Codex - First Empress

Section 1
"This is a very fragile piece of material from Wellah. At the time it would have been very high quality, and produced specially for writing." "The rock is red, and oily to the touch. These pillars stretch out across the green land like sentinels. There is soil and green in equal measure, and the salt plain stretches beyond to the sacred grove of Sakeh. These were the lands of the first Empress. It is spoken of in the Book of Soil. We know it from the pictures on the walls of our temple." "Our paintings are bordered with gold, the stories are legible, and still shimmer after so many years. The great frieze show the red bodies of the bullmen pulling the Empress and her golden chariot, her sword held high, her green robe flapping in the wind, and her find features and bosom. She sprinkles great riches behind her, and the joyful people of Ten-Rui stoop to collect." "It says she was not born of Ishgiru, but on another, more magnificent world. The line of inheritance to that other world must never be severed. The Empress must marry the wealthiest man in the kingdom, and enforce her legacy. She or her sisters must sire eight daughters, no more, no less, in each generation, so that there is always an heir. The boys can be schooled, for they will hold her monies. She must always be loved, or the sun will inflate in revenge, leaving nothing left of us but ashen bone."