Makoi
The Celestial Emperor, Makoi Mariaza (a.k.a. The Dragon)
Makoi was the greatest dragon sorcerer of all time and the only ever bind the great dragon Kemegi as a familiar successfully for an extended period of time. He is the founder of the first Zeruan Empire and is honored in the religion of Kamada as an ascended God.
Makoi never actually aimed to be this. His immense charisma and magical skill was only matched by ambition much later in life. He was someone born into a time of chaos and conflict, who learned early on that peace came through conquest- and so he never stopped conquering. His entourage who created the laws and systems that actually ran the first empire have faded from history and their accomplishments have been placed on Makoi. It would be more accurate to look beyond the hero myth to the man: a sharp-witted yet straight-forward, friendly but suspicious, social but extremely private wind dryad from a town in Karema. War took many of his friends and left him perpetually afraid of any situation he wasn't in control of, and he was always more comfortable traveling and conquering than staying in one place. The Makoi that really lived was one that really only Kemegi knew in the end. It is said that the great dragon even learned The Divine Contact just to speak with him on lonely nights.
Divine Domains
As a god, Makoi is attributed power over lightning, lawmaking, good rulership, and dragon-bonding.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
In the old days before Zerua, many great kingdoms ruled where it now stands. One of these central kingdoms was the Empire of Karema: an insular, militaristic, authoritarian regime built around a legalistic order not dissimilar from a caste system. Makoi was born to a windweaving family in a small town in South Karema that has since been destroyed by the Akrean super-volcano. Before Makoi was born, wars of conquest had spread across the Northern floodplains of Ekraht. Karema fought for dominance along with Iziko, Ibaisha, Sanari, Basaya, Azalek, and Mikena. As Makoi's town was placed at a critical juncture for both accessing the volcano and containing its smoke, it was soon the target of enemy raids.
The majority of these raids were conducted by a particularly powerful dragon sorcerer that relied on small undead raiding parties to harass these towns and spread disease. Others sought to imitate them, as the undead's ability to hide in the toxic smog proved difficult to counter. As Karema shifted their forces North to conquer the coast, small village militias were left with the task of protecting themselves against impossible odds. Sensing weakness, the sorcerers vying for power began churning out more undead than they could control, which began killing senselessly under the cover of the approaching smog. Makoi earned a name for himself leading his militia against several of these undead groups, even succeeding in foolhardy offensive raids into the smog. He eventually decided he would pursue the sorcerers and their retinues into the volcano itself. It was a terrible plan that led to him quickly being abandoned by his militia, and he wandered aimlessly into the volcanic wastes. Using his windweaving to stay alive, he eventually made his way into the den of Kemegi. Impressed by his wit and bravado, Kemegi carried him to his village. The two ultimately became close friends and Makoi acquired dragon sorcery from Kemegi. Where Makoi had failings as a warrior and commander, he thrived as a sorcerer and quickly led the militia to hunt and destroy the raiders. Kemegi, realizing how bored they had been, began sticking around Makoi for longer and longer. Makoi was more dedicated to his community than the Kareman empire and tried to make peace separately with the other invading groups, but found little success as new invaders were sent in their stead. Finally, Makoi and his militia began using Kemegi for long-distance counter-raids. Karema offered him an officership and resources, and soon Makoi became a warlord of his own under the Kareman flag.
Makoi's conquests attracted a great personal following, and he delegated the various lands he took to his comrades and friends. He seized much of the kingdom of Iziko for himself as he grew in power (and since Kemegi's presence was often enough to make a settlement peacefully surrender). But the more he took, the more he came under attack, and peace efforts failed over and over. Eventually Makoi simply gave up on peace and accepted his role as warlord of Karema.
During his conquests in Iziko, Makoi had pooled his forces with another adventurer-commander from eeven further West: Uruna the Iron-rooted, a merchant-turned-warlord from the Merchant Republic of Ibaisha. Makoi and Uruna had grown close during this campaign and split much of the Izikan land in half between them. As Ibaisha and Karema went to war, Makoi and Uruna refused to fight one another. Instead, they decided to marry- Uruna was a better administrator and Makoi was a better sorcerer, and both intended to just not fight the other side. They were good friends and rather interested in each other, but it was business and personal at once.
The marriage and pooling of land was seen as treasonous by Karema and Ibaisha alike. Luckily, their combined forces were too challenging for either empire to attack outright. Karema focused on trying to take out Ibaisha first, and the pressure soon toppled the Ibaishan republic. Uruna maneuvered Makoi to become Ibaisha's king in the chaos, and Makoi helped a former comrade of his coup the Kareman empire in turn. With the entire center of Zerua under lockdown, the first empire had the resources to begin a great conquest spree of all competing powers.
The rest of Makoi's Ekratan wars are a laundry list of campaigns and battles. After years of this, Makoi and Uruna seized the entirety of the Northern coastline and were even able to enjoy their ludicrous holdings for nearly a decade. But the stress of their conquest drove Uruna and Makoi apart in the end: their relationship flourished when they were underdogs working together, but their strengths as victorious rulers were nowhere near each other. Their relationship degraded and eventually they agreed to be friends more than lovers- and Makoi decided to devote himself to what he did best: conquering and traveling. His campaigns took him far and wide, from Makal, to South Ekraht, to Ibith, and eventually to Sonev. By the time he reached Sonev, he was basically back to being an adventurer: he was powerful enough to need only a light retinue to extract tribute peacefully. He would arrive, demand some light tribute, establish a magical circle back to Ekraht in some important location, do some tourism, and move on.
It was the Empire of Runeva where he finally bit off more than he could chew: he tried this formula on the Empire of Runeva, home of the immortal demigod-flower Suwota. After being denied tribute, Makoi settled for a peaceful establishment of contact. This quickly deteriorated into open hostility and Makoi was promptly assassinated.
Divine Classification
Deified Ancestor-King
Religions
Alignment
True Neutral
Species
Church/Cult
Life
348 ME
440 ME
92 years old
Circumstances of Death
Assassinated in Runeva
Birthplace
Karema, Ekraht
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Eyes
Black
Hair
A small cluster of soft teal flowers
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Red-brown
Height
5'4"
Aligned Organization
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