In the beginning, there were rats. Hopeless monsters just wandering around the Earth, no order, no place. Sheer freedom. They slept, they ate, they died. A change would have to be made, lest they would die out as a whole. There was only one to have such a vision: Ralurg. He was a cunning, powerful rat, with claws like the blades of a saw. One day, while he was out eating, he came across a small burrow. As he went in to investigate, some force took some sway on him and compelled him to enter. He saw an archaic rat, older than any had a right to be, lying next to a glass orb with mysterious, blue-tinted shapes within. She hissed, leaping for his throat, but Ralurg was much too powerful, and knocked aside the pitiful attack, following with a bite to the throat, killing her. Blood sprayed out of the wound, covering the orb. The blood boiled away quickly, but the inside of the orbs shapes had turned red. The shapes resolved into a image, and then another.
Ralurg saw the death of his people, and how there was nothing but small tribes trying to make some life for themselves. They ate, then they died, leaving no impact. Ralurg called out to his people in the walls, in the holes, in the fields and he said, "Rat-Kind! This kind of life for all us cannot last! We toil before we die, amounting to nothing! Our people are regarded as simple nuisances to the Men, and as food to the Serpents. No more I say! We must stand if we wish to live, fight for the most basic right to survive, and to do so we must work as one!" At this, several rats attempted to kill him at once, charging from all directions. After killing and eating all of them, as is the norm for Rat culture, he addressed his people once more. "I am heartened by how quickly even those who hate my message take to it, as it is the true wisdom."
In the coming days, Ralurg tested every rat in the realm, assigning groups to all and sending them to different areas. Runners dragged food and bedding back to the seat, Muroideia, where merchants and breeders lived. This is, as always, where the problems began. Rumors of the corruption of Lord Ironclaw of the Guard rocked the entire court, as they believed he was stealing food from the nation by sending it to his family, and this made the citizens cast doubt on King Ralurg. Acting on these reports, he made a decree, "All of those who have a fear of a corruption in my court may leave work until Ironclaw is cleared."
On that day, the nations productivity dropped into nothing, as protesters lined the streets of Muroideia. Seeing that nothing was ever going to be done this way, he quickly organized the execution of Ironclaw, who was thrown out into a yard where dogs lived.
After much deliberation after the fact, it was found that Lord Ironclaw was not in fact corrupt, and was having the couriers go different routes for their safety. Unfortunately, this lead to a suspicion that he was funneling it to his family. After his execution, a majority of Ironclaw's guard left, going back to the primitive past of living in a small tribe, slowly dying out of hunger. This left the supply lines open to to attack by snakes who opportunistically killed dozens of couriers. Without sustainable routes for food, starvation set in for people in Muroideia. The different groups dedicated to food gathering were killed off. As these deaths became the norm, riots broke out. King Ralurg and his court sent what was left of the guard to try to silence them, but they were killed as the angry mob of rats moved closer and closer to the palace it self.
The riots raged for days, leaving most of the population culled. The guard, or what was left of it, fought with valor but couldn't stem the tide of the people rushing to the palace for the king. After pushing to the king's own chambers, they slammed against the door again and again, trying to force their way to him so that they may kill him as they had done with the rest of the court. In other areas of the palace, pockets of Guard still fought to defend the staff from the angry horde, but they fell quickly.
Driven by desperation as his people rose in a wave to destroy all he built, Ralurg burrowed out, breaking into a large, bright room. He heard screams, and a strange whooping sound and running in his direction. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, he saw a small, point-nosed dog right in front of him. It bit him, and flicked its head once, snapping his neck and killing the great rat king Ralurg in one fell swoop.