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Lyssa Lyrameister, almost universally acknowledged as the greatest poet of the Five Kingdoms period, recorded the epic known today as The Lost Tomb of Jhohun Thallash’Mer some 400 years after the events. The time period in which the story took place was at the high point of warring among the Five Kingdoms, a time of volatility and blood. Alliances shifted quickly, generals and armies rose to fame and just as quickly were resigned to oblivion. Every living soul on the continent of Ashan knew nothing but warfare their entire lives.
Lyrameister’s fame as a poet rests upon two equally stout pillars. First, she is known lyrically to be the most accomplished wordsmith of the millennium. Second, her stories are famed for their historical accuracy and great profundity of detail. She is the progenitor of a form of epic known as nousreka, or reality of the mind. She traveled extensively throughout the continent, interviewing locals, surveying locations, and pouring over artwork and provincial records, compiling as much information as possible to form the skeleton for her historical sketches of figures that in most cases had been dead for generations. Historians have long mined her works for the informative details found within.
Even today, in the era of imperial unity that has blessed Ashan for the last 800 years, The Lost Tomb of Jhohun Thallash’Mer and its sequels have much to teach us. Ye who embark on this journey of discovery, heed carefully the lessons to be found within. Even as the translation loses much of her original artistry, the impact of her message should resonate. Lyrameister edifies us on the meaning of loyalty, the virtues of bravery, the follies to be found in treachery, and, most importantly perhaps, the mutual ruination to be found in warfare.