Highguard history
Nine hundred and forty years ago, the Highborn arrived on the Bay of Catar. Steered by the visionary twins, the Navigators, Atun and Atuman, seventeen great vessels crossed the sea from the south looking for new lands to claim. Atuman, founded the city of Pharos at the mouth of the river Couros. Atun – following, perhaps, a vision of her own – took only the flagship, bade her brother farewell and set sail, never to be seen again.
The navigators of the first vessels, formed a council, called the Patricians, to advise Atuman the Navigator. After his death, his eldest daughter took the title of Navigator and ruled in his place while the Patricians also named heirs from amongst their offspring. The council ruled wisely for many years but as the generations passed the Navigator and the Patricians became more obsessed with preserving their power and their bloodlines and degenerated into self-interest and corruption.
During this time, trade with the Navarr introduced the Highborn to the drug liao, which transformed their primitive faith through its revelatory powers. Under its influence, Highborn priests were enlightened to the spiritual truth of rebirth and reincarnation. A wave of revelation swept across the land, awakening many to a new and profound faith. Sickened by the venal ways of the Patricians, they fled the corruption of Pharos to build their own communities, called Chapters, dedicated to the virtues.
As the size of the Chapters grew, the Patricians became jealous of their influence and tried to pass laws to control them. Things came to a head in the time of the Navigator Permion, who later generations would call the Lawmaker – a Navigator who strove to serve the people rather than his own interest. His judgements and actions brought the Patricians into conflict not only with him but with each other, and rather than allow the nation to fall into anarchy, Permion declared martial law and dissolved the Patrician Council. In its place, he invited the Chapters to form a Synod to advise him.
The response of the Patrician Council was swift and bloody, and a bitter civil war ensued. Permion was assassinated, along with his wife and three of his four children. Various Patricians tried to claim the title of Navigator and the city of Pharos was burned to the ground by rival armies. Eventually the Synod was forced to act, and after mobilizing the military strength of the chapterhouses it crushed the remaining Patrician forces.
The Synod elected to turn the ruins of Pharos into the Necropolis, a great mausoleum to house the bodies of all those slain in the war. They also ordered the construction of Bastion, a new city which would serve as a civic and religious centre for the Highborn thereafter and vowed that no Highborn would ever war with other Highborn again.
The First Empress was Highborn, and the last to ride a legendary Highborn steed. After taking liao, she revealed that all human souls are re-incarnated on the same wheel, regardless of whether they were Highborn. Therefore, to preserve the future of Highguard and enlighten all worthy human souls, it was essential to unite all of humanity under a single banner, such that Highborn reborn elsewhere would still come to know their heritage and the Way of Virtue. From Highborn faith, the Empire came into being, changing the face of the world forever.