Setting:Tabula Gloria/Weylos

A Brief History

Locations in the former Empire of Weylos

Very much like Vashial, Weylos was originally a group of tribes. Unlike Vashial however, the tribes were generally at peace, for they had more to worry about than each other. Their land was one with some of the most dangerous wildlife imaginable, a land they shared with the Stormlords. Back in the ages in which the fauna was the only threat they had to contend with, the tribes worked well as they were. But then came two foes in which they had never experienced before. First was Benalor, a mechanical powerhouse to the east. Then came Vashial to the west, a magical juggernaut. To the tribes, having lived out the law of natural selection for so long, had to unite in the case that the new powers would try to take them over.

It was natural that the tribes headed south to Askanderre, the territory of the tribe with whom they held in the highest regard. The tribes’ collective concerns were brought to attention and they allied under the banner of Weylos, the Askanderian tortoise god of survival and the wild. From here, they had set along a path of combining the best qualities of each tribe into a unified combat force. The Ponbans of the western forests brought their skills of guerilla warfare. The Falmars of the central plains contributed their expertise of ranged weaponry. The Sedhors of the eastern highlands showed how to cultivate their many herbs. And finally the Askands applied their leadership to the myriad of disciplines in this new united force.

For generations, the Weylosians honed their skills and formed a bond with each other which was truly special. They were determined to keep their world under the natural order, to ward off those with ambitions so lofty as to bring the world to any other order. In the meantime, they took all the resources it could from the land in order to accomplish this task. Under the providence of the Great Tortoise, the Weylosians would come out victorious and they could restore the wilds afterwards. If Weylos is to be damned however, then they will give their lives before it is pulled under the thrall of an unnatural order, leaving the victors without spoils. They knew a war was coming, though they would not know of its outcome. And a war they got, a war which would end up beyond even their lengthy preparations, preparations which included entering an alliance with the less-aggressive Benalorans.

The opening salvo came from the magi of Vashial, marching across the cut-down Forests of Ponbanair. In the thick stumps of the former forests was where the Weylosians made their first stand, slowing down an overconfident Vashialian advance. However, their magic would easily wipe them about before advancing towards the dying grasses of the Falmarch Plains. It was there where the Benaloran allies had installed the mighty machines of the Ansal Corps, decimating their magical abilities with the mysterious devices on the Ansals. Together , the alliance was able to push the Vashialians back to their lands and the two nations celebrated heartily at Askanderre for days to come.

However, the Weylosian elders knew of Benalor’s threat still. Though the Ansals were instrumental in defeating the Vashialians at Falmarch, they were sure that Benalor was a host to even more advanced technology which could wipe them out more easily. By now, the elders were led by the master tactician Tremaine Laurense of Sedhorane, a man who suggested the use of espionage against the Benalorans while they still officially were allied. The Weylosians who were taught how to operate the Ansals were becoming more and more mechanically adept in the process, and Laurense knew that if they had information as to how to build their own battle machines, that this new breed of warrior would ensure a Weylosian victory across the board.

Unfortunately for Laurense though, the spies were caught at the College of Shapers at the Ebony Tower, looking in places in which they had no clearance. It was only a matter of time until the Benalorans would figure out the Weylosian ruse. Also by now, Vashialian forces were gathering to the far north in the Central Lands and the Stormlords have sent an emissary of their own to Askanderre. They would have to shift alliances now, quietly letting Benalor execute the spies without formally accepting responsibility for the matter, a political move which was intended to buy them enough time to fend off the second Vashialian offensive before they can refocus on Benalor.

What Laurense would never have guessed was that Benalor had also remotely deactivated the Ansals, rendering them inoperable. They would have to fight the Vashialians without this advantage, something the Stormlords were very unhappy with. They had heard of their might with the battle machines they had learned to master. Suffice it to say, the fight claimed the lives of many Weylosians and Stormlords alike, forcing the Garvenite natives to summon forth their powerful guardian, the Sky Devourer for the first time in their history. While the Sky Devourer ultimately ravaged the steppe irreparably, it clenched the victory for the new alliance, driving the Vashialians back home for the last time.

Though it was a victory, it was an expensive one, a fact which infuriated the Stormlord commander, Crenskaw of the Rushing River. In his rage, he commanded the remainder of his retinue to eliminate the Weylosian troops, the warriors massacring the exhausted warriors. Soon enough, Weylos would be invaded from the north by Crenskaw and a furious Stormlord army, with the Sky Devourer amidst them. Weylos’ doom was to be handed to them not by their unnatural enemies to the east and west, but to their primal brethren of the north. Unable to accept this fate, the vast majority of the Weylosian people kept true to the last part of their vow to the Great Tortoise, to give their lives as one last act of defiance. People dropped left and right as they dealt their own final blows to themselves, the last of which was Laurense, the man who brought all this to pass.

The blood of the Weylosians soak into the dead land around them, the transformation to the Wastes they are now already having started. From the parched land rose a mighty beast rivaling the might of even the Sky Devourer. Other than the rise of the Great Tortoise, recorded by one of the few Weylosians not to kill themselves, there is no other surviving record of the battle that must have ensued. But the result was just as the Weylosians planned – there would be no spoils for the victors. Whether the Stormlords and the Sky Devourer won or not is up for debate, but there are no Stormlords in the Weylosian Wastes today, so one can simply assume.

Peoples

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Places of Interest

• The Capital City of Askanderre: A city perched on a well-defensible cliff, served as the capital of the united Weylosian tribes.
• The Fortress City of Falmarch: A garrison set up in the center of Weylos to defend the Empire against invaders from all directions.
• The Ponbanair Catacombs: A deep chamber set into the side of the Shiallan Mountains created to house deceased warriors and nobles.
• The Tomb of Sacrifice: An ancient temple dedicated to the veneration of deified Weylosian Kings, the worship of which known for the practice of human sacrifice.
• The Plinths of the Great Tortoise: A massive monument in the middle of the wastes near Askanderre, said to be a means of calling forth the Great Tortoise.