abstract
| - The earliest of all known records (from the steppes, and Var the Golden) describe the great empire of Imaskar. Ruled by powerful godless human wizards, this empire was centered in what is now the Raurin Desert. Its borders were vast, reaching from the Endless Wastes to the Golden Water and from the Alamber Sea to the very frontiers of Kara-Tur. In the year -8350 DR Imaskari tribes began to settle the then-fertile plain of the Raurin Desert. About 230 years later the Imaskari Artificers created the first permanent extradimensional space. Their fascination with such magics soon transformed Imaskari city design. The following years saw the rise of many grand cities, among them the capital city of Inupras around -7975 DR. About this time the first Emperor, Umyatin, rose to assume the title of Lord Artificer. Under orders from Lord Artificer Omanond in -7891 DR, that Imaskari artificers created the Imaskarcana – seven items in which the empire's immense magical lore is recorded for all eternity. In -6422 DR the great city of Solon was founded east of the Raurinshield Mountains. Sometime around -4370 DR a suspicious plague decimated Imaskari cities. In answer to the plague, four years later the wizard-rulers of the Raurin brought hundreds of thousands of people from another world to be their slaves. The prisoners in turn brought their faith, and their deities - the Mulhorandi and Untheric pantheons - with them. Although they came from the same plane, the prisoners came from different regions as well as different times. They soon intermarried with each other and the surviving Imaskari citizens to form the race now known as Mulan humans. The slaves prayed hard for salvation, but the prayers went unheard since the wizards had closed all portals and created a barrier preventing divine intervention. This barrier banned the gods from the sphere and made them effectively nonexistent as long as the barrier held. As time passed, the slaves divided into two distinct cultural factions in service in the Imaskar Empire, which scholars name "Proto-Untheric" and "Proto-Mulhorandi". The Proto-Untheric culture was a more aggressive culture; it believed in achieving absolute supremacy over its dominions. The gods of Unther have, since their beginnings, been uncaring entities, as opposed to the gods of Mulhorand, who are merely neglectful. The philosophy of the Untherites has always been that life is hard and cruel (perhaps because of the hardships they suffered as slaves), and only through hard work and submission to one's deity can one survive. About seven hundred years later in -3234 DR, the Imaskari created the outpost known as Metos in Methwood as its westernmost outpost.
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