The Ikaji & The Rise and Fall of the Baku
There are a number of texts on great elemental power by human scholars after they were exiled to the islands of the great sea in 464 B.I. Most of the texts are very high-minded and arrogant, written by the elementalists of the age with their ability to summon beasts from the Elemental Chaos. You see, they felt that they were superior to the denizens of Hine in that they were able to draw upon powerful magiks from the Elemental Chaos. This very mindset is what led the giants and their kingdoms on the mainland to exile man; the good peoples of the peninsula saw man’s lack of respect for the boundary between the planes, and they knew no good would come from their whimsy.
It was after their exile that man made his first journey to the Elemental Chaos. Several sorcerers died after reaching the plane; according to scholars, their frail bodies could not withstand the dangers therein. They would return an icicle corpse or charred to the bone. One powerful wizard managed to travel to and from the plane unharmed, physically anyway. Nahlorr, he called himself, but the giants called him the desecrator. Up until he first visited the Chaos, he seemed to be of sound mind, but much of his writing after his visit was more erratic and obsessive. He was the first human to encounter society in the Chaos. It is unknown whether he happened upon the Baku by chance or his encounter was intentional, either way, his stories of the natural plane led the demon-worshiping Baku to covet our world.
Though much of Baku culture was eradicated during the Ikaji, several artifacts survived on outlaying islands and a great number of tall-tales and folklore persist regarding the Baku. Great anthropologists have put together a number of important facts about Baku culture:
Much like the Kami have chosen each of the major races in Hine as their children, Kakon, the Demon-Kami of disease and decay, chose the Baku of the Elemental Chaos, as their scions
The Kami had sealed away the Baku in a portion of the Elemental Chaos for serving Kakon, while Kakon was sealed away in the depths of the Abyss for trying to conquer the Chaos long before the choosing
Nahlorr the desecrator allowed the Baku to invade Hine, initially under the pretense of fighting for Nahlorr. He envisioned a grand conquest of Hine, where he would exact his revenge upon the giants for the exile of his people. As the desecrator continued to summon Baku from the Chaos, their numbers grew too great, and the Baku overwhelmed man with the help of a secret cult, and mercilessly slaughtered Nahlorr, subjecting humanity to their rule. From 252-66 B.I., the Baku grew in strength, adding more and more islands to their territory. By 79 B.I., however, their forces began to stretch thin, as they did not know how to summon more Baku from the Chaos, and their human captives had all but lost that knowledge with the death of Nahlorr. It was during this time of desperation, that the Baku began experimenting with summoning their master’s might from the Chaos. Though the Baku could not call their brethren from their native plane, they had found ways of channeling the strength of the Demon-Kami, Kakon, to bolster their forces. By 68 B.I., the Baku had begun to conquer parts of the mainland, and in 66 B.I., the giantish capitol of Tsun-kyuu had fallen.
In spite of their victory, the Baku’s lust for conquest grew. They knew they would need the ability to grow further in strength before they could push on to other parts of the world, so they continued to call upon their master. After just over a half-century of “peace” the Baku kingdom of Daijima set its ever-wandering eyes on the planes beyond the Hoshizoran Mountain Range to the east.
This is the part of the story where actual chain of events becomes blurred. One account describes the Baku summoning Kakon into the natural world, and this act wrought such great destruction that the world began to crumble in the presence of Kakon. Another account tells that Kakon was so enraged by hissummoning that he smote is very followers. Still another tale describes the intervention by the other Kami to protect the world from Kakon.
Regardless of the actual events, the Baku kingdom was completely obliterated during the Ikaji, the great eruption of Daijima. Much of life in Hine was adversely affected by this event, and across all cultures, one can find songs, stories, and works of art that describe the horror of the Ikaji.
The giants, of all the races of Hine, were most affected by Kakon’s manifestation in the world. With his dying breath, the shinkan of Kakon laid a powerful curse upon the giants and their land for resisting the Baku so ferociously. His curse twisted the form of the giants to the monstrous visage of a fairytale creature called the Oni coupled with a seething rage that could not be quenched by any amount of bloodshed, and blackened their land into an iron waste.
After the curse was laid, the Kami of Earth, Daidarabotchi, patron of the giants, took pity upon his worshippers and allowed them a way to combat the anger within their hearts and the blackness upon their land. The essence of Daidarabotchi, like that of the other Kami, saturates his grand shrine and continuously cleanses the land around it, so the Oni could live on the land and harvest the manifestation of Daidarabotchi himself, crystallized into solid form. This is why, over the course of one and half millennia, the Oni have become great miners.
It is said that the society that betrayed man to the Baku still exists today, though stories told now are merely to frighten children. I was even told myself that the Baku would come to eat my dreams and leave only nightmares if I behaved badly as a child. Over the years, a few members of the Kazanbai, as they call themselves, have been uncovered, though they seem a rabble of misanthropic hermits more than anything else.
Timeline revisited (with focus on rise of Baku):
464 B.I. (2000 bp); Humans are exiled to the Islands in the Great Sea
447 B.I. (1983 bp); Humans first travel to the Plane of Elemental Chaos
438 B.I. (1974 bp); Baku arrive in Hine and soon establish several outposts on islands in the Hine and begin to conquer islands in the Great Sea after conquering a number of human-ruled islands
383 B.I. (1919 bp); founding of Baku kingdom’s capitol on the island of Daijima
252-66 B.I. (1738-1552 bp); Naisenjima-jidai (warring islands era) – era of civil strife; Baku sought to establish an empire in Hine. They fought against a faction lead by the peoples of mainland Hine and a few island-states to establish dominance in the region
65-1 B.I. (1551-1487 bp); Peace of Tetsuro; after nearly 200 years of fighting, Baku kingdom of Daijima was established as the ruling power in Hine, with other island-states reluctantly paying tribute, unwillingly acquiescing to the rule of the Baku of Daijima
0 (1486 bp); Ikaji (the Great Burning), Daijima wiped out, most Baku are killed