In the year 2731, across the southernmost empire of Cathay the Tang Tsa came to power, overthrowing the previous regime in a bloody coup lasting no more than 2 years. The last Emperor of the old Dynasty, Hantei Oruban Nagara, hid in the mountains to the east, plotting his vengance on the usurper. After many failed assassinations and revolts the new emperor began launching raids into the mountains to weed out his predecesor and destroy his oppisition.
After a decade of flight Hantei was nearly 60, he started to dig into the ancient lore, looking for a way to stay his demise. The once proud king had lost his mind and ordered his heirophants to ride to the West in search of a way to keep their leige-lord alive, who obeyed his maddness and rode out past the Kamalayan Mountains and into the deserts of Nehekara, where they encountered a black robed old man who gave to them a book which, according to the hermit, contained spells which granted eternal life. The magicians, overjoyed by their success, rushed back to their far away kingdom.
When they returned, however, they found that they had been too late. The old king had died and his remains already in his tomb was on the Rui An Mountain, a holy place reserved for the burial of kings. The trio climbed to his burial mound and found it already pillaged, almost all the treasure taken away, leaving only the great coffin of Hantei Oruban Nagara and his army of statue-soldiers, ready to serve him in the afterlife for eternity. The men found some of the soldiers broken, and to their horror faces of terror and pain leered out, the terracotta soldiers were baked with men inside them. The king truely had lost his mind.
The wizards finally came to the Emperors resting place, a single shaft of light shined upon the enormous gold coffin lid, the only true treasure left in the crypt. They flipped through the book, seeking an encantation to awake their lord. As they read through the numerous spells nothing happened, and they left in shame of failing their quest.
Then as they were almost out of the tomb they heard a heavy sliding and a great crash, like a stone falling off a mountain. The men turned and saw the great burial box of the king open, and the brine soaked, armored form of the Emperor walking slowly out of it. He spoke words in an incomprehensible language, and with those the statues came to life, the souls of those who died in their making animating their prisons with the force of their master's terrible will.
Seeing what abomination they wrought on the world the three heirophants flew out of the crypt and to the villages nearby, warning the people of the oncoming danger...
None of the nearby villages were ever heard from after that day.
It's an ok start I think, I want to thank Grey for giving me the initial idea, and want to ask for any critcism/ advice. Thanks in advance.
