Telborea

Telborea was once a city state amount many of others on the mainland of Telan. The name of this vast landmass was recently decided, while the city of Telborea is very old. It was only recently that visitors from other realms made it to the continent by ship, while Telborea itself sent out explorers who reported back news of island civilizations and other continents.

Telborea co-existed with many other settlements in the fertile hill country of central Telan for half a century. In an area known for trade of iron, bronze, clay, timber and stone by river ports, Telborea was exceptionally well located at the river Oloar. The city soon expanded to both sides of the river, and its chief architects were forced to learn to build bridges to tie the city together. Traders from upstream came through to sell their wares and spend their coin in the city and brought with them news of the high cultures of the plains, of many gods that were honored there and many inventions in the arts of architecture, philosophy, metallurgy. Roads from Telborea were hardly more than tracks often travelled by cattle herders, but the Telborean merchants travelled them at great risk to sell their goods to those of its neighbors who lacked their own ports in exchange for raw materials. The city states eventually developed to a point where the goods imported form inland on one of the great rivers became not luxuries, but necessities to maintain their level of civilization and Telborea was one of only a dozen cities with access to a river port.

Telborea had been ruled for five hundred years by the soft hands of merchants, who hired private cohorts to patrol the streets to maintain law and order. Their council was the main political power of Telborea, with only one tribune from the working people of the city and one from the animal herders and farmers in the surrounding country to consider before dictating the future of the city. They became aware of Telborea's rising prominence and power, and the promise of great prosperity. Prices of goods were continuously raised, and their neighbors had few alternatives but to pay, sending the Telboreans even more of their resources in return for imported goods. The profit was used to enrich the merchants, but also for public works such as statues, public baths and the first Telborean library. Learned men began to collect written knowledge from the high cultures of the inland cities and developed some of their arts with inventions of their own. The most significant investment however was in the productions of weapons and armor. The merchant elite saw the future where one of their neighbors would no longer endure the Telborean monopoly on trade along the river, and prepared the city accordingly.

The Telborean trading partner to the west, the city of Varinth, finally grew weary of the Telborean trade practices. The Varinthian citizens raised up in arms, armed and armored with the bronze that was the main commodity of the town. The army of Varinth marched out and the Telboreans raised their legion, citizens armed with iron breastplates and swords. The two inexperienced armies met in the rough hill country between the two cities and the battle turned into an indecisive massacre where countless lives were lost to fatigue and confusion. For the years to follow Telborea and Varinth skirmished in the hills, neither side gaining a decisive advantage. The Telboreans were better armed for skirmishing, but the Varinthians with their bronze spears would often hold the line and push back any larger advance with lethal effect. The tide of war turned with the rise of a young tribune to military command. Marcus Artorius, a Telborean citizen with no wealth or noble ancestry, gained command of the legion after the death of three higher officers in a minor battle. Under his command the Telborean legion used its advantage in speed and agility to circumvent and destroy much of the Varinthian army. Following the battle of the Stellatian hill where the Varinthian force was utterly destroyed, he was hailed by the Telborean troops, hardened veterans after years of war, as Imperator. He quickly marched on Varinth and the city surrendered to Telborea, becoming the first client state. The city received a Telborean governor and was commanded to provide taxes to Telborea and manpower to be trained in the ways of the Legion. Its citizens were forced to build the first real road in the area, making merchants able to travel between Telborea and Varinth on a stone-laid highway. In future wars, Telborea would not be so generous to those who defied her.

The ruling council of Telborea celebrated the victory. With the road being constructed and the copper mine of Varinth under Telborean control trade flourished like never before and bronze ornaments and statues began to adorn the Telborean temples and villas. They failed to notice the popularity of the Imperator at first, but soon came to realize that the balance of power had shifted when the common people came to see their military commander as a savior who could protect their interests. The social struggle between the commoners and the merchant elite was interrupted by wars against other neighbors, who were driven into debt and desperation by the Telborean trade monopoly, but the Telborean Legion could not be opposed and other cities fell. Those who agreed to submit to Telborea were treated like client states, while those who sent their men to the battlefield were annexed, their provinces falling under the rule of Telborean magistrates. These people had their civil rights taken from them for their insolence and became servants of Telborea. Roads started to reach out to connect cities further from the Oloar river where ever the Telboreans would go, and what was once a city state started to become a nation. At the same time the council of merchants lost their grasp of power. The Imperators, supported by the common people, became the rulers of Telborea. The entire society was militarized by the constant struggles and a professional army was raised, paid for and equipped by the state. People from the conquered cities moved to Telborea to grasp opportunities of trade, and the city expanded.

Further down the Oloar lay the Kingdom of Cinai, governed by an aristocratic family of tyrants. As they came into contact with Telborea when her borders pushed south, the Telboreans experienced something that they had nearly forgotten: the threat of a competitor. The hills were softer and the terrain less broken in this kingdom, and the Cinaii were known as fierce horsemen and loyal soldiers with a tradition of duty to the tyrant. Negotiations over the trade rights on the Oloar broke down, and Cinaii invaded Telborean soil, capturing its client cities and vanquishing its armies. Radical changes swept through Telborea at the threat of foreign invasion. All of the client cities' levies were combined with Telborea's Legion, forming several Legions. They were equipped with heavy plate armor, tower shields and heavy broadswords and taught to fight in unison, motivated by the black smoke of allied lands set ablaze by the soldiers of Cinaii. The servant people were granted Telborean citizenship if they fought as lightly armed pike men to support the Legions, and many of those unfortunate men signed up to fight for their conquerors to regain the rights they had lost long ago. Imperator Stratus Invictus marched south with the Legions, numbering tens of thousands, and met the Cinaii on the field. The new system of war, highly professional, effective and merciless, proved to preserve the liberty of Telborea and spell doom for the Kingdom of Cinai. Before the battle, Stratus Invictus claimed to have been given a vision from the gods of an eternal realm reaching out to govern the entire world, a rule to right all wrongs and bring about the golden age. He called it Empire, and in the ashes and blood on the battlefield the Telborean Empire was born.

Telborean soldiers marched mile after mile on the great campaign against Cinai. The Kingdom rivaled Telborea and its allies in population and territory, and the battles were fought on a scale unimaginable for the previous generation. Hundreds of horsemen would charge across battlefields to rip men on foot to pieces with their spears before being impaled on the myriad pikes of the light troops of Telborea. The ranks of soldiers would stand shoulder to shoulder from sunset to sundown pressing the enemy, but the men on both sides understood that to run was to die, and neither army would yield easily. The warriors forged in the fires of this great war would have been nightmarish predators toward all they conquered had it not been for the divine guidance of the Imperator. Many great works of Cinai culture and art were spared when their cities fell, and civilians were rarely butchered as long as they complied with the Telborean rule established over them. The long gruesome war ended in the great battle of Cinastephon where the tyrant, King Deoklies, was slain. Within months every flame of resistance in the former Kingdom was stomped out and the Telborean Empire doubled its territory, gaining control over the Oloar river from the city of Telborea itself to the southern coast. The conquest brought with it changes. The Cinaii had revered their tyrants and sworn to follow them without question and had raised statues and temples that depicted not only the gods, but also the living ruler of their realm. Stratus Invictus was impressed by the personal cult the tyrants had received, and soon statues of the Imperator were placed in Telborean temples. Much of the plunder from the campaign was used to construct the massive Pantheon of Telborea.

With the vast population, wealth and military strength of Telborea none of the remaining free city states could stand against them, and the uniform rule of the Imperator of Telborea expanded to include the entire culture of city states and kingdoms south of the great high culture of the central plains of Telan. The myriad of independent cities and small kingdoms were soon to have one law, one currency and one ruler. The Imperial Order of Telborea was formed to fight as the Imperator's vanguard in battle, and the guard the burgeoning Empire against moral decay and black magic that became an increasing threat as the Telboreans encountered foreign cultures. The Empire expanded naturally to the limits of the city state culture of central Telan, and there it ceased. For two decades the Telboreans build roads, aqueducts and trade forts throughout their nation, inceasing their prosperity and military prowess every years as natural resources were exploited at a greater rate than ever and population kept growing. At the death of Imperator Gemillus Varus, Taurus Victor was chosen as his successor. The young man moved the Telboran civilization into action once more, leading one great army north while two others headed west and east under the command of trusted generals. For the years to come Telborea would conquer the known world.

The Pantheon of Telborea is a massive fortified temple situated on one of the hills of the city. The Imperial Order stand guard day and night to protect the sanctuary of the gods, but the Pantheon is open to the public as a rule. The only occasion on which the massive bronze gates are locked is at the death of an Emperor, at which time the priests practice esoteric rites to the gods of the Underworld to ensure the dead Emperor's safe passing to the realm of the dead.

Within the outer stone walls, the main structure is housed. It is a vast hall in which the image of every deity accepted into the official cult of Telborea is housed. Although most deities have separate temples throughout the Empire, the Pantheon symbolizes the unity of the gods and their synergy with the Emperor as he has a statue in the centre of the hall. The statue is replaced every time the Imperial authority is passed into new hands.

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