Know, oh
thou assembled! In the third reign of the Childlike Empress, but before the
sacking of golden Jhadur was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms
stretched across the world like bright gems in a cloth of emerald and sapphire,
cinnabar and gold. Hither came Zellsa the rogue, of greedy eye and hungry
hands, to plunder the wealth of the earth with soft tread of his sandaled feet…