Heya! I'm back, and this time with a proper chapter. I hope you like it!
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( Persus 12) A: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll be sure to use them as needed. As for Amazons and the Free City of Bravos, maybe I'll add them in as an easter egg. What do you say?
IC -3165s
Ambassador Zhen Herr visits the Mesogian Alliance on behalf of the Shang Emperor. He returns with tales of a four-legged beast with humps on its back, strange black fruit that taste bitter and produces oil, as well as a strong naval presence prowling the Southern seas.
"Let's invade them," suggested the Emperor.
"But your eminence, their navy is ten times stronger than ours," argued his minsters.
The Emperor frowned. "Then we attack them from the land. Our army is undefeatable."
"The Mesogian Alliance is situated on a series of islands and peninsulas, your majesty."
"Tā Mā De."
In the end, the Emperor chooses to befriend this new power and invites the Mesogians for peace talks.
IC -3185s
The Mesogian Alliance and Shang Dynasty sign a treaty of peace, recognizing each other as a superpower.
IC -3150s
Sea trading between the 2 Empires begins in earnest. Mesogian merchants sail North with olives, beautifully dyed clothes (for that time), many types of local fruits, and returns loaded with exotic animals, ivory, and fur pelts.
Pizzas were an instant smash in the Shang Empire, while Mesogian found out that rice made excellent chicken feed.
IC -3025s
The secret to forging steel is discovered. However, the process is extremely lengthy and expensive, so only the richest royalties can afford them.
IC -3000s
Human population passes 10 million.
IC -2935s
The Shang Emperor takes Shi Dar, a prostitute famed for her inhuman beauty, as his 34th concubine. There were rumors that she was actually a witch, for some claimed to have seen her change her appearance according to the preferences of her partner. The Emperor ignores the rumors, even going so far as executing anyone who mentions it. Using her looks and certain... skills, Shi Dar wins the heart of the Emperor and persuaded him to name her only son the crown prince.
IC -2920s
Due to his unhealthy sex lifestyle, the Shang Emperor dies abruptly in bed. Shi Dar, who was servicing him when he passed away, claimed that his death was due to overwhelming pleasure. The fourteen-year-old crown prince ascends to the throne.
In an incestuous turn of events, he takes his mother, who has lost none of her former splendor, as his wife. Those who opposed the marriage were often found dead the next day, with all the signs of being killed by a beast. The voices of dissent soon died away.
The royal couple lived happily together and Shi Dar finally reveals that she can assume the form of any woman the Emperor desire. The Emperor was reported unfazed by the declaration. In fact, her son never took a second wife, relying on her for all his baser needs.
IC -2900s
A handheld device for calculation similar to the Abacus is invented.
IC -2875s
Shi Dar passes away at the age of 60, but one could never guess that from her appearance, which was that of an innocent young girl. However, her dark secret was revealed when priests prepared her body for burial. Underneath a layer of human skin, the Emperors beloved wife/mother was actually an elderly feline humanoid with a snout and even cat ears.
Her handmaid, who served her since the day she entered the palace, confessed that Shi Dar actually hails from a tribe of shapeshifters who can change their looks by wearing the skin of their victims (like the Faceless Men from GoT).
And that's when our sources split.
The official account states that the Emperor and his children were found guilty of being the 'spawns of the devil' and sentenced to burn. Legends say that despite screams of anguish, the family could not be killed by fire due to being 'creatures of hell', and could only be dispatched by a silver knife blessed by the gods.
The other side of the tale was that only female offsprings of a shapeshifter inherit the ability. Thus the Emperor and his children, who were all boys, were actually humans. But the Emperor's stepbrothers took the chance and spread rumors, causing the army to rebel against him and usurping the crown in the process.
The stepbrother took the throne, and rename the kingdom from Shang, to Luo.
Why? No one knows, but either way, the master of the nation changed hands, and the fact that their leader was a 'demon' shocked the people to its core. Vigorous Witch Hunts commenced throughout the Luo Empire, with a fearful population turning in and executing their neighbors in an attempt to root out any hidden shapeshifters, now known as Dars, amongst themselves.
Not only the Dars were affected. Any race that isn't human were chased down, be they elves, demi-humans, monsters, or even human sympathizers. Driven into exile, the poor victims of the Hunts banded together for safety and inter-breed, giving birth half-bloods with features of both their parents. Shunned by all, they hid in the shadows, waiting for the day where they can stand tall in beneath the sun on equal terms with everyone else.
They were the ancestors of the Haryo tribe, which would play a pivotal role later on in history.
IC -2820s
The invention of various wind instruments led to the beginning of music.
IC -2705s
The Mesogian Alliance reaches the peak of its power. Covering the 2 major islands in the bottom of the map and large swaths of the Southern peninsula, featuring hundreds of port-cities, learned in philosophy and poetry and ethics, cultured, technologically advance (comparatively), the Mesogians had become the economical and military powerhouse of the world.
IC -2635s
Pride goes before destruction. This saying is proved true on the Mesogian Alliance. The islanders grew haughty because of the actions of their forebears, and looked down on everyone else. Local governors began to gather personal militias to contend with each other, building hundreds of war galleries, fighting each other behind the Senate's back.
IC -2600s
The unofficial fall of the Mesogian Alliance. The Senate is disbanded, and the Alliance split into 3 rival factions of ultra-nationalists.
They still keep the pretext of being allies to prevent the Luo dynasty from finding out, but secretly waging naval battles beyond the sight of land and saying that their warships were lost due to storms, etc.
IC -2500s
Humanity enters the Iron Age. Steel weapons replace the weaker copper for tools and weapons.
IC -2465s
The birth of Zhi Xou, the last Emperor of the Luo Dynasty. At the beginning of his reign, he proved to be a reasonable and intelligent ruler, leading the Luo empire on 2 successful conquests of her neighbors.
However, as time goes on, he gave himself over to drinking and women and ignoring all affairs of state. He took nearly a thousand concubines and engaged in numerous immoral things with them, such as mass orgies and acts of decadence.
One of the most famous forms of entertainment Xou enjoyed was the 'Garden of Eden', a man-made park made entirely from food. The ground is actually billions upon billions grains of white rice, a channel carved into the ground filled with a continuous flow of wine, metal trees with branches of skewers of meat, all types of delicacies strewn about the garden. Xou and his friends and concubines would lounge around for days on end, doing nothing but eating and drinking.
In order to fund Xou's heavy daily expenses, heavy taxes were implemented. The people suffered greatly, and lost all hope for the Luo dynasty. As a result, revolts broke out throughout the empire, and anarchy was everywhere. Countless kings were crowned, only to fall days later.
IC -2460s
The Mesogians on the Southern Peninsular thought that the infighting of the Luo Empire meant that they could use the chance to grab some land for themselves.
Wrong.
Nothing binds a broken country together as a common threat. When the Mesogian Army invaded, the numerous contenders of the crown reluctantly joined forces to fight the foreigners. Together, the Easterners field many times the men than one faction of the Mesogian Alliance. Thus the Mesogian found themselves being conquered instead of themselves conquering.
The other 2 Mesogian factions, long at war with each other, secretly rejoiced at the fall of their opponent. After the Easterners assured them that they are after those who wage war on them only, the other Mesogians stood back and looked as their brethren were enslaved and subjugated.
IC -2425s
From the ashes of the ruined Luo Dynasty, a new Emperor rose. Originally the count of a minor province, he proved his worth during the Civil War and the War against the Mesogians, winning the respect of the entire nation. He founded the Zhou, the longest-lasting dynasty ever in the Eastern Region, or in fact the whole of Falmart.
To prevent the tragedy that happened to his precursor, the new Emperor enforced centralized power, where all the military listened to the Emperor and no one else. All the troops are housed in camps around the Capital, only moving out for campaigns. Generals have no fixed armies of their own, thus weakening the loyalty of the troops to them and ensuring that they remain loyal to the Emperor.
Some say that this policy was why the Zhou Dynasty lasted a full 800 hundred years.
IC -2390s
The first fictional work, The Hymns of Wu, is written.
IC -2250s
Half of the Southern Islands willingly joins the Zhou Dynasty in return for protection, giving the Empire an open path to the Western Seas.
IC -2200s
The human population passes 20 million.
IC -2160s
A Zhou expedition sails west in search of new lands. Following the coastline of the mainland, they sailed in the direction of the setting sun. To their surprise, the Continent does not end just east of the Southern Penisular as they thought. Instead, The Southern Penisular was just a part of a massive bay, and they had just been sailing on the eastern side of the bay. At the innermost point of the bay, the explorers set up a base camp called Sha De La, and ventured off the see the surrounding land.
One search team that headed due west crossed a low mountain range and onto the great plains beyond. There, on a small, low hill, they stumbled upon a strange structure. It appeared to be a massive doorway made of stone, just standing in the middle of nowhere.
The explorers had a funny feeling as they approached. It was almost as if they knew this place. Everything seemed familiar, yet so unfamiliar at the same time.
It was almost as if they had been here before.
Human civilization has finally stumbled upon the Gate! What will they do with it, and how will it rewrite their history? Find out in the next chapter!