NEZGETH

Nearly every civilization ever studied passes on tales of a great warrior empire in the lands across the ocean to the east. Among these are the persistent tales among various Kovalli tribal cultures, including the Nezgeth, insisting that their forefathers came from an ancient powerful civilization on the far side of the world, across the sea and many lands away.  This is true, for circa 1000 BE the Nezgeth ancestors in the Eastlands had sinned against the One. Giving homage to worship of false idols, rodents and evil serpents, they had fallen prey to pride and aggressiveness. As their true god watched in disappointed silence, the early Nezgeth empire took hold of vast stretches of foreign land, pushing ever onward in one military conflict after another. When finally Eru sought to destroy them, he was begged by the Implementors to have mercy upon them. Heeding their cries, Eru broke their empire to pieces, but banished the Nezgeth from their homes.

Over the countless years of exile from their homeland, wandering across new uncharted lands (Antharia and the Westlands) and vast oceans, the homeless tribe took the lesson of their glorious rise and abrupt fall, adhering to the strictest principles of pacifism. Generations later, the Nezgeth found a home in the hellish deserts of Kovalli, and every day became a constant struggle to stay alive, believing that their deities had led them to this cruel land as penance for their misdeed. Gradually the tribe returned to its former warlike ways, but even then refused to give battle no more than necessary. When their ancestors crossed these lands those many centuries ago, they left behind them many legends of the pure people, those without sin. They seemed to think those people lived in the lands to the east, and they looked up to them as holy men, akin to the gods.

Thus the Eastern Empire had came to a sudden and violet collapse, a disaster so thorough that it destroyed any possibility of historical continuity. Even today, age-old castles and temples now stand empty, testifying to the existence of the wandering Nezgeth tribe that in 398 GUE would play a role in bringing salvation to the Kingdom of Quendor from the Devil. (see the entry on Ath-gar-nel, who was the leader of the tribe in those days,  for more details regarding this specific event)

The tribes of Nezgeth, who called themselves people of the Western Sun, worshipped the sun god Savitri. Each father of these tall figures of dark skin went out of his way to ensure the birth of at least two warrior sons. Their tongue was nothing more than a simple variant of their ancestors. As of 398, the language was still studied by the Galepath University as a sort of historical curiosity. It did not change much since their crossing of the Great Sea.

It may also be of interest that in 398, the chief of the Nezgeth Tribe, Ath-gar-nel, was not only in the possession of one of the Cubes of Foundation, but also of a six-inch fragment of steel which was the broken end of Grueslayer.