[b]294 years ago. Sadra Piresh.[/b]

Sadra Piresh stood on the delta of the Salmen river, Mahdidi to its soon to be Lamashi rulers. A city built in three rings. The inner section being of planned streets, sumptuous palaces, amazing theaters and arenas, large temple-gardens and beautiful parks surrounded by an imposing dark green wall decorated with frescoes and statues of heroes and legends from the Naga's rich history. There lived the great generals, high priests and nobles of the Ugalli Kingdom, lording over their social inferiors, each one of them owning vast estates and veritable legions of slaves spread across the Kingdom. 

The second ring was where the dwellings of the free citizens stood. Nagas who did not had notable titles or estates, foreigners and great merchant lords. None of these groups were as powerful as the inhabitants of the Inner Ring, but their opinions and wishes still carried some weight inside Ugalli. The Middle Ring was a far cry from the wealth and opulence of the Inner Ring, but what it lacked in outward, conventional opulence it more than made up in size and colorfulness, "as many colors as a Naga's scales" the saying went, even the wall surrounding it was painted in literally dozens of colors. Contemporary travelers also claimed that the area had an innate "charm" of its own. 

The Outer Ring sat between two sets of walls, inhabited by the poor and the slaves. A sorry clump of slums, wrecks and ruin. There lived the poor and desperate who worked themselves to death in the port of the Middle Ring or in the large farms and plantations that hugged the banks of the Salman. There was little of positive that could be said about the Outer Ring of Sadra Piresh or its inhabitants, except that it provided those in the bottom rung of society a place to sleep away their suffering during the few hours in which they weren't being worked to death by their serpentine masters.

But that was before the War in Heaven and the destruction of the Old Pantheon, when the Naga could count on the protection and guidance of gods and their celestial servants to empower the Kingdom. Now, the only true divine being active in the East was Yuwan, and her armies marched against the Naga. Ranks upon rank of soldiers marching under the Golden Lion of Lamash descended upon Ugalli and washed away its hosts and defenses like a storm coming upon a fishing boat in the open sea.

Truth be told, both slaver empires were already at war by the time the Western Abomination killed the gods. Just the latest round of skirmishes between two hated neighbors that would probably end indecisively, like so many other conflicts between both in the past centuries, had Justinian never ascended. When it did however, the situation changed. The Naga lost their divine patron, depriving them of their greatest source of Theurgia while the Lamashi now had a Goddess free of the need to appease fellow divines and desperate enough to give Her faithful worshipers an extra hand in this war. 

And so the Lamashi finally achieved the final triumph in this final war against Ugalli. The Naga queen for her part had firmly refused any notion of negotiation with Lamash. At first it would mean bowing to their oldest enemy, something the prideful Naga would never accept. But as more and more armies were crushed by Padishah Zirgun and the earthly avatar of the Bright Angel, the terms evolved, and by the time Zirgun's army laid siege to Sadra Piresh he wasn't even pretending to entertain the notion of a negotiated peace. The Lamashi had gone too far to accept anything less than total victory. Ugalli would be destroyed once and for all and the arrogant Naga put in their proper place.

Now, the city burns. The Outer Ring fell fast, the Naga couldn't and wouldn't spare the troops for a proper defense. The teeming, impoverished masses of the Outer Ring, further bolstered by waves of refugees seeking illusory safety from the war, now served their new Lamashi masters. Thousands upon thousands reduced to slavery and used to fuel the Lamashi war machine, either as cannon fodder to sap the strength of the Middle Ring wall or sacrificed by the hundreds to fuel the Lamashi Magi.

The Middle Ring was by far the bloodiest to take. Three weeks of struggle to breach the walls and fight through the cobblestone streets before treason won the day. Not all Naga were willing to throw away their lives in a doomed last stand, specially those not belonging to the ruling class, instead they turned upon their fellows and sped up the fall of the Middle Ring. For their troubles they would be raised in station and many would intermarry with the Lamashi, their descendants would become the staunchest supporters of the new Lamashi overlords, for they knew that if ever the Golden Lion fell, they would fall along with them.

The fall of the Inner Ring was anticlimactic. By this point the Naga lacked both the numbers and the will to put up a proper fight. Specially against the Avatar of the Bright Angel and the Lamashi magi powered by so much blood sacrifices. The royal palace was taken rather easily and the great temples defiled with much gusto by the conquering humans. The very presence of a non-Naga in these streets was sin and heresy to the Naga, but why stop there? Their centuries old enemy was finally vanquished. It was time to enjoy the moment before the Goddess' took the Lamashi to fight the real enemy in the West.

Sadra Piresh would not survive the night. Hordes of footmen walked away with their arms laden with loot, Lamassu ripped apart snake priests while using their magic to tear down the temples and relics of the Naga, the Peris gave in to their bloodlust and fell upon the cowering masses like giant birds of prey, Aswarans sent lines of chained Naga back to their camp while bragging among themselves to see who had managed to claim the better bed slave (more than a few ended up poisoned). Even the turncoats joined the orgy of rape, theft and murder, most of them having grown resentful of the nobility that had led the nation to ruin and wishing to show their new masters just how dedicated they were to the cause. The sack spread from the Inner Ring into the Middle one, the Outer Ring was only spared in the sense that there wasn't anything worth to take from there to start with, and the Lamashi themselves had already razed the place.

The only area truly spared from the sack was the eastern wing of the royal palace. Though that was no comfort for the hundreds of prisoners gathered there. All that could be snatched from the highest stratas of Naga society, nobles, priests and any surviving member of the royal family had been placed there by direct orders of the Angel. In life they had been Lamash's staunchest enemies, and for that they would pay with their souls.

The earthly avatar of Arkshtrân, the Bright Angel, had gathered to him the highest ranking members of the Lamashi force. Lamassu priests, Peris sorceresses, human magis and of course, the flower of the Lamashi nobility. They had been ordered to gather around one of the recreational pools of the palace. Arkshtrân stood at one, flanked by the mages and priests while Padishah Zirgun himself stood at the head of the nobles on the opposite side of the Angel. All had been made to strip while the ritual was being carried out.

Slaves and apprentices dragged the Naga to the edge of the pool, cutting their throats and letting the poisonous blood mix with the water while the mages sung and played their instrument. Arkshtrân acted as the conductor of this macabre choir, his heavenly voice eclipsing even that of the Peris. All the while more and more blood continued to be added to the pool. Halfway through the singing, the magic started acting. Searing winds tore apart the chained Naga, siphoning their blood straight into the pool, whose water had long since turned viscous and black due to the blood.

The music reached a thunderous crescendo as the last Naga was ripped apart and his blood added to the pool. Then the Angel motioned for the Padishah to step forward. And that Zirgun did without any hesitation, Arkshtrân had given him the general idea of what was about to happen, but even if he hadn't, the Padishah would still  do it. For if he couldn't trust the Angel, then who could be trusted?

He walked into the pool, letting himself be submerged by the magically-enhanced mixture. The assembled nobles waited with baited breath for their ruler to reappear while the Angel continued to lead the magical choir. Bright golden light shone from beneath the viscous surface of the liquid, allowing the onlookers to track the progress of their ruler. And then he emerged to the shocked gasps and muttered praises to Yuwan. For what emerged on the other side clearly wasn't a simple man anymore.

Zirgun now stood tall, as tall as the Angel's avatar, who towered over all men of Lamash. His skin was smooth and golden, all signs of age and wounds of war gone with magic. His hair, once gray and balding was now black as the void, lustrous and silken and full on his head. His eyes shone like scarlet coals and his teeth had never been whiter as he turned and smiled to his assembled vassals. And when he called his daughter Suh and his son Bahram to join him in the Goddess' blessing, his voice echoed like the rolling thunder.

And so brother and sister stepped forward, adoration clear in their eyes while their hearts were overtaken by the sheer, irresistible lust for that power they had seen granted so freely before their eyes. The two stepped into the pool, hands clasped tight and the process was repeated. And then again and again as noble after noble received Arkshtrân's Gift. The Angel's choir sang through the night as the city burned and died around them. In her place a new city would rise; Tari-Illim, the City of Ascension. Second only to Oracheos itself in holiness to the Lamashi.

The process would not stop there however, for there were still many the Angel thought worthy of Ascension. Over the following months and years many Lamashi made the pilgrimage to the holy pool. Great nobles, heroes, priests and anyone with any meaningful power in the Empire would step into the pool to receive the Gift, so that they and their descendants would stand above common men as Yuwan's chosen people.