Ebachi Rue

The great Rue empire stretches from the tall Draj mountains in the north, to the edge of the western sea, to the eastern wilds and touches the edges of the vast desert bisecting the continent. Traveling through this, the blood that binds all of the regions and great cities of the empire is the great Rue River. The heart of this river, the city built on the low hills over the dam that controls the irrigation and trade, is Ebachi Rue.

The city was built in the ages past, some say with the help of the gods even before their beautiful city of the Criaad was lost. Surely the dam and its many locks was made with their magic, lost to time. There are no records of a time when the city was not there, but then, after the reign of the first king of the empire, Magnus Re, many records were sealed away for protection against the defiling hands of the common man.

The dam is in a cleft between two hills, and the water behind it is the deepest the lake formed by it gets. Most of the rest of the filled the river valley, with many hills rising up from its waters. The city is both the hills and the lake, with causeways connecting the hills across the shallow waters, and manmade islands anchored in the open expanse.

While the great palace of the king is a beautiful sight, especially with world renowned gardens cultivated by the most recent king, Niren, for his consort, the ambassador Asmara of Kalah Telath, it is not the structure people come to see. That would be the great Temple of Creation, carved out of the stone of the mountain, and it is the crown of the fifteen gods of Creation, as well as the Temple of Fate and Chance.

The most important building in the city is not beautiful, and is often ignored by the people except for during the times of naming the heir to the throne. This is the Vault of the Gods, and it is what gives the city and the king the power over the land.

The Vault was built by Magnus Re during the Mage Wars that devasted the world. He proposed to the gods that they contain their power to only those of the Faith, and rest inside the Vault until they were needed to fight the Phoenix to prevent the end of the world. It can only be opened by the blood of the king, voluntarily given.

The mages devasted the lands after the fall of the Criaad, using magic to bewitch people, destroy, and remake the land. Some say the Great Southern Desert used to be green, but the mages stole that away. The Faith teach that the mages consorted with demons, and if they continued, they would give more power to the Phoenix and help him destroy the world with all their wars.

Who can say if this is true? The old records are hidden, and no one speaks the old languages. Who might discover the truth of the past, and if Magnus Re was less in the favor of the gods, and more of a master manipulator?