Histories of the Homeworld

The Ashloga Ziggurat

20,415:1 (-29,585)

	The course of the next 20,000 years following the Great Worldquake brought our people to the point where they existed much like the duracoix of Aerynth exist in the present time.  We had great cities populating the lands, and commerce between these cities was extensive.  

	Our first interpretations of the Old Ones were much like the understanding of “Gods” on Aerynth, though today we know that this was a primitive mindset.  However, the presence, whether at that time or at some even more ancient period, of these entities was amongst us.  The Terrors of the deep waters had not been seen by the new generations that dwelled in the cities, though the warnings of the Elders was enough to ensure that no one was to go in search of these beasts.  As evolution had carried us, so it may have done with them as well, we feared.

	So it was that we lived in peace on the few continents that sheltered us.  Fact turned into myth, and myth turned into legend, and the tales of the Terrors became stories we told to frighten one another as children.  

	A few more centuries went by and a coastal city was constructed in the southern province of Ashloga.  The city took the name of the province.  Governed by the aspiring youth of the later generations, Ashloga became an epicenter of progress and education.  It was a forerunner of the concepts that would later be practiced in the post-Ascension philosophies of the Second Age.  Thousands of young people, eager to learn and interact with the philosophical revolution that was occurring, flocked to Ashloga’s great libraries and academies.  Only twenty years after its settling, Ashloga grew to be the home of nearly one million people.  Some of the great epic poems of antiquity were written in this time.

	The citizens of Ashloga were occasionally warned again by the older cities of the inner provinces of their flamboyance and lack of concern for that which may lie in the deep waters, but they never took heed of the old talk.  So much, in fact, were the Ashlogans sure of their security and proud of their accomplishments that they constructed the Ashlogan Ziggurat on the southernmost peninsula of the city.

	The Ashlogan Ziggurat was an enormous structure that held within its heights a great library, an academy of learning, institutions for the arts, and perhaps the most memorable feature, the EverFire, a massive bonfire kept burning brightly in the heavens atop the Ziggurat.
This flame burned so brightly in the night sky that it is said that it could be seen as far away as the ancient city of Kal’Shye, some 2,000 miles away.  The ancient writings of the elder Zonaque chronicled the marvel in his book, States of Province:

“…So brightly shines the citadel’s fire, that great and eager exclamation of youth to an ever-present evening sky and beyond.  So stately and arrogant is its presence; so marvelous its bravery.  The temptations and mockery of youth extend not only into the hearts and homes of the eldest of us, but no doubt into the black void that lies beyond the sea, seen, perhaps, by some ever-watchful eye, and challenging of some ever-present peace.  May the Ones above be merciful, and the things beyond be few…”

In perhaps the strongest act of prophecy of the time, Zonaque’s writings, dismissed by the
 Ashlogans, would ring true shortly thereafter.  In the 20th millennium of the 1st Age, after over 20,000 years of apparent extinction, the Terrors appeared to our people again.  As the flame of the Ziggurat had been seen so many miles inland, so it was seen upon the seas.  The “ever-watchful” eyes of the great beasts had seen the EverFlame, and on one dreadful night, completely ravaged the city of Ashloga, starting with the Ziggurat.  

The enormous sea beasts, nearly the same size as the structure itself, attacked the Ziggurat first, so the story goes, and the EverFlame fell into the city behind it, setting the city ablaze.  It is estimated that between the actual Ziggurat’s destruction and the fire that ensued, more than two-thirds of the Ashlogans were killed.  The remaining people fled the city, many of them being killed in the pursuing attacks from the Terrors.  

The refugees from Ashloga would flee inland back to the cities the Elders presided over, but upon hearing of the events, the citizens either turned away or killed the refugees for there actions.  

This event marked the beginning of the Terror Wars, which lasted for the remaining duration of the First Age, culminating with the rise of a great general to lead our people to victory over the Terrors… General Arack of Kal’Shye.

Though the ruins of Ashloga are long gone, the Hrak Mountain on the Homeworld is thought to rest atop the collapsed rubble from the ancient Ashlogan Ziggurat.