Thassilon

At the height of Old Azlant, the wizened mystics of that continent-kingdom exiled a powerful wizard named Xin for his scandalous beliefs that cooperation with the lesser races could build a greater nation. The outcast arrived on the shores of Avistan with an army and a plan. He established the empire of Thassilon in the region that would one day become known as Varisia, and in so doing brought commerce and civilization to the simple folk he found living on Avistan as nomads - Varisians and Shoanti. As Thassilon’s reach and influence continued to grow, Xin appointed seven of his most powerful wizardly allies as governors, splitting his empire into seven nations.
Xin’s governors, each focused on one of the seven schools of rune magic he helped define in accord with the seven Azlanti virtues of rule, became known as the runelords. Yet Xin’s optimism was sadly misplaced. The runelords wrested control of his empire from him, and for centuries their cruelty led Thassilon along the path of decadence. Each runelord championed one of Xin’s virtues of rule, and in so doing transformed those virtues into the seven deadly sins of envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.
The runelords (wrathful Alaznist in Bakrakhan, envious Belimarius in Edasseril, greedy Karzoug in Shalast, slothful Krune in Haruka, lustful Sorshen in Eurythnia, prideful Xanderghul in Cyrusian, and gluttonous Zutha in Gastash) enslaved giants and created monuments to themselves that stand throughout northwestern Avistan to this day. In the end, Thassilon grew too decadent to sustain itself—by the time Earthfall devastated Golarion, Thassilon already had one foot in the proverbial grave. Yet though Thassilon died, legends state that its runelords did not—that these powerful wizards foresaw the coming devastation and fled to hidden fortresses guarded by powerful artifacts known as runewells, and that they linger today in stasis waiting for the runewells to activate and awaken them, unleashing the runelords upon an unsuspecting new age.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire