the Kingdom of Venthir
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The secular dissolution that swept across the Korachani empire of 1393 RM stripped these technologists and their janissary elites of much of their powers, leading to civil uprisings between the technologists and their allies and the Church of the Machine. The conflict lasted 9-years, ending in 1402 RM with the technologists victorious, their patron none other than Hetepheres who saw the worth of their technarcana. She personally oversaw the execution of their opponents, which numbered in their thousands, their slain bodies displayed outside her palace to deter other uprisings. The technocracy was moved to Teira, which became the new capital of the region (the city of Hetepheropolis remained a cultural capital, with most ceremonial duties remaining there).
Seven days after the executions two sphinxes, large and ancient beyond measure, their features resplendent in the wisdom and truth of ages, arrived in Hetepheropolis, demanding an audience with the queen. The sphinx-queen knew of their coming, for all sphinxes shared dreams and consciousness and were as one. She granted them audience in her expansive chambers, where they admonished her bloodthirsty rule, blaming her actions for both the degradation of their species and the diminishing of culture. She attacked the two, killing them on the spot. Their skulls and wings are said to adorn her throne to this day. Enraged by their actions she sought out a way to sunder her thoughts from those of her kin, for as long as they thought as one, she could not rule as she willed.
She chose a cadre of the most skilled technologists and employed the eldest of the alchemists of Midal and secreted herself in her palace, seeking a means with which to sunder her dreams from those of her kin. The technocracy of Teira ruled in her absence, bringing industry back to Venthir. Under the leadership of the technocracy, Kithamar grew in power and by c. 1480 had become one of the largest raw umbra processors of the empire, its ataliers and pumping stations becoming prestigious, though measures had to be taken against the encroaching deserts of the Go Bisammam. Clashes with the Church of the Machine continued, though it had by then lost much of its influence in Venthir. By c. 1450 RM it had become little more than a relic of another time, an antiquated establishment that clung to its ancient rituals; the only cities where it retained any influence being Midal and Merakhi. In 1453 RM technologist forces attacked pilgrims undertaking the Shadow March in south-western Venthir, ending in their massacre. This led to the enactment of the so-called Statute of Rights in 1455 RM, its intent to safeguard the passage of those undertaking the pilgrimage. In honour of the events of 1453 RM, the church constructed the Basilica of the Holy Blood over the site of the massacre in 1474 RM, which itself became part of the Shadow March.
In 1593 RM construction was completed on a massive technarcane engine in the heart of the palace of the Maphrias in Hetepheropolis. The engine was an extremely complex feat of technarcana, with only a small part visible to the outside world. Its purpose was never fully disclosed though in the decades following its construction the taint that had been encroaching upon the plains of Hamshen began to slowly recede, leading most to believe it was a Siphon engine. Others maintained that the engine had a far more sinister application, one related to the obsession that had consumed the reclusive Hetepheres for close to 2-centuries already.
The technologists’ rule continued in relative peace, their industry and inventions exported across the empire, bringing much wealth into Venthir. That, coupled with mundane trade in goods such as spices, gems and opiates made the region one of the richest in the empire and Venthir prospered. The Nathi Road was officially reopened in 1603 RM and relations with Sarastro reached an all-time high. This period of Venthiri history would last for another 3-centuries before Queen Hetepheres would emerge from her dungeons in 1905 RM.
Under the aegis of her technologist cadre, whose numbers had swollen over the years through secretive recruitments, she emerged from her dungeons a changed being. Where once she had been a creature of unbridled grace and savage beauty, echoing the dichotomy of a storm, now she was a changed thing, twisted and wretched, covered in a myriad of orthoses and technarcane engines grafted about her. Unrecognisable save her savagery she abolished the technocracy in Teira in 1906 RM without word and went on a savage campaign in which her armies destroyed many manufactories and industrial structures, appropriating all others from their private ownership, assuming full control of them. The colleges of technarcana in Katlego – amongst the most prestigious in the empire – were obliterated in 1921 RM, their custodian general Zaddock and his followers exiled.
This precipitated a massed exodus of technarcanists, biomechanists and other vocations, leading to the fall of the technocracy of Midal. The few that remained in Venthir were sworn under Hetepheres, and granted control of the remaining manufactories. Many of these exiled technarcanists remained within Venthir, turning to an itinerant lifestyle, wandering from settlement to settlement offering their services to those in need. On the whole, they were tolerated, though many regions came to despise these so-called itinerant ones. Most, however, wandered around Venthir under the leadership of Zaddock, seeking a new home. By c. 1939 RM they settled the dry Kautuld region in the far south-east of Venthir, out of which the small technocracy of Saragos would later arise.
The golden-age of Venthir had ended with the abolishment of the technocracy in Teira. Exports dwindled, its manufactories and industries reigned back to serve its own purposes and little else. Many regions that had been exploited for their natural resources, some for over 2,000-years, were beginning to see the effects of mismanagement and over-abuse. The Jaela mountains, Worknah and the Go Bisammam, were chief amongst such places, with once-fertile grasslands rapidly dwindling into dust-filled plains. Under the leadership of the increasingly paranoid, obsessive Hetepheres, law broke down in smaller settlements and the nations’ infrastructure slowly crumbled. Funds were poured into large well-trained armies that never left their borders and the study and trade of technarcana continued to be heavily regulated, the Strangler-Queen unwilling to share the secrets her private technologists had unearthed over the centuries. She grew even more reclusive, spending most of her time in the ateliers beneath her palace, consorting with technologists and their ilk, searching for new orthoses and implants to further distance her form her kin. When she did appear it was behind a veritable army or retainers and serfs and she spoke through proxies, if at all.
In her negligence, Zaddock and his exiles were allowed to grow in the south-east. By c. 2500 RM the region around the city of Saragos had grown under the aegis of the exiled technologists, with many settlements appearing around it, their technocracy offering a stark contrast to the tyranny that prevailed in the north-west. Its borders had increased, assimilating the city-state of Taarom and taking the adamantine mines of Mount Adama in 2413 RM following 5-years of war there.
In Venthir, Korachani attempts at diplomacy were unsuccessful and the nation continued to falter, leading to the withdrawal of many imperial institutions over the coming centuries (with many of its natural resources dwindling, Korachan was beginning to lose interest in Venthir, anyway). In 2702 RM the Avénethi Fraternity, which had enjoyed a healthy presence there for some centuries, abandoned Venthir following an earthquake. By 2821 RM the Go Bisammam desert had grown to such a size that the city of Kithamar was abandoned, leading to a massive decrease in umbra supplies across Venthir. This caused the death of many manufactories and industries, most notable of which was the silencing of its many Siphon engines, which until then had kept the advancing penumbra at bay. Within a few decades, the entire Hamshen region had been reduced to a deadened landscape. By 3010 RM many settlements were left deserted, their populace migrated to the safer cities, which could afford to maintain their own engines. Hetepheropolis, Myrmica and Teira grew exponentially in the coming years.
The Archpotentate Malichar visited Hetepheres personally in 3061 RM. Little is known what was spoken in the meeting though Venthir was later granted control of much of eastern Nárthel, its nobility gifted titles and positions within the Korachani administration, possibly in return for the regions’ restoration. And so was industry returned to Venthir and new mines funded, though technarcane research remained resticted. Its ports were re-established and foreign trade prospered.
In 3147 RM it was discovered that the city of Katlego was secretly conducting its own technarcane research, under the leadership of its Maphran Walada. Later in the year Queen Hetepheres descended upon the city with a might army and destroyed it, slaying innocents and technologists in their tens of thousands. Their bodies were burnt atop a great pyre, the pillar of smoke seen for miles around. The place remains ruined to this day, testament to the fate of those who would attract the Strangler-Queen’s wrath.
Though the outcome of the bloody conflict was to her expectation, Hetepheres had not left her dungeons in centuries. Her obsession with sundering her thoughts and dreams from the remnants of her race had been successful centuries earlier) and she had done little to honour Malichar’s requests for a renewed glory in the east of his empire. The gold mines of Worknah, though still viable and providing the bulk of the nations’ wealth, were consuming slaves at an alarming rate. Something had to be done. Starting in 3151 RM the nations’ infrastructure was improved, roads repaired, its massive technologically-advanced armies put to use securing its borders and trade-routes and sent abroad in what became known as the Egret Crusades – an effort to secure a new supply of slaves. Mirroring the actions of its ancestral nation of Nath, these crusades began in c. 3250 RM, and lasted until 3525 RM, when the last crusade ended. These campaigns managed to secure new territories (largely in the islands of the Broken Lands) and a steady stream of slaves – largely from nations to the south-west of Venthir; most notably the Growing Mountains, though Ehbot and Char Mâthi were also targeted.
This increase in trade and slaves brought new prosperity to Venthir and a renewed pride in its people, not least of all its ruler. Its armies’ morale high from their many victories, they began pushing its borders outwards. The death of Zaddock in 2383 had left Saragos unstable, and Venthir turned to it in 3405 RM, though the conflict was short and marred by Venthiri defeats – their foe had fortified its lands well and had amassed a technologically superior army which, though numerically inferior, had prepared for the expected conflict well. By 3408 hostilities had ended and the Venthiri armies looked elsewhere, turning to Tarati, which was conquered in 3421 RM. This secured more trade for Venthir, and its armies grew more confident, with conflict along its western borders increasingly common over the next years. The subsequent years were more stable for Venthir, which enjoyed the spoils of its victories even as the gold mines in Worknah were finally abandoned in 3705 RM, the same year the Korachani empire fragmented in two.
The following years saw much tension between the northern Empire, based around Korachan in Llachatul, and the southern empire, based around Sarastro and expanding across north-western Sammaea. Venthir existed as the only significant Korachani territory in Sammaea and clashes between Sarastro and Venthir dominated the centuries following the sundering of the empire.
In 4006 RM the city of Kalchedon in north-eastern Venthir was granted to the Avénethi Fraternity, which was beginning a search of Firmamental artefacts in heathen lands. This was a precursor of sorts to the War of the Shadow and the Helix, during which many attacks were launched against Khamid and Char Mâthi from Venthir. The greatest such battle was the Siege of the Temple of Chien Da in western Lurium, in which Queen Hetepheres herself fought, slaying the Champion Ari.
Originally Posted by Jaxilon
