Age of River Kings

Birth

The River Kings coalesced out if the Mnar-Alsahra War Interregnum after the dissolution of Gadan and the events of the Altani-Wesjoranian Civil War, a conflict between the practitioners of the Akashari religion and rural Ixgali believers thriving in gold-rich Ixgal and bountiful Aklon. the states of Altanagal and Phl'geth used powerful translocational and elemental magic to build a network of portal-born waterways called the Nedhiwars. These networks stitched together rivers great and small into a series of waterways over which central rule could be exerted.

The Rivergates

At the time the Rivergates were built, Ixgal, Enkar and Qabir were experiencing long and unrelenting droughts which seem to have begun around 24,000 years ago during the Cassildan Betrayal Interregnum. Scholars owe it to the ongoing decrepitude of the works of old which once tamed the great deserts, but the residents of the Qabir peninsula tell stories of Elementalists who are said to have battled so fiercely with the Akkan-Shai during the Great War that they completely emptied what were once the seas of Qabir.

An Abundance of Tyranny

The Rivergates thusly brought unimaginable transformation to these regions, but also eventually brought with them the despotism of the River Kings themselves. The River Kings were the lieutenants of Sebab Gartu, an effective but violent commander who was said to have grown to despise scholars and literate people during the Altani-Wesjoranian Civil War 32 centuries ago. Upon returning to Altan, Sebab is said to have commissioned a massive extension of Altan's river navies funded with the plundered wealth of the southern city-states of Ixgal. Shortly after this expansion, Altanagal's king died during a dam inspection. Sebab seized power and wealth, becoming the defacto regional ruler. Hailed as a hero by the local Ixgali people and as a cruel harbinger of the Ixgal decline by the writers of the time, Sebab would eventually lead a popularist revolution which made literacy and writings a crime punishable by death, extinguishing the thriving academic and arcane institutions of the region and expanding his reign through the Nedhiwars.

The Four Corners

There were four main riverways connected the circular outer harbor of Altanagal which stretched far and wide; the Hutorian Cascade, the Acheronian Cascade, the Kasharan Cascade and the Phlegethian Cascade. These four riverways had the largest of portals, capable of allowing through the largest cargo ships. Smaller portals extended into various lesser rivers, creating various circuitous routes determined by Sebab's conquests.

Terror On The Rivers

After the destruction of Elucion at the hands of Phlegeth, stories of ghosts and terrible calamities began to spread along the Rivergates, attributed to the destruction of Elucion by the Phlegeth Navy. A series of copycat rebellions began approximately 1918 YA, leading to regional conflicts.

Decline

By 1900 YA, the Rivergates and their surrounding civilizations were controlled by dynasties of semi-literate merchant-kings who presided over the Toklai Synods, labor churches who carried on the knowledge of various crafts through semi-religious movements . While some precious few private collections of books which were spared from Sebab's pyres, a great deal of Geron's literature was ultimately lost. The means to upkeep Sebab's Rivergates passed into obscurity along with the Arcane schools and their vast libraries, and soon the Rivergates began to deteriorate. Eventytually only the wild Haru tribes were willing to transit the treacherous portals, learning circuitous and bizarre routes through Geron's waterways through trial and error. The Haru river people remain masters of Altan's pictographic and gestural replacement for the written word to this day, some claiming to still ply the scattered remains of Sebab's rivers to this day. Hungry separatists eventually clashed with the wealthy but starving navies, over the last few portals connecting the Four Rivers, destroying them and trapping many of the Haru navigators in distant lands. This lead to the massive inflation in the price of food and water and a devaluation of gold that led to the Gilded War Interregnum.

Religion

The god Tel-Dhuma was of particular importance to the river gods, along with Skedwer, Kahen-Sah and Krotsos.

Remnants

Allies and conquered vassals of the River Kings were connected by Rivergate to the great city of Altan, and while the bastion of Altan stands to this day, only segments of the original system are functional. Many of the Rivergates and the Great Rivers they created were destroyed in a coordinated attack against Altanagal and Phl'geth in the early years of the Gilded War Interregnum, but intact elements remain in Aklon, Ythill and Ixgal scattered on the surface and throughout the Archaea.

Stygiography

The remnants of the Age of River Kings intersect the underbellies of several surface societies, so much of the gold associated with this time of ancient prosperity and subsequent ruin has been plundered and repurposed as coin, sometimes directly - coins from this era are commonly found throughout the bastion markets and serve as the defacto currency
These remnants often contain malfunctioning or defunct portals which once comprised the Rivergate cascade itself. Some are obscured below the surface of turbid water brought from unknown locales, others still carry the waters of once mighty rivers which now ply uncertain Archaean locales, others are rumored to deliver curious explorers to the Land Beyond, often without the prospect of return.
The architectural remnants of great wealth proliferated from the far corners of the world slowly crumble onto the large stone tableaus that were once riverside docks, providing fresh rubble for the extensive canals and irrigation plots which once turned the central deserts of Qabir into a verdant paradise Waterworks such as those in the renowned temple garden of Shinar are likely to be found operating at various scales of largesse. Towards the upper realms, one is likely to find the evidence of starvation and breakdown, one is likely to find examples of Altanagali and an abundance of granaries and a period of wealth.
Literature or any form of script-based writing is extremely uncommon throughout the remnants of this age. Libraries and other documents are completely absent from the ruins near epicenters of power, appearing only at the relative margins of Geron. While ledgers of merchants are occasionally found, they are of little value to most.

World

Geron

Cycle

Fifth Cycle

Timeline

31 to 16 centuries ago

Previous Era

Mnar-Alsahra War Interregnum

Events

Farighian Quake

Interregnum

Gilded War Interregnum

Epicenter

Altan

Archaea

Lower Tl'enaihain, Shulakan Catacombs, Plh'gethian Drifts, Phlegethon, Druzscar

Dominant Civilizations

]Altanagal

Other Civilizations

Achtontli, Altanagal, Asrakaliha, Athrak, Farigh, Gishkad, Kairnazul, Korahan, Kuesh'mal, Leng, Marul, Na'taan, Phl'geth, Qaamal, Therengalt, Tl'enahain, Tulchannad, Yul'tan, Yu'Shan

Dominant Languages

Altanagali, Tibaddian

Other Languages