Urizen history

Urizen Warrior

Centuries ago, humans ascended the mountains of Morrow to move away from the orcs that were dominating the fertile plains. When they reached the peaks, they found ruins that were clearly not of human origin. They discovered no remnants of the original inhabitants, nor any suggestion that they had been destroyed in a catastrophe. There were simply great, empty halls carved into several of the most magically attractive peaks.

These echoing galleries formed the heart of the first half-dozen Urizen spires, and remain an enduring mystery that is still debated by scholars. The people who made these galleries were probably humanoid, albeit slightly larger than humans, and spent a lot of time studying the night sky. These forerunners had an advanced grasp of the lore of the Realms of Day and Night, but no apparent concept of the other four Realms.

Initially the main appeal of their mountainous home was their defensibility. As they explored further they encountered many places with a strong natural aura of magical power. The mountains were also rich in mineral wealth that helped their crafters create numerous wonders. They used their magic to ameliorate the problems of creating dwellings and producing food on the inhospitable mountains. As the decades passed, the people developed into the Urizen.

The Urizen Spring rituals for increasing fertility and food were taken to the Navarr by an Urizen mage called Thorn. The assumption was that Thorn and the Navarr would use the magic in the same way the Urizen did. Instead the Navarr attempted the ritual on an enormous scale, using the help of Spring Eternals they had previously considered friendly to their cause. When the Eternals betrayed the Navarr, Thorn’s ritual failed disastrously, creating or summoning entities called the Vallorn that quickly occupied every Navarr city. At the time, many Urizen blamed themselves for the disaster, believing that it might have been averted if they had not left the Navarr to attempt the spell without their guidance. The belief that if you begin something then you must see it through to completion remains potent to this day; to abdicate responsibility to others is to court disaster.

When the Empire was formed, the Urizen refused the Empress’ entreaties to join. The First Empress was a powerful warrior and an inspirational general, but the Urizen mages predicted disaster if their nation joined an Empire led by a conqueror. After the death of the Empress, her successor renewed negotiations with the Urizen who were impressed by his commitment to a rational, ordered society. They agreed to join, and helped to create the Conclave as a body of representation for every magician, a body that could share magical learning and ensure that it was used to the benefit of the Empire rather than its detriment.

Urizen benefited strongly from joining the Empire. Food imported from the Marches allowed the spires to grow and freed people to devote more time to training and study allowing Urizen to grow into the nation of magicians and scholars it is today. The Empire gained more than just their magical lore and skills; shrewd interventions by the first Urizen senators transformed the tests of citizenship adding literacy, numeracy and theology to the requirements needed to pass. In the decades that followed, their adroit manipulation of the role of the civil service was instrumental in raising standards of education right across the Empire.