Olio
By no means choked by the ash they live in, the Olio are one of the most industrious people I have ever come across. Something about the heat puts some sort of pep in their step. Maybe it's because it's a dry heat? No...That would be ridiculous.
-Atezka Tlali, musing on the nation of Olio
Structure
High Commissioner
The Council of Barons and the Committee of Unions
Culture
There is no people in the Known World that can match the exact work ethic of the Olioi. Where outsiders might go to a local pub, or read a book, or paint something, the Olioi will work the foundry, or clean the forge, or schedule shipments of taconite. Not prone to what people might refer to as the 'high arts', the closest they will ever get to a painting is a superbly crafted plow or skillfully engraved and supremely enchanted work knife or perhaps an artillery piece that was so large that it might look like it couldn't ever possibly fire, but does anyways and with more accuracy than the vast majority of other pieces. Their 'art' and recreation both do something in the long run. A forever practical people, the Olioi.
This does not mean the are humorless (in fact they can be quite boisterous), or that they don't seek to have fun, merely that their fun is very different than what most people would have called fun.
Assets
History
What the Olio came through the Realmshatter] with, provides an interesting snapshot into what their homeworld may have been like.
Perhaps it was a particularly small hole between the worlds, or a workshop worthy of the greatest of forge gods tumbled through. Considering the physicality of the Olioi, perhaps their idea of 'city' and 'forge' were one and the same. Whatever the case, the molten metal and magical embers and flames irrevocably changed the landscape of Atrivoa. From a supposed forest, according to the fossil record, to a conflagration.
And thus the first hurdle to the survival of the Olioi presented itself. A whole continent on fire. With no sign of stopping, the Olioi found themselves cut off from each other and any form of safety. The conflagration raged dozens of feet into the air, with flames so hot that those they touched would be reduced to ash wholesale. Taking refuge in massive bronze structures that came through with them, for they are resistant to heat but not fireproof, the Olioi could do nothing but cower from the flames.
By accounts scratched into the bronze shelters, we know that the fires took years to die down. Never quite losing the heat with which they burned. And 'die down' is the only term that even remotely fits, for like a campfire, once the flames are gone the embers still remain long after. Under the continent, and for a few miles off the coast and under the seafloor, those old flames still smolder. Their arcane heat transferring to the rocks, soil, and everything else in between permeating all with heat. Dig deep enough, and the ores are incredibly pure for being straight out of the ground, but molten.
Those ores aren't what power Olio's industry, however. That would be the Evercoal. Chunks of the fuels that kept the colossal braziers and hunks of furnace that fell through the Realmshatter and burned their way down into the earth. The single greatest form of constant energy (that can be considered 'natural') the Known World over. Burning with a heat so intense boilers have to be specially designed to handle it and specialists have to be trained in their handling and deployment.
In the modern era, Olio has built itself into an industrial powerhouse using the natural heat of their home continent and the power of their Evercoal. Factories constantly churn out metal products, from industrial components like springs and gears to the metal parts of weapons. Gun barrels, knife blades, and what aspect of armor is still in use in the known world. Master craftsmen and women hammer away in their workshops, taking on contracts from places high and low for their fine work. It should be said that Olio has allotted the entirety of colossal industrial capacity to such production, and not to refinement in any shape or form. raw materials that are extracted have to be sent out of country before they can be made into something useful in country.
Unions have become large political players as well, leading to a Known World-Wide movement, much to other countries annoyance. Though the materials are well worth the trouble.
Founding Date
Unknown, Age of the Shattered Veil
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Trained
Demonym
Olioi, Ashlander
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