Ryan Bailey (order #2639004) 173.14.196.1 - fap.if.usp.br

Ryan Bailey (order #2639004) 1CHAPTER ONE: LIFE IN THE HIGH FIRST AGEown way in the world. Within 62 years, the Ochre Fountainstretched to the Summer Mountains to the east and the YellowRiver to the north. To the south and west it stretchedto Creation’s borders.Then the Celestial Exalted of the Ochre Fountainhalted their spread and moved back inward to consolidatetheir holdings. Outward expansion halted. They founded thecities of Sperimin, devoted to learning (and to which Brigidreturned with the gift of sorcery), and Denandsor, devotedto crafting, where the Primordial Autochthon met with theSolars of the Twilight. They sent emissaries further north, toSijan, still sovereign and ancient even then. Soon, though,the Ochre Fountain Celestial Exalted came to blows over theland’s resources—the choicest demesnes and richest depositsof magical materials. Merela’s Golden Hero Vassals settledtheir disputes with daiklave and Charm, dueling in her courtas she watched. Raised as a gladiator in Raptok religiousgames, accustomed to war and death, and fully conversantin the mechanics of reincarnation as explained to her byher patron and occasional consort the Unconquered Sun,Queen Merela approved of her vassals resolving their differencesthrough violence. She quickly found, however, thatSolars fostered deep and abiding conflicts among each otherin peacetime when they lacked a single guiding vision. Shedidn’t recognize the first tendrils of the Great Curse snakinginto her subjects’ hearts and into her own, although she borewitness to its effects.Of the independent kingdoms founded in the landsbeyond the Ochre Fountain, few records now remain. Allagree they were undoubtedly glorious, as all Solar kingdomsare, yet none were so magnificent as to eclipse, or even rival,Merela’s nation.For the 100th anniversary of the Exalted victory overthe Primordials, Merela decreed that she would establish acentral government for all Creation on the slopes of MountMeru where the gods had once dwelled. She’d already grownbored with the intrigues of her court and wished to focus herGolden Hero Vassals outward once again. Yet, as the OchreFountain government began the process of uprooting itselfand preparing for the journey across the Inland Sea to theBlessed Isle, the Exalted found many of their Jadeborn-granteddevices ceasing to function. They discovered that the Peopleof Adamant were deactivating the artifacts remotely. Whenthe Solars demanded an explanation, the Jadeborn claimedthat, with the war over, they wished to concentrate theirresources toward their own projects. Therefore, they’d decoupledthe more complex artifacts from their subterraneanbroadcast power grids. Many Solars worried. The 10 millionartisan geniuses of jade were both numerous and potent,with an underground empire that stretched across Creationentirely. When the Twilights of Denandsor asked Autochthonof his children’s true motives, he met the question12