GLRP:EMs:Royal Spies & Guard:2011:Ouroboros:Decline of a Civilization
Title: Decline of a Civilization
Author: Lady Evra Bloddstine
The people of the pyramid
brought about the decline
of their civilization in
two ways. They threw
away some of their most
vibrant citizens and they
used up the future of
their verdant land.
The Zealan's magic was centered around enhancing the fertility of the land and bringing immortality to their rulers. The land around the Great Lake had many harvests a year and the country of the pyramid builders was known as the breadbasket of Malas. Still, there were comparatively bad harvest years. The pharaohs would use the inactivity of their people during those times to wage war against Luna and Umbra. These wars were expensive. Pharaohs urged their sorcerers to increase the productivity of the land.
They figured out how to have longer life, by using the power of the pyramid to slow down or speed up time in its vicinity. They manipulated Luna and Malas markets that way too. Their ultimate goal was to bring the power of the pyramids into themselves, each carrying immortality that way. At the request of pharaoh, they applied this power to the land. The purpose was to �borrowed� the distant future fertility of the land to make more crops grow right away. It worked and brought in more gold. However, each year it seemed more gold was required and more harvests had to be borrowed from the future. Finally, that future caught up to them and the land was suddenly barren. It is said, by those desert nomads, descendants of the Zealans, who�ve passed down the stories, that someday the debt will be repaid and the desert will suddenly spring to life, green and lush again.
Another factor in the decline was the exile of Zealan dissidents and heretics. The Zealans had long had a tradition of throwing criminals into the Void. Their symbol for death was even "star". However, dissidents and heretics had always been allowed a voice. As the government grew more wealthy it began doing whatever it could to stay in power. This included branding its rivals criminals and casting them out into the stars.
So not only did the Zealans borrow against their future, they also threw much of it away into the darkness.
There is a myth that the
pyramid once had a
fourth level. It is said
that when the sorcerers
sensed the end coming,
they rushed to place as
many mummified pharaohs
as possible into that level
and then set up a
controlled time blast to
disconnect it from
present-day Malas. It is
said to return every
thousand years to see if
the land of the pyramid
builders has caught up to
a future in which it is
not a desert. At that
point, one of the
pharaohs must performa a
ritual to bring all the
Zealans forward. It is an
optimistic myth from a
people who were always
too fond of looking
towards the future.
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