Valatia

Valatian (adj)

Valat (people)

History: The first Valats were seafarers venturing from the southeast of the Selafar Sea at the end of the 2nd Age. Founding the city of Omini (meaning horizon) below Sword Hill, Valatia was for many years only a small collection of fishing villages along the Jafia Bay. In the early 3rd age, Valatia began to unify under Vlatrin I, who formed a small kingdom and built up Omini. Over the next hundred years, a series of wars and campaigns against neighboring tribes and petty kingdoms grew Valatia's territory from Bastia to Stillant. Unification, whether through marriages, alliances, or war, continued until the dawn of the 4th age, with Ejario and Velindar being founded and the Valatian Empire announced. Not until Empress Galandri's reign from 234-273 4A did Valatia claim the western half of the country's present size, and settlement efforts have been pushed for the last half-century to civilize the wildernesses and open up new trade routes.

Magic has played a principal role in Valatia's history. The first Valats were adept at using magic to guide and navigate their ships, allowing them to reach the fertile land around Omini in the first place. Their religion, Palairism, goes back to the first Valatian settlers. The Palairic Temple worked hand-in-hand with kings to see to the growth of the kingdom and the needs of the populace. However, after The Shattering, Palairism and the Palairic Temple were replaced with Luonnism and the Luonnic Church, which were anti-magic in their core. Since that time, magickers have been continually discriminated and oppressed, their rights slowly eroding away under Galandri's and Castellan's reigns. The Luonnic Church employs Proctors that hunt down magickers who do not follow the rules. Valatia has used its anti-magic agenda to justify some of the taking of lands in the Frunsic Mountains.

Terrain: Northern peninsula and much of eastern coast is verdant and productive land. Rivers abound. Trade is lucrative and the Valatians are seafaring in their core. Northern half of country has excellent farmland and agricultural products. The middle of their country has hills and a mountain range, separating the developed east and north from the more frontier-like west and south, though the empire has plans to develop those areas and spread. Frontier is rugged and wooded whereas most of the east coast has been deforested to build ships and cities for Valatia. Some areas are dusty and dry.

Capital: Omini (located in northeastern bay)

Sprawling city, beautifully designed and built. Large port. Sits mostly below Sword Hill overlooking Jafia Bay. Around 400,000 residents.

Culture: Valats are very mercantile due to the interesting geography in their region. Seafaring, trading, and the arts are some of their specialties. Palairism played a prominent role until the death of Emperor Hancali; now, around 75 years later, Luonnism has formed around the natural and human world, shunning magic as evil. There are still lingering effects of the old religion in daily life. Valats are often intelligent, cunning, arrogant, and artistic.