The Flame Casts Two Shadows:
Westlock and Ivarium's Roots, Part 2
For the past half millenium, trade, politics and culture have rotated around the two major players of Etheria: Westlock, the monolith of light and justice, and Ivarium, the sword that never forgets. But roll back time 500 years, to a time before the end of the Infernal Interregnum (the Demon Wars) and the signing of the Mage Wars Accords. There was no Westlock, Ivarium -- there was only the Pellian Empire, the largest single empire Etheria has ever known. This second of a three part series will explore the roots of Westlock and Ivarium, of particular note in light of current world events.
Before the Demon Wars and the forces of Adramelech laid waste to the heart of the empire (modern day Salenia), The Pellian Empire was a bright shining jewel. Not since Etheria's Golden Age had commerce, the arts, magecraft and learning been everywhere and accessible to those who wished to indulge in them.
The capital of the Pellian Empire was Pellia City, the city secretly built as a large scale pentagram, which powered the Gate to Hell and the invasion of demonkind. Radiating outward from Pellia City were the Shaggazora, a collection of sattelite cities that functioned as hubs for the arts and centers of learning, each beautifully cultivated and populated with buildings and estates often owned by the wealthy or the politically connected. The Shaggazora paid a heavy price during the Occupation, and today only Maradon and Iklosas can boast more than a few architectural remnants from a once oppulent way of life. (Coincidentally, the name of the zombie [mwcard=DNC12]Shaggoth-Zora[/mwcard] is corruption of the name Shaggazora, a zombie that functions based on incorporating the life of other zombies nearby.)
The west of the Pellian Empire was the province of Westlock. It's idyllic landscape and fertile plains made it the breadbasket of the Empire. Though travel was not overly dangerous, the distances to the farther reaches of Westlock (today Westmarch, the area close to Sortilege) were quite long, and the news and culture of the capital disseminated much more slowly. In general, Westlock was a place of farms, orchards, and temples, a quiet place that seemed less inclined to the politics of the capital, and more inclined to the practical matters of building, improving, and stewardship.
The east of the Pellian Empire was the province of Ivarium. Ivarium was an early conquest of the Pellian Empire, but even before it was conquered, it's people were hard, with a military bent, forged from centuries of conflicts with the southern desert kingdoms of Dsjer-Tet and their Pharoahs. The Pellian Empire conquered Ivarium, then quickly assimilated its troops into its own fighting forces. Together, with the full might of the Pellian Empire, much of Dsjer-Tet was brought into the fold as well. Still, when taken as a whole, Ivarium's background was a long list of conflict after conflict. Even after the dust settled on the desert conquests, Ivarium remained the Pellian Empire's training ground for military might, and its staging ground for campaigns across Etheria to expand the might of the empire. The Ivarium Legions served as the backbone for Pellian stability - and during the Demon Wars, they were the shield that kept the Infernian forces from overrunning the entire land.
When the Portal was open and Adramalech and his forces stepped foot on Etherian soil, he did so knowing the the Ivarium Legions were dispersed across the land, as part of several campaigns. While the Legions still in Ivarium were able to implement a wall to hold the forces back, Pellia City and the Shaggazora quickly fell. The provice of Westlock would probably have been next, had it not been for one of Etheria's greatest heroes -- the General Terius Meraveran, commander of the 7th Pellian Legion, whose forces happened to be at the eastern edge of the Westlock border. Withouth Meraveran's pluck, tenacity and resolve, there would be modern story of Etheria that did not involve subjugation by Infernal forces.
