The Seven Tigers Period

The Empress activated the Sword of Creation in RY -12, which destroyed the raksha armies of the Unraveling and minimized the impact of the Great Contagion from that point forward. Following her first activation of the Sword, a group of marcher-state leaders and allodial-state daimyos rose up under the leadership of Skri Shanash, called the Seven Tigers.

The Empress’ Dreams

The Woman Who Would Be Empress was dormant for twelve years after she first activated the Sword of Creation to end the Thousand Tragedies period. Very little is known about this dormancy – all that she has revealed is that she was remade by the Sword into a more perfect self and that the woman she once was was erased from history.

Skri Shanash

Skri Shanash had reigned as a daimyo for several decades before the Thousand Tragedies. Her state, P’okku, was among the larger and more established on the Isle, and weathered the Thousand Tragedies under her leadership more effectively than many others.

During the final year of the Unraveling, the city of P’okku fell to the raksha on the coast of the Isle, and Skri Shanash was forced into exile. She established a new temporary capital on the southern shore of the Inner Sea and intended to recapture her nation – until the Empress disintegrated it as part of the raksha purge.

Deprived of her homeland, Skri Shanash used the interim twelve years to spread her influence in the South, conquering new territories under her banner. By the end of the Seven Tigers period, she had formed alliances with six other former Shogunate authorities, dividing the southern and southeastern inner sea into seven private province-kingdoms.

The Seven Tigers quickly fell to internal conflicts, so Shanash proposed a new goal to keep them united: retaking the Blessed Isle. Although, to the best of their knowledge, it had been severely altered by the cataclysmic finale of the Unraveling, Shanash believed that it would be worth retaking, and convinced her fellow Tigers of this goal.

The Empress Returns

In RY -11, the Seven Tigers mounted their invasion of the Blessed Isle, hoping to push inland and find territory that was unmarred by the Unraveling. They knew that at the very least, the Triumphate of Arjuf had survived mostly in tact, under the rule of Araka Jeresh, called Heron XIX. They hoped that other states might have survived further inland, who would bow to their authority.

The Empress awoke from her dormancy, and saw that the Isle was about to be consumed by the unworthy Tigers. She feared that this would lead to seven states that would quickly devolve into an internal conflict. The Dragon-Blooded would never recover from this – the Host of the Chosen needed a strong, singular leadership that would guide them in rebuilding the world after the apocalypse.

The Foundation of the Realm

The Empress took up the Sword again, and summarily beheaded the Seven Tigers in a rain of smoke and light. She subsided again, and in one year, returned – and found a monk at her door. This green-robed monk had followed the light and signs of the Sword, and prostrated himself before the door for an audience.

She granted it. Nothing more is known. Nine days later, the monk departed, and the Empress picked up the Sword once again. She channeled its powerful energy to broadcast her image across the Blessed Isle. She declared that she was the Scarlet Empress, and Her Realm could be found on the southern delta of the river – all who wished to pay her fealty were welcome.

Most states scoffed at this image, or thought it a ruse, or rebuffed her authority. But enough desperate and scattered people believed her – they sailed down the rivers and traversed the plains of broken glass, pursuing her message of unity and power. The Realm was born.