Setting:Tabula Gloria/Garvenus/The Stormlords

Some scholars are inclined to theorize that the first peoples to come forth from the protection of the Uralaya Forest ventured forth onto the Steppe, slowly but surely making it their own, free from their former service to the Forest. Whether the theory is true is up for debate, but the Stormlord people enjoy a strong heritage of protection and service to the wild, though more on their terms than their possible Alkhani ancestors. Able to appreciate their surroundings, the people tended to come together during the wet season in which they collaborated in order to find shelter, as well as the cold season in which they huddled together for comfort and warmth. As such, they found an affinity with the storms which shaped the land, which regulated the seasons, giving birth to their name in which the Empire translates as "Stormlord."

The Nation of the Thunderhead

Excavations within the Empire's holdings proved very interesting in their discoveries. They show other peoples emerging into its land - historically known as the Central Lands - soon after the Stormlords appeared on the Steppe. There were also artifacts recovered from the dig sites which bore traditional Stormlord markings, suggesting that they had some sort of association with the Stormlords in which they were the primary influencing factor. The most common of these markings consisted of a series of curves above a flat horizontal line at the bottom - the signature 'thunderhead' mark of the Stormlords. As such, it is suggested that the Stormlords united these forthcoming tribes under their banner, the first known example of nation-building in the history of humanity. The Nation of the Thunderhead as scholars called it was likely a protection agreement. The other tribes would offer tribute of various resources to the Stormlord rulers in exchange for their protection, as well as meats and hides from their own hunters.

Further research yielded surprising results. According to slates recovered from a dig near Fort Thagaisa, sixteen generations of Stormlords passed during this time, almost entirely without incident. However, a new leader of the Stormlords, a man of great stature and physical strength known as Trawgtarr, declared that the peoples under the Nation were bound by the divine providence of their god to abandon their former identities and "fully become Stormlord." Though to this day what it exactly meant to "fully become Stormlord" is unknown, what can be inferred is the existence of their god, a being the Empire knows as the terrible Sky Devourer, the first mention of it in historical record. Though many tribes followed the decree, there were others who opposed it. Further according to the Thagaisan slates, the Stormlords would enact a bloody war with the opposition, eliminating every last man, woman, and child, and cemented their dominance among them.

From that point on, there would not be historical mention of what scholars would come to call the War of Unification, or the original names of the other tribes. After the War, they would all be considered Stormlords.

Battle for the Central Lands

Soon after the calamitous war, the Central Lands were in great disarray, a factor which may have led to the first foreign invasions into there, the event which many consider as the beginning of the Three-Way War. It is suggested by Vashialian and Benaloran accounts that the "tribal folk were easy to conquer, and easier to run off," probably given their weaker state after the War of Unification only a generation or so before. Running to their newly minted rulers, the northern members of the Stormlords sought assistance with their plight. However as the Stormlords were also recovering from the War, they were unable to assist them in defending their new holdings. Weren't it for the fact that by this point both Vashial and Benalor were fighting each other for the right to control the Central Lands, many thought it would have been possible for a direct assault upon the Steppe.

Although they were unable to directly attack either of the invaders during this time, the Stormlords managed to stave them off by sending retinues of their warriors to both the Vashialians and the Benalorans in an attempt to have both of them wear each other out and drive them away from the Central Lands in a stalemate. The two groups of warriors would present themselves as separate tribes submitting themselves to their new colonial masters, an act that greatly displeased the warriors in question despite its necessity in the plan. They would provide their respective Empires with intelligence about the Central Lands, deliberately running the Empires into each other and forcing them to fight each other. To make the ruse even more convincing at first, the warriors would fight on their respective sides, sometimes even killing each other in order to maintain their cover.

An Ill-Fated Alliance

As the battle between Vashial and Benalor was underway in the Central Lands, a young Stormlord man named Crenskaw was approached by a group of diplomats from Weylos, a nation of tribes from the south considered as neutral to the Stormlords. At this time, Crenskaw was just honored for his masterminding of the ruse keeping Vashial and Benalor busy with each other, earning the title of the "Rushing River," capable of thwarting his foes without directly killing them. The diplomats had told the Stormlord tactician of their troubles with Vashial and Benalor, striking a common ground with them. The Weylosians knew of the Stormlords' troubles with the two Empires as well. The Stormlords in turn knew of the great Ansal fighting machines in which the Weylosians handily resisted the Vashialians with. The diplomats offered their assistance in the Stormlords' conflict and the Stormlords readily accepted.

It was good timing too, especially as the warriors sent to each side of the battle for the Central Lands were thinning out, the two sides sure to learn of the ruse in due time. It was time for the Stormlords to make their stand. Warriors lined up along the northern edge of the Steppe, reaching from modern-day Twaunae to the west and modern-day Rausclef to the east. Though the Weylosians made it there in time, they were without the powerful Ansals. Apparently Benalor had sabotaged their machines just as it was retreating from the Central Lands, a greatly weakened Vashial being the victor there. Though weakened the Vashialians were, their magics still caused heavy casualties for the physical coalition soldiers of the Stormlords and the Weylosians. The battle became dire enough in which Crenskaw of the Rushing River, appointed commander of the Stormlord forces, was forced to call upon the Sky Devourer to finish off the Vashialians.

It ended as a victory, but also as an embarrassment to the commander, an embarrassment so great that the commander turned the Sky Devourer against his momentary allies. Crenskaw, the remnants of his army, and the mythical beast forced the Weylosians out of the Steppe and into their own barren lands. Those who weren't killed during the rout had ended up killing themselves for some unknown reason to the Stormlords, their deaths fueling the rise of the Great Tortoise, matching the Sky Devourer blow for blow. Though the battle isn't detailed, it is assumed that the Stormlords retreated back to the Steppe, the Sky Devourer recalled.

The Truce of Thaga Rise

The greatly weakened Stormlords would spend the next five or six generations after the Three-Way War rebuilding their holdings in the Steppe. During this time, the other tribes which had formed the Nation of the Thunderhead alongside the Stormlords would migrate back north to the scarred Central Lands to start anew, seemingly free of Stormlord control. They would come to mingle with the Vashialian, Benaloran, and Weylosian remnants who decided to settle there away from their old masters, forming a new society free of the old powers. This society, as history knows, would eventually become the Empire of For'Channar.

In the beginning of the Empire, the Steppe was left alone. Though the Stormlords were weakened, the tribes returning to the Central Lands passed on tales of their savagery, their power, and their control of the Sky Devourer. Such stories were enough for the growing Empire to steer clear of the Stormlords and their lands. Alexius I, the fifth Emperor, would however see things differently. By his time, the Empire had expanded west to Phrennoack due to the grace of the Eltyain people, and east to the Drakonid Highlands after a hard-fought war with its natives. The next logical step was to move southwards. Given that the Stormlords were still weakened, the Imperial forces managed to march south into the Steppe until the Stormlords were able to stop them at the Thaga Rise along the foothills of the Benalor Mountains. A battle later and the Stormlords signed a truce with the Empire as long as they would not go any further south. The truce was respected, though the Empire would soon build the town of Thagaisa, an outpost which would evolve into a fort.

Wrath of the Steelheart

By the time it became a fort, Thagaisa had established the Knights of the Southwind to patrol the Imperial border with the Steppe and to keep it safe from beasts. One day, the now-recovered Stormlords had spotted a patrol of Southwinds edging into their territory, an action which was answered with a relentless barrage of nightly raids into Thagaisa. These raids in turn enraged a man known as Carpalos of Steelheart, a blacksmith of Weylosian descent, when one of the Stormlords' runs ended up killing his wife. He originally tried to get the Southwinds to act upon it, but they couldn't under the truce, especially as they were reprimanded for causing all of this by Tabula Gloria. So Carpalos, well taught in not only the legendary blacksmithing of his ancestors, but also the stories of Crenskaw's Betrayal, got together a civilian militia and set out into the Steppe to take on the Stormlords themselves. With his growing son at his side, Carpalos and his force slew every Stormlord he could find.

Years later, once his son grew up knowing the atrocities he has made, Carpalos would disband the group and set off back into the Steppe once more to face the Stormlord elder. According to Imperial lore, it was to apologize for his rampage and to live the rest of his life in self-imposed exile. But according to the Stormlords, it was to face the elder in one-on-one combat to resolve a feud which began with Crenskaw's betrayal after the victory against the Vashialians so long ago. The elder, Iskal of the Thunderhead, agreed to the battle, ordering the Stormlord warriors to allow Carpalos five days to prepare himself. He even allowed his future opponent into his own hut to rest, for he wanted there to be no interference for an honorable battle. Five days later, the two would travel to the southern edge of the Steppe, away from both Imperial and Stormlord interference.

According to Stormlord legend, the battle lasted for three full days, only with the two resting beneath the dusk and dawn before starting again. They fought ferociously, slashing and breaking each other, but they would neither fall nor surrender. Upon the sunset of the third day, the two agreed to consider it a draw, only to drag themselves back to the Stormlord lands bloodied and battered, but now unshakable friends. This would begin a new tradition of the reconciliation of the old Stormlord-Weylosian feud, as well as maintaining the Truce of Thaga Rise. Though those within the Knights of the Steelheart do not know why the Carpalos-descended leader heads out into the Steppe once the next generation is ready, the Stormlords know of the entertaining battle ahead, as well as to welcome the newest addition to their ranks.