What Has Come Before
The First Apocalypse destroyed the great Norsirai nations of the North. Only the South, the
Ketyai nations of the Three Seas, survived the onslaught of the No‐God, Mog‐Pharau, and his
Consult of generals and magi. The years passed, and the Men of the Three Seas forgot, as Men
inevitably do, the horrors endured by their fathers.
Empires rose and empires fell: Kyraneas, Shir, Cenei. The Latter Prophet, Inri Sejenus,
reinterpreted the Tusk, the holiest of artefacts, and within a few centuries the faith of Inrithism,
organized and administered by the Thousand Temples and its spiritual leader, the Shriah, came to
dominate the entire Three Seas. The great sorcerous Schools, such as the Scarlet Spires, the
Imperial Saik, and the Mysunsai, arose in response to the Inrithi persecution of the Few, those
possessing the ability to see and work sorcery. Using Chorae, ancient artefacts that render their
bearers immune to sorcery, the Inrithi warred against the Schools, attempting, unsuccessfully, to
purify the Three Seas. Then Fane, the Prophet of the Solitary God, united the Kianene, the desert
peoples of the southwestern Three Seas, and declared war against the Tusk and the Thousand
Temples. After centuries and several jihads, the Fanim and their eyeless sorcerer‐priests, the
Cishaurim, conquered nearly all the western Three Seas, including the holy city of Shimeh, the
birthplace of Inri Sejenus. Only the moribund remnants of the Nansur Empire continued to resist
them.
Now war and strife rule the South. The two great faiths of Inrithism and Fanimry continually
skirmish, though trade and pilgrimage are tolerated when commercially convenient. The great
families and nations vie for military and mercantile dominance. The minor and major Schools
squabble and plot, particularly against the upstart Cishaurim, whose sorcery, the Psûkhe, the
Schoolmen cannot distinguish from the God’s own world. And the Thousand Temples pursue
earthly ambitions under the leadership of corrupt and ineffectual Shriahs.
The First Apocalypse has become little more than legend. The Consult, which had survived the
death of Mog‐Pharau, has dwindled into myth, something old wives tell small children. After two
thousand years, only the Schoolmen of the Mandate, who relive the Apocalypse each night through
the eyes of their ancient founder, Seswatha, recall the horror and the prophecies of the No‐God’s
return. Though the mighty and the learned consider them fools, their possession of the Gnosis, the
sorcery of the Ancient North, commands respect and mortal envy. Driven by nightmares, they
wander the labyrinths of power, scouring the Three Seas for signs of their ancient and implacable
foe—the Consult.
And as always, they find nothing.
The Holy War is the name of the great host called by Maithanet, the leader of the Thousand
Temples, to liberate Shimeh from the heathen Fanim of Kian. Word of Maithanet’s call spreads
across the Three Seas, and faithful from all the great Inrithi nations—Galeoth, Thunyerus, Ce
Tydonn, Conriya, High Ainon and their tributaries—travel to the city of Momemn, the capital of the
Nansur Empire, to become Men of the Tusk.
Almost from the outset, the gathering host is mired in politics and controversy. First, Maithanet
somehow convinces the Scarlet Spires, the most powerful of the sorcerous Schools, to join his Holy
War. Despite the outrage this provokes—sorcery is anathema to the Inrithi—the Men of the Tusk
realize they need the Scarlet Spires to counter the heathen Cishaurim, the sorcerer‐priests of the
Fanim. The Holy War would be doomed without one of the Major Schools. The question is why the
Scarlet Schoolmen would agree to such a perilous arrangement. Unknown to most, Eleäzaras, the
Grandmaster of the Scarlet Spires, has waged a long and secret war against the Cishaurim, who for
no apparent reason assassinated his predecessor, Sasheoka, ten years previous.
Second, Ikurei Xerius III, the Emperor of Nansur, hatches an intricate plot to usurp the Holy War
for his own ends. Much of what is now heathen Kian once belonged to the Nansur, and recovering
the Empire’s lost provinces is Xerius’s most fervent desire. Since the Holy War gathers in the Nansur
Empire, it can march only if provisioned by the Emperor, a thing he refuses to do until every leader
of the Holy War signs his written oath to cede all lands conquered to him.
Of course, the first caste‐nobles to arrive repudiate the Indenture, and stalemate ensues. As
the Holy War’s numbers swell into the hundreds of thousands, however, the titular leaders of the
host begin to grow restless, because they war in the God’s name, they think themselves invincible,
and as a result see little reason to share the glory with those yet to arrive. A Conriyan noble named