NEZGETH
Nearly every civilization ever studied passes on tales of a great
warrior empire in the lands across the ocean to the east. Among these
are the persistent tales among various Kovalli tribal cultures,
including the Nezgeth, insisting that their forefathers came from an
ancient powerful civilization on the far side of the world, across the
sea and many lands away. This is true, for circa 1000 BE the
Nezgeth ancestors in the Eastlands had sinned against the One.
Giving homage to worship of false idols, rodents and evil serpents,
they had fallen prey to pride and aggressiveness. As their true god
watched in disappointed silence, the early Nezgeth empire took hold of
vast stretches of foreign land, pushing ever onward in one military
conflict after another. When finally Eru sought to destroy them, he was
begged by the Implementors to have mercy upon them. Heeding their
cries, Eru broke their empire to pieces, but banished the Nezgeth from
their homes.
Over the countless years of exile from their homeland, wandering across
new uncharted lands (Antharia and the Westlands) and vast oceans, the
homeless tribe took the lesson of their glorious rise and abrupt fall,
adhering to the strictest principles of pacifism. Generations later,
the Nezgeth found a home in the hellish deserts of Kovalli, and
every day became a constant struggle to stay alive, believing that
their deities had led them to this cruel land as penance for their
misdeed. Gradually the tribe returned to its former warlike ways, but
even then refused to give battle no more than necessary.
When their ancestors crossed these lands those many centuries ago, they
left behind them many legends of the pure people, those without sin.
They seemed to think those people lived in the lands to the east, and
they looked up to them as holy men, akin to the gods.
Thus the Eastern Empire had came to a sudden and violet collapse, a
disaster so thorough that it destroyed any possibility of historical
continuity. Even today, age-old castles and temples now stand empty,
testifying to the existence of the wandering Nezgeth tribe that in 398
GUE would play a role in bringing salvation to the Kingdom of Quendor
from the Devil. (see the entry on Ath-gar-nel, who was the leader of
the tribe in those days, for more details regarding this specific
event)
The tribes of Nezgeth, who called themselves people of the Western Sun,
worshipped the sun god Savitri. Each father of these tall figures of
dark skin went out of his way to ensure the birth of at least two
warrior sons. Their tongue was nothing more than a simple variant of
their ancestors. As of 398, the language was still studied by the
Galepath University as a sort of historical curiosity. It did not
change much since their crossing of the Great Sea.
It may also be of interest that in 398, the chief of the Nezgeth Tribe,
Ath-gar-nel, was not only in the possession of one of the Cubes of
Foundation, but also of a six-inch fragment of steel which was the
broken end of Grueslayer.