Lightning Wastes

As villages of southern Tulaan were uniting via commerce into 'Suvauni' and western Arcea tribes were making first contact with the southern civilization, the Kessi empire conquered village and brought them to heel by sword. The ancient country of Suvauni faced challenges partnering with Arcean tribes as the Kessi empire was hostile to what it saw as invading forces, not taking kindly to the uniting of other tribes, slowly building up a competing force.

Much of these years saw small skirmishes between Suvauni and the Kessi Empire, as Suvauni sought to protect its exploration efforts and the Kessi Empire sought to remain the dominant power of east Arcea. The Kessi Empire made aggressive pushes westward, snapping up all the remaining unaligned tribes and promising rich rewards to those that joined and harsh punishment to those that didn't.

However, this proved an unsustainable move. As Suvauni ramped up efforts to cut off Kessi's supply chains, the empire was unable to make good on its promises. Being unable to pay their own soldiers to enforce their rule, tribes previously under Kessi rule began to independently unite under a new banner: Arcea.

Inspired by Suvauni, early Arcea gained tribes by commerce instead of sword, starting with strong diplomacy to Suvauni which gave it an edge in supplies and weaponry. With more and more tribes uniting under the Arcean banner, those leading the charge in the crater-city that would become Arceliaze sought a true unification of the land, from the Rocky Hills all the way to the Yahneri Pennisula.

Kessi was unable to put up much resistance as their systems continued to collapse. A complacent and greedy nobility quickly fled south, with a naval skirmish crushing the understaffed and underfunded Kessi fleet at the Yahneri Pennisula, granting Arcea the port and splitting the old empire in half. Unable to even provide food and with stores drying up, the empire faced a collapse into smaller kingdoms and serfdoms, each of which quickly capitulated to the much larger united Arcea, either becoming provinces or folding and relocating to the Arceali Valley.

Kessian ruins can now be found in the Ice Pennisula, Crumbling Shrine, Scorched Foothills, Shade Valley, Ember Summit, Steeljag Bluff, Oasis Canyon, Seaking Pennisula, and of course, Thunder Mesa and Lightning Wastes, which housed the capital of the Kessi Empire.

Little effort has been made to repopulate the areas abandoned by the remains of the Kessi empire, with its closest descendants keeping to a small desert village, Qease' (Which is another way of spelling 'Kessi', in a way that looks more how it is meant to be pronounced).