Aprasaham (I)

A naga awoke fom her millennia-long slumber 1583 years ago, just before the sinking of the mountains of the Haeno under tar-Baphon.  This naga, tar-Inigan, woke too late to prevent the sinking, but with just enough time to wander the mountains preaching the doom of the Empire and gathering a small group of followers for her to rescue.  Once the mountains sank, tar-Inigan and her followers sailed across the new archipelago, collecting what survivors they could find and eventually landing on what was now the new shore of the mainland.  Tar-Inigan remembered a grand culture living there in a previous life of hers, that of the itaav, or Wind Dukes, who lived in a mountain valley called Aaqa and ruled a great and powerful army.  Landing in that region, tar-Inigan and her followers founded a new empire which they called Nagasaham ("great naga"), in her honor; this was also the name of the capitol city.  Tar-Inigan, for her part, upon finding that the empire of the itaav had largely found its way to the past, leaving only the hidden fastness of Aaqa, returned to the city of Nagasaham and established herself there as the object of worship from the humans who had settled there.  Tar-Inigan and the spirits who worked with her lived there in vast stone temples sprawling dozens of square miles, mirroring the shape of the universe in their five-tiered construction.  Beside these temples, even the great rulers of the kingdom lived in wooden houses, believing themselves unworthy of such a fine home as tar-Inigan had.

Each night, the hajarsaham ("great king") of Nagasaham ascended the steps of the pyramid temple called Phimesanakas to have union with tar-Inigan, thus ensuring the fertility and stability of the kingdom.  For a thousand years, or so the legends say, the hajarsaham of Nagasaham ruled with justice and wisdom, if not mercy.