The History
of Theliad
Northwestern Chirak is a
remote location, isolated from much of the central civilizations of the Sea of
Chirak region, and only tenuously connected by trade and warfare with certain
regions of the West and the North. Syrgian traders have been journeying to the
eastern regions of Theliad for two centuries now, and on certain occasions the
Madigar and Abraheilites have engaged in trade by way of the difficult sea and
land routes to Theliad. Still, it is not as isolated as Far Therias, and its
people know something of the wider world, though their insular cultural groups
are not receptive to outside influence.
Theliad is described by some
as a land that has moved on. While the rest of the world still mourns the loss
of old gods or eagerly awaits the rise of new avatars and demiurges, Theliad
has dispensed with the old pantheon in disgust and created its own new ways.
Chiefly, the earliest arbiters of civilization were several clans who claimed
trueborn blood of the old Inadasir, and that this was divine blood, which
asserted their ultimate destiny as ascended beings. The first true
civilizations to rise in Theliad after the Apocalypse were driven by these
early god-kings, and the concept prevailed. The notion of a leader being
directly equivalent to a god is commonly accepted among the people of this
land, and their belief that mortals can ascend to divinity is very strong.
Theliad’s history has not been
without conflict. The earliest god kings arose in three primary cultural
groups, including the Atarthic kingdoms, the Shellas, and the Adenar.
These three groups rose from the ashes of the Apocalypse within three or four
centuries, and it was around seven centuries that the first self-proclaimed god
kings manifested. The first such was the enigmatic being called Hakarthos. This man ruled Atarthis as a
benevolent ruler, who claimed to have visited a cavern in the Agardash Mountains, where he was spoken
to by a divine spirit some claim to be Pallath and others claim was
Pornyphiros. This divine spirit passed on the essence of the divine to
Hakarthos, who then went on to rule, as an immortal, for nine centuries before
his fall during the Keterash Uprising.
Two other divine beings
manifested during this early period, including Nimrasa, the divine queen of Shellas, and Sulturian of Adenar, an amorphic being who, though starting as a
man, eventually transformed in to a terrible entity. Like Hakarthos, Sulturian
was eventually deposed, though his followers found they could not slay him, and
instead entombed the terrifying being in the deepest levels of the catacombs of
his great city, and then abandoned it. This city is known today as Afar, and it
is said that the poison of the entombed god poisoned the land all around,
turning Adenar in to a dead land.
Nimrasa is the only one of
these ancient ascended beings to remain alive to this day. Though her kingdom
collapsed long ago, her loyal priesthood spirited her away to a place of safety
during the time of the Keterash Uprisings and kept her safely hidden. A century
after the collapse of the old empires she was revealed anew, though Nimrasa
swore she would never again demand servitude of mortals. The goddess dwells to
this day in her venerable mountain temple just south of the lake city of Typhonis.
It was approximately eleven
hundred years ago that the second pantheon arose. This time, the first scended
mortal was a man known only as Agarthis,
a warlord of the Ekarthask clans, he was a powerful figure, and in this era he
conquered a great deal of territory. On one occasion, near the edge of the
White Desert, he was visited by a seductive spirit, a woman who claimed to carry
the blood of the god Ga’Thon in her veins named Ierati. As the tale goes, she seduced Agarthis, and gave him a
taste of divine godflesh from her father’s own body. Agarthis was transformed,
and rode forth to declare his status as risen god. He conquered much of the
known world in that time, and his own troops were now prepared to venture
across the burning sands of the White Desert to sack the fabled city of
Eristantopolis, when he was confronted by a man named Pallath Eridanos, a chosen avatar of the sun god, who allegedly
united the surviving foes of the risen god with the troops of Eristantopolis to
at last stop the mad immortal. Agarthis was imprisoned, again found to be
unkillable, beneath a massive stone monument, usually called a tomb, but known
also as a temple by his followers to this day. Even imprisoned, his voice can
be heard in the dreams of men of great desire and power, and it a common term
to speak of one who has fallen to madness as having “received the dreams of
Agarthis” as an explanation for his insane behavior.
The mysterious Pallath
Eridanos is still revered by the people of Theliad today, though little is
known of this man. He is said to have studied for a time in Eristantopolis
after saving his people, and then to have traveled to the western islands,
where he founded the modern city and kingdom of Theliad before passing on in to
time. His whereabouts to this day are unknown.
The Demon Kings of old were
feared and reviled by all, and Theliad, much like the rest of the world, was not
spared their rampaging shortly after the Apocalypse ended with the death of the
gods. In this region it is known that many such ancient demon kings settled, as
they tired from their ceaseless rampaging or were at last captured, imprisoned,
or sometimes even destroyed. Scholarly records suggest that eleven demon kings
were left alive or imprisoned in the land, and to this day there are Cults of the Eleven in the region,
which revere and seek dark power from these entities.
The last thousand years of
history in Theliad have revealed two more “ascended immortals.” One is a man
named Krytias, a scholar and student
of lore who discovered, some say, the very cavern in which Hakarthos gained his
divinity. Krytias manifested his divinity two centuries ago, and has been a
peaceful ascetic ever since, teaching others how to achieve spiritual unity
based on his visions prompted by the visits he makes to the sacred caves. His
temple is located in the isles of Nelindiros.
The other immortal is a man of
mixed infernal heritage, whose mother may have been taken by one of the Eleven,
specifically the infernal king Naramaeos.
This son, named Tyrios, rose to
power by virtue of his wiles and charms in the city of Masar, where he has ruled
with an iron fist now for four centuries. Masar is a decadent kingdom of dark
delights and opiates, reveling in the slave trade and the exploitation of
others. It serves as an unpleasant bridge between the westerlands of Abraheil
and the rest of Theliad.
Of the many lands in the
region, Theliad and Ekarthask are unique in that they
eschew all faith in magical teachings, and disdains sorcery in all forms. These
people only nominally tolerate divine practitioners, and seek instead the
guidance of men who are enlightened through conventional wisdom.
In contrast to these two lands, Nuliria and Nelindiros venerate their divine practitioners, and keep a watchful
eye out for others who might claim potential immortality. These lands believe
that the old age of gods is gone, and the essence of the gods has been imbued
in mortal flesh, to be revealed at a time of their choosing. As a result, there
are perhaps two dozen cults to various “living gods” in these lands, as well as
certifiable ones such as Krytias and Nimrasa. A short list of these more
popular living gods include:
Katharios the Wise
Chelisana the Divine Mistress of Light
Traidoros the Living Spirit of Strength
Macharadan the Healer
Setrinara the Oracle
The twins Tython and Ulistrana, divine
sparks of Pornyphiros.
Further east, in Sytaris, the people are less prone to
worshipping living gods, though it does happen, and they instead venerate the
ancestral dead, where they believe that the immortal spirits of their kings are
all descended from the first true god, Hakarthos. They believe that Hakarthos
was a unifying god-spirit, and that all of his descendants carry his spark.
This ancestral cult is not unlike those of Nubirion, although with the added
belief that each reincarnation brings an ancestral spirit closer to divinity.
In the distant east, the city
states of Ghurthal tend toward the
worship of their resident goddess, the ancient Nimrasa, but there are cults and
factions to many other gods as well. In an alarming trend, there are those who worship
the entombed gods, Sulturian and Agarthis, and feel that they must follow the
“children of Ga’Thon.” Where such teachings begin is a mystery, though rumors
of Ierata’s hand in the matter are troubling. This mysterious entity, branded a
Thousandspawn by the Preservationists of Eristantopolis, is believed to have
secret designs on Theliad at large, and that she is partly to blame for the
enigma of the so called ascended immortals and living gods in the land.
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