Lantan Union

## Like Clockwork: the Lantan Way

The Lantanna were long-time craftsmen in high arts and sciences. A mix of races that leaned gnomish, with a sizable human minority, they were famous for clockwork mechanics, mundane (non-magical) engineering – and some exceptional magically-powered devices as well.

Largely followers of Gond, and historically comparable or more advanced than the Shou empire of Kara-Tur, their social connection to Baldur's Gate and deeper connection to Stonehearth created a dynamic that was pushing the envelope before the Spellplague hit.

### Major Malfunctions

Perhaps their most famous claim to fame, however, was the invention of smokepowder. Created in the wake of Stonhearth's own off-label use of beads of fireballs, this became a point of power for the island. It also became a liability as the Spellplague's blue fire touched off the massive smokepowder reserves, tearing apart the cities just as the lands were torn from Toril and lodged in their alt-universe place of Abeir.

The devastation of Lantan was injury upon the insult of world transposition. The survivors had to fend for themselves under the steel skies of another planet, without their support network – and survive they did.

It wasn't long after that Stonehearth portal ships arrived and reestablished connections. In the aftermath of world-sundering calamity, there was a deeper, more urgent connection between the peoples, driving them to become one extended family.

### Version 2.0

The traditional Lantan leadership was the Ayrorch, a council of 12 members. This was 11 *Santars* and 1 executive *Ayrar*, elected for life. The capital was Sambar, on the main island of Lantan – and the capital was one of the few things that persisted, even if they were rebuilding from ruins.

The wake of the Spellplague brought a great deal into focus. Part of that was failure of safety measures to prevent smokepowder detonation, but this went deeper. It called for new research and development in all walks of life, including modes and methods of leadership (most of whom had perished in the explosions).

The Stonehearth connection was well-suited to this as well. Abandoning the life-duration elections, the Lantanese acknowledged their own equivalents to Houses. Some of them were merchant companies, some were family-based, some were both. First creating rules for the creation and management of their new Houses, they created a federal union of those Houses to bring together the often disparate specialties that defined who they were.

### Mechanics of the Marquisate

By 1432, Lantan entered into the Stonehearth Marquisate as a modified barony. This followed the guidelines of Mageweave Barony, with a central Lantan representative traveling to North Point by portal ship and treating the island nation almost as if they were a barony ruling in exile. Likewise, the surviving eleven Lantan Houses were each bestowed baronet status.

During the evolution of Stonehearth's own system, Lantan was taking notes and weighing options. They were part of the creative process, along with Abeir-bound Halruaa, in crafting the new Charter of Light. In the process, they redefined their role, was released from their baronial role – and promptly reformed as what was essentially a tiny federal republic: *the Union of the Houses of Lantan* (or "The Lantan Union" in its shorter form).

### **Geography and Demographics**

Lantan is an archipelago of three volcanic, rocky islands covered in lush jungle. Fairly far west in the Trackless Sea, and just northwest of the jungles of Chult, it is considered the westernmost portion of Faerûn. The capital is the City of Sambar, on the south coast of the main island.

The indigenous Lantanna are a mix of humans and rock gnomes in a demonstration of excellent interspecies integration. Most of whom worship Gond, the god of artifice, and a sizable percentage also give a nod to Azuth, one of the gods of magic.

The 1385 Spellplague, which transposed most of the Lantan Islands to Abeir, was devastating even to the things that survived the journey – their alchemical smokepowder was touched off by the Blue Fire. Very few original structures survived, though there were a surprising number of Toril-stranded survivors, as well as travelers and expatriates in Baldur's Gate at the time.

The returned Lantan is an extremely technologically advanced culture, and not just relative to the Forgotten Realms. Their mundane mechanics have precision and power on their own, but mixed with primal magical energization – *as befitting the closest ally of House Stonehearth* – the Lantanese have an extraordinary level of power relative to their small size.

## Community Within the Commonwealth

Now reformed as the Lantan Union, the collective houses ratified their adherence to this next level *Charter of Light*. They re-joined the Stonehearth Marquisate closer to equals, while investing in a common system that continued to give back more than they gave.

The Lantan Union, and the Commonwealth behind them, is poised to bring stability to the seas, to Chult, Maztica to the west – and back to Abeir, the world that hosted them for nearly a century.