"Is this the ruins of the Imasca Empire?"
The mage leader came closer and took a closer look at this huge stone arch that had been buried under the yellow sand for who knows how many years, with curiosity shining in his eyes.
There is no way not to be curious.
After all, the "Supreme Imaskar Empire" created by the artificers was too mysterious in the eyes of the world.
Unlike only a small number of great arcane masters in the Netherese civilization who do not believe in gods and are even less willing to accept divine healing, ordinary people still maintain the most basic respect and belief in the gods.
The Imasca Empire bans gods and their beliefs from top to bottom.
Yes.
You heard that right.
It is to completely prohibit gods from establishing faith and expanding influence in their own territory.
To this end, they also established a huge magic barrier within their jurisdiction to ensure that the gods and their messengers could not even get close, and were completely isolated in the true sense.
This is why they plundered so many slaves when they opened the interdimensional portal, and these slaves always maintained their devout faith, but their gods could not come for hundreds of years.
In the end, the god Io couldn't stand it anymore. He opened the back door to allow the gods to come to believers in the form of reincarnation, breaking the magic barrier set up by the Imasca Empire, and then led the slaves to revolt and overthrew this powerful,
An ancient and cruel magical civilization.
More importantly, after the gods Unther and Mulhorand destroyed the rule of the Imasca Empire, they didn't know what their idea was based on, but they didn't use the superb magic that had taken countless years to develop.
Inherit and absorb knowledge and technology for your own use.
On the contrary, it did something that turned history back. Not only did it drive out all the artificers through years of pursuit, but it also destroyed the knowledge, technology, and history of the Imasca Empire.
So much so that modern people know nothing about this civilization.
This is also the reason why Zuo Si despises Unther and the gods of Mulhorand.
In his opinion, there is no problem for these gods to lead their followers to destroy the Imasca Empire.
After all, whether it is refusing the entry of gods, or indiscriminately capturing slaves to replenish the population lost in the plague, it has actually laid the foundation for the future demise of the entire civilization.
But the problem is that if you destroy it, destroy it. At least leave the technology and knowledge behind.
These things are the most precious wealth of a high-level magic civilization, and they are the experiences discovered and summed up by countless geniuses through repeated failures and sacrifices. Their value cannot be measured by money at all.
But what’s the result?
The two gods joined forces to wipe out everything in the Imasca Empire, leaving only a few vague legends.
Turn around and see what the second-generation magic goddess does.
Although a generation was killed by the arrogant Netherese civilization.
But the first thing she did when she took office was to save the floating cities that had not yet fallen to the ground and fell to pieces, and did her best to protect the fleeing Netherese remnants, ensuring that the technology and magic created by this civilization could be used as completely as possible.
Keep it and continue it.
It is precisely because of the efforts of the second-generation magic goddess that the modern spellcasting system derived from this foundation will become the mainstream in Faerûn.
Nowadays, there are only two schools of arcane magic in Faerûn.
One is based on the golden scroll left by the creator race Saruk Witch Hao as the theoretical basis, and has gradually evolved into the most widely circulated spellcasting system after vigorous development during the Netheril period;
The other is the high elf magic system brought by the elves.
If the knowledge and technology of the Imasca Empire are completely preserved, then there may be a third completely different spellcasting system in the east of Faerûn.
Who knows that after hundreds or even thousands of years of development, magicians will be able to create a unique era of magic industry.
Don't think this is fanciful.
After all, the Imasca Empire itself is famous for its construction of various artifacts, creations and interdimensional super portals.
This means that they actually have more opportunities to contact, learn, trade and communicate with other civilizations, and their upper limit and development potential are much higher than Netheril.
When he thought that so much precious knowledge, technology, and artifacts were wasted by a group of short-sighted gods, Zuo Si felt an inexplicable feeling of distress in his heart.
At the same time, I couldn't help but have the urge to summon the Eldrazi Titans in the other country's country and kill all these losers.
Of course, this is just a thought and will not be put into actual action.
The Mulhorand pantheon currently has no substantial conflict of interest with him, and the number of members is quite large.
However, this does not mean that if he finds an opportunity to add insult to injury, Zuo Si will not secretly do something or add fuel to the fire.
For example, if Tempus one day wants to go to war with Anhor, the god of war of the Mulhorand pantheon, he will definitely support the former without hesitation.
It would be best to use this as a breakthrough to directly trigger an all-out war between the Faerunian pantheon and the Mulhorandian pantheon.
Anyway, as long as the fight is not within the crystal wall where the planet Toril is located, but the battlefield is set in the outer plane, Io, the God above gods, will not bother to care.
There is no doubt that the gods of the Mulhorand pantheon would never have dreamed that the destruction of the Imaskar Empire thousands of years ago would actually lead to a terrifying potential enemy for themselves.
But since he was still playing the role of an upper-class noble of the Mulhorand Empire, Zuo Si did not express these thoughts and emotions. Instead, like a scholar obsessed with this aspect, he stretched out his hand and gently touched the stone arch.
The almost lost words and symbols explained: "You are right, this is the ruins of the Imasca Empire, and this huge arch is one of the iconic buildings.
Because things like doors have an unusually important position in the minds of the Imasca people.
It is not only a manifestation of powerful magic technology, but also an extended culture and even belief.
Since this ancient civilization created a super portal that can connect any place or even other dimensions, in their eyes the portal is not only a convenient means of transportation, but also a symbol of knowledge, wealth and good luck.
In many important towns in Imasca, a grand and tall gate-shaped monument will be built at the entrance and exit.
Usually, just by looking at the size of the arch and the craftsmanship used in its production, you can basically judge the scale and importance of the ruins in the Imasca Empire era."
"That's it! You are really knowledgeable. You even know these details clearly."
An expression of surprise and admiration appeared on the face of the mage leader.
Although he has always felt that this employer who spends a lot of money and enjoys luxury is probably a playboy who was spoiled by his family since he was a child.
But now it seems that there is indeed something outstanding in the field of research on the Imasca Empire.
Zuo Si smiled modestly and shook his head: "Erudition doesn't count, I just read more related books and fragmentary records.
The history of Imasca is too ancient, and most of the records and traces of its existence have been deliberately erased.
Therefore, no one knows what happened to this ancient civilization over the long years.
This is also the reason why I am curious and want to dig deeper.
The next thing to do is to follow this entrance and explore. Are you ready?"
"Of course! You offered such a high price just for times like this. And exploring ruins is our old profession."
The mage leader couldn't help but grin.
After all, the two parties have already reached an agreement to share the stolen goods. Zuo Si only wants magic items, books, scrolls and the like, and the rest of the gold, silver, and ordinary gems will belong to the adventurers and mercenaries.
Therefore, when the entrance was dug, everyone in the team was very excited.
Especially after discovering that there are traces of brown dragons stepping and crawling on the sand.
After all, no matter how poor the dragon is, he will still be able to save some money as long as he lives for a few hundred years.
"Then get ready. We'll set off in twenty minutes. As for the slave workers, just stay in the tent and rest until we come back."
Zuo Si gave the order concisely.
As the supreme master of the entire team, what he said was basically like an imperial edict, and no one dared to violate it.
Soon, those slave workers who had been busy for two or three days returned to their tents with their tools to rest.
The adventurers and mercenaries began to pack their bags, check their weapons and armor, and excitedly discussed the amazing benefits they could get from this expedition to the ruins.
There are also some guys who set a flag regardless of life and death, saying that after doing this, they will retire back to their hometown and get married, or find a place to buy a piece of land and become rich.
No one realizes what kind of dangers are hidden in this huge ruins, let alone that they will encounter ancient evil things that even the gods fear.
After the assembly was completed, the leaders of the three teams divided everyone into three parts after a brief discussion.
The most experienced team took the lead, followed by the second adventure team, and the mercenaries who were responsible for protecting their employers walked at the back.
In this way, a group of people marched slowly forward along the tunnel half-buried by the yellow sand.
Especially the ones at the front, they fully utilized the "ten-foot-long pole" tactic.
Almost every few steps when I find something suspicious, I will poke the ground, walls, and ceiling above my head with a hard wooden pole about three meters tall to make sure there are no traps before the trap moves forward.
To be continued...