Elydria

*It is the first year of our new calendar, implemented by He who has been Blessed, He who has been Kissed, He who has been Elected. I'm his scribe, tasked with writing the chronicles of the rebirth of our nation. It has been several months since the revolution, led by Him who has been Blessed. I can still smell the smoke. I can still feel the blood upon the soles of my feet as I blindly followed the angry mobs, flooding each street and assaulting the houses of the merchants. May the loving Mother, Mina'al, have mercy upon me, in this life and in the next. Let me first tell you, reader, a short history of our nation.*

## The Mist

Nobody really knows what the origins of our people are, but all agree that the first settlers of this island came from the East a long, long time ago. Because this time is shrouded in mystery, we call this era The Mist. This folk of men settled the entire island, built giant cities, and brought their gods here, which we worship to this very day. They found an Empire, the Empire of Ishtar, which was built upon trade and military might. The people thrived. The Gods were worshipped, harvests were bountiful, and our ships traveled far and wide. Then, disaster struck.

## War of the Temples

Sources differ on how and when the War of the Temples started, but the origins of this war lie in the fact that each major city started worshiping a different deity of the Pantheon. This caused friction. Fights escalated to skirmishes. Skirmishes evolved into pitched battles and sieges. The whole island was burning, and the once so mighty Empire fractured and broke apart into many different city states, each vying for local control and power. One of these city states was Elydria, with its capital the ruined remains of the capital of the Ishtar Empire of the same name. This is the setting in which our story takes place.

## The Merchants

The War of the Temples had a massive impact on many of the city states that emerged from the Ishtar Empire. Much of the ruling nobility had been killed on the battlefield, which left a power vacuum when the War ended. The local merchants and rich traders jumped into this breach, and quickly took power in our capital of Iskaedra. Things quickly went downhill after they did, as if our situation wasn't bad enough already. The merchants only thought of themselves and their pockets. Temples fell into disrepair. The paved roads got washed away and became a muddy mess. The people were hopeless, shells of a once proud people. Our patron godess, Mina'al, the Loving Mother, abandoned us. Seeds rotted away after being sown. Cattle got sick and died. The people got sick and grew wick. Meanwhile, the merchants continued to trade and continued to grow fat and rich. We lost all hope. until one day, a fairly unknown  priest spoke to us in front of the (now ruined) ruined Palace of Everjoy. He spoke to us, to the hopeless people, to the despaired ones. But he gave us hope. He gave us rage. He gave us reason... reason to kill. In a blind fury, the people of the city took up arms, anything they could find. Stones from the streets, daggers, parts from benches, swords, anything. Street by street, quarter by quarter, we broke into the houses of the merchants, dragged them into the streets. We took all their money, wealth, food, and slaughtered them like pigs. Our rage lasted three days and three nights. Finally, all of us fell in a slumber, totally tired and worn out. But when we woke up, everyone of us said the same. Mina'al came to us in our dream, to all of us, to all the people, for the first time in months. She told us the priest was the One she'd Kissed, the One she'd Blessed. She showed us Iskaedra, she showed us Ishtar. Cities made from blinding white marble, trade fleets sailing up the Faeras, mighty legions marching past the Palace of Everjoy, temples being built and the masses praying for the wealth of the Empire. All of this could be achieved, so she spoke to us, if we would follow her chosen priest, if we would blindly sacrifice our lives to accomplish greatness; only then could the Ishtar Empire be reborn. This she promised to us, and then we woke up, our muscles strong, our tiredness driven from our bodies. And there he stood, the Chosen one of Mina'al, his arms spread in a loving gesture. We fell on our knees and promptly begged him to show us the light. And so he did.Rising from the Ashes

With the money confiscated from the merchants, we quickly went to work. The quarries were being opened once more. Temples are being rebuilt, roads are being restored. The crops grow this time under a strong sun. The Palace of Everjoy is in the process of repair, where Mother's Favoured resides. We'll come out stronger than ever. With our blind faith, good positioning on the river, the possession of the capital of the former Ishtar Empire (the most populous city of the island) and the blessing of Mina'al, we are bound for greatness. We have been promised greatness, and we will stop at nothing to get it.

## Economy

The city state of Elydria profits greatly from her strong geographical location. Built on both banks of the Faedras Strait, she overlooks and controls the flow of ships using the Strait to avoid circumnavigating Ishtar. However, this isn't free. There's a tariff of 20% of the worth of each item the ship's carrying, aswell as the confiscation of any book or scroll the ship carries, which will be exactly copied by the cities' mages in a few hours time. The owners of the book will get the original back, of course. The Mother's Favoured and he alone decides the tariffs, which can be raised or reduced as he sees fit.

The main source of income of Elydria is her trade, a legacy of the Ishtar Empire: our trade posts can be found all over the southern and western hemisphere. Our marble is one of the finest in the world, which gets exported to regions that have less of it. The capital of Elydria houses one of the biggest ports in the known world, ever getting expanded. Our city is a stacking market, buying goods from all over the world, storing them until prices elsewhere for the product rise and we can sell it for much profit.

Last but not least, our theocracy gets a lot of donations from our zealous people. Of course most of this gets invested in temples and the like, but a lot too gets invested into things to make sure our wealth won't be taken from us.

## Government

The City-State of Elydria differs from the many other Ishtari city states in the aspect that it's ruled absolutely by the Favoured of the Loving Mother Mina'al, whereas other cities are ruled by emperors, dukes, despots, kings, or even merchants, like ours used to be ruled. The Loving Mother has clearly chosen Arch Priest Dekesh I (Loving Mother forgive me for uttering his Graceful name) to rule over us like a father would rule over his household, and we'll gladly give our lives to fullfil any order the Blessed One gives us.

Recently, the Mother's Favoured has proposed a marriage to the Empress of Tyrasdra, who has neither an heir nor groom, and she accepted, seeing how a union with Elydria gives her people the most chance to survive. This means we now have an Arch Priest bound to a wordly Empress, but their child however will be divine, and surely blessed by the Loving Mother and Taranis the Stormforger, the patron deity of Tyrasdra. As such, the Mother's Favoured has ordered the build of a new joint temple of the Loving Mother and Taranis the Stormforger.

The rule of the Arch Priest is absolute. He controls the army, the bureaucracy, and the tariffs imposed on ships passing through our Strait. He commands the army in battle, the orders grand projects to be built, he orders us to kill or even to give our lives for the Loving Mother, for that we may be held in her graceful embrace. Everything he says are the words of the Loving Mother and nobody doubts it, for that would be to doubt the Loving Mother, which makes sure you'll spend eternity in hell.

When the Arch Priest is gone on campaign or is otherwise obstructed, the Empress Consort takes over the rule temporarily. As loved by the people as she is loved by her husband, she rules the now united city states of Elydria and Tyrasdra wisely. Under her careful and surely blessed guidance, public buildings for the people like temples, bathing complexes, hippodromes and much more have been built and festivals for the divine

are organised monthly.