**
The city of Keradia was a cosmopolitan and independant center well-known, even in the tribes of the ice fields, far in the north. Leaded by the very exceptional Lord Monleüss, its peak began at the begining of the third centuries of the fourth millennium. In 3 years, the Lord of the city was able to gather more power and wealth than many kingdoms in Rune.
After that time, the population was drowning itself in a strange idleness, using slaves to work in their stead and leaving all their responsabilities, they fell into decline. As for the Lord, rumors said that he fell in the same flaws as his population, or that he left with the few families of dwarves and elves wise enough to sense the wind turning. But none of these rumors sounded right especially in regards to his skills and genuine altruism. What is certain is that Monleüss didn't do anything noticeable to slow down the changes of his city.
As it was begining to decline, every outsider thought that in the next few years, the prestige of Keradia would belong to the past.
But this shameless debauchery was put to a stop when the Emperor Reynard of Radialkan mysteriously decided to launch a large scale attack on the city. He gathered his main forces, his elite knights and an army of mercenaries and besieged the city for five months.
One day, the defensive forces disappeared and when the siege army entered the city, there was no sign of life, the Lord's palace was now a load of ruin and the legendary treasury of the Keradia nowhere to be found.
Rumors said that the amount of body that were burn during that day was less than a few hundred, a fragment of the hundreds of thousands of lives remaining before the siege in the city.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
A lot of mysteries emerged, how is it possible for so many people to disappear ? Why no negociation where engaged with the Lord ? Why did the population stayed in the city ? As many questions the Emperor was bound to answer.
But one day after the end of the siege, he abdicated and disappeared with a few knights. In five months the Emperor had mobilize the majority of the military in one place, used a huge amount of gold to gather mercenaries and, much later, suspected to have instigated, with his very close circle, the disappearance of everything clues about the Keradia issue.
As a matter of fact, the empire inherited by his son was weakened after a lightning war without profit, the increase of monster attacks all over Eltanin and the rise in independence of various merchantile organizations.
In this time of great change, few are left to worry about the truth behind the siege of Keradia, but a certain mercenary on a mission, in the seemingly dead ruin of the city, found a survivor.
**
"There is only one thing that have survived the great collapse and the thousands years that have followed, religion. While the religious instutions and orders vanished with the collapse, the names of the gods and their will were able to survive through men of faith, one for each god. These noble individuals are now treated differently among the cults they created, if some consider them as an Avatar of their gods or as Prophets others see them as more humble beings, incarnating with perfection the ideal of their gods. Even after all those years, their teachings is still enriching as of today. But with time, the growth of the new cults brought them closer to politic and competition, in that aspect none where spared. There is only one order that could both stay faithful to its teachings and being able to evolve the same way as its fellow ones, it is the order of Osluga, the servant God."
Kalleus, Introduction of 'Three Thousands years and a little more of Religions' 3047.
**