The Land of Thauzuassk (Thaw-zoo-ask)

Formerly known as the kingdom of Merope, Thauzuassk was established in the wake of a crushing victory in favour of the alien mind flayers. With the royalty stripped of their power, the illithids set out to assume control over all of Merope's lands, starting with its capital city, Falstaff.
The modern day Thauzuassk is home to a multitude of people, which the mind flayers allow to live and propagate like cattle. The citizens of Thauzuassk may do what they please with their lives, but they're expected to treat any mind flayer like royalty, giving up their life on the spot if the fiendish brain-eater is hungry.

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A Cursed Land

Thauzuassk's lands were once well-balanced thanks to a complex network of diplomacy and powerful mage guilds. Diplomatic relations between the fey residents of Kendall Forest and the dwarves in the South ensured that the king of Merope was always surrounded by powerful allies. The biggest concerns were roaming goblin warbands, ravenous gnoll raiding parties, orc armies, and belligerent dragonborn from the Celadon. The mage guilds ensured that the latent magical energies of Merope that would cause issues for society were suppressed- in years past, wars waged between Merope and necromancers, demon cultists, and other malicious practitioners of the arcane have scarred the land with dark magics.
When the mind flayers took control, such guilds and other magical institutions were dismantled as a part of the mind flayers' abhorrence of arcane magic. Resultantly, the magics of Merope's history have seeped back into the world, releasing monsters and curses galore. Diplomatic relations eroded in light of the mind flayers' preferred method of politics- assuming direct control. As such, other monstrosities normally managed by various leaders' forces have also been released. Thauzuassk is therefore riddled with plague, famine, and vile curses that have risen out of the neglect of the illithid rulers.
The mind flayers do sometimes become involved with such issues, but usually only when it would threaten their plans. Normally they ignore the problems altogether, forcing their subjects to deal with the issues themselves.

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Culture

The people of Thauzuassk are as quiet and unassuming as possible. With mind flayers in positions of power, any signs of rebellion or resistance are swiftly halted. Colourful individuals may also appear desirable to mind flayers as food- creative, talented brains are always a delectable treat.
On the streets of many cities across Thauzuassk, mind flayers and Meropians alike walk side by side. While this appears to be a peaceful, symbiotic relationship, citizens of Thauzuassk live in constant fear. They are expected to bow to the floor to any illithid who asks them to. Even further than this, a hungry mind flayer reserves the legal right to pick and choose an individual in any crowd at any time as food. The only exception to this is if the individual is an employee or thrall of another illithid. The ratio of illithids to Meropians decreases the further away from large cities one goes. Smaller villages and hamlets may often be entirely free of mind flayer presence.
While many of the people who live across Thauzuassk are indeed brainwashed thralls who live to serve the illithids, majority of Meropians are technically still free-willed. This is due to the psionic stress involved with the conversion of a target into a thrall.

The process of transforming a creature into a thrall requires the entire colony’s energy and attention, making it no small matter. Although it takes only one mind flayer to perform the process, any illithid not directly involved in the process is required to donate its psionic power to the effort while otherwise remaining inactive.

— Volo's Guide to Monsters

However, the mere idea that there are thralls among the population helps greatly to keep others in line. Who would dare to speak against the mind flayers if your own family and friends could be thralls?
While the mind flayers are adept at mind manipulation and psionic skills, they rely often on propaganda and other public programming to control the people of merope. Billboards, posters, and statues are erected often to help influence the thoughts of those who see them. People who are "immune" to such influence and considered troublemakers are often simply executed.

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History

Prior to the invasion, Thauzuassk was known as the rich and bountiful Kingdom of Merope. The royal Amarantus family had ruled for over 100 years, and had enjoyed the success of uniting the houses of Merope under their banner. A time of peace had come about, and the mighty Meropians set their sights on travelling across the waters to explore the distant lands.
Unfortunately, the Meropians' aspirations would be cut short when the mind flayer invasion began, darkening the sky with their fleet of nautiloids and breaching their fortresses with their armies of thralls. The Meropian War would ensue, a valiant effort of the entire united kingdom of Merope- but failure awaited them. The mind flayers would go on to ceremorph many members of nobility and royalty, quickly assuming control over the preexisting Meropian infrastructure while building up their own. The Supremacy would rename the lands as Thauzuassk as a declaration of their conquest's victory.

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Religion

While in the past Merope was home to a diverse collection of religious beliefs, modern Thauzuassk has outlawed religion, save for the philosophical reverence of Thoon, Maanzecorian, and Ilsensine. Of course, these ideals are often too abstract for non-illithid minds to grasp, meaning that religion is effectively illegal in Thauzuassk. To mind flayers, astral travel is simply another way of transportation, and as such the ideas of the afterlife and worship of deities is looked upon as distasteful and deviant.
Additionally, the mind flayers view those who may wield divine magic as possible threats to their power. Regardless of this, many people gather in secret worship still, although this is still relatively rare due to thrall-induced paranoia.

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Agriculture & Industry

Thauzuassk is the home of a large hardwood forest, as well as plenty of flat grasslands perfect for farming. Beneath its soil lay rock laden with gold, silver, and other precious fruits of the earth. However, in recent years the forests of Thauzuassk have begun to experience extreme deforestation due to a combination of factors: for one, excessive tree cutting to fuel illithid construction plans; also druid hunting via illithid-made forest fires- attempts to cull the druids of the forest who refuse to yield to the mind flayers.
Thauzuassk is surrounded entirely by the ocean, meaning that fish from the sea are also a excellent way to feed the population.

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Maps

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  Thauzuassk

  The land of Thauzuassk, formerly known as Merope.

Founding Date

1 AB

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Capital

Falstaff

Alternative Names

Kingdom of Merope

Demonym

Meropian

Parent Organization

Thoon Illithid Supremacy

Controlled Territories

• Alkirk