Talmithe (pronounced tall-ME-thay) is a land inhabited by many diverse peoples, who are all ruled by the four Great Houses, elven tribes descended from those cast out of Eita during the Banishment. Life in Talmithe can often be chaotic as the interests and laws of each Great House collides with those of their subject peoples.
Geography, flora, and fauna
Talmithe is a greatly varied land, encompassing tall and craggy mountains, idyllic beaches, expansive grasslands, jungles, and more. Historically its only clear border has been in the east, where the forces of the Kingdom of Oscan patrolled the Gray River. Elsewhere Talmithe is defined simply by where the Great Houses can exert their control. It is usually considered to be bounded to the north by the Fangs of Khurazar and to the west by the Osmo River, though these are not exact. In the south, the Great Houses control part but not all of the island of Larthial within the Tabaha Bay.
Much of Talmithe is covered by tropical forests and grasslands. In general the forests thin out farther away from the Laqto, but they are widespread across central Talmithe, especially in the north against the mountains. Palms and mangroves grow along much of the coast. Some parts of the grasslands regularly floor, forming patchwork islands in the interior and salt marshes bordering the Tabaha Bay.
History
See also: Banishment
Though the various peoples of Talmithe have their own long histories, they are all tied together by the events that brought the elven ruling class to the region. In the middle to late third millennium, social upheaval caused by Eita's creation of the the aeroliths reached a point of crisis. Those that opposed the aeroliths, who largely based their objections on religious grounds, were forced to leave the old elven kingdom under charges of fomenting unrest. Upon leaving the Cradle these Banished split. One of the largest groups made their way to Talmithe, where they eventually organized themselves into the first Great Houses, but this was not a quick process; it took several generations for the elves to replace their old social structures with the tribal system of the Houses, and several more to fully consolidate their collective control of Talmithe.
Demographics
The people of Talmithe are quite diverse. Humans and half-elves account for much of the population, but they are also joined by lizardfolk, catfolk, grippli, and Bleached Bone gnolls. Despite forming the ruling class, the number of elven inhabitants of Talmithe is relatively low.
Culture
Great Houses
Religion
Worship of the Elven and Aserdian pantheons are the most widespread in Talmithe, but these are not by any means the only faiths followed in the region. Traditional gnoll and lizardfolk beliefs are widespread amongst their respective ancestries, as are other more localized practices. Some Talmithens engage in saurian hunts regardless of what gods or spirits they otherwise worship.
Though followed to a much lesser degree than the above beliefs, the deities of the Chaskan and Khapeshan pantheons have small numbers of worshipers in Talmithe.
Society
Traditions
Amongst many tribes in Talmithe, it is common to burn not only the bodies of the deceased by also all their possessions with them. Large funeral pyres are stacked with the items the dead used regularly when alive, set alight no matter their potential value to the living. In fact, possessions with particular economic or social value are the first to be burned. Sometimes this even includes the dwelling of the deceased, inside which the pyre is often built. This destruction is intentional, as it forces each generation to earn their way for themselves, rather than relying on what is left behind by their predecessors. Notably, this practice is not followed by any of the Great Houses, or indeed by any elven tribes in general.
Languages
Talmithens mostly speak a mix of their ancestral tongues and Tabahan, the language more closely associated with the non-nonexistent Kingdom of Oscan. Elven is particularly widely spoken, as are Iruxi, Gnoll, and Amurrun, if to somewhat lesser degrees. Use of Common and Sangiran is not unknown, but these knowledge of these languages is not especially widespread, as they are limited primarily to interactions with outside traders and travelers.
Food and cuisine
Architecture and urbanization
Travel and migration
Dinosaur caravans are used to transport people and material across Talmithe. The Alchumena are perhaps best known for this, with their trains of pack sauropods upon which they carry their goods, but they are far from the only ones to make use of dinosaurs for this purpose. Though difficult to tame, these creatures are large enough that they have very few natural predators and can pass through the rough terrain of Talmithe. Very few roads pass through the region - the routes that do exist are largely unmapped trails.
Many, but not all, tribes in Talmithe are nomadic. In general the eastern grasslands and the island of Larthial are the homes of nomadic peoples, while closer to the mountains and in the forests, and especially in the rainforest margins of the west, settled communities are more common.
Magic
At certain points in history the Great Houses have imposed bans on learning arcane magic, largely out of fear that sufficiently advanced mages would repeat the mistakes of those in Eita whose actions they had so vehemently disagreed with. These prohibitions were never successful, however, and today the people of their subject tribes use magic freely. The Velparun were the last to formally lift this ban in Y9270*.
Names
Names take a variety of forms in Talmithe. Many use typical Laqtan mononyms or even the Chaskan-inspired first and last names of Oscan. The elves of the Great Houses, however, have their own way of naming themselves, a practice that has spread beyond the Houses into other tribes as well. In this traditional method, an individual's first name is their house, or tribal, name, their second name is their given name, and their third name is their family name.
Government
The means by which the people of Talmithe govern themselves are inconsistent and chaotic at the best of times. Each tribe is typically led by some form of assembly or monarchy, though their exact forms vary across the region - elders' councils, appointed monarchies, and hereditary systems are the most common. Each Great House has their own style of leadership as well. The rule of the Great Houses does not replace but rather supplements those of their subject peoples. It is typical for the mundane details of day to day life to be left to the chosen leaders of their subjects, with the Great Houses only interfering in certain matters of interest to them or to provide broad guidance and orders for their subjects to work towards as they see fit. Of course, this varies by House, and some prefer to be far more direct in their laws and instructions.
The Great Houses themselves are led by multiple athumi, a Talmithen Elven word that roughly translates to monarch. These positions are rarely hereditary, with the notable exception of Velparun athumi, but instead are appointed in some meritocratic way.
Economy
The Great Houses rely heavily on their subject peoples to support themselves. All demand tribute in some form, whether that be through levying taxes, demanding manpower for corvée labor, or through some other method. These demands are nominally balanced by the guarantees of safety and stability the Great Houses give towards their subjects, but the elven tribes can vary in how much they respect the promises they have made. When the Houses falter, however, so too does the tribute flowing to them, and inevitably all fall in line once again.
Within Talmithe, the vast majority of trade is internal between the many tribes of the region. Agricultural resources, textiles, spices, ceramics, animals, and jewelry are especially common trade goods. Use of currency in Talmithe varies widely - most are more than willing to accept coins made of precious metals, but these frequently end up melted down to be made into something else.
Coffee is the one resource produced in Talmithe that is traded in large quantities with the broader world. Talmithe is the only known region where coffee grows in great quantities, though the undead of Tarkuus have begun to start cultivating the crop as well, and therefore the tribes can and do trade it to merchants from abroad in an exchange that greatly favors them. These merchants then sell the beans for exorbitant prices in far away places - in many places the drink is seen as a novelty and status symbol for the wealthy.