Waleah

Art Credit: IIDanmrak, https://www.deviantart.com/iidanmrak/art/Main-town-339292813

Culture

Over the past three centuries, Waleah has led the country in scientific study and invention, becoming a hub for traders, engineers, educators, and inventors from all over the world. The Walean Institute commits millions of gold worth of donations to organizations within the city every year. These donations usually take the form of experimental technology, Mirinium, or even outmoded Warforged units from previous eras.
Permanently standing on the bleeding edge of new tech and at the precipice of technologic innovation, Waleah has produced many of the brightest minds in the kingdoms and is directly responsible for the research grant that went on to create 7 Staves.

History

Waleah is the youngest of the Terisian settlements, founded in 655 Y.E. by the crown of Colum as a research base with the objective of examining oddities and creatures tainted by The Impetus. The base was led by Modus Minius, an incredible intellect who was born within Colum and quickly ascended through its academic structure. The gnomish inventor became a Professor of Applied Manifold Magical Structure at 42, a magical discipline that revolved around layering many small magical devices and effects together to achieve outcomes that were far greater than the sum of their part. It was a delight to Modus when it was discovered that Waleah was established on top of a deposit of strange mineral ore with fantastical magical applications. He conducted endless tests on the mineral, becoming more obsessed with studying it than the Impetus, an arrangement that his benefactor, King Therus Hyphon IV, found highly upsetting. Eventually, Modus came to understand the mineral greatly, and dubbed it Mirinium, a highly versatile element that had a wide range of magical applications in virtually any condition.
When King Hyphon became aware of the military applications of Mirinium, he placed a royal injunction on Waleah, forcing the city to mass manufacture new weapons for the Crown that could be used to combat the hordes of monsters spilling forth from Ob-2. The city was forced to comply, but Modus set to work to prevent Mirinium from becoming a weapon of mass destruction. As the rest of the city toiled in filling the King's order, Modus, and a group of trusted friends, created the Walean Institute, a research institute dedicated to creating tools that could end wars instead of fighting them more efficiently. The Institute was founded outside of Waleah's territory, on the border of Colum's jurisdiction, and just outside of their control. From there, Modus and his trusted companions began consolidating their power by hoarding the precious metal, making them incredibly powerful and rich in the process. They went as far as developing radar devices that could detect the metal at immense depth and distance, proactively mining any veins or deposits that were within Waleah's territory. Royal decree and directive slid right off the stainless steel exterior of the Institute, an no action but violence could compel them to relinquish control over the supply of Mirinium. The crown of Colum increased Waleah's territory every year, eventually encircling the Institute, making it an island within a satellite nation, but even that did not shake Modus and his allies. King Hyphon threatened to take the Institute by force on a regular basis, but never made good on his promise, barking threats until he died in 684 Y.E.
Hyphon's successor, Queen Akona, was much more willing to allow the Institute a degree of freedom, and even recognized its power and allowed it to operate as an independent power. Instead of trying to take their resources, she traded with the Walean Institute on the basis that all weapons would go directly to Last Rest so that no noble or lord could build their own private army. She and Modus got along so well in fact that they became friends and political allies, and, in 722 Y.E., they worked together on a provision that would acknowledge the Institute as an individual entity that existed within her kingdom's jurisdiction. If they abided by certain norms and conditions, the Institute would even receive funding per its founding agreement, a notion that Modus found very tempting. They settled on an accord that allowed the Walean Institute a great deal of freedom in determining its internal goings on but precluded it from hoarding Mirinium which was the rightful property of Colum. It also established a vibrant trade relationship between the two that has, in the 400 years since its inception, benefited both of them greatly.
Modus Minius eventually passed from natural causes around the turn of the millennium, but he left an incredible legacy in a one-of-a-kind settlement. His Institute is more powerful than many states and is the home of Ec'algor's Warforged population, originally devised as autonomous combat units, the complex circuitry of their inner components along with the magical properties of Mirinium grant them sentience and intelligence. Waleah is still primarily a town focused on research and magical inquiry, and the academies and universities around its area still look to the Institute for guidance, but culturally it is and has always been an extension of Colum--even if it needed some time at first to figure it out.

Of Metal and Minds

This entry is narrated by Brayden Bradley

Founding Date

Y.E. 655

Type

Geopolitical, Colony

Demonym

Walean

Power Structure

Semi-autonomous area

Economic System

Palace economy

Parent Organization

The Country of Terisirae

Neighboring Nations

• Kingcardine