The Golden City ~ Capital of the Empire

[Dayan Arcana 29]

The Following Occured "Pentember 25, Year 4 of the Sixth Age

The Council of shifting sands are meeting in the grand pyramid of Menaphos to discuss plans of uniting the Khadarian desert under one rule. The scarlet curtains on the windows dances with the wind as Ridley Nox enters the room. Those attending was Councilman Anish, Praetor Yami, and Noyon Cain representing the Rising Sun. 
Ridley was looking rather odd and quite abnormal. Her skin was as pale as the sand, the color of her veins exposed. Her eyes were like emeralds but there was a darkness to them. Were they always green?
She stood behind her seat and glared at the three men present. 

"You all are against me, I shall not be opposed! The Empire will fall by my hands even if it means killing off its leadership one by one!" she yelled while raising her staff into the air.

The staff began emitting an ominous green glow and grew larger and brighter.
Praetor Yami was no fool, he quickly slipped into the shadows and escaped to the sanctuary within his temple pyramid. Anish, however, was too scared to move, he was a young and innocent man who came to power by means of respect and resilience. Cain moved quickly to teleport Anish and himself safely to Lunar Isle by use of the Moonclan group teleport. Anish disappeared on site but somehow Cain remained in the presence of Ridley. He attempted the spell again but his runes were cracking and turning to dust somehow. 
The room began to warp and distort itself, but then it simply stopped in time. Ridley began to walk towards Cain and with a growl simply told him, 

"Oh Cain, why do you align yourself with such a foolish leader. He could never create something as big as I can." She would graze her hand against Cains' cheek but he quickly moved back.

"What trickery is this Ridley! What dark magics are you using to accomplish this!" he too would raise his staff thought it was no use. 

His runes have degraded to dust and have no alternative weapon at his disposal.
"Oh what a shame, I was hoping we could work together. We could have brought the Wushanko Isles to its knees, we could have had full power over this region. I guess you are no use to me Cain Dundragon" she pointed her staff at the poor fool as it radiated with a corrupted power. 

In that instant, a familiar arcanic figure appeared and deflected the blast that would have been the demise of Cain. 

"How dare you! How did you come here!" Ridley was infuriated and confused by the appearance of this stranger. 

"Your corruption will end, mark my words." The arcanic stranger banged the end of his staff on the marble floor and whatever magic that sealed the room shattered. Both he and Cain disappeared in a blue mist.

Both the arcane stranger and Cain landed on the shores of Turtle islands and collapsed onto the warm sands of the coast. The Arcane being was the first to get up and helped Cain onto his feet, at that moment Cain realized who the stranger was. Cain embraced his old friend and he too responded in kind. It was brief as he had important news to relay to Cain. 

"Cain, I must implore you to return to Waiko in haste and warn the council of the corruption befalling the desert. The staff that Ridley holds that is similar to yours was given to her in a corrupted form. It was to be given to you so you would have a matching set, but it landed in her hands. Granted it was probably best it did rather than you." he then gave a parchment to Cain with full details on the matter.

"I do not understand what is happening, what corruption!?" Cain was beyond confusion but no more time could be wasted. 

Menaphos was descending into chaos by the minute so Cain set sail to Waiko with haste. 

Upon reaching Waiko something horrible was happening at its shores. Waiko was under siege by undead forces emerging from the waters and was starting to breach its defenses.
Bells were ringing, the inhabitants of the island were screaming and looking for a place to take refuge. The Khagan was directing people to higher ground by the blossom tree and then made his way to the front lines. Cain had grabbed some new runes that were supplied on the ship and made his way onto the docks. Several undead creatures appeared before him and Cain is not much of fighter, but he will do anything to survive. Suddenly the undead creatures collapsed into dust, and to Cains amazement he found it to be by the work of Mimring. To the fullest force of his ability, Mimring with all his power silenced the undead and all were turned to dust. 

"What the hell was that!" the Khagan ran toward Cain and Mimring in hopes for answers as to how this siege upon Waiko came to be.

"This undead were not raised by normal means…by that, I mean through dark magic of necromancy." Mimring took a sample of the ashes for study.

"Ah yes! I have a report from an old friend of something befalling the desert." Cain took the scroll from his bag and handed it to Dayan.

"Dammit, Ridley! She has been consumed by this unknown corruption that was infested unto this weapon. What it is, is controlling her very being." Dayan set forth to the docks to inspect the damage.

"We must siege Menaphos and destroy the weapon and reverse the corruption infesting the land. Easier said than done, but Arcane set very specific instructions as to how we can." He looked at Cain and nodded.

"The docks sustained little damage, prepare now for we set sail to Menaphos in a few hours."

A large fleet of Wushanko ships set sail for the Menaphite shores and lay siege to the golden city. Cain was assigned to heal the wounded but he wished to do more than simply sit in the back of everything. Mimring preparing to handle with the undead, Rizenel was tinkering with explosive bom- WAIT DID SHE PUT A LIVE CHINCHOMPA IN THAT ONE? Nevertheless, he wanted more than just heal even though it was a major help at times. 
The Wushankian army somehow reached the ports of Menaphos without incident, It was odd and all were cautious preparing for an ambush. The city was empty and awfully silent, the city walls warped with glowing green cracks. The grand pyramid was morphed and the doors wide open, at the foot of the steps was Ridley who somehow knew they would be there.

"So the Wushankian army has come to stop me, has it? Oh how cute that you think you can compete with my power!"

Ridley raised her staff and many soldiers of the army became possessed by this corrupted energy. Cain who was unwilling brother kill brother, sent them to sleep. No clue how such a spell would work against such powerful magic we'll just go with it. 

"Cain! You have caused enough trouble, you will not escape your doom this time!" a green surge of magic protruded from the end of the staff and aimed towards Cain. 

Cain lifted his staff and it somehow redirected her attack back at her. Ridley flew backward and smashed against a nearby obelisk. Cain was confused as usual but noticed his staff glowing a warm white light, he then realized his staff was somehow imbued with energy from the islands. 

Cain thought to himself, "Was this plan? It's a lot easier than I anticipated…" hey, not all things require the gods to fix this, the simple things count…
The group ran towards Ridley who was still recovering from the crash with the pillar. The Scepter Ridley held remained on the floor as it radiated with an evil light, the golden trim of the staff began to crack and becoming more unstable by the second. Cain did not know what to do but simply aimed his staff towards its corrupted copy. 

A stream of energy was released from Cain's Scepter and began surrounding its copy. The magic sealing the city began to shatter in the same way Cain witnessed when Arcane rescued him. The corruption returned back into the scepter and as it consumed the last of it, it turned to stone. Rizenel being the weirdo she is, screeched and threw a chinchompa bomb at the scepter and the staff was destroyed. 

Ridley was seized by the guards and sent imprisoned while the remaining council held a meeting. Anish has returned from Lunar Island…he seemed to have run into the Suqah and did not have the best time of life but cheery as usual. 
At the Grand Pyramid, Dayan had much to say about the recent events. 

"From this day forth, I can no longer trust the empire to be run by two councils, it has shown to only distance and split the empire in a way I am unwilling to keep the status quo."
Rizenel would roll her eyes and mumble "Even I could have told you that." She continued to eat her chocolates.
"I hereby dissolve both councils and from it create the Golden Path Council, we strive to keep peace on our lands and do what is best for our people. Furthermore, the Empires government will move to this city so that we may be centered between the islands and the desert lands. No more shall we be split, no more shall there be threats from the inside. As for the fate of Ridley Nox, she is now banished from Menaphos and will see her days aiding the people in Sophanem to rebuild. Her titles will be stripped along with her rank. Though it was not directly her fault, I will not risk such an event happening again."

With that Ridley said her goodbyes and apologies and set forth to Sophanem. Many of her death lotus agents who were still loyal to her were commanded to protect the city and set them under the command of Dayan while she pays out her sentence in Sophanem. 

The Empires revitalized and joined the government made their official move to Menaphos, but Waiko will forever be the mother island of the empire. The Golden Path Council has now been installed with the remaining members now in the seat of power in Menaphos and of their land. The empire was once again in one piece, but the question still remains how Cains simple scepter imbued with energy was enough to stop such corrosive power. 

All Cain wanted to do now was seek out Arcane for answers, but even he knows such a task is difficult as he simply appears out of thin air. Perhaps in time, such mysterious will be answered, but for now, the Empire requires a lot of work to restore order within the region.
And with that came to be how the Wushanko Empire has now joined it duel government and shifted its seats of power to the Golden City of Menaphos. There is much that is still unanswered and the Wushankian Guards have begun its investigation as to how all this occurred in the first place. 

The Seats of power now sits between the Arc and its Desert land in hope to stabilize and better aid its people. In hopes to prosper and thrive under these new conditions that have occurred from tragedy. The Golden Path Council now newly installed will ensure the growth and prosperity of the empire. 

~May the Sun's light shine upon you~

[Dayan Arcana 29]

Will be adding some images for extra flair  

Hope those who have read this enjoyed it c: