A HISTORY OF EARWA updated through THE UNHOLY CONSULT

My History of Earwa PDF, a guide and story-so-far to Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse series, has now been updated through the events of The Unholy Consult. This will stand readers in good stead for when Bakker publishers the next book, whenever that might be. You can read or download the PDF here.

As before, thanks to Jason Deem for his amazing artwork which really fleshed out the project.

A HISTORY OF EARWA: PDF version available

You can download a free PDF of my 146-page History of Earwa series here. This is an updated version of the same article series that ran on this blog last year and earlier this year, with some extra information and all compiled into a single handy document.

There are no spoilers for The Unholy Consult, so you can use the document as a super-detailed way of getting up to speed ahead of the arrival of the novel at the start of July.

The artwork is by the excellent Jason Deem, aka SpiralHorizon.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

A History of Eärwa Part 7: The Great Ordeal

Part 1 can be found here.

SPOILER WARNING: THIS ENTRY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST THREE NOVELS OF THE ASPECT-EMPEROR SERIES.

Drusas Achamian, former sorcerer of the Mandate and now the only Wizard of the Three Seas.

At one time Drusas Achamian was an agent of the Mandate, a sorcerer haunted by dreams of Seswatha, hero of the First Apocalypse, and by fears that the Second was coming. During the chaotic swirl of the Holy War he found a man whom he believed could save humanity and lead it to victory over the ancient foe, the Unholy Consult. Anasûrimbor Kellhus led the Holy War to victory, but in doing so he stole away Achamian’s love, Esmenet, and subverted the religious fervour, faith and love of millions to build himself an empire.

Faced with the choice of kneeling to the Aspect-Emperor or repudiating him, Achamian chose the latter. Unimpeded, at the Aspect-Emperor’s express command, Achamian fled into the wilds of Galeoth, erecting a tower to live in solitude and meditate on one question: “Who is the Aspect-Emperor?”

A History of Eärwa Part 6: The Unification Wars

Part 1 can be found here.

Word of the great victory at Shimeh spread to all the corners of the Three Seas. The Holy War had triumphed. The heathen Fanim had been put to rout and the Holy City restored to the Faithful. But even more remarkable were the stories that accompanied the news. A new leader had emerged from the ranks of the Holy War. He had survived death, performed great miracles and pulled the battered, bloodied remnants of the crusade to a victory against odds unthinkable. Here was a story from the very Sagas brought to life.

Anasûrimbor Kellhus was born in 4076 in Ishuäl. A Dûnyain monk, he left his home in 4109 at the command of his order, to search for his father whom it had feared had gone mad amongst the Worldborn. By 4112 he had joined and conquered the Holy War, mastered the Gnosis and been crowned Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas, the greatest - and most reviled - figure in history since Triamis the Great.

Anasûrimbor Kellhus was proclaimed the Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas by the Shriah of the Thousand Temples. Tens of thousands of Men of the Tusk, forged in the burning heat of the Great Carathay and tempered on the battlefields of Caraskand and Shimeh, swore themselves his eternal subjects, his Zaudunyani, the “Tribe of Truth”. Even three of the sorcerous schools (the Imperial Saik, the Scarlet Spires and the Mandate) had sworn to his service. His victory, his rule, seemed unquestionable.

But history is never so simple. Across the Three Seas there was shock that this man, this prince of nothing, had come out of nowhere and seemingly subverted the Holy War to his own ends. Many dismissed him as a fraudster, or even a Ciphrang, a demon from the Outside sent to lead men to their destruction. Some who may have been tempted to hear him were disgusted to hear that he preached of the threat of the Consult and the Inchoroi: children’s stories that no-one but those doddering old fools in Atyersus took seriously. Armies were summoned, swords forged and bows strung as the opponents of the new Aspect-Emperor, the Orthodox, braced themselves for war. Likewise, Maithanet’s support for Kellhus had shattered the Thousand Temples, leading to many priests – the Schismatics – taking up arms in defence of the faith.

Only one nation declared for Kellhus in its totality: Conriya, united under the rule of Nersei Proyas. Every other nation splintered, the entire caste-nobility of the Three Seas divided. Provinces and palatinates and principalities declared for or against Kellhus, often depending on the zeal of their troops and rulers still encamped with the Holy War around Shimeh. Most of civilised Eärwa teetered on the brink of civil war, moreso in the Nansurium after the unexpected deaths of both Emperor Ikurei Xerius and his heir, Ikurei Conphas, on campaign, with no heirs left to them.

But the Holy War was not done. Refreshed, reinforced (by the Mandate and other sorcerers flocking to Kellhus’s banner) and resupplied, the Holy War struck south and west into Kian proper. The long war had exhausted the fighting strength of the Fanim and they could offer no effective resistance. Fanayal ab Kascamandri was unable to rally his people and melted away into the Carathay Desert. By the end of 4113 the Holy War had seized Nenciphon and installed the Emperor and Empress in the White-Sun Palace. Many soldiers formerly loyal to the Empire now switching their loyalty to Anasûrimbor Kellhus. Massar ab Kascamandri, the brother of Fanayal, underwent the Whelming, the spiritual induction into the ranks of the Zaudunyani, and swore his entire nation to the service of Kellhus.

In 4114 Kellhus published a tract on sorcery. The Novum Arcanum attracted great attention for its revelations and insights into sorcery and logic. The following year Kellhus announced a great gathering of sorcerers from across Eärwa and they came in unprecedented numbers to learn from him and hear his great Rehabilitation of Sorcery. All Shrial and Tusk condemnations of the practice were rescinded and sorcerers were no longer held to be anathema. Through such acts Kellhus won every sorcerer of rank and power in Eärwa (save one) to his side, the sorcerous schools united under his banner.

A witch of the Swayal Compact. Steeped in the Gnosis and outstripping the other Schools in sheer numbers, the Swayal may be the most powerful force in Eärwa save only the Aspect-Emperor himself.

Kellhus also made his second great proclamation: the Manumission of the Feminine. All limitations – legal, spiritual or moral – placed on the comportment of women were struck down. Women now had full equal rights to men across the Three Seas. This was initially a more controversial declaration, and seized upon by Kellhus’s opponents as proof of his madness, but it was also popular amongst, of course, the women of the Three Seas, particular with regard to inheritance and property rights. Even more dramatic was that the combination of the two declarations effectively ended the ban on women joining the Few. For centuries women wielding sorcery had been scorned as witches, burned at the stake or stoned to death even by those men who trafficked with sorcerers themselves. Now they were allowed to come out of the shadows, in numbers which caught the men of the Three Seas by surprise.

Even more breathtaking was what Kellhus did for these women: he commanded the Mandate to instruct them in the ways of the Gnosis, and gave to them the abandoned Cûnuroi Mansion of Illisserû in Holy Amoteu as their stronghold, now renamed Orovelai. He made them a simple promise, to support and empower them in return for their support in turn. This became known as the Swayal Compact, the name also taken by the witches (a name many of them now wore with pride). Within a decade their knowledge and mastery of the Gnosis rivalled that of the Mandate and their numbers far outstripped them.

Kellhus won loyalty, even fanatical and maddened loyalty, in his own way. Within a year of the fall of Nenciphon, his missionary-zealots had begun making their way across the Three Seas. They became known as the Zaudûn Angnaya, the “floating college” of young aspirants who learned from Kellhus whenever they could. They sought to persuade through argument, reason and, whenever that failed, conviction. Horrified stories spread amongst the Orthodox of “suicide sermons”, when Angnaya would slit their own throats in front of the vast crowds to prove their absolute faith. At first they used such demonstrations as proof of Kellhus’s danger and insanity, but the unshakeable faith and certitude of the zealots shook the Orthodox, who had no spiritual answer for them.

The Unification Wars. Between the fall of Shimeh in 4112, at the end of the Holy War, and the capitulation of Nilnamesh in 4122, Anasûrimbor Kellhus conquered the entire Three Seas, eventually being decreed its political, military, religious and sorcerous leader: its Aspect-Emperor. More than 75 million people lived and died at his command.

By the end of 4114 war had come: the Fanim inspired a massive uprising in Shigek, but this had been crushed by Rash Soptet, Lord of the Sempis. The growing rift in the Thousand Temples erupted in bloodletting, the War-between-Temples. Nilnamesh, long separated from its Inrithi brethren by the width of the Kian Empire, also declared against Kellhus.

In 4115 Prince Shoddû Akirapita assembled a large army in Nilnamesh and moved to defend the border. The Zaudunyani were defeated at the Battle of Pinropis, to their surprise. Kellhus took time to regroup, during which time his allies achieved greater victories: in 4116 Coithus Narnol declared for Kellhus and delivered Galeoth almost intact to his banner. King Hringa Vûkyelt likewise unified Thunyerus in Kellhus’s name and expelled the Schismatics from the kingdom. The following year both Ce Tydonn and High Ainon became divided in a bitter civil war, followed by the declaration of Ce Tydonn for Kellhus in 4118. Cironj also fell in this year.

High Ainon presented Kellhus with a major problem: the nation was vast and unruly at the best of times but unified in its fear of the Scarlet Spires. But the Holy War had almost destroyed the order altogether, with barely a dozen sorcerers-of-rank surviving the conflagration at Shimeh. To their humiliation, Kellhus award the Mandate command of Kiz, the former Scarlet Spires stronghold in Carythusal. From there the Mandate was able to bring the rule of the Aspect-Emperor to lower Ainon, but the full capitulation of the kingdom took longer. In 4120 the Sack of Sarneveh took place, Kellhus himself leading the capture of the city. Although successful, the Toll of casualties (a meticulous accounting of the cost of victory) recorded more than five thousand children slain. This news escaped the city, encouraging further resistance to Kellhus. However, by the end of 4121 High Ainon had fallen and declared for Kellhus.

At this point, a curiosity took place, one which even the most fanatical Zaudunyani have struggled to reconcile with their extolling of Kellhus as a messenger of the divine. Following the conquest of High Ainon, Kellhus spent four months in Kiz as a student of Heramari Iyokus, the famed Blind Necromancer and a master practitioner of the Daimos, the sorcerous art of communing with demons. At the end of this tutelage Kellhus emerged with the two grotesque heads of demons bound to his hip by their hair: the Decapitants. Kellhus demurred on explaining their origin, often ignoring the question altogether. Rumour said that the Aspect-Emperor had somehow plumbed the very Hells themselves and returned with the heads of trophies of war, and to remind the Aspect-Emperor of the fate awaiting all those who were damned.

Also in 4121, the Nilnameshi capital of Invishi had finally fallen to the Zaudunyani. However, Prince Akirapita refused to capitulate, gathering a new army. It was not until this army was destroyed at the Battle of Ushgarwal in 4122 and the Prince slain (his body was found in a well in Girgash in 4123) that Nilnamesh could finally be said to have been brought into the fold. This left only Fanayal ab Kascamandri out of the Aspect-Emperor’s many foes, and his forces were reduced to a few tribesfolk of the Great Salt.

The Unification Wars were declared over in 4122. Maithanet, having won the War-between-Temples, crowned Anasûrimbor Kellhus the Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas in Momemn, which Kellhus had taken as his capital.  Kellhus and his wife, Esmenet, now had several children – Kayûtas (b. 4112), Theliopa (b. 4114, in Nenciphon), Serwa (b. 4115) and Inrilatas (b. 4117) – and more would follow, the twins Kelmomas and Samarmas (both b. 2124). They had also adopted the son of Cnaiür urs Skiötha and Serwë, Moënghus II (b. 4111) as their own. The result was that they had already established a dynasty, one with the power to rule the Three Seas for generations to come.

But the new goal of the Anasûrimbor family was not to simply rule. Kellhus declared war on Golgotterath and the Unholy Consult. He declared his goal was to destroy the dread Ark and cast down its Golden Horns forever. His purpose was to forestall the return of the No-God, prevent the Second Apocalypse and to save the World itself. To this end he commanded the establishing of the greatest army in human history. Swords and armour were forged on a titanic scale. Horses were bred in their tens of thousands. Supply caches were established in the northern Empire, near the Kathol Pass leading to the vast Istyuli Plains. Sorcerers were called to train and learn as they never had before, and to prepare for the war to come, which would be known as the Great Ordeal. 

Credits

The artwork for this article was created by Jason Deem, known as Spiral Horizon, and used with his permission. You can find more of his spectacular work here. The maps are from Scott's website, adjusted by myself.

The Prince of Nothing Wiki was helpful in providing spelling checks and putting the timeline of events in better order.

Scott Bakker wrote the Second Apocalypse novels, for which this history is merely the backdrop and the scene-setting that comes before. Those novels are:

The Prince of Nothing

The Darkness That Comes Before (2003)

The Warrior-Prophet (2004)

The Thousandfold Thought (2005)

The Aspect-Emperor

The Judging Eye (2008)

The White-Luck Warrior (2011)

The Great Ordeal (2016)

The Unholy Consult (2017)

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

A History of Eärwa Part 5: The Holy War

After the great disaster at Eleneöt Fields and the resulting fall of Kûniüri, the house of Anasûrimbor was presumed destroyed and its line extinguished. But this was not so. Anasûrimbor Ganrelka survived the disaster and managed to escape to Trysë. There he gathered his household and retreated to Ishuäl, the stronghold that Celmomas II had constructed high in the Demua Mountains as a last redoubt. After their arrival, a sickness spread through the refugees and killed them all, one by one, until only Ganrelka's bastard son and his court poet, a man of dubious repute, survived. The poet was hurled to his death from the ramparts of the fortress by the young boy, but the prospects for his survival were bleak. Only the arrival of more survivors saved him.

The Holy War was declared by Maithanet, the Shriah of the Thousand Temples, in Sumna in the spring of 4110 Year-of-the-Tusk. The vast army spent almost a year gathering in and around Momemn before departing in 4111. Shimeh fell to the Men of the Tusk over a year later, in the late spring of 4112. The most important battles were at Mengedda, Anwurat, Caraskand and Shimeh itself.

These survivors called themselves the Dûnyain. Their true origins are unknown, but are theorised to lie in the ecstatic sects that arose across the Ancient North prior to the Apocalypse, prioritising reason and intellect ahead of passion, sentiment or emotion. They believed that true volition and control - a union with the Absolute - could only come through the Logos, or reason unmarred by sentiment, and the ability to adapt to circumstances rather than clinging to them out of ideology or obstinacy. Their primary belief was that if a person can master "what comes before", they can control and predict all the outcomes that follow. Before the Apocalypse they were, reluctantly, part of the world and its problems. But, fleeing the shadow of the No-God, they stumbled across Ishuäl. Its utter isolation gave them a chance to fulfil what they saw as their destiny.

The Dûnyain and Ishuäl fell out of history for almost two thousand years. Left alone in the high peaks, they continued to develop their skills of reading faces and voices and developing the skills of pure reason. Things may have stayed that way, but in the 4070s Year-of-the-Tusk they were discovered by a roving band of Sranc, unusually driven into the high peaks. The Dûnyain destroyed these creatures, not knowing what they were (having lost their own history along the way). Concerned that Ishuäl's location had been compromised, they selected one of their number to go out into the world and investigate. They chose Anasûrimbor Moënghus.

Anasûrimbor Moënghus after blinding himself and becoming a Cishaurim, known as Mallahet. His lack of emotion and passion meant that he was unable to fully master the Water of Indara.

 

Moënghus's exploration of the outside world confirmed that Ishuäl remained safe, and that the lands were filled with these ravaging Sranc for hundreds of miles in all directions bar to the south, where a city of men known as Atrithau lay at the feet of the Demua Mountains. The Dûnyain were satisfied that they were secure, but became convinced that Moënghus had been "polluted" by his contact with the outside world. He was accordingly sentenced to die.

Moënghus survived the execution order and fled into exile. He travelled south, past Atrithau and across the Sranc-infested lands of Suskara to reach the Jiünati Steppe. There he was captured by the Utemot tribe of the Scylvendi and forced into servitude in the household of their chief, Skiötha urs Hannut. Moënghus had soon seduced Skiötha's wife and turned his son Cnaiür against him. Cnaiür murdered his father, securing his leadership of the Utemot, but Moënghus soon departed, disguised as a Scylvendi warrior. Cnaiür, realising the depth of his betrayal, became enraged and vowed vengeance. Moënghus passed south into the Kianene Empire but was soon taken prisoner and sold into slavery.

Again, Moënghus rose to a position of power and influence. He travelled to the Holy City of Shimeh to learn the Psûkhe, the ways of channelling the Water of Indara, but even after putting out his eyes he discovered that he was unable to use more than a trickle of sorcery. Too late, he realised that the Psûkhe relied on passion to empower it, the very trait the Dûnyain had bred out of themselves. However, in this process of trying to master the Water he also trained his other senses to compensate. During a discussion with one man, he noted many discrepancies in his manner of speech that could not be explained by simple lying or emotion. He subjected this man to torture and eventually discovered the truth: the man was a "skin-spy", a creation of the Consult. For three centuries, since the last Consult agent was publicly slain by the Mandate, the Consult had infiltrated these creatures into positions of power across the Three Seas as part of their plan to bring about the Second Apocalypse. Moënghus learned from the skin-spy that the Consult believed they could resurrect the No-God and unleash the end of the world in a matter of decades, at best.

For three centuries the Consult infiltrated the Three Seas through the use of their skin-spies, such as this one taking the appearance of Esmenet of Sumna. The skin-spies were defeated by Dûnyain analytic conditioning, which allowed them to be identified through inconsistencies in their skin and bone structure.

Moënghus determined that the destruction of the world would not be an optimal outcome for the Dûnyain struggling to master the Logos and it should be prevented. He sent in motion a multi-pronged plan to this end. He had sired a number of children by world-born women but all but one of them had shown significant defects, abnormalities and mutations (the Dûnyain had experimented on themselves in far Ishuäl and may not be considered entirely human any more). He had them all put to death apart from one: Maithanet. Although not a true Dûnyain, Maithanet was intelligent and canny with considerable skills at manipulation. Moënghus ordered him to enter the Thousand Temples in Sumna and rise to a position of power and influence. Maithanet complied, within a matter of years rising far through the religious orders thanks to his intellect, reason and expertly-feigned religious fervour.

As Maithanet rose high in the ranks of the Temples, Moënghus used the little of the Psûkhe he had mastered to send a Cant of Calling to Ishuäl. Speaking to the Dûnyain in their dreams, he demanded that they send his son, Kellhus, to his side. The Dûnyain debated and decided that Moënghus had gone insane and was a danger to the security of their order. Anasûrimbor Kellhus was dispatched with a simple mission: to find and kill Moënghus. The Dûnyain knew he dwelt in a distant city called Shimeh, but nothing beyond that.

In the rest of the Three Seas, controversy had arisen around the rise of the hitherto unknown Maithanet to the rank of Shriah of the Thousand Temples. Maithanet exposed and defeated three plans to assassinate him, and using his considerable charisma and power he soon had the fractious religious leaders of Inrithism unified as they had not been in centuries. The leaders of the Mandate learned that Maithanet planned to announce a Holy War, but they feared this would be directed against the sorcerous schools. They ordered one of their number, a worldly agent called Drusas Achamian, to travel to Sumna to investigate further.

In Sumna Achamian reunited with his lover, a prostitute named Esmenet, as well as several political allies. They awaited the news of the Holy War's target and were relieved to learn that it was to be directed against the heathen Fanim of Kian. As thousands of warriors from across the northern and eastern Three Seas converged on the Nansur Empire, which guarded the frontier with Kian, a shocking alliance was announced: the Thousand Temples had forged an agreement with the Scarlet Spires, the sorcerous rulers of High Ainon, to provide a counterbalance to the Fanim Cishaurim (with whom the Spires had been fighting a secret war for a dozen years). These great and unthinkable events saw Achamian ordered to accompany the Holy War and spy on it for the Mandate.

Meanwhile, the Nansur Empire had instigated a military confrontation with the Scylvendi. At the Battle of Kiyuth, early in 4110 Year-of-the-Tusk, a Nansur army under Exalt-General Ikurei Conphas, the nephew and heir to the Emperor, defeated a significant Scylvendi army under the overconfident King-of-Tribes, Xunnurit. The defeat was unprecedented, the Scylvendi driven from the field in disarray with tremendous loss of life and Xunnurit taken in chains back to Momemn. Among those forced to flee the battlefield was Cnaiür urs Skiötha. In the years since the betrayal of Anasûrimbor Moënghus, Cnaiür had become the chieftain of the Utemot, famed for his both his savage intelligence and his unrelenting skill at war, the self-declared "Most Violent of All Men", but despised for the perceived treachery against his father. In the aftermath of Kiyuth, Cnaiür visited the graves of his ancestors only to find a wounded man of the north, surrounded by hordes of dead Sranc. Helping him heal, he learned that this man was Anasûrimbor Kellhus, travelling to south to kill his father, the hated Moënghus. Cnaiür decided to travel with Kellhus to help him achieve this goal. Crossing the steppe and approaching the Nansur border, they slaughtered a band of Scylvendi slavers and freed a young woman named Serwë. Serwë revealed that the armies of the Three Seas were gathering around Momemn, the capital of the Nansur Empire, in preparation for the gruelling march on Shimeh, eight hundred miles or more to the south.

The Holy War gathered its strength, tens of thousands of soldiers - Men of the Tusk - marching from Galeoth and Thunyerus, Ce Tydonn and Conriya, High Ainon and the Nansurium itself. However, the Nansur Emperor, Ikurei Xerius III, saw a chance to manipulate the Holy War to his own purpose. He agreed to provide the Holy War with his armies, the support of his sorcerous school, the Imperial Saik, and the leadership of his famed general Ikurei Conphas, in return that the lands conquered by the Holy War should be returned to Nansur control, as the heir to Cenei. This demand proved incompatible with the notion of a Holy War fought for one religious purpose, with thousands of troops from other nations potentially slaughtered for the gain of the Emperor in Momemn. As the debate raged, the first contingent of the arriving armies decided to march on Shimeh immediately rather than wait for the rest of the host to assemble. The so-called Vulgar Holy War was destroyed at the Fourth Battle of Mengedda, the heads of its leaders sent back to Momemn. Xerius attempted to use this knowledge to press home the need for experienced Nansur leadership in the war to come.

During this controversy, Cnaiür, Kellhus and Serwë arrived at the city, as well as Drusas Achamian, who had attached himself to the retinue of Krijates Xinemus, the Marshal of Attrempus. In his youth, Achamian had served as tutor to Crown Prince Nersei Proyas of Conriya. Although Proyas loved Achamian, he became a devoted follower of Inrithism and severed his ties with the schoolman, whom he considered damned. Although Proyas refused to talk to Achamian as their retinue marched on Momemn, he permitted Achamian to travel with them under Xinemus's parole. Achamian and Proyas met the three strangers from the north and Proyas saw an opportunity to outflank the Emperor's unreasonable demands.

Meanwhile, in Sumna, Esmenet was visited by a man who somehow bewitched and seduced her to gain intelligence on Achamian's activities. Horrified by the ease of the man's success and believing that he may be linked to the Consult, Esmenet travelled to Momemn to try to find and warn Achamian. Along the way she was almost stoned to death in an Nansur village for bearing the caste-mark of a prostitute, but was saved by a Shrial Knight named Sarcellus. He offered her protection on the road to Momemn.

In Momemn the leaders of the Holy War gathered to discuss the situation. To everybody's shock, Nersei Proyas proposed that the Holy War accept Cnaiür as their battle commander. Cnaiür had helped engineer a great Scylvendi victory over the Kianene at the Battle of Zirkirta several years earlier and knew the ways of their mutual enemy. Cnaiür also unexpectedly acquitted himself well in a verbal battle of wits with Ikurei Conphas (Ikurei was unaware that Cnaiür had overheard his victory speech after Kiyuth and was able to turn his own arguments back against him). Kellhus, posing as a Prince of Atrithau who had foreseen the Holy War in his dreams, offered a reasoned analysis of the situation which cut to the heart of the matter, whether the Holy War should be polluted to worldly, political and unholy ends by the Emperor. The assembled nobles agreed to accept Cnaiür as their commander and the delegate of the Holy Shriah commanded the Emperor to provision as the Holy War as required under religious order. Outmanoeuvred, the Emperor was forced to stand down. So as not to appear petty, he also allowed the imperial forces to join the Holy War under Ikurei's command. However, during the meeting Kellhus visually identified one of the delegates, Skeaös, as having something wrong with his face. The Emperor noted Kellhus's interest and had Skeaös seized and interrogated. In this way, the Emperor came to learn of the existence of the skin-spies, and that the mad old stories of the Mandate may have some truth to them.

The Holy War marched from the Nansur Empire, crossing the mountainous frontier with the northernmost Kianene province of Gedea. However, attempts to delay the march to allow consolidation of the main army with late-arriving elements met with disapproval from the leading forces, most notably Prince Coithus Saubon and his headstrong forces from Galeoth. On the advice of Kellhus, whose intelligence, keen analysis and prophetic dreams were the talk of the army, Saubon marched and secured an early victory at Mengedda. This battle was hard-fought, with many of the Shrial Knights slain and the Kianene only withdrawing once the bulk of the rest of the Holy War arrived, but the victory enhanced Saubon's position and made him more trusting of Kellhus.

The rest of the Holy War consolidated. Esmenet was reunited with Achamian, who, in violation of Mandate law, declared her his wife, but Kellhus immediately identified Sarcellus as a skin-spy. He chose not to give this information away, knowing it risked exposing himself as well.

Gedea and the northern half of Shigek fell to the Holy War, the Kianene armies retreating south of the Sempis. Kellhus gave a series of sermons under the famed Ziggurats of Shigek which attracted thousands of listeners. More than a few of the army began to refer to him as the Warrior-Prophet.

Drusas Achamian, a sorcerer of the Mandate, turns the Gnosis against his captors from the Scarlet Spires.

Achamian taught Kellhus in the ways of the world, finding him a quick and formidable study in history, mathematics and philosophy. Achamian soon discovered that Kellhus was one of the Few and could use sorcery, but refused to betray his school by teaching him the Gnosis. Torn by his respect for Kellhus, his desire for Esmenet and his loyalty to the Mandate, Achamian sought solitude to think things through, but was captured by the Scarlet Spires. The Spires had long desired mastery of the Gnosis, which eclipsed their own sorcery, and had now learned of the existence of the skin-spies. Eleäzaras, the master of the Spires, put Achamian to the question, even blinding his friend Xinemus to try to get Achamian to talk. He failed: part of Seswatha's gift to his school was an immunity to torture so the secrets of the Gnosis could never be surrendered. Achamian was eventually able to escape and turn the full might of the Gnosis upon his captors.

The Holy War marched on without Achamian (an absence that caused Esmenet great distress), crossing the Sempis Delta and fighting a major battle under the fortress walls of Anwurat. Despite heavy losses the Men of the Tusk prevailed and marched on into Khemema. This was the most dangerous part of the journey, as Khemema was where the Great Carathay Desert met the Meneanor Sea. No food grew there and no water could be found. The Holy War had to brave the desert coastlands southwards for almost two hundred miles. To survive the crossing the army had to be resupplied with food and water by the Imperial Nansur navy. But the Kianene Padirajah had anticipated this move and deployed the Kianene fleet to intercept. In a great battle in Trantis Bay, the Nansur armada was defeated and put to rout. The Holy War was cut off from succour and left to die in the burning wastes.

But the Holy War survived. Anasûrimbor Kellhus found great reserves of water far below the desert sands and the army was saved, although much-reduced. The army burst from the desert and besieged the great, ancient mercantile city of Caraskand. Although ravaged by disease and starvation, the Holy War was able to take the city, helped by treachery, and sacked it savagely. No sooner was this done, however, than the Padirajah himself took to the field. Kascamandri ab Tepherokar led a vast army out of the south to besiege Caraskand and starve the Men of the Tusk into surrender or death.

Around this time Kellhus received a message from his father, borne by a Cishaurim. Moënghus told Kellhus that soon he would grasp the Thousandfold Thought. The nature of this concept eluded Kellhus, save it was an extension of the Dûnyain method of foretelling future events through probability trances, predicting the future by mastering what comes before. He was forced to execute the Cishaurim to maintain his cover before he could learn more.

The Holy War had become torn between traditional Inrithi, led by Sarcellus and Ikurei Conphas, and those who revered Kellhus as the Warrior-Prophet. The former became known as the Orthodox and the latter, led by Nersei Proyas and Coithus Saubon but with Esmenet placed high in their ranks, as the Zaudunyani, the Tribe of Truth. The tensions between the two sides rose resulting in a failed assassination attempt on Kellhus and a failed counter-assassination attempt on Sarcellus and Conphas. The chaos finally resulted in a trial. Sarcellus and Conphas won this trial and had Kellhus denounced as a false prophet. Serwë, whom Kellhus had taken as wife, was executed and her body was tied to Kellhus, who was then hung upside down from a tree on a massive iron ring, a circumfix. Achamian returned at this point, learning that Esmenet was pregnant by Kellhus (and that Serwë has borne a son, named Moënghus for Kellhus's father, given to Esmenet to raise). Furious, he confronted the dying Kellhus only to be told that many skin-spies had infiltrated the Holy War and only Kellhus could identify them. Reluctantly, Achamian begged for Kellhus's release but was rebuffed by Ikurei Conphas.

But in this moment Cnaiür exposed Sarcellus as a Consult skin-spy by defeating him in battle and severing his head. This causes the creature's face to return to its normal appearance, to the horror of the witnesses. The Holy War repented, lowering Kellhus from the Circumfix to find that he had survived. During his ordeal Kellhus had nearly been broken, weeping and having visions of the Apocalypse, including hearing the voice of the No-God. He recovered swiftly.

The Warrior-Prophet, now hailed as something more than a man, led the Men of the Tusk from Caraskand in a direct assault on the Padirajah's army and, despite their starved frames and lesser numbers, defeated it, with Kellhus himself killing Kascamandri. Fanayal, Kascamandri's son, was declared the new Padirajah and fled the field with as many surviving Kianene forces as possible. The Holy War had triumphed and the road to Shimeh lay open.

At this time the Consult descended upon the Ancient North. From the Neleöst to the Cerish Sea and beyond hordes of Sranc suddenly acted with purpose, turning on remote tribes of men who had survived - or been allowed to survive - on the Plains of Gâl or the Istyuli Plains. Caravans daring the great crossing from Sakarpus to Atrithau were taken prisoner and everywhere one question was asked, again and again: "Who are the Dûnyain?"

Rested and, to an extent, resupplied, the Holy War issued forth from Caraskand and marched south, though ancient Xerash and Amoteu. Kellhus, now universally accepted as the Warrior-Prophet, had grasped what his father called the Thousandfold Thought: a web of probability and consequence designed to defeat the Consult and halt the resurrection of the No-God and the destruction of the world. Kellhus again asked Achamian to teach him the Gnosis and this time Achamian complied. Kellhus told Achamian that the time for sorcerers to be hated and feared and damned was over. In addition, Cnaiür's public revelation of the skin-spy Sarcellus, Achamian's relating of the Celmomian Prophecy (confirming that an Anasûrimbor would return at the end of the world) and the awe that Kellhus was now held in combined to convince the Men of the Tusk that the ancient stories were true: the Consult was real and working to bring about the return of the No-God. The Mandate overnight were transformed from a joke to prophets and guardians standing against the Second Apocalypse. At this time Maithanet himself visited Atyersus and forged an alliance with the Mandate, exposing several Consult skin-spies in their ranks.

Meanwhile, Cnaiür was given the task by Kellhus of arranging the death of Ikurei Conphas, whose mad dreams of becoming emperor and bringing about the rebirth of Cenei and Kyraneas now posed a threat to the Warrior-Prophet. The deed was to be done in the port city of Joktha, but Conphas turned a trap on Cnaiür and almost killed him. The Scylvendi was rescued by a detachment of Consult skin-spies, eager to win the allegiance of one of their former minions (the Scylvendi having fought for the Consult in the Apocalypse), and fled into the wake of the Holy War, with Conphas in pursuit.

Meppa, the most powerful Cishaurim to survive the Holy War.

The Holy War marched on. Mighty Gerotha, capital of Xerash, fell. To avoid a brutal sacking the masters of the city were commanded to killed four-tenths of the city's population. Twenty thousand were put to the sword to appease the Men of the Tusk. This example spread ahead of the Holy War and cities and fortresses and towns the length of Xerash and Amoteu threw open their gates to avoid the same fate. Fanayal's forces skirmished with the Holy War, eventually destroying their main scout formation, but ultimately had to fall back on Holy Shimeh, leaving the way open for one last push by the Holy War.

And at that moment, the Inchoroi came before Anasûrimbor Kellhus.

Using a vessel known as a Synthese, taking the form of his lover Esmenet, Aurang spoke to Kellhus, trying to divine the nature of the Dûnyain and that of Kellhus himself. Instead, it gave up more of itself and its goals. Kellhus learned that the Inchoroi considered themselves a race of lovers, consumed by appetites of the flesh. This was their nature and they were damned for it by the metaphysics of the universe, condemned by the Hundred Gods to burn for all eternity in scouring fire. To avoid this fate the Inchoroi had to rob the Gods of their belief, the thing that gave them substance, and the only way to do this was to destroy the source of that belief: the people of the world. By slaughtering the population of the world and bringing about the return of the No-God, the Inchoroi would seal shut the world from the Outside (the domain of the Gods), barring it from the view and the judgement of the gods. Only then could the Inchoroi die, satisfied that they would not suffer eternal damnation as their slain kin had and as sorcerers still did.

Kellhus gave little in return, but told Aurang that the No-God spoke to him in his dreams, that Mog-Pharau blamed the Inchoroi and the Consult for his defeat on the plains of Mengedda and he would have his revenge.

The confrontation yielded little useful intelligence for the Consult, but it served to distract Kellhus whilst an attempt was made on Achamian's life, to deny Kellhus the Gnosis. This also failed.

The Holy War reached Shimeh and prepared to assault the city. The Scarlet Spires summoned a Ciphrang, a demon of the Outside, to cause panic and terror in the city and divert the attention of the Cishaurim. A final push would ensure victory, but the Men of the Tusk were divided by the need for a rapid, final assault and the need for caution: less than a sixth of the forces that set out from Momemn over a year and a half earlier survived. Any prolonged siege or assault would sap their strength dangerously. At the moment of the great battle, however, Kellhus left them. He commended the battle to the valour of the Men of the Tusk, but he had a task to attend to elsewhere.

Kellhus struck west for Kyudea, an ancient and ruined city built near the remains of an old Nonman mansion. In that mansion Kellhus finally found his father: Anasûrimbor Moënghus, known to the Kianene as Mallahet. Moënghus told Kellhus that he knew that Kellhus's journey would open his eyes to the secrets and mysteries that he had encountered himself, setting out from Ishuäl thirty years earlier, and he set the Holy War in motion to clear the way for Kellhus's journey. However, Moënghus was unable to predict what would happen when the Holy War turned on Kellhus and tried to kill him. When Kellhus explained how he survived, through having visions of the Apocalypse and the No-God, Moënghus concluded that his son had been driven insane. Kellhus, as befitting a Dûnyain, analysed the possibility but rejected it.

Moënghus revealed that twelve years earlier the Cishaurim had discovered the first skin-spies. Reasoning they were the creations of the Scarlet Spires, they assassinated the Grandmaster Sasheoka, beginning a clandestine war between the two orders. He then interrogated the skin-spies and learned of the Consult and the threatened Second Apocalypse. Kellhus realised that if his father accepted that he was damned to eternal torment he may take the same view as the Inchoroi, that destroying humanity may be the only way to seal the Outside and end the threat. To remove the danger, Kellhus stabbed his father and then left, using a Cant of Transposition to transport himself to Shimeh.

In the meantime, Cnaiür had returned to the Holy War and sought out Achamian. He told the sorcerer of the Dûnyain and the true nature of both Kellhus and Moënghus. He and his skin-spy liberators then left, following Kellhus's trail to the dying Moënghus. Achamian tried to convince Esmenet to abandon Kellhus's cause but she refused.

Drusas Achamian uses the Gnosiss to defeat Zioz, a Ciphrang demon unleashed upon Shimeh by the Scarlet Spires.

The Holy War launched its assault on Shimeh. Initial successes turned sour when it was revealed that Fanayal and the Cishaurim had prepared a trap, allowing part of the Holy War to enter the city before trapping and destroying it. The ferocity of the Men-of-the-Tusk again took the Fanim by surprise, but their numbers were no longer enough to deliver them victory.

Ikurei Conphas's Nansur columns, pursuing Cnaiür, prepared to enter the fray. Having learned of the death of his uncle in Momemn, Conphas had declared himself Emperor and prepared to use his military might to end the threat of the Warrior-Prophet once and for all. However, Conphas overreached and was killed on the battlefield by Saubon. His forces were then redeployed against the Fanim of Kian, helping deliver a shocking defeat to them. Elsewhere on the field the Scarlet Spires, driven into an enraged frenzy to avenge their slain Grandmaster, drove the Cishaurim to the brink of defeat, aided by the late-arriving Imperial Saik. But victory was still poised on a knife's edge. It was only gained when Kellhus translocated himself into the midst of the last surviving Cishaurim, slaying them before they even knew what was happening.

The Warrior-Prophet delivered Shimeh to the Men of the Tusk.

For this last, great victory, Anasûrimbor Kellhus was proclaimed Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas, acclaimed so by the Holy Shriah, the Thousand Temples, the School of Mandate, and all the princes and kings who had followed the Holy War on its great journey. He was acclaimed by all...bar one.

Drusas Achamian came before his former pupil and repudiated him. He renounced his role as tutor and advisor to Kellhus, his place in the Mandate, he renounced his prophet and his wife before going into exile. Kellhus told him that the next time he came before the Aspect-Emperor, Drusas Achamian would kneel.

Credits

The artwork for this article was created by Jason Deem, known as Spiral Horizon, and used with his permission. You can find more of his spectacular work here. The maps are from Scott's website, adjusted by myself.

The Prince of Nothing Wiki was helpful in providing spelling checks and putting the timeline of events in better order.

Unlike the first part, I didn't request any new information for this third installment, so any errors or confusion are on my part.

Scott Bakker wrote the Second Apocalypse novels, for which this history is merely the backdrop and the scene-setting that comes before. Those novels are:

The Prince of Nothing

The Darkness That Comes Before (2003)

The Warrior-Prophet (2004)

The Thousandfold Thought (2005)

The Aspect-Emperor

 The Judging Eye (2008)

The White-Luck Warrior (2011)

The Great Ordeal (2016)

The Unholy Consult (2017)

 

There will be a final part recounting the story of the Great Ordeal and its struggle to reach Golgotterath, but that will not be written until before The Unholy Consult is published a year from now.

A History of Eärwa Part 4: The Modern Age

The Apocalypse destroyed the civilisation of the Ancient North. Two great cities, Atrithau and Sakarpus, had survived but otherwise all of the glories of the Norsirai had been lost and the surviving remnants of that once-great people pushed south into the Three Seas. Attempts to found new cities and settlements foundered under vast numbers of Sranc. Leaderless and without direction, they continued breeding, raiding and rampaging. With a truly vast amount of terrain to free range across, almost the entire northern half of the continent, their numbers could not be controlled and within a few centuries their numbers blanketed the earth. Fortunately, they showed no appetite for a concerted push into the Three Seas.

The borders of the Ceneian Empire after each major conquest: Gielgath (2349), Cepalor (by the 2390s), Shigek (2397), Xerash and Amoteu (2414), Nilnemesh (2483), Cingulat (2484), Amarah (2485), Cironj (2508), Nron (2511), Ainon (2518), Cengemis (2519) and Annand (2525). The latter conquests were carried out by Triamis I, the Great, the first Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas (2456-2577).

The fall of the No-God at the battlefield of Mengedda spelt the end of the Consult's plan to destroy the world, but not the Consult themselves. They retreated - according to some, taking the No-God's Carapace with them - and sought refuge in Golgotterath. With initially thousands and later millions of Sranc infesting all the lands between the Three Seas and the Yimaleti Mountains, the victorious armies of Kyraneas and their sorcerous allies were unable to pursue. The ravages of the Indigo Plague of 2157 soon exhausted what was left of Ketyai strength, already pushed to breaking point by decades of warfare and accompanied by the death of Anaxophus V shortly after the end of the war, led to the collapse of Kyraneas.

Seswatha survived the Apocalypse, in fact living until 2168 when he died at the age of 79. Shortly after the end of the Apocalypse, with the School of Sehonc effectively destroyed, he founded the Gnostic School of Mandate, based in the fortress of Atyersus on the island of Nron. A year later he founded Attrempus on the mainland to the north-east. Fearing that his successors would forget the lessons of the Apocalypse, Seswatha underwent a sorcerous ritual upon his death. His heart was extracted from his body and placed in a chamber in Atyersus. Every Mandate schoolman, upon joining the organisation, would undergo a ritual known as the Grasping. This ritual would transfer Seswatha's memories to him. Every night he would dream the details of Seswatha's life, the great battles, the descent into Golgotterath, the preparations for the Apocalypse and the final battle with the No-God. In this way the knowledge and fear of the Consult would live on. The Mandate scoured the Three Seas searching for Consult agents, occasionally exposing and destroying them. But for the most part the Consult seemed willing to remain in hiding in far Golgotterath.

Although the Ancient North and the northern Three Seas had been ravaged by the No-God, the southern nations remained untouched by the war. Amoteu, Shigek and Nilnamesh soon proved resurgent and the refounded city-states of the Kyranae Plains fell into internecine warfare, beginning the Age of Warring Cities (lasting approximately from 2158 to 2477 Year-of-the-Tusk). This period may well have seen a relapse into barbarism had not humanity found a new saviour.

Inri Sejenus, known to history as the Latter Prophet, was born in 2159. At a young age he claimed to be the pure incarnation of the Absolute Spirit ("the very proportion of the God") and to have been sent to amend the teachings of the Tusk. He argued for a fairer world and a willingness to embrace God in His singular aspect as well as that of the Hundred. The extant Kiünnat sects at first dismissed Sejenus as a fringe philosopher, but as he got older he attracted vast followings. His teachings were widely disseminated and his popularity boomed. In 2198 Sejenus was arrested and sentenced to death by King Shikol of Xerash. In 2202 the execution was carried out and Sejenus was put to death outside the city of Shimeh, in what had been Amoteu (at that point a subservient nation to Xerash). However, Shikol himself then died and it was said by the faithful the Sejenus returned to life and ascended to the Nail of Heaven.

Sejenus's movement, Inrithism, slowly spread throughout the Three Seas. It was fought against by the Kiünnat cults, but soon become irresistible. A framework was set up that disseminated the teachings of Sejenus, The Tractate, through sub-temples worshipping the Hundred. This became the Thousand Temples, with a single leader, the Shriah, at its head. Although Shimeh was the holiest city in Inrithism for the martyrdom of Sejenus, the presence of the Tusk led to the religion basing itself in Sumna (to where the Tusk had been returned following the No-God's defeat), which capitulated in 2469. In 2505 the religion gained official recognition as the state religion of the Ceneian Empire, which by that point had become the pre-eminent power of Eärwa.

Cenei had been founded over a thousand years earlier, but had spent most of its existence as a modest river town on the Phayus, the greatest river of the Kyranae Plains. The destruction of Mehtsonc during the Apocalypse had been carried out with such thoroughness that the ruins were deemed uninhabitable, and over successive generations downriver Cenei instead absorbed a lot of the returning refugees. The city grew in size and power, and when the Age of Warring Cities began it was well-placed to fight both defensively and offensively. In 2349 it captured Gielgath, at the mouth of the Shaul, effectively giving it control over the intervening southern Kyranae Plains. Xercallas II completed the reconquest of Kyraneas and his successors conquered Cepalor in the north (inhabited by the descendants of Norsirai refugees) and then Shigek in the south by 2397.

The root of Ceneian success was the Imperial Army, which was thoroughly well-trained and formidably equipped. The organisation of the army, its ability to absorb recruits from newly-conquered provinces and its willingness to change tactics resulted in a military force arguably unmatched before or since in Eärwa. The Imperial Navy was likewise impressively-organised. Between 2397 and 2414 the two institutions would combine to outflank the Carathay Desert and deliver a series of raids and then conquests in Enathpaneah, Xerash and Amoteu, capturing the Holy City of Shimeh along the way. General Naxentas, who delivered this stunning victory, declared himself the first Emperor of Cenei. He would be assassinated within the year, but his successors built on his achievements.

Triamis I became Emperor in 2478, beginning the Ceneian Golden Age. In 2483 he conquered Nilnamesh, defeating King Sarnagiri V. The following year he invaded Cingulat, on the far north-western coast of the continent of Kutnarmu. Triamis turned west, leading his armies to the borders of Zeüm, the great Satyothi power of far western Eärwa which had succeeded ancient Angka. He defeated a mighty host at the Battle of Amarah and would have invaded but his homesick troops mutinied. He returned to Cenei and consolidated his gains.

Returning home, he found the empire caught in a religious conflict between the Kiünnat cults and Inrithism, which was threatening to spill over into outright war. Triamis spoke to leaders on both sides, but found that Ekyannus III, Shriah of the Thousand Temples, was both more reasonable and convincing as a religious leader. In 2502 Ekyannus instituted the "Emperor Cult" of the Thousand Temples and dubbed Triamis the Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas. In 2505 Triamis himself converted to Inrithism, naming it the state religion of the Ceneian Empire. He then spent ten years putting down religious rebellions whilst also concluding the conquests of the island nations of Cironj (2508) and Nron (2511). Shortly afterwards he invaded the eastern Three Seas, conquering the successor-nations of the old Shiradi Empire: Ainon (2518), Cengemis (2519) and Annand (2525). For his achievements in conquering almost the entire Three Seas, Triamis was dubbed "The Great".

Eärwa circa 3000 Year-of-the-Tusk, at the height of the Ceneian Empire. Cenei was the Imperial Capital, with Sumna as its spiritual heart. The Empire dominated the continent for eight hundred years prior to its collapse in the 34th Century. It was the largest and most powerful nation-state in history, unrivalled until the rise of the New Empire of Anasûrimbor Kellhus a thousand years later.

The following Aspect-Emperors would maintain the borders of the empire, keeping the Ceneian Empire as the centre of political, military and religious power in Eärwa for eight centuries. The weakness of the Ceneian Empire was not in its military strength, but in its political succession, with brief but bloody civil wars often being the mechanism for a transference of power. The constant instability eventually resulted in the Empire growing lax and overconfident. In 3351 Cenei was sacked by the Scylvendi under Horiötha King-of-Tribes, triggering the collapse of the empire. The destruction of Cenei was brutal, with the city burned to the ground and all of its treasures, including the Heron Spear, lost or stolen. The great fortress of Batathent was destroyed shortly afterwards.

The final collapse is generally dated to 3372, when General Maurelta surrendered his legions to Sarothesser I. Sarothesser had led the south-eastern part of the empire in breaking away from Cenei. In this year he ascended the Assurkamp Throne in Carythusal as the King of High Ainon. Cengemis and Nilnamesh also broke away, spelling the end of the Ceneian Age. In 3374 Aöknyssus became the capital of a new nation, Conriya.

By 3411 the port city of Momemn at the mouth of the Phaysus, had supplanted lost Cenei as the pre-eminent city of the Kyranae Plains. Under the Trimus Dynasty Momemn became the capital of Nansur, first a small kingdom and then a mighty empire, proclaiming itself the heir to both Kyraneas and Cenei. By 3619 the Nansur Empire had conquered Shigek and Amoteu, but failed to expand those conquests into the eastern Three Seas, where the power of High Ainon was unassailable. Later in the century Nansur and High Ainon formed a brief military pact, perhaps planning to carve up the Three Seas between them, but ultimately this idea foundered and the pact dissolved. In 3643 Norsirai tribesmen living north-east of Nansur consolidated into the kingdom of Galeoth, followed in 3742 by the founding of Ce Tydonn, which supplanted and replaced Cengemis. In 3787 the Thunyeri, a robust warrior-people descended from the ancient Meöri Empire, were displaced by growing numbers of Sranc from the lands south of the Sea of Cerish, moving down the Wernma River and becoming raiders and pirates which would trouble the Three Seas for two centuries before they consolidated as the kingdom of Thunyerus in 3987.

The ambitions of Nansur to once again seize control of the Three Seas were thwarted by a series of events along the fringes of the Great Carathy Desert. Fane, an Inrithi priest living in Eumarna, was found guilty of heresy by the Thousand Temples in 3703 and cast into the Carathay Desert to die. Fane went blind in the desert, but also experienced a series of religious insights and revelations. He emerged from the southern sands wielding a power known as the Water of Indara, a form of sorcery both unknown and alien to the Schools of the Three Seas. The Kianene, the raiders and tribesfolk of the Great Salt, welcomed him amongst their ranks and listened to his teachings. Fan'oukarji I, Fane's son, took those teachings and translated them into a holy mission to destroy Inrithism, with the ultimate goal of casting down the Tusk (the "Cursed Thorn" in their tradition).

A Cishaurim sorcerer wielding the Water of Indara. Although still vulnerable to Chorae, Cishaurim are not damned as other sorcerers are and their powers cannot be detected by others of the Few. The reasons for this remain unknown to the sorcerous schools of the Three Seas. The Water of Indara is believed to be more powerful than most of the anagogic sorcery of the Three Seas, checked only by the Gnosis of the Mandate.

The Kianene swept out of the desert in the so-called White Jihad (3743-71). The Kianene armies were supported by followers of Fane who had also cast out their eyes and gained the powers of the Water. They became known as the Cishaurim. As proof of their righteousness, the Cishaurim showed that, unlike followers of the sorcerous schools like the Mandate and the Scarlet Spires, their mark was not cursed. They were not damned to an eternity of torment as other sorcerers were. Their presence could also not be felt by other sorcerers, but Chorae were still anathema to them.

By 3771 the Kianene had conquered Mongilea and large portions of Eumarna, founding a new capital at Nenciphon on the River Sweki, and converted the Girgashi people of the desert to Fanimry. Kian had emerged as a powerful new player on the shores of the Three Seas, although not one yet taken seriously by the Nansur Empire or the Thousand Temples. In 3798 the Shriah, Ekyannus XIV, ordered the extermination of the sorcerous schoolmen, declaring them to be unclear abominations. The Scholastic Wars raged for the next eighteen years and saw several lesser schools destroyed. However, it also provided the impetus for the Scarlet Spires to seize control of High Ainon, bringing the might of one of the great powers of the Three Seas under their control. The Mandate survived, although it curtailed its mainland activities, and the Mysunsai "mercenary" school came into existence. By 3818 the pogrom had been called off, but many sorcerers throughout the northern Three Seas had lost their lives.

This, of course, reduced the ability of the Thousand Temples and the Nansur Empire to resist the onslaught of the Kian and their Cishaurim. The rest of Eumarna fell in 3801, followed by Enathpaneah in 3842 and Xerash and Amoteu by 3845. The Sack of Shimeh outraged both the Thousand Temples and all followers of Inrthism as a whole, but there was no appetite for a counter-assault. The Kianene maintained the initiative. In 3933 the Dagger Jihad of Fan'oukarji III saw both Shigek and Gedea fall to the Kianene, bringing the borders of Kian to the very doorstep of Nansur. In the resulting turmoil, the Surmante Dynasty was destroyed and replaced by the Ikurei family. The Ikurei then reorganised the Nansur army and were able to defeat no less than three Kianene invasions of the empire over the next several decades.

Eärwa circa 4100 Year-of-the-Tusk, on the eve of the Holy War.

Meanwhile, the Mandate were facing mixed fortunes. Early in the 3900s they lost track of the last Consult agents in the Three Seas. For three centuries they scoured the lands for any sign of the enemy, only to find that they had completely disappeared. This disconcerting event was accompanied by a more positive one: House Nersei of Conriya forged a strong alliance with the Mandate, accepting their schoolmen as tutors and advisors. The Nersei dynasty used this advice to shore up their political support and eventually take the throne of the kingdom. The Mandate also gifted their secondary fortress of Attrempus to the Nersei family, giving them a strong bulwark to use against possible attack.

Towards the end of the 41st Century the Three Seas were posed on a knife's edge. Nansur had checked the advance of the Kianene Empire, but was unable to mount an effective counter-offensive. The nations of the eastern Three Seas schemed as usual and the sorcerous schools intrigued. The Mandate kept a watchful eye for the Consult, but could find no trace of them anywhere.

The beginnings of the road that led to the Holy War and the new Great Ordeal were modest. In 4079 the Scylvendi leader of the Utemot tribe, Skiötha urs Hannut, died. He was succeeded by his son, Cnaiür urs Skiötha, a warrior of tremendous repute for savagery and intelligence. Cnaiür was advised by a strange man from the Ancient North, from the lands beyond Atrithau which were believed to be completely lost to Sranc. This man convinced Cnaiür to kill his father, having seduced his mother. Afterwards he vanished into the southern deserts, to Cnaiür's fury and declarations of vengeance.

This man was named Anasûrimbor Moënghus.

Credits

The artwork for this article was created by Jason Deem, known as Spiral Horizon, and used with his permission. You can find more of his spectacular work here. The maps are from Scott's website, adjusted by myself.

The Prince of Nothing Wiki was helpful in providing spelling checks and putting the timeline of events in better order.

Unlike the first part, I didn't request any new information for this third installment, so any errors or confusion are on my part.

Scott Bakker wrote the Second Apocalypse novels, for which this history is merely the backdrop and the scene-setting that comes before. Those novels are:

The Prince of Nothing

The Darkness That Comes Before (2003)

The Warrior-Prophet (2004)

The Thousandfold Thought (2005)

The Aspect-Emperor

The Judging Eye (2008)

The White-Luck Warrior (2011)

The Great Ordeal (2016)

The Unholy Consult (2017)

A History of Eärwa Part 3: The Apocalypse

The man known to history as Seswatha and to the Sranc as "Chigra", "Slaying Light", was born in Year-of-the-Tusk 2089 in Trysë, the son of a caste-menial bronzesmith. Whilst still a child, he was identified as one of the Few, those that carry the mark of sorcery. He was taken to Sauglish to study with the Gnostic School of Sohonc, at the time the largest and most powerful of the sorcerous schools. Seswatha was a prodigy, his grasp of the Gnosis subtle and strong. Circa 2104, at the age of fifteen, Seswatha would be proclaimed a sorcerer-of-rank, the youngest in the School's history.

Eärwa in Year of the Tusk 2089, the birth year of Seswatha. The Three Seas were home to great powers, the mightiest of which was Kyraneas which dominated the lesser nations of Shigek and Amoteu. The Shiradi Empire controlled the eastern Three Seas. But the true powers were in the Ancient North, dominated by great Kûniüri.

During this period Seswatha befriended Anasûrimbor Celmomas, the heir to the imperial throne of Kûniüri who was studying with the Sohonc. The same age as Seswatha and both intrigued by history, they became fast friends and allies. As Seswatha grew in power and authority through the ranks of the Sohonc, so Celmomas became famed as a warrior, general and scholar. Their great friendship was tested, however, when Celmomas's most beloved wife Suriala ("Suiyela", according to Mandate sources) gave birth to their son Nau-Cayûti. Celmomas knew that Seswatha and Suriala shared a mutual affection and became concerned that Nau-Cayûti was not of his blood. But such was his love for his friend - and his inability to conclusively prove the truth of the matter - that he did not have him rebuked, merely withdrawing his friendship for a time.

Seswatha was a master sorcerer but also a keen politician. He befriended Anaxophus, a young prince of Kyraneas, and treated with Nil'giccas, the Nonman King of Ishterebinth (the "Exalted Stronghold"), as Ishoriöl was now more frequently called. Seswatha's insights were keen, his mind sharp, his sorcery formidable and his manner one of ease, all formidable attributes that saw him rise to become Grandmaster of the Sohonc in his early thirties.

What happened next remains a matter of great debate. According to legend and The Sagas, Seswatha received a delegation of Nonmen in Sauglish. History refers to them as Siqû, indicating they were there as teachers and advisors, not just as emissaries. Although the Nonmen Tutelage was not reinstated, Seswatha had nevertheless forged closer ties with Ishterebinth than had been seen since those times. According to some accounts, Nil'giccas rewarded Seswatha's friendship with intelligence which was not so much disquieting as downright alarming.

It had been long known that the School of Mangaecca had fled Sauglish to seek refuge in Golgotterath. Its dark leader, Shaeönanra, survived thanks to Inchoroi knowledge and his own sorcerous research. By the 14th Century, he had even been given a new name: Shauriatas, "Cheater of Gods". The Mangaecca had not been seen since, but their hand, and that of their Inchoroi overlords, was suspected in the Great Sranc Wars, a series of strikes by hordes of Sranc out of Agongorea against Aörsi to the east which had sorely tested that nation and led to the construction of a major stronghold, Dagliash, on the Urokkas (in fact, atop the very ruins of ancient Viri). But in those days Sranc were not a numerous, constant threat blanketing the North. They were mostly confined to Agongorea and the Yimaleti Mountains, and although their numbers were concerning, they were not as inexhaustible as in later centuries. Or so it was supposed.

The Siqû warning was stark: the Mangaecca yet lived within the golden halls of the Ark and they had formed a forsaken alliance - an Unholy Consult - with the surviving Inchoroi princes, Aurax and Aurang. Worse still, their delvings and explorations of the Ark had uncovered ancient secrets and disturbing ways of using the Tekne, the ancient art of science and engineering that the Inchoroi had once employed to create weapons such as their staffs of light and creatures such as the Wracu and Sranc, but had seemed to lose more and more knowledge of with every passing year.

The Siqû warning convinced Seswatha that a threat was building in the pits of Golgotterath and that, left unchecked, it would eventually destroy the world. This threat was given a name by the Nonmen, one that Seswatha held close and only told those closest to him: No-God.

Seswatha took this knowledge to his old friend, who know ruled as Anasûrimbor Celmomas II, High King of Kûniüri, the greatest nation in all Eärwa, and lay the facts before him. Celmomas may have been inclined to distrust his old friend for the alleged betrayal with his wife, but he also respected his judgement. In the end, Celmomas was convinced that Golgotterath remained a threat to the world and that threat needed to be destroyed before it could unleash a horror that would bring about the end of everything.

The opening battles of the Apocalypse: 1. Sursa (2125). 2. The Great Investiture (2125-32). 3. Dagliash (2133). 4. The Burning of the White Ships, in Aesorea (2134). 5. Shiarau (2136).

In Year-of-the-Tusk 2123, Anasûrimbor Celmomas II called for the Great Ordeal, the assembling of a vast host of armed and sorcerous might to be cast at Golgotterath, to bring down and end the threat of the Consult and the Inchoroi once and for all. Aörsi, which lay in the shadow of the Golden Ark, rallied to the call almost immediately. King Anasûrimbor Nimeric contributed many tens of thousands of warriors already hardened in battle against Sranc and Bashrags and the use of his fleet for transport and resupply across the Neleöst. Nil'giccas sent Qûya mages and Ishroi warriors from Ishterebinth, and Kyraneas sent a detachment of troops, reflecting Seswatha's friendship with Prince Anaxophus (the prince himself was still only fourteen, and it is unclear if he took part in the Ordeal at such an early age or had returned to Kyraneas).

In 2124 the Great Ordeal crossed onto the plains of Agongorea but was engaged by a host of Sranc and Bashrags. The resulting battle was indecisive and the Ordeal withdrew across the Sursa to winter in Dagliash. Celmomas renewed the offensive in the early spring, fording the Sursa before the Consult could prepare a defence. They were forced to retreat to Golgotterath and allow the Ordeal to encircle it. The Great Investiture lasted for six years but failed to starve the Consult into surrender.

This period was marked by squabbling and petty jealousies erupting between the commanders of the Ordeal, along with military disagreements on how to proceed. The Investiture was complete, but the Consult seemed able to resupply. The Ark was too well-defended for any conventional assault to succeed, and the Consult mages were capable of resisting even the combined might of the Qûya and Sohonc. Several raids on the Ark ended in disaster. In 2131 a more serious dispute erupted between Celmomas and Nimeric, resulting in Celmomas withdrawing the Kûniüri contingent of the Ordeal, to the disbelief of Seswatha.

A Gnostic sorcerer battles a Wracu of Golgotterath.

A year later the Consult went on the offensive. Employing passages reaching under the Black Furnace Plain and into the Ring Mountains, the Consult launched devastating assaults into the Ordeal's rear and flanks. Much-reduced by the absence of the Kûniüri forces, the Ordeal's army almost collapsed. Qûya and Sohonc sorcery allowed at least a small part of the army to escape, but Nil'giccas was so enraged to learn of the deaths of at least two of his sons that he recalled the Cûnuroi contingent of the Ordeal altogether, leaving Aörsi to fight on alone.

In 2133 Dagliash was taken by the Consult, allowing their armies to cross the Sursa in force. Western Aörsi was overrun and Nimeric withdrew his forces to his capital, Shiarau. Celmomas realised his folly and rallied Kûniüri to rejoin the war in 2134, but it was too late. The Aörsi fleet fled across the Neleöst to seek shelter in the Kûniüri port of Aesorea, where it was promptly destroyed by enemy agents in the event known as the Burning of the White Ships.

In 2135 Nimeric took a mortal wound during the Battle of Hamuir, dying soon afterwards. In the spring of 2136 Shiarau fell, and with it Aörsi itself. Kûniüri stood alone.

The latter course of the Apoclaypse: 6. Ossirish (2137). 7. Shiarau (2137). 8. Dagliash (2139). 9. The Second Investiture, ending in the Coming of the No-God (2142-43). 10. The Fields of Eleneöt (2146). 11. Trysë (2147). 12. Sauglish (2147). 13. Eämnor (2148). 14. The Fords of Tywanrae (2149). 15. Kelmeöl (2150). 16. Inweära (2151). 17. Kathol Pass (2151). 18. The Betrayal of Cil-Aujas (2152). 19. Shir (2153). 20. Sumna (2154). 21. Mehtsonc (2154). 22. The Battle of Mengedda and the Fall of the No-God (2155).

The situation seemed bleak, but in 2137 Anasûrimbor Nau-Cayûti, Prince of Kûniüri, won a stunning victory over the Consult at the Battle of Ossirish. The armies of Kûniüri had been hard-pressed by a Consult offensive, but Nau-Cayûti rallied his men by facing and slaughtering the Wracu Tanhafut the Red in direct combat, a feat undreamt of since the Cûno-Inchoroi Wars. Nau-Cayûti then led the victorious army to rout the Consult at the ruins of Shiarau, driving the remnants back across the Sursa by the end of 2138. In 2139 he recaptured Dagliash before launching several major raids across Agongorea, designed not to reinvest Golgotterath but simply slaughter Sranc and Bashrags.

In 2140 the Consult abruptly switched tacks and kidnapped Aulisi, the beloved concubine of Nau-Cayûti, bearing her to Golgotterath. Infuriated, Nau-Cayûti may have decided on a rash assault (possibly the rationale for the act) but was talked down by Seswatha. Seswatha proposed something else instead: a raid on the Incû-Holoinas, such as that undertaken by some of the Nonman heroes of old. Many historians consider the story of the raid that followed as being apocryphal due to sheer unbelievability, but Seswatha's descendants in the School of Mandate have confirmed (thanks to their sorcerous ability to relive Seswatha's life) that it is true.

Nau-Cayûti and Seswatha entered the Golden Ark, descending through chambers and passageways that had been desolate and empty for well over two thousand years, since the Cûnuroi had sacked the vessel from top to bottom. But, deep in the vessel's cavernous hold, they did find a city of horrors, guarded by Sranc and Bashrags. They failed to find any trace of Aulisi but they did find something that abruptly changed the fortunes of the war: Suörgil, the Shining Death, the Heron Spear itself.

"I lied. Because I couldn't succeed, not alone. Because what we do here is more important than truth or love. We search. We search for the Heron Spear." - Seswatha (The Thousandfold Thought)

They bore the weapon back to Sauglish in great triumph, but this turned sour when Nau-Cayûti died soon after, allegedly poisoned by his wife Iëva (some say out of jealousy over Nau-Cayûti's infatuation with Aulisi, and the fear the other woman would supplant her). Iëva insisted on Nau-Cayûti being buried rather than burned, as this had been his wish during life.

The Consult resumed the offensive in 2141, perhaps hoping for a loss of Kûniüri morale following Nau-Cayûti's death. This hope proved false. General En-Kaujalau soon destroyed a Sranc horde at the Battle of Skothera. In 2142 General Sag-Marmau inflicted a very serious and debilitating defeat on the Consult (according to some legends, Aurang himself took the field but was forced to withdraw) and again drove them back to the Ark. Anasûrimbor Celmomas II began the Second Investiture in the fall of that year.

The No-God's Carapace under construction in the depths of Golgotterath, before he became animate.

Then something happened, an event second only to the original Fall of the Ark in importance and dread.

To this day no-one knows exactly what transpired, save that in the pits of Golgotterath the Consult finally achieved what they had been attempting to do for some considerable time, sparking the very warnings that had led to the Ordeal in the first place. They completed the construction of the Carapace, a sarcophagus of Tekne origin, fused with eleven Chorae to render it immune to sorcery. Inside the Carapace they created - or unleashed - an entity of supreme and terrible power. This entity went by many names: Tsurumah ("Hated One" in Kyranean), Lokung ("Dead-God", by the Scylvendi), Mursiris ("Wicked North", by the Shiradi) and Cara-Sincurimoi ("Angel of Endless Hunger", by the Nonmen), as well as the Great Ruiner and World-Breaker. But his most famous title was the one first bestowed upon him: Mog-Pharau in Ancient Kûniüric, "No-God".

The No-God first drew breath in the spring of the Year-of-the-Tusk 2143. The instant he did so, every unborn child in the world was stillborn, and no woman fell pregnant afterwards (leading to the period known as the Years of the Crib). A feeling of dread fell across all humanity, drawing their eyes to the northern horizon. Sranc, Bashrag and Wracu, including some who had escaped taking part in the wars so far, were compelled to answer his call and descend on the Black Furnace Plain and Golgotterath.

The host of Sag-Marmau was destroyed utterly. But the Horde of the No-God did not march immediately, instead waiting as vast hosts of Sranc gathered and bred. This gave Kûniüri a very brief space in which to cry for aid. Eärwa answered, the armies of Ishterebinth marching under Nil'giccas and Kyraneas sending a significant army to lend support. Other nations began to muster but the distances were too great and time ran out.

Anasûrimbor Celmomas II led the so-called Second Ordeal into battle against the Horde of the No-God on the Fields of Eleneöt in 2146, the fields that in a previous age had been called Pir Pahal, where Cû'jara-Cinmoi had slain Sil and won the first great victory over the Inchoroi.

No such victory came this time. The Horde engulfed the Kûniüri army. Celmomas knew the only hope was to use the Heron Spear against the No-God. However, although the vast Whirlwind that symbolised the No-God's presence gathered on the far horizon, the entity itself refused to give battle, letting its vast army of minions do the work for it. Celmomas is said to have thrown himself into battle with a rare fury and slain dozens of enemies, only to be mortally wounded. Seswatha led a rallying force to retrieve the High King, who lived long enough to impart a prophecy: that an Anasûrimbor would return at the end of the world. Then he died.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, his heir Anasûrimbor Ganrelka outlived him, becoming the High King of Kûniüri. According to popular legend, Ganrelka also died on the Eleneöt Fields, but in reality he survived thanks to four brave Knights of Trysë. Ganrelka escaped home, gathered his household, and marched west into the Demua Mountains. In the remotest peaks, protected by both geography and utter secrecy, the Kûniüri High Kings had built a stronghold and a shelter, Ishuäl. Ganrelka took up residence there, but disease followed and wiped out most of the family...save for Ganrelka's bastard son, the last living blood of House Anasûrimbor. He and his line fell out of history for two thousand years.

The No-God, protected by the ever-present Whirlwind.

By the end of 2147 all of Kûniüri was overrun. The great river-cities of the Aumris Valley were obliterated. Trysë fell the hardest, the great Ur-Throne of the Kûniüri High Kings lost. Seswatha was captured by the Consult during this battle and borne to Dagliash, where he was pinned to the Wall of the Dead and tortured by Mekeritrig for knowledge of the location of the Heron Spear. But the Spear had vanished at Eleneöt and Seswatha did not know its resting place. He did take heart, however from the knowledge that the Consult had not found it. Seswatha soon escaped, but was not able to save the rest of the Aumris Valley cities, which fell one after the other. The destruction of Sauglish was particularly horrific, the Wracu Skafra leading a flight of dragons to drive the Sohonc sorcerers from the sky before the hordes of Sranc and Bashrags swept into the city and put the Great Library to the torch.

The Nonmen of Ishterebinth retreated over the Demua Mountains to their Mansion, but the No-God chose not to pursue. Instead, he turned south and destroyed Eämnor (although sparing its capital, Atrithau, due to the complications of attacking a city raised on anarcane ground and immune to sorcery) in 2148. Akksersia was destroyed in 2149 following the epic Battle of Tywanrae Fords, where Consult sorcrers burned hundreds of soldiers as they tried to cross the river. The Meöri Empire collapsed in 2150, despite a hardy defence, sending hordes of refugees both south (into what is now Thunyerus) and south-west (into what is now Galeoth). Inweära was cast down in 2151, although the Horde chose to spare Sakarpus to instead rush the Kathol Pass - the gateway to the entire Three Seas - before it could be fortified.

The Battle of Kathol Pass, fought in the autumn of 2151, was an unexpected victory for the forces of men. A retreating army of Meöri warriors led by the great hero Nostol ran into an advancing force of Nonmen out of Cil-Aujas, led by King Gin'yursis, a powerful wielder of the Gnosis. They made common cause and successfully repulsed several waves of attacks from the Horde on the pass, buying the Three Seas and the world another year of respite. Shockingly, the Meöri turned on and betrayed the Nonmen, slaughtering their army and then sacking Cil-Aujas. The reasons for this are unclear, but may be related to the rising levels of religious fervour amongst the Norsirai refugees (perhaps hoping that the Hundred Gods would intercede and destroy the No-God for them), including the commandment to destroy the False Men. It is also possible that the Meöri believed they could use Cil-Aujas as a refuge should the No-God advance further south. Gin'yursis's death saw him curse the Meöri for their betrayal, a curse sometimes used to explain the famous fractiousness of the men of Galeoth (founded by the Meöri descendants), although Gin'yursis's curse had in fact been reserved for all of mankind.

During this period the populous and packed cities of the south cried out for succor and divine intervention. They prayed to the Hundred Gods, but received no answer. The people begged their priests to explain why the Hundred had not interceded and the priests could not answer. Many years later, confused records of this time suggest that the priests had in fact petitioned for help and gotten only bizarre responses: the Gods could not see the No-God, only the destruction that followed in his wake, which they blamed solely on humanity itself. The Hundred could not intervene because they could not even perceive the problem in the first place (and it may be that that this nullification of divine perception is one of the reasons the No-God was named as such).

In 2153 the Horde of the No-God destroyed the Shiradi Empire and turned west to invade Kyraneas. Anaxophus, Seswatha's old friend now ruling as King Anaxophus V, led his nation with skill and cunning. The Scylvendi, the long-established pastoralists living beyond the mountains to the north-west, had unexpectedly declared for the No-God and invaded Kyraneas's flank, threatening to trap the kingdom in a vice at the Battle of Mehsarunath. Anaxophus evaded the trap and escaped to the south. He chose not to defend either the royal capital at Mehtsonc or the holy city of Sumna (from where the Tusk was evacuated by sea to Nilnamesh) instead choosing to fight a war of irritation and attrition, testing the flanks of the No-God's horde and withdrawing when the enemy attempted to respond.

Anaxophus V, the High King of Kyraneas, unleashes the power of the Heron Spear against the No-God at the Battle of Mengedda in 2155.

Kyraneas was effectively overrun and destroyed by the end of 2154. But Anaxophus V and his army, and Seswatha, survived. They withdrew through the mountains to the ruined, ancient city of Mengedda. The city had once been a trading post between Shigek and the cities of the Kyraneas Plains when the age of man was young, but innumerable battles had been fought there over the past two thousand years. The blasted landscape and ruins provided Anaxophus and his army with cover and defences. More importantly, the long, attritional warfare favoured by Anaxophus had helped reduce the size of the Horde to one where victory by sheer weight of numbers was no longer certain.

Anaxophus's gamble worked: to ensure victory and the destruction of the last enemy who may be any threat, the No-God took the field directly, the terrible Whirlwind moving towards the Kyranean lines and asking, as it had done all along, "WHAT DO YOU SEE?" This allowed Anaxophus to do what he had been planning ever since his knights had secretly seized the Heron Spear from the Fields of Eleneöt eleven years previously: he used the weapon directly against the No-God.

As the Apocalypse began in doubt and uncertainty, so it ended with a clear victory. The Whirlwind burst asunder, the No-God was destroyed and his armies were routed. According to some reports, the Carapace itself was destroyed and reduced to ashes, ashes which were carried by the winds to all the corners of the Three Seas where they caused the Indigo Plague. However, Mandate scholars insist that the No-God's body (if it could be called that) was saved by Consult sorcerers and borne back to Golgotterath.

The end of the war was draped in controversy, for the knowledge that Anaxophus had stolen the Heron Spear and kept it secret for a decade as the Ancient North and the Shiradi Empire (Kyraneas's great rival to the east) was overrun and destroyed did not endear him as the saviour of mankind, has perhaps should have been the case. However, Anaxophus claimed that the disaster of the Eleneöt Fields had happened because the Heron Spear had been deployed prematurely before the No-God had engaged, and that he had no choice but to wait - no matter the cost - for the No-God to show himself before he could risk using the weapon. This tactical claim has been supported - although not altogether wholeheartedly - by the Mandate.

The end of the war resulted in the infamous Indigo Plague, which caused great misery and suffering around the Three Seas, but also in a regrouping of civilisation. Seswatha gathered together the few surviving Gnostic sorcerers and founded the School of Mandate, based at the fortress of Atyersus on an island in the middle of the Three Seas. Seswatha knew that the No-God had been destroyed and the Consult defeated, but the Inchoroi Princes yet lived, the Consult sorcerers yet survived and the hordes of Sranc and Bashrags (and even a few surviving Wracu) only dispersed. But most damning of all was the prophecy given to Seswatha by his friend and ally Celmomas at the moment of his death:

"Did I ever tell you that my son once stole into the deepest pits of Golgotterath? How I miss him, Seswatha! How I year to stand at his side once again. I see him so clearly. He's taken the sun as his charger, and he rides among us. I see him! Galloping through the hearts of my people, stirring them to wonder and fury! He says such sweet things to give me comfort. He says that one of my seed will return, Seswatha. An Anasûrimbor will return at the end of the world!" - The last words and prophecy of Anasûrimbor Celmomas II (The Darkness That Comes Before)

The First Apocalypse was over. Now the Mandate had to prepare humanity for the Second.

Credits

All of the artwork for this article was created by Jason Deem, known as Spiral Horizon, and used with his permission. You can find more of his spectacular work here. The maps are from Scott's website, adjusted by myself.

The Prince of Nothing Wiki was helpful in providing spelling checks and putting the timeline of events in better order.

Unlike the first part, I didn't request any new information for this third installment, so any errors or confusion are on my part.

Scott Bakker wrote the Second Apocalypse novels, for which this history is merely the backdrop and the scene-setting that comes before. Those novels are:

The Prince of Nothing

The Darkness That Comes Before (2003)

The Warrior-Prophet (2004)

The Thousandfold Thought (2005)

The Aspect-Emperor

The Judging Eye (2008)

The White-Luck Warrior (2011)

The Great Ordeal (2016)

The Unholy Consult (2017)