Age of Vat Born Monsters

A group of Fishermen sought to escape the Things That Live in Vats. Their legacy is a reef of wrecked and empty hulls encircling a sargasso sea. Occasionally, a vessel returns from this region undamaged, and entirely depleted of its crew.

A group of demon hunters turned their tactics to fighting the Things That Live in Vats, and became the first Imperial Legion. The Imperial Legion defeated the Things That Live in Vats, although they would be beset again and again by aftershocks of the original emergence.

Parents continue to warn their children of monsters that might burst from the earth, to gobble up bed and pesky child alike. Sometimes these monsters hail from a forgotten Beast Kingdom. Amongst the people of the Byrde Kingdom, the monster is sometimes a knight who would appear to protect the child from a groundrise.

Arising from the Imperial Legion's ranks, the first Emperor declared herself thus. Each successor is voted into office by members of the Legion, but must be chosen from the descendants of her 100 children.

Dwarven research into self-assembling towers was driven by patrons with very deep pockets, who brought with them peasants and Tieflings to maintain the lower reaches against continual assault. A Splinter Kingdom broke away, feeling the Emperor did not protect them, and turned to occult methods of The Archmage.

This Age ended when a great volcanic eruption darkened the sky for a generation. The majority of the survivors escaped to the Sky Islands that float above the clouds.