Sal-Khan, The Undying Emperor

Sal-Kahn

Glory be his name! The Story of the Undying Emperor is long, glorious and gruesome. Sal-Khan is one of the most prolific historical figures all throughout Irridious and his actions changed the world. From orphan, to emperor, the life he lived contained many hills and valleys of joy and sorrow. _

Born in 9,365 of the Steppes under the shadow of the Hinterlands a boy named Suojin would rise to become the greatest ruler his people would ever see. _

He was raised in near Nyal-ul-Salji (Lake of The Steeds) where he spent most of his early childhood living a nomadic life that followed the migration of the great Salji. His mother was a woman named Jiani who was one of three wives to his father Matu-Khan the local Warlord to the warband he and his family lived amongst. _

He loved to play by the lake with is older brother Sunji until one day, when Suojin was seven, a rival warband rode through the area. His father was away with many of the other warriors and Suijon saw many of his uncles and cousins die by their hands. One death, and one captive marked mis memory forever. His brother Sunji tried to fight and stand up to the raiders, but the rivals left him full of Arrows and dismembered his body leaving the poor frantic boy to watch as they turned on his mother. They pulled her from her tent and each man raped her, then when they were done they tied her up and rode off to where ever they had come from. _

His father did not return until the stars shined bright in the skies above and then war began. War was his life, from the beginning to the end. He saw much of it, too much some would say. His father let him accompany the raids from that point forward but he was not able to take part in the fighting until he was older. _

Two years later his father lead a war raid against those rivals that had taken his mother and what he saw changed his world. It was his first glimpse at something the people called an Immortal, and it was his first glimpse at magic. The Immortal Mage had sided with these rivals and although his father and his warband filled this Mage with arrows. The figure did not die. Instead, the Immortal used his magic to destroy the warband, which killed his father and made little Suojin an Orphan. _

He rode back to his families tent and packed up everything he could before riding off to another freindly warband and lived amongst them as an outsider. For three years he held no home of his own and slept out in the weather until he eventually was taken in by a medicine man. Eventually, the war cheiftain let him take part in the wars and not long after Suojin killed the same man who slaid his brother. But the Immortal remained and the rival warband survived. _

Four years later, when Suojin was 16 he was asked to lead one of the war raids against this very same rival warband and in the fighting the Immortal was slain. Many of the Immortals belonging were passed around but one object remained untouched, was a tome of sorts that the other Ogolai said contained only curses and dark magic. Suojin took this tome and with he learned to read the Immortals words. He practiced magic in secret and learned of a lost world hidden beneath the soil. _

Not many years later, Suojin had become fully immersed in this warband but he still practiced his magic in secret. He had acquired a wife named Tsutsi and the two of them had a son name Sunji. By the Age of 26, he had become the Warlord.

But with this new position of power more enemies came and soon he was at war with more rivals. By age 28 he had eliminated another enemy warband, but found out that they belonged to an alliance of warbands. These enemies all seemed to have an Immortal leading their ranks. They worshipped them in their cult like fashion. _

This is when his world changed. He warned against the Immortals using his magic against theirs and even slaid one on his own. But the might of this enemy force was too much and his warband was almost eliminated. His wife was taken and his son was killed. He knew the only way to defeat them would be to unite other warbands along side his own. _

Eventually he found those who would fight along side his people and not long after he destroyed his enemies. However, after his killings the Immortals of Dravackia placed a price on his head. The cycle continued, he would remarry, have more children, then in an instant they were taken from him either by death or by kidnapping and eventual death. The cycle continued until he was deep into his forties. _

Suojin lead a raid against an Immortal camp and found a group of Immbrilites that had been held hostage by the Immortals there, and he found an artifact known as the Archaeocron. He killed everyone in that camp except for the Imbrillites and three Immortals that he kept as hostages. They spoke to him in their ancient tongue and to their surprise he spoke back. They promised him things for their release, treasures, wives horses. But nothing they presented had any interest with him. Instead he looked to the Archeocron. Through its secret wisdom and power he saw the end of the world and its beginning. He saw the giants of the Elder World, The reptilian titans, and most importantly he saw how the Immortals became what they are and how they used the Imbrillites to achieve this Immortal state. He saw his death, which came about from the breath of a fire breathing titan. He saw their home Dravackia, a massive volcanic island in the middle of the screaming Seas with ashclouds that blacked out the skies. It was then and only then that he arranged a deal with them. He promised that if he took them back to Dravackia and returned them to their homes unscathed, they would in return grant him this power of immortality. And so At age 40, set out to Dravackia. _

Four years later he finally arrived at the shores of this mysterious island, and as promised they changed him. He learned their secrets, he learned their wisdom and in time he became one of them. All the while he kept the Archeocron a secret from their prying eyes. _

Four more years passed, before he set foot in the Thunderfields. This time with a new mission. To stop the end of the world, To stop the Cycles of Destruction. But the warbands quickly turned on him and soon he was looked at as the very same Immortals he fought against long before. War once again entered his life. _

However, as an Immortal he could call upon their ranks and he used them to conquer the remaining clans, eventually building his empire. He renamed himself Sal-Khan, "The Khan of Nyal-ul-Salji" but his subject game him a different title, "The Undying Emperor." He made it a law that for every enemy he killed, one of their wives would be taken and forced to raise one of his children. These children were called the "Uda-ul-Sal-Khan" (The First Sons of Sal Khan) and lived amongst the people as royalty. Eventually the First Son's created their own warband and ruled over the empire as the ruling class; protecting their father at the same time. Sla-Khan became nearly untouchable. _

Not long after he devoted his life to solving the mysterious of the past and began to create a work force that world dig up the ruins of the Ohzimats. He began enslaving the human settlements nearby including the Kwolek people of the Himterland Steppes and the Grude people of the mud planes. However, the Kwolek people eventually revolted against him and fled to freedom into the Hinterlands. _

Sal-Khan led his Imperial forces into the highlands but what he was met with nothing short of an onslaught. Dragon's ruled these mountain peaks and the Salji horse were slaughtered were taken like a cat takes a mouse. Fires rained down from the heavens and Sal-Khan witnessed destruction like he had never seen it before. Fear washed over him and he fled back to the Thunderfields. _

But his mission was clear now, to stop the Cycles of Destruction would mean to slay every last Dragon that lived in those peaks. Several years later, when his numbers had regrown he lead a new force into the mountians. He slaid his first dragon, buy by now the Kwolek people had changed. They had somehow learned to ride the dragons and an even more terrible onslaught occured. Thus began the First Dragon War in 9,919. Half of his beloved empire was destroyed. Enraged by their acts Sal-Khan led a genocide attempt against the Kwolek people and killed off all his remaining Kwolek slaves. Every Kwolek he found in the wild was tortured and brutally executed. However, even with the Immortals powerful magic in his hands, it did not compare to the might of these Dragons he now faced and eventually he stopped fighting. The empire was in shambles. It took nearly eighty years to rebuild. However, a grudge remained in his heart. _

Not long after the second dragon war began, this time Sal-Khan managed to fight the Kwolek up to their peaks and destroy the sacred everburn temple atop the Fire Keeper's Peak. The temple was believed to have the the fires of the first dragon breath and had since become sacred to the Kwolek people. The Dragon Riders seemed to be vanquished, but the result of the victory resulted in millions of deaths within his empire. _

Life once again choose to disrupt Sal-Khans mission. A plague had swept through his empire just before he could unravel the secrets of these mysterious mountains. He would have to lock himself away as the illness fell over his people.

It wasn't until the year 10,516 that the Empire fully recovered from this terrible plague. 3 out of every 4 people died and many were left starving and weak. Sal-Khan decided to focus inward on his own people rather than turn towards his rivals once again. This time he liberated his slaves and made them members of his empire, he sought out neighboring peoples and asked them to join his empire. Some did and some refused. _

But the mysteries hidden beneath the mountain always haunted him, and soon once again he led his people into the hills. But Kwolek Dragons Riders remained, and it was faulty. A Third dragon war bgean. Sal-Khan did what he always did wait, rebuild, and return. _

Fouth dragon war began in 11,246. This would be the last of the Dragon Wars. As he had seen in his visions within the Archaeocron. His death came in the form of a Dragon's Fiery Breath, at the hands of High Cheiftess Zangyli leader of the Mountain Clans. Sal-Khan died on the 31st of the month Dragon's Breath in the Year 11,372. He was 2007 years old.