Setting:Tabula Gloria/Vashial

A Brief History

Locations in the former Empire of Vashial

While Benalor was rapidly growing in the east of the Continent, a consortium of mystics were convening in the western Shiallan Mountains. A war had just been fought among various tribes, a conflict which had almost spilled into the entire Continent. A truce had been made as those who could commune with the flowing mana came together upon one of the northern peaks of the mountains, a neutral place in which its ancestral name has been forgotten to history. The Congress of the Magi as it would be called had the task of permanently ending the strife which was going to tear not only themselves apart, but the world around them as well.

It was during these meetings that the Congress formed the Realm of Vashial, a place which would include all of the tribes of the war, both the winners and the losers. The slate would be wiped clean and the people, Shialar and Anshial, Elborn and Alhamuur, would have a chance to start over, absolved of their crimes. Though in this configuration, the oligarchy of the Congress put itself into a tremendous position of power. Their collective mystic power concentrated, they would be very much able to demand just about anything with the threat of imminent destruction if they had wished. Fortunately for those beneath them, that would not be the case.

Under the charter the Congress had drawn up, the gift of magic was to be taught to each and every Vashialian, to never allow one to become more powerful than the rest. The proliferation of magic made what was once a potent tool of war into a commonplace tool of peace. Of course, there were to be cases in which this ideal would not come to pass, as some were simply incapable of communing with the mana, and others were exceptionally gifted at it. That problem would eventually work itself out over time and life would go on, the majority of the Vashialian population adept at performing magic to some degree. This was important because by the time this was achieved, the last of the oligarchs had died upon the Vashialian peak two hundred years after the formation of the Realm.

The final clause of the charter was put into place for this eventuality. It had put the Realm of Vashial into the people’s hands, now that they had spent time with each other, learning the ways of magic and becoming a generally more cohesive people because of it. At this point, the people would have to figure out the fate of the young nation amongst themselves, now that all their wise men were gone. A mother of three would soon come into the spotlight during this debate.

Tarekh al-Anshial was a middle-aged woman, unassuming in stature but spoke in a compelling way, reminiscent of the departed oligarchs. She would come to convince her fellow Vashialians that the ultimate gift of the oligarchs was not that of the magical arts, but rather the unification of the people, the chosen people. The ability overcome rivalries and wars spanning beyond their memory has certainly made them a cut above the others out there waiting to be taken into the Vashialian fold. Under her banner of assimilation, Tarekh would become the first ruler of the renamed Empire of Vashial.

The Vashialians would campaign to the west, all the way to the coast. They then conquered the lands as far south as the marsh of Narsum Cas’shren and as far east as Alboniset Lake and the Eternal Flow. After securing their natural borders, they then began to march their magical armies to the southeast, towards a fledgling nation of tribes known as Weylos. They believed that the Weylosians were very much like them in their infancy – a collection of warring peoples forced to unite under difficult times. But unlike the Vashialians, these savages knew not of the power of magic. This led them to assume that conquest was inevitable. However, they ran first into a martial prowess unheard of, and then into the mechanical wonders of the Benaloran reinforcements.

With the failure at Weylos, the slowly aging Queen Tarekh would bring her forces eastwards, towards the Central Lands beyond Phrennoack to gain an advantage over their worthy Weylosian foes. However, they would be stymied by Eltya and his Stags, powerful spiritual forces which greatly hindered their advance. By the time they had ended up taking the sea route into the north of the Central Lands, Queen Tarekh had died despite her efforts to extend her life further at 322 years of age. Her daughter and successor Jentha would vow to continue upon her mother’s campaign into the Central Lands.

Though the story of who made it to the Central Lands first varies from source to source, there are a number of sources which seem to agree that Vashial got there first. However, there is record that their stay there wasn’t without hardship, especially given the Stormlords’ dislike of their presence in the wild lands. Though the Stormlords couldn’t hold them off themselves, they did have an ally of their own – a stronger, more unified Weylos, free of Benaloran influence, as well as the mighty Sky Devourer at their disposal. Regardless of the Weylosian situation, Benalor still entered the fray, also seeking retribution against Weylos. Vashial and Benalor could have allied with each other to decimate Weylos if they had wished. Unfortunately for them, the glory-seeking Jentha did not even consider it.

The Three-Way War would ensue, with Vashial pushing Benalor back through sheer attrition. But their weakened mage warriors could not stand up to the combined forces of Weylos and the Stormlords, forcing their retreat back to the north of the Central Lands and back to Vashial in defeat. Back home, the defeat ate at the hearts and minds of the Vashialians, splitting them into three camps. The first was those loyal to Jentha, advocating that they lick their wounds and try to retake the Central Lands later. Another was an angry mob seeking to remove Jentha from the throne and install a better leader there. The third however saw the gift of magic as a curse and relocated themselves into the mana-thin western coast, becoming the Triolites.

Civil war broke out, skirmishes across the land splitting communities apart, devouring the very Empire into its own war with each other. Magic was turned against each other, the clashing of mana building up as the combatants tried to one-up each other. This was all until Jentha, who had become known as the Progenitor due to the large family she had spawned, unleashed the most hellish magic imaginable. The very life force of the Empire was drawn into her. Flora, fauna, and people alike suffered her wrath, no matter the association they had. The Empire of Vashial became Jentha’s in its entirety, a surge of power which drove her dead with madness. The residual magical radiation said to be coming from her corpse still taints the Wastes they left behind to this day.

Peoples

• The Shialar People: Descendants of the ancient Vashialians who ruled over the old Empire; only capable of crude magics and now try to survive in the harsh Wastes.
• The Triolites: Descendants of the ancient Vashialians who forsaken the gift of magic, now living on the continent's Mana-thin western coast.

Places of Interest

• The Vashialian Necropolis: The former capital of the Empire which is the epicenter of the magical radiation which plagues the current-day Wastes.
• The Guardian Spire: A dizzying tower which served as the first means of defense for the former capital, now a beacon of despair for those who come near it.
• The Fortress City of Am-Alhamuur: A former military garrison which is now home to a mutant offshoot of the Shialar nomads.
• The Scholarly City of Elbornet: Buried in a crater, a former city of scholars which was once famous for its "Living Library".
• The Engineered City of Anshial: A city perched on the side of the mountains, known for architecture and engineering comparable to that of Benalor.
• The School of Ibn-Alwhari: An elite magic academy which only appeared to those worthy of admission, said to still exist in the current day.
• The Coastal Village of Triolas: A small village on the western coast of the continent, its people renounced of their former magical ways.
• The Narsum Cas'shren: A swampy, extremely dangerous isthmus south of the Shiallan Mountains, connecting it to the subcontinent of Vosagar.