world of elyden

To anyone wondering, I'm not really posting over here anymore.

I do have a website - www.worldofelyden.com, as well as my patreon, where all my stuff is available to view for free. 

Please feel free to check them out. My site also has a mailing list (scroll to the bottom of any page for the form to enter your email), and I occasionally send an email when I have enough new stuff to share :) 

Here are some quick links to get up to speed: 

The atlas key/legend to the maps can be found here.

Most of the maps are done in Photoshop. A tutorial for my method can be found here

For a list of all the maps you can check here.

Here are a few maps to whet your apetite :) 

New Website!

I've been working on a new site where I can collect all my writing, commissioned art, and maps in an easily-accessible format, which is just not possible on blogger or Patreon. I also hope to add a store to the site in the near future where I can sell map prints and probably other items.

The site is called www.worldofelyden.com and I've added a blog to it that I will hopefully keep more updated than this, including things not to do with Elyden. If there's anyone still following me here (Hi!) please head on over there and subscribe to the blog to keep up-to-date with my posts. Have a look around and let me know what you think - your feedback is most appreciated.

Due to this, I'll probably not be posting here any more (not that I really have been anyway), other than to let people know of big changes or events.

Thanks for your support!

Atlas Elyden #29 - the Independancy of Khamid

As always, if you're interested in the world and my worldbuilding, you can get me a virtual coffee here, or support me on Patreon or my FB page. Even $1 a month makes a huge difference!
A key/legend to the map can be found here.

So here's the latest map in the Atlas Elyden series. Khamid is one of the first regions I came up with, before I actually started working on the world of Elyden - it's a remnant of an old D&D campaign system I had come up with for 3rd edition (or possibly 3.5) that I imported into Elyden since I hate wasting a good region! I redid the map and recycled the place names and the Cataclysm (more on this below TL,DR: a HUGE magical disaster destroyed half the nation a long time ago) from the original setting.

Back in it's first incarnation it was a very blatant ancient Egypt analogy (read 'rip-off') and positioned on the southern coast of an inner sea. I re-did the map and came up with more original history, whilst keeping some of the Egyptian influences.

A key/legend to the map can be found here

Atlas Elyden #29 - the Independancy of Khamid

Khamid is a land viewed with empathy and awe by those in the west, and its mention would likely conjure images of monolithic destruction, mystic shapers, granite pyramids, and gigantic pylon-shaped mausolea. This was once true, though it is only one facet of a long and troubled past.
    Its defining trait - the Great Cataclysm of 101 RM - is a shackle that Khamid has been unable to shake, tethering it to the past in many ways. To understand this impact this great calamity had on the Khamidians, one must understand Khamid’s past, a tale that walks side-by-side with the early spread of shaping amongst the mortal races.
    The Art of Firmamentism was pioneered Ages past by the Demiurge Duruthilhotep, who handed down its secrets to his mortal children, the ifirmians, just as the Demiurge Rachanael first taught the secrets of the Atramenta to his children, the plagi.
    For a time the secrets of the dichotomous matter of creation were just that: secrets held by the Demiurges and their chosen ones, but contact between the Two-and-Twenty tribes slowly increased, propagating a slow spread of the Art of shaping. It was a Scion of Duruthilhotep, Khamar, who travelled west with a handful of ifirmian acolytes and brought knowledge of Firmamentism with him to a land of farmers who revered their dead and gazed upon the stars with wonder.
    He saw in them much potential and, together with his ifirmian aides, taught them the sciences of astronomy, architecture, medicine, and embalming. Under his aegis they prospered and spread, taking the Scion’s name as the name of their homeland. Proud of what they accomplished, he moved on to new lands, and allowed them to govern themselves.
    They escaped the darkness that ended the Fourth Age of Mortal life relatively unscathed and went on to become one of the more powerful empires in the region, ruled by the Pharoants - a caste that legend claims to be descended from the Scion Khamar (and, by extension, Duruthilhotep himself!).
    These rulers were priests and shapers of the highest magnitude and were considered gods amongst men. As other cultures struggled with rebuilding following the devastation that ended Fourth Age, the Pharoants and their people were dominating trade across the Dark sea west into the Inner Sea and south across the Iapetan sea, taking advantage of the needs of nascent peoples that surrounded them. By c. -250 RM they were trading with the Nathi Kingdom, sharing secrets of alchemy with the city-state of Midal. By the time the Nathi Kingdom fragmented in c -150 RM Khamar had grown into a decadent place, its Pharoants using their Firmamental abilities to prolong their lives, growing more and more debauched off of the spoils of trade. Their people were hardly ill-treated, but the chasm between ruler and ruled continued to grow even as a third class made up of powerful merchant-lords grew in influence.
    The secrets of shaping grew stagnant under these apathetic dynasties, and many processes and techniques were lost, preserved only in ancient treatises that were forgotten. What was not lost was their expertise in prolonging life and stalling the effects of decay on their bodies following their eventual death.
    By the first decades of the Korachani calendar, Khamar had become Khamid following the evolution of its language after prolonged contact with Hara and Venath. It was in this time that the so-called Cataclysm of Khamid took place, in 101 RM.
    Some say it was a Firmamental ritual gone calamitously awry. Others that is was Khamar, returned to appraise his people, punishing them for the sins of their indifferent rulers. Some say it was a natural disaster, unfortunate yet inevitable.  Though speculation is rife, the truth is we do not know - almost all records of the day were obliterated, alongside most of the nation’s populace.
    At the time of the Cataclysm, most of Khamid was concentrated in territories south of the Snjemet Mountains, sue to the mineral richness the regions. Most of its major cities and trading centres were destroyed, alongside its jewel, the capital of Kharr (the present-day Kharr, built in memory of the fallen capital, is roughly 40-miles south-east of the sunken ruins of the old capital). What remained, north of the Snjemet Mountains, were mostly rural communities that worked hard to maintain the affluence the South Kingdom had grown used to.
    The Khamidians grew fascinated with death following the Cataclysm, continuing a tradition started by the Pharoants of building gigantic pylon mausolea, hollow, with inner loggias that housed thousands of embalmed bodies. During this time the Khamidian people turned on their Firmamental heritage (leading some scholars to believe that misuse of the Firmament was responsible for the Cataclysm), leading to a purge of many Firmamental records - a great blow to those studying the history of shaping in the region.
    Khamid was devastated. Its leadership, its trade, its military were destroyed in one blighted day, remembered bitterly to this day by its descendants. Other regions were quick to fill in the cultural vacuum - Venath to the south, Hara and Goetia to the North-West, pirates and corsairs, and Char Mâthi to the east (though the latter was also affected by the destruction), and for many centuries the land of Khamid became a hunting ground for more powerful political players, it’s people prey to their slavers and armies.
    By c. 800 RM a descendant of the Pharoants, known as Sapet Besayt, emerged in the region of Nehrenhat, bringing the people together around the town of Iahnef. Over the next decades he was able to ally himself with the people of Haré Shka to the north. With their help he was able to train Khamid to defend herself against attack. So good was he that by 992 RM, when Haré Shka was threatened by Melayan barbarians it was Khamid who went to its aid. This cemented a close coalition that lasted for many years, leading to the establishment of a port and embassy in the settlement of Lamea in Caria in 1012 RM, which became a centre of trade between the two nations.
    Sapet became the first in a new dynasty of Khamidian rulers that led Khamid into a golden age of sorts. Honourable values were instilled into the Khamidian people under this new dynastic rule, with reliance on esoteric arcana ignored and discouraged. Ancient idols, temples and colossi were allowed to fall into ruin as the Khamidians looked to the future instead - technarcana instead of shaping, trade with the outside world, industry, and diplomacy all became traits of Khamid, who, though its silver-tongued ambassadors, was able to maintain good relations with most outside nations.    
    The Sapeti dynasties, as they became known, lasted until 2384 RM, when Shedkharkhem IV, the last in their line, was assassinated, replaced by a powerful demagogue Natit Henshef who used fear and tyranny to bring back a belief in the old gods, elevating him to the statue of emissary. He took on the mantle of Pharoant, a practice his descendants would continue for centuries.
    Desperate to gain some new territories and resources following its losses in Almagest in 3014 RM, Korachan turned to the East and found Khamid; greatly diminished under the stewardship of the new Pharoants, who busied themselves erecting gigantic pylon mausolea in their honour, allowing the good done by the Sapeti Dynasties to falter. Following a blockade between 3019 and 3021 RM the Pharoants agreed to surrender on condition they be granted citizenship of Korachan, with lands and titles in the heartland. By 3023 RM the Pharoants had married into imperial Archpatrician families and had become little more than instruments of the empire.
    The name Pharoant slowly fell into disuse and these imperial puppets eventually became indistinguishable from western Archpatricians (though they maintained a flair for the dramatic - with garb inspired by their ancient namesakes), and ruled the region, handing over a portion of state-owned resources to the Korachani empire until the Dissolution of the Empire in 3705 RM, after which it was placed under control of the Domnitors who abandoned it fully in 3781 RM, leaving Khamid independant after seven centuries of subjugation. The descendants of the new Pharoants left Khamid when the Domnitors were installed, fulfilling a destiny promised by Korachan in 3021 RM and claiming the lands they were promised so long ago. Many of these Khamidian-descended patrician houses are still around today, proud of their eastern heritage.
    Korachani rule saw Firmamental practices, already greatly reduced since the days of the Cataclysm, all but forbidden, replaced instead by technarcana - which the people of Khamid saw as a defining symbol of their oppressors, causing them to dismissive of it.
    Most Khamidians remain distrustful of the technarcane arts as well as shaping in general to this day, which is somewhat of a burden in today’s post-industrial landscape, though there is a small but growing interest in the region’s ancient history and links with the dawn of Firmamentism in the west, with some individuals travelling to Meniscea to learn the truth behind the Art. this may lead to Khamid becoming a centre of firmamentism in the west.

Atlas Elyden #28 - N'rach, J'thana and Siriphagos

As always, if you're interested in the world and my worldbuilding, you can get me a virtual coffee here, or support me on Patreon or my FB page. Even $1 a month makes a huge difference!
A key/legend to the map can be found here.

Probably the strangest region detailed so far, this one has been a long time coming. Were it not for the magical corruption that pervades the world, most regions would be pretty realistic, comparable to alt-earth post-industrial societies. This is one of the more fantastical regions - it's home to spider-men who construct buildings from a resinous silk that they secrete (how original!).

A key/legend to the map can be found here

Atlas Elyden #28 - N'rach, J'thana and Siriphagos

Home to arcahniform monsters, N’rach is a blight within a blighted continent. Using human slaves, its architects build great silken fortresses to protect its overgrown lands. Very little is known of N’rach. Its denizens, the abhorrent arachniform aantha, are insular and aggressive to contact with outsiders, a stance possibly developed to cope with the xenophobic actions of other mortal races towards them in the past. Their culture is as alien to humans as it is to other mortal races, and attempts made by Korachani explorers to learn their ways have invariably failed. Their home is arid, covered in harsh shrubs, hardy evergreens and forests of sentry plants that lend it an alien appearance, befitting of its occupants.
      The aanth are a relic of ancient times, their true heritage unknown. There are no ruins from previous ages that are attributed to them, so it is unlikely that they are an old race, and if so they were never a united or strong people. Thymi records mention a war with misshapen silk-weaving beings over adamantine deposits in what is now northern N’rach. The aanth of this age were not a unified people, and consisted of many individual tribes that had little relations with each other. It was in around -1200 RM, when the Thymi empire was breathing its last, when attacks against border settlements increased, as did the number of people taken as slaves.
      The collapse of the Thymi empire early in the Fifth Age saw the aanth spread across their abandoned lands, populating their ruins and taking what people remained as slaves. The young races that inherited the Fifth Age were superstitious and cautious, and shunned such lands populated by these misshapen warmongers, allowing them to spread further.

      By c 500 RM the aanth had consolidated around the K’sena caracrats of the river Shibboleth, controlling lands as far east as the Amraot Massif in Ehbot and as far north as Eiclon in extant Lidea. The aanth had reached Ehbot but continued expanding their territories, with various nests and gossamer forts appearing around lake C’data. By c. 875 RM the aanth were pushed back across the Araaht, with the humans, their lands to the E of the Araaht by then known as Arkos, advancing against them. A great war followed in c 1100 - 1150 RM after human explorers uncovered caves north of lake C’data that led to the birthing pits of the goddess Maalkat - this was the first recorded contact of outsiders with the aanth goddess. It was revealed that the aanth territories encompassed as much of the subterranean world as they did the surface and that they died selflessly in defence of their goddess.

By the end of the war the aanth had pushed the Arkosians back to their citadel mounts, where they remained, allowing the aanth to reclaim the lands around lake C’data, fortifying them with their grotesque silken fortresses. By 1550 RM the region south of the Sterhbel mountains had become a place of pilgrimage to the growing aanth culture, which had become known as N’rach by then.
Slaving raids into neighbouring lands continued during this time, and it’s thought that much of the workforce in N’rach is composed of foreign slaves and their descendants. What contact N’rach maintains with foreign lands is done through human diplomats and merchants born and raised in Ekallu, Maalkat and M’hotok, which are its three largest known cities. These ambassadors are deeply indoctrinated into the ways of aanth culture and are as alien to foreigners as the aanth themselves. What we know of the nation is through contact with such ambassadors and the descendants of slaves who settled Barathea and J’thana. Dissent amongst the slaves in the metropolis of N’satta led to a rebellion that culminated in 2193 RM with the overthrowing of the city and the slaves - numbering hundreds of thousands - fleeing south-east. They clashed with the armies of N’rach outside the small city of N’habba. Many died, but they defeated the armies, taking the city and fortifying it. This led to sundering of the region of J’thana from N’rach within a few years. The J’thani expanded south east, mingling with outcasts from Siriphagos and Arkos.       In 2814 RM J’thana became a vassal of Siriphagos through the politicking of its Aliheioan rulers, though as Siriphagos waned in power the region managed to break away, alongside a large part of western Siriphagos, in 3306 RM.

      The lands to the east of lake C’data had remained uninhabited since the N’rachi victory against the Arkosian people, and it was settled by another group of freed slaves, becoming known as Barathea in 2200 RM as it expanded into regions of Ba’ath abandoned by Korachan to the Atramenta, resettling some of its ruins.

      N’rach maintains loose connections with Barathea and J’thana, with the latter two acting mostly as mediaries between it and human realms.
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Much like their homeland, little is known of aanth culture. The average aanth stands around 5-ft. tall and is of hunched form, with a large chest and spindly limbs, and thick grey skin that varies between rough and chitinous. Aantha have a pair of large black featureless eyes, that do not see colour and distance very well. It is not uncommon for individuals to have more than a single pair of eyes, sometimes arranged haphazardly on their faces. Similarly, aantha are known for their errant limbs, usually vestigial and unsightly, and rarely fully functioning. 
       Aanth bodies are naturally resistant to the effects of the Atramenta despite their apparent physical corruption. This suggests that their physical aberrations are not rooted in the Atramenta, but some other phenomenon. Such specimens - with their multiple eyes and limbs - are seen as blessed by their goddess, Maalkat, and are often chosen to be atterkhats - community leaders and shamen.

Aantha live in small semi-nomadic family groups known as sodalities, generally consisting of a single dominant female, a handful of k’hat champions, many young and a great number of human slaves who have been tortured into obedience. These sodalities travel around N’rach, stopping for months at a time in the major aanth settlements that are centred around the city of Ekallu (exotically known as the Silken City to outsiders). The aanth are expert engineers and mathematicians (using a base-8 number system), construct their cities from a unique pumice-like stone that is common to the region and the natural resinous silk that they secrete. The two combined make for a light and incredibly strong material that is used in fortifications and homing alike. Despite their skill, they have an affinity for subterranean dwelling, and most of their cities exist on two levels - above-ground and below.
      Their society revolves around worship of their deity, the goddess Maalkat, who is said to dwell in a labyrinthine pit beneath the mountains of Strehbel. The devotion they show Maalkat is utterly alien to humans, who have difficulty understanding this and other aspects of aanth culture.

Atlase Elyden # 27 - Narthel

As always, if you're interested in the world and my worldbuilding, you can get me a virtual coffee here, or support me on Patreon or my FB page. Even $1 a month makes a huge difference!
A key/legend to the map can be found here.

The latest map in the Atlas Elyden is Nárthel. I added a little inset map detailing a very large cave-system that dominates the south-west of the state, though I'm still not 100% sold on the style - it seems a bit jarring next to the rest of the map. I'm open to any suggestions as to how this can be improved!
A key/legend to the map can be found here

Atlas Elyden #27 - Narthel

Much like Vârr, Nárthel is a land reduced to a wasteland by the industry of the Korachani empire. Across more than 3,000 years it has given up its forests, mineral wealth, and the bounty of its seas to the hunger of the waning empire. Today it remains only because of its vast poppy fields and the wealth its opium industry brings to an ailing Korachan.
      Conquered in 84 RM following years of blockades and sieges, Nárthel became the 6th nation taken by the Archpotentate Malichar in the name of Korachan. Its major cities were soon flooded by patricians who would eventually gain control of its major institutions and industries, bringing with them wealth and trade. A new capital would follow this new wealth, becoming known as Mulciber.
Korachan lost Nárthel to the Venathi empire in 132 RM, but the conquering empire was weak, surviving through propaganda and the false opulence of its diplomats. Its forces were stretched thin and its hold over Nárthel was tenuous at best. The death of Emperor Labaisingh in 151 RM left Venath in chaos, allowing Korachan to reclaim its lost lands, moving as far east as Halolan, fortifying it against an expected retaliation which never came. Venath crumbled, with the enigmatic sphinx Hetepheres taking control under the mantle of Queen – the region would become known as Venthir.
      Next-door, Nárthel prospered under Korachani rule – its resources were exploited and foreign threats - such as the chorsairs of Scythea – were defeated, strengthening its borders. But by around 1000 RM the central plains of Nárthel had become overworked, any nutrients in their soil long-since taken, and the region had become known as the Lybic Sands.
      Over the years other regions were also pillaged of their natural resources in the east the forest of Illia had been reduced to scattered stunted woodlands between the mountains of Uefir and Quttakal. The mines of Luqarah were likewise abandoned, leaving the surface to the north west of the Uefir Highlands covered in the scars of abandoned open-cast mines.
      In 2950 RM the land was left to the caretaking stewards known as the Domnitors, who maintained the land on behalf of the empire. All lands but the lucrative poppy fields in the north-west were allowed to wither, and there was a massed exodus from the east and south to the cities of Nekir, Nekor and Dacia. Many people fled into Venthir during this time.
      In 3061 the entire east of Nárthel, including the waning capital of Mulciber, were gifted to Queen Hetepheres as part of a political alliance (in truth it was to appease her growing ego). The capital was moved to Dacia as the hinterlands of Nárthel were left to the Interregnum to govern and patrol.
The land, for what it was worth, stabilised after this time, though there remained a minority who were vocal in their opposition of the way Malichar and Hetepheres had treated their land. Amid growing dissent a large part of the populace was exiled between 3452 and 3463 RM, eventually settling the island of Lathlos Cha, off the coast of northern Venthir.
      Dacia, alongside much of the north of Nárthel, were taken by Lyridia in the chaos that followed in the wake of the Sundering of Korachan in 3705 RM. In the south Sarastro seized the moment and pushed north against the Nártheli border. The dust settled by 3862 RM, with the southern border little different and Dacia splintered from its Lyridian conquerors and reborn as an independent nation, as Nárthel consolidated its position from the new capital in Nekir.
       Nárthel survives now as a faded nation, cared for by the Interregnum and Domnitors only due to its highly profitable poppy and opiate industries. The farther south and east one goes the more wasted the land becomes, with few villages and towns dotting the countryside and most people living in the remnants of hollow cities destroyed by war and negligence.

Atlas Elyden #26 - Andiluth & Trakia

As always, if you're interested in the world and my worldbuilding, you can get me a virtual coffee here, or support me on Patreon or my FB page. Even $1 a month makes a huge difference!
A key/legend to the map can be found here

Thanks to Theo Jansen for the inspiration on this map

A key/legend to the map can be found here

Atlas Elyden #26 - Andiluth & Trakia

ANDILUTH
Not so much a nation, but a loose collection of people between other nations, Andiluth is a relatively recent land, having been submerged beneath the Sea of Byssos until around 1,000 years ago and exposed only through the waning of Elyden’s waters.
      The region is dominated by the once-coastal shelf of the Sea of Byssos and the marine fossils and calcified coral forests that pepper the otherwise featureless flat expanse.
      The people of Andiluth are descended from the coastal nomads that once roamed the foothills of the Cammorean mountains. As the diminishing sea exposed more of the Andiluthan shelf, they slowly moved north and eventually came to settle natural harbours that dominated the exposed coastline, becoming fishermen. Over the decades this way of life was destroyed by increasingly unpredictable weather that brought terrible winter storms miles inland, across the flat Andiluthan shelf. All but the most cosseted settlements were devastated by these storms. Even those cities that were well-protected would become uninhabitable in the storm season, forcing the people south for half the year. This lead to the appearance of the city of Cardamathia - the only major settlement in the entirety of Andiluth. It swells in winter as people travel there for shelter, bringing cured fish and other food with them.
      Elsewhere many Andiluthans cling to the nomadic lifestyle of their ancestors, constructing light shorewalkers - wind-powered machines that travel west and east along the shore - through which they can comb the coastline for debris washed ashore. This life is difficult and these itinerants need to contend with the giant crabs that haunt the region as well as each other.
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TRAKIA
Small nation in northern Sammaea south of the Tarahid Annexes. It is largely empty, dominated by badlands and scattered atramental wastes. Its people are remnants of a divided race that has, over time, died out or become absorbed by the Parthisan empire to the north (the people of the Tarahid Annexes to the north are their closest relatives).
      They are a hardy people, used to harsh weather and little help from the outside world. They work diligently against Atramental corruption, especially cyclocephaly, which is an unfortunately common ailment in the region, afflicting humans as well as the scattered oghur population alike. This atramental disorder afflicts life in the womb, causing newborns to have one eye and distended heads. Manby are newborn, and most of the rest remain weak and debilitated throughout their short lives. Interestingly those born with cyclocephaly are more likely to have an affinity for the Atramenta. Those who are capable are taken (usually more than willingly) from their struggling parents and sent to the university in Deacania, where they study the way of the Atramenta to strengthen them and fight against its spread.
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KHALHATOne of few non-human nations in Elyden, Khalhat is a lhaus enclave, a remnant of a far larger nation dating back to the Fourth Age that dwindled as the great empires of that age crumbled. They are largely insular, knowing how dangerous and unpredictable humans can be, and are relatively content with their small scrap of land in Sammaea.
      The Khalhati lhaus are experts in the field of cloning and, like their demiurge father, are obsessed with eternal life. Due to this they have perfected a method of cloning known as clada, where the soul of a dead lhaus is transferred to an artificially-crafted body, allowing continued life. This can be done indefinitely, though each such transference strips away part of the soul’s individuality, eventually leaving it as an automaton.
      Only the richest and most powerful lhaus can afford this treatment, though they can live for thousands of years as a result, leaving the rest of the populace to dream or work for their betters in the flesh-crafting ateliers.
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MOAH
Moah is a small independant nation centred around the powerful city-state of Roa, locataed in northern Sammaea. It is ruled by a council of five Numenin – otherworldly beings that have shaped the course of the city’s fate since its founding in 1624 RM, following its emergence from Khalhat to the north years earlier. The city has its own governing body, which only seeks the counsel of the numenin in times of uncertainty, though their wisdom is often conflicting.

Edit: for anyone asking about it:

FATUGHMA WEGH: a gigantic glassy-blue monolith in the plains of Laular in Trakia, N Sammaea. The tower is around 1100-ft. high and stands on an elevation of 130-ft. and can be seen as far away as 53-miles. Within this radius travellers are known to spontaneously develop headaches, nosebleeds and other phenomena that worsen the closer one gets to the monolith. This supranatural phenomenon has prevented exploration of the immediate area around the edifice, preventing more examination of its properties.
      Little is known about its origins, though it is believed to date back at least the Second Age, though there are little indications as to its origins, though many scholars have put forth an unknown Demiurge as the architect.

Atlas Elyden #24 - the Vassal State of Tartak

As always, if you're interested in the world and my worldbuilding, you can get me a virtual coffee here, or support me on Patreon or my FB page. Even $1 a month makes a huge difference!
A key/legend to the map can be found here

So, as I work on recreating the labels on the Inner Sea poster map, I'm still working on fleshing out the individual regions that will be visible in it. Tartak is such a place. I actually finished this a week-ago though wasn't able to edit its write-up into a presentable form until today. So here it is:

(A key to the map and others in the series can be found here)

Atlas Elyden #24 - the Vassal State of Tartak

Built on the ruins of the Fourth Age Karthan empire, Tartak has a history of occupation, alternating between Parthis and Korachan for various times throughout its history. This and threat of the Atramenta that hovers all-too-close in its southern territories has moulded its inhabitants into a cautious people, who trust only their own devices. They expect and accept little help if offered and value self-reliance above other traits. They are expert trackers and survivalists, and are known across the Inner Sea for their training and taming of the ferocious bipedal replies known as phylacters - a dying vocation, but one that represents Tartakasid culture abroad more than any other. 
    Tartak borders the Atramental phenomenon called the Camorrean Shadow, which is an insidious tainted influence that encroaches daily from the south. Its corrupting influence is kept at bay through the diligent work of Atramentists who train ceaselessly to use the Atramenta against itself, as well as the hundreds of monolithic siphon engines that work tirelessly in filtering the Atramenta, weakening its influence in nearby lands. The by-product of this is the processing of raw Atramenta into what is called umbra - a valued fuel and mutagenic agent if filtered correctly. This is pumped to the city of Sahim via hundreds of miles of well-guarded pipelines, where it is shipped to Parthis.
   In 967 RM the nation was abandoned by the Korachani interreges, ending 548 years of rule. This left a power vacuum that was filled by Pardis, the Parthisan Exiled King. He took over the western reaches of Tartak in 1098 RM, leaving Korachani descendants in control of the east. Pardis, granted long-life through dubious heritage, and his family ruled for another thousand years, until the east, united by a new period of Korachani occupancy, moved west, hunting the descendants of Pardis. This period lasted until 2053 RM, when the city of Sher (then the centre of Korachani tartak) was poisoned. The entire region was thrown into chaos until 2060 RM, when Pardis managed to take control of the east following much bloodshed. At the same time he had squandered much of his troops fighting Parthis. This three-way war cost Pardis the war, as Korachan was able to reclaim Tatak by 2064 RM, moving the capital to Liraet. 
    Tartak was last occupied by Parthis in 2132 following the successful siege of the city of Liraet the previous year, ending 68 years of Korachani rule. Since then the nation of Tartak has been a vassal to Parthis, slowly assimilating its secular culture - its religious leaders slowly exiling themselves to the wastes to the south, never to be heard from again.
    This interest in Tartak was simple - mineral resources. The western and northern lands of Tartak were rich in nickel, cobalt, quartz and other resources and were heavily exploited, leaving hundreds of square miles devastated, lain bare by unsightly strip-mines that remain as testament to Parthisan and Korachani influence there.
    Following the signing of the Covenant of Khuraur in 3478 RM - which saw the nation of Karakhas sundered into two (Khuraur in the west, bordering Tartak; and Karakhas to the east), Khuraur slowly became more open to trade with Tartak, and it too became a vassal of Parthis in 3752 RM, fully opening up trade between the two regions.