King Vele was anxious.

Not anxious in the 'I feel that things are about to go terribly, horribly wrong' kind of way - although in hindsight he should have been - but rather in an 'I have no idea what I should be doing, but I feel like I should be doing something' kind of way. And in general, much of the Kingdom had a similar feeling, bubbling just under the surface. The original Kingdom of Doebi had been founded almost a thousand years ago, built to fight the constant menace that was the Cult of Ponderet. 500 years later, the Kingdom of Suhendra formed out of a civil war sparked by the inaction of the old Grand Council in the face of impending disaster, but all with the specter of the Cult still looming overhead. Fighting against this presence of the chaos sewn by Ponderet on the mortal plane was the core reason for the existence of the Kingdom, and therefore the purpose that each man, woman, and child in Doebi could identify with.

But then that was gone.

In all fairness, King Diande certainly did nothing wrong. almost 40 years ago, Vele's father Diande became King of Suhendra after the death of his father and murder of his sister, and in his rage he completed the task that so many before him had been given - rallying fighters from across the known world and destroying the Cult once and for all. It had been a time of celebration, a time of holy fulfillment, and a time of peace.

The only problem? Suhendra was not a Kingdom founded on peace.

And so, as the festivities died down, and people returned to their normal lives, they began to notice all of the things they had given up to feel protected from the Cult. The biggest issue for many was taxes - they had happily paid to finance protection against the Cult in the times of danger and chaos, but not was a time of peace, so why was so much of their money flowing to Kuching, which was growing in opulence as their towns and cities floundered? Local nobles too began to wonder why land that they nominally owned was so completely subservient to one King in Kuching, what right did he have to be above them? Then of course there was the constant looming threat of the King pressing men from around the Kingdom into military service for whatever reason he deemed necessary, a thought that did not sit well with many around Doebi.

King Vele saw this discontent and worried as to its implication, but more than that had no idea how to handle it. He was not the fantastic political operator that his father had been, and he had no big legacy of his own to lean on for leverage. More than that, he literally had no legacy yet - after 25 years of marriage and all the acts it comes with, his wife had remained barren.

So, after a long amount of contemplation, King Vele decided to seek the advice of someone sought out by so many wayward souls for almost 500 years - the Oracle of Sarawak.

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Vele had visited the Oracle numerous times before, but Sarawak never ceased to take his breath away. Outside the cave was a small village built to house and feed travelers who had come long distances to seek an audience. As per royal decree, after the buildup of a massive city prompted the total destruction of Old Sarawak, the new village was run completely by Priests and Priestesses of Mykara, to prevent an unclean presence from desecrating the holy ground. It was simple, but stepping inside the Vüolt of Teç, it became anything but.

Inside this massive cavern rose a city of stone unlike any seen before. Homes for the Priests and Priestesses rose high into the air, with many rooms being carved into the walls of the cave itself. There were bathhouses, workshops for creating holy oils and incense, shrines to every known God and Goddess, and more. But of course, the centerpiece, built in the center of the massive chamber, was the Temple of Mykara, home of the Mykaran Oracle. It was here that King Vele would go to learn his fate.

Even more so than before, an audience with the Oracle was a scene of much spectacle. After taking a seat inside the Chamber of Prophecy, a steady rhythm of drums began to play from just out of sight, eventually joined by bamboo pipe flutes and mouth organs. After a minute of this eerie music, doors in the back of the room opened. Smoke and vapors flowed in through the open doors, and with them came the Oracle. The King watched her slender, beautiful figure enter the room, covered by nothing but a thin layer of some white powder from head to toe. Her hair flowed with streaks of red and blue, and her eyes were framed with a dark coloring. The entire scene felt as if Vele had stepped into the realm of the Gods themselves, and as the music dimmed to a low volume, the Oracle took a seat on a pillow-covered rug in the center of the room.

"What is it that you seek, Vele of Kuching?"

The King took a deep breath. "Oh wise Oracle, voice of the Gods, I seek the answer to the question that so many coming here do - what will be my legacy? How will I be remembered generations from now?"

The Oracle took a deep breath, and began her normal routine of inhaling the spiritual vapors and communing with the Gods. Suddenly, however, she let out a gasp, and the music stopped suddenly. She looked up at the King.

"Vele, this is not a future you wish to hear. You will not find the answers you hoped for here."

King Vele furrowed his brow - that is not something you should say to a person and NOT expect them to want more. "Oracle, I trust your wisdom and knowledge, but please - I do want to know my fate. What will happen during my reign? Please tell me of my future, so that I can put my mind at ease, or hear of what troubles may befall me so that I can work to avoid them."

The Oracle looked grim, her face seeming to go pale even under the white powder. "Vele, I warn you one final time - do not ask me for this prophecy. It is your fate and cannot be avoided, trying to do so is futile and will only bring more grief."

At this the King grew angry. "Oh Great Oracle of Mykara, tell me my fate! Tell me my legacy! Give me the prophecy!"

The Oracle sneered. "Fine. Great King Vele, you will fail to find a path for the ship you sail. Your crew will turn against you, and you will leave this life almost as broken as the ship you tried to helm. Your memory will be one of failure, chaos, and destruction, a memory that will have generations cursing your name. That is your fate."

The King stood, slack-jawed, as the Oracle stared deep into his eyes, before exiting the room. He walked out in a fog, the prophecy turning over and over in his head. Surprisingly, the metaphors were not as difficult to suss out as he had expected - she told him that he would need to find a new direction and purpose for the Kingdom to prevent the people, and his nobles, from rising against him and plunging Doebi into chaos.

Thinking some more, he realized that the Kingdom had been founded on conflict and danger, and so the path forward would need to return them to those roots. He looked upon a basic map of his holdings, and saw one clear area to advance. He smiled - this would absolutely set them straight.

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Later that week, a letter arrived at the palace of the Kingdom of Davao. It was quite simple - an invitation for the Kingdom to join Suhendra, and thus enter an era of great prosperity. The idea of refusal, of course, was left much more open ended. The King sneered, he knew it was only a matter of time before the expansionist and warmongering Suhendrans were knocking at his door. His response was even more simple than the original letter - a gold-inlaid dagger, that simply said "no".

Vele wasted no time calling upon his nobles to raise a massive force of men across the Kingdom. He said that Davao had insulted their Kingdom, and that this was an insult that could only be met by war. He called upon vast extra taxes, a seizure of boats and goods from nobles across Doebi, and loaded his massive army into ships sailing towards Davao. With such a force, he figured this would be an easy war, one that would be over quickly, adding wealthy new lands to his domain, and cementing his victorious legacy into the future.

It was unbelievable how wrong he was.

The nobles across Doebi were already unhappy with the King, and so to see him forcefully take their men, riches, and ships so callously, just to use against a Kingdom who had been a loyal partner in trade, was the last straw. They sent advance word to Davao, and began to plot the end to this tyranny once and for all.

And so, as Vele landed on the shores of Davao with his host of men, he found their armies ready and waiting. It was a day-long slaughter, with Suhendran forces being killed almost as soon as they stepped off the ships that had brought them there. King Vele tried to push the men harder and further forward, but eventually the pile of bodies on the shore was beginning to become an obstacle in its own right. Finally, as the sun began to set, and the battle only became bloodier and bloodier, the Suhendran troops began to flee or surrender en masse.

Vele, seeing that this was the end of this battle, rushed back to his ships and tried to sail away before he could be captured. He made it off of the shore and sailed into the dark seas, but as a storm rolled up he could not see five feet in front of his face. He panicked, for he was not a good sailor, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a number of his men emerge from inside his ship. He went to greet them, and ask if any knew how to find a path for this ship, when he saw the glint of their daggers. Vele turned to run, but caught a blade to the upper shoulder, and collapsed to the floor. He looked up to the men that had turned against him, and then saw the rocky shoreline the ship was headed straight for. It crashed against the rocks, shattering the vessel, and as the broken, dying King lay on the sinking deck, he could only think about how right the Oracle had been.

Back in Kuching, a visitor burst into the Palace, startling the guards. It was a Priestess of Mykara, begging to see the Queen. Reluctant to say no to a priestess, they let her through.

The Queen looked up, angry to have been woken so late. "Why am I being disturbed? Surely this can wait until morning."

The priestess looked panicked. "No my Queen, you must flee, now. Your husband is already dead, and soon men will march on the Palace to end your line for good. So please, take as much as you can carry, and with all the men and women who still support you flee from this land, for the sake of your children."

The Queen seemed confused and upset. "My children? I have no children with my husband. And speaking of - what do you mean he is dead?!"

"I am sorry my Queen, there is little time to explain, but you must leave now!"

The Queen was unsure whether or not to trust this woman, when she heard shouting from outside the city gates. Men were demanding to be let inside, and they seemed angry, and well armed.

She turned to the priestess and nodded. Together they grabbed what they could carry, and had all the palace staff and guards run with them to the docks. Just as they finished loading provisions onto the vessels, the gates to the city burst open, and men began to charge towards them. They immediately pushed off, and got just outside of archery range by the time the mob got to the docks, before disappearing into the darkened sea.

The Queen sat down on the deck, exhausted, before quickly grabbing the side of the boat and vomiting over the edge. This was strange - the Queen had been on the seas her whole life, she didn't get seasick...

Her eyes widened as she turned back to the Priestess. The woman smiled, and looked at the Queen's belly. She would have children after all.

After a few days at sea, they reached the Merchant Kingdom of Manggar, where the King was gracious enough to grant them asylum as the Queen in Exile of Suhendra. It is there that her children will be born, and it is there that the history of Doebi will take a fateful turn.

Over the next few months, void of a real claim to the throne of Suhendra, Doebi would proceed to tear itself apart in war as nobles across the island laid claim to their own slices of territory. And despite wiping out the Cult of Ponderet nearly half a century ago, Doebi would find itself embroiled in chaos and war for most of the next three centuries.

Map of Doebi after the Collapse of the Kingdom of Suhendra