In the year 117 of the Eighth Age, a summary of conjectures regarding the historical figure known as Kal the Vanquisher. Produced by the Office of the Sixth Expeditionary Force of the West Mercantile Company in conjunction with the newly established Office of the Colonial Governor of Verazul.
It is recognized that some of the conjectures within this document contradict the official histories promulgated by the Imperial Academy of Doctrine and History and the Holy Writ of the Church of Tiamat. The goal of this document is merely to record to beliefs of the people of the Stygian Blue. The historical figure discussed within is very likely to be an imposter or other opportunist trading on the reputation of the Kal the Vanquisher. The author does not challenge the official record that irrefutably describes the defeat of Kal at the Battle of Regium in the ninth year of the current age.
Instead, this document should be viewed as a review of the lies and deceit responsible for the national identity of the people of the Stygian Blue. Long live the Infernal Empress.
In the aftermath of the Seventh Convergence, the historical figure Kal emerged from a primitive area in the Southern Ocean leading a band of indigenous warriors that sacked Greenmouth, a small outpost of the Southern Mercantile Company. These actions were consistent with expectations outlined in the Official Sovereignty Inferences and Protocols in cases where poor management by company agents results in the perceived ill treatment of native populations. The Colonial Protocols characterized Kal as a Type III warband leader and suggested that the revolt would end there. However, Kal turned out to be an anomalous figure. He unexpectedly refrained from attempting to fortify his possessions, reestablish native sovereignty, or conduct a pogrom against remaining Company agents or sympathizers. Instead, with his warband swelled by the native population as a result of his victory, he commandeered all of the ships in the harbor and sailed for the nearest Polonian colony at Sácre Larente.
The colony at Sácre Larente was unprepared and quickly fell. Again, without consolidating his gains, Kal’s warband - now swelled further by the indigenous peoples of that colony - seized every ship in port and sailed for the next Polonian target. This motley fleet of galleons, warships, sloops, and fishing boats spent the next five years pillaging the Agrumé coast before learning the location of the Holy Seat of the Infernal Empress, the city of Polonia itself.
Kal and his army - now numbering as many as twenty-five thousand - lay siege to the Holy Seat for three years, unable to breach its walls, but doing untold economic damage to it and its management of its overseas colonies. That year stalemate was punctuated by repeated failures of Kal to breach the walls, but also a handful of failures by colonial forces that returned in an attempt to relieve the city.
Finally, Kal and his warband lifted their siege and sailed westward from the Holy City, burning the Paisáble Colonies and rounding Roché Inconnue in route towards the Hungry Sea