Really love the look of this mod, hoping that it hasn't gotten stalled. I had some thoughts for storyline and characters of the Khoram.
The Khoram were a people in flight. For a thousand years they had ruled an empire who's scope and wealth the simple inhabitants of Calradia could not even begin to understand. At the height of their power it was said that the searing face of the desert sun would turn aside rather then face the wrath of the Khorams ruler, the Khal.
However, as time went on the Khals grew weak, complacent. The face of the ruler lost its fierceness and became fat and slovenous. When the Khorams calender reached the year 1039 the empire was ripe for the picking. It's armies scattered, their training and equipment outdated and it's Khal an inbred simpleton, utterly unsuited for command in a crisis.
When the end finally came, it came quickly. The unsettled tribes of nomads and nations displaced by the Khorams initial expansion suddenly struck in a single unified advance. They had been united under a single banner, that of Masimba Tasagwenko, a warlord from far beyond the Khorams realm, intent on creating an empire for himself and cutting it from the flesh of the Khorams. In the initial battles his armies of what the Khorams considered 'savages' consistently outmaneuvered and destroyed the aged Khoram armies and their favoured tools of war, the chariot.
The Khal refused to believe the empire was under attack, satisified in his hubris that noone would dare oppose him. As the realm began to burn it fell to the Shiekh il Emir (leader of commanders in my more then likely incorrect arabic) to try and save his people but he too fell before Masimba and the invincible hordes. Within two years the entire empire was near conquered and the attacking armies surrounded the vast capital city of Nefertinn. As the final attack began and the city burnt the Khal could only weep piteously and protest his status as a god to the uncaring enemy, his mind truly and finally unhinged. The people were in panic and with no leaders left to direct them it seemed that the entire culture of the Khoram was about to be wiped from the face of the world.
Then, a leader emerged.
Husan al-Din was the son of a prominent high-priest and a member of one of the Khorami tribes that still lived a largely nomadic existence in the desert. He had distinguished himself repeatedly in the long war against the invaders, leading his rapid force of nomadic cavalry to strike at Masimbas often stretched lines or into the exposed flank. Now, as the city around him burnt he stood on the steps of the great temple and glared down at the people fleeing up towards him.
"Our nation burns and you would hide!?" He screamed, and according to what fast became folk legend, the people stopped in shock to stare at him. Husan preached on the steps, apparently ignoring the carnage all around. He spoke of duty, of their duty to insure the Khorami way of life continued. When he was finished the people would likely have followed him straight into the roaring fires of any of the grand buildings. As it was he gathered the survivors of the city and in the chaos escaped into the dark night.
In the weeks that followed more and more refugees flocked to Husans banner and he led the people through the desert and far from their fallen homeland. He was unanymously elected as Sheikh il-Emir, refusing what he saw as the weak and tainted title of Khal. As the people moved Husan began a radical restructuring of Khorami military thought and training, requiring every able bodied man and teenaged boy to attend. By the time they arrived in Calradia Husans retrained force was more then capable of seizing the chaotic and leaderless lands in the South West.
Husan now rules his small holdings with the iron fist of a warlord. He sees the fall of the Swadian Empire and the chaos that followed as further proof that civilisation is under attack from barbarity. Extremely charismatic, Husan is also deeply religious and believes utterly that the destiny of his people, and the reason for their exodus, is to bring peace and civilisation to Calradia by conquering it and uniting it under a newly reformed Khorami Empire. His new military, a combination of swift light cavalry to pin enemies in place and heavily armoured infantry and cataphracts to crush them, has the potential to meet this task .
However the Khoram position is far from secure, they are many miles from anything they've ever known and surrounded by enemies. The Barbarous Nords in particular are unlikely to take kindly to the 'divine light' of Khoram civilisation.
Not my best work by any means, may go back and redo it later but thought it might be helpful/cool.
. Anyway, despite real life interfering, I'm still making progress on the mod, even if it's slower then I'd like it to be.
