Before the War, Before Kings — The Dawn of the Dao
Before Kurukshetra's war drums thundered, before five brothers shook the earth, before kingdoms rose and fell like waves upon the ocean—there was only the Dao.
The Dao: the eternal Way, source of all law, all life, all becoming. Unseen but unyielding, it flowed beneath stars and spirits alike, carving through time like a blade of quiet flame.
Long ago, when the cosmos itself was still young and raw, the Three Realms danced upon the edge of chaos. In this primordial age, the Celestial Sovereign Brahma, a being born of the very fabric of creation, wove a sacred contract. Inscribed upon the Scroll of Samsara, this covenant bound the realms together: karma would flow like an endless river, souls would turn upon the wheel of rebirth, and balance—fragile yet relentless—would endure.
But no design of power, no matter how divine, is immune to mortal desire.
The Fall of the Kshatriyas
The Kshatriyas—once exalted as the sacred guardians of Dharma—began to fracture. Pride swelled within their hearts like a poison, and the ancient laws that held the realms in harmony were bent by their ambitions. Desperate to seize power beyond their merit, they sought to unravel the threads of karma itself through forbidden, dark tribulations.
In response to this fracture, the heavens sent their last immortal scourge: the High Sage Parashurama. Wielding celestial wrath and divine retribution, he descended like a storm unchained, cleansing the land with a massacre that erased twenty-one generations of Kshatriya blood—sweeping the realm with the unforgiving blade of Dharma.
Yet, amidst the ruins of that cataclysm, a single bloodline endured—saved by fate's inscrutable will or by cunning unseen.
From that lineage would rise a man destined to change the course of history: King Shantanu of the Hastinapura Sect. A king whose love and loss would sow the seeds of a war that would shake the very foundations of the world.
And thus, before the heroes, before the battles, before the legends... the wheel of fate had already begun to turn.