Fact Box for Thetis

Here is the fact box for the Confederation of Thetishi States, located to the west of the Inner Sea.

This will be the focus of the next high-res and textless atlas maps that will be published next week, exclusively for Acolytes, followed by the normal version and encyclopaedia entries the week after that.

Thanks all for your support :)

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

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An arid nation populated by a mix of descendants of the early Fifth Age empires of Phol Egedda and Rthei), and Rhean immigrants. Located to the East of Eastern Llachatul, it is positioned to the South of Tethysia, and is dominated by the desert of Rthei, though the coastal climate is more temperate and home to many large and prosperous cities. 

At the time of the Prophet Kathisis’ great exodus from Rhea in c. 1552 RM into the north east, Thetis was largely vacant, a rapidly desertifying savannah that was populated by diverse groups of nomads. These nomads travelled the land in large family groups of up to 200 individuals, famed for their large yurts that housed entire families and, which could be disassembled and moved at short notice. These nomads would later become known as the nemis. 

Kathisis sojourned there for a short while, in the area surrounding the ruined monoliths of Khyter in 1573 RM, though some of his followers chose to stay behind, settling the area permanently. Due to this, the two subsequent nations of Tethysia and Thetis share much in common, though they have since diverged since their founding. Both cultures would oppose native populations and later mix with their remnants, assimilating parts of their culture over the subsequent years of their dominance.

Between 1592 – c. 1700 RM the people who settled this land expanded north and west to encompass the Rthei savannah, though their efforts at populating it were repelled by the rapid desertification of the land. Though a few cities survive in the region to this day, there are many more ruins of aborted attempts at colonising the region by the Thetishi people, or earlier ruins of the ancient Rthei people. The most successful of these cities was Khyter, which survives to this day. 

Though Khyter became the site of a new city where the Rhean immigrants settled down, they did not gain a foothold as rapidly as their brethren in Tethysia did. Over the next 2 centuries they made attempts to colonise the region, even proclaiming a ruler – known as the Deiarch – in 1598 RM, but the attempts failed. The worsening climate and rapidly encroaching Rthei desert thwarted their plans. By then they had become allies of the nemis nomads and many of the Rhean descendants became accepted into their culture. A few scattered cities emerged around the coast, though they did not coalesce into a unified state until c. 2450 RM, at which point the region first became known as Mintha, united by the Deiarch.

Over the next centuries the Rthei desert continued to expand, leading to an increasing schism between the sedentary Minthan and the nomadic nemis, the latter of which adapted more readily to the changing climate. By c. 2860 RM Mintha fractured under the strains of the changing landscape even as the nemis resettled abandoned cities close to the desert. They would settle them in winter as protection against increasingly inimical sandstorms, where they would trade with each other and form long-lasting relations. In summer they would emerge and travel up and down the sedentary cities of the coastline, bringing their culture, news and trade with them. Over time their culture became the prevalent one, with the custom of settling in the cities for 4 months of the year becoming common, with most inner cities built specifically for this purpose, with vast empty spaces (allowing space for nomads to occupy) situated behind high walls that guard against sandstorms. 

The name Thetis was first used in 3133 RM following the construction of the city ITHITOTH, which remains the capital to this day. Though many outsiders consider the nemis nomads to be little more than nomadic tinkerers, the truth could not be more different, and they now form the backbone of Thetishi culture, despite them only spending a third of each year, on average, behind city walls. They are at the heart of the regions’ culture, bringing trade, news and crafts with them as they travel, though this goes unnoticed to foreigners who usually stop at Raong: the coastal cities and regard them as uncultured itinerants.

The nation comprises around sixty self-governing oligarchic states – 22 major, and forty minor. Each state is ruled by a Lacarch tribal leader, often by proxy through VIZIERS(2.) who are trained since childhood for the role. The smallest states may contain only a handful of cities, whereas the largest comprise large tracts of land and all they contain; and together they convene in the capital of Ithitoth, where they rule on major legislatures, often via their trusted Viziers.

The nation reveres the pantheon of KATHISIS, though like Tethysia, worship of the PROPHET KATHISIS deified has since surpassed that of the rest of the pantheon, though the desert deity HRUNDU retains a following.