Land of Cerilia

HISTORY OF CERILIA

Cerilia is a troubled land. A chaotic patchwork of nations, cultures, and religions is scattered throughout the land. Wars and feuds are common; even peaceful lands must vigilantly defend their borders against expansive neighbors and the plots of awnsheghlien. There can be no lasting peace until the Bloodlines stand united and end their eternal conflict.

Yet even though the history of Cerilia is a tragic one, there are glorious moments too. Strong kingdoms and rich cities stand from the Sea of Storms to the golden waters of the Dragonsea. It would be the labor of a lifetime to create an exhaustive list of Cerilia's divided realms, its towns and villages, and every dark forest or vine-covered ruin.

In the Royal Observatory of old Anuire, cartographers traditionally divided Cerilia into five regions: Anuire, Rjurik, Brechtur, Khinasi, and Vosgaard. Each was named after the principal people who dwelled there. Of course, over the years the boundaries of kingdoms shift and fail. In many places, the lands have fallen wild, or been claimed by one of the awnsheghlien.

When you understand how history molded the peoples of Cerilia, you will better understand the way it is today. Humans were not always the dominant race of Cerilia. The true natives are the elves and dwarves, the keepers of the forests and the guardians of the mountains. For centuries, they lived peacefully alongside each other, because each had its own enemies to fend off – the humanoids.

Gnolls, goblins, and orogs swarmed through Cerilia. Creatures of night and darkness, these humanoids lived where the elves and dwarves shunned. Yet they constantly raided, traveling through the dwarven mountains and the elven forests to take treasure and lay siege to the humanoid encampments. Matters continued in this vein for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Then came the humans. Five tribes, the Andu, the Brecht, the Masetian, the Rjuven, and the Vos, fleeing from the domination of decadent empires and the wrath of an evil god, crossed a land-bridge into Cerilia from the southern continent of Aduria, and began making new homes. A sixth tribe, the Basarji, joined them from the lands beyond the Dragon Sea.

The Cerilian wilderness was thus touched by the hand of man, and would never be the same again. Cerilia's dwarves, concentrating on holding back the orog forces, had little time or inclination to investigate or negotiate with the humans. The invaders, likewise busy, had more important things to do than to brave the mountain passes the dwarves called home. The two races eventually developed an unspoken agreement with the other, namely, that humans were welcome in the mountains as long as they caused no trouble and would somehow contribute to society.

The elves, on the other hand, were competing with the humans for the most beautiful land in Cerilia. At first, the elves thought they could live in mutual enjoyment of the forest, and this arrangement worked for a time. The presence of the humans drew the attention of the humanoids that constantly raided through the forest. Despite the ferocity of the humanoids, the humans proved to be resourceful enough to stand fast, and eventually the humanoids were beaten back. Not long after such battles became commonplace, humans began looking to elven lands as places for expansion.

The elves were fiercely resistant to this, for they had fought long and hard to keep their lands. When the humans began to force the elves from their ancestral homes, the elven leaders began the Gheallie Sidhe, or Hunt of the Elves. Elven knights roamed the lands held by the elves, slaying any humans they found trespassing in their borders. Woodcutters and peasants gathering firewood were slain as brutally as the warriors that would-be kings sent to conquer the elven realms. It was all-out war between the two races.

Still, the elves were pushed back year after year because of an element they had never seen before – priestly magic. The elves could call upon the forces inherent in wood and water, field and air, but had never worshiped deities and thus couldn't understand this new source of power. The human priests were the deciding force against the elven expertise in magic and combat; the gods favored humans to such an extent that the elves found themselves practically powerless.

The fair folk conceded the plains, the hills, and the coasts to the upstart humans, and withdrew to the sanctity of their forests, concentrating their efforts on destroying any human foolish enough to venture there. The only ones who did were those seeking elven knowledge or seeking revenge on the elves for their atrocities. Only rarely did either kind ever return from the woods.

Contrary to popular human belief, Cerilia wasn't always dominated by the humans. The true natives of Cerilia were the elves and dwarves, the keepers of the forest and the guardians of the mountain. They lived peacefully together, neither side intruding on the other's terrain. Besides, both had enemies to contain, and had precious little time to spare for the other. Those enemies were the humanoids, earth-spawned creatures that quickly multiplied. Gnolls, goblins, orogs, and kobolds swarmed through Cerilia.

Creatures of night and darkness, the humanoids lived where the elves and dwarves chose not to dwell. Yet they constantly raided, traveling through the dwarven mountains and the elven forests to take treasure and lay siege to the demihuman encampments. Matters continued in this vein for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Little in the way of lasting civilization arose during this time, at least none that are known to human scholars. The elves built slender towers and the dwarves constructed their stonewrought wonders, but these marvels eventually fell to one marauding tribe or another. In return, the elves slaughtered villages of gnolls and goblins, while the dwarves drove the orogs deeper and deeper into the recesses of the mountains. It seemed that this stalemate would continue forever, and all sides longed for a way to break it. Had they known what was in store for them, they might have realized that their existence was not so bad after all.

For then came the humans. Five tribes, fleeing from the domination of decadent empires and the wrath of an evil god, crossed the land bridge into Cerilia from the southern lands of Aduria, and began making new homes here. A sixth joined them in Cerilia, from the lands of Djapar beyond the Dragon Sea. The wilderness was touched by man, and nothing was ever again the same.

The ancestors of the humans now living in Cerilia were six tribes of man, five living on the continent to the south of the island, and one living far to the east. The six peoples, while their cultures varied widely, venerated a common pantheon. Each tribe worshipped a particular god above the rest. These gods each favored a particular tribe over the others, lending their attributes to those who followed them.

The tribes each considered their patron to be the head of the patron, but generally agreed that the portfolio's of the gods were: the god of nobility and war, Anduiras; the god of the forests, mountains and rivers, Reynir; the goddess of commerce and fortune, Brenna; the lord of moon and magic, Vorynn; Masela, the lady of the seas; the prince of the sun and overlord of reason, Basaïa; and finally, the face of evil, Azrai the Shadow.

Those who followed Anduiras called themselves Andu. They sought the path of conflict and honor, the Andu are now known as the Anuireans. Those who followed Reynir were called Rjuven, now known as the Rjurik. They communed with nature as best they knew how and lived as hunters and nomads. The Brecht, who later colonized Brechtür venerated Brenna, and cultivated sharp wits and nimble fingers. The Vos were diviners and illusionists, seeking a deeper understanding of themselves and of magic near-independent of their distant god Vorynn. The Masetian people were sailors, braving the seas under the aegis of Masela.

Though the tribes occasionally squabbled among each other, their true enemy lay to the south, in the decadent empires of the continent. Mythology among the tribes held that the Shadow led the emperors along paths of corruption and destruction. Thus, when the empires turned their attentions to the people in the northern lands, the leaders of the Five Tribes knew it was time to flee that land -- into the realms dominated by the faerie folk and monsters -- into Cerilia.

In Cerilia the Masetians encountered the Basarji, horse-nomads from far off Djapar who had braved the seas in search of a better life. The Basarji revered Basaïa above all others, but respected the goddess Masela and so were accepted by the Masetians for the most part, though the Masetians were said to consider the Basarji backward and many ancient Basarji writings indicate that the Masetians scorned the Basarji in many ways - a scorn that reaped a bitter harvest after Deismaar when the crushed Masetians were absorbed by the Basarji.

Cerilia is home to many peoples, ranging from fierce orogs and goblins to graceful, deadly elves. The BIRTHRIGHT campaign allows players to choose from nine character races: Dwarves, Elves, Half-elves, Halflings, and five distinct human cultures (Anuireans, Brecht, Khinasi, Rjurik, and Vos).

Anuire, Brechtur, Khinasi, elves, and dwarves are the equivalent of Renaissance cultures. The Rjurik and orogs are the equivalent of Middle Ages cultures. The Vos, goblins, and gnolls possess Dark Ages technology.

Dwarves lived in the mountains of Cerilia long before humans came to the land. Over the years, the dwarven holds have chosen a defensive strategy, fortifying their approaches and retreating to their cities under the mountains whenever threatened. Dwarves have a fierce hatred of orogs (orclike beings), the result of uncounted wars fought under the earth.

The elves of Cerilia are a graceful but reclusive race, suspicious of humankind. Early in Cerilia's history they contested human settlement of Cerilia's vast forests, and a strong current of ill will towards the human nations still runs strong in the elven woods. There is only one race of Cerilian elves; they call themselves the Sidhelien (SHEE-lin). The Sidhelien hold court in deep, mist-wreathed vales in the darkest heart of the ancient Cerilian forests.

From time to time, a particularly handsome or beautiful human with courage and a gracious manner can walk among the Sidhelien and return unscathed. There have been humans who have been accepted as equals in the elven courts. Mortals quickly become lost in the elven spell; the years reel by in splendor and celebration, while the world outside comes to a halt or leaps centuries ahead. The mortal may return home to find that only a single night passed, or that a hundred years have passed him by. More often than not, his life runs out in an eye blink, like a moth dancing too close to the flame.

Half-elves are the children of these unusual men and women and their elven hosts. The elves regard them as Sidhelien, and they're welcome in elven society. Humans are more suspicious of half-elves, referring to them as bewitched or changelings; it's rare for half-elves to leave the elven woods.

The halflings aren't a numerous people, but they can be found almost anywhere humans live. Only a handful of humans know the secret of the halflings' origins: Once they dwelled in the spirit-world, a realm of faerie enchantment that existed parallel to Cerilia, but this realm was poisoned by the rise of the Shadow Lord and they fled to the daylight world to escape his power. In the early years after the battle of Mount Deismaar the Shadow World slowly became a darker, more foreboding place and the halflings left their home realm family by family, trickling into the human lands across all of Aebrynis.

Humans are the most numerous people of Cerilia, inhabiting every part of the continent. There are five human nationalities or cultures: the Anuireans, the Khinasi, the Brechtur, the Rjurik, and the Vos. A sixth nationality, the Masetian became extinct long ago

Five tribes fled the growing power of Azrai, the shadow in Aduria to the perceived safety of Cerilia. The Andu (ancestors of the Anuireans), the Brecht (who now live in Brechtür), The Masetians (now subsumed by the Basarji and known as the Khinasi), the Rjuven (who became the Rjuvik) and the Vos. The Brecht and Masetians, great sailors, set out on the long voyage to the north of Cerilia and the Sun Coast respectively, the Rjuven fled in long-ships along the coast of Cerilia not settling until they reached the safety of the wilds of the north, the Anuireans and the Vos however traveled on foot across the land bridge to Cerilia for they had little understanding of the sea.

The trip, whether across the land bridge, or the seas, was arduous--many of the people attempting the journey did not arrive at their destination, falling to disease and sickness, natural hazards, hostile natives, infighting and, sometimes, pure human stupidity. Still, despite the perils of the journey, the nomads at last arrived in Cerilia, and found a lightly populated land open to conquest. They also found the Basarji.

The Basarji were a dark-skinned people from beyond the Sea of Dragons. They are thought to be descended from the same stock as the five tribes, for their gods were the same (or at least remarkably similar) as those worshiped by the fleeing nomads. The humans were now six tribes, and they set to dominating Cerilia with a desire never before seen on the continent. The Basarji worshiped the god Basaïa, and established themselves in the sunny southeastern corner of Cerilia where they swiftly gave up their nomadic ways and some even their beloved horses. Basarji still live in far-off Djapar, however many of them spurn contact with Cerilia for they cling to the worship of Basaïa and refuse to accept the new gods.

The goblins dwelt along the coasts and in the plains of Cerilia. The early human settlers therefore immediately came into contact with the goblins. These contacts were almost inevitably hostile and without the aid of the dwarves and elves it is likely that the early settlers would have been destroyed. In time however the disorganised bands of goblins were defeated by the humans, with the surviving goblins either coalescing into true nations, or emigrating en masse for distant lands away from the invading humans. This emigration led in turn directly to the fall of several elven and dwarven states which were over-run by goblins driven out of their native lands by the human settlers.

The elves found themselves suddenly competing with the humans for the most beautiful land. First impressions that all could live in mutual enjoyment of the forest proved short lived. Elves imagined that the humans would respect the elven lands and leave them in quiet isolation. However, the humans defeated the humanoids they encountered and continued to encroach on elven lands as conquerors.

It was a different story with the dwarves. While the humans battled first humanoids then elves, they did not bother the tall peaks and high mountains where the dwarves were engaged in an ancient struggle with the orogs and kobolds. The two races were thereby able to establish a modus vivendi with each other.

The elves fiercely resisted conquest and defended their forests with brutality and cunning. For centuries they had battled the humanoids, and now they simply faced a new threat. Elven leaders formed the Gheallie Sidhe, or Hunt of the Elves. Elven knights were commissioned to patrol the forests and slay any humans they encountered. Human raiding parties disappeared. Lone farmers and woodcutters seeking subsistence were slain. All out war between the two peoples erupted.

Human records, preserved in the early temples of Anduiras and Basaïa state that the elves were able warriors and possessed powerful secrets of arcane magic, but the humans had a resource the elves had never encountered - priestly magic. The elves controlled the elements and spun them into powerful magics, but they had never worshiped deities and could not make sense of the divine magic they encountered. The human priests tipped the scales against elven expertise in magic and combat.

The fair folk eventually conceded the plains, the hills, and the coasts to the interloping humans. It was the ancient and mystical forests, where the essence of magic was strongest that the elves took sanctuary, hunting any human trespassers with vicious efficiency.

Members of the Khinasi discourse have long pondered why the early racial relations with the elves and with the dwarves were so different, while the initial conflict with the goblins was inevitable by the preference of both races for coastal regions and clear land on which to grow crops, the scholars of the discourse long struggled to explain the loathing for the beautiful elves compared to the liking, or at least tolerance for the dwarves.

Detailed research of older Masetian records show that initially the elves were seen as glorious beings that aided the Masetians against the goblins and taught the Masetians how to use magic. Within two centuries however this regard turned in many places to hatred with ancient (and even some modern) priestly writings describing the elven sorcery and refusal to worship the gods as proof of demon worship by the sidhe. Some Discourse scholars have argued that the Masetian and Basarji need for land caused the friction between the races, although others point to the famed elven arrogance and refusal to accept the concept of land ownership. The dwarves by contrast not only lived in remote inaccessible places but traded vital metal-work with the Masetians thereby gaining allies who would argue their cause.

For a time, the humans were free to do as they would in this new land. Though there was still the ever-present threat of elven retaliation and humanoid incursion, the humans found themselves mostly unopposed in their efforts. Kingdoms rose and fell as everyone sought to earn the right to rule. It was a vital, dangerous time, when the land was still relatively untouched and it was said anyone with the courage to wield a sword could forge themselves a legend and a kingdom.

And then the Shadow came to Cerilia. Following the trail of the fleeing humans, the god of evil made his way to the new land. When he found that they had prospered in the new land, he realized that it would take more than simple battle to destroy them--it would also take subversion and deceit. Of course, these things came naturally to the Shadow.

First, Azrai took his teachings to the goblins and gnolls of northern Cerilia, in the land called Vosgaard. By inclination, they had always believed in the power of the Shadow; now he granted them priestly abilities to prove it. Naturally, those of greatest evil inclined toward Azrai's priesthood, and they rose to power quickly among the tribes of humanoids.

Next, the God of Evil went to the Vos, the humans of the area. Not realizing that Azrai was the Shadow from whom they had fled hundreds of years ago, they took his words of strength and power and made them their own. In the land of darkness in which they lived, the Vos had little reason to appreciate the niceties of divination and illusion; the creatures around them understood the way of the mace and the sword far, far better, and so the Vos fell to the wiles of the Shadow and took to the bloody path of might.

When the Vos had been thoroughly corrupted by the very teachings they had escaped to Cerilia to avoid, Azrai traveled to Rjuven seeing them as similar tools as the Vos, however the druids and huntsmen of Reynir held tightly to their kinfolk and Zrai found few amongst the Rjurik who would turn against their clansmen, spurned Azrai went to the elves and dwarves, whispering to them of revenge against their enemies, the destruction of all things unclean, and the restoration of Cerilia as it had once been. He sought out the demihumans in dreams and omens, signs and portents, and spoke to them of the excellence of the past, when no humans defiled the surface of Cerilia.

The dwarves, having lost little to the human tribes found nothing in Azrai's words to provoke them, and so they steered clear of his temptations. The elves, on the other hand, had been burning with the desire for revenge ever since their exile to the deep woods. They took to the teachings of Azrai and prepared for war.

In the meantime, the southern emperors of Aduria had been busy. Their armies, after conquering the lands vacated by the five original tribes, began the arduous march toward Cerilia. The kings of the new nations saw their danger and marshalled their forces to combat the evil growing on all sides of them.

As the power of the Shadow grew so did the closeness between the world of Aebrynis and the Spirit World, strange beasts were sited throughout Cerilia and bizarre omens grew in number as the War of the Shadow grew near until the learned throughout the land urged their leaders to raise armies and seek out the terrible threat that they realised must be drawing near.

The armies of the Shadow raged throughout Cerilia as the Vos, goblins, gnolls, elves, and renegades forged of the bitter, greedy of the tribes (of whom Raesene Andu and the Serpent are the most famous) swept across the land dominating and destroying everything they came across. The armies of the Cerilians were hard-pressed by the forces marching under the serpent banner, at first some amongst the human tribes thought they would in time beat back the forces against them, but then word came of the vast armies raised by Azrai in Aduria.

The gods of the tribes understood that this army could not be allowed to cross the land bridge into Cerilia,as if it did so it would crush the tribes one by one until all the Cerilians were crushed beneath the heel of the Shadow. In a desperate attempt to prevent him from realizing goal of annihilating the Cerilians, they gathered their people's armies at the land bridge to Cerilia. Each god chose a champion or two from among their tribes, a champion that exemplified what the god loved best in humanity. All of them withdrew to wait on the slopes of Mount Deismaar. The armies of the Shadow followed, with Azrai himself at their head.

The clash on the slopes of Deismaar was an epic battle, man and monster struggling against each other in the vain attempt to triumph. Nonetheless, despite the bravery and skill of the Cerilian warriors, it seemed certain that the humans would end the day by lying dead on the slopes of Deismaar.

It was then that the elves came across to the human side of the battlefield, slaughtering the Vos and southern warriors as they came. The elven generals had seen Azrai for what he was, and realized they had been deceived the Shadow had no interest in returning the world to the way it had been, in a sudden clear flash of insight Tuar, queen of the elves saw that Azrai intended quite the opposite, rejoining Aebrynis to the Spirit World that he might shape it to his will. A few elves didn't care about Azrai's evil and sought only to rid their land of the humans, and these elves remained with the Shadow, of which Rhuobhe Manslayer is the most well known. The majority of the elves however cast aside the blindness of hatred, and their abrupt switch of sides helped even the odds considerably.

It was then that Haelyn, champion of Anduiras and the Anuireans, stepped forward to do battle with the most powerful of Azrai's champions -- Haelyn's half-brother, Raesene the Black Prince, a man who had sold himself to the god of evil. All across the Mount, the gods' champions squared off against Azrai's henchmen. On the slopes of Deismaar above, the gods took physical form to try to defeat Azrai once and for all. They poured everything they had into the effort to destroy the shadow that had fallen across Cerilia.

All around was chaos as the ensuing explosion destroyed the landscape, leveling Deismaar and the lands around the mighty mountain. Yet despite the force of the explosion, there were still a few who had survived. Most, however, had been scattered to the four winds, including nearly all the Masetians and good-aligned Vos. In a final bid for freedom from Azrai, the deities had given their very existences. Their essences dissipated and the old gods died in the smoking crater of the mountain.

The survivors of the battle on Mount Deismaar were, with few exceptions, those who best exemplified the qualities the gods strove to uphold. Yet the champions for the gods were conspicuously absent. Standing so close to the gods, they had taken the brunt of the divine essence washing across the land--and the champions, closest to the ideals of the gods, took the place of the vanished deities.
[edit] The new Gods

The new gods were: Haelyn, the noble warrior; Erik, the druid; Sera took the place of Brenna as the goddess of fortune; Avani took the mantle of Basaïa, and became the matron of the Basarji; Kriesha and Belinik absorbed the energies of Azrai and became the Ice Lady and the God of Terror; Nesirie absorbed the power of Masela and controlled the power of the sea; and Ruornil felt the magic of Vorynn flow into his bones.

Others who did not so perfectly mirror the old gods still absorbed some of their energy. Power flowed through them and about them, reflecting the natures of the gods who had given it to them. Abilities they had never possessed before were suddenly at their fingertips, aching to be used.

Of course, certain members of this group were anxious to try out their new abilities, and they did this promptly on the other dazed survivors. A brief but bloody battle ensued as Azrai's chosen fought their way free from the children of the other gods. In doing so, they discovered that they could rip the godly power from the dead ones and make themselves that much stronger. They called this bloodtheft.

Some of the minions fought, but most of them fled the battle field and either returned to dominate their homelands or escaped to remote hiding places. They emerged occasionally throughout the following hundreds of years to kill those who bore the bloodline of the gods' chosen, using the power this provided to keep themselves alive and twist themselves ever further from their former humanity. Among the early Awnsheghlien were the Spider, Rhuobhe Manslayer and the Kraken.

The elves were the first to notice the change, and to realize the cause of it. They called the abominations the awnsheghlien (aun-SHEY-lin), or "blood of darkness." over time, only the uneducated came to refer to these creatures as abominations.

The mightiest of the awnsheghlien was the Gorgon, the remnant of humanity that once was Raesene Andu, the half-brother of the god Haelyn and Roele, the man who was destined to unite Cerilia. The Gorgon's hatred of his brothers drove him to acts of destruction far greater than his fellows, and thus his power increased more rapidly than theirs. Even so, the other awnsheghlien were not to scoffed at--their power still came from Azrai himself, and they knew how to use it.

However, they were not the only ones who learned of the power of their gifts. The children of those who'd been infused with divine essence also grew in stature. They, too, gained vitality from their fallen foes--provided their enemies were also of the blood of the gods. The children who used this power could make themselves into powerful giants, but even as they grew in power, their appearances changed to reflect this. The power came with a price. Those bearing the blood of gods other than Azrai who chose to shape their bodies to properly channel the power of the gods became known as the Ehrsheghlien, elven for blood of light.

Most of the blooded did not however change their forms, preferring to remain human. Those of the blood who established themselves as lords learned that they could also gain even more might from their populace and the earth itself, as well as increase the power of their kingdoms by pouring the blood power back into it. Those with native intelligence, brute strength, or a combination of the two learned how to increase their power through wise rule and the knowledge of when to pound their neighbors into submission.

So it was that the next struggle for domination of Cerilia began. Would-be conquerors now sought the takeover of a kingdom and the death of the previous king, both to ensure the legitimacy of their claim to the throne and to consume the bloodline. The land was torn asunder yet again, this time by power-hungry people of the blood seeking the ultimate power--rule of Cerilia by absorbing the blood of the gods. This time was called the Years of Chaos, and ended when Roele Andu formed the Anuirean Empire to either bring peace to the land (Anuirean folklore) or subjugate it (The Brecht view amongst others).

It was also around this time that the Shadow World was first found by human explorers. Its landscape was eerily similar to Cerilia's, and what happened in Cerilia was mirrored in the Shadow World. The main difference was that the landscape was fluid, mountains grew overnight in places, in other places rivers flowed uphill, time flowed slowly or raced ahead and other peculiarities abounded, the more stable areas were populated by fiends or undead creatures, with ghosts, skeletons or zombies taking the places of peasants laboring, while ghouls ran towns and liches controlled whole kingdoms. It was discovered that there were "weak spots," places of death and destruction that allowed the Shadow World to press in on Cerilia. At these weak spots, undead could travel through to wreak terror on the living--or the living could stumble through to a land of terror. Still, the Shadow World posed little threat to those who knew to avoid its dangers, and no one could find a way to bar access to the strange realm or to destroy it, and so the rulers continued on their quests for domination.

The new gods made a pact that they would never meet in the world in physical form to avoid another cataclysm of Deismaar's magnitude. However they had full freedom and every instinct to give advice to their people, for they felt their former humanity strongly and fondly remembered their families and former neighbours and lands. Haelyn, as a result, walked with Roele in dreams and promised his brother support if only Roele would bring peace to Cerilia.

Thus the Anuirean records say, unlike most of his contempories in Anuire, Roele chose to use his powers not simply to glorify his own station, but to forge an empire of justice that would stand the test of time. Anuire was fortunate that Roele was gifted with the intelligence and nobility of his brother Haelyn, as well as his family's legendary tactical brilliance and his own gift of being able to set aside personal ambition when his vision of the empire demanded it.

Roele began to form the empire by allying with those who had fought beside him at Deismaar; the allies quickly drove the beast-men and brigands (endemic across Cerilia after Deismaar) from their lands and continued on to forge the entirety of modern Anuire into a single cohesive nation.

Some Anuirean records suggest that one of the key motives for Roele in spreading the empire past the borders of Anuire itself was to ensure that Cerilia could withstand another invasion from Aduria, many feared that the Adurian forces of Azrai would assault Cerilia again, and Roele was far from sure that the other races would support him, particularly given the terrible losses suffered by the Masetian people in what had been, from some perspectives, an Anuirean war. The wise of the other peoples knew Azrai would not have been satisfied with Anuire, but even they knew that war could have been delayed by years before reaching their lands, and the death of the gods had badly shaken all the nations.