Eita

Kingdom of Eita
Capital	Aminth
Ruler	Various
Government	Monarchy
Demonym	Eitan
Adjective	Eitan
Languages	Elven, Aserdian
Religions	Elven pantheon

Eita (pronounced EYE-tah), formally the Kingdom of Eita, was an elven nation that once controlled the Cradle as well as the lands around the Gulf of Aserdus. The kingdom lasted for thousands of years, from the early second millennium to roughly Y6800^*. At one time a center of magical and technological study, Eita was eventually brought down by the out-of-control consequences of their drive for knowledge. Hinthial is a successor state to Eita, with most of its inhabitants descended from Eitans who fled the Cradle long ago.

Geography

The Cradle formed the core territory of Eita. The kingdom established many cities in Hinthial to the north and Brightmarch to the south as well, as well as a handful of settlements in the western parts of the Laqto Rainforest.

History

Beginnings: the Cradle

The earliest records of the elves tell of their history in the Cradle, where elven society of the current age first developed. From a mosaic of vibrant city-states eventually rose one would come to unify the island - the Kingdom of Eita. By Y2400^* the kingdom ruled the entire Cradle from its capital in Aminth. Already in these early days, the drive to explore and mold the world into their ideal form was evident in elven society. Great strides were made in magitechnical developments, surpassing even the magical knowledge of the cyclops is many ways. In an era when other great civilizations of the current age were still finding their footing, Eita was pioneering the first and then ever-larger colossi, reaching into the darkness of outer space, and reshaping the island on which they lived, turning the swampy Cradle into verdant forests. At the same time outposts and cities were established across Brightmarch and into the Laqto Rainforest, in large part with the aim of acquiring the resources needed for their continual growth.

Rise of the aeroliths

Not content with mastering only their immediate surroundings, the elves of Eita began to look farther afield. Scholars of the cosmos had located a cluster of unique asteroids orbiting Kishar's sun, along a path that frequently brought them relatively close to the planet. Further research determined these asteroids to be composed in large part of a previously unknown skymetal that the elves named ansharite. In one of the kingdom's greatest collective feats, through the collaboration of their mages, scientists, and cosmonauts many of the asteroids were carefully pulled from their orbits and into the atmosphere of Kishar, after which they were gently set to ground in and around the Cradle.

The special properties of ansharite were highly intriguing to elven scholars, and many wondered what they could accomplish with the asteroids in their possession. It was not long before the possibility of using the material for use in flying craft became a topic of discussion in the scholar-halls and public lyceums of Eita. The mechanics of magical flight had been well-studied before, and many smaller flying vessels had been constructed, but now the ansharite allowed for flight on a truly unprecedented scale.

The first flying cities of the elves, known as the aeroliths, were built out of the asteroids in the middle of the third millennium, with most of the rest completed over the next five hundred years. The last known to be built was Aivas, which was set aloft in Y3080^*. For thousands of years the aeroliths were the crowning achievement of elven civilization, wandering the world unchallenged and unchallengeable by any. Though elven explorers had already traveled Kishar extensively, life on the aeroliths allowed many more to see the sights and wonders of the world.

Decline of Eita

Even before many of the greatest minds in Eitan society relocated to the flying cities of the aeroliths, cracks were already beginning to show in the foundation of the kingdom. In their haste to study the extraterrestrial objects, precautions were abandoned in the name of making quick strides in magic and science.

Though most of the asteroids were barren chunks of rock and metal, some carried passengers entombed inside. A few of the first asteroids brought to ground contained strange seeds frozen in ice. At first studied in controlled environments, the drive for answers led to riskier and riskier experiments, until the alien plants eventually escaped containment and began to overrun parts of the Cradle. This extraterrestrial flora began to expand quickly, eventually growing to cover much of the southwestern Cradle.

But seeds were not all the asteroids contained. A rare few brought something even more startling - giant eggs of alien creatures, never before seen on this planet. Once exposed to the oxygen and heat of the atmosphere, the creatures in these eggs began to develop. Initially carefully studied like the plants with which they arrived, these beings became impossible to contain due to the sheer size to which they quickly grew. These lifeforms, some of which were hundreds of feet from end to end, began to wander the Cradle freely, impossible for even the colossi to restrain. Giant creatures were nothing new to the elves - they had lived side-by-side with Targhizizi and Tharumagi for centuries - but these new groundshakers were unpredictable, uncontrollable, and unconcerned by the destruction they wrought.

As the greatest elven scholars left Eita for the flying cities, the kingdom was left unable to address the consequences of their ceaseless drive for knowledge. The remaining learned individuals became increasingly cloistered, locking away their secrets from their broader society. The colossi, once thought unbeatable, were gradually reduced in number by their battles with the newly arrived creatures. Alien plants overgrew entire cities. Though a slow process from the outside, the next centuries indelibly changed the kingdom. Anger at the aeroliths and the scholars that brought them to the world began to rise, and for the first time many inhabitants of Eita started to question the unceasing drive to learn and develop that underpinned their society.

Fall of the aeroliths

The age of the aeroliths eventually ended, not by any external threat but rather from a malaise from within. On the aeroliths, disconnected from the troubles of Eita, not all was rosy as the cities became increasingly insular. The elven aerotheurges who kept the cities aloft gradually became highly secretive with their magical breakthroughs, almost obsessive in withholding their knowledge from others lest they be forced to share the skies with anyone else. Not only were the secrets of this magic kept from non-elves that they visited, but also from almost all residents of the aeroliths as well. Each aerotheurge kept only a single apprentice at a time, who was the only one they trusted enough to grant an understanding of how to keep the cities aloft. Apprentices became fewer in number, and the masters of the magical art were not replaced.

At the same time, the ansharite the cities were dependent on was slowly mined away for other use, leaving the aeroliths more difficult to magically levitate. Gradually, unmaintained and unstable, aeroliths began to return to the ground one by one. Some crashed, but most were intentionally brought in to land once their fates became clear. Their former inhabitants largely left them behind, scattering around the world. Many elves eventually established new terrestrial communities in Hinthial, near the Cradle in which the first aeroliths were built. By the middle of the eighth millennium, only four remained intact and in the air, with the ruins of the rest slowly decaying.

Exile to Hinthial

Meanwhile on the Cradle, generations of attempting to keep their mistakes at bay had proved inadequate. With time, the elves on the island learned to keep the plants and groundshakers at bay, but they could never contain or defeat them. Once-grand cities were forced to be abandoned, as the remaining elves began to limit themselves to the northeast of the island, an area relatively free of the dangers. The Kingdom of Eita had functionally ceased to exist by Y6800^*, its orders ignored as its rulers continued to attempt to cling to their old capital.

By Y7100^*, the situation had become dire, and it was clear that continuing their society on the Cradle was untenable. In a mass migration north, the majority of the elves of the Cradle left their remaining cities and relocated to Hinthial, where new communities had already been established. They were joined by returning elves from the flying cities, who had likewise realized they did not wish to continue their slowly ending way of life. The land bridge between Hinthial and the Cradle was intentionally sunk into the sea to prevent the groundshakers from following, in an act often considered one of the last great feats of elven magical engineering.

Demographics

The population of Eita was almost entirely elven. Some humans, half-elves, and individuals of other ancestries lived under the kingdom in its waning years as well.

Government

Eita was an absolute monarchy. Its leaders drew their legitimacy in large part from their support of intellectual endeavors - most Eitan kings and queens were accomplished scholars as well. As it declined, Eita lost the ability to control elven society on the Cradle, and the kingdom slowly transformed into the type of decentralized magocracy that characterizes Hinthial governance today.