Eldmar/Backstory1
Eldmar in the First Age
The first Age was a time of extreme violence as the chosen of the Unconquered Sun battled against the servitors of the Primordials for control of the Lands. When the battle was finally ended the Primordials were banished and the victorious Solar Exalted began to build their empire. Beginning with the Realm but quickly moving out across the face of creation, great civilisations were established and order was maintained.
As the years turned to centuries, the Solars became more arrogant and despotic, fighting broke out between some of them, they began using their gifts and knowledge for their own purposes in defiance of the Unconquered Sun. Their brush with the Primordial gods had left its mark on the souls of the Solars, and the Curse began to take hold. As time passed ever onwards the curse bit deep into the hearts and minds of the once noble protectors of the people. They became embittered, frustrated and paranoid until finally they turned on creation itself. The Solars turned away from their lofty ideals, their arrogance causing them to believe in their own unassailable power, and slowly they became monsters.
Eldmar’s First Age incarnation was as a Twighlight Sorceress called Salamar; she was a highly respected Loremaster, and craftsman of artifacts. Most of the artifacts she created were of a fairly occult nature – relating primarily to sorcery and the creation of automata; however she did create a small number of artifacts of war such as armour and daiklaves.
Salamar travelled from the Realm to scour the Wyld in the Far East for components for her latest experiment, a type of flying craft that utilised stealth and concealment techniques as opposed to the heavy armour and weapons currently in use. Whilst on her travels she encountered a young exalt of Luna, he was in a pitched battle with a Fae Lord and some minions and he was heavily outmatched. Salamar threw herself into the fray and between them turned the tide of the battle. The Lunar's name was Jolander, a Full Moon from a tribe in the nearby forest. The two spent some time together, and became firm friends, and eventually lovers. Jolander was not prepared to leave his home and move to the Realm, but such was the strength of her love for him that Salamar decided to move out of the Realm to be with him. Using his local knowledge and her geomantic and occult skills, they found an as yet untapped demense of great power that they decided would become their base.
Salamar summoned a veritable army of labourers and craftsmen, calling upon spirits, elementals and demons, she was able to design and create a manse of considerable power. While the manse was being built she arranged for her libraries and equipment to be brought to the location along with all her retainers. Everything went to plan and the buildings were a marvel of modern architecture, the demons and other supernatural workers were dismissed, whilst the human workforce were allowed to remain and work the surrounding land to provide food and water. For a number of years all was peaceful, but tragedy was just around the corner, the reason for the explosion is unknown; perhaps a design flaw, perhaps a malicious demon that had not been properly controlled, but whatever the cause the results were catastrophic. Salamar had taken a small contingent of troops as an escort to the city of Nexus to gather some magical supplies, they were to be the only survivors from her retinue. Jolander was asleep at the time as were many of the inhabitants of the manse, they all died where they slept. The explosion rocked the land for miles around, the smoke and debris thrown up into the atmosphere could be seen as far away as Largyn.
In her grief and despair, Salamar went quietly and irrevocably insane. The curse of the Primordials took hold and she was unable or unwilling to shake it off. Her humanity and compassion bled away to nothing. She moved slightly West into the mountains of Marakan, where she held another manse, though of lesser power. There she began what was to become her greatest and most evil work. She decided that the humans and Dragon bloods were simply too fragile and needed to be augmented far beyond their current capabilities. She began her experiments using animals, creating hybrid automatons of living flesh fused with Orichalcum. After her initial success she began to use humans. Her knowledge of the body increased with each failure and she became more and more obsessed with creating the perfect human. Many hundreds were to die in absolute agony, screaming and cursing her name. Her dragon-blooded guards kept silent, watching what was occurring around them.
Finally, Salamar was partially successful. She fused a human with Orichalcum, but the process turned the golden metal of the sun into reddish bronze, and the human died, his spirit becoming fused with the metal. Emboldened by her success, Salamar began to create her legion. Over the next couple of years five thousand humans died to become the First Bronze Legion. The dragon-blooded still watched silently, if somewhat appalled and unnerved. It wasn’t until years later, with the creation of the Third Bronze Legion that Salamar looked to her dragon-blooded bodyguards with renewed interest, to be the leaders of her new legions. That was when they sat up and paid attention to what was happening.
They timed their attack to perfection, planned and executed with the supreme strategy that had made her chose them as her bodyguards, and utilising the equipment that she had provided them with. They took Salamar completely by surprise, waiting until she had exhausted herself from hours of experimenting in the laboratory. Her death was a foregone conclusion.
Salamar was given a full ceremonial burial, every honour was paid to her and she was left to lie in state, buried at the same site as her husband Jolander. Her artifacts were distributed between her guards and buried in her funeral chamber. Her legions were disbanded, hidden away in repositories now long forgotten.
Forwards toPre Exaltation history
