The Scalethein Empire
401-500 A.E, War and Reformation
(As found written upon a open tome found sitting on a table in the Hall of Records)
It was five hundred A.E, Queen Liika the Stone Blooded, despite being fifty years of age, was still fit, perhaps even still in her prime. Many claim it was due to her troll blood, others say it was a blessing of Arill, and others still acclaim it to her diet. No matter the case the new Queen was quick to approve construction of a new kind of building. During the great journey undertaken by Liika's famous mother many faiths were encountered, many thoughts regarding the gods gathered. Temples and holy places, things that Kobolds had never thought of before, were encountered. And so Queen Liika would have the first true temple of Scale Home built.
It would not however merely be a temple to the twin moons. The kobolds of Scale Home, and of the empire in whole, had decided that no god or goddess would be forgotten, no faith ignored. The temple would be devoted to every single divine being that the Kobolds knew of, and so the structure would have to be massive. Rather than building the temple within the city itself it was decided that the structure would be built a distance away from the city, higher in the mountains. Only one place was suitable for such a temple the Kobolds decided. At the base of the path leading up to the highest point in the mountains, at the base of the holiest site of the Twin Goddesses, the first stones were lain. The Great Temple would take many years to build. When the temple was at last completed in 453 A.E it was the largest thing the Kobolds had built up to that point, excluding the entirety of Scale Home. The temple, nearly a city in it's own right, had shrines to every known deity. In the gardens there were several stone circles of varying size devoted to the five ancients, halls and chambers for the various gods of Zaqir, underground chambers from which to worship the mountain father, a small shrine for the Great Ape, and a great hallowed hall with tinted glass for the Divine of Yossod, even with an expansive number of rooms hidden away near the Divine's hall where if the mysterious Ayel ever wished to visit they could stay hidden away. Of course, the Kobolds knew nothing of the Ayel besides their existence and a few effigies collected from Yossod and because of that many of the rooms belonging to the Ayel are in fact too small, the ceilings being to close to the ground.
Within the Great Temple there was of course also two great chambers built for Arill and Zee, the domed ceilings being made from a clear glass so that the night time prayers could be had under the moon's light without risk of getting cold outside. At the very top of the mountain that the Great Temple sat upon, the highest point in the entire mountain range, a single small structure was built. A marble basin, which would be filled each night with fresh water. Surrounding this watery mirror was an abundance of wild flowers.
Many priests, Kobold and otherwise, would make a home at this Great Temple, three hundred or so Kobolds living at the temple by the end of the fifth century.
Aside from the Great Temple Liika also had built two temples in Scale Home itself, one devoted to the Twin Moons, and one stone circle devoted to the five ancients.
Queen Liika, now Queen Liika the Faithful, would however be interrupted from her construction by the coming of a saurian party to Scale Home in 438 A.E. The Queen, along with many other Kobolds, would gather in the market to hear what the Zaqiri had to say. It is reported that when the lead saurian declared the Zaqiri intent for war so happily that many of the kobolds present thought it a joke. However after the saurians were gone the Queen had doubts. Queen Liika would speak with her sister Maza. The half saurian half kobolds, dubbed Cobolds, had grown in number, equaling roughly four percent of the population of Scale Home. Maza held no ill feelings towards her older sister, as the battle was fair, and the two talked. The Cobold assured the Queen that the saurians were not joking, that in two years time a war would begin.
Queen Liika would right away begin to make preparations. She spoke with the senate and the Prime Minister Ironstone, but both were certain that the Zaqir were not a threat, and would not take the word of the Queen's half blood sister as adequate proof. While Queen Liika could easily have forced the senate to do as she wished, Ironstone she could not. So instead the Queen did the only thing she could think of. She made a call for aid to the ones that saved her so many years ago, the Kingdom of Five Stones and the Stone Trolls. During this time Liika also made efforts to improve the military. She had many mountain goats bred for size and endurance, and then had soldiers trained to fight upon the beasts. She had created her own unit of bodyguards beyond the first legion, these 'Queen's Guard' trained by Liika herself, the soldiers dressed in the heaviest armor available and given large round shields and hand weapons, heavy maces and swords.
When the year 430 A.E struck Queen Liika was ready, if not the empire as a whole. The war was only a year long, due in part to the aid of the Trolls. When the Queen returned home she was however met with infuriating news. Not only had the Prime Minister died, but a dwarf senator had taken his place, removing the legion system from the south but not only that, had had kobold senators quieted, had any member of the senate who spoke against him imprisoned for crimes that would later be proven false. When the Queen had the fourth Legion sent to Uthein to both imprison Florin and ensure order was still maintained it would be discovered that the senator had taken many of his countrymen and ran off towards Zaqir. Stressed beyond belief and weary from the war the Queen decided to let the dwarf go, and instead welcomed the role of sole leader of Scalethein.
The Zaqiri representative that arrived with chests of gold and other fine things came and went, the treasure spent on more funding towards the Great Temple.
It would be in 478 A.E, at the great age of one hundred and twenty eight, and age not before thought capable for a Kobold, was dying. During her entire life she was more fit than most kobolds half her age, however in the winter of 476 her body began to fail her, as did her mind. When the Queen was on her dying bed she looked over her daughters, roughly eighty of them. Queen Liika's final words however, be they from exhaustion or maddness, were to cause a great deal of confusion. As it is recorded, the final words of Queen Liika the Faithful, "I don't care, figure it out yourselves."
It would then be for two years that Scale Home went without a Queen, that Scalethein went without a formal ruler. The senate maintained order in the Empire at large, whenever the governing body asked what the situation regarding the queen was one of the eighty daughters of Liika confirming that somebody would be queen eventually. It was at last, in 478 A.E, that the youngest of the daughters became Queen. The exact details of Queen Lia's ascension are unknown, as the eighty daughters had remained in the palace itself for most of the two years and few others were allowed in during those years. Regardless of the details, Queen Lia, at the tender age of four, became Queen of Scalethein in 478 A.E. Despite her age she acted with a mind more suited to someone far older then her. She had built in 479 a formal temple to the Mountain Father in Scale Home, and has since maintained a peace across the Empire.
As it was written by our ancestors upon the first walls of Scale Home, the walls that every visitor of our great city see first upon entering our city, as it will be written here. Long live the Queen!
Major Developments of Scale Home, Fifth Century
Cultural: The Great Temple is built at the base of the path leading up to the highest point in the mountains, along with three more reasonably sized temples built in Scale Home itself.
Militarist: Goats are bred to be mounts in battle, creating a breed of larger, stronger, and braver goats. The Queens Guard is established, who act as body guards to the Queen during all times, and fight in heavy metal armor. A war with Zaqir is had, which will be elaborated on in another post *coming soon*
Scientific: Few advances are made in regards to science.
Political: Queen Liika is succeed by her youngest daughter Lia, who is ruling to this day, currently at the age of twenty six.
Expansion: I realize that I have no idea where the highest point in the mountains is, but the Kobolds build a temple large enough to be considered a town there. The Great Temple deserves a little black dot somewhere near the center of the mountains, so whoever makes a map of the area next it would be quite kind of you to put that dot there.
