Flain the Tall built a tower, and he called
it the House of Trees. This was because
the trees gave their wood for it freely,
without pain. All the trees of the wood
offered a branch, and the House was
fragrant with calarna and yew and oak,
pale willow, red hazel, dark mahogany.
'This,' he said, 'will be the court of the
Makers; without guile, without hardship.'
And the battlements were living
branches, woven tight in a web.
~ Book of the Seven Moons
The Order holds that the world was created by God; the Watch contests that there was no divinity involved; the beliefs of the sekoi on the subject are, like so many of their other beliefs, shrouded in mystery. Regardless, though, it is certain that the world was not always as it is now.
In the time before the Makers, there were no humans on Anara and the world was ruled by the sekoi, a tall, slender, furred race whose stories captivate and enthral. The land was inhospitable, barren and cold and – the sekoi say, though few believe them – there were no moons.
Everything was changed by the coming of the Makers, seven beings in the form of humans who were called children of God, though even the Order name only six. They descended from the sky on steps of ice through a door of air and began to remake the planet into a thing of beauty.
Flain the Tall was their leader, a man of great presence who took the harsh climate of Anara and reshaped it to something mild and pleasant. Tamar the Strong brought new animals of all shapes and sizes into the world. Soren, the Lady of Leaves, created the trees and the plants, while Theriss remade the seas and all their creatures. Halen and Kest, Tamar’s brother, completed their numbers, and between them the Makers threaded the world with awen, a network of power that nourished and sustained it.
In the days of the Makers, it seemed as though they had remade their paradise on Anara. They built great buildings and structures that still stand today, from the city of Tasceron that was the centre of all their work to the palaces that each created in the places they considered most beautiful, and ordered the world with perfect harmony. No craft possessed by men or sekoi can match the creations of these great beings.
Anara, though, was not to remain a paradise. In secret, hidden deep in the Pits of Maar, Kest had begun the betrayal that would undo all work of the Makers. In the darkness he began to create twisted things, evils that rose from the pit and infected the land above, warping the things of beauty into horrors as vile as themselves.
By the time the other Makers discovered this treachery, it was too late. Kest’s abominations had shattered the balance of the world, throwing their creation into disarray and beginning to distort it back to how it had been before, and something worse still, deadly and uninhabitable.
Kest was punished, locked away in the darkness for a hundred years, but nothing could undo the damage that had been done. For all that time, things grew worse and worse, and when Kest was finally released he could see the terrors he had unleashed upon the world. The worst of all of them was a great dragon, a huge beast rampaging across the land and sowing destruction and chaos, so strong that even armies could not stand against it.
Horrified with what he had caused and drowned with shame, Kest armed himself against the dragon and went out to fight with it, knowing he was likely going to his death. Flain tried to stop him but he could not be assuaged, and he sold his life dearly, destroying the monster before he allowed himself to die.
It was soon after that the Makers left Anara, despairing at what had happened to their beautiful creation and their friend and brother. They gave the world over to the people and entrusted her care to the keepers until they should return to finish their work and make her whole again.
At first there was terrible turmoil as the people of Anara struggled to rebuild after the destruction caused by Kest's creatures, without of the skill of the Makers to assist them or their wisdom to guide them. Despite all of the best efforts of the Order, the first winter saw many deaths as people were claimed by hunger, illness and the swarms of abominations that Kest had created and could not destroy.
In the face of such hardship, the people began to come together, taking charge of themselves as they had never had to do with the Makers to rule them. Some formed communities to farm and provide for themselves, while others sought a more violent approach, grouping together with other warriors and arming themselves to take what they needed and more besides.
These bands of warriors soon came to blows with one another and Anara was consumed by fighting as each tried to gain land and power for itself, taking over lands they conquered and bringing captive enemies into their ranks to increase their numbers. Soon, hundreds of infighting clans were reduced to a few major powers, and what had been local scuffles turned into war.
As powerless to stand against huge armies as they were to stop thousands of smaller fights across the Finished Lands, the keepers watched in horror as conflict ravaged the world that the Makers had left behind. It was Imalan, a rogue keeper of some power but no standing, who took it upon himself to change the dire state of the world.
Praying to the Makers for guidance, he chose a single leader to ally himself with, and with the combined might of his chosen side's military power and his own abilities and Order-trained wisdom, the result of the war soon became clear to all. Though some of their opponents were determined to fight to the bloody end, many surrendered, laying down their arms and submitting to Imalan's companion as the Emperor of Anara.
Though he had clearly saved many lives by his actions, the Archkeeper was furious with Imalan's rash behaviour and outcast him from the Order, and it seemed that this was justified: not content with having dominion over the humans of Anara, the Emperor decided to wage war against the peaceful sekoi, determined to take over their lands as well.
The first imperial incursion into sekoi territory was repulsed with such frightening ease and finality that all thought of a second attempt was absent from even the Emperor's mind, while the soldiers who survived were convinced that the cat-lords' lands were protected by ghosts and spirits and would have rebelled before attacking the sekoi again.
The only gain the Emperor made at the price of hundreds of deaths was the capture of five sekoi, who he intended to barter back to their people dearly. When Imalan heard of this plan he was outraged and stormed into the Emperor's palace demanding that he let the sekoi go. The Emperor refused until Imalan brought down the wrath of the Makers on the city of Tasceron, and the sekoi returned to their homes full of gratitude and respect for the keeper.
Though it took him many years, Imalan eventually taught the Emperor not to fear but to trust the Makers, and the Emperor began to listen more closely to his advice. Seeing what Imalan had achieved, the Archkeeper repented his earlier treatment of the keeper and welcomed him back to the Order, even naming him as his successor. When he passed away, Imalan became Archkeeper, and the alliance between the empire and the Order was solidified.
For centuries the empire stood stable and toiled alongside the keepers in their task of guiding the world in the absence of the Makers, governing the people, keeping back the abominations and holding off the cancerous spread of the Unfinished Lands -- and Anara, though troubled, knew peace for long years.
Then, with a swiftness and darkness that rivalled the spread of Kest’s creations, the growth of the Watch began. No one was ever certain where it started or who its leader was, but soon Watchhouses had been built across the land, followed by towers, followed by enormous fortifications. Each of these buildings was constructed by prisoners, some human, those who had run afoul of the Watch, but mostly sekoi who were captured and enslaved in their thousands.
Within the walls of these black buildings, people were trained as fighters and spies, trackers and trappers, while the world outside knew nothing. Even when people started vanishing, falling victim to the moles planted in every echelon and corner of society, the Watch's sly ways evaded discovery for years. It was over a century after the Watch’s beginnings that the Emperor finally decided to take a stand.
Anara had been peaceful for so long that the empire kept no standing army, and with Watchspies everywhere the task of raising a force to combat them was harried and hampered at every turn. Taking lessons in deviousness from his adversary, and using the advantages he had in the power of his allies, the keepers, though, the Emperor began to muster a hidden army and prepare to do battle for the fate of Anara.
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