With the execution of the four princes of Pantesh at the hands of the false emperor of Zorisz, Pantesh became a satrapy of the crumbling empire – rules from afar by the cabal of desert sorceresses that were propping up the ancient imperial line. A series of castellans were appointed to govern the palace of Pantesh. In their own subversive manner, they continued the policies of the princes of old while paying lip service to Zorisz and concealing much smaller tithes claiming bad harvests, poor trade, and natural disasters – and at least once handing over the entire year’s tithe to “pirates” (Panteshi fishermen).

This continued through eight different castellans over the years until the final collapse of Zorisz and Pantesh itself (due to a lack of tax revenue, poor governance, and the collapse of…