A REVISIONIST PERSPECTIVE
With knowledge comes progress – it allows society and civilisation to
move forward and develop. It is therefore
an established truth that as society develops knowledge must develop with
it. There have been many years since
the knowledge and truths we cling to have been developed – and perhaps now is
the time to question what we know about the Precursors.
There is a romantic, idealised view that the Precursors lived in a utopian society, a civilisation at its height, a culture approaching perfection. If this ever was the case, then all evidence has crumbled to dust with the passing of years. What little is known to the City, and what little more is known to us Keepers, suggests that the truth is very different.
When we opened the Lost City to place the Elemental Talisman in
it, we found it had been deserted for several thousand years. Much was buried underground, or encircled by
running lava, and it was barely possible to deposit the Talisman there – the
burricks and fire elementals roaming the place defeated even us. Time was limited, and so the chronicler
accompanying the expedition had only a short while to gather what little
evidence we have.
Evidence suggests that the Precursor society was exceptionally
stratified and rigid, caste-bound to such an extent that movement was almost
entirely impossible. At the height of
society was the Emperor, raised to divine status by the people, but prone to
human failings. Answerable only to the
gods – of whom the Precursors had several – the Emperor was generally a distant
figure, seen only from afar by the vast majority of the populace. This inevitably gave rise to a political
structure of immense size and importance.
The bureaucracy that existed to translate the Emperor’s word into law
became powerful in its own right, and the Emperor become isolated from his
people. The bureaucratic classes that
were the effective rulers of the Precursors and Karath-Din were naturally
anxious to consolidate their authority, and so society became ossified to such
a point that it became like bedrock; stratified, solid – and utterly immovable.
This structure had its benefits
of extreme stability, but had substantial disadvantages. Progress was arrested, then stopped
entirely, and the spirit of technological enquiry began to decay. The Guild of Enlightenment, apparently the
main organ of development in Karath-Din, was ignored by many. Tensions in the population were ruthlessly
suppressed by the bureaucratic classes, and never reached the attention of the
Emperor. The commoners grew frustrated,
and suppressed tensions built up behind a shell of normality. By the time of Karath-Din’s destruction,
Precursor society was undergoing extreme deterioration, regressing into a
degenerate state. Emperors were being
worshipped to absurd degrees, with elaborate tombs being built for them – and
extensive traps put in them to deter those grave robbers who did not respect
the divine nature of the Emperor. The
gods were called through the sacrifice of geldings.
The last Emperor of Karath-Din,
Va-Toran, was typical of the corrupted nature of Precursor society, more
obsessed with money than governance.
Extravagant entertainment venues were built to impress the citizens with
the wealth of their Emperor, and to direct anger and discontent down safer
avenues. Blood sports were the norm,
and the Emperor pushed his magicians into creating fire elementals to maintain
the spectacle as long as possible. The
culmination of this degeneracy, the Coliseum, was as big as a small village,
and had hundreds of fire elementals.
The Emperor was courting disaster. Precursor society, so strong and stable from without, was
balancing on the blade of a knife.
Popular discontent could only be held back with elaborate spectacles and
entertainments, which could only be provided by a heavy tax burden that
increased discontent. Va-Toran, the
last Emperor of Karath-Din, was ill prepared for the disaster that would signal
the beginning of the end for the Precursors.
Tectonic activity increased slowly, but perceptibly, as Va-Toran
settled into his new role as Emperor.
No cause is known for this – the City has never suffered any tectonic
disturbance – but there are some who would blame the Trickster for it. Current scholarship holds that the Emperor,
in order to maintain his hold over the people, commanded the Guild of Enlightenment
to create ever greater spectacles to keep the populace occupied. Eventually this reached the point where they
were tapping into the very energies of nature, attempting to bend them to their
will. Perhaps some of this energy was
funnelled into a gemstone that was to become The Eye. The Woodsie Lord, threatened by this encroachment on his power,
set in motion a plan to destroy Karath-Din, and drive away these manfools that
dared to try to equal him.
Whatever the reason, Karath-Din and the Precursor society was
becoming slowly unbalanced. Increasing
tectonic activity, including the emergence of fissures and magma pools, drove
the priesthood to ever more elaborate and bloody measures such as the sacrifice
of four geldings – horses were held in high regard by the Precursors. However, the energies that the Guild had
untapped could not be stopped, and eventually the city became untenable. Romantic legend holds that the Precursors
and their society perished, and passed out of all knowledge into myth. Recent research has, however, revealed a
totally contrary story. Far from
perishing, the Precursors were able to escape and prosper beyond their ruined
city.
As the situation grew worse, the evacuation began. The bureaucracy was transferred to other
cities in the Precursor’s dominions, as were the riches of their
civilisation. A trickle became a flood
as more and more people – commoners, gentry and nobility – fled the encroaching
fire, carrying with them their most precious possessions. The evacuation was hurried and frantic,
Va-Toran refusing to countenance such a blow to his prestige until it was
unavoidable. Those records and
valuables that could not be carried were buried in the foundations of
buildings, to await their owners’ return.
Some stayed behind. A few
bureaucrats remained to guard the parchments transported to the deep cellars of
the Emperor’s magnificent temple-palace.
Thieves moved through the city collecting hidden valuables. The Guild of Enlightenment, aware of the
treasures contained in their tower, tried to remain to guard their Tower, but
were eventually forced away by the disintegration of Karath-Din as a city. Riven by streams of magma and large
fissures, many houses and shops swallowed up as the earth collapsed beneath
them, movement was difficult, and habitation impossible. As magma met air it cooled and solidified,
encasing structures in a blanket of impenetrable stone. When the magma stopped, Karath-Din was
unrecognisable as a city.
Meanwhile, the Precursors were surviving in other places. Although maintaining the outward appearance
of stability the structure was now completely rotten. The forced dislocation had weakened the power of the Emperor to
control both the bureaucrats and his people, and factional conflict began to be
a problem in the centuries after the fall of Karath-Din. Central authority diminished as the nobility
strove to cement their own authority and carve out kingdoms for themselves,
rebelling against an Imperial administration that was too ossified and unwieldy
to adapt. Popular pressure for social
movement placed incredible strain on the structure of Precursor society, and it
is remarkable that it survived these strains for several centuries before its
collapse.
In many walls it would have been better if the collapse had come
earlier. Pressure was so great that
when law and order failed, it failed absolutely. The region entered a dark age so chaotic and anarchistic as to
draw the Trickster from his Maw of Chaos and reign over the lands. Authority crumbled to nothing as the rich
retreated behind fortified walls and moats, guarded by vast private
armies. Learning was lost as the great
libraries and universities of the Precursors fell into disrepair or were razed
to the ground, while the cultivated fields were overrun by forest and woodland. Plagues decimated the population.
The Dark Age lasted for several centuries, until finally its heavy
cloak was lifted from the land. The
nobles, formerly besieged in their castles, were eventually able to extend
order throughout their domains, and the explosion of trade and industry that
resulted was a potent boost for the development of a new civilisation. The intervening years had resulted in
increased social freedom that totally changed the face of society, and resulted
in the civilisation we strive to protect today.