Fact Box for Gibeah

Here is the fact box for the Autocratic State of Gibeah. 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 ;)

This leaves just one nation (Elekhid, to the east of Pnessa) for me to detail before the nations surrounding the Sea of Lethea are completed. Once that's done I'll start work on a large map, similar to the huge Inner Sea map I had done last year. Looking forward to getting that map done over the coming months.

An Abbreviated History of Gibeah

• c. -150 RM: the rise of the Ellan culture and growth of the Ellan kingdoms in the far east of Sammaea. The kingdoms exist as separate demesnes, between a handful and as many as a few dozen, each with its own ruler.
• -41 RM: the founding of the Abyssal Templars in a now-forgotten city in the Ellan Kingdoms. The templars adhere to a nihilistic dogma that, though largely unpopular with most people, gained a solid foothold in the area. Conflict with the policing forces of the Ellan Kingdoms is not uncommon.
• 83 RM: the Abyssal templars occupy an ancient rusted keep they find in the lands of the Ellan kingdoms, claiming it as their own. They abandon their roaming lifestyle and rename the fortress Abyssia and set up a stronghold there, from which they claim surrounding lands.
• c. 85 - 100 RM: the Abyssal Templars spread from their stronghold in Abyssia and clash with Ellan settlements, taking some through force and putting their people to work as their servants and slaves. By the end of this period, they have expanded their lands north to the coast of the Roiling Sea, but are unable to expand further due to the strong defence mounted by the allied Ellan cities.
• 609 RM: the Korachani explorer Navah Berden reaches Gibeah. Expedition parties are mounted inland, which is where most imperial knowledge on the region originates. The Abyssal Templars are able to stave off most incursions, inadvertently working with the Ellan Kingdoms in defence of the peninsula.
      The temple-city of Gibeon is discovered by Korachani explorers - it is centred around an idolatrous cult, its misshapen denizens existing as an enclave within the Ellan Kingdoms.
• c. 600 - 900 RM: clashes between the Aksaran people and the Ellan Kingdoms
• c. 850 - 1100 RM: the Ellan Kingdoms begin to grow closer, with their politics and culture slowly amalgamating. The number of individual kingdoms lessens over time as they merge through marriage and politics.
• c. 980 RM: conflict between the Ellan Kingdoms and the temple-city of Gibeon as crusaders make it their mission to rid their home of the aberrations inhabiting the temple-city. Many of the grotesque denizens of Gibeon are slaughtered, from which the city never truly recovers. However it is never completely wiped out, and its people bear a grudge towards its more powerful and numerous neighbours to this day.
• c. 1100 RM: the Ellan Kingdoms become a singular political entity, taking on the name of Ualla Migha, which rapidly expands to the south and west, encompassing extant Cheira, Pnessa, and Serrok at its peak.
• 1384 RM: the birth of the seven Asteri otherworlders atop Mount Aster in the east of the  Zoiquago Mountains. Thought to be born of a single mortal soul, they rapidly become seen as divine beings and prophets of the god Arak by locals. This leads to a cultural schism in the north-east of Ualla Migha, sowing seeds of what would eventually become the independence of Gibeah.
• 1399 RM: fanaticism over the Asteri reaches an all-time high, and construction is started on the city of Telqateah, 75-miles to the north-east of Mount Aster, which will serve as a cultural and political hub to the region.
• 1474 RM: the heart of Telqateah is completed, including a monolithic temple-palace with seven spire annexes - one for each of the Asteri, which by then have become powerful religious and political figures in the north-east of Ualla Migha
• 1632 RM: the Abyssal templars move against Telqateah, seeing the influence of the Asteri as a threat to their own dogma. The conflict is short and brutal and the abyssal templars retreat to their stronghold in Abyssia. Following this, they realise that the presence of the Asteri threatens the stability of Ualla Migha, and they began working to extend this influence to the south and west.
• 1720 - 1724 RM: multiple unrelated instances of unreset erupt across Ualla Migha, both within its northern industries as well as its neglected territories. This, coupled with the death of the emperor early in 1724 RM, leads to a period of strife as generals and viziers compete with one another for leadership. Some blame the Abyssal templars for this, believing that they are working to cause the downfall of UallaMigha, which will bring chaos and death to the region.
• 1724 - 1726 RM: war engulfs the resource-rich region of Metagrash, and the armies of opposing generals and viziers are decimated by their blind greed over the next years.
• 1727 RM: war dies out after attrition has claimed most armies. By this time far-flung regions of the empire are either cut-off, falter, or secede from the empire.
  The growing influence of the Asteri allows Gibeah to splinter from Ualla Migha, emerging as an independent region to its north-east, ruled by the Asteri from the new capital of Telwateah. Unrest in Ualla Migha allows this to pass without repercussion and by the time Ualla Migha recovers, Gibeah has fortified its borders, ensuring that it remains independent amid the fracturing of Ualla Migha, which will later on become Waelmigh.
• c. 2000 RM: following centuries of conflict with nagas inhabiting the jungles of Gibeah, a figure emerges, known now as Opqadhra, who led an offensive against them. After a concentrated effort, the nagas were driven out of Gibeah. Some today wonder if this is a parable explaining why no nagas exist in Gibeah today. Regardless of the reason, the figure of Opqadhra is today recognised as a cultural figure of legend.
• c. 2950 RM: Saragosi traders from the north make contact with Gibeah, finding an insular people consumed by their devotion for the Church of Arak and its prophets, the Asteri. Great monuments towered above the dense tree-line: monuments that few other than the Asteri could observe. Beneath the treeline, its people lived simple lives - not quite squalor, but not much better. These people were however kind and willing to trade, starting a relationship that continues to this day.
• c. 3250 - 3500 RM: Korachan launches the egret crusades against many regions, including Gibeah. Through its distance from Korachan, Gibeah escaped the worst of the attacks against its people and its religion, though some imperial forces did reach its shores and many practitioners of gramarye, an ancient mystical tradition that saw its practitioners commune with the dead, were slain. This led to a wane in the tradition of gramarye, which was eventually to be outlawed by the Asteri. Today, those practising the art are executed.
• 3622: the independent city-state of Givah is absorbed by Gibeah, and goes on to become one of its more prosperous cities.
• c. 3650 - 3700 RM: daring missionaries and preachers of the church of the Prophet of the Empyrean are sent afield to spread the word of their faith. They reach Gibeah, amongst other lands, and the religion gains a small foothold there, though it never rivals the stability of the Church of Arak.
• 3702 RM: the Sorcerer-kings are exiled from Cheira, with the last 3 surviving members fleeing north-east into Gibeah. From there they become allies of the Abyssal templars, and by 3705 RM they had become their main proponents, founding their operations.
• c. 3740 RM: through the leadership of the Sorcerer-kings, the Abyssal Templars have spread their nihilistic teachings farther afield, as far as Rhea, Cuth, and Tzallrach, aside from nations neighbouring Gibeah.
• c. 3740 - 3790 RM: movements of the Abyssal templars across the Dark Sea and the Iapetan into the south-east of Llachatul are thwarted by the allied efforts of Tzallrach, Krem, Rhea, and Iacio, in the form of a combined naval force, known as the Iapetan Alliance.
• c. 3800 RM: the Sorcerer-kings’ leadership wanes and, following the efforts of the Iapetan Alliance, the actions of the Abyssal Templars become less far-reaching than in the previous century.
• c. 3854 - 3860 RM: a strange malady spreads across Gibeah, possibly from the jungles to the south. It is of little effect to mortals, though is debilitating to halfbloods, becoming more deadly to those of lower generations, and lethal to otherworlders, however due to the specific demographics that are susceptible to it, it goes largely unnoticed for years.
     By the time it comes to light in late 3859, it is too late - three of the Asteri are sick, with the other four likely to have also contracted it. Their offspring, though not yet showing symptoms, are thought to have also contracted the sickness.
     By mid 3860 RM one of Asteri is dead. The rest of its siblings find their thoughts disrupted by this - effectively a part of their collective consciousness has been shorn. This, and their growing sickness makes them delirious. Their mediators try hard to keep this from the general populace but, as their offspring begin to grow sick, the word gets out and the general populace revolts, bringing the church to its knees.
     By the end of 3860 three of the Aster are dead, and the remaining four are psychotic and sickened. Holed up in their citadel in Telqateah, they divorce themselves from the real world and allow their mortal subjects to descend into civil conflict, dragging the church and government down.
• 3862 RM: Gibeah has completely descended into anarchy. The citadel in Telqateah is a tomb, filled with the corpses of mortal servants the Asteri imprisoned with them. Nothing is heard of the Asteri and attempts to breach their inner sanctum have proven fruitless. The church is fractured, having lost its power and, remnants of the old regime struggle to maintain control against rival factions and upstarts. The region is forgotten by the outside world, left to its fate. Trade ends, bringing further chaos to the region.
• 3878 RM: a single Asteri emerges from the abandoned citadel, floating above a group of looters. Its body erupts into brilliant silvery light, burning them to cinders. Word spreads of this and people are quick to prostrate themselves before the figure, which becomes the centre of a revived church of Arak - though not as a prophet, but as Arak itself, made manifest, its body like the sun itself
     However the last of the Asteri is a broken being, its mind fractured by the death of its siblings. Once a hive mind, now only a fraction of its consciousness remains. It is a capricious and psychotic being, rapidly becoming a tyrant to the people of Gibeah. It orders the opening of a new mine, puts the populace to work in it for years before changing its mind and setting them to work elsewhere. Gigantic monuments are erected in its name, and the church becomes a monolithic entity, the sole governing body in Gibeah, its priests acting as censors and arbiters of what is and is not allowed. Very little is allowed.
     The workforce becomes little more than slaves to its fickle vanity. It executes random people on a whim, leaving the populace living in terror, which it delights in. If Gibeah was isolated before, it is now truly detached from the outside world.