Calras Calrid

Calras Calrid was the first emperor of Alaezia. In his time, the city of Ekara was a military encampment run by a dictatorial elven oligarchy. He led a rebellion of humans and elves against the military commander, and in turn taught his new advisers compassion and the ways of peace.

In 330 BF, he travelled in a merchant caravan to the dwarven lands of former Zanesterios. He was struck by their poverty, and offered them work in Ekara, promising special status and payment from the land if they would rebuild it to high-technology dwarven standards. Disunited in their homeland, dwarves could not afford to build any new wonders, so many dwarves left for Ekara where there was the promise of being supplied with the resources for building.

Some dwarves saw them as traitors to the Dwarven Way, their theology of technologically communicating with the daemons, because Calras Calrid was a God worshipper, who believed that the daemons could only be contacted through loyalty to and worship of God, and the giving of offerings at temples. These dwarves formed the Dwarven Alliance.

Calras relieved his human and elven builders from their work, and set the elves to work the fields and humans to man the army, thus dividing the workers of Ekara into three distinct groups. With the humans free of any labour except for military training, Calras vowed to purge the world of heresy and evil, leading them on a crusade of surrounding lands and offering them mercy if they promised to be subjects of his new empire, which he named "Alaezia".

He was not rewarded with sainthood but his teachings drove the ideology of the empire after his lifetime, which guided them to a path of piety and sainthood for future emperors.