Talmetra, the Ethereal Consulates

## History

The millennia of ruin that followed the Elder War, city states and loose coalitions would rise and lay claim to Shael’s stabilizing climate. On Shum, three powerful cities would eventually solidify into the first human dominated nations: The Tal’hai Monarchy, The Metrómos Dominion, and Rhamaak Khanate. The late Mortal era saw the consolidation of power into a handful of aristocratic families and warlords and was defined by their liberal use of Elder magics and technologies. The resulting conflicts were called “The War of Stone Hearts,” and are credited for widespread famine due to the destabilization of local climates and the awakening of Elder era war-machines and strange beasts. While the War of Stone Hearts would cool into “The Uneven Peace,” its contestants saw only a perpetual struggle for power. The arrival of the Celestials would change that.

When Aros and the Lineage of Rath descended upon Shael, the mortal powers of Shum and Ira took little notice, many dismissing the stories as exaggerated or superstitious fabrications, their focus on the Uneven Peace. This did not last. One by one, the proud kingdoms of Ira fell to the angelic host of Aros, their crowns bowing to or melted by celestial plasma. The expanding song of Q’rath shattered the holdings and bloodlines of Tal’hai, pushing them to the continent’s northern coast, then across the sea to Shum and The Reach, into the waiting arms of their Metromos and Rhamaak enemies. The shattered aristocracy of Tal’hai would integrate into the courts and lineages of their rivals, each one bearing the warning of the power that grew across the narrows. They warned of bronze-masked men in armor that moved itself, they warned of living fire that spoke in the tongues of men, they spoke of an Empire that could not be bribed or threatened, ruled by an inhuman regent that was itself, a breathing sun. As the last coastal powers fell silent, their refugees washing up on northern shores, raving of walking shrines and faceless legions, the crowns of Shum at last felt the dread that was due to their hearts. They at last knew, the Celestials had come, they would continue their expansion, they would not be deterred, and in their world, there was but one crown and one throne. Thus, the Legion came, the Outer Reach cracked then broke, its feudal champions reduced to stelar slag and consecrated ash.

The Bulge’s coastal cities were occupied with little fuss, then annexed. In the land of Doh’kaar, the descendants of Tal’hai met their Iran siblings, now bearing the mask and mantle of that distant empire. Though their accents were familiar, the words they spoke were alien, words given to them from the inscrutable flames. Their kin told them that they were now Q’rath. The Empire’s inclusion would prove disastrous to the traditional powers, costing them territory and resources their strained systems could ill afford. The ordained hierarchies melted away, replaced by the promise of Q’rath, a world without betters, bowing only to the Celestial teachers. Unrest burned across divided cities, and at last, the realms Metromos and Rhamaak collapsed, corpses and crowns lost in the dirge of riots and the encroaching war-hymns of the Angelic Legion. It was then, at Q’rath’s zenith, that Aros departed Shael, ending an era, and casting the future into uncertain shadow.

*The Stirring Era: (probably going to give this its own page)*

*Today, after two centuries, the angels can still remember Aros's departure, the shaking ground, the quivering sky weeping with the sounds of cracking ice. In the heavy heat of Shael's Summer Solstice, The Godhead's titanic form rose from its Throne, its sacred light a second sun. Framed by Pyre, a greater halo, Aros spread its wings their extent encircling the city's walls. Mortals who looked upon the eye-within-the-wings-within-the-star were struck irrevocably blind and mad, for they* *had seen the Conduit to Heaven, The Promise of the Throne, and the Way To The Last Reckoning. For a moment, the mountains and the plains were drowned in a thundering light, the roar of a slumbering sun. When silence fell upon Ira again, Aros was gone.*

*On the scarred plains of Engri, loyalists to Metromos, battered and pressed to the edge of the route witnessed the effects. It was the Wardens who first felt The Godhead’s absence, their daunting forms faltering, falling from the heavens. The Angelic Legions slowed, their movements labored and clumsy. It was this crux, this crossroads where the execution of the old world was stayed. The mortal powers wasted little time. Across Shum, human resistance rallied, seizing upon the angel’s weakness. At the battle of Ahk’Da, a desperate coalition of human traditionalists pushed the 6th Legion back to the Outer Reach, stalling the annexation of Southern Shum and diverting vital resources away from the Empire’s outermost holdings. In the wake of these victories, a series of city states would coalesce around the descendants of exiled human nobility, rallied in common cause: freedom from the influences of the alien, the beast, and the god. From these city states, two great nations would emerge: The Iron Republic of Jora, and the Ethereal Consulates of Talmetros. While often at odds with one another, the young powers worked closely together to bleed the overextended Empire, baiting its seemingly endless legions into costly traps and ambushes*

*Over the grueling decades, the Q’rath war machine cracked, then broke, withdrawing to its coastal fortresses and its beleaguered heartland. This conflict, called “The Determination War” has yielded to an uncomfortable lull named “The Long Wait.” The leaders of the dissonant human cities know that the Angels cannot allow humans to persist unmastered, they know the alien faith of Q’rath cannot accept the existence of the heathen, and that the empire cannot survive without conquest. The awakening of the gates and the declaration of Shar’Ora is simply the promised end to the Long Wait. Talmetra and Jora have not been idle. For two decades, the nations have been consolidating and centralizing power, building great machines of war, and conscripting allies in anticipation for Q’rath’s return. And so, the Stirring ends, Pyre waxes and the ways open. This is the Era of Gates.*

## Culture

More than anything, the Ether Consulate’s culture and economy is defined by the phrase “In Talmetra, you get what you deserve.” Indeed, regardless of political affiliation, ancestry, religion, or societal station, citizens of the Consulate believe that to be Talmetran is to take whatever one can, and to keep it by any means necessary. This ruthless opportunism runs deep. Both the Metromos Dominion and Tal-Hai Monarchy were renowned trade powers, leveraging naval expertise with shewed diplomacy to forge client states and colonies across the Reach, Ira, Eastern Ald, and Southern Shum, rediscovering mercantile economics in the process. These trade empires, geared towards the delicate give and take of gunboat diplomacy, imperial brinksmanship, and colonial subjugation, were ill-prepared for the advent of Aros and its angelic lineage. As the planned economy and fanatical legions spread across Ira’s arid but fertile highlands, Tal-Hai’ struggled to import sufficient grains to pacify its client states. By the time the first bronze-faced Sipari reached Tal-Hai’s capital, the Monarchy was a shadow of its former self, its elite largely departed to the waiting arms of their hated rivals, the Metromos across the Narrows. The fall of Tal-Hai and the brutal wars of attrition that followed would impart deep scars on the Talmetran psyche, emphasizing the importance of human supremacy in the face of alien subjugation, and the critical importance of walking away with the better deal. While in tension, these concepts would mix, producing a refined and wickedly sharp blend of imperial mercantilism, volatile libertarian speculation, and military-focused exploitation of surrounding regions and the civilizations that inhabited them. The resulting cocktail, combined with external economic pressures from the Iron Republic and the Q’rath Empire would rocket Talmetra into the position of a premiere world power, with an economy to match.

## Royals:

Talmetra believes that humans can and should be a race of gods. As the only people having the natural ability of being able to digest the Pyre. These people are known to have a mark shown on their body’s and thus identifying as a royal.

## Technology

Talmetra's tech, while delicate have innovated on Rae stuff to the point where their current prototypes rival or even (briefly) surpass Rae tools in performance. Both Talmetra and Joran society is built on the reverse engineering of elder magi-tech. both societies have innovated on what the Rae had going on.