taking the Vyjsig moniker "Khlaovi" began to battle for their own right to live. Ultimately, being better equipped to literally undo the enemy, the Khlaovi conquered the Vyjsig, drove back the refugees and other indigenous peoples, and set themselves up as emperors, slowly expanding their territory to include the entirety of the continent westward, stopping only at the Pleubeq River that divides the continent in half. |
The Rise of Nations and the Second Khlaovi Empire
The First Khlaovi Empire, occupying the larger eastern part of the continent, reigned with occasional sallies across the Pleubeq for the better part of five hundred years. During that time, the refugees began settling the western portion of the continent in earnest, either combining with the indigenous people - although rarely, as in Vetyl, Wharl, the Quoyrs and Medina - or more frequently subduing the native tribes and setting up nations for themselves. Various tongues began to emerge, cobbled together from common worlds and borrowed words. Most prevalent was Fleuveillan, spoken by all "free nations," and Reyjori, spoken in Khlaovi-controlled territory, with Jolvic, Brauzhian, Dvornish and Medinian tongues hanging on in their respective lands.
This separation of language helped foment unrest within the Khlaovi Empire, particularly from those of Vyjsig blood who longed to reclaim their ancestors' rightful place. Briefly, the first Khlaovi Empire was overturned - largely due to Khlaovi complacence more than revolutionary aptitude - and for about eighty years the eastern nations began to build their own national identities in earnest. However, since much of the work required the expertise of the Khlaovi, and since the Vyjsig rebellion had only managed to shrink but not eradicate the Khlaovi force, it wasn't long before the Sorcerer King began pushing back to reconquer his lost colonies - this time with an eye to moving past the Pleubeq. The establishment of the Second Khlaovi Empire was massively successful, effectively bringing every nation on the central continent under their rule for close to a full millennia. The secret to this success initially lay in the Sorcerer King's savvy to conquer through commerce: making the nations more and more dependent upon sorcerous means of achieving daily needs, rather than waging any obvious war upon them. |
The Making of Imbeciles and the Gatanean Invasion
About mid-way through the Second Khlaovi Empire - having now set themselves up not just as helpmeets, but as Dukes and Princes over all the people - one sorcerer discovered the means of controlling another person's mind through Quiescence. And thus began the creation of Imbeciles. This ability, initially used to merely implant or read thoughts from another's mind, quickly began to experiment with controlling another person's nervous system, and then at last to the act whereby the victim's mind would be carefully lobotomized: leaving the victim, now an Imbecile, wholly under the sorcerer's sway while, in the back of the victim's mind but unable to act upon it, the victim would remember who he was.
Originally, Khlaovi law prohibited the act of Quiscence except upon political prisoners, for whom such a punishment seemed meet. However, further experimentation discovered a means whereby the victim would not only have no will, but could have their will altered so that they might be reshaped into willing sex slaves for the sorcerer. This possibility immediately caught on, particularly since economics had changed to such a degree that anyone not a sorcerer was practically or even outright a slave to them. Popular philosophy arose that began arguing that anyone not of Khlaovi blood might not even possess humanity. And so, it was easy to justify forming the slave you owned to acquiesce to your desires - and just as easy to dispose of him when he began to age. |
This violation easily led the Khlaovi towards others, including a growing desire not just to possess the continent of Arianja, but to reconquer the Gates themselves and take back the dignity that had been stripped from their original ancestors so many years ago. To this end, sorcery was weaponized in a greater degree. Since spinning and unravelling were necessary to reactivate the TransWorld Gates, and make sure any who crossed the border got through with all their limbs and soul intact, young sorcerers were encouraged to practice disintegrating atom by atom the increasing vol class (bastardized from the Vyjsig rebellion), with the understanding that they should be able to put the vol back together again. However, accidents did happen. Especially if a vol were unruly...
Once prepared, the Khlaovi began levying large taxes against their people, as well as drafting vols in to the army, preparing to invade the Gates. When they made it through, however, they found that so many centuries had passed that the world of Gatanea lay almost in desolate ruins: there was nothing to conquer. Infuriated, the Khlaovi took their ire out on the vols who dispersed through the Gates to other worlds - never to return to their families again. (Although some did stay and hide in Gatanea, and sought to build an empire there, with the thought of going through the Gate once more, but this time with an army at the vols' command. Alas, they were never able to reactivate the Gates themselves, and they had entered into a world too late: for the Father's footsteps were nearing quickly there.) |
The Rise of Mayvendeism and the Fall of the Second Khlaovi Empire
At the same time, greater interest was being taken in the Rimward continents. A sizeable contingent of Khlaovi left behind from the Gatanean invasion were beginning to feel uneasy with the cruelties of their own people, and sought out ways of living beyond this constant cycle of revenge. Some reported back about the emperor worship they discovered on the continent of the Tortoise's Eye and beyond, which appealed on a certain level to the Khlaovi pride. But it was a chance encounter with members of the Jing-jang that brought up to the central continent the idea of a merciful God.
Unfortunately, still harboring ingrained ideas about the worthiness of any ideology from such a "backwards" nation as the Jing-jang, the exploratory Khlaovi bastardized the religion they received into Mayvndeism which professed not a merciful-but-just God, but an indulgent monotheistic "All-Mother" who gave her children whatsoever they desired. An outlook that did nothing to soften the hedonistic tendencies of the Khlaovi at all: rather, their new religion merely justified their appetites. With such indignities as Quiescience now being perpetuated as an article of faith, it was the work of perhaps two centuries before the beleaguered people under the Khlaovi rule managed a continent-wide, full-scale, coordinated attack against their oppressors. This time, the Sorcerer King and his entire family were murdered. Whole cities, such as Renquois, were razed to the ground. Grey Tribunals were set up to execute anyone even suspected of possessing Khlaovi blood - whether or not they could perform sorcery. Those sorcerers who survived fled to Rimward nations who still valued their own magic-workers. While, eventually, a small army managed to secure what is now Quoyr Impire, and set up a refuge for any remaining Khlaovi. Those who could not make it even to Quoyr Impire went underground, using low-level sorcery to change the color of their eyes, dying their hair or wearing wigs, and doing all they could to set up new lives as respectable Mundanes. The Mavyndeist religion toppled to be replaced with the egalitarian pantheon of every nation, generally known as the Thirteen Laughing Ones, or the Lunatic Gods. Most of the nations took up various forms of elected governments to various degrees of success. While Dvorne and Medina both experimented with extreme theocracies, and Gyve and the Western Republic of Quoyr almost eschewed religion altogether. |
The Rule of Nations and the Third Khlaovi Empire
For several hundred years, the Nations continued to govern themselves, going back and forth as to the legality of allowing sorcerers to either live or practice their arts. While there was some pushback in some nations against stricter policies, eventually those of Khlaovi blood were generally accepted back into society upon condition that they would not practice this art.
Such a promise, however, is not easily kept and so after about three hundred years, another push was made to reinstate the Khlaovi Empire. While technically a seat of power in Reyjor was established for at time, so that we may say a third empire existed, it never did much more than provide a few more city-state pocket nations where sorcerers could be more free to use their arts in relative peace. In terms of actual political power, there was almost none. Except in the increasing interest in bringing back the ability to make Imbeciles - now for the use of the vols against the vols. The violence of the oppressed upon the oppressed caused a considerable unease throughout the nations, and small places of revolution and rebellion fomented as an elected government grew too powerful, or seemed to move towards absolute monarchy. So that the nations remained in an uneasy peace with their past and themselves; always holding themselves just one step away from becoming those who had once enslaved them. |
Explore the World of Arianja
Part (fake) opera program, part history, all fun, "Etta Lufada" tells the story of how the Khlaovi abused their sorcerous powers, and how the power of art triumphed over the powers of death. Exclusively on Patreon.
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(c) Emily C. A. Snyder