The Truth Behind the Front
There are two sides to every story. History is carved in the name of the victors, and inked with the blood of the fallen.
This is the tale of Luzazul's origins, and should you dare seek deeper truth than this, your life be forfeit to the Church of Illumythos-- for you shall serve, or be branded heretic, deceiver, and sinner to be slain.
-In the beginning, as this world tumbled unceasingly and empty through the endless void, great Illumythos appeared and lifted its immaculate voice; and sky enshrouded the chaos. Again, and the raging flames within cooled and hardened into firmament. And once more, and from the steam many oceans formed.
-Thus haven Spoken the world to 'be', Illumythos gave one final utterance as sleep grew over its weary mind, and life flooded across the new lands below.
-Where Illumythos settled to the earth, blessed Luzazul rose about it protectively. Its power echoed as it dreamed, bursting from below the surface, and soaring across the skies. These mighty fragments glowed with divine gift, and in time, as mankind sailed to these new shores fleeing from the ravages of barbaric lands, they took up the first of these gifts... and their own inner turmoil consumed them, for they were flawed before this immanence.
-For long years, man sought out more of these powers. They fought great and terrible wars with their empowered pokemon. They poisoned the land and sought their own destruction with no regard.
[War of the Words]
-Only one man and his devout followers were spared the corruption-- Archbishop Alessandro de la Corvus, who rallied his faithful to see the beauty in the gifts and the blessed land.
-He lead them to face the barbaric warlords. And in this way he met and redeemed his next greatest ally in the war, who would become the first member of the royal family in the aftermath one day-- King Fernando Cordoba.
-Together, with the faithful and those loyal to Fernando, the Archbishop lead the first crusade to extinguish those who could not be saved. And that final battle was concluded upon the fields of Paraiso Hills.
[Founding]
-In the long years that followed, the Archbishop and the King continued their alliance to clean up, restore, and build a proper domain from the war-torn remains. The sunken forest of the northwest and to the northeast were poisonous. Many illnesses took the lives of the faithful.
-The discovery of Sanctuaries Well and the first Rubimin, the loving angel pokemon, allowed for recovery over time, so long as the toxins were left behind in those forests.
-The building of Revelo City and the eventual evolution of the first Raphinite, the seraphic angel pokemon, brought miraculous healing and foresight to the Archbishop's campaign.
-Over many more years, as Alessandro left holds of his faithful in specific points to ensure the safety of the public and the growth of their burgeoning order, more words were found and claimed in the name of his founding order. Fernando's journey alongside him ensured that neither surpassed the other in their devotion, or exacting power, beyond the angel in Alessandro's party.
-Spiraling outward from Pairaso Hills, the towns and cities of Luzazul emerged over the next decades; Victoria, overlooking the twin lakes known as the Eyes of Illumination; the Western Wall, or Bishop's Keepe, securing Sanctuaries Well from sabotage; Revelo, a relief from the poisoned forest; the Eastern Wall, the Paladin's Hall, a stalwart fortress to secure the northeast; Annastar, named after King Fernando's beloved wife Annastasia, and home to the Cordoba Colliseum constructed in her honor; Wyburn, where the first dissidents were uncovered and put to the flame, thereafter home to the first House of Integrity, where the Questioners reside; Harmonia, the capital city and home to the royal family, ere the passage of time claimed King Fernando's life; Saint's Haven, the great church-city built high upon and burrowing deeply into the mountains overlooking Luzazul, where Archbishop Alessandro at last laid down his life and was revered ever-after.
-So ended the journey and foundation of our region as the passage of fifty years elapsed from the end of the War of the Words.
[Next generation]
-The Queen Annastasia bore two sons, Gideon and Fabian. The Princes were oft in disagreement over how best to continue their father's legacy. Gideon sought to develop the south-west, while Fabian sought to develop the north-east. With only enough funding to advance in one direction, Fabian agreed to relinquish his claims and follow his father's footsteps into the church's services.
-Gideon thus returned to the southern trail and resumed the spiraling journey, taking with him a host of his brother's faithful to ensure unwavering loyalties survived. Here, the concepts of equity, justice, and lawful distribution began, with Justicia City serving as the foundation of Gideon's work.
-From there, Questioner's Brand was constructed alongside Dominion City, the duo serving as the Southern Port of Luzazul; Bullwark Town followed as the natural herd was discovered there, including the young Bullnymph; a font of power was discovered and secured in Espada City, empowering those with Pawniard and enabling evolution into Khansword, thereafter serving as the foundation of the school of swordsmanship; Illum's Gaze Peak, a town constructed atop the towering mountain overlooking the Eyes of Illumination, and serving to offer a vast descending stone bridge to Sanctuary's Well known as the Thousand Steps; and finally Providincia Town, where by the last of his princely sum Gideon built the Royal University in his waning years.
-Having grown as old as his late father, Prince Gideon returned to Harmonia to seek out an audience with his brother in nearby Saint's Haven City. However, Archbishop Fabian had amassed enough resources of his own to lead a second crusade across the rebellious forces rising in the abandoned north-east, and while Gideon had worked to secure their south-west, Fabian now worked harder and had no time to spare the royal summons. Some heretics have suggested the former prince denied his brother's requests out of spite, yet such blasphemy has been quelled, and one would do well not to suggest otherwise.
[Renewed Vigilance]
-Archibishop Fabian brought all of the might of the Raphinite under his command against the trainers seeking to overthrow the rightful rule of Church and Royalty. The failings of his late father, and his own predecessor to this role, to secure the entire region chafed at Fabian to his core. He eradicated man and monster alike, sparing no living creature in his path that had been turned against them.
-When at last the final corpse was razed from the land, the Archbishop set about to rebuild the north-west with the help of his brother's resources shipped in from Dominion and Espada Cities, forming Venganza City, or the city of vengeance, a warning to anyone else who might dare aspire to rebel; Brooding Spire, the barracks of his holy soldiers, who first were deployed toward nearby lands as the original Conquering Knights in order to preemptively halt further evil; Inferno Cauldron, so named for the boiling hot springs quickly turned to a means of confession from wayward sinners; and lastly Deacon's Tomb, where the worthy dead were cremated and kept record of. Should you see something untoward roaming in the night, avert your gaze and say praise to almighty Illumythos.
-Though smaller in scale than the many accomplishments left by Prince Gideon, the Archbishop at last retired to Deacon's Tomb himself and lived out the last of his years there, ensuring that all of their work would last well beyond his own inevitable demise.
[Passage of the years]
-With much of Luzazul now shaped as it would remain into the modern day over a hundred years later, only a handful of locations remained to be resolved. For the longest time, the Cordoba Royal Family simply retained its alliance with the Church of Illumythos, keeping the peace, yet every so often a new fragment of the creator's voice would fall from the sky, and occasional dissidents would dare try to claim that power for themselves again.
-As such, one last port was constructed to the south-east, Wailing Way, and out to sea Gideon's Tower was constructed to hold those even the Inquisitors could not break by flame or force. Thus the decades passed, and all remained as it should be, until ten years prior to the modern day, when the latest prince grew ill.
-Despite the healing of the Church's Raphinite, the prince remained sickly and weak. He was destined for an early grave, and no amount of prayer or power could forestall that outcome.
-In penance for their failure, Archbishop Santana gave their strongest Raphinite to King Ricardo and Queen Lucille, though even that was not enough to mend the bridge between the Royal Family and the Church; as such, matters between them have been substantially cold and brisk, and in the midst of such disharmony the outside Insurrectionists found the opportunities to strike.....
