History of the Shael

The speed with which the Shael achieved total world domination is matched only by the speed with which they exterminated themselves.

— Toran Medazak, "The Lessons of the Past"

Birth & Early History

The Shael arose as a race during the Age of Giants, when the Giant Empire reigned supreme across the world's single super-continent, Arunel. Four gods were responsible for creating the Shael race, an act which the Shael referred to as the Second Miracle (the First Miracle being the creation of Calcerun). The four gods placed the Shael in a region of the world that was relatively empty, allowing them to grow and expand without significant conflict with other races - with the exception of the giants, who immediately subsumed the Shael into their dominion. Although the Shael were initially not unified, the gods appeared before a select group of Shael and convinced them to unify the Shael race. This was the Third Miracle.

The chosen Shael worked for decades to unify their race. They found assistance in an unusual place, for their giant overlords actually supported this process, being of the opinion that a unified client race would be more useful. It took decades, and not a small amount of fighting, but eventually the Shael were unified. The giants demanded to know what the Shael could now do for them, but the Shael had nothing special to offer. So they prayed to their gods and were rewarded with the Fourth Miracle, in which the gods taught them the secrets of melding magic with technology, and creating arcanotechnological wonders unknown to the rest of the world. The giants were very pleased with this development and the new, valuable tribute it created.

Servitude & Rebellion

For centuries the Shael remained, like the rest of the world, under the rule of the giants. As overlords go the giants were relatively undemanding. So long as regular tribute was provided they largely left their client races alone, though they were brutal in crushing any attempted rebellions. The tribute was a heavy burden for the Shael to bear, and forced the race to live in relative poverty. Throughout it all it was their religious faith that kept them going. The church had huge influence on Shael society, and was the most significant force keeping the race unified. It also acted as the main driving force behind the race's growing desire to be free of the giants' rule, and invested enormous resources in arcanotechnological research in the hope of finding something that could free the Shael. The church prophesied that eventually a Fifth Miracle would occur and set them free.

After centuries of servitude, the faith of the Shael was rewarded. In a hidden research facility deep underground, a team of magewrights succeeded in the creation of what became known as the Genesis Forge. A unique combination of enchanted machines and an eldritch building, the Genesis Forge was capable of mass-producing automatons which could be used as labourers...or warriors. The magewrights duplicated their work, creating lesser imitations of the Genesis Forge known as Creation Forges, from which more of the automatons could be produced. These automatons became known as the Warforged. In secret the Shael amassed legions of their Warforged, until they had enough to rise up against the giants.

The giants were taken entirely by surprise, and the Warforged's first strike saw dozens of giant strongholds captured or destroyed. The giants retaliated, but they did not have the numbers to counter an army of fearless automatons whose ranks were constantly swelling through the tireless work of the Creation Forges. In less than a year the giants' leadership were all dead, and organised resistance to the Shael was over. The Shael wasted no time in using their armies of Warforged to establish complete dominion over the continent, replacing the giants as the new rulers of the world.

Empire & Civil War

The Shael rapidly spread across Arunel, their artifices allowing them to easily dominate the other races. Under the guidance of the church a new imperial leadership was established, and order was restored. The Shael prospered on the backs of both their own creations but also the other races of the world that now fell under their control. The Warforged were turned from soldiers into labourers, filling all jobs that the Shael did not want to do, and they made their masters rich.

As the decades turned into centuries, and memories of the giants faded, the stability of the Shael Imperium began to falter. The Al-Shael, seeing their traditional menial roles taken from them by the Warforged, sought more power from the Shael-Ye. The Shael-Ye resisted, wanting to maintain or even advance their position. Political factions formed and began to vie for power. The church had gradually lost much of its influence over the many years of prosperity, and was unable to calm the situation. The tensions continued to grow.

By this time Creation Forges had been constructed across Arunel, with every significant city or faction having access to at least one. This meant that every faction had access to theoretically-unlimited numbers of disposable soldiers. History does not record which faction struck the first blow, but almost overnight the Shael Imperium collapsed into civil war as the factions sent their Warforged against each other. Legions of automatons clashed with each other, tearing each other to pieces only to be replenished by freshly-created replacements every morning. The vast legions wholly outnumbered the living Shael, and it was only a matter of months before all the great Shael cities were in ruins.

During the war the various factions began experimenting with their Creation Forges, seeking to alter their Warforged to gain an advantage. Numerous different forms of Warforged were created during this time, but the alterations also had an unanticipated effect: the Warforged began to be born with sentience. No longer mindless automatons, the Warforged refused to fight each other at their masters' commands, and instead turned against the remnants of the Shael, exterminating them.

The last living Shael were hunted down and slain less than ten months from the first fateful battle. As their final act the last Shael managed to enact an ancient failsafe built into the core of the Genesis Forge and all its copies, destroying the Forges' cores and rendering them useless. The Shael could not stop their rebellious creations, but they could at least ensure that there would be no more made.

Aftermath

After the war the Warforged found themselves without a purpose or a motivation. Some, knowing only battle, turned on each other. Others tried to establish communities, but mostly lacked the knowledge to do so. These communities rarely lasted long. In the end most of the surviving Warforged began to commit suicide, or else enter catatonic states. Many sealed themselves in great vaults underground where they could rest out the aeons, perhaps waiting for something to waken them and give them purpose again.

With the passing of the Warforged Arunel lacked a dominating force. Various minor races that had survived the Imperium's collapse began to re-establish themselves, eager to seize this opportunity to finally make their own destiny. Foremost among them, and destined to be an even greater curse on the world than either the giants or the Shael, were the Naia.

See more: History of the Naia