Patreon Insights: The Birth of Særis

Before I start this Insight, I must apologise for the delay. My sleep schedule was all over the place last week and to top it all off, I was sick amongst other things that certain Patrons will relate to. To keep apologies short, however, I will now move on to what you are all here for, the latest Patreon Insight. For this one I will be covering the birth of Særis as a nation. This will be the first of a trilogy in which I cover Særis, Llen Færa, and Ferran. As for why I'm starting with Særis instead of Rowan's homeland of Llen Færa, it's because Særis is much older than the other two.

With all that said, let's get started. Særis is a nation that encompasses the northwestern region of the Talrasian continent. Roughly 2.5 thousand years prior to the start of Ardent Tears, the region was occupied by a bunch of individual clans that fluctuated a fair bit in terms of size, wealth and power.

This all changed when a clan situated on what is now known as the Azure River discovered polished blue gemstones in the riverbed. As they investigated further, they found that the river had been hiding these flawless gemstones this whole time. The clan was able to then capitalise on this discovery with their above average size and strength to harvest the gems whilst disguising the operation as a fishing venture. This was successful as the clan was already known for trading fish derived goods to other nearby clans.

Once the clan had harvested a good selection of gemstones from the river, they started trading them, being careful to keep a tight hold on the market. As they were the only known source of the gemstones, they quickly earned a vast amount of wealth and power. This still wasn't enough to make them the dominant clan in the entire region, but it was certainly the start of their ultimate rise to power.

The clan started expanding their influence up and down the full length of the river. With greater reach than ever before, they were able to trade with the Ru'eni Empire that had recently rose to power on the other side of the continent due to the discovery of how to process iron. The clan bought the secrets of this discovery with an especially beautiful gemstone. This allowed them to capitalise on the iron rich land of northwestern Talras in a way that cemented their power.

Having entered the Iron Age, more and more clans started swearing fealty to the clan as they changed their name to Clan Særis (literally Clan Azure River). At first people thought the name was just a reference to how the river gave them the reach they needed to gain power. In time, however, it became known that the river itself was the source of the gemstones. Alas, it was far too late for anyone else to capitalise on this knowledge as Clan Særis already had full control of the river along with the weaponry and military strength to hold it.

In time, other sources of the gemstone were discovered, as were other gemstones of varying different colours, which further added to the wealth of the clan. This is due to gemstones being prized for their association with Resonance Crystals as, while they lack any magical properties, they possess the same physical qualities, making them excellent stand ins for jewellery. While this association didn't matter as much in the early days as Resonance Crystals weren't widely understood at that point, they were still considered valuable for the same reasons they are considered valuable here on earth.

By the time Clan Særis directly controlled roughly a third of the land that is now Særis, the leader of the clan claimed the title of High King and they started transitioning into the nation that we know today. This process began around 2000 years ago and it took 600 or so years to come to have direct control of the entire region. For the entirety of that time, Clan Særis has remained in power. The line of the first high king was almost wiped in an assassination attempt that resulted in one of the deadliest wars the Talrasian content has ever known. It was also the moment that sparked the first hostilities between Særis and the Ru'eni empire that had felt so far away up until that point. Fortunately the youngest survived and the line continues to this day.

Now I'm going to stop the Insight here as much of what matters after this point I want to cover in the story and is also beyond the scope of this Insight to begin with. For the stuff before this point, I'll be touching on it in the next two Insights as I'll need the extra context from there to properly explain it.