The Pellucid Lands of Chirak are a vast stretch of south eastern kingdoms that share a common ancestry; the ancient Pellucids, who like the Romans rose to greatness and then were decimated back to a barbaric dark age....although in Chirak this was due to the machinations of Kasdalan and Lady Poe, rather than barbarians at the gates. I've expanded quite a bit on this, so for XMas I would like to share....
Mercurios and the Pellucid Kingdoms
Young medieval steel age kingdom founded on the ruins of a
fallen empire
Cultural Level: steel age
Population: approximately 3.5 million
Government: Hereditary monarchy
Rulers: King Iron Dukat
Religions: Some preservationist belief, mixed with worship of Laddaskar.
Social Titles: commoner, land owner, journeyman, merchantman, baron, count,
duke, king
Coinage: copper pieces, silver pieces, gold pieces, gold crowns, platinum
pieces
Enemies: Mercurios is beset by enemies, including Correnstal, Dragos, the
Kraggit orcs, Kasdalan, Hashikarystyr, and sometimes Nithiad.
Pellucid was founded out of bloodshed and
died—twice—by the sword. Roughly twelve centuries ago the earliest barbarian
tribes to organize and unite in the lands that would later be called Mercurios,
Hoagarit, Atrual, Nubirion, Correnstal and Dragos forged a vast array of
dissident kingdoms. Each small kingdom was ruled by a resident warlord of local
power, but little influence…or interest….beyond his squallid borders. The lands
struggled in this manner for centuries, and when Agamar was a strong empire to
the north the Pellucid barbarians of the south were a minor concern.
Roughly ten centuries ago a disaster befell
Agamar, as the Occultic people that were displaced by an unknown cataclysm in
the region of Eredoth began a great migration. These tribes, known by many
names, formed the people that came to occupy the lands of Xoxtocharit, Hoagarit
and Nubirion. Each of these tribal groups were distinct from one another,
though all shared common ancestry. The Xoxtocharit displaced the Agamar, wiping
out the empire after a generation of conflict. The Kaz’Duli, Atzili, Xoxtocharit
and Zapun settled in the region, assimilating the survivors of the Agamar
empire that did not flee west to Old Syrgia.
Southward the Hoagarit, a fierce tribe of
horse warriors migrated, along with the Nubiri, a diaspora of lesser tribes who
were outcast from the rest, unwilling to submit to the diabolical rule of the
Xoxtocharit. These tribes crashed into the frontier borderlands of the old
kingdoms of the Pellucid people, and it was this century of conflict that led
to the loss of much territory. In the end, the people of Nubirion colonized a
vast swathe of the eastern forestlands of the coast, while the Hoagarit
annihilated the aggressive defending tribes of the northern plains and
mountains of their territory. When all was said and done the total territory
that was “Pellucid” had contracted dramatically; more than half of the old
people’s lands had been lost. It was only through the efforts of a single great
warrior, Eddernias, that the invasion from the north was turned away. Eddernias
became the first coronated Emperor of Old Pellucid.
The Pellucid Empire lasted seven centuries.
During that time it dealt with repeated invasions from the north, reconquered
much of the Nubirion region, staved off invasions of the Hashykarystir from the
southwest, one grand invasion from Kasdalan to the south that effectively
shattered the empire, though it did rebuild, and the final deathblow which was
brought about by internal dissent. Three and a half centuries ago there arose
internal strife brought about by a difference of religious views. The empire,
weakened as it was and led by the last Emperor Pallitus collapsed in a short
twenty year span due to religious warfare brought about by the Dragosian
province where worship of the old teaching of Malib had resurfaced and been
embraced by the nobility, even as the colonials in Correnstal were drawn to the
heretical faith of Memnos. The cult of Laddaskar was growing at the time,
replacing the old Pellucid Sun Temples to Pallath, for the priest had been all
but powerless for centuries. When the empire collapsed, so too did the last
established worship of the old sun god.
In the wake of this collapse the empire
split into three distinct regions that eventually became kingdoms in their own
right as well as multiple northern independent city-states. The Pellucid people
continued on, but no longer united as an empire. These regions included
Correnstal, Dragos, Varkal, Mercurios, and some would even include Astrual and
Talael to the north, though both regions experienced much change in the wake of
the Occultic migration as well as having a strong mix of people descended from
both Pellucid, Occultic and Agamite blood. For practical purposes, when
referring the Pellucid Kingdoms any of the above entities qualify, but most
people mean Mercurios, Dragos and Correnstal.
Mercurios was forged out of a bloody
religious civil war, and as a result the old temples perished as the worship of
Laddaskar became ubiquitous. The territories of Correnstal and Dragos were
willingly ceded, but only after nearly forty years of continuous conflict,
ended only when threats from both the goblins of the Kyurtain Mountains to the
north and Kraggit orcs to the south forced the human kingdoms to repurpose
their focus to slaughtering monsters. Mercurios remained a largely symbolic
kingdom under no single ruler, but recognizing a common unity amongst all until
the reign of the Dukas clan. The first Dukas to claim the throne did so by
slaying the last of the self-proclaimed old emperors, known now as Shyvoltx XI
though his proper Old Pellucid title was Shylavios the Eleventh. Iron Dukas the
First seized the throne with his own personal army and a horde of clan members,
most from barbarian tribes to the south. He was at risk of being deposed when
an invasion by the Nithiadians of the then independent polity of Tedroy. Thanks
to the tactical savvy of Dukas the Nithiadians were driven from the land, and
the other warlords of the fragmented kingdom rallied behind his banner. The
reign of Clan Dukas has continued for two and a half centuries now.
Similar stories played out in Dragos and
Correnstal. Dragos, which had suffered greatly a century earlier during
Kasdalani occupation had been changed profoundly thanks to the southern invaders,
many of whom settled in the region and continued to live peacefully after the
Kasdalani army fell apart. The Dragosian people were long known for magic, but
it was the rise of a new generation of sorcerers with uncanny skill in necromantic arts that led to
the strange path this land took. Dragos fought fiercely for its independence,
and won; the power to make one’s fallen enemies rise from where they were slain
to fight for you proved to be a great boon and demoralizing to Mercurian and
Correnstalian foes alike.
Correnstal had long been a settled province
and for which great conflict had transpired. They stood against the tide of
goblin invaders six centuries ago, when the old elvish empire, last of its kind,
fell in the northern mountains. Out of this early bond with elves and men arose
a half-elven king, described as Correnstal’s “First King, Urso Vanasas” He led
the first (and earliest) charge against the Goblin Kingdom of the Kyurtain
Mountains, and later appealed to his father, Urso Vanel (Pellucid title
Vanelias) for his kingdom’s independence as a client state of the Empire. Urso
Vanel was a pureblood Pellucid, with no Kasdalani or Nubiri blood in his
lineage, but he had fallen for an elvish woman and so felt a certain fondness
for the region of Correnstal, so he granted the region under his son autonomy.
He would later fall in battle during the rise of the religious civil war that
tore apart the empire and led to the rise of the Cult of Memnos in Correnstal.
Today, the three kingdoms exist in a
constant state of warfare and strife. Not a year goes by that someone isn’t
pushing borders, testing boundaries or outright invading to see what sort of
reaction they can get. It has all but become a way of life. Each kingdom is
also faced with considerable external threats as well, making it impossible to
commit to all out war between one another when so many other enemies demand
attention. Mercurios is faced with the ever present threat of war with Nithiad
and Kasdalan, even as the Hashykarystir lizard men serve as a constant threat
from their wild kingdom of monsters. Correnstal suffers from constant civil war
and the looming goblin menace, even as eastern threats emerge from the
wastelands. Dragos is both at time laboring under war and peace with the
Kraggit orcs even as they wage a two front war with multiple Skeledani
warlords.
Recent political events in the region have
been turbulent. Each of Mercurios’s sister kingdoms have suffered civil wars,
and in Correnstal the resurrected Urso Vanasas has appeared just in time to
unite the kingdom against an overwhelming threat from the east. Mercurios has
seen it’s late king Garion Dukas perish in battle against the dragon Skar, who
has settled in the south mountains and declared the entire range his own. His
eldest son Varion Dukas has assumed the throne, and perhaps even the curse of
his clan’s legacy….but more on that in a bit.
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