Editing Setting:Unified Setting/Sergal (section)

=History=
From antiquity, the huge and barren [[Vilous]] region has been home to the [[Sergal]]. In the south dwelled the lanky and hardy subspecies of the Sailzane desert. These creatures, tan and omnivorous, eked out their existence amidst broad terrain and broad temperature extremes. In the north, the windy steppe and frigid deserts of Tatola were haunted by their larger, long-haired cousins. These creatures, grey-furred grinning carnivores of claws and sinew, one part wolf, one part shark, one part bird of prey, are all the word 'sergal' means to most outsiders.

==Antiquity==

Sergal numbers were kept in check despite the huge swathes of terrain available to them. In this harsh environment, what had once been solitary hunters forged a culture of discipline and order. Working together, a tribe could take down dangerous apex predators and huge armor-plated herbivores that had once been nearly invincible to predators. With a secured supply of food, clothing, and tools made from the fallen monsters, sergals learned more sophisticated crafts, and bred larger hunting packs. Empty ritual, by trial and error, evolved into a culture of shamans, healing the sick and wounded to aid the whole. Large, organized clans emerged in the north, as the desert sergals of Sailzane bred herds of horses for milk and meat, dullettes for both their meat and their plates, which form the bulk of sergal clothing and armor.

Both regions of Vilous were poor, lacking in easily accessible metals or plentiful vegetation blessing the more civilized corners of the world. Even as sergal culture progressed in size and sophistication, they were limited by what was available. Craggy desert trees made for poor weapons, but they burned well enough. Lacking other avenues to advance along, sergals grew adept at firing pottery and ceramics. While not as good as metal, these provided the sergals with a starting point. Ceramic tools, weapons, and armor developed and flourished. To this day, sergal kilns produce materials for tasks impossible for the craftsmen of other countries.

==Tatola Unification==

The  near-simultaneous discovery of iron in south-eastern Tatola and coal in Northern Sailzane would revolutionize sergal metallurgy and upset the stability of sergal culture. With new metal-working capabilities, the Sergals were able to forge much more effective weapons. Earlier spears, merely sharp sticks with fire-hardened tips, were replaced with cruel metal halberds. The habitual raids against other sergal clans and travelers became much more lethal.

At this time there was born a Sergal name Rain Silves. She had yellow eyes, considered a bad omen among sergals, and as a result was rejected by her peers and clan. At an early age, her own mother attempted to kill her, leaving her with scars on her neck she'd bear for the rest of her life. She survived, however, for she was physically extremely impressive. She was a head over her brethren, reaching a full-grown height over seven feet tall. Her movements were quick and strong. When she came of age, none in her clan could stand before her sword or spear. As was tradition, this strength in arms qualified her to lead her clan, and she did so. Fear forged her people into a tool to her will.

She made war against all around her, animal cunning, force of personality, and sheer strength of sword-arm bending clan after clan beneath her. In less than a decade, the bulk of Tatola's population, those who survived, knelt to her, and she turned her sights to other races.

==The West Fofin Slaughter==

Prior to the reign of Rain Silves, the [[Setting:Unified Setting/Sidhe|Sidhe]] had small fortified settlements in eastern Tatola, bordering the Bay of Rain, then called the Fofin Gulf. The lands held by the elves were directly adjacent to those in which Rain had grown up, and she considered these holdings a potential threat to the sovereignty of her fledgling nation.

Rain secretly mustered her army out of eyesight of the fortified elven towns. Then, she split her army, sending forces to each of the villages. Some soldiers marched as many as 30 miles in that single night, and all arrived before the break of dawn. The sidhe, who had never expected the sergals to attack them, awoke to find their palisades vaulted, their guards slain and their homes burning.

Rain then sent some clans, her own included, to [[Londerfell]] in captured ships, where they held significant portions of land in the western part of that continent, but were ultimately unable to hold any major population centers. Nevertheless, Rain would see only minor skirmishes with the sidhe after this, and [[Londerfell#Vanawil|Vanawil]] was no longer a threat to her empire. The objective was achieved.

==Subjugation of the Sailzane==

After ensuring that no outside forces would jeopardize her empire, Rain expanded her earlier goal of unification to include the southern sergals.
The sergals of Sailzane desert had never been as large as their grey cousins, but were more adapted to the warmer climate there. Under Rain, it would not be enough. No longer mere war-bands skirmishing for territory, Rain's army drove south, logistics making up for their inferior adaptation. The southern sergals were no easy prey. They fought back where and when they could, and disappeared into the desert when outmatched. The conflict lasted for years, sapping the will of the north. The population of the budding empire were loath to continue the costly war, and both desertions and rebellions reached their highest point during the period of Rain's rule. However, the majority of the force continued to fight, for fear of their superiors, and they pushed further and further into Sailzane, killing any military force who opposed them and taking the civilians as slaves.

The war, it has been said, never truly ended. To this day, bands of tan sergals roam free in the trackless wastes. Nevertheless, less than ten years after Rain began her war, the vast majority of Sailzane's natives were in chains. 

==Peace of Rain==

The conquest had bled all Vilous white. Small incursions were made into [[Vilous#Jiar-Jia_(The_Swamp_of_Death)|Jiar-Jia]], [[Vilous#Vekshimar_Uresh|Vekshimar Uresh]], and Mensala, but very little military progress was made in those theaters, as the infrastructure necessary had mostly been destroyed. Not even the feared general could coax more conquest from her empire. And so, reluctantly, she allowed it to turn its efforts to rebuilding.

These domestic tasks were almost entirely handled by subordinates, however, as during this time, General Rain Silves turned her attention to the life-magic of the shamans. She failed, disinterested with their life rituals, but her spirit was strong with the blood she'd spilled and drank. She used the knowledge she had gained from the shamans to develop her own magery. She learned to twist her own body, in small ways at first, but with growing talent.

Hope, by both the southern sergals and the empire's neighbors, that the crude autocracy would collapse, proved empty. Rain refused to die, cutting down assassins with glee, and resisting their most exotic poisons. With time, rumors spread of these unfortunates dying not to the blade of the increasingly mad general, but a monster with a thousand horrible shapes, sharing only her slitted yellow eyes.

And then, one night, Rain vanished. Her reign lasted thirty years, and colors every part of sergal society to this day. Before her time, yellow eyes were considered bad luck for a sergal, or worse. After, such creatures were treated with a nervous respect, for fear that it might be the general in disguise. In her absence, Vilous has remained united under one banner, perhaps out of simple fear that the the monster empress would return should it fall.