Today, may you and your kin nourish the earth with your blood...
- Customary greeting of Ta'leru warriors to their foes before battle.

The Ta'lek were an ancient race of quadrupedal earth spirits who walked the realm of Lor eons ago. These mighty beasts possessed a profound link to the earth that enabled them to manipulate it and mold it to their will. But rather than erect enormous edifices and statuary to symbolize their dominion, they preferred to preserve the earth in its pristine, untouched state. As the majority of humankind developed and came to adopt more sedentary living patterns, constructing homes and walls, towers and castles, the Ta'lek came to regard the works of man as an affront to the state of nature.

So it came to be that, whenever their travels brought them into contact with human settlements, the Ta'lek would cause the earth to open and swallow them and their inhabitants. In this fashion, nascent civilizations were erased almost overnight, their works and their cultures returned to the dust from which they sprang. They did not harbor an enmity towards all humans however, and the roaming tribes of the dusty expanse known as the Sea of Bones developed a natural alliance with the Ta'lek. These nomads waged ruthless war against the "weak" men who lacked the robust constitution required for the nomadic lifestyle, and razing and enslaving any sedentary community that dared to settle within their domains. In time, these tribes came to revere the Ta'lek as gods, calling themselves the Ta'leru, which means the "children of the Ta'lek" in their tongue.

Among the Ta'lek, the one called Enos was worshipped by the Ta'leru as a god of war for his utter mercilessness against those who would dare to defile his precious world. Though all Ta'lek were known for the raw concussive power of their impossibly deep voices, Enos' voice resonated at such a low frequency that its vibrations would shatter bones and rupture flesh explosively, hence his epithet, "The Shatterer." Despite the low regard the Ta'lek held for humanity in general, Enos enjoyed frequent contact with the Ta'leru, reveling in their worship and adulation. He developed a manner of reliable communication between the Ta'lek and their human vassals, and cultivated a powerful war-cult that exerted a dominating influence over their customs and politics. With time, some of the practices Enos promoted to enable ever-closer communion of the Ta'leru with their "gods" would venture deep into the realm of the taboo, and the perverse. Still, the other Ta'lek tolerated Enos' forbidden diversions due to the fact that his control over the Ta'leru was eminently useful, allowing them to regulate the human activity within their domains.

During the Great Darkening, when the demons began to manifest throughout the plane of Lor, the Ta'lek instinctively opposed the infernal powers, whose corruption tainted the very earth they loved. What followed was a brutal war that literally roiled the surface of their world, but which cost many of the incredibly long-lived Ta'lek, who were not so numerous to begin with, their very lives. Much weakened, the remaining Ta'lek retreated to the Sea of Bones where they were able to hold the demons at bay, resulting in a stalemate that lasted for several centuries. This detente held until the emergence of the dragons, which heralded a great realignment of the balance of power throughout the plane. The dragons struck an alliance with the Ta'lek, and together they were able to destroy or exile the most powerful of their enemies. The remainder, unable to withstand the combined elemental assault of earth and flame, soon met with the same fate as their masters.

Alas, that hard-won peace was short-lived, since the dragons expected nothing less than utter subservience from all of the "lesser" races on Lor, including the proud Ta'lek. Needless to say, the Ta'lek balked, but in their weakened state, lacked the power to credibly resist the dragons when they inevitably came to exact the price of their defiance. The dragons scorched the mighty Ta'lek from the skies, where their enemy's terrestrial mastery could not affect them. Even the elder Ta'leks' vaunted ability to transmute their flesh into solid stone could not withstand sustained gouts of dragonflame that could melt diamonds.

One by one the powerful Ta'lek were felled by the dragons' onslaught. Even mighty Enos, whose prowess in battle was legendary among his kind, could find no way to sustainably counter his foes' aerial supremacy. There were a few victories to be sure, as when he led his kin in a coordinated chorus, using their powerful voices to knock lower flying enemies out of the sky. But the dragons took to soaring ever higher, picking the Ta'lek off from altitude. As his kind was inevitably laid low, the old warrior was forced to concede defeat, and he fled deep beneath the Sea of Bones. There he hid with his shame and the solemn vow that he would exact his revenge against the treacherous dragons who had brought his kind to ruin. Entering the "stone-sleep" he merged with the earth, spending the next several thousand years attaining a near perfect union with his element. During this time, his slumbering form was lovingly guarded and maintained by the Order of Unbroken Stone - a sisterhood of Ta'leru priestesses dedicated to the worship of the Ta'lek. Through the use of trance-inducing drugs and secret blood rituals the priestesses were able to project their minds into Enos' dream state, where they maintained communion with him. They faithfully kept his memory alive amongst the Ta'leru, and in return he periodically used his earthborne powers to aid the Ta'leru war-hordes in their ceaseless wars against the kingdoms of men.

Five thousand years later, Enos awoke to a vastly changed world. The dragons had vanished, either slain or fled from the world they had fought so fiercely to conquer. The petty kingdoms of men held dominion over the lands that remained, and they squabbled endlessly to lay claim over that which they could never truly possess. It was a sullied world ripe to one such as Enos for the taking- for the cleansing, and he wanted nothing more than to erase mankind's stain from the very face of Lor. Taking the eleven priestesses of the Order of Unbroken Stone as his wives, and naming their leader Li'ranah as his Chosen, or Oracle, he gathered and united the roving tribes of the Ta'leru, who still kept the ancient ways.

Thus began a steady march across the land, and Enos and his Ta'leru utterly annihilated all who stood before them. In each village or town, the inhabitants were offered a single opportunity to convert and dedicate their lives to Enos. Those who accepted were taken as slaves to serve the Ta'leru hordes. Those who refused drenched the earth with their blood, moments before that same earth opened its ravenous maw to swallow all that they had ever known. The converted slaves led miserable lives, used as labor, cannon-fodder and playthings until they dropped dead from exhaustion, were killed, or sacrificed in honor of Enos. Yet every slave who lived long enough to learn the customs of the Ta'leru could elevate their station to join their ranks, if they could survive the trials of initiation. In most cases, death was certain in any event.

Among the Ta'leru none are honored more than the eleven women who comprise the Order of Unbroken Stone. Each one hails from one of the eleven Ta'leru tribes, and function as the spiritual leader and matriarch of their people. All wear flowing robes of deep maroon, the sacred color of the Ta'leru, representing the co-mingling of blood and earth. Each day they share of Enos' "essence", and in doing so are accorded a small measure of his power. With it, they are able to perform feats of geomancy, or even temporarily turn their flesh to stone. Their bond also permits Enos' mind to touch theirs, allowing a form of telepathic communication. The Oracle Li'ranah is the first among them, and Enos' favorite wife. Li'ranah is also tasked with speaking for their lord, whose destructive voice would quickly decimate an audience of listeners. The Oracle is feared by the other wives as well - those that displease her might well find themselves upon Enos' altar as a living sacrifice, or even physically consumed by their very lord, who has acquired a particular taste for human flesh.

As Enos and his Ta'leru hordes march inexorably westward, their path takes them directly between the Burning Mountain, the court of the Demon Queen Ra'ziah herself, and the lawless domain of Sera, the Twilight Queen. Epic conflict is all but inevitable...

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An awesome ref created for me by the extremely talented Kuomora (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kuomora/ ). Incredibly reasonable rates for the high quality work that they put out. I am VERY satisfied. The character design is closely based on an adopt I purchased from Vella Simon (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vellasimon/ ). My sincerest thanks to both artists!