Emerging from the Age of Smoking Dust came two great civilizations. One, whose name has been lost to history, sought to reclaim the glories of the fallen civilization and the other, the Empire of New Morgan, feared the mistakes of the past would once more lead to ruin. The New Morganites were led by a brilliant empress, born Sorenthai Mo’horgane. As a youth, Sorenthai discovered gunpowder and invented primitive firearms, tools which she used to conquer what is now known as Sotheslund before the age of fifteen. In reaction to reports that magic was once again being practiced in the north, Sorenthai designed and constructed a floating bridge so that her armies could cross the Sea of Brass and invade the other civilization which was budding there. Equipped with superior weaponry, military experience and dogmatic hatred, the New Morganites all but exterminated their foes, driving the refuges to the far north and south-east. Now in possession of the relatively fertile lands of Nomenslund, the New Morganite population exploded. A mass exodus from the deserts of Sotheslund occurred and the capitol of the New Morgan Empire shifted from the sunbaked mountains of Sorenthai’s childhood to the green shores of the Bay of Steam. Relatively unopposed in their new lands, the Morganites grew into a populous and sprawling empire with tendrils reaching into all corners of the Three Continents area.

Even after Sorenthai’s reign, the Mo’horgani Dynasty continued to be innovative and capable leaders. They made great leaps in technology including medicine, weaponry and transportation. Unfortunately, the Mo’horgani Dynasty’s legacy is not solely one of intellectual prowess and technological progress. Slavery, aggressive colonization and fear-mongering characterized the middle and late years of the Dynasty more than anything else. The great churning wheels of their industry were greased by the blood, sweat and tears of captured peoples from distant lands and gladiatorial combat was the primary entertainment of the nation’s gentry. Having subdued all foes at home, the Morganites took their wars overseas. Although they were among the first civilizations to recover, by the time they entered into their colonial periods, other cultures had begun to emerge on other continents. However, superior technology, larger forces and better training meant that few of these nascent unions could fight the Morganites and soon their empire had seats on every continent known to them and collected fortunes in tithe and tribute from around the world.

The call for endless progress which drove the Morganites meant the dual need for endless enemies and the Morganites had a historical antithesis that they could be assured to fight forever but never defeat: magic. Their national roots as a reaction to the devastation caused by the magical follies of the Proto-Cassandrites generated a dogmatic hatred and fear for the arcane and esoteric. Although magic on an empire building scale had become a thing of the past, the traditions in opposition to it remained. For the Morganites, witchcraft was comparable to treason and both carried a similarly harsh and final sentence. It is due in large part to the actions of the Morganites that magic on the surface was nearly eradicated. Many of the wars fought by the Empire were billed as crusades to halt the spread of witchcraft.

Under the aggressive, innovative leadership of the Mo’horgani Dynasty, the Empire experienced its largest amount of growth both territorially and technologically. However, the rule of the Morgans was not to last forever. For 312 years, they endured from their genesis with the first Empress Sorenthai to the last Emperor Kalem III. It is said that for each Morgan ruler, there was a new war. They were born and forged in conflict. And the dynasty ended the same way. In its day, the Empire was unquestionably the strongest military power of the surface world. Unsurprisingly, the Morganites considered themselves inherently superior to other people and the Mo’horani Dynasty itself took this ideology a step further, placing their status above that of their own people as well. Towards the latter days of the Empire, inbreeding within the royal line became rampant and devastating. In the last hundred years of their reign, the Mo’horgani began to exhibit unstable tendency. In their last fifty years, the Three Kalems Reign, this instability devolved into outright insanity as each successive child-emperor was madder than the last. The corruption of the throne became too much for the people to bear and a faction of the nobility which dubbed itself the Council of Martyrs successfully orchestrated a coup against the Mo’horgani Dynasty. The Council, backed by the First Mechanized Cohort, the first successful military use of exo-suits, used their political connections to infiltrate the Royal Estate and end the Mo’horgani line in a single night of slaughter.

Officially at least. Well known historical figures, most notably Frelleise Lepsidir who led the Industrialists during the Daylight Wars and believed herself to be the literal reincarnation of Sorenthai Mo’horgane and Joqo Tzene, council elect of the House of Bone and Silver, have often claimed blood ties to the Mo’horgani Dynasty. In the Successor States of Central Nomeslund, those who seem touch by both genius and madness are often said to be the Blood of Old Morgan, a designation which marks them with both fear and respect.