Thalinspire & Thalinost, Flame of the Thalinspire

If you travel north from Brightspire, you will come eventually to the city of Thalinost, the Flame of Thalinspire. The people who dwell there are fierce and independent; they approve of outsiders, but do not embrace them. Should you go there, you will find their manners strange, their accents strange, and their cities stranger still. They do not build as we build, they do not open their homes up to the Spirelight. Instead, their homes are lit by candle and by torch - occasionally by sunstone - and it can feel as though they had invited the Penumbra in. They do not fear the Penumbra, as we in the south fear it. They do not warn their children against straying into it, nor do they construct barriers against it. They face it, eyes wide, with one had on their weapons and the other gripping their sun staves. They fight the Penumbra, they say. They may even be winning.

Structure

The city-state of Thalinost is governed by a single monarch as part of a dynastic line. Beneath the monarch are the various noble houses, each responsible for managing a sector of the illuminated lands of the Thalinspire, and for patrolling their section of the Penumbra.

Public Agenda

Thalinost's objectives have remained unchanged for more than a century: to push back the Penumbra and expand the illuminated lands surrounding the Thalinspire. This has become a challenge in recent years, as centuries of expansion have dramatically increased demand for Old World materials and the arcane infrastructure required to process them into new Lamps.

History

The Thalinspire, like all great Spires, flared to life during the Occlusion Event more than four thousand years ago. Due to its relatively modest size and isolated location, the illuminated lands beneath it were somewhat smaller than those of say the Brightspire or Ardenspire. For centuries, the peoples of the Thalinspire survived apart from the burgeoning networks of Spires and Lamps to the south, and so it came as something of a shock to the populace when Lightsmen from the Brightspire reached them in 1498CR, bringing with them the secret of Lamp manufacturing. Soon after, magi at the Ardenspire unlocked the secret of the Travel Chambers at the base of each Spire, and within a century, Thalinost had established Lamp-lines of its own to connect it with other human enclaves.

"Hold Fast against the Black"

Founding Date

The current Khalishar Dynasty has ruled Thalinost for nearly three centuries, representing a small fraction of the city-state's nearly four millennia history.

Type

Geopolitical, City-state

Demonym

Thalinites

Government System

Monarchy, Constitutional

Power Structure

Feudal state

Economic System

Traditional