Ehosian History

Then there was Enlightenment, and the First Prophet came with the Word of Eho. The Prophet eschewed the many gods worshipped by the People of the Pearls, claiming divine revelation of one, single god, embodied in the sun. Eho was the Life-Lord, Soul-Flame, and Evil-Scorcher. The First Prophet did not restrict his wisdom to the humans on the region, but traveled widely. Across the northern mountains, he encountered elves dwelling in a lush jungle. They received him kindly, but were unwilling to turn from their own dieties. The First Prophet went back to his own people in time. He died in the city of Shariz, which would later become the nation's captial and primary holy city.

The Word of Eho was immediately popular. The kingdom's rituals and rites had grown very complex, owing to the large number of gods. Finally, in 210 PE (Post-Enlightenment), the king of the Pearl Kingdom was forced to step down in favor of the high priest of Eho. This high priest took the title "Patriarch" to define his new rule over matters both temporal and spiritual. He took his new duties quite seriously, and reflected quite a bit on them. His musings were published after his death as "Letters of the First Patriarch" in 300 PE, and are a canonical text in Ehosia.

The Ehosian ley-gates were established by the Sixth Matriarch in 260 PE. These magical gates at first linked only Shariz and a few other major cities. Over time, they have grown to link all of Ehosia's cities in a fine webwork. This has the effect of "shrinking" the nation significantly, and is one of the reasons behind its xenophobic policies today. At the time of the Sixth Matriarch, Ehosia was an open society, welcoming foreigners so long as they did not offend Eho.

In 326 PE, the Ninth Patriarch declared a war of expansion against the elves in the northern jungles. Ehosia, it was felt, needed a share of that green expanse to produce more food for its growing population. This war continued for some 75 years, and was ended by the Twelfth Patriarch. Several cities were quickly established in former elven territory. Unfortunately, the Ehosians did not understand the jungle ecology nearly as well as the elves, and the jungle was reduced to merest desert in 100 years time (500 PE).

It was around this time that Ehosian religion started taking on a much more isolationistic nature. Clerics of other faiths, always viewed as incorrect and dangerous, were cast as the followers of demons. Even mages, hitherto unsuspected of wrongdoing, were eventually seen to be receiving their powers from infernal sources - unless the mage in question was a sworn member of the Ehosian church. The ley-lines were redirected so that Sommayid, the most northern city of Ehosia, became the only gateway into the country. Moreover, tall, thick walls of red sandstone were built around Sommayid, and its great marketplace was moved to outside the city proper.

In 583 PE, the Twentieth Patriarch issued the now-infamous bull, "On the Unnatural Lifes of Elves." A section of the Word of Eho exhorts followers to seek out and destroy "those creatures whose lives are prolonged by unnatural methods." For nearly 600 years of Enlightenment, the Ehosian clergy had taken that as an instruction to seek out and slay undead. Now, the Patriarch determined that, as elves live far longer than any other manlike creature, elves must be using unnatural methods to prolong their lives. As such, they must be destroyed. While it was several years before the first armies were assembled outside of Sommayid to march on the Great Forest, this bull marks the beginning of the Ehosian crusade against elves.

On the 600th anniversary of Enlightenment, the philosopher and theologian al-Aja the Younger, so-called the "Heretic Prophet" was burned, along with as many copies of his scrolls as the Patriarchy could acquire. al-Aja did not approve of the new crusade, pointing out that the First Prophet himself had been friends with the elven people. Lacking a strong argument to counter this, the Patriarchy silenced him with death.

Only ten years later, writings attributed to the "Second Prophet" began to appear. Apparently a disciple of al-Aja, the Second Prophet also claimed to have heard the voice of Eho. Not only is the crusade wrong, the Second Prophet said, but so are the ley-gates, the now-ancient backbones of Ehosian society. The ley-gates are power-drains of incredible power, killing first the early priests sworn to maintain them, and later the life-flame of the elven jungle.

Writings attributed to the elusive Second Prophet continue to appear, even now in 695 PE. Either there have been a string of Second Prophets, or the original is a half-elf - or even an elf. These secret texts (ownership of them is punishable by the Wrath of Eho) inform the highest members of the Ehosian Reform movement, who consider them to be gospel truths. Unsurprisingly, the Patriarchy holds to the line that the ley-gates are a gift from Eho to his chosen people.

Back to Game World Index
Back to Ehosia Main Page.