Kingdom of Thaur

Rivalled only by Red Crest's cultural revolution, the birth of the Kingdom of Thaur was the most notable and immediate big-scale consequence of the cataclysm known as the High Rust.

Vacating the lands

The raise of Goldwaste on Merthiorn

Thaur Island

The kingdom occupies the west coast of the homonym island, which was previously known with the name of her predecessor country, the Kingdom of Merthiorn. Merthiorn was a wealthy, long-standing small empire, which controlled not only its own island but also the northern islands of Red Crest. In 2961 E.Alz, the Queen of Merthiorn, Tesel, declared finished the construction of the City of Goldwaste, a wealthy, naturally well-defended city surrounded by mountains. As per the traditions of the archipelago before the Rust, a city on such a literally high and remote place was considered a symbol of extremely high status, and over the years, most of the rich and noble from Merthiorn moved there.

The fall of Goldwaste on Merthiorn

When the High Rust came and went, destroying everything that raised or lived too high over the land, Goldwaste was, naturally, completely wrecked. Tesel was the first casualty of a country's governor, making her death the event that marked the end of the Era of Alzufhars and the start of the Era of Rust. But, while queens can be replaced (and this was very much what happened), Merthiorn was left not only queenless but also wiped clean of almost all of the wealthy, the noble folk, and the military. A good chunk of the surviving organizations was left headless, the island almost defenceless, and the people started becoming desperate to find new leaders.

The coming of the guardian

Guardian of the Family by Naelin

One of the almost-intact big merchant organizations of the island was the Chariot traders, based near the port of the City of Birdland and specialized on hunting and trading meats and hides, and eventually expanding to the importing and exporting of goods with other islands. While Chariot, the owner, was badly disfigured by the Rust, he survived it and his business was able to continue working. Almost two months after the death of Tesel, one of Chariot's merchants called Naelin was supposed to go back to the ship for dinner time after a break during a trading spree through Ruh's towns, but he was late. After several hours, he finally reached the ship, carrying in his arms a small and seemingly injured tetsu cub. This immediately threw the crew into a panic, as it was well known that any tetsu, even a baby (especially a baby) both instinctively hated societarians, and could make a call of help that would make all tetsus that hear it come to kill the source of danger.
The crew wanted to immediately flee and leave Naelin behind, but he insisted that the tetsu was not aggressive and, much to their incredulity, they could easily see that it was true: It was fully conscious and seemed perfectly happy to be resting on the arms of a societarian. The crew, still afraid and even enraged about the whole potentially mortal deal, agreed on allowing Naelin to follow them on the rest of the trading voyage trough Ruh, taking quite a good amount of precautions to ensure that the cub would not go into a rage and provoke the massacre of an entire village. After several days in which Naelin took care of the cub's wounds, the crew could clearly see that it not only had no intention of calling for tetsu aid against the societarians but also that he seemed to have bonded to Naelin and followed him everywhere as a bonded pet or small children would.
The tetsu was called Dinner after the meal he interrupted, and Naelin explained to the crew that he found Dinner accidentally, while he was trying to hunt some local critters to have some exotic food, and stumbled very close upon a big Doisu who had just killed Dinner's mother and was about to do the same to the cub. He said he instinctively shot an arrow at the doisu which, already hurt by the battle with the adult tetsu, fled the scene.
Naelin and Dinner were reluctantly allowed to make the voyage back to the port of Birdland and by the moment they arrived, the crew had already gone from wary, to feeling a strong sense of security from having such a creature as an ally instead of a mortal enemy.
Convincing the inhabitants of the city of the same would have been an almost impossible task on normal days. However, the survivors of Merthiorn were desperate for any kind of defence to throw themselves behind...

Every Bridge can be Crossed

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Capital

City of Birdland

Predecessor Organization

• Kingdom of Merthiorn

Demonym

Thaurine

Leader

Naelin

Head of State

Naelin

Government System

Monarchy, Elective

Power Structure

Autonomous area

Location

Thaur Island

Related Ranks & Titles

• Monarch

Controlled Territories

• Birdland Castle
• Birdland Dungeons
• City of Birdland
• City of Spire
• Deep Cue Garn
• Delta of Many Birds
• Thaur Island
• The Submerged Museum

Related Items

• The Crown of Thaur

Organization Vehicles

• Brutal

Notable Members

• Breifel
• Dinner
• Naelin
• Road
• Tazyl
• The Servant

Related Ethnicities

• Thaurian

Related Historical Events

• 1 E.Ru
  Naelin is crowned as the first king of Thaur

Birdland & the new Kingdom

Naelin by Naelin

Naelin was not unknown to the Birdland inhabitants: Despite his eccentricity, he was considered trustworthy enough and, backed by his crew's testimony, the tale of the man who tamed a tetsu spread like wildfire on the island. The people started treating Naelin and his tetsu with reverence, and in a short time, they started asking him to "protect" them and the city. The grandiosity attributed to having an allied tetsu started escalating exponentially and Dinner became a hope for the then-Merthionites, which considered that the tetsu would call for aid of anyone that he considered an ally and that he would at the same time keep the rest of the island's tetsus from attacking. By that point, Birdland was already the biggest city left working normally after the High Rust on the island, and people started considering Naelin a leader, and Dinner the protector of a nation that was quickly forming around them.
The few noble and powerful families that were left (invariably greatly damaged by the cataclysm) were quick to pledge allegiance to the new "leader" in exchange to securing themselves a new place of power, and in a matter of a few months, the people started recognizing Naelin as the new king, and a new nation rose with the name of Thaur, derived from the sound a tetsu makes to call for aid.
Naelin was officially crowned as the First King of Thaur on the 3rd of Swimming, 1E.Ru, and a circlet depicting his personal symbol, the horns of Dinner and the wings of a Passion Bird was crafted to become his crown.
Naelin crafted a new culture for his small kingdom based on being open to creating pacts with unusual creatures or in unusual ways and making allies whenever possible. The Red Crest island was, for the first time, authentically left to its own devices and to govern itself, and the occupied territory was reduced to a manageable size while focusing strongly on trade.

A Symbol of Power?

While Thaur was soon to get a relatively stable economy and organisation, many people (while still benefitting from living into a recognised state) put into doubt the actual validity of Dinner as the "Symbol of Power" for Thaur and Naelin as a king of the country. The main controversy surrounds the actual usefulness of Dinner: Some take the paranoid approach, saying that he is just using the societarians and he may turn his back on the people of Birdland and call a tetsu army at any moment. The more realistic ones simply consider Dinner a "failed" tetsu, either rejected by their own, too alienated to even understand his abilities or even having some mental issue that prevents him from acting like a normal tetsus. Other people on the island don't outright deny the tetsu's potential, but they don't consider him a "qualification" enough to base a kingdom on, even under the desperate situation of the fall of Merthiorn, and consider that a person without experience in politics may be too easy to be swayed the wrong ways by the previously-powerful.
At the moment, however, the tetsu has shown constant loyalty to his "owner" and has threatened people that went a little too violent with the king. They were no tetsu attacks or conflicts registered anywhere near Birdland city on these seven years, and the neighbouring factions seem to consider the possibility of angering an army of tetsus on top of Thaur's own armies a threat enough to not try to disrupt the relative peace of the archipelago.
While there is no way to confirm or deny Dinner's status as the country's protector in times of peace, it is undeniable that the country is rebuilding and healing at a good peace and doing well for itself. Only time will be able to tell.