Of the inner sea's surviving nations, only Osirion has a history that streatches back as far as Taldor, and debatably, no nation can claim as much influence on
Astivan as Taldor, the First Empire. It's reach once extended from the World's Edge mountains (The eastern border mountains between @Astivan and Casmaron), to the arcadian Ocean in far west of Astivan. Taldor has seen times of triumph and times of decline, but has always played an important role of the evolution and fate of the entire region. Taldor's history predates even Aroden's ascention to divinity and the founding of Absalom, one of the cornerstones of ancient Astivani history.
History
Founding
In the earliest days of the Age of Anguish, as humanity began to establish lasting city-states in the wake of Earthfall, the descendants of Azlanti refugees first settled on the northeastern shores of the Inner Sea, pushed eastward first by deadly orcs and later by increasingly organised Kellid clans, these settlers found the sparsely inhabited lands around the Verduran Forest a welcome respite.
Their bloodlines and culture having mixed with Garundi, Keleshites, and Kellids in the tumultuous centuries before, few of these first Taldans were true inheritors of an Azlanti legacy, and many of the ruined empire’s cultures, faith, magic, and traditions had already been lost to time. The first Taldans were their own people, hardy and willful, and their citystates grew strong
For centuries, these eastern citystates—among them the modern cities of Cassomir, Oppara, and Zimar—existed as independent entities, sometimes at war, often in competition, and each
maintaining its own distinct culture. In
XX, the grand prince Taldaris of Oppara, who was rumored to have been raised by wild lions on the Tandak Plains before being adopted by Opparan soldiers, began a 12-year campaign to unite the scattered communities under a single banner. With a combination of superior forces, tactical prowess, and uncanny luck, Taldaris laid siege first to the neighboring states that posed the greatest threat, and then he brought his resources to bear on farther-flung and weaker targets. Over the course of their emperor’s unnaturally long rule (finally ending with his death in
XX), citizens of the Principalities of Taldaris came to see themselves as a single civilized nation, named Taldor, united against the barbarity of an untamed and unexplored world.
Taldor spent centuries taming the wild lands within its nascent borders, battling gnolls, kobolds, and orcs that preyed upon its people and plundered its growing wealth. The first great threat to the nation came in –632 ar, when the Spawn of Rovagug known as the Tarrasque laid waste to the empire of Ninshabur to the east and eventually tore a hole through the World’s Edge Mountains, forming the
Porthmos Gap. The beast left a trail of death and destruction in its wake, leveling Oppara and many other Taldan cities before continuing its predations on
Avistan at large. Taldor nearly ended in the wake of this destruction. For 2 centuries, rulers seeking to rebuild demanded back-breaking labor from common folk beset by widespread famine, fueling near-constant rebellions. Taldor finally began a campaign of civic improvements such as aqueducts, canals, and roads to appease its populace—and allow its military to move freely to quell the frequent uprisings.
All of Taldor’s achievements were truly put to the test in the century preceding Absalom’s founding, when the westward expansion of the Padishah Empire of Kelesh brought Keleshite armies through Taldor’s southern territory, formally conquering its loosely controlled southern territories to create the satrapy of Qadira in
XX. After decades of diplomatic bickering, Taldor and
its southern neighbor engaged in the first of many border skirmishes with the Battle of Urfa in
XX. Accurately anticipating a long conflict, both nations began fortifying their borders.
Just 5 years later, the region was forever changed when Aroden performed a miracle, raising the Starstone—and the entire Isle of Kortos—from the depths of the Inner Sea, and became a god in the process. Azlanti culture and heritage surged in popularity, and Aroden’s faith sprang up almost overnight. Seeing the works of this ascended Azlanti as proof of its superiority, Taldor established the center of the Arodenite faith in Oppara.
Within a generation of this cultural revival, Taldor began its first major period of expansion with the formation of the Great Army of Exploration (later deemed by historians the First Army of Exploration). Commanded by the ambitious and ostentatious General Porthmos— for whom the gap, river, and eventual prefecture were named—the army set out up the Sellen River in XX. Hardly outside the confines of Taldor, Porthmos and his army destroyed the Goroth Lodge, the bastion of corrupt druidic magic in the Verduran Forest, and charted the Sellen River as far
north as modern-day Sevenarches in the southern Riverlands. Taldor officially annexed the land between the forest and Sevenarches as the province of Galt in XX, marking Taldor’s
transition from powerful nation to empire. Over the next 4 centuries, successive expeditions charted much of what is now Galt, Kyonin, Razmiran, and the southern Riverlands, establishing military and trading outposts at strategic locations up to the shores of Lake Encarthan. On the eve of the
sixth century of Absalom Reckoning, Taldor once again sent forth the Second Army of Exploration, this one headed north from Lake Encarthan. By this time, the empire had built a strong economy based around the lake and aimed to secure those investments
by exploring and studying the peoples with whom they traded—primarily Kellids and Varisians who had lived there since the Age of Darkness. The army explored the region now known as Lastwall and Ustalav, but it was ultimately halted in its westward march by the orcs of the Hold of Belkzen. The Second Army of Exploration instead pushed south into modern-day Molthune and Nirmathas, though dwindling supplies and strong resistance from locals ultimately halted its advance. Taldor subsequently
focused on internal affairs for nearly a full millennium, as mass exoduses of commoners seeking a better life on the new Isle of Kortos threatened stability. Partially in response to this insecurity, General Coren led the Third Army of Exploration westward along the northern coast of the Inner Sea in 1520 ar, expanding Taldor’s reach to the Arcadian Ocean. The port city of Corentyn, in the shadow of the Arch of Aroden, was established as a western stronghold and named in the general’s honor. Coren later took the army from Corentyn north into Molthune, where they spent over a decade retracing the path of the Second Army of Exploration in reverse and establishing supply forts along Lake Encarthan’s southern shores. Securing the circle between Taldor’s western empire and Lake Encarthan took another century, and was completed only when the Fourth Army of Exploration, led by General Khastalus, mapped and claimed the regions of Isger and northern Andoran. Lush and fertile, Andoran became an official province in 1707 ar. Tensions with the local Kellids in the region exploded in the wake of this conquest, making the Aspodell Mountains and surrounding lands among
the most troubled within Taldor’s borders. The so-called Aspodell Campaign against the Kellid nations of central Avistan lasted until 2133 ar, when the Seventh Army of Exploration slaughtered the Isger tribe—the most powerful clan opposing Taldan rule. The newly formed protectorate between Andoran and Molthune was named Isger in the tribe’s memory. Taldans still consider
the 400-year war against a “barbaric and simple” people an embarrassment, while modern Kellids consider it a testimony to their people’s strength and tenacity.
Two additional Armies of Exploration further expanded Taldor’s borders in the twenty-first century. The Fifth (2009–14) extended the empire north through Rostland and Issia to the shores of the Lake of Mists and Veils, and the Sixth (2080–89) ranged through northern Garund. Both armies were equipped with a massive magical siege engine called the Worldbreaker, which greatly reduced the resistance they faced along the way. Despite this advantage, the Sixth Army of Exploration never established a Taldan province in Garund, in part because the army met the
forces of the Gorilla King at the Battle of Nagisa in 2089 ar. The Gorilla King and his charau-ka stole Worldbreaker from the defeated army, and General Erestos Marburran led his
few remaining forces back across the Inner Sea to Taldor in shame. Historians largely agree that this embarrassing loss—the consequence of the empire’s overambitious reach and inability to manage its farthest-flung resources—marked the beginning of Taldor’s decline.
Throughout these centuries of Taldan expansion to the north and west, the empire’s long-standing rival to the south and east, Qadira, built up its own fortifications. To those Taldans living south of Oppara and the River Porthmos, the Keleshite threat was always at the front of their minds, and served as a motivating factor in the empire’s growth and amassing of resources from across Avistan. After all, Qadira was but the westernmost satrapy of the continent-spanning Padishah Empire of Kelesh; for Taldor to stand a chance economically or militarily against it, it would need to span a continent of its own.
Tensions flared up into minor skirmishes and sometimes even prolonged conflicts that lasted a year or two at a time, but none were so significant as to stand out from the rest. War along Taldor’s southern border simply became the status quo, encouraging the people of Taldor to seek out new distractions farther beyond their borders.
In 1553 ar, the Qadiran satrap, Xerbystes I, declared his title hereditary and in the process began the dynasty that bears his name. In exchange, he gave up control over Qadira’s foreign affairs to a Padishah-appointed vizier, but not before he further cemented his legacy by signing a peace treaty with Taldan Grand Prince Urios III to end the cold war between the two nations. This period of tranquility became known as the Urian Peace, and it lasted for over 2,500 years
The Urian Peace did not spare Taldor from loss and strife, however. In 2632 ar, the first elves returned through the Sovyrian Stone and reclaimed Kyonin, pushing all Taldans in the region back across the Sellen River. Just over a century later, a plague known as the Choking Death spread from Iobaria down the busy trade route, devastating Taldor’s population, especially in the heart of the empire. In 2920 ar, a series of massive earthquakes devastated both Taldor and Qadira, killing tens of thousands and leveling entire cities. Rapid reconstruction buried many of these ruins, creating extensive underground networks beneath several Taldan cities exploited by criminals and the monsters otherwise wiped out on the surface. Several Taldan noble families accepted the earthquakes as proof that Qadira worshiped Rovagug and conspired to release the Rough Beast from his prison. While such claims were largely dismissed by an empire more concerned with rebuilding than placing blame, they nevertheless planted the seed of xenophobia that would eventually end of the Urian Peace. Several of these nobles formed
a secret society—the White Wardens—and attempted an ultimately doomed coup. Grand Prince Remoque V stripped members of the White Wardens of titles and fortune before exiling them, narrowly averting war with Qadira. Noble conspiracies motivated by the glory and profits that war brings continued to threaten the Urian Peace for centuries.
One of these subsequent conspiracies involved the attempted use of a fabled orb of dragonkind, which nearly destroyed the empire in 3660 ar when the instigators unwittingly drove the nation’s metallic dragons into a mindless frenzy. The 12 long years that followed became known as the Dragon Plague, and it left cities destroyed and thousands dead before Taldan heroes finally slew the last of the rampaging beasts. Chromatic dragons from across Avistan subsequently flocked to the power vacuum left behind, leading to a century of violence and dragonslaying
that still colors Taldor’s culture. Noble families of any standing still boast of ancestors who hunted dragons in this era, bid for artifacts of the age, or else organize dragon hunts—often meeting horrific fates in the process.
In 3754 ar, Taldor launched the largest military offensive in its history, not against Qadira but against the forces of the Whispering Tyrant that threatened the lands north and west of Lake Encarthan. The so-called Shining Crusade established Taldor as the Inner Sea region’s preeminent military power, but it cost the empire and its allies dearly in lives, morale, and money. The crusade lasted over 150 years, finally resulting in Tar-Baphon’s defeat at the hands of Taldan General Arnisant. The Arodenite Knights of Ozem, who played a vital role in the crusade’s victory over the Whispering Tyrant and his undead armies, established the protectorate of Lastwall—a formal colony—to keep vigil over the lich’s prison of Gallowspire.
As this age of dragonslayers and holy crusades wound down, the Urian Peace ended when Taldor’s southern neighbor invaded in 4079 ar, taking advantage of how overextended Taldor was. The Qadiran invaders sacked Zimar, razing it and other southern Taldan holdings to the ground and prompting the entire empire to mobilize against the threat. The war with Qadira, deemed the Grand Campaign by Taldor, raged for over 500 years, during which time Taldor lost little land to the Keleshites to their south but ceded all of its holdings west of the Sellen River and north of the Fog Peaks. This dramatic reduction in the empire’s size came not through war, however, but in bloodless secessions motivated and made possible by the ongoing conflict on the Qadiran front. The nation’s many ambitious colonies had grown frustrated, first at paying for the reconstruction after the Dragon Plague and then at supporting a war so far removed from colonials’ daily lives.
Aspex the Even-Tongued, the govenor of Chjeliax, was the first to break away. He severed the province’s ties to Taldor and declared himself king. His initial claim included all Taldan territories along the Inner Sea west of the Sellen River, and he later claimed Isger and Galt through the threat of force in the so-called Even-Tongued Conquest. Lastwall effectively became a sovereign nation by declaring its neutrality in the conflict, and the various territories north of Galt splintered into the fractious River Kingdoms, Rostland, and Issia. In a single decade, Taldor’s empire was shattered and its holdings reduced to a quarter of what it controlled at its height.
A mere 3 years after the Grand Campaign drew to a close, Aroden’s disaperence has thrown the empire into chaos once again. All contact with the Eighth Army of Exploration—launched in honor of the god’s expected return—ceased as the naval expedition was cast about in storms before eventually landing in Tian Xia. The colony Amanandar, founded by the survivors, remains isolated from its mother empire, and despite serving as a center of Taldan culture on the other side of the world, it has done little to help Taldor recover from millennia of decline.
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