???????? Chapter viii : Lore of The Khuresh ????????

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  In days of yore...

  ?

  Before ancient elven domains turned to cinders...

  ?

  Before the Agleain waters claimed Lemuria...

  ?

  Shah-An-Sharr governed the Khureshii empire with an iron fist, his dread inspiring fear of whom stretched over continents untold.

  Foes such as the Aridian Pharaohs of old, and the Nullmibian lords were dispatched to death opposing his rule.

  To preserve tranquility, the vassals all had to offer a concubine of noble birth to the emperor.

  Should they rebel, their kin would pay the price.

  Thus, peace reigned for centuries, as Shah-An-Sharr expanded his domain.

  However, fate would decree that he encounter a dame of unmatched beauty amidst the Agleian Isles.

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  Though lacking royal pedigree, she was daughter to a vizier of modest station. Upon the Emperor's approach,

  they succumbed to a fervent amour—the inaugural lady to thaw his frigid heart.

  Yet, as the Emperor ushered her into his court, the other concubines' hearts festered with virulent envy.

  For who was this lowborn to mingle amongst them and be lavished with imperial gifts?

  Upon the concubines' discovery of the lady's pregnancy, their hearts, alas, succumbed to envy,

  igniting a plot most foul to extinguish her light, for they knew her progeny would, without doubt,

  inherit the throne, eclipsing their own.

  On one fateful eve within the royal gardens,

  all one hundred concubines descended upon the lady,

  their blades finding purchase heedless of her sanguinary pleas.

  Her remains were cast into the garden pond, staining it crimson.

  When word reached the Emperor's ears, he, in his anguish and heartache, let forth a lament most profound.

  It was then that a concubine of Nullmibia approached the Emperor in his grief and disclosed the conspiracy,

  professing her innocence, for she had voiced objection to the heinous deed and refrained from participation.

  Enraged by his incandescent animosity, the emperor summoned all concubines to the royal court.

  What transpired was a spectacle of unadulterated horror.

  He commanded their consignment into a colossal mortar, there to be pulped unto death, with each screaming impact of the mallet.

  His men were then bidden to gather the pulpy remnants of the concubines, encasing them within a wooden reliquary,

  dispatched back to their lands of origin.

  Solely the informant was spared this abhorrent destiny.

  In consequence, a conflict of immense scale and tribulation the world has never seen erupted...

  It shall be etched in mortal memory as The Endless Wars.

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  The conflict persisted across millennia, its purpose fading from memory,

  reduced to the whims of monarchs.

  Amidst this strife, the Khureshii were transformed into grotesque demons,

  led by its herald Shah-an-Sharr, now a demonic demi-god.

  Ultimately, Princess Elydria, an ancestor of House Goldmane wielding both the Adam Sword and Gaia Bolg.

  Vanquished him.

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