The Five Titans Of Tyconteroga

The Five Titans of Tyconteroga is a unification of five city states that are located on the coast of the Tyconteroga Peninsula. While the collection of the five appear as one state on maps, each city acts mostly independently, though they cooperate in some fields such as military action and resource extraction. The largest and most powerful titan is the city of Jullulia, the former capital of the province of Tyconteroga. While the cities claim the entire peninsula as theirs, the wild inland jungles are inhabited by numerous native tribes and creatures that the titans could hardly ever hope to exercise control over.
The five titans are (from east to west):
-Rosebur
-Jullulia
-Pedra
-Milisa
-Gilgaro

Etymology

“Tyconteroga” is the name given to the region by the elves of Mosalien who were the first major ancestry to inhabit this area. The word translates to “Woods of Great Peril”, a name that attests to the struggles of early elvish settlers to tame the native population and nature.

Geography

The peninsula of Tyconteroga is located in a region of hot, humid climate with hot weather all year around and seasonal heavy downpours in late spring and summer. Heavy storms can hit the region all year round, the most terrifying of which are bolt storms, which hit with a combination of incredibly fast wind speeds, heavy precipitation and cut through entire landscapes with massive lightning spheres.
The peninsula is almost completely covered in dense jungle that is, barring a few dirt paths that don’t lead deep into the inland, mostly navigable by boat on the many rivers flowing seawards. The coasts of the peninsula are mostly smooth in the north and more rugged in the south which perfectly sets up the northern regions for sea trade. The inland jungles are also mountainous, converging to the mighty, snow-covered Peak of Eternal Thunder, which allegedly is haunted by never-leaving thunder storms. Detailed geographic information of the jungle area is hardly available due to the difficulty of navigation and highly dangerous nature of the area. In the very north, along the border with the Empire of Zeprikan, the jungles gradually transform into a mediterranean, then temperate forest. In the eastern region, around and north of the city of Rosebur, the jungles give way for extended swamps, that hardly lag behind the jungles concerning the probability of a wanderer to never return.

History

The jungles of Tyconteroga have been hardly accessible territory for millenia and archeological evidence in this region is hard to come by. Some local tribes, especially the catfolk, date their history back for millenia, though this oral history is hard to certify. The first written records come from the time when the elves started inhabiting the coastlines of Tyconteroga around 500 BGF and set up trading posts there. The most influential, the city of Druskania, was raided and destroyed by humans of the Lezina culture in the Struggle for Tyconteroga centuries later, but the city of Jullulia, a center of elven culture and commerce was eventually taken over by the humans and turned into the blooming capital that it is today.
While the elves were the first to settle the coasts of the peninsula, the long distance from their heartland made it difficult to defend the region from raids by local tribes, and later, the humans that kept pushing south from their homeland of Tibered. A major war between humans and elves, later coined the Struggle for Tyconteroga, ended in a humiliating defeat for the elves that had to cede the region to the humans of Lezina.
The humans were quick to build their own settlements on the coast but quickly realized that the wilderness luring in the jungles would neither be controlled by humans nor elves. It was only when the region came under attack and the jungles started burning in The Dragon Wars that the inhabitants of the inland and the coastlines found themselves facing a common enemy. The catfolk of Tyconteroga sent some of their most fearsome warriors to help in the struggle of the Hesed alliance against Kameria’s beasts. When the dragon goddess was brought down and Valorian Lopesa proclaimed the Abkhazian empire, the catfolk did not receive significant attention and their territory was simply integrated into the new province of Tyconteroga. In the centuries of Lopesa rule the inland region was mostly left to its own and raids by the locals decreased, though this could be largely attributed to the common practice of keeping catfolk younglings as hostages in the cities, formally to give them better education and “civilize” the region but also to make sure that their respective clans would not rebel. In the War of Partition, the cities of Tyconteroga supported Ruard Lopesa and both the citizens of the coasts as well as the catfolk tributaries aided the struggle against Neban Lopesa which eventually ended with Tyconteroga becoming a border province of Khania at the Wall of the Split Empires with the military bastion of Gilgaro acting as the protector of the region.
When the Wrath of Gods brought an end to Lopesa rule in Abkhazia, the region of Tyconteroga at first stayed loyal to the new rulers of Khania. The cities soon realized though, that after the world had gotten more complicated, with both Timuria and Khania gradually falling apart and new great powers like the Empire of Zeprikan arising, their privileged trading position could set them up for much greater success than they could ever have as a tributary of Markut. In 901 AGF merchants and other representatives of the cities of Jullulia, Milisa, Pedra and Gilgaro met for the Enkydra Forum, a meeting where they unilaterally declared independence and founded the Four Titans of Tyconteroga, an alliance of free cities that would be unaffected by outside meddling and ensure the independence and prosperity of the cities and their citizens above all. While the government of Salsedo El’Occa in Markut (see Republic of Markut) refused to accept the declaration, their armies had just gotten bogged down in a conflict with the Empire of Zeprikan, which left them unable to do anything to prevent the independence movements from achieving their goals.
The independence turned out to greatly benefit the cities as their unaligned nature allowed them to profit from other nation’s conflicts and they became a safe haven for people who tried to leave behind their homelands or found themselves outcast for whatever reason.
In 919 AGF, the city of Rosebur, located in the former province of Hod, seeing the success of its neighboring cities, requested to join them as the fifth titan, a request that was promptly granted by the other four who expected this to further their profits and influence.
During these years of independence, the cities’ interest in the inland jungles grew again as metallurgists discovered a novel mysterious metal named “Ozmanth” that could be retrieved from minerals that were abundant in the jungles of Tyconteroga. This brought the titans, most of all the city of Jullulia into direct conflict with local tribes. Eventually, the catfolk tribes all united under a fearsome warrior by the name of Mamkuth who was thereafter called “the jungle king”. Under his rule, raids against coast settlements and mining outposts got significantly more frequent, effective and brutal. To this day the warriors of Mamkuth spread terror all around the peninsula and even fewer people dare to venture into the unknown wilds.

Politics

While the cities are all ruled mostly independently, the leaders of the titans all have emissaries in all other cities to align their interests. There are also regular meetings amongst leaders from all five titans. Tensions between the cities arise frequently though as soon as interests diverge. It shows that the Five Titans of Tyconteroga are closer to a loose band rather than a tight alliance.
For information on how the cities are ruled check the individual titan’s article.

Culture

As all five titans found their own individual character, there are few cultural features uniting them all. Generally, the inhabitants of the titans see themselves as more individualistic, and their cities as a place where everyone can thrive if they were ready to give it their all. The societies are quite inclusive, as people from all around the continent and from all different ancestries are welcomed, with the exception of the catfolk which are usually viewed a lot more suspiciously due to the ongoing conflict though they can still be abundantly found within the cities. Many outsiders would even doubt that the titans even have their own culture as they are way more of a melting pot of different cultures from around the world, than culturally homogeneous entities. Most titan citizens do not like to hear this statement though and point towards the unique blend of jungle cultures with elements that originate from all around the continent.