Tympanian beliefs about the world before the coming of Love and Reason
Tympania Archives
Including the Ulderlinden and the drowned lands of Chalycidice.
Tympanian beliefs about the Fall of the Theocracy
Many of the Stewards of the Priest King of Vestra survived the Fall of the Theocracy. Now converted to Love and Reason's cause, they established themselves in the city of Vestra as the Cholaeic Council of Vestran Stewards, dedicated to gentle encouragement of the self-determination of the peoples once ruled by their Priest King.
The wake of the Fall of the Theocracy saw the rise to power of the people of the eastern peninsula, known to the Cholaeic peoples as the Chalycidicans, after their foremost city-state, Chalycidice.
Hardin established himself as the King of Tyr in the year 15. Most of the Tyrrian legends from this era concern the exploits of the chieftains of Hardin's court, particularly those of Arcturus, Beloved of Reason, the inventor of the plow, irrigation and the Cholaeic alphabet, and of Evan, Champion of Love, slayer of monsters and protector of the innocent.
The Vestran stewards begin to return to their theocratic ways -- admittedly, often very much to the benefit of the people of the surrounding lands. They begin interacting as a political entity with the people of Tympania. Factionalism arises on their council over questions of inverventionism.
Iam, grandson of the Priest King of Vestra, rises to power on the Cholaeic Council of Vestran Stewards. He binds the people of Ventria to his will, purges the Council of those stewards disloyal to him, and begins his conquest of Tympania.
Within one year of Iam's invasion of Tyr, he had conquered all of the lands once under the jurisdiction of the Priest Kings of Vestra and Pandrell. Perhaps in a spirit of irony, he named his new realm "Tympania," after the religious figure Tympanor, General of the God Emperor, whom the Tympanian people claimed first encountered Love and Reason within Cholaeic Lands.
At the height of Iam's reign, Tympania was divided into eight provinces, each of them (with the exception of Ventria) ruled by a military governor and possessed of a certain degree of administrative autonomy. Iam built the city of Evasendia in Tyr to serve as his administrative capital. He himself took up residence in the citadel of Pandrell, leaving Vestra in the hands of his mother Isdanor, and Quintillica under the control of the defeated Varus, who was now bound utterly to Iam's will and served as little more than Iam's magical puppet.
In the year 84, Iam was overthrown by a revolutionary force led by a Rhythnorian farmer-turned-brigand named Titus. Titus's resistance was aided by the reappearance of three powerful magical artifacts: the Eye of Dor, a legendary stone claimed to focus the inherent Wisdomic power of the natural world; the double-headed axe Eryndor, an ancient artifact associated with the fundamental chaos out of which both Wisdom and the Demiurge sprung; and the Sword of Tympanor, which Titus had found deep in a Rhythnorian mine.
Upon their liberation from the Pact of Ventria, the Ventrian people immediately acclaimed Titus as their leader. When Titus and his troops had entered Vestra, however, they had encountered an Oracle of Wisdom who advised them instead to seek out Hardin's heir to be ruler of the new Tympania. A search for this person ensued, leading eventually to Cyril, Hardin's grandson, who had been raised secretly in the Ulderlinden during Iam's reign. Initially reluctant to serve as Tympania's new king, Cyril was at length persuaded and returned with Titus to Tyr, where he was invested as the King of Tympania in 85.
The cause of the sinking of Chalycidice is utterly unknown, although some connection between the fate of the peninsula and that of the House of Lycas is generally assumed to be an important factor. The Chalycidican survivors themselves seem to have believed it to be a form of divine punishment, although for what sin (and from what god) has never been determined.
Cyril and his descendants ruled Tympania for eighty-two years, during which the arts and sciences flourished, the worship of Love and Reason was codified into a coherent religion, and many of the social structures which still define Tympanian life were established. Although it was hardly a peaceful era, it saw the birth of a truly Tympanian cultural identity and is now remembered as the Golden Age of Tympania.
The Cult of the Saints grew so rapidly in Tympania that by 137 it became necessary for the Church to codify official guidelines for the investigation and canonization of reported new saints. It was also in this period, under the reign of Cyril's son Sarcon, that the Church was given a new organization and hierarchy, the Holy Writings codified, and state funds allocated for missionary expeditions to regions adjoining Tympania. By 152, the Church had become a major institution, with its own hierarchy and position within the Kingdom.
The Tyrulean city-states had been left devastated by Iam's reign and the destruction of Quintillica. Their reconstruction was rapid, however, and in 105, they resurrected their old alliance, the Quintillican Confederacy. Although the Confederacy was first formed as a defensive league against the Istravite cities to the north, it was not long before it came into opposition with Tympania.
The city of Chylorissa was to serve as the focal point of the rising hostility between Tympania and the Quintillican Confederacy. Uncomfortably situated on the border between Cholaeic and Tyrulean spheres of influence, Chylorissa was an independent city-state, neither a member of the Quintillican Confederacy nor a part of Tympania, but possessing among its ruling families parties sympathetic to both sides.
In 161 the third King of Tympania, Cyril II, was assassinated by a Picardian partisan, leaving behind no obvious heir. A successor was chosen by the Council, but the question of succession, once raised, could not so easily be put...
In 167, the Kingdom of Tympania, torn by civil strife and weakened by war on several fronts, was invaded by a coalition of Andar tribesmen from the far Twilight led by their Prince of Princes, Rollo. The Andar swept down...
The Andar invasion had a deep impact upon Tympanian society, but the culture of Tympania was to prove irresistibly seductive to the Andar invaders, and in time they were to come to abandon many of their own customs in favor of those of their subjects.
In 195, a second wave of Andar invaders swept down the An Valley in search of new lands, as their own homelands were under attack by the Shru Kevis. Smaller and less organized than the invaders of Tyrrhonia, the second...