Ithon is a small nation in northeast Allethra. A poorer country, it has few natural resources aside from its bountiful coastline, strong forests, and multitude of
Pliscian ruins.
Ithon was once a province of
Barisea, first settled by restless adventurers in search of something new. Adventuring guilds rose up, forming a very rudimentary form of "government." Typically, the strongest and wealthiest guild speaks for the nation as a whole, but that title is always changing hands. Adventurers are subsidized by the guilds, who provide most of the wealth of the nation. Though many guilds operate solely within Ithon, many also have foreign branches to solve issues in other nations.
Geography
Despite its small size, Ithon has a wide variety of locations, likely due to strange Pliscian terraforming. On its eastern border lies part of the
Virdare Forest. Throughout the center of the nation are small deserts, plains, lakes, and hills dotted with ancient Pliscian ruins containing an assortment of monsters and treasures. Its western coastline is a haven for traders and pirates both, offering swashbuckling adventure for those who seek it.
Structure
More than two dozen adventuring guilds operate within Ithon to raid its seemingly limitless trove of treasures. The strongest of these is viewed as the nation's "government," though with new discoveries and recruitment, this power changes incessantly. The remainder of the guilds are content to deal with each other and the rest of the world as business partners (or rivals).
The guilds typically have a town within a few miles of the capital of
Toelma, from where they organize adventuring parties to delve into the dungeons of Ithon.
History
For most of its history, Ithon was simply the northwestern province of Barisea. Lightly populated and loosely governed, its artifact trade was nevertheless highly regulated. Even as more adventurers gathered, the Barisean Senate siphoned much of Ithon's wealth back into the pockets of Barisean citizens back home.
In 576 BE, a small coalition of guilds sued for independence from Barisea, but were denied.
When Barisea submitted to the
Allesend Empire, Ithon's adventuring guilds were put under Imperial jurisdiction, where they were even more regulated than before. It wasn't long before several guilds began illicitly recovering and trading artifacts from the wilderness, giving Ithon an infamy of lawlessness and contempt of central government.
In 320 AE, a small army of adventurers from Ithon tipped the scales in the final battle of the
Independence War. Because of their efforts, Ithon was granted independence in the
Treaty of Celestina.
Since then, the nation's guild memberships have swelled. In recent decades, adventuring parties have even been given license to travel the rest of the world, where they lend their unique expertise to Allethra as a whole.
