Al'takar was founded right after fall of Empire of Heraklion, around ( -1600 HE ). This nation was since 309 SE united and keeping all traditions of old empire. Population was mostly Yuan-Ti, as they consider themself higher race. The rest was slaves or travelers. However, during year 309 became something that no one else expected. Capital city of Al'takar, Azuth, was invaded. Not by an army, but by group of few adventurers. Their leader is known as Ruby. This group annihilated the city, killing emperor, all his loyal guards and everyone who showed any kind of resistance.
During the following weeks and months, other capital cities of Al'takar were attacked by the same group, most of them lost, few were able to defend themself and repelled these attackers. However, this was great hit to Al'takar's reputation and it caused massive rebellion across the entire Kingdom.
Many slaves refused to follow their masters and entire cities fallen into the hands of rebellious slavers. This caused even bigger damage to Al'takar and Kingdom continued to fall apart.
However, Al'takar in previous years sent dozens of capable spies, adventurers and saboteurs to other nations. Those who returned to help its nation in the time of need, saw how corruption and weakness was corrupting current temporal government. As no heir was present and emperor dead, those who returned decided to start anew. They destroyed pieces of rebellion, and pieces of old Al'takar with believe, that it's time to form a new, stronger than ever, nation - called Ssasoth, meaning "Reborn" in snake-language.
In year 315 SE, there are three nations in war with each other, all of which represent old Al'takar in different way.
Ssasoth
Founded in 312 SE, created with vision of old traditions, pure race of Yuan-Ti and abusement of lesser and weaker races. It's current rulers is group of 5, called Loyal. These 5 Loyal are powerful adventurers, who went to other parts of world when Al'takar was under attack and they returned. Now they are rulers of Ssasoth and their main goal is to unite Al'takar once again. They also wan't to release Sseth, ancient god of Yuan-Ti, sometimes also called Dendar.
Old Empire
What left of Al'takar is now named Old Empire. This nation is weak, easy target for other nations as slaves are joining everyday The Rebellion. Cities that could provide shelter from raiders and bandits are in ruins after year 309 SE, and there are no slaves to rebuild them properly. Those who were left in Old Empire are trying to save their own skin and save riches they were able to hoard. They are trying to get help from Republic of Embernam, with the promise of sharing part of Al'takar's original land.
The Rebellion
The Rebellion was formed right after the initial attack on Azuth. Those who were able to escape, escaped. Those who saw opportunity for revenge, slayed their old masters and helped others. This caused almost 3 000 slaves to arm themself and form united rebellion. They are trying to unite Al'katar with the vision of abolishing slavery and becoming democratic state, as Al'takar has great infrastructure and is rich for natural resources, they believe they will be able to easily catch-up even after civil uprising. Their main goal is to destroy Old Empire and then Ssasoth.
Aldur
Aldur was founded around -1600 HE, by one of the heroes - Orcish warrior Aldur. He became king and started to turn this plain wasteland into kingdom. He began building castles, cities, watch posts, villages and towns across the entire kingdom. However, Aldur, the First King of Aldur, was slain 20 years later by thousands of Lizard people when he was ambushed during travels across his large kingdom.
Unfortunately, the next generations of Aldur were weak-minded and not fit for ruling such unstable and newly founded kingdom. Kingdom was in bad shape, wasn't progressing at all. After 400 years, last of-spring of Aldur I was murdered and someone named Relxuz, Usurper claimed the throne. One year later, planes shifted and in Aldur there was created gateway between worlds. This caused small amounts of demons from the Abyss to appear across the entire kingdom. This was only the begining.
Few years later, The Usurper canceled all magical circles which were founded by Aldur I. He also ordered expulsion of all orcs, even when they were almost half of the population. Later, he published rewards for each head of orc.
In year - 1120 HE new chieftain appeared among orcs, and few years later all explused orcs received blessing from God of Orcs, Grummsh. This started large raids of Orcs on Aldurian people, which further weaked the entire nation.
After few hundreds of years, orcs were no longer united and split into two tribes. One - Sons of Aldur wanted back what was their birthright - Aldur. Sons of Grummsh believed that they have won their war and wanted more peaceful lives.
This didn't last for long, as in - 536 HE, The Usurper, who was at least 1000 years old at this time, formed great army and attacked orcs. This was second time when Grummsh helped his sons, it is said that this was war, where every orc killed at least 20 soldiers - orcs won this battle.
This caused later another civil war, between orcs, which ended with famous Battle of Terian's Mountains, which by the legend was stopped by the spirit of King Aldur I.
After all those wars, 500 years of peace followed. However, when outer planes joined with Aldur, they spawned something else - so called River of Souls. After few hundreds of years, it finally reached sea and all living fish disappeared from the coast.
In the year -9 HE Then The Usurper split kingdom in half, with building great wall and gate between him and his loyal followers. Because on the other side was too many demons and so The Usurper decided to let his people die and stay safe behind the gate. This caused another civil uprising of so called Old Folk and White Hope.
Then Embernam attacked Numeria and Aldur in 203 SE as loyal ally had to answer - they officially entered the war, but never send even one soldier. It was mostly symbolic support.
In the year 309 SE happened another great powershifting in Aldur. Firstly, capital city of Voxtrenul was controled by Ratfolks, called Vezkun with power of ancient fiend. Then Alu'ivar appeared which affected all mages across the continent.
The same fiend that conquered capital city also tried to conquer entire Aldur with his infernal legion, but old demons from the Abyss made Aldur a battleground between planes. However, then angel was sent by the gods. This angel striked heavenly sword into the mountains of Aldur, wiping all fiends from Material Plane. However, this also killed most of the civilians who were in range, burned all trees, villages and everything that could burn. This memory can be seen almost in every city, where 3 adventurers fight against fiend with mace and above them is flying angelic women with sword.
During 310 SE and 315 SE Aldur went under great changes. After this events, thousands of dwarfs traveled south to claim ancient city of dwarven folk, which is believed to be holy. Orcs took control of large territory and Old Folk repaired parts where Voxtrenul was standing.
The Usurpers identity was still hidden for almost entire continent, except few exceptions.
Aldur
Size of Aldur was almost halved as now Aldur is considered only the right side of the Sword's blade - The Usurper's side. Motives are unknown and all what can be seen is his soldiers, called The Bleeding Sun walking on the gate as watchers. There are also two magical circles whose statement is also unknown. This part is completely isolated.
Ulgrim
Orcish nation is named Ulgrim, after their first leader that united them and lead the attack to Aldurians. This nation is still bitter about betrayal several hundreds years old, and is considered hostile to every other nation. Orcs from this nation are dark-red color which is completely unique in this continent.
Athea
Folk from old Aldur who survived the celestial event of sword annihilation, formed new nation called Athea, meaning ,,Protection" in Elvish, as most of them survived in old elven ruins scattered in Aldur. Most of these people are battle-harded warriors and survivors as no one weak could have survived recent events. They are heavily armed and ready to fight against anyone who will try to take their right for freedom.
Kingdom of Runemaul
Great migration of Dwarves came from the north of continent, from Numeria to take over their ancient legacy. Mountain Teradom was their holy place and now there was perfect opportunity to claim it. They rebuild their kingdom in almost 5 years and currently are the most powerful nation in southern part of Heraklion as everyday new dwarfs come to join Runemaul Kingdom.
Numeria
Numerie was founded around -1600 HE alongside with other 4 nations at the time. It was founded by Numeria, one of the smartest mages our world has ever seen. She was incredible powerful due to her items, now known as Three Relics of Numeria. She founded 8 schools of magic and divided magic by the guidance of Mystra herself. Divison was made to simplify understanding of magic to as much people possible. Numerie wanted to make nation of wizards, because she knew that nation of wizards cannot be stop easily.
This was partly successful. She managed to create nation of really powerful mages that know as much as it is possible. Her followers decided to keep this knowledge somewhere save, where no one can abuse it, so they founded Candlekeep - place, where all knowledge that has ever been discovered lays. And knowledge that was discovered and shall be lost, defended by powers beyond mortal understanding.
However, founding nation of mages isn't that simple. Incident happens and such, they decided to test new things in distant lands - mountains that was inhabited by only trolls and no one else. However, many incident went wrong and it started to corrupt these mountains, making them evil, making them alive. Weather worsened, beings living there became more aggresive, more dangerous so those experiment had to be stopped. This was possible because of discovery of so called Protomatter. This allowed casters to create their own places, safe and far away from anyone they could hurt. However, for those mountains was already late. They are now known as ,,Cursed Mountains" and it is said that evil lives there. For average mortal are these mountains inhabitable, but from time to time few adventures ventures there, but even less return.
Between 195 SE and 200 SE there was great famine in Numeria, it was caused by wrong management of resources and economy focused on building critical infrastructure. Numeria asked druid's faction Children of the Forest for help, and they agreed to meet. They started to work on providing enough food to Numeria in exchange for few villages that was later converted into forests. However, they wasn't fast enough and during 198 SE civil uprising started.
During 198 SE and 200 SE there was great civil war between followers of Queen Numeria and rebels following future King Alberian I. King Alberian I and his rebels won the hearths of common folk and that caused mages to surrender as they didn't want to shed blood of civilians. King Alberian I continued with plan to ask Children of the Forest for help and this caused the civil unrest to end.
In 203 SE great war against Embernam started. This war lasted for over one hundred years.
Meanwhile, there was few more kings, all of them shaped Numeria in a great way. In year 254 SE king Maximus I, brother of Alberian I. Maximus I bring to Numeria great amount of castles and invested a lot into building powerful navy.
In 293 SE was Maximus's son, Preterion, kidnapped. He was never found, not even powerful mages that served the king were able to find him. That's also why his younger son, Maximus II sat on the throne after father's death in 298 SE. This happened the same time when Soulmonger was activated, many academics think that Maximus I was ressurected.
In 298 SE there was great notice in plane intervention, when around Cursed Mountains was noticed gate opening to Abyss. Later investigation showed up that one adventurer from Drow elf, from Underdark, was somehow connect to power of the Abyss and invited demons into Underdark on material plane.
During 309 Alu'ivar appeared, conflicting with magic of everyone. It didn't matter how strong magic user you were, Alu'ivar was able to change its flow within you. This made Numeria weak and Embernam noticed it. During 309 and 311 great conquest of Embernam started, ending in 312 with complete defeat of Numeria and joining to Republic of Embernam as another Elect.
In year 315 Numeria is Elect of Embernam, following all it's laws. First Electus was named Vinsern Truecloak. Most larger cities were entire rebuilt or changed, all villages were forced to change its location to correspond to Embernam's law. However, Embernam had powerful tools for this operation and they were able to do it in less then a three years. ( More information about Embernam's law and order can be found in its article )
History
Embernam was founded alongside with other found nation in - 1600 HE after defeat of the Empire. Gnome Embernam showed no interest in ruling and created semi-democratic Republic of Embernam, with complicated mechanisms to protect rise of incompetent people to power.
He created system called "Potestas Electas", meaning ,,Power of choice". It's simplified version is explained at the end of article.
When Gnome Ebernam decided to not rule his own nation, many other parts of nation decided to join, they wanted freedom, chance to be their own king. This made Embernam large and larger every year. Dozens of districts from other nations joined and other nations weren't able to prevent it as their nation was in ruin and day to day fighting with rebel groups of Yuan-Ti was not rare.
This made Embernam consist of almost 40 smaller nations. However, the stronger nations started to devour the smaller. Not even thousand year laters and 33 nations were devoured or was forced to join other nation to prevent its destruction.
Embernam was also known for having a lot of supernatural hazards going on. Fire rain, decaying of villages, earthquakes that were able to break mountains, tsunami, floodings etc. However, all of these ended around year 308.
Embernam was always heavily inclined to technology. They managed to invent traveling on robotic vehicles, they even created airships to travel across Embernam or flying ships. Every smaller city also has teleportation circle and every richer person has some item to teleport anywhere they want, as Embernam believes that traveling is what makes society slow.
In Year 315 there is only 8 elects, when 8th was joined recently by conquest of Numeria. Every Elect has its own story as Embernam as an Republic rarely interferes with day to day life of its elects.
Red Mountains
This elect was one of the first that joined Embernam. It accepted anyone who was good with magic and wasn't afraid of exploring unholy artifacts or powers from other worlds. They always were aggressive expansionist and most of Embernam commoners consider them shady necromancers that pacts with Outer Planes. Red Mountains are not hostile towards travelers, but its land is dangerous due to escaped experiments. Capital city of Red Mountains is Tas Dagmul, rulling family is Red Society, commonly known as Red Wizards. Their founder and current leader is Ereth Morden, by many believed to be ageless. Red Mountains work in magocracy, meaning mages are the ruling part of society.
Unliar
Unliar is originally joined by dozens of smaller nations that were focused on exporting their products. With such origin they followed and are elect of crafters, mechanics and merchants. They are one of the richest elects due to wars on the continent. Most of Unliar people love travelers due to unknown technologies or knowledge that they might bring to Unliar. Capital city is Trendor, where also lives the ruling family Thahriss. Their latest ruler is Queen Mezru Thahrissx. Unliar is absolute monarchy.
Seldarian Lands
Earlier known as Seldarian Mountains, but they expanded and were able to cover large percentage of their land by forests. This is one of the less known Elects. They belong to Brotherhood of Seldarine, which is powerful elven society that doesn't trade or cooperate with anyone. They are hostile to anyone who tries to enter their territory and even merchants have a lot of problems travelling through their land. Seldarian Elves are one of the oldest on the continent and are currently lead by Queen Olaera Seldarine. Their capital city is City of Rest, also known as Aneldul. Their ruling form is unknown.
Gruel Wastelands
This Elect is wasteland. It is owned by Eurems, no one knows much about them, but there are legends that they are cursed and thats the reason why they must stay in Gruel Wastelands. Their elect is Peorl. This wasteland was created by mining all the resources this land was able to provide. Great part of this land also serves as home to ancient dragon who learned about lichdom and in middle of this wasteland is great hole. No one knows whats down there, but everyone knows its dangerous. Also quite often is possible to see or encounter undead pirates of King of Sea, Davy Jones and all monsters from the abyss of the ocean. Lastly, there are hundreds of escaped robotic-antimagic monsters wandering through this wasteland.
Nangor Lowlands
Most expensive part of Embernam to live. There are incredibly high taxes, when someone does not have enough of wealth he is forced to do free labor 3 days in week. However, all cities and towns are most modern in the entire continent. They have perfect infrastructure, shared transportation, free water and food. It is owned by Family Malachii, lead by Ulrich Malachi. Malachi are royal bloods from the era of Heraklion. Capital city is Mithrilia, city of endless Mithril. They live in absolute monarchy.
Freyian Lakes
This elect is mostly full of lakes as their ruling race is full of water creatures. Their main income is from selling fish and magical waters. This elect is by some considered the most beautiful place on the continent. The ruling family are Merlods with leader Zol Dum. They do not welcome travelers that have nothing to offer, but those who bring gifts or value by their travelers can have the best few days of their life under the welcoming hands of Merlods. Capital city is Treinor.
Sumerian Wilderness
This part of Embernam is mostly undiscovered jungle, called Jungle of Chult. Its one of the most dangerous location of Embernam, due to its ancient history of powerful creatures and beings living there. Ruling family is Sumers, which are tribal society lead by Ehecate. They were on this land way before Embernam was founded, but they agreed to join Embernam to avoid war and to bring trade between their tribes. Capital city is Port Nyanzaru.
Potestas Electas - Embernam's politics
Republic of Embernam is created from Elects. Elect is some part of the Republic, borders are not set, and change by power-shifting between every Elect. Elect has a leader thats called Electus.
However, those Elects are not only leaders of the republic, this organ is called Triara. Triara works almost like parliament. Triara is created from: 1 Electus for every Elect, 1 Opponent for every Electus. And one Dive.
Every Elect has its own laws and other Elect can't interfere. However, they share few laws:
Elects can't be in war with other nations without approval from the Tiara.
Elects can't negotiate with other nations as themself, only as delegation of Embernam.
All Electuses must always be part of Tiara's meetings.
Electus is something like a king of Elect. Every Elect has different power ladder, so somewhere it might be king, elsewhere it highest mage or premier.
Opponent is role for the most richest person in Elect. He has voting right as well as Electus and it's main job is to try and find possible exploits in new propositions.
Dive is only one and it is the richest person in Embernam. He is called to attend Tiara only if voting ended in draw, then he has right to decide which side to choose.
