Nirivel the Great

"'Some of you view me as a king, others a sage, but I tell you that I am so much more. I am the transformation upon which the world shall change.' -Nirivel the Great"Nirivel the Great was a high-elf, Vimarian cult leader and military commander who established the first Empire of Kataania, the Nirivelian Empire, and became its first Emperor and Philosopher-vicar.

Nirivel was born to a peasant family in the city-state of Vimar. Upon entering the army of General Phillip of Vimar as a young-man, he rose through the ranks and became a skilled commander. Towards the middle of his life, he became disillusioned with military command, relinquished his powers, and traveled around Kaatania in hopes of experiencing a spiritual reawakening. While visiting an ancient mountain fortress in the Follust Mountains, known as the Holy Enclave, he experienced a spiritual epiphany and saw visions of what he described as the spirit of the Universe, the Communion of Sentience.

Upon returning to Vimar, Nirivel began preaching a radical philosophy of racial solidarity and social equity. With the help of his former mentor, Phillip of Vimar, he formed a militant cult street-gang to combat the noble Elf Lords, who excluded non-noble elves from power. Inflaming the passions of the Vimarians and with the help of Phillip’s army, he overthrew the Vimarian Council of Lords and proclaimed himself the High Lord of Vimar. With the support of Phillip and opportunistic generals in other city-states, he conquered all the major city-states of Kataania and established the first Empire of Kataania, the Nirivelian Empire.

Nirivel promised to reform society and allow for the social elevation of all creatures. This is what largely brought waves of peasants into his armies. Nirivel had little interest in governing, however, instead choosing to delegate his powers to his closest cult advisors, who became the ministers of his government. As Nirivel conquered and annexed more territory, he would put his closest allies, who were often non-noble high-elves, in powerful positions. Nirivel focused most of his energy on being the spiritual leader of his new cult and dictating his new philosophy in the Scroll of Epiphany.

After a few years of Nirivel’s reign, however, it became clear that his minister’s did not intend to faithfully follow his philosophy. Nirivel had quickly lost control over the cult and its direction. He became essentially a figurehead as the cult soon replaced the army as the most expedient way to gain power and influence in society. Now that all high-elves held political and economic rights, they were uninterested in expanding those rights to other creatures and sought mostly to use the cult to keep the new empire united.

There became a bitter divide between Nirivel and his ministers and he saw the writing on the wall. He figured he would be replaced as soon as it was expedient for his ministers to do so. Sure enough, only three years into his reign he was woken up in his sleep and executed by his ministers. Nirivel’s son, Nirivel II, would take up the throne. Nirivel’s allies who escaped the purge fled the capital city of Vimar and found refuge at the Holy Enclave, where Nirivel had instructed his allies to go and hide if anything happened to him. While his allies formed a cult-in-exile, which was derogatively called the Cult of Disorder by its enemies, Nirivel’s traitorous ministers revised the Scroll of Epiphany to exclude parts that called for solidarity and equity. The revised scroll would become known as the Scroll of Order and Nirivel’s successor, Nirivel II, would utilize it to justify an authoritarian regime.

The cult never revealed the truth about Nirivel’s death and proclaimed that he had ascended to godhood, using his name, likeness, and words for their own ambition and greed.