In days long gone by, Maldor was an empire, stretching from ocean to mountain, uniting the people of the world under one rule. Empowered by a common language and efficient trade, this cornucopia of cultures melded into an economic powerhouse where few were hungry and most were happy.
This empire fell, not to opposing armies, but doom from the heavens. A fiery dot appeared in the sky, bright enough to be seen in midday. The people, well-off but superstitious, grew restless, worried at what this apparition might bring. Absolon, Emperor-General of Maldor, gathered his astronomers and they examined the fire on the edge of existence.
Their counsel was dark. This dot seemed to grow larger by day, as if the sky itself was beginning to burn away. Within three months, this dot grew as large as the sun, and shone bright by night, causing fear and panic in Absolon’s kingdom. Mothers held their crying children to their breasts, trying to block the fell rays of this celestial fire from their babies’ eyes; peasants grew fearful as their beasts moaned in confusion at night; priests proclaimed the end of the world was coming. And all looked to their Emperor, Absolon, for guidance, but Absolon had none.
A foreign magician, Hanish, came before Absolon, hundreds of miles of dirt caked on his body from running. He swore that the rituals conducted by Absolon’s sorcerers had unleashed this terror, and it must be revoked, else the world would be destroyed.
The court sorcerers heard this and were none too pleased. They had Hanish imprisoned and tried to turn Absolon’s ear away from his ravings. The words bothered Absolon greatly, though, and he went to Hanish’s cell on a dark night, when the clouds obscured the burning among the stars.
Absolon threatened Hanish with death if this curse was not removed from the world. Hanish laid himself before Absolon’s sword. Moved by Hanish’s bravery and defiance, Absolon took him to his side as his highest advisor and they spent many hours talking alone. Rumors and rebellions ripped Maldor apart. The people said their Emperor spent all his days privately conversing with the man who would destroy the world. Within another three months, this fiery orb illuminated everything in burnt red. The sun could not even be seen.
In the midst of open revolt, chaos, madness, prophets proclaiming the death of all life, assassinations, and depravity, Absolon and Hanish emerged from the Emperor’s quarters. The Sky Fire had grown no bigger than half the sky, but its heat was now intolerable and the entire sky was painted in eternal sunset as the globe burned away the air.
Absolon and Hanish stood on the steps of the Emperors Palace, hand in hand, and began a weird chant, intoning ancient syllables which spread throughout the angry crowds outside, calming them. This chant lasted for three days, and it is said that by the end of those three days, the entire Empire had taken up its rhythmic syllables. The Fire moved slowly across the sky, though, and at the end of the three days, crossed the western horizon and night fell again. Absolon and Hanish collapsed on the stairs where they chanted, their spirits gone and bodies broken.
Then, the world halted.
In the midst of night, the world shook with such a rumble that buildings fell, cracks opened spewing lava, and mountains formed out of plains-land. Men wept and tore their clothes, animals stampeded, and the elderly died of shock. A red glow came from every horizon, with black smoky clouds billowing. The clouds grew and grew as the earth continued to shake for days on end, the sun barely visible, and finally even blotted out that orb of life-giving light.
For a year, the earth quivered and the sun rose no more, with only black clouds looking down on humanity. The earth froze. For one year, through the harshest of winters, people died of plague, starvation, and madness. By the end of that year, the population of the known world was a tenth of what it had been.
One year after its disappearance, the sun rose weakly in the sky, barely shining through the breaking clouds. People driven to primitivism stuck their heads out of their caves, hovels, and homes to see the beloved sun as it rose to the middle of the sky and the foul darkness broke around it. When it set, though, living persons everywhere shook with horror.
A moon rose in the sky. Never had a moon been seen in the world. The only object ever seen in the night sky was the dread Sky Fire, which this bore too much a resemblance to. Its pale light threw dark shadows onto the land. Worse, when the sun rose the next day, this moon – three times larger – eclipsed the sun, a black Shadow Moon rimmed in fire.
Three hundred years have passed. Every night, the moon still rises, a terrible eye over the world. Some people quiver in abject fear. And some heroes fight the Shadow, in the darkest caves, the most decayed of civilizations, and the blackest hearts.
2nd Movement – Matter of Ammeni
This movement centers upon the dominant northern power in Near, the Houses of Ammeni. These vicious corporations have shed all morality in their own fear of death and lust for living. The theme is slavery and colonialism, as all the wrong hands work to knit the world together.
Many peoples adjoin the Ammeni lands, and all have to suffer to some degree: the Zaru have been all but decimated as a nation, brought into utter abasement as slaves to the insatiable Ammeni. Khalean tribes wage a fatiguing war against their would-be Ammeni conquerors. Even the distant Qek is being brought to heel by colonists greedy for gems and cocoa.
The people of Ammeni stand on the brink of destiny in more ways than one, but whether that destiny spells downfall to their order or the beginnings of a new Empire nobody seems to know.