Historia

The Historia

The History of the Aelyrian Empire
As Recorded and Compiled by
Ortorius, Imperial Court Chronicler
Xerxeon, Ambassador to the Xet Alliance
Odin Khrias, Professor of Imperial History

PREFACE - The Task of Chronicling a Legend

How does one begin to tell a story filled with adventure, glory and majesty? How can one relate the tale of the rise of a great nation, the cataclysmic struggles of her people, and the amazing romance and magic behind every turn of event? This is the dilemma faced by all great historians of our time. Indeed, with every attempted recording of history there remains the trace of bias by the very fact that our senses are selective in perception.
How can the risk of Historical contamination or revisionism be averted?

The decision arrived by the Imperial Court of the Aelyrian Empire in 9916 was no simple one. Rather it evoked controversy, for the truth had been sheltered in political propaganda for hundreds of years. The conclusion was clear and crystal - the invitation of multiple scholars of history would restore a sense of legitimacy and authority to the field of historical chroniclership that had been largely damaged by multiple conflicting publications.

So I, Odin Khrias, stepped down as Imperial Chronicler and set my life's task to writing a fair and accurate history, as was ordered by my monarch and sovereign, yet the more I progressed in revising my own works, the more I realized that I was inserting my own bias, geared at cleansing history rather than propagating it rightly. I realized then that even the attempt to create a neutral retelling of a tale is in itself a biased task, for it removes the just-earned glory and majesty obtained by the Aelyrian people.

And so, I sought to balance my quest for neutrality with two of the world's greatest historians from across Aelyria's shores.

Ortorius studied at the University of Aelyria under a Professor Kalia, and was an expert in Historiography, or, the art of writing history. His eloquence with words and grandiloquence with speech formed the basis for telling a tale which was so fantastic that I knew then and there that few would believe its events transpired. Yet they all did, and they were truthfully recorded. But the problem of a neutalist perspective still remained.

Ambassador Xerxeon, a native-born Xetan sent to represent the Aelyrian Empire in Pysrapolis, knew the Aelyrian people well, and had studied the events unfolding from afar. His opinions were largely anti-Aelyrian and pro-Foreign, sparking the core of the controversy in the Imperial Court. Yet Xerxeon is a brilliant man who has studied Political Science, Sociology and Law, and has a knack for identifying patterns of development and outlining causalities.

To the extent that all three of us were very different people, I have no dispute. Yet it was our differences which gave birth to a history both truthful to the reality which it seeks to represent and accurate in its depiction of personal existence. For while we are all mortal, and all we witness is secondary in nature, we have attempted to bring out a sense of primacy in this compilation so that it might be the grandest recording and the greatest work to illustrate the magnificence of a people with such diversity that they were united by ideology and common welfare.

And so, I present to you our most grand work - Historia.

Odin Khrias
Imperial Chronicler
Aelyria Prime, 9916

(Editor's Note: Ki' Ti-Ai and Elanara Al'lende are both to be commended for recovering lost fragments of this great work, feared destroyed at two fires at Lysandrya. Furthermore, Books 5-10 were uncovered due to the masterful find of the lady Senesthra.)