Of the Great Names of the First Holy War, only Nersei Proyas possessed the charisma required to deliver his nation to his Warrior-Prophet entire. Anas?rimbor Kellhus bid the others to return to their homes as soon as he could dispense with their resources in the field, thus assuring that all nations participating in the First Holy War possessed some powerful faction fanatically loyal to him. Within a year of Nenciphon’s fall, the first missionaries began graduating from the famed Zaud?n Angnaya, the “floating college” of young aspirants that followed Anas?rimbor Kellhus about the Three Seas, imbibing his wisdom whenever his martial duties permitted. At least initially, the “suicide sermons,” as they came to be called, had the effect of galvanizing opposition around the Three Seas. The Edict of the first Orthodox council in 4114 (the Numaineiric Council), even refers to these embassies by name, claiming them “proof of madness.” But there can be little doubt that the ferocity of the message—men cutting their own throats in demonstration—had the long-term effect of softening Orthodox resolve, or, what amounted to the same, undermining their religious certitude.
Throughout the Unification Wars, in fact, the Orthodox could do no more than aspire to the conviction of their foe. No matter what the nation, they found themselves on the defensive, rhetorically if not spiritually, before the first blades were drawn. Though apparently chaotic, fraught with lulls and desperate contingencies, careful study reveals that the Unification Wars were as much a matter of calculation as contingency. Anas?rimbor Kellhus, understanding that the Three Seas were as much a spiritual amphitheatre as a military arena, proved himself a master of provocation, acting to “redress” the very atrocities he compelled his foes to commit.
The chronology of significant events runs as follows:
4112 - Shimeh falls.
4113 - The Year of the Child Grandees; Nenciphon falls.
4114 - The Novum Arcanum is circulated throughout the Three Seas; Rash Soptet (4088— ) is hailed as “Lord of the Sempis” after quelling Fanim uprisings. Schismatics denounce Maithanet; the War-between-Temples begins.
4115 - Prince Shodd? Akirapita (4099—4123) routes the first Zaudunyani invasion of Nilnamesh at the Battle of Pinropis.
4116 - The death of King Eryeat, combined with the secret conversion of his eldest surviving son, Coithus Narnol, delivers Galeoth to the Empire nearly intact. King Hringa V?kyelt expels Schismatics from Thunyerus.
4117 - The first songs extolling the exploits of Sasal Charapatha against the Nilnameshi Orthodox begin circulating throughout the Three Seas; First Carythusali uprising; Earl Couras Nantilla is Whelmed, raises Cengemic provinces in revolt against Meigeiri; the Tydonni Orthodox begin massacring ketyai villages and towns along the Eleterine Coast.
4118 - Meigeiri falls; Anas?rimbor Kellhus orders the Orthodox of Numaineiri blinded; Eselos Mursidides (4081—4132) conquers Cironj for the Zaudunyani losing, miraculously, only one hundred and eighteen souls.
4119 - The Koraphean Uprising; Hoga Hogrim (4093— ) is declared Zaudunyani Believer-King of Ce Tydonn; King Hringa V?kyelt of Thunyerus declares himself a Believer-King as well; the Mandate takes up residence in Kiz.
4120 - Anas?rimbor Kellhus declares Imperial Bounty on Sranc scalps; Sack of Sarneveh; Circulation of the Toll pamphlet, and subsequent Toll uprisings.
4121 - Nurbanu Soter (4069— ) declared King-Regent of High Ainon; Invishi falls after the famed Throwing-of-the-Hulls.
4122 - Nilnameshi Orthodox crushed at the Battle of Ushgarwal. Anas?rimbor Kellhus declares the Unification Wars concluded. The Shriah of the Thousand Temples, Maithanet, proclaims him Holy Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas.
4123 - Prince Shodd? Akirapita (4099—4123) is found drowned in a well in Girgash. Only Fanayal ab Kascamandri remains of the Empire’s notorious enemies.
4124 - Reconstruction of Auvangshei begins.
4125 - First of the Angnaya are sent to the Palace of Plumes in Zeum.
If Nilnamesh proved the most stubborn of the Empire’s many conquests, and Ce Tydonn the most brutal, then High Ainon proved the most complicated. The hegemony exercised by the Scarlet Spires over that nation had not been a benevolent one. The Cishaurim decimation of the School in 4112 in Shimeh effectively robbed governing institutions of the coercive threat required to maintain authority. The unrest actually began as soon as word of the “Scarlet Letting,” as it came to be known, spread beyond the walls of Carythusal. The infamous “Dread-of-Kiz” evaporated, and the general hatred began condensing into acts hard and visible. The fact is the Scarlet Spires’ case for Anas?rimbor Kellhus’s divinity would have been far better made had they claimed him diabolical. Over a period of months, what had been the Three Sea’s most decadent believers became the most pious, to the point of calling themselves the Sons of Shir. A great many would die in sorcerous fire. In one of the great ironies of the Unification Wars, the bulk of the Mandate would occupy the Spires themselves, the very fastness of their greatest rival.
No other facet of the Unification Wars illustrates the political genius of Anas?rimbor Kellhus quite so dramatically as his handling of the Schools. As commentators are quick to point out, he began his campaign already possessing three of the so-called Major Schools: the Imperial Saik, the Scarlet Spires, and the Mandate. Even given the decimation of the former two (especially the Scarlet Spires, which was reduced to fourteen sorcerers of rank following Shimeh), the Gnostic sorcery of the Mandate rendered Kellhus the indisputable master of the arcane field.
And if this advantage were not enough, the wonder of the Metagnosis and his clarification of sorcerous metaphysics in the Novum Arcanum all but assured him the attention of his sorcerous peers (and as historians of the Aspect-Emperor know, this is typically all that he needed). The antipathy between the Schools and traditional Inrithism, meanwhile, assured that few sorcerers aligned themselves with Orthodox movements (Jishamurt? and Panarossa being, of course, the most notorious examples). 4115 marks the first of the Five Amassings, gatherings of sorcerers-of-rank from across the Three Seas, where Kellhus, in addition to astounding his guests with Metagnostic demonstrations, argued the imminent threat posed by the Second Apocalypse. The sorcerous conquest of the Three Seas would turn out to be very nearly bloodless. Although much has been made of the tactical genius of Anas?rimbor Kellhus, many argue this one strategic move in particular all but doomed the Orthodox.
Unmasking Room—A chamber located in the labyrinth below Ishu?l where D?nyain children are taught the connections between facial musculature and passions.