Category:The Orarchs

This is how the story usually gets told: Shield was once a province of a great, everlasting empire founded by the Orarchs, or Lords Immaculate, who ruled all of Shield and beyond from their ancient capital, far to the east. The Orarchs were gifted with the Divine Gifts of Immortality and Perfect Foreknowledge, which they used to uphold their laws and destroy their enemies, and they brought peace and justice to all of Shield. In their Wisdom they created the Lords Temporal, to watch over the people and guide them in earthly matters.

No one knows how old the empire actually is - the popular figure of “ten thousand years” is understood by the educated to be a hyperbolic way of indicating a very long time. But several hundred years ago, things went wrong. There were plagues, wars, and storms. The Orarchs publicly denounced the official religion they themselves had created to uphold their rule, and since then, they have been scarce in shield. Some people say they’re hiding in their eastern capital across the mountains. The words of the Denouncement of the Orarchs are recorded: “There are no gods, no after-lives, no cleansing of the red matter nor relinquishment of the white soul. There is only a black void, and suspended in that void a pulsating, thronging wheel. We are trapped on the wheel. The wheel is burning.”