The Naga's Story

Circa 13,500 BRT. At the floor of the lake Kalah, the race of the Naga dwell. It is on this great expanse of open water that they have dwelt for uncounted generations, in separate city states with no amount of love for each other small nation.
The Naga Verkain was born to one of these city states, as the son of its ruler, he and his younger brother were raised in the traditional Naga fashion, with loyalty, strength and honour as their main tenants. With the death of his father, Verkain became the ruler of the city state of Anhiim, a small city state based at the centre of the lake. From this place he began to reach out to the other cities, in a way never before seen or heard from in Naga history, through a mix of peaceful trading and violent war he grew in influence, the currency of the Naga people. It was said that his cunning knew no bounds during these days, when he encountered a bandit clan deep in the coral forests legends go that he released a swarm of poision eels into their midst, they then rushed in, as the bandits swam out crying for aid, Verkain put half of them to the sword right that day and fed them to the eels that made the forests their homes, the rest were placed into Anhiims gladitorial arena, becoming its first gladiators. In only a few years this Naga lord had formed together a powerful kingdom and brought many of the city states to heel. Under the threat of Anhiim annexation. The remaining city states had banded together to form a great alliance, and on the sea bed they fought a great battle for the fate of the Naga race.

The Naga fought in a great swirling ball and anger and rage, as they swam past each other or locked themselves into a great coil, they fought with spears and swords of stone and coral, dealing great blows to each other. The two sides were evenly matched, both in numbers and in skill and no doubt would have destroyed themselves in the fighting, if not for the warrior god that Verkain would later be seen as. No true record exists of how many of his fellow Naga he slew that day, what is known however is that the leaders of the two armies, he and a Naga lord named Kulath, duelled in the midst of the Naga battle, with their brothers in arms falling around them and performing what would have been breath-taking nautical acrobatics whilst fighting, these two Naga fought long and hard. Though Verkain was a mighty warrior, even by the standards of his battle hardened army, all would have been lost, if not for the sacrifice of his brother, who gave his life to distract Kulath, and his spear when Verkains was broken. It was said that the rage felt by Verkain was greater than all the hate and anguish felt even after the war had ended. With his strength renewed he pushed the attack back against the enemy leader, and with one final blow he removed his head. In the days after, this was known as the Faal Kein do Geind, or the War of Unification, the final battle was known as Grah do sus okaaz, or The battle of the bloody sea, due to the fact for days and even weeks later at the heart of the battle the sea had turned red and preditorial sea creatures hunted the waters, driving all away.

What came after this battle is hardly known, other than Verkain proclaimed himself Emperor of the Naga, and lead them into their first golden age, the cities of the Naga grew in size, both outwards and upwards as great spires of stone began to house larger and larger numbers of the Naga race, in this time a great number of inovations were made, the Naga discovered how to maintain and harvest large numbers of fish, which became their staple diet, after the war the members of the Naga Empires millitary realised that they could not survive another bloody battle like Grah do sus okaaz, should a threat as great as the Naga Alliance ever rise again, so they beseeched their greatest thinkers to create a weapon to deal death at range, after much experimentation they created the javelin, the weapon worked on the strength of the thrower alone, and could go great distances, it was not uncommon for soldiers to wield both spear and javelins.Verkains line grew thick and strong after the birth of his sons, and their sons, the family ordered the construction of a royal palace to be built in the heart of Anhiim, the capitol of the Empire, the building was unique, though it was like all other buildings lit by lumiesent coral farmed from the forests, the throne room itself had been built unlike any other room in the entire Empire, for it was the first ever building of the Naga contructed on dry land, it was then taken out to the lake and submerged with a large air pocket inside, a number of surfice world plants decorated the throne room and ensured the air would not run out, this throne room was considered a divine sign of Verkains right to rule the deep. Verkain himself perished at the age of 50, holding court at Anhiim, with his sons, grandsons and even his great grandson to witness his gentle passing, and though the Empire mourned the death of their leader and greatest hero, he was elevated upon death, his body cast into a great abyss in a sacred part of the lake, where he became the greatest of The Deep Gods, and so the lord Verkain passed into legend, having created a nation that would last for many, many millennia.

For the next 4,000 years of Naga history, came Tiid do narand, The time of growth. During these years the Naga Emperors supported a great number of exploration parties, once the mouth of the lake Kalah was found, connecting it to the open sea. Both entrance and exit to the lack were from then one heavily guarded, twin fortresses were built upon the mouths, these were the first and only buildings in all of the Empire to be built both in water and to be exposed on the land, such was their size.

Of all the adventuring parties that set out in those days, only 3 are of any great importance or renoun. The first of these parties was the one who mapped great swathes of the open sea floor, it was from these maps that the first of the Naga colonies were built outside of lake Kalah, which grew into thriving comunities and a large part of the Empire, it was from these places that the Naga discovered brass and bronze, and using the heat from underwater volcanoes crafted forges so that their greatest heroes could wield the most deadly of weapons. This was not the only thing to come from the colonies, though the gladitorial arenas were created in these cities soon a group of Naga invented a new game. Using somly sticks with rounded cups on one end, and a rounded stone the game involved two teams, one goal and only one rule- do not kill anyone on the other team- This game, called Lom niiv quickly grew in popularity as each city became the host for its own Lom team, even the Emperors personal guard had their own team, such as its success.

The second of these famed exploration teams headed out east. What they reported back to the Empire chilled it to its core. In truth only a single member of this expedition returned, they told of a vast expanse of open water, where no land could be seen in any direction and where life was very very rare. They told of how they had decided to see how deep this water was, on and on they swam down, even with the speed of the Naga it took hours to reach the floor. It was then that a creature decended on them, it walked on two legs even at the great depths and bore strong and mighty limbs. It was this creature that destoyed their expedition and left the lone survivor to escape simply by chance. The Emperor at the time decided that this creature should not be counted as common knowledge amoungst the people, though it was still talked about. The Naga spoke of the creature in the deeps, in fact they called in one of The Old Gods, maybe even their creator who had stayed behind to watch its chosen peoples progress through the world.

The third expedition was the least known but of the greatest importance, in the light of the creature of the deeps, a military expedition was raised to ensure that there were no such deeps to the west of the colony cities. What they ended up reporting back was in fact another land, even larger than their original home, and far different. On the coast of this land a number of underwater caverns were discovered, and though most of them were not mapped fully nearly all of them were used as military outposts, and over time they were explored deep, deep underground.

9,000 BRT

Within the realms of the underground, deeper than the oceans of the overworld, the Shlievek have began to progress. They've adapted to creating a new sort of equipment, one that would help explore the existence of the dark and unknown waters. The first of these creations was a mask, filled with pipes and gears made of a copper like material that'd turn pure water into a minimum amount of oxygen. This also allowed their skulls to handle more pressure, going deeper underwater. With that, they began to research what was even deeper than where they were, finding more and more areas of potential civilization. Of course, one could not survive at this time, but it could soon become a great stepping stone for the race, an improvement to how greater they can survive within the realms of darkness.

Another set of equipment they had made were of the same expedition utensil, the fins. These machines were made from stone and marblite, creating attachable wings to the bodies of their hosts to paddle along the waters of the under-planet. They began sending many expeditions, caring not for the lives of the explorers, for there were many at this time. They began to send out squads of 15, armed with spears and shields for protection, but only five of them would carry the utensils for recording data and experimenting. Through the 4 expeditions, only two had come back.

Their detailed records showed great promises for the future of the Shlievek. The first one was to show a new metal, one attainable with their own steel to mine. Although they do not understand its boundaries yet, they were funded with the best of materials to mine as much of this ore as possible. This also allowed for a new food source to be shown, a mossy substance that had toxins within it, easily edible with the Shlieveks' immune system they did not know of.

The second report was more interesting, however. A new race was reported, seen within the darkest corners of the ocean, of course not reachable, the crew being thousands of miles upon miles away from them in the watery abyss. The Shlievek were baffled, questioning their Gods of this as an ally or enemy. But they paid no mind, realizing that many millennium would come before their encounter with one another. But this race was of course carved into the walls of life that the Shlievek held. This creation of dragon and serpent was now known to exist within the darkest of waters, and now known as a great, and powerful force...

At around early 9,000 BRT began the reign of Emperor Kaluas, who was later hailed as one of The Nagas greatest pioneering rulers. It was during the reign of this Emperor that a Naga outpost reported a group of strange creatures, moving in the shallow waters, after a while it was assumed that these creatures were watching the Naga movements, with this news an emergency meeting of the Emperors council was called, as the dangers of Faal Kein do Geind were well known by the Emperors line.

In the waterless throne room at the center of Anhiim they gathered, with the Emperor sat upon his throne, his advisers before him. He turned first to his Master of commerce, the Naga who was responsible for the transportation and logging of goods and resources through the entire Emperor. It was the opinion of the Master that this strange new race, who could not reach the depths, might have something they had yet to discover themselves, after all, had they not been amazed by discovering the open ocean? Though the council agreed on this, Kaluas remained silent and then turned to the Master of culture, who oversaw the recording of legend and maintained the stone scriptures were the teachings of past heroes were kept. It was the belief of this Naga that these creatures were clearly blessed by the Old Gods, to be able to enter the water so, though the fact they could not enter the deeps suggested that the Gods had abandoned them, and they should be eradicated before they polluted the Naga race, less members of the council agreed on this, as though the Old Gods were revered by the Naga as a whole, it was only the priests were considered fanatical in their worship. Finally Kaluas turned to the Master of might, the commander of the Naga armies in his stead, it was his suggestion that a task force of Naga soldiers were sent to these creatures, to follow them back to their homes, if their numbers were small enough they would enslave them, if they fought back they would destroy them. After a while Kaluas ordered the throne room the be emptied and he be left in peace.

Within a week, three score Naga soldiers were armed, with stone spears and coral javelins and sent to where the creatures were first seen, there they lay'd in wait, eventually a group of the slow swimming creatures arrived and they descended on them, attacking on all sides, first they would throw a javelin and then dart in to finish off the hurt creature, swimming around each other Naga and flying projectile with amazing skill, as they had practiced all their lives. They quickly finished off the creatures, with few causalities themselves, heading back along the way the creatures were coming they eventually came to a cave, in small groups they entered it and eventually found an air pocket, a number of luminescent coral torches were brought up with them to light their way as they slowly explored this cave, the lack of water massively reducing their movement speed to a crawl. For a time they discovered nothing, except from darting movements around them, that were gone before they could be investigated, eventually Captain Vurkul, who was leading the expedition turned a corner to discover a group of these creatures, in an easily defended position, weapons raised at him. His own warriors bristled but thanks to his quick action blood was not yet spilled in the caves.

Turning to his own lieutenants, almost for their support, he realised that he was making the first peaceful contact with a new and unknown race in the word. He kept his own weapon lowered, whilst his men kept their raised, and spoke to them in Nagan, not realising they would not understand him. "Mu los faal Naga, mu'uliik do faal Dil, unadaan joriin do Faal Wuth Rah. Mu meyz yen nuz hind nid brothuz, mu drey ni lorot hi mindosaal. Zu'u miik hi, ol rahzun do faal Naga, zodrem vanras ful tol un joriin uld doj zuk do enook vorey. "

8,976 BRT

The dragon race had presented themselves as intruders on the Shlieveks' soil, their weapons raised. Within the moment, one man's speech had confused them, and they left there weapons lowered, curious with the unknown race. Throughout the day, they'd present gifts to the creatures, attempting a sign language-based communication as they shared words for their own language. They, after weeks of this, decided that these new beings could be of an ally to their underground alliance. This day was known as "Duf Naabhal" Or "The Offering." To the extent of these creatures' decision did they not know, but only knew that these were a small group of people, easily able to be overrun. Of course, no such thoughts came to mind, only peace and alliance.

But before this, the greatest warrior of this time, Thieshnald, was unfamiliar with the words spoken by this ancient being, and with that, spoke with the limbs he bore and the words he translated. The mark of introduction chiseled to the wall, showing Thieshnald holding up a clump of marblite and speaking the word "Duushnaval" and offering it to the leader of the dragons, on his knees as he did so. "Don dush maahl bef yul, brovahk shuun delf yeesh dahn" which in future time could be translated to the words "You may not hear us, but you will see us." And with that, temples rose with the ancient symbols of dragon and beast, fighting alongside one another as a promising future they hoped oh so much for.

For the Naga explorers, life began to take a new and interesting turn. They had not expected for these new creatures, which eventually explained to the Naga, over many attempts to cross the bridges between their languages that they were called Shlievek, to be both peaceful and welcoming. The small party of Naga warriors quickly set up their own small community, in a series of both underwater and air bubbled tunnels. Eventually Captain Vurkul sent back a small number of Naga to relay the events over the last few weeks of the time with the Shlievek, and to send his recommendation that they become sos-fron, blood-kin, the highest form of friendship the Naga could offer, and had not had reason to offer since the time of the separate city states.

Though this message was indeed relayed to the Emperor Kaluas, it was later that day intercepted by the Master of Might, who was outraged that his suggestion for conquering the Shlievek was ignored, Kaluas had fully accepted Vurkuls suggestion of open peace and the messengers were to send this word back the exploration party, who were attempt to find a place for a Naga colony amongst the sub-terrain people. The Master of Might gathered together two hundred of his loyal followers, for in truth he could find no others who he would trust enough to betray the rulings of the Emperor and set out just a day after the messengers. However, even this number had some semblance of loyalty to the Emperor, and so the messengers were warned of the attack and swiftly carried the news back to Vurkul.

The captain knew there that his small group of only 60 warriors were no match of the Master of Mights far more elite force and he quickly went to the Shlievek for aide, for if the Naga explorers were killed and the Master survived, he would return to the Empire with a tale of the Shlievek slaying the explorers and the race would be plunged into war. Realising the threat for as great as it truly was, he attempted to with as great speed as possible warn the Shlievek as much as he could, before the Master arrived for battle.