Emperor Zhao Lin the Great
The Dark One
Zhao Lin of the Qadhaadh spent all his younger years searching for the Dark One's ring, and after decades of searching he got his wish. His desire for this power was never noble however. When he was younger he wished to enter The Pit, for a chance to become King, but his father forbade it and chained Zhao Lin to a post until the event was over, it lasted for three weeks.
After years of tracking Zhao assassinated the Dark One and took the power into himself. He wasted no time on acting on his visions either. He teleported into the Vorodorom royal palace and cut open the king, privates to throat. He ordered that no Pit would be held and named himself King of The Desert, but the Red Snake wouldn’t stop there.
During his time as King Zhao Lin nurtured the Desert out of the impoverished state it had fallen into. He built the Ruby Road, a long stretch of road where the tribes and immigrants gather to trade and sell. This act brought in a lot of coin for all the tribes and helped to boost Vorodorom’s economy. With coin now flowing Zhao Lin set to his next task--to succeed where King Scales had failed, conquering The Vale.
In 2010 King Zhao Lin began the snake war by leading 100,000 Nathair Soldiers into The Vale. Furtinshire was the first to resist them. They sieged Fort Brenna first but the Fortress’s stone walls were torn down by the burrowing Dhulka, and the fort fell. The Ealdorman returned the attack and met the army in the field. This Battle would be recalled as The Blue-Blood Slaughter, and was a devastating loss for the Ebersons.
With the enemy army now weakened, Furt fell to Zhao Lin just as Fort Brenna did. The King had won two battles easily, but the next two would be more challenging(It is important to note that Zhao Lin didn’t start fighting in his own battles regularly until later in the war. He prefered to watch the blood and mayhem unfold). He faced a strong resistance in Albion, where the Locklins held off the Snake for days until Zhao Lin himself stepped in. His army then marched north and was resisted by the Black Daggers at Castle Black. They held on for eight days but by this time Zhao Lin’s army was receiving reinforcements and they were forced to retreat.
From there it was a southern march to Everfall Keep to drive off the Daggers there and fully conquer Furtinshire. By this time King Silus’s forces were assembled and ready to fight off the invaders. The two armies clashed outside of the Deadwood. King Silus was absent from the battle but Zhao Lin wasn’t. With a katana engulfed in black lighting he cut through the human’s steel armor as if it were water. The withered up dead trees were soaked in red that day. After this battle Zhao Lin would take to wearing void black armor to strike fear into his foes.
By the time The Dark One reached Xares he found it empty and abandoned. King Silus had gathered his family, and people, and fled. There were some stragglers that held on. Rainhold lasted a fortnight after Xares was taken and Woldenshire just a week longer, but the result was inevitable. Zhao Lin conquered all of The Vale and drove out anyone he didn;t kill to a foriegn land. He united The Desert & The Vale into the Golden Empire, and became Emperor Zhao Lin.
Zhao Lin lived comfortably as Emperor and Dark One. His people sang his praises in the streets and statues were being raised in his honor. He lived like this for twenty-one years, until the day they came. The late King Silus’s daughter had come back to reclaim her home alongside a young dragon rider from the land of Tir Orail. The great mystery of Zhao Lin was his response to this. At any time he could have entered the fray and put the Princess and Rider down, but never did--electing to govern from within Xares. When the rebellion marched to his gates and broke through them Zhao Lin was nowhere to be found. The Princess broke into the throne room ready to face down the Dark One, but he had vanished, leaving the Nathair in the city in the hands of the humans. No one knows where he went or what he did after this, but as we know at some point he was killed. What could have compelled the once great emperor to abandon his empire? We may never know.
Mental characteristics
Accomplishments & Achievements
- Built the Ruby Road
- Conquered The Vale
- Created the first and only Nathairian empire
- Slayed the Manticore Drirax
Failures & Embarrassments
- Ran away from Filavandrel Hero of The Vale
