The Great Rebuke

Preamble and background

In the late 11th Century post-Exodus, the Eal Empire had been steadily shifting away from the worship of death and the natural cycle, and towards the exploitation of the mysteries of undeath. Portraying themselves as pursuing a more wholistic approach to worship, the Eal Imperial family constructed great temples to a wide range of gods. This was little more than a cover for their pursuit of any lead or avenue of study that would further their mastery of necromancy. The Empire began to rely on their undead for security, casual labour, even as methods of transportation.

This came to a head at the turn of the century as Emporer Jae'Kalan V began to actively pursue assension into a liche form, or further - channeling the very lifeforce of the people of the empire to bulster his own power and lifespan, which Jae'Kalan believed could even raise him to godhood.

The Guild's intervension

By this time, the Little Warriors Adventurers Guild had become highly insular and increasingly less concerned about the fate of their local neighbours on the world of Elanora, as it regularly faced world-ending events elsewhere in the multiverse. However Jae'Kalan's meddling with the natural order was severe enough to grab the Guild's attention. Its lead druid, Lady Wintergreen, led efforts to co-ordinate resistance against Jae'Kalan's madness.

Noting that the Empire's arcane elite had become as dependant on the convenience of their necromatic servants as the Emperor and could not be convinced to see reason, Wintergreen chose to begin by instead appealing to the Empire's theocracy. She generated vast earthquakes, slight in power at first but persistent and gradually growing in strength. She focused these tremors at the Empire's temples to convey a sense of divine displeasure.

This at first seemed to work as intended, formenting distrust between the temples and the magocracy, and Wintergreen hoped the Empire would implode on its own without needing to risk the lives of Guild adventurers or the Empire's neighbours. These hopes were dashed when the Emperor quelled an uprising at the Temple of the Silent Queen. Seemingly in response to this, a massive tremor would rock the city of Eal and every school of the magocracy simultaneously - a vast display of power Wintergreen to this day insists she had nothing to do with. This would be the spark that ignited the entire region into outright rebellion.

The Civil War of 1106

Sick of her uncle's insanity and the destruction it had wrought, now seemingly bringing the Empire into conflict with its own gods, O'Mala rallied forces from the fringe kingdoms, Braeland knights, temple guards, forces from Jence, and even mercenaries and adventurers from off-world into a loose alliance against the Imperial Guard. The culmination of this was a 4-week battle at the gates of the Temple of the Silent Queen. Jae'Kalan would attempt to pin O'Mala's forces down before they could be reinforced by her northern allies, ideally turning her entire army into undead thralls that could be loosed on his other enemies. Instead he would find that every rebel slain would become an avenging revenant of death, as the Silent Queen herself bestowed her blessing on O'Mala's cause.

Accompanied by Whisper, Wintergreen and several Guild allies, O'Mala would storm the Imperial Palace in Eal shortly afterwards. She slew her uncle, executed the higher ranking members of the magocracy, and proclaimed herself Empress.

Aftermath

O'Mala has restored most of the ancient traditions of humble death-worship and astromancy. She has refocused her arcane advisers on keeping dates in sync with the seasons and stars, the reading of portents, and the channeling of the winds of magic in tasks such as safeguarding the Empire or managing the local weather instead of furthering their own power.

The great universities, the temples, the Imperial Guard and the druidic Djordin Circle must now show subservience to the Empress, and a complex set of monthly traditions are observed to remind them of their place in service to the wider empire. Each year the Empress also observes similar rituals to pledge her service to the people and the gods, especially the Silent Queen.

As a result of O'Mala's victory, 4 guiding principles of Necromancy were established in the Empire:

• No return of the unwilling dead. Exceptions are made in dire need to defend the living.
• The dead must rest. No use of the dead as servants or slaves on a permanent basis.
• The dead are individuals. No draining of souls or the amalgamation of their power to create superbeings. A temporary chorus of the willing is fine, but only to achieve a specific time-limited objective, then it disbands.
• All dead serve the Empire, and the Empire serves the gods, and the Silent Queen above all. The natural progression of life to death is the natural cycle of all things, and it is to be preserved. Necromancy is the art of interrupting that cycle - we use it in a local sense, to preserve the cycle around the world.