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RUN, YOU FOOLS!
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Formerly Iwakawa base and Chaldea. Now Teyvat, the Astral Express & the Outpost
Age: 44
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The following text is a summary and compilation written by an entity who gave himself
the "Archivist" name. Ancient Belka's historical archives being mostly fragments
of the bigger history, it was quite difficult to get the full picture of what was
Ancient Belka Empire, and its greatest accomplisshment.
Spoiler for Belka the planet:
The world of Belka
Belka's original planet was near identical to Earth, orbiting around yellow dwarf
slightly bigger then Earth. It was overflowing with magic, and inhabited by three
sentient species. The first specie, the dragons, were few compared to the two others.
The second specie were long-lived humanoids who towered the third specie and are called
Giants by them, they called themselves Badhra, "Blessed" or "Fortunate" in their own
language, and claimed that their third eye were a mark of this blessing by the gods.
The last race were humans, living in small groups all over the world.
All three races used magic via different methods. The dragons used the very language
sung by the stars when the multiverse was born to interact with their environment.
While it mades them powerful, they were more responsible and wise than the other
magic users. The Badhra used their ease to interact with the outer planes to make
contract with spiritual lords, elemental kings or gods, their art was at their pinnacle
when they created the devaheti, sentient weapons infused with the yaksha, near-divine
spirits, that were living in the plane the Badhra chamans usually visit. This reliance
on their ability to communicate with gods would prove later to be their undoing, as
spirits would claim later what Badhra owed them.
Finally, the first human magic users were the first to use the potential of their
inner magical core, the Linker Core. While their magic were not as pure as the dragons,
it was not as dangerous as the early badhran chamanic magic.
Spoiler for From the founding of Belka to the rise of the Empire:
The origins of Belka - The Exodus and the Founding
At the very beginning, when humankind on Earth saw the rise of Uruk, on a planet far away
from Earth, a war that opposed a kingdom, Drun, and a city-state, Varn, has come to its
end, with the destruction of the city. As for how, why and when this war has started,
history has long forgotten it. The ruler of the kingdom of Drun, Slaugh Feagh, has shown
no mercy, in despite of the brave fight put up by the defenders of the city of Gearth, the
place has been raided and burn to the ground while the king Slaugh Feagh, has made sure
that no one shall survive. But his wish has not come true, indeed, a few hundreds of survivors
made their way out of the city, through hidden tunnels, led by twin brothers, Belkhem and
Benzwig, sons of the cousin of late ruler of the city who gave them the sword Hruntig
as symbol of his people and hope for them.
Belkhem, Benzwig and the Varnir, people of the destroyed city, has started a long exodus
through mountains, forests and deserts, they met and overcame many challenges but never
found a home. Until that day when they met a wandering ermit who claimed to be an oracle.
The ermit told Belkhem and Benzwig that they shall settle in a plain where they would
find a white eagle, a red eagle and black horned snake. The twins would have to choose
one eagle each, and depending on which eagle would devour the snake, the winner will claim
the right to be the sovereign of the land where they shall settle.
A few months passed until they came across a plain where they indeed found the eagles
and the snake. Belkhem chose the white eagle, Benzwig chose the red eagle. After a long
moment, the white eagle caught and devoured the black horned snake. The ruler of the
future has been choosen, Belkhem, with the help of his people, went on digging trenches
that will be the limit of his city. Enraged and jealous, Benzwig tried to hinder his
brother's work with any means. His last act was to leap over one of the trench that
his brohter was just digging. In front of his people, Belkhem beheaded his own brother
while claiming that calamity shall befall on anyone who dared to leap over his walls.
With his people, he continued to build his city then named it Belka after himself,
and served as a strict but just and virtuous first king.
The king spread the rumor that Belka shall be a shelter to the ones who were as equally
persecuted as his people were. Belka soon attracted explorers, refugees, exiles, but
also veterans from defeated armies, deserters, criminals and thieves. The population
has grown and the city has prospered beyond the king's expectations. This prosperity
has sparkled the greed of neighboring tribes, especially an all-female warrior tribe
named the Camenans. It was the first war experienced by the new Belkan people, lasting
for several months and ending with a duel opposing the old and aging king Belkhem
against the camenan queen Lhea. Much to the surprise of the female warriors who
expected an easy victory over an old man, Lhea was soundly defeated by the combined
experience of the King and the power of Hruntig. Lhea then listened to the King's
story and his ambition, moved by his speech and charisma, she and her people joined
the ranks of the Belkan people.
Belka, as a monarchy was born.
From the Kingdom to the Sad Struggle
The first King has died, leaving a lineage of kings and queens who were mostly
benevolent and lived up to the Belkan virtues. The kingdom expanded and has become
a major power in its region while its technological level has progressed enough to
witness the crafting of the first Device prototypes that would equip elite troops or
confirmed soldiers of the proud Belkan Legions. It should be noted that those Devices
did not have the same level as Armed Devices.
But a diplomatic incident at a Badhran court has triggered the wrath of Sivgupta the
Steelclub, a warlord and king of one of the kingdoms of the Badhran Confederation.
Claiming repair for his honor, the warlord gathered his armies and marched toward Belka.
Leaving little time to the Belkan legions to prepare, the Belka has faced an army and
warriors that overwhelmed them. What could they do against the ferocious Araru, neither
truly humans or Badhrans, nor truly demons, clad in tiger-coat and armed with the
terrific Devaheti? How Belkan mages could deal with the summoned Yakshas who assisted
the Sivgupta's soldiers in battle?
Belka has lived an overwhelming defeat and were forced to pay one hundred pound of
gold and two hundred pound of silver if the citizen wanted the Badhran to leave Belka
and not sack it. The reigning King, Frideich, tried to negociate, begging Sivgupta to
be merciful toward his people because the demanded tribute were too much. The warlord
furiously seized Hruntig and uttered "Woe to the conquered!" while smashing the blade
with his steel club. He then chased the king out of the city and sacked Belka.
The First Sack of Belka has brought the end of the Belka kingdom, as founded by Belkhem
The First, about four centuries ago.
The Divided Kingdoms, Sighild the Invincible and the Crowning of the First Kaiser
The Sad Struggle was also known as the Belka Dark Age or the Divided Kingdoms.
Actually, most of the 'kingdoms' were not bigger than an average county. The Sad Struggle
has seen bitter wars and shirt-lived peaces or truces, it was an age where belkan warlords
and sorcerers has power over the life and the death of their subjects.
Oppressed people were desperate and prayed for one man to come to save them, Hruntig,
the broken sword, was never seen again since the Sack of Belka and was assumed to be
forever lost.
In a small kingdom, Shimyr, a dragon maddened by his old age, has demanded one maiden
to be sacrificed to him every spring equinox. This has gone on for decades and has
driven the citizen of the kingdom into a deep-rooted apathy. Ulrik, a swordsmith, has
two children, a teenage daughter named Sighild who would be aged enough to be married,
and a son, Lars who was still a children. Unfortunately, the time has come when every
families in the kingdom has to draw the stone that will decide who would have to
sacrifice their daughter. Much to Ulrik's chagrin, it was his daughter. But Ulrik
refused his daughter to go without a fight. He picked up his family heirloom, a broken
sword, and melted its metal, merged it with another metal whose the name was lost, to
forge a new blade. It was his greatest work and proudly gave it to his daughter,
telling her the ancient tale of a man who killed a dragon with a combination of strenght
and strategy, using the terrain to his advantage.
Sighild's turn has come, the girl has refused the royal guards to drag her to the place
where she was meant to be sacrificed, choosing to walk to the dragon's lair with dignity
and courage. Her sword, concealed under her linen coat, she carefully approached the lair,
studied the terrain and found a small gap in the rocky corridor where she would have the
advantage. She have heard from people that Shimyr was a flyless dragon, moving as fast
as a snake. She became aware that the fact he could not fly would be his demise.
With a fearless voice, she called the dragon to come. She mocked him, taunted him,
upsetting him. She then ran where she intended him to come. In other circumstance, Shimyr
would have seen it coming, but his anger over a frail woman who dared to mock him while
flailing a weak sword have blinded him, and he was now stuck in a small rocky gap with
no way to get out. While he was a dragon, he was not as strong as in his youth and could
not break the rocks with as much ease as before. Sighild dodged Shimyr's jaw attacks and
fiery breath with the ease of a dancer until she saw the weakest spot of Shimyr's cuirass.
She then brandished her sword, Laevatein and struck Shimyr. With a shriek that would have
struck fear within anyone's heart, Shimyr has died and has dropped dead into the ground.
Having heard about the dragons' blood and flesh in her childhood tales, Sighild began
to cut the dragon's corpse. While the wind blew from the neighboring forest, Sighild
bathed in Shimyr's blood, but a small leaf brought by the wind has covered a spot on the
left side of her back. This is when she ate shimyr's heart that she came to know the
heritage left by her ancestors. She came back to her village, with the left eye of Shimyr
in her hands, and rumors, in her small country, has spread about a woman who defeated
a dragon. She then came to her brother Lars, telling him that the time has come for him
to claim Belka.
But he had to visit an oracle to confirm his lineage. Marching with her sister, he
met an oracle who submitted him to a challenge that would confirm his royalty if he
succeded. His efforts were successful and he was recognized as one of the descendants
of the Belkan kings. Sighild and Lars led their army together to fight and unite the
divided kingdoms into one, they marched toward Belka so Lars could claim the throne
that was left empty. After a short battle to claim the throne from the local tyrant,
Lars was crowned as the first Kaiser of Belka. The siblings has then been introduced
to a world of intrigues and conspiracies where courtiers would struggle to gain the
young emperor's favor. One of the courtiers, Varg, wanted Sighild, as a mean to claim
later the throne but also out of obsessive and jealous love for the warrior maiden.
But his efforts to win Sighild's love were fruitless, for she was more than devoted to
her country and her brother. The courtier then secretly went to meet the same oracle
that Lars has met before marching to Belka. Varg flattered, threatened and flattered
the oracle to be revealed a way to kill Sighild, he was successful and he killed the
oracle to be sure that the man shall not reveal anything about him.
When the young Kaiser has finished to united the last kingdoms, he organized a festival
to celebrate the birth of the Belkan Empire. Every noblemen and noble ladies were invited
to a banquet and offered to attend a hunting party. It was during the hunting party
that Sighild has meet her end, shot in the back, the same spot where the leaf has
fallen a long time ago, by the arrow of an assassin hired by Varg. Her death was a great
loss for the Belkan people, and those who has been at the imperial court for long enough,
have heard of Varg's obsessive and jealous love for Sighild. For the young Kaiser, Varg's
guilt was very clear. Because he has not actual clues of Varg's crime, he forced the
courtier into exile, not without taking him Varg's eye and arm. Sighild was buried
with Laevatein, while Varg was driven to the empire's borders. The traitor's purpose
was not done yet, for he has been found by Kandosa, a tyrant of one of the Badhran Kingdoms.
The Belkan-Badhran War and the rise of Belka empire
About one human generation has passed, the Kaiser Lars has married and gotten children.
Meanwhile, a badhran tyrant named Kandosa, armed with a Devaheti axe named Vijigishu
(Ambition in their native language), has usurped the highest position in Badhran's
ladder of power, King of Kings, after having killed the legitimate one and nearly
exterminated the late king's family. However, Kurara, the youngest son having managed to
escape with his personal guard. Kandosa then crowned himself as God-Emperor of the
World.
Kurara has managed to make his way to the young Belkan empire and found shelter in
a small Belkan city named Varnsburg. Because of the history between Belka and his people,
Kurara has a lot of trouble to get accepted by the humans but also to get understood
by them. It did not help that the old Count Johan, governor of Varnsburg, has died of a
long disease and left his hotheaded young daughter, Vita, as ruler of Varnsburg and the
surrounding shire. Months has passed, and Kurara's fears has come true when messengers
came to the young countess to report the arrival of a humongous Badhran army. Vita has
now understood what Kurara has tried to tell her since long months.
Vita has little time to gather her army but has made her decision to meet the Badhran
army where she has the intention to meet them. She requested Kurara to go to meet the
Kaiser and gave him a scroll that will tell the kaiser about the incoming danger.
The "young" Badhran prince and the barely teenage Belkan countess then parted ways to
meet their fates and fill their purposes in history.
After days of march with her army and harassement of the Badhran army through skirmishes,
Vita met the God-Emperor Kandosa where she wanted him to go. The Emperor demanded immediate
submission after having seen the mere six hundred soldiers brought by Vita, as opposed to
his army of ninety thousand soldiers. Vita answered the emperor's offer with a booming
laughter then swung her hammer toward him as a challenge gesture.
The battle has then started and shall be remembered as one of the most famous last stands
in ancient Belka history. The years of the Sad Struggle has strenghtened the Belkan as
a mlitary power, the newer Devices were way better than those in the first Belkan-Badhran
war that has led to the old monarchy's downfall, and were optimized for the human's magical
potential, moreover Vita has used the terrain to her advantage, Kandosa having found himself
unable to surround the small army as he should have done. The battle has lasted for about
seven days and six nights. The demise of Vita and her six hundred has been partially the
doing of a old enemy of the Belkan imperial family, the exiled Varg, now an old man, who
wanted to exact his revenge on the empire. The consequences of the betrayal were the defeat
of Vita's army but Vita has succeded into delaying the invasion of Belka and allowed the
Kaiser to gather just enough strenght for the upcoming battle. The excess of reliance of
Badhrans on Yakshas has proved to be one of the cause of their demise. The Battle of city
of Belka would be not only a turning point of the conflict but also in the history.
Vita's death and her courage against the tyrant has strenghtened the heart and resolution
of the Belka people, and Kandosa's ambition would be nothing compared to it. The fact that
Prince Kurara has sided with the Kaiser and helped him to conquer the lost territories
but also to get into the Badhran kingdoms to bring Kandosa to his knees is not to be
forgotten. The war has come to its end when the yakshas has started to refuse to obey
the chamans, when most of devahetis has gotten out of their wielders' control, and
when the Kaiser has killed the God-Emperor and broken the cursed sentient axe.
For the badhra, their age on this planet has come to its end, and they have learnt a
lesson about dealing with the spirits in a more responsible and respectful way. The
old dragons then offered the badhra people to leave the planet with them. The humans
were then the only masters of this planet, and Belka's advance in term of magic has
helped the empire to come to prominence, as the dominating nation and culture for the two next millenium.
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