In the years leading up to the fall of Magnapur, Tomber the Red (named for his ginger beard) was a minor scion of the Line of Magnus, exiled to the small town of Cintagar in the far Lightwards of Luxiterra. He was granted a position as the local Thakur largely to remove him from the Imperial Court. An attractive and courageous youth, but of poor station and poor marital prospects, Tomber had requested the hand of Magna the Scholar no fewer than five times, and each time been rejected, with the Magna and her aides proving more firm each time. Eventually, Lord Lust made arrangements for Tomber to be granted a Thakurate in the Luxiterran badlands, almost in tribal Ahqukh territory, to "finally finish off the shameless grasper".
It is unfortunate, for Lust at least, that in his time as Thakur of Cintagar, Tomber proved most effective, demonstrating magnificent and brutal tactics against the local Ahqukh tribes and conquering significant land Lightwards of the city, deep into wood elf territory. Cintagar grew its industry to become a significant enchanter of magical weaponry, providing both funds and arms for the war. After several successful campaigns, the young elven noble returned to the city to great celebration, and the city was renamed to Tombranajar in his honour. The capital sent its congratulations to the Thakur, with funding and honours to Tomber and other acclaimed veterans of his conquests, but also an unspoken prompt that he would stay in the city and not return to Magnapur.
Tomber never did return to Magnapur, with the Empire collapsing into infighting and revolution shortly after the city was renamed. This was not for lack of trying however. With the royal inheritance in significant question, he declared himself Magnus despite his questionable position in the line and seized Destrapraj and Carabai (which was brutally sacked in the process) to assemble a great fleet to sail him and an army of veteran fighters to Pundrapur. An unfortunate storm, common on the Sabhyan Ocean in Illwind, disrupted and partially destroyed the fleet on route to what would become the Pundran Magnacy, with the remaining vessels arriving piecemeal to be easily slaughtered by Menveg and his Unnamed Sons.
Tomber survived both the storm and the Bloody Bastard, and fled back to Destrapraj with the survivors of his grand army. It was not the same Destrapraj that they had left behind a few months prior. Spurred on by Salijh, and the majority of the professional soldiers being with Tomber, the city was in full revolt. After a brutal struggle that lasted over half a year, the leaders of the revolt were caught and executed and Destrapraj returned to uneasy peace, but the Red Magnus' military legend had been torn to shreds. He attempted thrice more to lead an army to Cunabulum to proclaim himself Magnus, but each was smaller and less committed than the last, with the final one being made up of largely mercenaries. Each army was rebuffed, or fell apart on the way.
Worse for Tomber, any time he spent away from his holdings in Luxiterra caused more of his power base to slip away. Destrapraj suffered a dozen separate revolts before at last it could not be reclaimed, and Carabai shortly followed it. The Rajas of Sijivikh and Gilij both took the opportunity to land grab, despite Gilij being a nominal vassal of Tomber's. After twenty years, all he had left was Tombranajar and the lands around it, who were still fiercely devoted to their ruler, as well as some of his less far reaching conquests from the Ahqukh.
The Red Magnus never forsook his claim, but after the final attempt to return to Cunabulum he was both unable and unwilling to carry on. Destrapraj was lost with a new republican council in place as authorised by the Ignic Church in Salijh, and Carabai was in an open revolt that never really ended until it gained independence as the Carab Oligarchy a few years later. Tomber no longer held a port on the Sabhyan, and no longer held enough land to support the sort of army he would need. Men who knew him said his spirit had been broken, and he could often be found staring into space muttering about how being Magnus was his destiny.
Nevertheless, with its ruler back in residence, Tombranagar began to prosper once again. Placed near the badlands, it was never a city with a great many slaves, so the few revolts it did have were more minor and isolated incidents. As he grew older and less militant, Tomber proved to be a skilled administrator, encouraging the growth of a magical arms industry named "the Redworks". Tomber eventually married much lower than a Magna, taking the daughter of an ennobled merchant and craftsman as a wife, with whom he had a great many children. There were many skirmishes and smaller scale wars over the next few years with the neighbouring states, especially the coastal Bookburner states, but little land went back and forth, with the main concessions being that Tomber eventually handed over a great number of his city's slaves to be released in Carabai.
Tomber ruled his Magnacy for the rest of his days, dying in 1152 YM at a ripe old age for an elf, leaving many children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. None of his children or even grandchildren would inherit however, as the Red Magnus named his successor to be his great grandson Menesh Lightborn, who became Magnus Lightborn. Menesh was a favourite of the old Magnus, sharing his great grandfather's characteristic red hair, and was one of the few descendants who was optimistic enough to dream of reuniting Magnapur, but practical enough to be a competent general and administrator. Tombranajar seemed poised on the brink of bloody civil war at the Lightborn's ascension, but Menesh was canny enough to orchestrate many of his more direct rivals to have coincidental accidents as his great grandfather's health grew frail. Not all of the violence was so subtle however, and Menesh ordered the castration or death of seven of his brothers, as well as at least a dozen cousins and uncles.
Magnus Lightborn rules Tombranajar with an iron grip, beloved by many for his skills in governance and similarity to his predecessor, as well as swift action against rival claimants. Still though, as in his youth, he looks outwards ambitiously, biding his time to retake his great grandfather's conquests, and maybe even restore the Empire...