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- Arcanstotska
THE
VARR DOMINION
VARR DOMINION
The Varr did not evolve on Darivyn—the planet which now serves as the heart of their hegemony. Rather, they evolved on another planet, in another star system that was far more amicable to life. Two million years ago, a Varr generation ship arrived on Darivyn and settled the planet. The freshly-awakened settlers found their new home to be wildly different from what they had expected: Darivyn was not a verdant paradise, but rather a world on which every day was a struggle for survival. Shrouded in a toxic atmosphere and tormented by frequent, raging storms, Darivyn was not kind to the Varr colonists who had no way to reestablish contact with their brethren across the stars. And sometimes, explorers would return from long expeditions and ramble incoherently about how the deepest, darkest corners of the planet would whisper things to them.
(Left: banner of the Varr Dominion)
For two million years, these colonists struggled to etch out a miserable existence on Darivyn. But with the passing of time, the Varr became accustomed to their new environment, changing and evolving to meet these new, harsh conditions. Their skin became pale, the males increasingly stopped growing hair, they adapted to eating the flora and fauna, they tamed the raging beasts of the Darivynian wilds, and, with time, they mastered their new world.
When the Shadow first spoke to an explorer named Avanelen Sarot, it bestowed unto him such incredible revelations that it shook Varr society upon his return to his people. Mathematics, space travel, astronomy, greater weapons of war, and so much more. A cult grew around Sarot, who became known as the Black Prophet. The Shadow Cult, as it became known, rapidly became the largest religion on the planet and a powerful political force in its own right. For faith, worship, and obedience, the Shadow, through the Black Prophet’s mouth, offered the Varr the dream of an empire to span the whole universe.
Many warlords, at first, resisted. But they were swept aside by the Cultists and the powerful weapons and technologies given to them by the Shadow. Those warlords and their armies smart enough to bend the knee were spared slavery and annihilation, and formed the core of the new Varr aristocracy. The Black Prophet passed into history, then legend, then revered myth. With his death came the Council of Eleven and the reorganizing of the Cult into a structured religion. For millennia, the Cult—and the Cult alone—ruled Darivyn.
The aristocrats challenged the Cult’s authority amidst an emerging schism ten-thousand years later, and a bitter civil war split the planet. It raged for five centuries before both sides entered into an uneasy truce and a settlement was reached. Both factions would support one another, subordinating themselves to the one who had forced such a compromise: the immortal Varr Emperor. The Varr Dominion was thereby born, over eighty-thousand years ago.
Today, in 2958 CE, the Varr Dominion is ruled as an absolute theocratic stratocracy. There are three pillars to the Varr power structure: the Cult (unofficially headed by the Dark Speaker), the great noble families (headed by the Dominion's Grand Vizier), and the Dominion military (headed by the Dominion Warmaster). All three pillars are subordinate to the Varr Emperor - said to once have been a mere Cultist before being imbued with the powers of the Shadow. Varr society has no democracy, no liberty. Labor for the slaves, service for the citizens, power for the rulers.
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