Being a theory of the hidden identity of the First Emperor of Coryan.

THEORY:
The First Coryani Emperor was a val'Cessari, one of the Invisible Kings and the Children of Mystery.

EVIDENCE:
Alone, none of these pieces of evidence carries enough weight to prove the argument, but together they mutually support the theory.
+ The First Emperor united the city-states of eastern Onara into a single nation, yet in remaining nameless and faceless he does not receive actual individual credit for his deeds. This matches the modus operandi rumored for the Invisible Kings, who are said to be an Illuminati-style group who secretly pull the strings across many nations of Onara.
+ The First Emperor is a "still unknown and unnamed man." [ARCANIS: THE ROLEPLAYING GAME, p. 69] The val'Cessari individually and as a family are used to hiding their true identities. They have had to hide from those hunting them to extinction, and they developed their bloodline powers based generations of persecution. Thus, a val'Cessari might be able to well hide his own identity, and over the intervening centuries his family would continue to perpetuate the mystery.
+ Hardly anyone ever makes note of the oddity of the identity of the First Emperor being unknown. The one exception in-game is the Albino, leader of a cell of the Brotherhood of Man in Grand Coryan. ["To Shake the Pillars of Heaven, Part I", YEAR OF THE FALL, p. 122] Again, this lack of care about missing such an important identity points to powerful magic and/or a major conspiracy, either of which could be perpetuated by the val'Cessari.
+ The First Emperor was a Val. A text on the history of Coryan City states, "The warrior had the steely eyes of a noble val." [CARNIVAL OF SWORDS, p. 5]
+ The history of the Coryan City-State [CARNIVAL OF SWORDS, p. 4] tells of how King Isclepiodes of Coryan had dreams before the Time of Terror came and told his two sons about the man who became the First Emperor: "I have dreamed of this hero. He hides himself for some long forgotten shame against the Gods. Yet, he is still blessed and does Their will. When you see him, you will know him as no other, and though you will soon be kings yourselves, you will swear fealty to him as his loyal vassals." This shame matches with the generations of persecution that the val'Cessari have suffered.
+ It is stated in a text on the history of Coryan City [CARNIVAL OF SWORDS, p. 5], "The warrior had the steely eyes of a noble val, and though he was spattered with the gore that spoke of might and grisly deeds, he carried himself as a king." This fits with a Val who is an Invisible King.
+ The First Emperor was succeeded by an unrelated val'Assante (Prince Almeric) who was of the lineage of Coryan. [CODEX ARCANIS, 2001, p. 16; CARNIVAL OF SWORDS, p. 5] He was not of Coryan, which was where the val'Assante family had hidden and lived in a cave, but the warrior who became the First Emperor was a stranger who "came from out of nowhere." [CARNIVAL OF SWORDS, p. 5] Although he "was a tall handsome warrior," [CARNIVAL OF SWORDS, p. 5], most val'Assante are "of medium height," [CODEX ARCANIS, p. 11] and "The native Coryani is not an especially tall person" [CODEX ARCANIS, p. 29]. Presumably, he was not val'Assante based on these facts and the fact that his identity has been hidden.
+ The title and role of "the Invisible Kings" fits with being descended from a Valinor of Illiir, who is the patron of all types of rulers. The same holds for the description of the First Emperor as having a "countenance [. . .] like the sun." [CARNIVAL, p. 5]. A Val of Illiir would be more likely to be approached by "a Valinor of Illiir [who] descended from the Heavens. He held in one hand a gladius that radiated with the purest of light and in the other, a battle standard from the First Imperium." [CODEX, p. 15] It is unknown whether the val'Cessari are of Illiir, but circumstantial evidence encourages that supposition.
+ The First Emperor raised the Wall of the Gods by sending a secret legion to flank the enemy and erect a special altar while he himself engaged the leader of the Infernal army in solo combat. He wanted victory to "be stolen through guile rather than paid for by blood." [CODEX, p. 15] Such deception matches the rumored tactics of the val'Cessari.
+ The First Emperor fought the Devil-King Uhxbractit one-on-one for eight days straight. "Neither the fiends nor the legions could believe that a moral was capable of standing up to Uhxbractit." [LEGACY, p. 30] "Once the fight began . . . it was immediately clear that the Emperor had more than mortal power on his side, and the duel would be nowhere as easy or as sure a victory as Uhxbractit had expected." [LEGACY OF DAMNATION, p. 33] Writings say, "the battle between the two titans lasted for eight days and eight nights with neither combatant giving nor gaining ground during the time in between." [CODEX ARCANIS, p. 15] Tales tell of the val'Cessari's possessing powers of reality-warping that goes beyond mere illusions, and such powers might have enabled the First Emperor to survive so long in solo combat.

CONCLUSION:
Although some of the evidence presented above is circumstantial, the known facts fit well with the origin of the First Coryani Emperor as being a val'Cessari. Some alternative theories about his identity have been put forth, but this one stands out for best explaining the strongly embedded mystery of the First Emperor's identity and explaining why the mystery of his identity is so rarely questioned.

David Thomas Chappell
18 June 2014

Interesting speculation.

I have no special knowledge of who the First Emperor is/was. I've always been partial to speculation that turns toward the val'Tensen. Buts that's just my guess. Could easily be someone else.

Maybe even the val'Cessari. Though at least one piece of your speculation is off on that score.

Nice job quoting and supporting your argument, except you left out any support/description of the val'Cessari. For those of us with only the core books who have never met a val'Cessari, it's like arguing that the first emperor could be a cookie monster. Can you give some information on the val'Cessari line, goals, and powers?

toodeep with out getting into it, val'Cessari dont exsist in common knowledege, character or player.

I myself have only seen rule parts for them twice, they are very rare birds, you wouldnt even know if one of your players is one or not at any given table.....

it is not something likely to get posted to the boards, or not likely to remain due to that secretive nature.

Hi David,

Interesting. It will be hard to discuss the fundamental premise without any details on the val'Cessari. I certainly appreciate your thorough research.

Much of the early work was written in a narrative style through the lens of the in-world authors. This means that there is far less certainty in how factual the accounts are either through the limited knowledge of those authors or intentional misdirection.

Also, once you acknowledge the possibility of a val lineage outside of the core ones published, you must accept the possibility that there is another unknown val lineage like the val'Cessari that is just as likely to fit the bill.

One comment I believe that was made around the time of the end of the first story arc was that Henry revealed that the first Emperor was a val. If someone can confirm or correct that, I'd appreciate it.

At the time I assumed that meant that the first Emperor wasn't human. It also arguably ruled out the possibility of the first Emperor being a valinor. Given that Losnek took the form of Skiz though through the first campaign arc, it's reasonable that a valinor who wished to appear mortal could do so.

There is the interesting possibility that the first Emperor was in fact an ul' rather than a val. Unfortunately the amount of information regarding the ul is extremely limited. They are the Khitani equivalent of val and we've been given a number of family names. We've been told they reflect different aspects of the various pantheon gods, such as the ul family associated with Larissa's aspect of gluttony rather than lust. The name difference from what is arguably the name of a race still bugs me.

It could simply be a reflection of linguistic differences between the two cultures. This should be fairly easy to confirm by anyone who speaks High Khitani if there's a word meaning valinor beginning with ul. What's the linguistic source of ul'? It is a bit suspicious that the honorific starts with a "u". This could be a reference to Umor. Perhaps with his imprisonment those greater beings associated with him that we otherwise refer to as valinor were absorbed by the pantheon out of need or expediency. There's too little information on valinor and how they relate to the population as a whole. In favor vs. fallen vs. dead seem to have different impacts, though perhaps it's only for a limited time (the death of the Reluctance of Hurrian and the Serenity of Beltine, the fall of the Honor of Cadic, the Pride of Illir, etc.).

To bring it back to your original discussion, I don't see any information that directly contradicts your theory but I feel there's too little information available at this time to reach any compelling conclusion.

In any case, still a fun topic of discussion.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Hello Paul,



I never said that. That doesn't mean that the the First Emperor isn't or is, merely that I never made that statement.



The reason for the ul vs val prefix is explained in the History section of the Cradle of Empires sourcebook.

Thanks Henry. Good to know.



Looking forward to reading it.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

This ties in very well with my own essay from about two and a bit weeks ago on the very same subject, but I do have a few points where I think your logic is flawed (at least with what is publicly known:

1) The Emperor receives a LOT of credit for his actions, though not under his given name. The First Emperor, as "The First Emperor" is deified among the Coryani, similar to the semi-mythical first Emperor of China, Yu Huang Shang Di, with a mythology rising till it is (possibly) larger than life.

2) We now 'know' the first name of the First Emperor thanks to Mr. Tony Nijssen (probably with the nod of PCI) in the adventure "Ancient Secrets Left Unspoken": Kael. Of course, this assumes you trust a Sarishan who apparently managed to survive 1,000 years trapped in a crystal being tortured, so his memory (and sanity) may not be entirely intact.

3) The First Emperor was stated as being a Val back in the Carnival of Swords, and corroborated by the above adventure.

4) I'm not entirely convinced of your literal interpretation of the "Invisible King" title. Never having been one of this august body, I cannot truly state that it is not literal, but I always assumed it was that they were an invisible force shaping the effects of a small area of the world within the CAMPAIGN, rather than Arcanis the the planet itself. I had always assumed the val'Cessari were given as gifts for their efforts but--similar to the Brood of Uhxbractit or Ven val'Sosi's Hatchlings--were more of a 'cool thing to play' rather than a direct calculated move.

That said, I have noticed that in play, the val'Cessari characters--I mean, the val'Assante'. . . and val'Holryn. . . and val'Mordane. . .--do tend to strong-arm tables into following THEIR plans. Whether this is because of the players or because of an organized conspiracy, I cannot say at this time.

5) While in theory a Valinor of Illiir would annoint a Val of Illiir, this is not NECESSARILY true. With one exception (that I am not sure has been officially stated) the Valinor of Illiir are ALWAYS the ones who seem to give the official 'imprimatur' to an individuals's importance (Calcestus and Leola) to the point where it would be fair to wonder if any of the other Gods have any Valinor flying around out there!

6) Having played with some of the val'::coughcough::'s, it seems that their powers focus more on manipulation of the mind and body rather than the sheer bending of reality. Of course, I've only seen a couple of these powers activated, and none of the val'[LOOK AT THE KITTY!!]'s have ever showed me their actual rules (even the 'for GM's eyes' version) even when I AM GMing them.

I personally think that the First Emperor was either one of these 'lost Val families' (like the val'Hamen, or the ul'Tai, etc), but the evidence I see supports that he may--in fact--be a Valinor masquerading as a Val.

As stated above, the only two OFFICIAL sources that say he is a val are Carnival of Swords and "Ancient Secrets Left Unspoken". There are more oblique references, but these flat out SAY it as I recall.





Skizz was a Valinor, but he was NOT Loshnek. Skizz was Skozorantus,the Strength of Saluwe' who fought against the Hatred of Neroth during the Battle of Coryan.



Henry has stated on the previous forums that the Uls are and Vals are one race, but one separated by politics, history, and beliefs. I personally view it similar to a religious schism (ie: Shia and Sunni Islam) where they both ultimately the same and share the same CORE beliefs, but differ on a few very closely held items.

Hello Cody,



[In my best Ed McMann imitation] "You are correct, sir!"