>The Era of Splendour
The Empire of Tian Shai was vast and powerful in the world of the past, unequalled beneath the heavens, strongest of all nations. It prospered under the rule of its Emperors, and the people were numerous, safe and prosperous. This era lasted for centuries, perhaps millennia, and looked to never end until the stars became dim and the world itself would end.

>The Era of Ruin
Alas, that was not the case. The Era of Splendour ended as the world was gripped by madness. Much of the Empire sank beneath the ocean, killing tens of millions of people in an instant. Great fire mountains rose from the earth, burning many who remained in rivers of molten stone and metal. The great armies of Tian Shai, the authority of the Empress whom none could challenge, both were useless against the wrath of the world itself. Day by day the Empire contracted, fighting the beasts that emerged from nothingness and attempting to repair the damage done by nature.

The Empress of Tian Shai decided that this could not go on, and that the best option was to preserve as much of her nation as she could while sacrificing the rest. Although reduced her power was still great and her servants legion. She sent them out to gather what knowledge they could of the disasters unfolding and horrors gripping the world. In particular, the distortions to time and space were of interest, for it was in these that she saw salvation for her people. Eventually, a great ritual was designed which would shield the capital and the area immediately around it, and preserve it until the world was safe once again.

>The Era of Hiding
The grand ritual was prepared and enacted. Thousands took part in it, most of them knowing that it would mean their deaths. The Empress herself stood at the middle, eager to see her people saved. Vast amounts of magic were channelled in and bound to land itself. A magical mist rose and surrounded the Capital, separating it from the rest of the world with an impassable wall of fog. Alas, at the end the magic was too much for humans to control, and although complete, the backlash destroyed all who had taken part, altering the mountain on which it was done to a blasted uninhabitable wasteland of mana. At the centre of the ritual, however, the Empress survived, bound to the mists which had been summoned. She wandered from the mountain alone to find her city had been reduced to ruins by the backlash of the ritual, most of her people slain. Despite this, it was a success. Within the wall of mists Tian Shai was safe. Over the centuries, it has rebuilt a little of its former glory, but so much was lost that it is but a pale shadow of what once was.

>The Era of Return
The Empress still rules Tian Shai, even through centuries have passed. She is bound to the mists, as they are bound to her, a being that is no longer truly human, more a living relic of the ritual that protected her people. Eventually, she sensed the fading of the wall of mist. One day, Tian Shai appeared back in reality, exactly where it had once been. In the past Tian Shai was inland, but now it is an island, and should you walk into the mists until you reach the edge of the fertile plains that surrounded the city, you find yourself stood atop a fog shrouded cliff that drops into the sea. It took some effort to lower boats from the clifftop and sail out into the mists, but beyond them is the world the Tian remember from their legends. Few believed it to be real, but here it is before their eyes. The legends say they once ruled this world, could that not be true again?