Shaipres, Land of the Heaven-Descending River
The region which is now known as Shaipres, the land of the river Shai, was hit hard by the Great Contagion and the fae incursions which followed. At the start of the Second Age, the region was nearly depopulated. The wide cities of the broad alluvial plain were ruins and houses of bones. While a few hold-outs survived in the mountains and the jungles of the Silent Crescent to the north, through most of the first century the Shai was a wyld-born stream with a mad path that sometimes rose into the sky, where the fae fought gracious naval battles.
Then came the sorcerer-priestess Jidrani; moon-touched, dark-eyed, wise; by turns mad and terribly clear, rash and brilliant. She said she had come out of centuries in the past to build the world anew, that she had married the Moon's dark face, that plague dared not touch her perfected flesh and her touch could banish demons. With her sworn comrades stern blue-eyed Koyukta and the laughing monkey Zamana she tricked the ox-headed price of chaos Koko into leaving the lands, with Luna's horn she laid waste to the pirate-warlords of Irn who held their old naval base at the mouth of the Shai, and she slew Hoho, who was her rival for the affection of the Moon.
Jidrani ruled as priest and sorcerer-queen alike, and her heirs of her dynasty and those which came to follow have trodden in those footsteps. She led the lands out of chaos and into the lands of time and order, calling on heaven to bless the waterway and so the goddess Shai and her many consorts descended from the skies. When the witches of Syata, to the west, brought their fell curses and sought to plunder the wealth of these lands, Jidrani drove them off and broke the best part of their number. When the rains became irregular, she taught men and women ways to placate the cloud-elephants and bring water to these lands. She taught people to read and write the language of the gods, and ever since then Old Realm has been the holy tongue of priests and royalty in Shaipres. From her capital she built in Jidrai, she ruled, whimsical, wise, and terrifying to her foes. Yet in the mid second century, tensions escalated with the rising Blue Monkey Shogunate which had allied with the warlords of Ta-Vuzi and turned its eyes now to the rich lands of Shaipres — and for her part, Jidrani had sought to deny the delta of the Shai and all nearby archipelagos to any who would not swear allegiance to her.
Jidrani's rule was brought to a tragic end at the culmination of the war with the Blue Monkey Shogunate. Through cunning and deception, one of the ambitious warlord-princes of Ta Vuzi managed to steal the horn from her. Under a crescent moon he blew the horn, and tore a fragment from the heavens herself. The impact levelled Jidrai, slew Jidrani, and ended the now-forgotten prince's ambitions towards the Shogun's throne as well as his life.
Just as Jidrani, Koyukta and Zamana were touched by the silver grace of the moon, but they had not her ambition nor her leadership. Zamana wandered out of the pages of history, broken-hearted by the loss of his friend, while Koyukta returned to the city that bore his name, Koyuktai, and ventured ever deeper into his sorcerous studies. Around him grew a school of sorcerers, who he delegated more of the rule to, and by the time of his death in a mishap in the 500s, few realised that the eccentric master of the school of Koyuktai was the same legendary companion of Jidrani.
From the ruins of the moonfall came the tyrant Sunec. The city of Prakai was seated in the hinterlands of the Shai, yet early in the third century from this land of rice and tea farmers came a brutal warlord. Sunec hammered the lands of the Shai under his dominion with his well-fed armies and wyld-barbarian auxiliaries, showing little regard for lords or priests. Yet after fifty years of conquest, the by-now-greying tyrant had a crisis of conscience and begged the gods for forgiveness. He set down his crown, and with his most loyal men returned to the ruins of Utelhi and on the sacked holy city he built shrines and great catacombs to inter the dead, hoping to placate the many restless dead he feared were waiting for him in the afterlife.
The Praka dynasty lasted three more rulers, though the heart had been cut out of it. Sunec's young great-granddaughter faced widespread popular rebellion in the face of a new prophet. The wandering sage Tolu had a vision of the sky, mother of all the great gods. Through the uplands of the lands touched by the Shai he spread the Toluic Way, a principle of austere and charitable moral philosophy which proclaimed it was the true way to escape the Immaculate cycle of reincarnation to dwell in the celestial spheres. Facing the iconoclastic Way, the powerful priests of the tearful city of Candrai built atop the ruins of Jidrai provided armies to stamp out the image-destroying heretics, but ironically their play for power only weakened them in the face of the holy city of Zamanai, ruled by the sacred bloodline born of the union of the goddess Shai and the Empress Jidrani.
The Jidrikul Dynasty would rule until the late 500s. However, in the latter years of their rain, the independent cities of Shaipres would grow increasingly away from the guidance of the priests of Zamanai. The elemental-cultists of Holy Koshasth, located near the wellspring of the Shai, grew considerably in power and were offered veneration by many warrior-aristocrats. However, trouble was growing in the west. The Blue Monkey Shogunate had grown increasingly sclerotic and calcified, and had been pushed back time and time again by the incursions of the Realm Navy. The Shogun sought an alliance against the mutual threat of the Realm, but the Riverchild of Zamanai was young and the attention of Zamanai was turned increasingly inwards. In the end, the Blue Monkey Shogunate fell, and while the Realm could not truly hold the waters — which became the Anarchy — this disruption led to raiding along the coastline and even up the Shai as far as tear-soaked Candrai itself.
In the power vacuum, the lords of Kulharid were the ones who organised defences, sent their men to repel pirates and raiders, and ensured the organised passage of river transit. Power slipped from Zamanai to Kulharid, where men shed their skin and became elemental spirits, and while the theological centre of veneration of the Shai remained in Zamanai certain adjustments had to be made. Key among these was the crowning of Vajira I of Kulharid as the Empress of All Lands Touched By the Shai, the Shairani.
The Vajiran Dynasty has held Shaipres for nearly two hundred years, through its elemental sorcerers, its keen axes, and the protection it provides the lands of the Shai from the Anarchy's pirates. And yet now it grows sick. Kulharid sits on the edge of civil war, and its hands slip from the reins of power. The war against the demon worshippers of Koyuktai was victorious, but nearly bankrupted the land. Shairani Oyonna has twisted herself into a monstrosity through her desperate pursuit of sorcerous power and is imprisoned in the royal lake; the prince-consort, a mark of the marriage-alliance with Zamanai, is fled and wanders the lands in disguise. The warrior-princess Ooun is cursed by the gods, her younger brother Dric cares for little save the secrets of sorcery, and the youngest sister Jihrani, given to the priest-caste, is the one who brought this city to the verge of civil war with her ancestor worship that stands against the old elemental-cults.
In Zamanai, the Riverchild is usurped by her sun-chosen vizier, who has taken the title of High Priest of Shai; she is a powerless puppet bound by his spells, trotted out when the masses require her as a figurehead. The elementals of Holy Koshasth face the Kulharidi civil war on their own doorstep, for many warriors have come to their temple seeking power. And sea-washed Rokusa which sits in the delta of the Shai grows more and more powerful. Already the upstarts no longer pay tribute, and the mystery cult of alchemists who rule the city are raising their own fleet and turning their eye to the Kadu Empire which rules the waters around the delta and has long been an uneasy vassal of Shaipres.
