The Ceth Tseket

Ruins of the civilizations of millennia past lie silent beneath the foundations of today's marvels of modernity. The empire known as the Ceth Tseket was perhaps the greatest among those fallen civilizations-- and it is certainly the one that modern Aotrans are most eager to erase from history.

Few written records of the Ceth Tseket survive. Contemporary knowledge of the empire comes largely from the histories of Aotra's oldest nations, those that can claim histories dating back far enough to have their own records of the rise and fall Ceth Tseket. But what is known paints a tragic picture of the insidious and inescapable destruction that the Other can wreak upon even the most powerful cultures.

History

The Ceth Tseket, founded in 3979 YW, grew from a small alliance of desert-dwelling clans to a world-spanning empire in less than 400 years. The rise of the empire is poorly documented, but consensus among contemporary historians is that the Tseketon were among the first to master arcane magic, and it was that power that allowed them to expand their empire outward so quickly.
Documented in more detail is the decline and eventual destruction of the Ceth Tseket. In mid-3300 YW, a group of some of the most influential people within the empire-- political leaders, archmages, high priests-- made a fateful decision: to commence exploration of the open frontier that was the Otherworld. Less active in the mortal world then than now, the treachery and danger posed by the Other was far less certain to the Tseketon than it is to contemporary Aotrans. In pursuit of discovery and opportunity, they reached out to the Other and, unknowingly, opened themselves to forces beyond what they could have ever imagined. The consequences crept in slowly enough that by the time they became obvious, they were unavoidable.
With a secure foothold among the political and cultural leaders of the empire, the Other quickly worked through the rest of the empire's population. Their contact with it changed them, giving them serpentine features and cold, rational minds. But it also brewed distrust within their empire, so slowly as to be unnoticeable at first. Soon enough, the empire was splintering into precarious fragments, cults of personality surrounding any who could draw in enough believers. But the Other itself was much more of a threat than the infighting that consumed them. After hundreds of years of decadence, the trap sprang at last. Other creatures poured in through Otherworld gates made by the Tseketon, consuming all they could find.
The annihilation of the Tseketon people happened over the course of less than a month. In the end, the only factor that spared the nations surrounding the Ceth Tseket was the empire's drastic turn inward as it began to decline; by the end, the outside world had so little contact with those inside the empire that, at the time, the massacre of its citizens came and went silently. Millions perished, the Other faded back to the Otherworld to bide their time for another opportunity, and the once-great world of the Ceth Tseket sunk into ruin amidst the desert sands.

Religion

A small amount is known about the beliefs of the empire's people, but almost no information at all survives about the practice of the faith.
The Tseketon people devoted themselves to a pantheon of three goddesses, who may or may not have been three aspects of the same goddess. The first, the Mother of Storms, is a creator figure and goddess of war. The second, the Serpent of the Night, is a goddess of death and the apocalypse; some accounts attest that the Serpent, as she was more simply known, appeared within the Pantheon only after the Tseketon made contact with the Other. The final deity, known only as the Lady, is a trickster goddess of magic, ambition, and luxury.
Archaeological evidence seems to suggest that regional differences influenced the popularity of the three goddesses within sections of the empire. In example, some of the empire's regions with the harshest climates seem to venerate the Mother most, judging by the temple complexes erected in her honor. In other regions, the Mother seems to fall into the background in favor of the Serpent and the Lady.

3979 YW - 2250 YW

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Demonym

Tseketon

Government System

Theocracy

Economic System

Traditional

Notable Members

• Valissia ce'Xalotl