Nightmare Imperium
From Codex Vocrotha
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End of the Golden Reign
Although the Golden Reign of the Kâlindur lasted a thousand years, only a few short decades marked the span from the beginning of their decline to their ultimate fall. Starting inexplicably in 1450 DR, regions began to splinter off, mainly on a racial basis. The Human duchy of Wellthane was the first to secede, declaring their independence in a bloody rebellion that left the entire Kâlind occupational force dead. The Zephriel and the Vasriel, always close allies, both ceased communications abruptly; when a military detachment was sent to Highbranch to investigate, only a fraction of the city was still in residence; the rest had disappeared, taking a fleet of ships and fleeing to an unknown destination in the uttermost South.
The Nightmare Begins
As various as the reasons were, the ultimate result was the same: by 1500 DR, the Golden Reign had at last dissolved, under the powerless hands of the last Kâlindur King, Griam Duskbane. Thârin and Rothdaur swiftly came under attack by the forces of the Lords of Night, collected under the joint banner of the Warlord, Paldor Daln, and the Archmage, Argauld Alearian. Mustering the Ur and many of the Humans so wronged by the Kâlindur, the Warlord and the Archmage also gathered a new people to them, the Gochin who had never before been seen, and whose ferocity in battle was unmatched. The Kâlindur, stout but never numerous, defended their holdings valiantly but in vain; they were no match for Night's onslaught. Thârin herself was sunk beneath the waves, and the air of Rothdaur so fouled that most of those who escaped died in the days that followed from a horrible hacking cough.
The remaining lands, either isolated or severely depopulated, quickly fell or surrendered to the twin banners of the Warlord and the Archmage; within a single year the whole of Dalkiar was claimed by the forces of Night. The two Champions crowned themselves Emperors, and thus was the period known as the Nightmare Imperium begun.
The Everlasting Imperium
Sadly, historic records of this period are scant, despite the length of the period and the exacting records reportedly kept by the Imperium governments and sub-governments. Although a literate and strictly administered Empire, the invasion and rebellion that would eventually slay the Archmage and unravel the Empire was conducted with such fierce passion that much, if not all, of those records associated with the reign of the Twin Emperors was destroyed.
Partly because the method of timekeeping instituted by the Archmage, the Phased Calendar (notated as PC) was incompatible with the standard method of timekeeping, Drakkhozhn Reckoning (DR), it is somewhat unclear as to precisely how long the Imperium lasted, and what few historic records still remain are impossible to place in a comprehensible timeline. Too, concerted and coordinated efforts in social conditioning, thought control and extensive brainwashing so turned the majority of those left under the rule of the twin Emperors into loyal subjects that, were it not for the longevity of the Vasriel, the Imperium might never have fallen.
The Nightmare Ends
Although the exact date is uncertain, at around 2400 DR, a vast fleet of fugitives, refugees from the conflagration in the Adaric Archipelagos, arrived on the southern shores of Dalkiar, near Highbranch. Led by a Tenebriel warrior named Eredil Lantradi, their numbers were great enough to pose a threat to the complacent Imperial army, and their resistance would culminate in the bloody destruction of the Imperium and the rise of the Throntorian Empire.
