Nl'thei
Nl'thei is a nation beneath the waves, found in the depths of the open ocean beyond the silver sea. The heart of Arila is the city of the same name, and the majority of the population dwell in a vast oceanic trench. The inhabitants are various sorts of underwater races, even including some Sahuagin, but most of the population are either crabmen, gillmen, or Rakoth, with the Rakoth being the dominant race. Surface-dwellers, especially those unfamilar with the language of the deeps, often call it Arila. The latter name originates from an ancient legend told in the Silver Coast of a legendary sunken city with a similar name.
History
In the beginning, Nl'thei had kings. These were not Rakoth kings, or gillmen kings, or even crabfolk kings, but rather Aboleth kings. These kings were fearsome of intellect, able to crush the minds of other, lesser races with a mere thought. How could anything else be so, when it was the greatest of their number, the Shapers, who had moulded all life to suit their whims? However, the Shapers had for long eons been dead, slain by gods and slaves, or began to sleep the endless sleep of torpor, or hid as islands and continents (for so great was their size that, at the surface, few could tell the difference). As if compelled to join their own kings of ancient days, the Aboleth kings began to drift off into slumber one by one, until only a few remained in the city of Nl'thei. As each began to slumber, those who remained would direct their slaves to build a great hibernation chamber for their kinsman to sleep away the eons. However one Aboleth, while mighty, cannot command the minds of a thousand lesser beings. The result was inevitable. Slavery would no longer be tolerated. And so, in a single night, the three remaining aboleths were slain by their slaves. The rakoth continued in their rage, destroying all they could of their oppressors. The mummified husks that remained of hte first to enter torpor were dragged from their palaces and hacked to pieces by the baying mob, but all who entered the Sepulchral Abyss, a great cavern where most of the slumbering aboleths lay, never returned. And so it was decided that it should be sealed.
The rakoth of Nl'thei formed for themelves a republic, with the three ringleaders of the revolution enshrined as its first rulers. In the earliest days, all people voted on all things and there was no slavery, only the three rulers, called Triumvirs by surface-men, had executive power. This number was of course symbolic, after the three liberators, but was also chosen to ensure that the executive power would never be deadlocked. Arila boomed, and grew massive and rich, and seeds began to be planted along the seafloor of countless colonies. Wars with the Dragon King and the other aboleth states occured, of which there were rarely true victors. The wars against the crab-men, however, were easy victories. Crabs cannot swim, whereas Rakoth can, and they rained down spells and tridents from where they could not be reached by the cumbersome crustaceans. In time, the city-state of Nl'thei had spread its tendrils across much of the Silver Sea.
As Nl'thei grew, however, the old direct government became inefficent, and so the Triumvirs saw fit to grant great autonomy to the colonies, which were to be ruled as independent states in all but name, but they were to pay taxes to the mothercity of Nl'thei. Nl'thei itself had also grown large on slaves and fertility, and so representation was introduced. There would now be 100 representatives who would serve as the electorate, chosen through block voting.
This is much as Nl'thei stands now, although in recent years the wars with the Dragon King, and especially the barbaric Sahuagin, have become more frequent and more exhausting, and so the military leaders of Nl'thei, the L'ska, are becoming more and more influential, with many soldiers having more loyalty to their commanders than the republic that they theoretically serve. The colonies groan beneath the heel of conscription, and the populace of Nl'thei itself has been forced into conditions more and more resembling their slavery under the long-defeated Aboleths by the wealthy senatorial class. Many believe that any L'ska with enough victories under his belt could promise the army and people anything, and he would be followed into the depths of hell against the Triumvirs. Beneath them all, the Sepulchral Abyss thrums with ancient power...
Territories
Nl'thei itself is a single city, but it has spread colonies throughout the Black Trench, a vast undersea canyon that is several miles deep, so named after the black basalt of which it is formed. At its base sits the city of Nl'thei itself, with its colonies crawling up the walls of the trench and dotting the sea-floor. A few of these are cities in their own right, gathering materials that are difficult to acquire in the deeper colder waters. Some colonies spread further east, towards the silver coast, a few even having been founded in the reefs that ring the continent from which they trade with the land-dwellers, atlhough these are constantly threatened by vicious Sahuagin raiders. The wars against these "Sea Devils" are a never-ending task for the Arilan military. There have been a few attempts to settle on the surface, which the Arilans term "the Red Land" after the color of the setting sun and the vibrant hue it stains the waters, but none have historically been successful.
Agriculture & Industry
The people of Nl'thei are great smiths, as strange as that might sound. For an underwater people, they are masters of fire and metal. They have a great mastery of the thermal vents that line the bottom of the Black Trench, and skillfully manipulate metal in the scorching heat to shape it exactly as their minds envision. Their metalwork is prized throughout the world, particularly in Mitsrayim and Tlatlua, where the Pharaohs and priests bedeck themselves in the strange jewelry of the deep. Their metalworking techniques, however, rely on the magical manipulation of the metal while it is super-heated, and as a result only a very small part of their population is skilled in this art. Most goods are made of shells, stone, or coral harvested from the lighter parts of the sea.
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