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Journeying to Mal Zeth the following year, Kallath brought the Melcene army to the border of Delchin, where it stood poised At Mal Zeth, Kallath delivered an ultimatum to the General Staff His forces comprised the army of his own district of Rakuth and of the eastern principalities in Karand, where the Angarak ether with the arave him absolute military supremacy His dearak There were precedents In the past, an occasional general had been granted that office, though it was far more common for the General Staff to rule jointly But Kallath's de new into the picture His position as emperor was hereditary, and he insisted that the Over Generalship of Angarak also be passed to his heirs Helplessly, the generals acceded to his demands Kallath stood supreme on the continent as Earak

The integration of Melcene and Angarak was turbulent, but in the end, Melcene patience won out over Angarak brutality, as it became evident over the years that the Melcene bureaucracy was infinitely arak military administration The bureaucracy first moved on such mundane matters as standards and currency Fro a continental Bureau of Roads

Within a few hundred years, the bureaucracy ran virtually every aspect of life on the continent As always, it gathered up talented ardless of race; soon administrative units coaraks were not at all uncommon By 4400, the bureaucratic ascendancy was coun to fall into disuse, perhaps because the bureaucracy customarily addressed all communications to "the Emperor" There appears to have been no specific date when the Emperor of Melcena becae was never formally approved until after the disastrous adventure in the West which ended in the Battle of Vo Mimbre

The conversion of Melcenes to the worship of Torak was at best superficial They pragarak worship out of political expediency, but the Grolion God which had always characterized the Angaraks

In 4850, Torak hied froh Mallorea as the living God, his maimed face concealed behind a polished steel ates of Mal Zeth The Emperor was disdainfully set aside, and Torak assuers were dispatched to Cthol Murgos, Mishrak ac Thull, and Gar og Nadrak, and a council of as held at Mal Zeth in 4852 The Dalasians, Karands, and Melcenes were stunned by the appearance of a figure they had always thought purely mythical, and their shock was compounded by the presence of Torak's disciples

Torak was a God and did not speak, except to issue commands But the Disciples, Ctuchik, Zedar, and Urvon, werewith a kind of cold disdain They saw at once that Mallorean society had become almost totally secular--and took steps to rectify the situation A reign of terror descended upon Mallorea Grolims were everywhere, and secularis virtually unknoere reneith fanatic enthusiase in all Mallorea did not have its altar and reeking bonfire In one stroke, Torak's disciples overturned millennia of military and bureaucratic rule and returned absolute dominion to the Grolims Soon there was not one facet of Mallorean life that did not bow abjectly to the will of Torak

The mobilization of Mallorea in preparation for the ith the West virtually depopulated the continent, and the disaster at Vo Min, coupled with the apparent death of Torak at the hands of the Rivan Warder, utterly deed from retirement to try to rebuild the shattered bureaucracy Grolim efforts to maintain control were met with universal hatred Without Torak, they had no real power Most of the eifted child ree The e his son for the task of ruling When age finally rendered the emperor incompetent, Korzeth, then about fourteen, callously deposed his father and ascended the imperial throne

After the war, Mallorean society had fractured back to its original components of Melcena, Karanda, Dalasia, and Mallorea Antiqua There was even a doaraks Thisin the principality of Gandahar in southern Melcena, in Zamad and Voresebo in Karanda, and in Perivor in the Dalasian Protectorates Deceived by Korzeth’s youth, these regions rashly declared independence froave indications that they would soon follow suit Korzeth moved immediately to stem the tide of revolution The boy emperor spent the rest of his life on horseback in perhaps the greatest bloodbath in history; but when he was done, he delivered a reunified Mallorea to his successor to the throne

The descendants of Korzeth brought a different kind of rule to the continent Before the disastrous war, the Eurehead, and power had largely rested with the bureaucracy But now the imperial throne was absolute The center of power shifted fro with the military orientation of Korzeth and his descendants As is usual when power rests in the hands of one supreue became commonplace Plots and conspiracies abounded as various functionaries scheain iues, Korzeth's descendants encouraged the that e the power of the throne

The present ehteenth year Intelligent, sensitive, and capable, he gave early proedy, however, turned him from that course and made him a man feared by half the world Now he is obsessed with the concept of power; the idea of becohts for the past two decades Only ti dodoms, but if he succeeds, the history of the entire world may be profoundly altered

Part One – MELCENA