The First Conflagration
The Manetho Empire died in the First Conflagration in the year 2012 MTR. Wars from 1782 MTR till this time with the early Celtic Empire battled over large stretches of land using both magical and physical armies.
One of the events that heralded the end of the Conflagation was termed Khamsa's Folly. Khamsa Anura was a King during these times. His downfall was his own hubris on trying to emulate the Gods, who used Estrias the Creator to effect their will. The story here is the last part of Estrias's life.
Even as the ceremony was taking place, death blew down from the heavens like some great pestilence. The kingdom, already pressed to the limits by the demands of Khamsa's construction, had been held together against the relentless press of the swirling desert winds only by the vitality of the people. But Set's wrath destroyed the mighty kingdom in a matter of minutes, and no subject within the temple survived the devastation.
Set's plagues were truly grisly. The first was the mass arrival of his "children" at the entrance to the temple. Hundreds of deadly snakes, each a true monster, swarmed upon the fleeing people. Few subjects remained after this initial attack, but the plans of the evil deity were far from complete. Khamsa's kingdom, once lush and fertile, became a twisted wasteland as hostile elementals blew over the land in a deadly dance. A group of skriaxit - vast living sandstorms - slowly buried the valley while seeking out living beings to destroy. Fire elementals charred and blackened the cliffs and surrounding soil. The dark romp of the sandstorm and fire elementals continued into the night, and the mystical creatures did not depart until every living being outside the temple was destroyed and the land was consumed.
Though not a single inhabitant of the kingdom survived the sandstorm, one final catastrophe followed. An intense wave of searing heat engulfed the land, evaporating rivers and lakes in vast clouds of steam, and creating two unique geographic features. Protected by Set from the disaster occurring outside, his enhanced greater medusa remained behind, fashioning a lair below the temple and sleeping through the centuries. Worshipped as a high priestess by Set's followers, she was fed a regular diet of victims by Set's minions, who roam the barren region in search of prey.
Estrias the artisan, his revenge complete, seized the flail of the desert kings and proceeded to plunder all that he and his packhorse could carry from Khamsa's treasury. Also protected by Set from the plagues, he then departed. Realizing that his control over the medusa was limited and eager to avoid becoming one of the beast's victims, he never returned.
Frustrated by his inability to recover the circlet from the petrified king, Estrias died without learning how to unlock the flail's powers. The item changed hands many times over the centuries, carried north under the cloak of the murky night, and was eventually lost. The abandoned temple stands today as a monument to the foolishness of Khamsa's arrogance. Only the summit of the building remains in view, luring occasional thieves spellbound by the legends' references to Khamsa's treasury within. All those resolute enough to enter have fallen victim to the medusa's gaze, if they survived long enough to meet her; the temple is otherwise shunned as a cursed place. The wise avoid the structure, because it is occupied by a variety of deadly creatures in Set's service, who have claimed the temple for their god.
