Fact Boxes for the Templar States and Tal Zhaan

Here are the fact boxes for the newly-mapped regions of the Templar States and Tal Zhaan, located south of the Sea of Orrida.

These states will be the focus of the next high-res and textless atlas map that will be published next week, exclusively for Acolyte patrons and higher followed by the normal version the week after that.

The Encyclopaedia Elyden is already updated with all the relevant entries related to the regions and their history, so you can check them out there!

Thanks all for your support :)

As always, feel free to point out typos in the comments :)

_____________________

A Timeline of the Ehrenisian Coast, including the Templar States and Tal Zhaan, and their predecessor state, the Triskethian Domains.

c. -500 - 100 RM: various pastoral groups have emerged in the Ehernisian Coast following the Fading of the Fourth Age. Some ruins are resettled with a loose trade network established between neighbouring groups.

c. -80 RM: one group discovers voluminous soulstone deposits in the coastal cliffs of Triskethia, which they are quick to exploit. This leads to the establishment of a mystic case of shapers that specialises in the study and application of soulstones, which become known as Adepts.

c. -35 RM: the settlement of Elizia is founded by the Adepts close to a rich deposit of soulstones, which are mined on a scale otherwise unknown elsewhere in Elyden at the time. The city rapidly becomes the world’s foremost authority on soulstones and the history of souls, garnering the attention of shapers from near and far alike.

c. 0 - 500 RM: the Adepts of the Triskethian coast flourish, establishing dozens of new cities and mines. The Adepts become governors and rulers, leading to the emergence of a new caste, known as Soulseers - shapers who are skilled in communing with the otherworld and using the soulstones as foci, allowing them to accomplish great feats of shaping that would not otherwise be possible. This allows the city of Elizia and its neighbours to grow powerful indeed. Shapers are attracted to the region, lured by tales of its powerful shapers.. Most are imprisoned or killed by the Adepts, who are fearful of losing their monopoly. The secrets of soulstones come to be heavily guarded in this time, available only to a select few, at the behest of the Adepts. This leads to a disparity in classes, with power resting amongst a few, with the general populace living in relative ignorance, though they enjoy the fruits of the Adepts' wealth and power, though this is now thought to be a bid to keep their workers complacent.

c. 640 RM: the many cities controlled by the Adepts are commonly recognised as the Triskethian Domains, and they are heavily guarded against foreign attention.

c. 870 - 1095 RM: a dynasty of expansionist Adepts comes to power and they seek to expand the borders of the Triskethian Domains, leading them to clash with Kargama in the E.

c. 1100 RM: war erupts between the Triskethian Domains and Kargama, resulting in a short but bloody war that sees the numerically-superior Kargaman people push back Triskethian forces. The conflict ends in a treaty that sees Kargama reclaim most of its territories, and a clear delineation is drawn on maps that are observed by both regions. Following this, the two states become loose allies.

1434 - 1441 RM: the Knights of St. Malicher, following rumours of heathen gods being worshipped in the region, launch a crusade against the Ehrenisian Coast. The act is largely unsuccessful, and the attacks are pushed back by Atramentist-barbarians of what is now the N coast of the Vespertine League.

1908 RM: the Triskethian Domains begin to see the effects of lowering sea levels. The port city of Lilli is abandoned after years of extreme tides that left it landlocked for long stretches of time, with increasing numbers of vessels running aground. The port of Mellago is established in a deep harbour to ensure it survives any future lowering of sea levels. Later the same year, soulstones are used in archaic technarcane engines for the first time in the city of Elizia, creating clean electricity that can power a city for years. This happens centuries before similar technologies are introduced elsewhere in the Inner Sea Region, for instance.

c. 2000 - 2200 RM: the First Technarcane Revolution takes palace in the Triskethian Domains. Triskethia becomes an industrialised nation - amongst the first to embrace the milestone in the Sea of Orrida - leading to the appearance of large soulstone-powered manufactories. The Adepts, Soulseers and emerging industrialist classes thrive, becoming ridiculously rich while the treatment of lower classes regresses. The current dynasty of Adepts is content to acquire anything it needs with its vast wealth and sees little need to expand.

2377 - 2381 RM: the Second Technarcane Revolution in the Triskethian Domains. Technarcana reaches new heights, with developments made into marrying living shapers with technarcane engines, similar to the Heart Engines that would appear in the Inner Sea years later. Shapers who under previous regimes might have gone on to become Soulseers are instead interred within technarcane engines, leading to a schism between the Adepts and Soulseers, who fear for the future of their kind. The schism escalates into a political conflict that brings chaos to the region. This period culminates in 2381 RM, with the Soulseers defecting from the Triskethian Domains, securing the city of Minium with their personal forces, creating an independent enclave within the Triskethian Domains.

2381 - c. 2440 RM: the loss of the Soulseers is a severe blow to Triskethia, which in the following years crumbles under the weight of its immense infrastructure as its attempts at reclaiming Minium fail. Its teeming manufactories are abandoned at a large scale, many of its workers starving. Even the Industrialists, which have thus far lived in comfortable debauchery suffer as more and more coastal cities found themselves landlocked, the climate slowly becoming warmer and drier. Chaos spreads throughout its cities, though the Adepts do little to nullify the effects, seemingly content with lives of corrupt oblivion.

c. 2400 RM: the idol of Ezrokahaell is unearthed in Ialo Abgan region in what is now the N of Tal Zhaan. It is taken to the town of Derauc, which rapidly grows in influence under the aegis of the soulstone statue.

2478 - 2479 RM: the Third Technarcane Revolution in the Triskethian Domains. Its lands wasted by wanton industrial abuse, and its resources reduced to near-depletion, the Triskethian Domains face a critical juncture. Its manufactories are mere shadows of what they once were, and the Adepts are forced to export most soulstones extracted in Upper Triskethia to keep their coffers full. Across the domains, various cities have been reduced to ghost towns, and in those that survive, their workforce is starving. A workers' uprising begins in the city of Slact, and rapidly spreads elsewhere. Seeing their opportunity, the Soulseers strike from Minium against the capital of Obyryth. A large part of the city is destroyed in the conflict, and the Adepts’ Palaces are damaged as well before the Soulseers troops can gain access, slaying the Adepts.

c. 2479 - 2500 RM: the Soulseers take control of Triskethia, re-establishing relations with Kargama and Khull. Efforts are made to establish new cities in areas that will fare better against the waning of sea levels. Industries are rekindled and the soulstone industry is regulated, with exports controlled. The people, who trusted the Soulseers to lead them from lives of tyranny, are given more importance, and the wealth of the Adepts is used to establish new farmlands and to import food to feed their starving people. Regardless of their efforts, Triskethia is no longer the power it once was.

2531 RM: following years of failed attempts at sending missionaries into the lands of the Ehrenisian Coast, the Church of the Undying Machine issues a tender to parties interested in undertaking a crusade into the lands, to forcibly topple their religions and establish a Korachani colony in their lands.

2534 RM: following three years of planning, the Church of the Undying Machine successfully initiates a new crusade to the W of Imperial territories, focusing on the N - W Coast of Sammaea, known as the Ehrenisian Coast. The fortified port of St. Berrea is established on the island of Reddin, where future ships laden with supplies, crusaders, and settlers would be able to safely land.

2535 RM: the coastal fortress of St. And is established on the island of Rohedin in the S - E of the Sea of Orrida, as a mustering point for crusaders S into Kargama.

2534 - c. 2590 RM: Crusaders pour onto the mainland into Khull and Kargama from St. Berrea and St. And respectively, attacking sites of religious importance to the natives. The first attacks target coastal areas and are largely successful, though as time goes on, the natives coordinate a united defence, pushing the crusaders back to their island fortresses, which in time are also attacked. Korachani losses are great, but the fact only serves to fuel their hatred, causing more people to take up the call to crusade from the church, over the coming decades.

Despite regional successes, both the militants and missionaries have little overall success and the defence proves to be better organised and defended than expected.

2563 RM: a large shrine to the Undying Machine is built in what will become the N - W of the Templar States. This becomes known as the Shrine of the Shadow Triumphant and serves as the centre of a short-lived beachhead from which crusader armies can muster before setting out farther south. It is protected by a well-equipped order of templar knights.

c. 2570 RM - 2590 RM: funds for the prolonged execution of the crusade dwindle and Church interest in the venture wanes, though people continue to sign up for the crusade, lured by false promises of greener pastures and riches. Tens of thousands of Korachani people have already died in pursuit of a target that has been largely forgotten by the Church, which silently turns its attention elsewhere, allowing the crusade to peter out.

c. 2595 RM: the shrine of the Shadow Triumphant survives the failure of the crusade and remains a fixture in the region, guarded by templar knights sworn to defend it till their last breath, as well as volunteers from the church, who establish a small settlement around it that will go on to become known as Inderachan.

c. 2680 - 2752 RM: several attempts are made by Korachan to colonise the Ehrenisian Coast in the N - W of Sammaea, hoping that the foothold gained by the templar cities in previous decades will be an asset in establishing the colony. A major port is established around the settlement of Inderachan in 2684 RM around the Shrine of the Shadow Triumphant, where future settlers from the E will make landfall before spreading around the area, though over the years, the Khullan defence proves difficult to shift, forcing settlers to concentrate on the E, encroaching on the Domains of Triskethia, which at this point are still recovering from the overthrowing of the Adepts.

2752 RM: a Parthisan fleet appears off the Ehrenisian Coast, beginning a blockade of St. And, St. Berrea, and Inderachan, as well as various ports in the Triskethian Domains, including Elizia.

2753 RM: Parthisan troops make landfall in the Triskethian Domains, besieging their cities, clear that their goal is the city of Obyryth and its soulstones.

2753 - 2772 RM: the Ehrenisian Coast becomes consumed in a complex conflict between five sides - a loosely allied force made up of troops from Khull, Triskethia, and Kargama, defending against Korachani and Parthisan invaders, both of whom were also fighting each other. The invaders were unable to gain the upper hand against the natives while quarrelling with each other, and eventually, the war degenerates into a conflict between Parthis and Korachan, allowing the natives to fortify their own territories. Parthis is eventually defeated in 2772, and it withdraws from the conflict, allowing Korachan to concentrate on the Ehrenisian Coast once more.

2772 - c. 2804 RM: the years of conflict with Parthis had weakened Korachani morale, and funds that once were being put towards the war in the Ehrenisian Coast were needed elsewhere, leading to a loss of momentum. That, coupled with improved local defences meant that the Korachani colonists were unable to spread far from the city of Inderachan. Despite this, private investors, as well as the Church of the Undying Machine, put their own resources into the war, and for over three decades persist in terrorising the region, accomplishing little of note. Korachani privateers prey on Triskethian trade ships, in the hopes of capturing soulstone consignments.

c. 2804 - c. 2810 RM: the Ehrenisian alliance is able to push back all Korachani defences, destroying the fortresses of St. And and St. Berrea. By the end of this period all interest in establishing a Korachani colony in the region is lost, and Korachan retreats, leaving only a small force of Templar knights to defend the Shrine of the Shadow Triumphant, which in a treaty signed in 2809 RM are granted permission to live in the region so long as they do not take offensive actions against surrounding areas and sever ties with Korachan.

c. 2810 - 2852 RM: though now freed from the tyranny of the Adepts and no-longer targets of crusades and wars, Triskethian Domains continue to decline as the Soulseers undertake a monumental project that redirects most of the Domains’ economy, leaving it in a state little better than when under the rule of the Adepts. Their goal to give birth to a lhauaparan is successful, and what is to be the crown of Minium and the focus of their rule over Triskethia is instead its doom. The soul-creatures’ existence is agony, its every moment torture. It lashes out at the Soulseers and their guards, killing dozens. The Soulseers fight back, only enraging it further. Surrounded, it roars in pain, unleashing a psychic blast that obliterates every mortal in Minium, including the lhauaparan. The Triskethian Domains are left leaderless.

c. 2815 - 3128 RM: the Shrine of the Shadow Triumphant survives the failure of the Korachani colonies of the Ehrenisian Coast. Slowly, the teachings of the templars gain a foothold in the surrounding region, and they re-established Inderachan as a settlement of itinerant monks who travel the Ehrenisian Coast, subtly spreading word of the Undying Machine amongst natives. This allows the Templar Knights to spread their influence across what will soon become known as the Templar States, after their influence. The Templar Knights’ interpretation of holy texts diverges from those of the Church of the Undying Machine over the years, leading to a distancing from the mother church.

c. 2830 RM: the tower of Tal Zhaan is constructed by the rogue sorcerer-lord Tal, who fled the persecution of the Khullan Inquisition.

c. 2830 - 2891 RM: Tal rallies surrounding pastoral people to his cause and slowly establishes a trading post around the tower, where resources and materials for his alchemical research can be traded. This encourages the growth of a small settlement under his command. In 2875 RM he learns of the Idol of Ezrokahaell and besieges the city of Derauc, where it is kept, two years later, finally destroying the city and claiming the idol as his own in 2891 RM. The idol is taken to Tal Zhaan, where it becomes a powerful symbol of his power.

2852 - 2863 RM: Chaos engulfs the Triskethian Domains in the wake of the death of the Soulseers. With no centralised leadership, most cities within the Domains break away. The few Soulseers who remain struggle to reunite the Domains, though by 2863 RM the region has degenerated to a series of states, each warring over soulstone deposits, manufactories that can construct technarcane engines, and ports that allow their exportation.

2863 - 3000 RM: as the dust settles in Triskethia following the fall of the Soulseers, the region stabilises, with the disparate states forming an uneasy coalition allowing each to form a vital part of the soulstone industry, keeping the economy of the region going. Despite this, the region has fallen greatly from its golden age, and it is only through long-standing agreements with Kargama that it is allowed to survive.

c. 2880 RM: now greatly diminished, the people of Triskethia, until then largely secular due to their knowledge of soulstones, find solace in the words of the Templar knight missionaries, and they embrace the Church of the Shadow Triumphant, leading to a new alliance between the two people. Over the years this will increase, and the Soulseers, pleased to see the people finding hope, allow the religion to spread, as they work to regain knowledge lost during the Second Technarcane Revolution.

c. 2895 - 2950 RM: Where the worship of the idol of Ezrokahaell was once localised to the city of Derauc, Tal is instead quick to spread the word of this deity to surrounding lands and sends missionaries to the W and E with word of Exrokahaell, slowly increasing his own renown in the process.

3073 RM: the Templar knights are officially labelled as heretics by the Church of the Undying Machine the Church of the Shadow Triumphant - a sect of the Church of the Undying Machine that is not recognised by the parent religion.

The Shrine remains an important site today, surrounded by the religious city of Inderachan, which is a bulwark of the Church of the Undying Machine in the region.

3128 RM: the Church of the Shadow Triumphant is declared a sect of the Church of the Undying Machine in Khull and Kargama, though it is never acknowledged by the Church of the Undying Machine

c. 3200  - 3400 RM: Generations removed from the old Ehrenisian Crusade and imperial colonisation attempts, the Church of the Shadow Triumphant spreads to surrounding lands through the teachings of the Templar knights, who are quick to establish new shrines and churches in nearby settlements, further cementing their influence. Over time they become powerful individuals, establishing a network of cities that by c. 3400 becomes known as the Templar States.

Though the Church of the Shadow Triumphant is the official religion of the Templar States, it exists hand-in-hand with the Church of Ezrokahaell, which retains a great deal of influence in the region, with many cities divided between the two.

c. 3220 RM: the state of Tal Zhaan emerges in the vacuum left by the retreat of Korachani colonists.

3312 RM: a formal announcement is made in Tal Zhaan that sorcerer-lord Tal has disappeared. His lieutenants, the sorcerers, take on the mantle of regents in his absence and continue to rule the region to this day while continuing the alchemical research established by Tal half a millennium earlier.

c. 3400 - 3600 RM: the Templar knights have established a trade network amongst a dozen cities that together are now commonly known as the Templar States. Over the coming centuries, they orchestrate the further spread of the Church of the Shadow Triumphant into surrounding lands, allowing them to expand their borders E into Kargama and the Triskethian Domains, and W into Khull.

3402 RM: the Council of Inderachan takes place, in which the Templar States are ratified under a formal government and territory, with the agreement of Khull and Kargama.

c. 3500 RM: the Triskethian coast has expanded, increasing as much as 50-miles in the past millennium, leaving much of the Triskethian Domains devastated. The terms Upper and Lower Triskethia are first used in this period.

c. 3620 RM: a shrine is erected on the site of the ruined city of Derauc by pilgrims of the Church of Ezrokahaell.

3690 - 3745 RM: a period of drought ravages the lands of Triskethia and N - W Kargama as the culture of the Templar States continues to spread into Triskethia.

3746 RM: after years of waning influence, the Triskethian Domains are finally absorbed by the Templar States. The Soulseers remain as a scholarly caste apart from the Templar knights.

3782 RM: the capital of the Templar States is moved from Inderachan to the city of Obyryth.

c. 3820 RM: the Templar States renew relations with their neighbours and establish exclusive trade deals with Khull, Kargama, the Templar States, as well as Tal Zhaan, resulting in the soulstone trade from the Triskethian region being limited to surrounding areas. This makes the Templar States incredibly rich, and the Ehrenisian Coast becomes politically and culturally stable as a result.

_____________________________