Empire Ascendant: Imperial Holdings of The Tytanyan Pact

THE TYTANYAN PACT: 

SAESUN, SMOLDER, ALBYON, & NUAR

A century and a half ago, the Isle of Saesun was gripped in a civil war between human kings. Their ancestors had come to the peaceful paradise isle as refugees. Out of mercy, the iaurdin convinced the sylvanar and the metallic dragons to let the humans settle until they could return back to the east. The humans settled and were allowed to use the lands as they wished as long as they respected the sacred groves of the sylvanar. The elves and dragons managed to keep the peace between the settlements as they developed into kingdoms. But perhaps it is in the nature of humans to quarrel. The humans began fighting over valuable resources, bickering over petty misunderstandings and creating war out of nothing. The metallic dragons picked sides and, after thousands of years of peace on Saesun, war broke out.

The elves tried to broker peace, they tried to abstain, but the men of Saesun began burning down their forests, killing their sacred animals, and escalating the war to greater heights. The sylvanar tried to intervene out of self-defense but brought the war home. The death of the sylvanar king, Opheros, was the final injustice that the iaurdin could not bear. Something had to change.

Since the beginning of the world, Saesun and the elves had been protected by powerful celestial runes that not only prevented invasion but helped keep many dangerous extra-dimensional threats from entering the world of Narya by force. Among these forces, were the chromatic dragons trapped since the Creation War. Queen Tytanya used her knowledge of the arcane to change the runes so that Red Typhon and his tyrant lords could enter Sublanarya through a gate she opened in Ryn-Durazar.

The following war was swift: the dwarves of Ryn-Durazar first endured devastating natural disasters caused by the gate opening and then were forced to abandon their homes under threat of dragon fire, then the iaurdin and the chromatic dragons forced the human kingdoms into submission, and the metallic were exterminated.

Ryn-Durazar became Smolder, the home of the chromatic dragons, and Saesun became the heart of the iaurdin empire. Together, they formed the Tytanyan Pact and the Tytanyan Age began. Over the next hundred years, they took complete control of the western seas of Sublanarya, colonized the island chain off the coast of Tazlan, and conquered the western kingdoms of Thule. The islands became Nuar and the kingdoms became Albyon.

Together these regions form an empire that have shaped the events of the last century in Sublanarya. But this realm is not merely an army of elves and dragons; it is a place of incredible natural beauty and home to the millions of citizens of the empire.

GEOGRAPHY

The Isle of Saesun is a beautiful and varied archipelago.

The main island of Saerta, often just called Saesun or the Mainland, is a temperate island but particularly varied with snow cap mountains and dormant volcanoes in the northwest, foggy fjords along the west coastline, a crisis-cross of rivers and lakes across the map, dense forests of every variety throughout, and many unique geological features like the Rainbow Pools and the Bay of Stone Watchers.

Notable cities on Saerta that serve as the cetner of each region and are built to take advantage of coastal features are: the capital of Grand Saefurra in the South, renowned for its fair weather and with the notable landmark of the ,along the East coast Emerra is built atop the mossy white cliffs and Oppan is a city built in a seaside mountain, to the West coast there is Dymenea, a city built hanging between the walls of a fjord and the colorful "lantern" city of Amedea on the Endless Falls, and lastly to the North is the marshy town of Free Harbor.

The other islands are small and just as varied but the largest is Erubya, which is heavily populated and known for it's white sandy beaches.

The other most famous island is Opheros, the protected and isolated homeland of the wood elves, with magically dense forests. This region is known for unusual weather patterns that shift in their own time. A season can last for years, while winters are notoriously short.

Weather in Saesun is very mild compared to other regions with light precipitation during most months: typically there are strong coastal storms in sun-meet (summer) to early leaf-fall (fall), snowfall in long-night (winter) and heavy rain during the latter days of first-flower (spring). But, even with some less than pleasant weather, Saesun is renowned for being among the loveliest regions to live from the twinkling snowy twilight of long-light to the breezy afternoons of first-flower to the endless delights of sun-meet to the rainbow sundowns of leaf-fall that make it a region beloved by romantics.

Albyon is a large region of western Thule: with rolling hills, large forests and pleasant dales throughout the region in the interior, bleak moors, marshes and mountains in the north and has a warmer climate to the south in the Riverlands that run into Jalatia. While locals complain about the rain throughout the year and some heavy snow in winter, the region's climate is relatively calm. It is a pastoral region with the best farmland forming into villages and towns. The most famous settlements are the cold ports of Seal Harbor, Growsky and Green Marsh, the bustling ports of Waddleton and Oyst, the storied towns of Tumsy and Chesterburough, and the mining towns of Chessex, Tessex and Terrel.

While agriculture is not uncommon in Saesun, with a focus on fresh vegetables and fruit in the homeland, Albyon is the breadbasket of the empire and supplies it with all manner of grains.

Smolder is a large and mountainous region with a traditional cold climate but the opening of the dragon gate caused a tear in space that creates magical storms over the island. In some regions it is constantly raining, others buried in snow, and others as dry as a desert. Directly under the dragon gate tear sits the volcano called Karag-Gorm by the dwarves and Shagora by the elves. Karag-Gorm is a great black black volcano constantly shifting the landscape of northern Smolder. With nearly seasonal eruptions, the region around Karag-Gorm is home to extremophiles, fire elementals and red dragons that have taken the region to be their home.

Nuar is a chain of islands off the coast of Tazlan that the iaurdin have been recolonizing for the last century. In the Age of Wonder, at least one of the ancient iaurdin parties that left Saesun made it to the Nuar islands but their civilization mysterious collapsed over a millenia ago. All that remains is ruins being washed into the sea. Today, the empire is reclaiming the lost heritage of their kin through archeology.

The island chain is an extremely diverse region with jungle and temperate forest to arid and snow-capped mountainous regions. Seasonally, there is a dry season and a wet-season with small shifts throughout each. The most notable settlement is the port city of Daega that stands as an imperial outpost in opposition to dwarven pirate towns that also call the isle home.

WILDLIFE & MONSTERS

The region's wildlife is just as diverse as the geography:

In Saesun and Opheros, there are a variety of creatures in the various biomes but the most notable features are a healthy population of woodland creatures, squirrels, badgers, bears, deer, etc., often of unusual size and friendliness. But that is not to say that the wildlife is harmless, due to the incursion of fey creatures, but it is safe to say the animals near the major cities and roads are tamer. The rangers that call this land home work hard to keep dangerous animals away from the general populace and Saesun is probably the only area of Opheros without a beastmen problem. This is mostly due to the protective runes in place, the population of dragons discouraging invasion and the effectiveness of the naval forces of Saesun.

Elves, specifically iaurdin and sylvanar, are the native humanoids of Saesun.

Some iconic animals of this region are the large red elk prized for their antlers by illegal trophy hunters, and their more dangerous torch elk cousins, glow deer that light up the fey woods, candle drakes that are a sight on a summer night, great horned stryx taunting in the tree tops and the whitecliff griffins with feathers beloved by archer and scribe alike. The most dangerous and unique animals of Saesun are usually of fey origin as there are many fey crossings in this region that such creatures travel to and fro as easily as one steps through a mist. In the deepest wooded areas and in old elf ruins, strange things lurk that are beyond the reckoning of most mortals. Local legends form around such sites.

Albyon has a similar abundance of woodland creatures but replaces the fey with many creatures unique to the moors and hills of the region: large black panthers dwell in marshes in the north, mountain lions bound through the hills in the south, sleek alligator-like lindwurms snake their way up and down the northern coastline threatening fisherman, goofy froggits stumble on their elongated legs into trouble in the moors, strange trolls trick passersby from beneath their river bridges and badger-like thaxbies lay in wait around abandoned sites of magical power. The wildlife of Albyon is dangerous enough to keep most from straying off the beaten path and many from wanting to travel it all through several regions. The biggest travel threat? Beastmen.

Gnomes and halflings are the native humanoids of Albyon.

While beastmen are kept in check by the vigilance of rangers, the imperial military and adventurers, it is well-known that this quickly populating beasts roam just over the next hill from civilization and running into a hunting party of these man-eating monsters spells death for most commoners. For this reason, keeping to the mainroads or even within their home town's walls is preferred by Albyon commoners.

Smolder is home to the dragons, their servants (dragonborn, kobolds, guivre) and their slaves. The ecology of this region has always been scarce but, since the opening of the dragon gate, the weather and climate have reached new and unusual extremes that have pushed life on the rocky island to the breaking point. All that remain are the hardiest of species from the giant geckos that hunt stirges and  to the prairie-dog like burrowlings that live in colonies in the wastes hunting giant scorpions; with other notable wildlife being the thorny stumbleweeds, the thick-skinned camel, and the many species of drakes that call this area home. Agriculture is all-but-impossible on Smolder and the inhabitants, including dragons, sustain themselves on supplies exchanged for goods from the empire.

Nuar-Land is a naturalist's paradise with the complex island chain's diverse and isolated biomes allowing not only for a great illustration of adaptation but the preservation of species long-lost to the rest of the world. There is a wide variety of tropical species from the rainbow of exotic birds to the amphibians & reptiles of every shape and size (including behemoths). Notable iconic creatures are the large Nua Nua birds with a kick that break splint mail, the goofy giant dodos and the tortoises of Jarleelee, the penguin hunting sand-sharks of ferocious infamy, and titanoboas, the largest snakes in the known world. There are so many unusual varieties of creatures native to Tazlan and Zafaria with dangerous adaptations that the land is a place of exotic wonder.

Lemurfolk and grippli are friendly native species of the island who have to stave off threats from bullywugs, merrow, myconids, sahaugin, and shape-shifting morphoi. Even beastmen have been seen in nuar-land and, like all creatures of nuar, seem to have adapted with a greater abundance of kuo-toa and lizardmen.

POPULATION DEMOGRAPHICS

It is important to remember that due to the proliferation of colonization, exploration and conquest by the empire in this region that there are a variety of peoples throughout. But each region has a distinct variety in their population that is determined by past, affects the present and will undoubtedly shape the future. These are really rough estimates so forgive me if I adjust them in the future.

Saesun: 35% iaurdin, 20% humans, 20% half-elves, 5% gnomes, 5% halflings, 5% sylvanar, 10% other

Albyon: 55% humans, 15% halflings, 10% gnomes, 10% half-elves, 5% iaurdin, 5% other

Smolder (excluding dragons and slaves): 90% kobolds, <10% dragonborn, <1% guivre

Smolder slave population: 70% humans, 15% dwarf, 10% half-elf, 5% iaurdin, 5% other

Nuar Colonists: 30% iaurdin, 30% humans, 20% half-elves, 10% dwarves, 10% other

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

The Tytanyan Pact is formed of two political bodies:

The Dragons of Smolder follow a form of government called the "Pyramid of Power" by their supreme leader, Red Typhon. It is a hierarchical dictatorship, in which Typhon has split the region of Smolder into six territories each ruled by a "tyrant prince" corresponding to one colored flight of dragons and the largest in the middle of the other five regions ruled over by himself atop Karag-Gorm. Each tytrant prince lives in a palace with an unfathomably large horde of treasure from which he or she dispenses judgement, settles disputes, and sets plans into motion for his subjects. To further the size of the treasury and maintain order in each region's mines, a tyrant lord divides his lands between lesser dragons, tyrant barons, who oversee the slave-mines and other profitable ventures in their own territories. Each tyrant lord may be challenged and overthrown by any his underlings or be forced to step down by Typhon after they displease him. The rule of the land is maintained by the powerful and Red Typhon manages to maintain some order through the ever-present threat: obey his laws or die at his claw.

It is important to remember that each tyrant prince and baron has at least one guivre. Guivre are dragon-touched elves given as gifts by the empire to be raised by and serve their dragon patron for life. They are often genius level talents and excel in skills of academia, arcane, and diplomacy. Because of this, they often take over most management duties of their dragon patrons, and are often the real movers and shakers of Smolder. They are the intermediaries between the impatient, lazy, and fiercesome tyrant lords and their allies.

The Tytanyan Empire is an autocratic bureaucracy with an absolute rule in the form of the immortal iaurdin Queen Tytanya and composed of the Isle of Saesun in the Iaurdin Sea and all other territories in the Pact. The other territories include the conquered Amphorya (formed from the kingdoms of Chesterburough, Oyst, Growsky, and Tumsy) and the recently colonized islands of Nuar in the Tazlan Sea.

The head of state in the Tytanyan Empire is, of course, Queen Tytanya. She was once a legendary fighter and spellcaster and, by all accounts, is still without compare. Her knowledge and experience has led her to position the iaurdin elves to become the most influential race in modern Sublanarya. It is her leadership that has made her name synonymous with power: she is an ageless, ancient and present deity who has led her people from slavery to gripping the reins of the world herself. Abroad, her words move nations to acts and, at home, her words are sacred law.

South of Smolder, civility plays a much bigger part in political and legal matters, but it is vital to start from the bottom and work up higher. In the iaurdin empire, ideally, every citizen is equal before the law. The state strives to be inclusive, progressive and protective when it comes to governing their citizens. The empire battles poverty with government welfare programs, state orphanages, safehouses, hospices, etc. and military adoption, in which many orphans of the empire without guardians become wards of the state, educated in military schools, and given the opportunity to achieve higher standing in society through civil service. Slavery is illegal within the empire and, as a matter of fact, the empire has been known to cause diplomatic incidents (usually by sending in elite eldritch knights to free their citizens) over foreign slavers taking their citizens against their will. Citizens of the empire have a higher living standard than anywhere else in the world, with Saesun shining as an example for the world to follow, and Albyon quickly being acclimated to these new customs that conflict with the inherit injustices of Thule tradition.

And no one is exempt from these protections or rights; women, men, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, elves, humans, halflings, gnomes, half-elves, of every religion and creed, that can call themselves citizens of the empire are protected and have equal rights. Women have their own property rights, adults can love whichever adults they want to love, and no matter what race you are, a citizen is a citizen is a citizen.

Those who break the law are given relatively modern punishment for most offenses: volunteer-work or enlistment, charitable donation, and prison sentences are preferred to execution for punishment of all but the worst criminals. Murderers, rapists and political criminals (rebels, dissidents, and terorrists) are all given the worst punishment imaginable, usually only reserved for captured enemies-- they are sent to work in the mines of Smolder. Often until death.

This is the greatest cruelty that many good peoples of the world find hard to forgive, a hypocrisy in an empire that plays the moral highground, and is controversial within the empire. But the queen is firm that such punishment is necessary not only to send a message to evil-doers but to maintain their alliance with the dragons. Law and order is maintained.

Yet, law and order is almost exclusively written by iaurdin, resided over by iaurdin, and carried out by iaurdin. This results in certain biases that are highly criticized by political critics of the empire and, the counter result, is that within the empire some officers of the law make example of elf perpetrators to try to counter this image. Still, it is inevitable that with elves, especially elves of prominent and prosperous families, taking up powerful positions in the justice and political systems of the empire that there is a certain level of inherent corruption. This is mostly kept in check by the civil servants who get into power by merit or crown order. It is well-known the queen despises nepotism and corruption within her ranks but, perhaps, even she must be willing to allow for some misbehavior from her most useful allies.

Especially among the bureacratic branches of state, the military's eldritch knights, the high academia, and the law-upholding justicars are held to the highest standards.

MILITARY

The Tytayan Pact is an extremely proactive empire.

The military might of the Tytanyan Pact is the most potent political force in Sublanarya: with the best trained and largest united military force, magical superiority, and the ultimate threat of draconic assistance in any battle on land, air, or sea, makes them a powerhouse that pound for pound has every other power tip-toeing to prevent becoming the next military target while, simultaneously, trying to curry favor of this superior power or find allies in an inevitable fight.

The Tytanyan Empire's military command defers to the Queen, but is composed and lead by orders of eldritch knights, i.e. The Azure Sky and The Lunari, with their own internal politics and ranking. The position of each order and the power they wield is at the behest and whim of the Queen-- that is to say, which ever order curries her favor earns their position as the highest order and therefore the highest ranking general. Magical and martial ability are both important in the training of eldritch knights and their abilities are renowned due to their skill and the propaganda of the empire.

Other military organizations include the Half-Elf Corps, composed of half-elf and human volunteers, and the Imperial Fleet, which is made-up of elven and human sailors. The Half-Elf Corps make up the front lines of the empire's military action. They are well-trained in hand-to-hand combat, siege warfare, and sea-to-land incursion. They lack upper officers, relying upon serving under the command of eldritch knights, but when cut-off from high command have been known to show great ambition.

The Imperial Fleet serves as the military branch of choice for those wishing to travel abroad: the imperial navy is the most advanced in Sublanarya, able to command pressure and protect their supply lines throughout much of Sublanarya, and transport soldiers to the battlefield. They also actively combat piracy in the Iaurdin Sea and protect coastal cities throughout the empire. Due to their wide spread presence throughout the more exotic reaches of the empire, academic researchers are often are given permission to go on non-combat missions to collect data on a variety of subjects and diplomatic parties use the imperial fleet to make contact with new and old allies.

While the iaurdin contribution to the military does make up the bulk of productive military action, the ultimate and legendary weapons of magical destruction, the dragons of Smolder, put fear into the hearts of many.  Dragons are considered a last resort but their effectiveness is brutal: an unprepared enemy's defenses are laid to waste by dragon breath and their city walls do nothing to keep out the flying terror. Many cities have, wisely, built anti-dragon defenses such as large balistas or built structures out of stone to resist dragon flame. Furthermore, some dragons are specifically loyal to and belong to the iaurdin empire, having been bred and grown as gifts from each of the Tyrant Lords of Smolder. The most well known of these dragons are the blue dragons that guard and watch over the iaurdin sea and the white dragons that guard the imperial palace in Grand Saeffura. But the dragon's military might also comes in the form of the dragonborn.

While "tame" kobolds are rarely found off Smolder, since Smolder has all the dragons they can worship and all the slaves they could whip, dragonborn and guivre are found off continent serving diplomatically/militarily. Guivre are talented diplomats, representing the dragon tyrant lords abroad and serving their elf allies when necessary. They are usually accompanied by a trusted guard of dragonborn troops. Due to their reputation, most citizens are too intimidated than to treat guivre or dragonborn with anything other than respect. When dragonborn are brought into military campaigns it is usually in the form of shock troops to reinforce the frontlines of their allies and break the resolve of the enemy.

While many powers still rely upon support from their vassals, hiring of foreign mercenary companies, or the limited effect of milita volunteers, the Tytanyan Empire has a large standing military force that the other powers are scrambling to counter and copy.

ECONOMY

The iaurdin empire may well be the wealthiest nation in Sublanarya: from the wealth of natural resources with some of the best agricultural yields in the region to mines and mountains thick to the brim with gems and metals, precious and practical. The wealth of knowledge, both magical and mundane, also gives them a leg-up in their wide array of specialists. The best of the best, in all fields, come to Saesun looking for a better life. Usually, they come to one of the major cities of Saesun where there is fierce competition and a strong market. The marketplace of Grand Saefurra alone would put most nations to shame with both the dearth of variety of goods and the amount of money trading hands on a daily basis.

Great ships carrying goods across the Dragon and Iaurdin sea from the zafarian sea and as far away as the Hamuts and Holy Imperium require harbors in every major city. Even coastal towns are built just to accommodate the near coastal travel they perform as they travel around Saesun. These ships provide an impetus for a strong imperial navy presence throughout the waters of their trading partners and few can deny them access to all but the most guarded waters.

All manner of careers are present from the lowliest beggar to the lordliest of priests and this means that there all manner of guilds in Saesun. Some popular and well-known guilds include: the Ratters, which are a prominent fraternity of sewer cleaners and pest control specialists, the White-Sails, a powerful sailor and merchants guild, the Glamrung Guild of gnome, dwarf and elf bankers, the criminal guild of the Green Drakes, and the CAPs or "Certified Adventure Professionals".

The only downside to all the opportunity: iaurdin tax collection.

CULTURE

For millennia, the culture of iaurdin was monolithic, static and peaceful. Cultural growth comes from conflict, both literal and of ideas, and with the elves only interacting with other elves there was little cultural clash. That wouldn't happen until the iaurdin and other elf tribes left Saesun and returned centuries later. Their experiences as wonder-builders, explorers, warriors, slaves and more allowed them to help build great beauty on top of the traditions of the sylvanar.

Since the addition of other races, of recent wars and of the acquisition of new territories the beauty and iaurdin culture has deepened and broadened.

Religion & Traditions

The elves of Saesun worship the Elven pantheon and/or follow the druidic faith. The elven pantheon is made up of their patron god Iaur and his family. Elven religious texts deal with elven history, especially of the Iaur Pantheon and their familial/external conflict. They emphasize the elven dieties struggle against evil gods, demons and devils, and the way that those struggles reflect elven history. For example, the creation of the dark elves is associated with betrayal within Iaur's family. Two of Iaur's consorts became jealous of his queen-wife Anara and plotted her demise. When Iaur discovered the treachery, he exiled them to never lay eyes upon the sun or the moon, and they descended into the bowels of the abyss. It is there that she became twisted into the demonic spider queens, Chaldra the White Spider and Aranaea the Black Spider. Aranae's descendants that had worshiped her were punished by being transformed into the dark elves by the giant slavers during the Dark Ages and Chalra's worshipers were transformed into the wicked arachnid-like chitine and choldrith that are only found in the most horrid corners of the Naryan underworld.

The druidic tradition is based around creating a balance within nature between the elements, between plant and animal, and between the peoples of Sublanarya and the land. The druidic orders that are found throughout forests of Saesun and Alybon . They worship natural spirits and gods like Sylvanus. The druids are respected by most elves, but they meet some conflict with the progressive nature of their civilization that seeks to build more and more cities. This is a pity because in several cities and towns that work with the druids, as the sylvanar do, they are able to incorporate beautiful natural elements into their architecture.

The gnomes and halflings of Saesun and Albyon worship their own ancestral gods like The Hearthmother, who provides comfort to halfling farmers, and Gnoldo, a playful god known for playing pranks on heroes and villains alike but always working for the good of his own people.

That being said, most citizens of Saesun and Albyon combine the traditions and mythos of various religions, paying tribute to a variety of gods. A farmer might ask a storm god to bring him rain or beg the god of nature's forgiveness for cutting down a nearby woodland. This variety of faiths and pantheons cooperate to administer basic services to the poorest residence of the realm from performing sermons and rites to caring for the sick and elderly. Most religions, including the Holy Imperium's One Church and the twin gods worshiped by Jalatians, are welcome in these lands as long as they don't stir up too much trouble.

That said, residents are weary of strange cults that have becoming increasingly popular with the influx of literature from abroad.

 While the draconic society of Smolder is built by former servants of Tiamat, the tyrant lords view themselves as dieties, and many of their subjects view them as gods. Kobolds and dragonborn are known to view the dragons as gods, as their powerful overlords, and ironically, often view the bitter and cynical guivre with a revered status similar to a priest due to them relaying their master's wishes to their servants. While religious practices are not formalized, some kobolds and dragonborn participate in cult worship of their draconic lord and the draconic pantheon, with altars, prayer and even sacrifice. A popular kobold cult believes that kobolds die and are reborn as kobolds until they can prove themselves worthy of dragonhood. A more worrisome and controversial cult is that of Abzulon, the good dragon god, who is the enemy of Tiamat. The worship of this god is forbidden but whispers of chosen dragonborn and kobolds threaten to spread his will.

Architecture

The only way an architect in Saesun could become bored is if they didn't like beautiful buildings.

Each city has it's own distinct flavor in Saesun: whether that be the white marble streets, blue tiled rooves, golden filigree and stunning stained glass of Grand Saeffura or the steeped red pueblo-style of Dymenea sitting atop waterfalls and canals, each city is a beautiful sight to behold and a jewel in the crown of the empire. The monuments and statues of the elves are particularly impressive not just in scope but in detail. Most famously, standing abreast the entrance into the Port of Saefurra, there is a colossal statue of Queen Tytanya that is one of the wonders of Narya.

Albyon's architecture matches that of Thule, with grim castles and huddled villages built around the needs of local farmers, though with the wealth and cultural impact of the elves they've begun to put an emphasis on the beautification of their own settlements and new buildings are often built in imitation of Saesun architecture.

Both regions are populated by cozy villages and towns that are renowned for their combination of garden features into their firmament, often lining streets with trees and building flower beds into every window box. Gardens are something of particular pride in these two regions and competitions between towns for the most impressive flower festival are intense rivalries held over generations.

Most of the architecture in Smolder is built atop the dwarven ruins of Ryn-Durazar in the form of great keeps, palaces and castles that serve as both lairs for each dragon lord, a vault for their treasure hoards and housing for their servants.

Entertainment

In Saesun and Alybon, all forms of entertainment from the tumblers of the Blue Elephant Circus to the Trick-Riders horse tricks are imported from abroad to enrich the masses by wealthy merchants looking to profit off of these enterprises and generous nobility seeking to keep the populous pleased. That doesn't mean they lack in their own entertainment industry.

Not to be outdone by foreign entertainers, the elves share their own rich history by song in beautiful operas and ballets that are popular among elite societies throughout Sublanarya. Nor the gnomes or halflings, renowned for their talented bards that are beyond compare and are welcome on street corners and in taverns across the realm. Travelling bards serve a dual purpose as both entertainers and story-tellers, spreading news and keeping lore alive, and are often hired for a short while to impart their knowledge to the youth of whatever town they visit. Other traveling entertainers are troupes of actors who perform their own takes on traditional stories and news of the day.

Popular themes of Saesun and Alybon art are romance, with romantic, though often tragic, novellas a popular trade item discussed by nobility, war, with propaganda pieces and patriotic war dramas being popular tracts sold by veterans, and pastoral themes, by depicting farmland tranquility and the nobility of the common working serf.

Food

While luxurious and exotic food are all the rage in the cities of Saesun, comfort food is the bread and butter of the culinary scene throughout the realm. Elven food is particularly healthy and nourishing, with an abundance of fresh grains, fruit and vegetables, but lacks in the variety of other cuisine. The most popular and iconic export of the halflings, reflective of their culture, is their food.

Halflings in good times use every excuse, from birthdays to family reunions to anniversaries to harvests to seasonal changes, to throw feasts that would make the most gluttonous king of Thule jealous. While a wide-spread of bread and meat is expected, alongside comfort foods like potatos cooked in every variety, are the halfling cheeses and their alcoholic beverages. Cheeses of every hue are paired with elven-styled wine, frothy stout and humbling cider that are popular among the citizens of the empire.

And that is my overview of the regions that form the Tytanyan Pact. What do you guys think? Any questions? Comments? Suggestions? I really enjoyed filling this out and hope to really develop this further. What region should I cover next?