Echaea (ak-ay-a)

Echaea is a land of great beauty, but led by a rather ambitious king, Phyrrus Hyperios.
The Echaeans are a race of fair to tawny skinned individuals, and the hair colour often varies in shades of brown to a sandy blonde. Most people here have eyes of brown or blue. And grey eyes are rare and often seen as a sign of great wisdom.
The Echaeans speak a dialect known as Mynima. Mynima is the base that the common alphabet is derived from, but it contains more letters and is written differently.
The Echaeans have a slightly higher population of aasimar than most other regions… due to the rather lax rules the aurelians have for mingling with mortals. The aurelians make terrible parents though, and most aasimar don’t ever meet their parent celestial. There are also many of fey ancestry here, some with divine lineage, some without.
Echaea is a beautiful land of lush greenery and open fields, a slightly hilly region, with 3 mountains within the Echaean territories:
Ambrosia Peak
Noxystis
Mount Akrogys

Echaea is rather small in comparison to places like the Han Territories and Ile-Ile but it’s still large enough that each town and city needs to be ruled by its own Archon. Echaea has a rather powerful military, one of the best fighting forces in Elyria, but they are small in number. The military is known as the Army of Aetos , and they patrol the streets of all the towns within the kingdom. The Echaean Judicial System is very hierarchical and a little bit complex, but all members are democratically elected.

The Deities of Echaea

The Echaean deities are known as The Aurelians. And they are said to reside on Ambrosia Peak. The Echaeans love their deities, and their statues depict the Aurelians as incredibly beautiful beings with marble skin and features of precious metals and gems, some looking more humanoid that others.
The Aurelians have their own courts and subjects, and some are even worshipped as minor deities on their own.
The Echaeans have a separate belief system in Echaean Horoscopes which the particularly superstitious sometimes use to classify people. They also use constellations for divination purposes.

Culture & Aesthetics

The architecture of Echaean cities is usually white or pale grey, often made of stone from the mountains. Echaeans also tend to grow gardens, and even the lowest classes will have a small patch of greenery to call their own. They often grow small edible crops and herbs this way. All Echaean households also have a golden-yellow gem caled Xanperite that is attached somewhere on the roof; this gem traps solar energy and acts as a battery for the home. Many wealthier families also have multiple or highly intricate copper or bronze cages that house the gems, while poorer families often just have a simple structure to hold a single gem.
The Echaeans also enjoy art and sculpture, and often very skilled craftspeople will be employed to paint or sculpt large pieces to publicly display. Usually these sculptures are made of marble and embellished with precious metals.
Echaeans tend to prefer white clothing that flows and billows in the wind, embellished with precious stones or clay beads in bright colours. Men usually wear shorter tunics and kilts that reach the knee, while women usually wear longer dresses that reach the mid-calf.
Wealthy women also tend to have very elaborate hairstyles that are sewn into place and decorated with flowers or greenery. Poorer women tend to just braid their hair with vines or flowers.
All genders wear jewellery, and status is typically determined by the level of decoration on a person’s cape/cloak. The more embellished the clothing is and the more layers worn, usually, the more wealthy the person is.

Geography

Echaea stretches from the Ostraran coast all the way to the Ossic Mountains, a steep mountain range that covers the north-eastern portion of the Ostraran landscape. The mountains are all a pale grey, with a heart consisting of almost pure white stone. Many of the cities are built using this white stone, and are often decorated with greenery.
King Phyrrus’ palace is a gleaming white stone building with accents of goldwork and grey stone, located in the capital city of Arachosia.

Notable Cities in Echaea

Canthus

A military city, where much of the Army of Aetos are trained. 

Arachosia

A large city further inland in the Echaean territories, largely elven and immensely beautiful. The ‘Pale Fortress’ it is often called, it is also called glorious and heavenly, as if the Aurelians built it themselves. This is the capital of Echaea, and home to the Ambrosial Basilica, where the Dux Cogitors meet. Each town and city is assigned an Archon, who is trained here before being sent to their posting, and each Archon’s assignment lasts 12 years.

Pegasa

A bustling port town, perfect for trade. Many merchants come through here to get to the western parts of the land, often stopping to trade and set up shop in between. This city spans almost the entirety of the isthmus, and has ports on both the northern and southern sides of the city.

Notable parts of the city:

Port Pegasa Hublaea Docks

Nymphaion

A port city dedicated to Poseidon, with the sea to the west and fields to the east, it is a trading hub that could rival Pegasa. Horses are bred in the fields here for the Echaean rangers and cavalry, and are said to be blessed by Okeanus himself.

Eisodos

A mining town at the base of Mount Akrogys, the furthest village at the edge of the Echaean region. The mountain itself is considered the border of the kingdom, and once travellers pass this village and into the mountain pass, they are no longer within the Echaean territories. This village is largely dwarven, but there’s also a large population of gnomes and halflings that tend the fields around the mines. This area is rich in precious metals, and sometimes a bit of Eidonite

Other towns:

Matiniea
Myous
Casmenae
Vasiliki
Temnos
Ephesus

Other villages: Thyrium
Sychion
Pandosia
Nysa

History

The Echaean Agate Age
The Joining of the Pearls
The Hyperios Syllogi

Inhabiting Species

• Hexa

Related Materials

• Byssus

Related Historical Events

• 1268
  The Hyperios Syllogi
• 916
  The Joining of the Pearls