Stories of H Merrill

The planet changed and shifted, forests grew and withered, deserts were washed away by rising waters, that land which was home to those first people was no more. In that change, new life came to the Living Universe, to Orthtir. 

The lands of Orthtir, now in that new form, number two and twelve: Rune, the pole of the North; and Horeth, the pole of the South. In their common names: the six of the East: Asinia, Irakardia, Keirad, Lur, Rortha, and Shian; and the six of the West: Ishfadel, Narselus, Orithtal, Sararad, Yoratal, and Zalshar.¹

Those of the new life spread throughout the deserts and forests, throughout the mountains and plains, planting their own seed without the divine guidance of the Tetrad, instead holding them merely as beings of worship. The people of these lands, too, communed with the Visages, seeking the very powers that destroyed the Ila. Empires of that seed rose and fell; great works of magic were created; the world was shaped by catastrophe and triumph, history written always under the same sun. Of those empires, there were five of those that first propagated Orthtir with their magics. The Karamarchian were the first, establishing their ancient traditions on the continent of Zalshar.² Second, rose the Kingdom of Rafan, guiding the course of Asinia. Third, the Ugolan merchant kingdom, rising steadfast from the deserts of Faerloren in Ishfadel. The Nubem, fourth of the ancient kingdoms, led by the Heresiarch of Thafa, spread its seed in the wilds of Rortha.³ The fifth stood beyond its ancient seeds, the revered Tyrit’thel, first of the great kingdoms of Narselus, planting its roots in Fargael.⁴

1. While the names of the poles come from the Narselian tongue, the names of the other continents are their true endonyms, the names they were given by the people that live there. Interestingly, no edition of the Sanctiform, outside of the First Edition written by the Gold Curators, uses exonyms. ↩︎
2. It is up for debate whether the Karamarchian were the first civilization, and most agree the groups of the east that were conquered by the Karamarchian were probably more advanced than Karamarchian texts describe. ↩︎
3.  The Heresiarch of Thafa, Amontekh, was not the first leader of the Nubem civilization, but he is often considered to be the founder of the Nubem as an empire. ↩︎
4. As this edition was first compiled by Narselian scholars, it shows small biases towards Narselus; however, this is mostly in word choice, and, to the best of our knowledge, it does not revise history. ↩︎