jtr7 on 13/7/2011 at 10:58

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"Karath" and "Din" are two Hebrew words juxtaposed:

Karath: to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication, to destroy or consume; specifically, to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces):--be chewed, be con-(feder-)ate, covenant, cut (down, off), destroy, fail, feller, be freed, hew (down), make a league ((covenant)), X lose, perish, X utterly, X want.

The cutting off a body part, especially as part of a covenant is particularly applicable to the Kurshok in their entombed Citadel, where Gruliac had his Crown-gripping vainglorious hand cut off as the earth was opened to swallow him and his people in judgment.

Din: Judgment (although "diyn" is the more correct Aramaic/Hebrew, I believe); A particular religious law.


There are also the definitions in other languages that are applicable:

Din: English for a loud, confused noise; a continued loud or tumultuous sound; noisy clamor.
Din: Islamic for "religion".

Azaran on 13/7/2011 at 22:53

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Here's a nice article on the Lost City from the (http://www.btinternet.com/~sneaksiethiefsie/) Keeper Library:

[CENTER]KARATH-DIN AND THE PRECURSORS -

A REVISIONIST PERSPECTIVE
[/CENTER]
With knowledge comes progress - it allows society and civilisation to move forward and develop. It is therefore an established truth that as society develops knowledge must develop with it. There have been many years since the knowledge and truths we cling to have been developed - and perhaps now is the time to question what we know about the Precursors.

There is a romantic, idealised view that the Precursors lived in a utopian society, a civilisation at its height, a culture approaching perfection. If this ever was the case, then all evidence has crumbled to dust with the passing of years. What little is known to the City, and what little more is known to us Keepers, suggests that the truth is very different.

When we opened the Lost City to place the Elemental Talisman in it, we found it had been deserted for several thousand years. Much was buried underground, or encircled by running lava, and it was barely possible to deposit the Talisman there - the burricks and fire elementals roaming the place defeated even us. Time was limited, and so the chronicler accompanying the expedition had only a short while to gather what little evidence we have.

Evidence suggests that the Precursor society was exceptionally stratified and rigid, caste-bound to such an extent that movement was almost entirely impossible. At the height of society was the Emperor, raised to divine status by the people, but prone to human failings. Answerable only to the gods - of whom the Precursors had several - the Emperor was generally a distant figure, seen only from afar by the vast majority of the populace. This inevitably gave rise to a political structure of immense size and importance. The bureaucracy that existed to translate the Emperor's word into law became powerful in its own right, and the Emperor become isolated from his people. The bureaucratic classes that were the effective rulers of the Precursors and Karath-Din were naturally anxious to consolidate their authority, and so society became ossified to such a point that it became like bedrock; stratified, solid - and utterly immovable.

This structure had its benefits of extreme stability, but had substantial disadvantages. Progress was arrested, then stopped entirely, and the spirit of technological enquiry began to decay. The Guild of Enlightenment, apparently the main organ of development in Karath-Din, was ignored by many. Tensions in the population were ruthlessly suppressed by the bureaucratic classes, and never reached the attention of the Emperor. The commoners grew frustrated, and suppressed tensions built up behind a shell of normality. By the time of Karath-Din's destruction, Precursor society was undergoing extreme deterioration, regressing into a degenerate state. Emperors were being worshipped to absurd degrees, with elaborate tombs being built for them - and extensive traps put in them to deter those grave robbers who did not respect the divine nature of the Emperor. The gods were called through the sacrifice of geldings.

The last Emperor of Karath-Din, Va-Toran, was typical of the corrupted nature of Precursor society, more obsessed with money than governance. Extravagant entertainment venues were built to impress the citizens with the wealth of their Emperor, and to direct anger and discontent down safer avenues. Blood sports were the norm, and the Emperor pushed his magicians into creating fire elementals to maintain the spectacle as long as possible. The culmination of this degeneracy, the Coliseum, was as big as a small village, and had hundreds of fire elementals.

The Emperor was courting disaster. Precursor society, so strong and stable from without, was balancing on the blade of a knife. Popular discontent could only be held back with elaborate spectacles and entertainments, which could only be provided by a heavy tax burden that increased discontent. Va-Toran, the last Emperor of Karath-Din, was ill prepared for the disaster that would signal the beginning of the end for the Precursors.

Tectonic activity increased slowly, but perceptibly, as Va-Toran settled into his new role as Emperor. No cause is known for this - the City has never suffered any tectonic disturbance - but there are some who would blame the Trickster for it. Current scholarship holds that the Emperor, in order to maintain his hold over the people, commanded the Guild of Enlightenment to create ever greater spectacles to keep the populace occupied. Eventually this reached the point where they were tapping into the very energies of nature, attempting to bend them to their will. Perhaps some of this energy was funnelled into a gemstone that was to become The Eye. The Woodsie Lord, threatened by this encroachment on his power, set in motion a plan to destroy Karath-Din, and drive away these manfools that dared to try to equal him.

Whatever the reason, Karath-Din and the Precursor society was becoming slowly unbalanced. Increasing tectonic activity, including the emergence of fissures and magma pools, drove the priesthood to ever more elaborate and bloody measures such as the sacrifice of four geldings - horses were held in high regard by the Precursors. However, the energies that the Guild had untapped could not be stopped, and eventually the city became untenable. Romantic legend holds that the Precursors and their society perished, and passed out of all knowledge into myth. Recent research has, however, revealed a totally contrary story. Far from perishing, the Precursors were able to escape and prosper beyond their ruined city.

As the situation grew worse, the evacuation began. The bureaucracy was transferred to other cities in the Precursor's dominions, as were the riches of their civilisation. A trickle became a flood as more and more people - commoners, gentry and nobility - fled the encroaching fire, carrying with them their most precious possessions. The evacuation was hurried and frantic, Va-Toran refusing to countenance such a blow to his prestige until it was unavoidable. Those records and valuables that could not be carried were buried in the foundations of buildings, to await their owners' return. Some stayed behind. A few bureaucrats remained to guard the parchments transported to the deep cellars of the Emperor's magnificent temple-palace. Thieves moved through the city collecting hidden valuables. The Guild of Enlightenment, aware of the treasures contained in their tower, tried to remain to guard their Tower, but were eventually forced away by the disintegration of Karath-Din as a city. Riven by streams of magma and large fissures, many houses and shops swallowed up as the earth collapsed beneath them, movement was difficult, and habitation impossible. As magma met air it cooled and solidified, encasing structures in a blanket of impenetrable stone. When the magma stopped, Karath-Din was unrecognisable as a city.

Meanwhile, the Precursors were surviving in other places. Although maintaining the outward appearance of stability the structure was now completely rotten. The forced dislocation had weakened the power of the Emperor to control both the bureaucrats and his people, and factional conflict began to be a problem in the centuries after the fall of Karath-Din. Central authority diminished as the nobility strove to cement their own authority and carve out kingdoms for themselves, rebelling against an Imperial administration that was too ossified and unwieldy to adapt. Popular pressure for social movement placed incredible strain on the structure of Precursor society, and it is remarkable that it survived these strains for several centuries before its collapse.

In many walls it would have been better if the collapse had come earlier. Pressure was so great that when law and order failed, it failed absolutely. The region entered a dark age so chaotic and anarchistic as to draw the Trickster from his Maw of Chaos and reign over the lands. Authority crumbled to nothing as the rich retreated behind fortified walls and moats, guarded by vast private armies. Learning was lost as the great libraries and universities of the Precursors fell into disrepair or were razed to the ground, while the cultivated fields were overrun by forest and woodland. Plagues decimated the population.

The Dark Age lasted for several centuries, until finally its heavy cloak was lifted from the land. The nobles, formerly besieged in their castles, were eventually able to extend order throughout their domains, and the explosion of trade and industry that resulted was a potent boost for the development of a new civilisation. The intervening years had resulted in increased social freedom that totally changed the face of society, and resulted in the civilisation we strive to protect today.

Platinumoxicity on 14/7/2011 at 06:51

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I always had the idea that the Precursors had a very successful society, with advanced technology and infrastructure. The catalyzer that makes the Necrotic Mutox destroy biological matter is called "A Cultivator". Some kind of an agricultural device. I'm guessing that the cultivator was used by the Precursors for some specific task in farming. There could have been an unfortunate accident in a chemical lab, releasing a small amount of harmless gas that was to be used in research (possibly pesticide development). The scientists had been testing the gas and found that it wasn't harmful. Little did the scientists know that the function of the Cultivator devices would change the structure of that gas. And because the Cultivators were placed on agricultural land, the gas multiplied quickly and Karath-Din was facing inevitable destruction.

In order to shield the rest of life in the world from total extermination, the last remaining engineers in the city chose the final solution, to collapse the city on top of the vast infrastructures below. They blew the supports of their expansive sewer systems, maintenance tunnels and waterways, and the city came falling down deep into the earth, and the sudden loss of pressure dragged the rest of the gas with it into the hole. The hole was sealed. The mountains around the city were leveled with some kind of wmd-scale demolition and the landslide buried the metropolis.

The last precursors chose to never share their secrets of technology to any primitives they faced in the outside world. Their lineage died off, or their offspring forgot their past.

That's my theory. :cheeky:

Platinumoxicity on 15/7/2011 at 08:53

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My theory also leaves room for possible precursor offspring that could have passed down their knowledge for generations and kept their origins secret. Since they were an advanced civilization, it could also be possible that they belong to a different human race entirely. Their physical appearace would be the same but they could have altered themselves with the use of their advanced science and magic. As a possible antagonist group they could be for example "social darwinists" or something, with no sympathy towards the inferior primitive humans, and a will to use the rest of mankind as slave labor or "cattle", just like how normal humans use horses and pigs.

jtr7 on 2/8/2011 at 22:25

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Thanks for that! :cool::cool: