Kingdom of Lothal
Not much is known about Lothal after the civil wars. The borders have been closed, the border forts of Killo and Pakaru-Roto striking down any who approach with bolt and bow.
That doesn't stop the rumors. Heard from the cousin of a cousin or an adventurer on his dying bed, each one is more a wild tale than the last. The undead loose upon the forests, a magical weapon being built in the old capital, the old raja struck dead by the hands of an Aspect. These and more are the bread and butter of tavern gossip across the Free Cities.
The information provided here is what was common knowledge before the wars.
Culture
Lothalian culture can be summed up in one phrase. Morbidly practical. They believe that death is the start of the next phase of a journey, the soul leaving the body with its final breath. Rather than construct mausoleums to house the bodies of the dead, they build shrines large and small to honor their memory.
That said, if the soul has departed, all that remains is meat. Rather than leave it to the carrion feeders, why not make use of it? Manual labor throughout the country was done by necromantic constructs, overseen by adepts of the Anandian Academy of High Magicks. The population, freed from the need to cultivate, focused their efforts on the higher arts, particularly architecture and other arts that shape the earth around them.
Assets
Lothal's primary asset and export was the art of necromancy. Over the centuries the royal family funded necromantic study and research, finding and sponsoring talent from across the archipelago. At time of the civil wars, Lothalian necromancers were without equal. They were masters of both raising the undead and healing the living, as to them, they were one art.
Individual practitioners were engaged far and wide, from tasks as mundane as clearing a graveyard to operating as plague doctors and field surgeons in disease-stricken areas.
Lothal also had relatively ample stores of raw materials (metals, wood, food) extracted from the lowlands.
History
Lothal was founded in 487 PCO by the first Raja and bearer of the Shard of Death, Raja Anadē. The ancient stories tell that Anadē was cast out from his tribe for their physical weakness, left to die in the forests of the highlands. After many days, delirious and wracked with pain, Anadē laid down to die. When they closed his eyes, ready to accept the eternal dream, they were swallowed whole by the earth. What they found there has never been recorded, but they returned to the world above after many years with a small crystal embedded in his chest. The crystal swirled and flowed as if it was smoke made solid. With the shard Anadē could control the dead gone and buried and combine them into forms previously unseen by the world. With bone and blood, they tore through the tribes of the highlands. Any who did not submit to the ivory tide were crushed beneath its weight. Eventually, they made their way into the lowlands laying claim to all the lands east of the ____ river.
Years passed, decades and centuries passed. The kingdom grew in strength, its necromancers growing more and more powerful and learned. They learned to command hordes to till the fields and harvest, cut down the jungle and mine ore from the depths. At the beginning, this new labor force freed the populace to explore the arts, creating things of beauty and dignity. This was not to last. The necromancers controlled the land, the labor, and the magic of Lothal. The working class was slowly made obsolete, unable to compete with free, undying, unfeeling labor. hoarded their wealth,turning the entirety of the highlands into a utopia of their own design. The land itself was carved up The dynasty of Anadē looked at the
Territories
Lothal maintains control over the highlands of Chúunul. During it's height, it ruled over the northern lowlands up to the eastern bank of the Dark River and down to the mouth of Hell's Pass in the south.
The dead teach the living
Founding Date
487 PCO
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Capital
Demonym
Lothalian
Leader Title
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Command/Planned economy
Location
Neighboring Nations
Comments