BACKGROUND:
As a trade center between the Old World and the South Lands, Tilea is a cross-roads for the exchange of ideas, beliefs, customs, and (most importantly) gold. Consequently, it is a nation cursed by wealth and an educated people. Divergent systems of philosophy have brought jealously, hatred, fear, ignorance, bickering and infighting, and corruption tearing the nation into civil wars and long periods of social upheaval. At the same time, those seeking its plunder have subjected its shores to countless invasions and conquests. The people of Tilea have seen great wealth, and devastating poverty. They have seen times of plenty, when the people and fields blossomed, and the Red Pox and the blight left by the Skaven hordes. Its beautiful oceans and rich harvests, which once gave the people of Tilea an abundance of food also fed the emergence of the Skaven hordes. Tilea's wealth financed the construction of what was the greatest city in the Old World, and which is now Skavensblight
The Ancient Lands of Tilea
Tilea is the name of the fertile lands surrounding the warm and tranquil Tilean Sea. This region is seperated from the surrounding continent by high mountains. To the north run the Irrana peaks which stand like saw teeth against the sky. Beyond them are the even highger and more dangerous peaks known as the Vaults. Only a Dwarf could hope to cross these except by one of the few passes.
To the east runs the long mountain chain of the rugged Apuccinis, which divide the plains of Tilea from the wilderness that is the Border Princes. In former times fierce tribes of Orcs would swarm out of the Badlands, across the region now held by the Border Princes and over the Apuccinis Mountains to pillage the riches of Tilea. The mountains are still dangerouse and Orc raiders are still a nuisance, but nowhere near as much as they were then.
To the west, the Abasko Mountains seperate Tilea from the arid plateau of Estalia. The only great Tilean state on this side of the Tilean Sea is Tobaro, whic benefits from the natural defences of the mountains and the rugged coastline with its many rocky isles.
Tilea is not a unified realm by any means. Indeed the Tileans are said to be naturally anarchic and do not bend easily to government of any kind. Scarce wonder then, that Tilea is a patchwork of fiercly inderpendent principalities, some ruled by despots, others by powerful Merchant Princes, and some by a republican council of one kind or another.
Tilean Landscape
Tilea is a warmer and sunnier land than the Empire or Bretonnia. Indeed, the southernmost regions can be quite arid in high summer. Otherwise, coastal plaines are green and fertile and easily cultivated. This is a rich and abundant land. The seas are full of fish and the foothills of the mountains are covered in open woodland which is excellent hunting country. The Tileans are known for eating and drinking well, and Tileans as to which of them knows most aboiut good food.
The Apuccini Mountains are rugged and bare with sparse vegetation, but noy so cold and snowbound as the higher mountin ranges rurther north. The Abasko Mountains are much the same, but the Irrana Mountains, being part of the Vaults, are much colder and more treachgerous.
The Blighted Marshesare exactly as their name suggests: a vast expancse of bleak and danggerous stagnation. Tileans hardly ever venture into them and of those that do, few ever return.
The Tilean sea is warm and calm. It is sometimes tempestuous, but only treacherous around the rocky islands of the coast south of Tobaro, and in the Pirates' Current. Apart from this, the sea is calm and easy sailing for small ships and sleek galleys. This has greatly benefited trade around the sea between the Tilean cities, but it has also made the coast vulnerable to pirates, Corsairs of Araby and raiders from as far away as Norsca and even Naggaroth.
Tilean Genius
The lively minds of the Tileans account for the many great artists, architects, scholars, explorers, merchants, inventive geniuses, astronomers, diplomats and wizards for which Tileais renowned. Prehaps this is due to the ancient influence of the Elves. Early contact with such an advanced civilisation could be one of the reasons why the Tileans are so very diffrent from the peoples of the Empire or Bretonnia.
Tilean Ships
Tilean mercehnts would not have got very far had there not been seaworthy ships in Tilea. For a long time the Tileans used gallys propelled by sails and oars, which were ideal for the carm seas around Tilea. The Tilean cities, especially Remas, has large fleets of war galleys which endeavoured to fight pff the maurading Corsairs of Araby and Norce raiders. The experiance of continuous naval warfare combined with the inventive genius of the Tileans meant that war galleys became bigger and better in centuries. The Tileans eventually possessed galleys capable of venturing beyond the Tilean Sea and into northern waters.
Around the this when Tilean mercenaries were being hired in great numbers to fight in the civil wars within the Empire, Marienburg hired a flotilla of war galleys of Remas. Soon afterwards this city was building its own, even heavier war galleys for use in the Sea of Claws. Centuries later when Tileans began to mount cannons of their galleys, they opted for much lighter guns than those preferred in the Empire, but then the Tilean crews inclueded many expert crossbowmen and so do not have to rely on firepower to the same extent.
Tilean merchant ships, unlike the war galleys, are purely sailing ships and better for riding stormy seas. Such ships are similar to thouse used by Bretonnia and the Empire, except that they are lighter and more like the ships of the Corsairs in the way that the masts and sails are arranged. This means that they are quite fast and not dependant on a tailing wind, making them very good for long voyages in uncharted oceans. This enables the Tileans to venture far from their home ports in pusuit of trade.
HISTORY:
The Fabled Origins of the Tileans
Records of the early period of Tilean history have largely been lost, and only legend remains. Elven scholars tell of a mysterious city they disappearded into the Blighted Marshes in the distant past. This ancient city was called Kavzar but is known in Tilian legend as Tylos (also Til or Tylos).
The city blossomed, growing to become the largest in the Old World. Bard songs still make references to a city of graceful towers, stretching toward the sky, with high, arching walkways leading from one golden dome to the next. As the city grew and its trade routes spread throughout the world, a wandering Dwarf clan came to settle in the city, leaving in prolonged peace with the human inhabitants. Together, they created wonders never since seen in this world.
In their pride, the Tileans, led by Tyleus (or Tylos) legenadry farther of the Tilean people, began work, with the aid of the dwarfs, on a great monument to their god. Unable to finish their work despite years of labor, in babe-like trust they allowed a stranger to finish the tower in but one day. It is unknown what dark magic completed the tower's construction. All that can be said is that it had a purpose of its own, and it destroyed the Tilean city with warpstone rain and an evil that killed in the dark. After the fall, the few survivors were scattered throughout the land and reduced to a state of near-barbarism. So it is that the Golden Age of Tilea ended.
If these legends are true it could mean that the modern Tileans are descended from the primitive people who dwelt in and around the strange ancient city which disappeared beneath the Blighted Marshes. Although today's Tileans are unlikely to be direct descendants of the citizens of this mysterious city, who perished in the cataclysm that engulfed their city, theymay well be descended from the tribesfolk who tended the crops and grazed the flocks that fed and clothed inhabitants of the nearby metropolis. One legend records a tithe of slaves levied on the tribes which had to be sent every year to Tyleus to labour on his great building projects. When the city fell a great burden was lifted from the tribal people of the surrounding lands.
The Decaying Ruins of a Former Golden Age
Many years ago the Elves of Ulthuan were attracted to the shores of the Tilean Sea where they founded several colonies as part of their trading network in the Old World. The runis of most of these are now buried beneath later Tilean cities, but there are some that still lie abandoned as heaps of masonry and fallen columnes overgrown with wild flowers and ivy. Here tomb robbers dig holes to look for ancient Elf gems and relics.
There are no known Elven ruins situtated close to the Blighted Marshes. Prehaps this was because the Elves chose to avoid the ancient city of Kavzar, inhabited by humans and dwarves. The Elves traded with humans, and prehaps it is from the mercantile Elves That the Tileans inherited their own traditions of trade. The superior culture and highly developed civilisation of the Elves must have made quite an impression on the people of Kavzar who had little knowledge of metalwork or even writing before Elves arrived.
The Rise of the Tilean City States
Even before the High Elves abandoned the Old World, Tilean tribes were already setting along the coastal plains. Despite sharing the same origins and traditions, the settlements that gre up on top of the Elven ruins were never united into a single realm. There were two good reasons for this.
Firstly, unlike the Empire and Bretonnia, Tilea was fortunate in not being overrun by Orcs & Goblins in the aftermath of the war between the Elves and Dwarfs and the subsequent abandonment of the Elven cities. This was due to the barrier provided by the mounatins on all sides. The Tileans did not have the struggle for survival with these savage races and fight for possession of the land. It is true that the Skaven came to infest the mouldering ruins in the Blighted Marshes, but these invaders preferred to hide, seldom appearing in the surrounding lands. Civilised life, culture, and especially trade was able to flourish while northern peoples studied only war in a bitter and prolonged struggle against the greenskins. When the savage tribes did eventually break into Tilea, they found populous cities with strong walls and well-equipped armies to resist them.
Secondly, the Tileans are independently minded, strong-willed, and, some would say, impossible to govern by force. A Tilean's sence of pride and loyalty is always first and foremost to his own family, his immediate locale, and only then to his city. This meant that any attempts at empire building within Tilea were bittly resisted. Cities would resist conquering tyrants for years and if anyone managed to subjugate several cities and started calling himself 'King' or 'Emperor', his doom was sealed and a gruesome assassination was certain to follow fairly swiftly!
Jean the Pious
Jean of the Sedges, as he was originally known, began his life as a simple hog-slopped on the outskirts of the city of Miregliano. Little was thought of Jean - indeed, most of his neighbors thought he was a loon. Jean thought little of himself, also, holding a strong feeling that he was meant to accomplish something more.
At the end of the First Millennium on the Imperial calendar, Jean set off into the Blighted Marshes, despite the half-hearted pleas of his neighbors, claiming to be on a dream-inspired search for his destiny. When he wandered into the Marsh, none believed he would ever return.
Three years later, Jean of the Sedges staggered into the city of Remas, half-starved and wearing naught but rags, clutching a book of glowing white. When he recovered, he told a story that immediately brought him a fervent cult following. The book he held he claimed he had taken from a temple on the outskirts of Skavensblight itself. Seeking refuge from the fearsome monsters of the Blight, he entered the ancient temple to find an alter beneath an open dome. In the midst of the Blighted Marshes, where the sun never shines, he claims that the sky above the dome was crystal clear. On the alter, bathed in a radiant white light, sat the tome.
Jean preached a religion that he called the Way of the White Path, a belief claiming that of all the gods, only one controlled the gates to the afterlife. Jean the Pious taught his followers of a way of reaching the hereafter - a regimen involving abstention from all worldly goods.
The rapid growth of this new religion is credited in large part to new powers he had acquired during his wandering. His eyes, it is claimed, glowed with an eerie white incandescence, making it impossible to look straight into his face. And that many who heard him speak entered a strange trance so that they came away from the audience with no clear idea of what happened, but with an undying love for Jean the Pious.
To his most dedicated followers Jean read from his glowing tome. While none understood the meaning of the words, they found that reciting the chopped chant-like verses brought on a religious fervor and enabled them to cast strange new magics, never before seen.
Jean travelled through Tilea and even as far as Estallia preaching the Way of the White path. When Jean finally died, nearly 100 years after his return from the Blighted Marsh, his followers built him a great temple in the center of Remas, and buried him at it's center. His son, declaring himself the Great Potentate (the One Who Follows), and became the new leader of the expanding religion.
Exactly one year after the death of Jean the Pious a milky-white liquid began bubbling forth from the floor of the temple, exactly over the location where Jean was buried. Those followers who drank the potion suffered one of two fates - instant madness, or the grant of great new powers.
The Way of the White Path has since grown to become the mostly influential religious doctrine in Tilea.
The Wars of the Marsh
In 1563, an invasion from the Blighted Marsh took the city of Tobaro. Simultaneously, Skaven hordes attacked Miregliano and Remas, and towns throughout Tilea. While Tobaro was retaken two years later by a combined Tilean and High Elf force under the command of the Prince of Tobaro, Meldo Marcelli, the Great Council was broken.
For a period of nearly a thousand years, now, the Skaven have regularly threatened the integrity of Tilea. Periodic raids on small villages, localized outbreaks of the Red Pox, and corruptions of Tilean people have been referred to as The War of the Blight. It's constant threat has defined much of Tilean poetry and art, and is essentially the basis for the Triumvirate system: a system of consolidated forces capable of independently destroying any single army, but which requires all to hold back the Skaven Hordes.
Two horrific outbreaks have best defined the War of the Blight. The first is the outbreak of Red Pox in Northern Tilea in 1812, killing 7/10ths of the population of Miregliano.
The second major threat were the Skaven Raids of 2319-20. During these two years, shipping in and out of Tilea came to a virtual standstill. Already fearing starvation due to a poor harvest, the Tilean's (especially those in and around Remas) had become dependent on Araby grain imports. With these drastically reduced, riots broke out throughout the city, and were suppressed only by harsh action by the Halberdiers of the Mount. Those who master minded the riots were hung by their toes in the main square, inches away from a small feast, and allowed to starve to death.