The Ouranomachy: The War In The Skies

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The War in the Skies

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For much of Felarya’s history, the Akaptor Desert was a place where the various predator races of Felarya lived in relative peace. Bodies of water determined where the many tribes would settle and, for the most part, the inhospitable desert formed a natural border between them that was rarely worth crossing. By the year 868 AU, eras of war and bloodshed had left much of central Felarya without any order. There were many warlords rising to try and claim power in the vacuum; would-be “kings” and “queens” who had delusions of grandeur. The harpies were especially driven to fill the void, being extremely envious of the races who had enjoyed their own kingdoms and empires and who had forced the harpies to live by their rules. The problem with the harpies however was that they were unable to unite, and they would always devolve into fighting against each other.

The noble sphinxes seemed to be one of the few races who were not interested in creating the next empire. Rather, they watched the harpies with growing concern that their chaos would infect all of Felarya as their attempts to seize power spread further west. The sphinxes assumed the role of guarding the already unstable world from the mad factions of harpies who were trying to assert dominance. The sphinxes formed Orders and vigilantly watched over their own domains. They were in agreement that they were not in opposition to a new empire arising, but they would accept no unworthy ruler; and there were none more unworthy than the harpies, in their eyes. The sphinxes even protected the smaller forms of life, and under the relative safety provided by the sphinxes (primarily against the harpies), humans and nekos could build strong foundations for their cities. The harpies did not care for their new "landlords." Over time, their minor clashes increased in magnitude and frequency.

Around the year 1501 AU, the harpies became an even bigger force to be reckoned with as they were finally able to unite under the leadership of a harpy in the Akaptor Desert known as Hyperia the Heartless. Hyperia was smart, ambitious and manipulative. And after years of failing to make any ground against the sphinxes, the message of unity against the "self-righteous butt-faced fur-brains" was embraced at last. The sphinxes caught wind of the harpies' intentions to synchronize their attacks on their prides and their Orders, and they prepared for battle. The opportunity to make a preemptive strike against the harpies presented itself but sphinxes across Felarya chose to follow the guidance of a sphinx named Amon-Nakht, a strong and wise leader who was also from the desert in the west, and who was familiar with Hyperia. Amon-Nakht was quoted to have said that "Honor is not eliminating potential challenges from your life but rather it’s letting them come and then facing them with courage."

Thus, the sphinxes let the harpies come, and they defended themselves fiercely. For years, the thunderous sound of combat echoed in the sky above Felarya as it rained blood. This brutal war became known by some as the War in the Skies, and it eventually involved the other races who agreed that the harpies had become a threat too great to ignore. Nagas, giants, dryads, and more followed the orders of Amon-Nakht and squashed the harpies’ dreams of creating their own empire. The harpies became divided again and many simply abandoned the cause altogether. In 1768 AU, Hyperia announced her surrender. She agreed to Amon-Nakht's demands that she disappear into the depths of the desert wasteland and never show her face again.

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Ourana’s Rise

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A few isolated battles between sphinxes and Harpies still occurred all over Felarya, but nothing like colossal clashes of the “War in the Skies” had been seen since Hyperia’s surrender. Hyperia spent the next century of her life lamenting about what could have been. During that time, in 1770 AU, she hatched two daughters: Hemeria and Ourana. Hyperia was very hard on her hatchlings and pushed them to meet her very high standards. The sisters were told that only one of them was going to lead the flock one day, creating a rivalry between them. Hemeria and Ourana watched their mother, a shell of her former self, wallow in her misery and curse the name of Amon-Nakht every day, while she never ceased to berate them for not surpassing her. The other Harpies of the flock knew it was unfair of Hyperia to put her failures onto her daughters, but they couldn’t speak against her.

In 1777 AU, Ourana’s sister Hemeria drove her from the flock, forcing the younger Harpry to brave the perilous wilderness and travel north. On the verge of dying of exhaustion, she was discovered by Amon-Nakht who recognized Ourana's likeness to her mother Hyperia. Instead of leaving the young Harpy to die, Amon-Nakht did the "honorable" thing and took her into his pride where she could be nursed back to health, much to the dismay of some pride members. It was a bold and compassionate decision, and perhaps even a foolish one.

Ourana absorbed the culture of the sphinxes and was even trained in combat by them. It was also because of them that Ourana learned to use her innate fire magic and even master it; these were powers that her mother and sister could barely tap into. She went on to prove herself to be a loyal and capable warrior on the side of the sphinxes even in battles against enemy Harpy flocks. In 1787 AU, Ourana married Amon-Nakht's son, Seneb-Nakht. She was unquestionably a member of the sphinx pride at that point but ultimately there was something ingrained in Ourana that Amon-Nakht’s kindness could not change. After half a decade of marriage, Ourana grew tired of Seneb-Nakht's lack of ambition to succeed his aging father and decided that she would challenge Amon-Nakht for the leadership of the pride herself.

Before that, Ourana travelled south and returned home to face the chaotic mess of the flock that she was driven from. Ourana learned that her mother Hyperia was dead. According to her flock, one day Hyperia simply gave herself to the Sea of Sinking Sand. Hemeria then became the new matriarch of the flock. Ourana girded herself for what she had to do shortly after. With the powers she had mastered under the tutelage of the sphinxes, she descended upon her older sister Hemeria with ruthlessness. In the fierce battle, Hemeria was slain and Ourana was left as the last of her family. Rather than assert herself as the new matriarch, Ourana asked the flock if they would accept her as such. The harpies weren't used to anyone asking for the role but they understood that Ourana was truly asking for their loyalty. She had already proven herself more than capable in combat, and with the power that she displayed no one wanted to challenge her. The flock accepted Ourana as the matriarch. She then promised her flock that no matter what happened next, she would lead them on to greater things and that they would accomplish what no other flock has ever done.

After gathering her flock, Ourana boldly faced Amon-Nakht and challenged him for leadership of the sphinx pride, but he emphatically declined the preposterous challenge. Understanding the graveness of his past error, he commanded the harpy who he had come to love and trust as a daughter to leave their pride and never return. But Ourana had no intention of leaving without doing what her mother failed to do, and she ambushed Amon-Nakht, slashing his throat and killing him. Chaos erupted within the pride, as Ourana forced them to abandon their home if they would not submit to her. The sphinxes fled, following behind the heartbroken Seneb-Nakht.

Over the years, the sphinxes would regroup and battle Ourana and her flock who seemed to grow stronger and expand their numbers with time. Ourana was an exceptional commander, combining the qualities that she learned from Amon-Nakht with the aspirations of her mother Hyperia. She had an imposing presence, and a voice that projected grace, intelligence, and strength; and with her mastery of her innate fire magic, she literally shined like a beacon of light to harpies across Felarya. With the rate that the harpies were beginning to unite from the west to the east, it seemed that there would once again be a War in the Skies. Recognizing that they had to move quickly in preparation, the sphinxes were able to gather allies, first in the Akaptor Desert and then in the eastern parts of Felarya. In her boldness, Ourana had underestimated the cost of striking down Amon-Nakht. Word about what Ourana had done spread to the various tribes of giants, centaurs, and nagas across Felarya. Amon-Nakht was greatly respected among many of those tribes for how he helped to guide them through the first tumultuous period of the War in the Skies; at the very least, they believed he deserved a better fate. Members of these tribes who wanted to honor the former sphinx leader helped to fortify the sphinxes’ ranks and they slowly but surely defeated the resurging harpies, driving Ourana and her flock to the shore of the Shimmering Sea in 1791 AU.

Ourana found herself in a pinch. She was unable to go east into the greener parts of Felarya because of her infamy among many of the tribes who honored Amon-Nakht. But she also couldn’t go further west or else she would risk drawing the attention of the human city of Kelerm that had become notorious for slaying giant predator races. At the very least, she didn’t want to get flanked by their aggressive and potent defensive forces. She had no choice but to retreat to the islands of the sea. The forces that had joined with the sphinxes were content to settle for the banishment of Ourana and her flock. Seneb-Nakht, however, was not content.

Ourana had not only killed his father, but she also broke their hearts. Seneb-Nakht and his father trusted Ourana, against the protests from members of their pride. And Seneb-Nakht loved Ourana more deeply than he believed he would ever love anyone ever again. Without his father to guide him, he was overwhelmed by his losses. Sphinxes wouldn’t normally be given to letting their natural inclination to react emotionally override their training and discipline, but Seneb-Nakht was not his father. And he was blinded by pain. He ordered part of his pride who had wings with which to fly to pursue Ourana’s flock and return with information about their new location. He then ordered other members of his pride build rafts. After numerous scouting missions, the sphinxes found an island far out to sea, north-east of the city of Kelerm, where it appeared the harpies had temporarily settled before moving on. This island was given the name Traitor’s Leap by the sphinxes and they set up an encampment there.

Continued searches for the harpies led the sphinxes to believe that the flock had made their way to Iracal Island, a mysterious land mass north-east of Traitor’s Leap; it was an island that mermaids had told stories of, but few had ventured to visit because it often ended up being a one-way trip, according to the rumors. Iracal Island was the “vanishing island” or the “land beyond the veil”. Seneb-Nakht’s scouts asked him if he thought it was worth the risk to pursue them, assuming the mermaids’ tales had validity to them. Seneb-Nakht made the decision to pursue the harpies and he brought with him only those who were willing to see his mission through to the end, which were many of his pride. The sphinxes made their journey to the island and arrived relatively unscathed. Fortunately for them, the worst that the pride encountered was a surprise storm that waited for them on the other side of the thin veil, a storm that almost shipwrecked the sphinxes.

Seneb-Nakht’s pride found that Iracal Island’s local residents were not going to be welcoming to them. As they tried to settle in and continue searching for Ourana’s flock, they found themselves being met with aggression by dridders, and members of the reindeerataur and minotaur tribes.  Ourana expected Seneb-Nakht’s pride to pursue her and she had already convinced the island’s natives that the sphinxes were a threat. Her plan was to slow them down and perhaps dwindle their numbers. By the time that Seneb-Nakht would find her, she would be ready to fight him—to the death if necessary. It happened that Ourana stumbled upon humans inhabiting a city at the flat summit of a mountain that was once home to an ancient civilization. Ourana initially thought to feast on the humans and take the summit for her flock, but the humans showed respectable strength defending their city, and the harpy matriarch saw great potential in them. She saw herself helping them to reach that great potential and she saw how they could help her flock reach theirs.

Ourana gave the humans an ultimatum: surrender and submit to her or be completely devoured by her flock. The humans sensed that the harpies were in a desperate situation as well but at best they could only weaken their flock; essentially, with the harpies’ enemies pursuing them, it was only going to mean mutually assured destruction. Ourana made it clear to them that the only path forward if they wanted to live was complete submission to her. She promised that she would not allow her flock to prey on them and that they would protect them. On behalf of his people, the king of the city surrendered, and Ourana became the de facto ruler over the conquered city. As covered in the history of the Torinian people, not everyone agreed to the terms and were allowed to leave the city safely. They would go on to become a nomadic tribe on Iracal Island.  

When the sphinxes finally discovered the harpies at the mountain top, they were not prepared to deal with the combined forces of the harpies and the human defenders. They were met with human weapons and magic, and humans launching their attacks while riding harpies into battle. Seneb-Nakht was forced to retreat. The harpies continued to meet the sphinxes in combat after this first battle, pushing their pursuers further and further away from the mountain. The sphinxes were eventually forced to cease their attacks due to their dwindling numbers. After over a century of war on Iracal Island, the war between the harpies and the sphinxes seemed to have gone cold. Ourana, by that time carrying the title of the Queen of Torin, met with Seneb-Nakht to give diplomacy a chance, something her younger self would never have done. The centuries spent as the ruler of Torin in a state of war taught Ourana what it really meant to be a leader, especially as she has had to deal with more than one rebellion among the humans there. Ourana learned that ruling with force only bred resentment and instability, and that’s why the harpies’ attempts at creating a kingdom, much less an empire, always failed.

Ourana became less of a conqueror and more of a leader to the humans, allowing them to establish a senate, and she listened to their grievances. The human city flourished under her protection, and even her own flock was thriving due to having relationships with the humans. For creatures without hands, such as the harpies were, having human allies enhanced their quality of life. After the dark cloud of war lifted, Torinian people (including the harpies who were born there) began leaving the island to explore the Felaryan mainland. In 1968 AU, Ourana ordered the establishment of the first Torinian outpost outside of Iracal Island. The island known as Traitor’s Leap by the Sphinxes was taken and renamed as the Isle of Rebirth by the Torinians who settled there. From the Isle of Rebirth, the Torinians began to explore, heading west where more Iracal Crystal-like formations sparkled in the sunlight over the horizon, and also heading south toward Kelerm, a city that the older generation of harpies had told them about.

[Traveling to and from the island was made significantly safer by carrying Iracal Crystals (as they are commonly called in Torin). The crystals are vital to Torinians and are found in abundance on Iracal Island, and they even form gigantic monoliths that radiate light absorbed from the sun at night. The crystals have a property that almost completely nullifies the volatile field of energy surrounding the island for the holder as they pass through it.]

(Map drawn by Karbo. Edited by me.)