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"O
Denayi,
City, Circle, Nation,
Glory of this World
Lord of so many others,
How vast must be thy walls,
how wide must be thy gate,
That thou mayest encompass so many peoples,
and swallow so many youths.
Noblest city, filled with souls,
not all of them living. None free to go.
Thy every roof, thy every gutter must shine
So much gold hast thou taken in.
Thy twin sluice-gates,
do they pour forth torrents, red and salt?
How could it be otherwise,
so much blood and tears thou hast caused to
fall?
Countless voices cry thy name
but so few in adulation, so many in woe.
Yet let me not say repent to thee.
Does the sea repent, as it wears away the
shore?"
--, Arany of Rethi, Eulogies 1.7
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The Denayi rules an empire of a
hundred inhabited Worlds connected by a series of magical gates. At its
heart lies its ancient homeworld, its original name mostly forgotten, and
now known as Denayi, after the family of magicians who long ago conquered
and unified it with their terrible magics.
It was they who first sacrificed souls to the construct they call the
Pylon, and who utilized the energies therein for magic and war. Today
their descendants continue to sit upon its ruling Circle of mages, and
direct vast human tribute from their far-flung dominions homeward, to fuel
their engines of sorcery and war. It is the magic of the Circle that opens
the Gates to other Worlds, that Enhances the superhuman legions of
Uukaptai, and unleashes devastation upon their mortal enemies. Yet it is
this self-same magic that opens the way for trade across Worlds, for the
exchange of technology, knowledge and medicine, and that permits the
creation of an enormous and diverse civilization.
Nor is Denayi alone; several of its Gates open upon the Worlds of its
rivals: the Zegazer, the Kaeltoth, Aelon Daar, and others. These Empires,
too, have learned the secret of the Pylon, and possess armies, perhaps
even Uukaptai of their own. Currently, Denayi’s borders rest in uneasy
peace, but who knows when once again titanic war will errupt to consume
entire Worlds?
As a scion of a ruling House of Denayi, you are heir to the majesty and
terror of an Republic that stretches across a hundred dead earths, to the
power and the moral price of the command of a billion dead souls, and to
the knowledge that upon death, your soul, too, will become forfeit to the
Pylon .
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