Province Write up: South Thaera

South Thaera
Proper Name: Thaleas
Provincial Government: Military Dictatorship
Leaders: Governor Granin (LE D M Blackguard of Baalzebul 9/Aristocrat 2), Marshal Kurz (LE Pit Fiend F Warlord 8 ), Giorge Kakistos (LE H M Aristocrat 4/Wizard 8 ), Karla Rustovich (NE H F Expert 9)
Provincial Capital: Graninstad
Major Cities & Towns: Kalasta
Districts: The Red Wastes
Resources: Armor, Industrial tools, Metal work, Weapons
Coinage: South Thaeran Script
Population: Total # - Racial Makeup Humans 65%, 10% Orcs, 10% Half-Orcs, 10% Dwarves, 5% Hobgoblins
Languages: Ortho Common
Alignment (Populace): Lawful Neutral
Alignment (Law): Lawful Evil
Faiths: The Lords of Order, Devil Worship (secret)

The province of Thaleas is a place that makes most Harmonium members uncomfortable with anything more than a passing knowledge of the place. It is an ugly eyesore on the face of Ortho and a place that continually comes up amongst the legislature as a location that should be renovated to a higher standard of living. Other times, the military calls for a dismissal of Marshal Kurz or Governor Granin for the rumored abuses that he conducts in the Harmonium's name. Invariably, the constant need for arms and weaponry for the ever-expanding war machine overrides these complaints and South Thaera continues on as it always has.

The province of Thaelas is a muddy wasteland. All of the forests have been clear cut with many of the stumps left to rot than properly removed, the creeks and rivers are choked with wastes from the cities, and the air is filled with an ugly brown smoke that pours continually from the factories. Most of the animal and plant life in the region is either dead or sickly.

The cities of Thaelas are an ugly urban nightmare. The rich live in a shockingly tacky opulence in walled off portions of the city. Almost everything else that isn't factories is state supplied housing. The ugly and mass produced buildings are often crumbling and shoddily constructed. Strangely, statues and art of the Governor amongst stylized Harmonium symbols are everywhere.

Travel to Thaelas from other provinces is strictly regulated. A pass from Thaelas to another province is granted only to individuals that are hopelessly tied up with Granin's depravities. Purchasing one requires obscene levels of graft and its frankly easier just to bribe the border guards. Likewise, individuals from the outside world coming in are almost invariably restricted in the places they can travel and accompanied by Harmonium guards at all times. It's only a mild exaggeration that Granin has all commanders equipped with books of a thousand generic excuses as to why inspectors or high level visiting officials can't go to certain places.

Due to its island nature, travel does occur from South Thaera in fairly vast amounts to transport the tremendous amount of goods that it imports regularly. It also has a Planar-Imported Portal system that speedily assures its creations are dispatched across the land. All this activity requires passes from the Kakistos Combine or similar Merchants or Granin's Sub-Governors. A fairly large criminal network has emerged in transporting refugees to other nations. Those who attempt to speak against South Thaera are often hunted by Granin's extensive (and illegal) secret police.

The People:

The rural populous of South Thaera is also a down beaten and broken bunch with few able to afford shoes unless they work for the war industry. Of course, if you don't work for the war industry, the Harmonium is happy to impress you unless you can prove that have something else more important to do for the cause. Knowing this is a fate possibly even worse than their current wretched existence, many of these become very good at making themselves scarce when the Harmonium rides into town. Most survive at a subsistence level and hope their crop isn't stolen by Granin whom seems to ignore the Ortho code against allowing one's populous to starve.

The city populous is almost universally composed of Provs. The system managed by Governor Granin and his predecessors is made to destroy any chance of Thaelas citizens getting out of debt. There is a high demand for new workers thanks to the amount that die on the job (from stress, lung damage, or accidents.) To offset this, the Governor has successfully negotiated contracts with many other Provinces to send their offenders here to spend the rest of their lives toiling in darkness. These individuals are just nakedly worked to death.

There is a rich portion to Thaelas's populous. Usually, these are the region's overwhelmingly corrupt officers of the Harmonium and the merchant cartels that make their fortunes in the area. Ironically, many of the chief investors in Thaelas live elsewhere in Ortho and only collect their portion of the profits. Governor Granin likes it this way as it prevents him from having to answer too many questions.

The only middle class that exists in the city are the soldiers of the Harmonium. To be assigned duty in South Thaera is considered a punishment of the highest order on Ortho. Ironically, it has helped cultivate the kind of soldiers that the Governor wants. The Harmonium in Thaelas is full of bullies, thugs, and individuals who are more than willing to bend the law in the favor of their own interests. Harmonium soldiers get their own houses and are routinely supplied women from the local populous amongst other minor luxuries to keep them satisfied. The most idealistic usually end up crushed by their experiences here or meet some kind of 'accident.'

Leaders:

Most of Thaelas' life revolves around "The Boss." Governor Dursk Granin is always depicted as a small human in his statuary but is actually a Dwarf of above average size. He's controlled Thaelas for centuries at this point and almost all people have died out who remember what life was like before his rapid industrialization of the region. While it's only whispered outside of South Thaera, its a well known fact inside Thaelas that Governor Granin is a lunatic. The Dwarf is extremely paranoid, hates the poor, and delivers ranting speeches that imply that all of Ortho is on the brink of destruction at any given moment.

The Boss is a veteran of the War of Iron and somehow managed to find his way back from the war several months after everyone thought all the remainder of the army had been destroyed. Dursk Granin was never the same after this event but repeatedly managed to rise through the ranks by emphasizing the Harmonium's constant and ever growing need for resources. Anyone sane would recognize Granin's record is littered with evidence of blackmail, graft, and murder but his appointment was made by none other than Julhein with the full backing of the Beholder nation.

Some folk are noticing that Granin is awfully young seeming for a Dwarf his age though....

Second in command of Thaelas is Marshal Bridget Kurz. A strikingly beautiful woman with a penchant for black leather armor, she has a artificial red eye that glows brightly when she's angry. Marshal Kurz drills the populous of Thaelas mercilessly and has managed to keep the citizenry largely pacified through a mixture of constant patrolling mixed with terror tactics. Rumors attest that Marshal Kurz's sexual appetites are overwhelming and distinctly un-Harmonius but most soldiers of Thaelas would sooner bed a Tarrasque.

Secretly, Marshal Kurz actually believes that the Harmonium could be used to spread the force of Law that the Devils revere across the planes and many Harmonium Devils report to her. This view could propel her into the Dark Eight or get her executed if its revealed.

Giorge Kakistos is Thaelas' representative in the Ortho Council and really the only voice that matters in the Triad of Authority. For the past two decades that he's served there, all of his associates have been little more than straw men for his own opinions. Kakistos is, theoretically, a Priest of the God of Hierarchy but few believe that this is anything more than a post he paid his way into. Giorge owns approximately a third of the mercantile interests in Thaelas, almost all civilian networks the military uses, and privately controls a piece of every vice den.

Giorge is, arguably, more influential in the keeping of Thaelas's current situation than Granin. A charismatic and pleasant aging man, Giorge is a former Prov that's the model of a self-made man. He is a master of oration, filibusters, and government pork. Giorge is also not above arranging large scale urban projects to 'improve the lot' of Thaelasns before deliberately sabotaging them so that it appears the fault lies with the Council of Ortho rather than him. Giorge is rather infamous for a pair of eighteen year old Shoryku women that follow him around everywhere he goes. They are just the latest in a long line of young and beautiful secretaries.

Finally, of note is the terrorist Karla Rustovich. A free thinking anarchist, Karla Rustovich has been known to use Globes of Delayed Blast Fireballs manufactured by the Black Alchemists to destroy Prov tenaments, barracks of troopers, and important war material. She regularly releases her tracts that urge the citizenry to rise up and seize the wealth of the masses. Her books are frighteningly seductive and have caused unrest outside of Thaelas's borders as well.

The Dark of South Thaera's Leaders:

Dursk Granin was lost in the Abyss all those years ago and happened to end up encountering a party of Blood War participants. Having just had their tails kicked for several layers, the group was interested in the half-insane Granin's depiction of his home world. Dursk gladly sold his soul to one of Baalzebul's minions in exchange for a way back to Ortho. Since then, he's grown ever more greatly devoted to his Devil masters and has been slowly transforming South Thaera into a piece of Hell on Ortho. He's largely succeeded in this particular goal.

Marshal Bridget Kurz is actually the Pit Fiend Grasta, a daughter of Bel the Lord of Avernus. Baalzebul was originally intending to keep his newly found world to himself but was forced to share its existence with the other Lords of the Nine due to their spies. It is her job to slowly transform this planet into a suitable vessel for promoting Law throughout the realms. Oddly, she believes the promotion of evil is secondary to making sure the Ortho keep their attention focused on exterminating chaos at every opportunity. Thus, she is annoyed by Granin and Kakistos's inability to keep the horrors of Thaelas from being anything but blatant.

Giorge Kakistos is less a self-made man than he claims. A garbage collector at Granin's house, he stumbled onto the man's Devil worship and bungled a summoning spell. Giorge, somehow, managed to get the attention of Mammon. Through the aid of a pair of Eriynes (the twins who accompany him at all times), they shaped Giorge into a brilliant and cunning politician. The pair have brought dozens of other Devils into Ortho and they've aided in the corruption of several government departments. Ironically, the fiercest resistance they've recieved is from the cult of Alzrius that wields substantial power in the private sector. It is likely that the Blood War will spill over into Ortho, yet again, very soon.

Karla Rustovich is dead. Originally, a Harmonium Leveller with radical ideas about wealth distribution, she was found and killed by Marshal Kurz rather quickly. However, an Arcanoloth named Kreendol (NE F Arcanoloth Expert 9) was recently hired to start her activities up again on behalf of the Cult of Alzrius. The Arcanloth's papers are mystifying in their brilliance and are causing many Harmonium to suspect demonic influence. Ironically, that is exactly what Alzrius wants. The Demon Lord of Brands hopes that some genuine do gooders will fall over the Baatezu's scheme if they come searching for demons.

History:

South Thaera was once Thaelas the Green Lands. A community that was primarily populated by halflings that worshiped The Lords of Chaos. Long allies of the elves, the Halflings stood by them for much of the war before determining that the power of the Harmonium was too strong and the war was lost. The halflings officially surrendered themselves and offered to convert to The Lords of Order. The resulting departure of halfling troopers may not have meant much in the long run but the devastating losses help drive the Elves of Thaera to extinction.

It is a period that is written out of Harmonium history that the Halflings of Thaelas were then visited fifty years later by Akashi the Destroyer. For their betrayal of the elves, he released Six Terrible Plagues. A horrific wasting death that struck their children and healthy, a nightmarish poison that destroyed their crops, a series of earthquakes, a reign of uncontrolled fires, terrible boils that tormented the few survivors, and a creature called the Tarrasque. By the time the Harmonium had mobilized, the halflings of Ortho were largely eradicated.

Thaelas remained unoccupied for nearly a century before the War of Iron required a vast amount of blessed, enchanted, silver and cold iron weaponry. The OCA decided that South Thaera was the perfect place to begin a series of planned industrial cities to help modernize much of the modern world. They had only begun producing their supplies when that war turned into a tremendous disaster for the whole of Ortho.

Eventually, the colonization of new worlds resulted in a vastly larger work force being imported into the region. Many of these individuals were former criminals and debtors that were unwanted by their home nation. The people rejected these movements and the increasingly poor conditions. 'The Leveler Riots' that followed were some of the worst unrest in Harmonium history with sympathetic workers from all over Ortho attempting to form unions against mercantile oppression. In the end, the Harmonium managed to disperse them with the use of military force.

The Octave proceeded to install a series of brutal Military Governors to keep control over the populous from that point forward. Ironically, this just stewed resentment and encouraged the Harmonium to consider the place needed a forceful hand. A few of the only examples of Governors being assassinated on Ortho come from the Province of South Thaera.

Juhlien instituted Marshal Granin of the Harmonium as Governor when the last one was revealed to have been guilty of gross perversions. The populous hoped that the new Governor would prove to be an improvement over the last but swiftly 'pacified' the region by forcing the populous into almost round the clock work. While the humanitarian issues of Thaelas have become worse under Granin, the productivity is up nearly 300% and most don't care about his methods.

Notable Locations

Graninstad, formerly known as Kastuel, is a choking black and smoke covered city built into the side of a mountaintop. Most of the populous has to wear masks to avoid the tremendous amounts of soot that poor out of the countless factories and Harmonium patrols are everywhere. The rich live at the highest reaches of the mountain, actually above the clouds while the Dwarf members of society largely live in the protected mountain the forces their wastes outwards. On the top of the city is Castle Ironfold that is a Devil infested fortress that Governor Granin only rarely opens to the public.

The Doom Factory is a massive complex nearby Graninstad that is home to a vast number of wizards (well over a hundred) that were taken from their families and educated as magicians by the State. They operate openly with a large group of Devils of various types and master craftsman to produce enchanted weapons for the Harmonium. A great number of Doomguard members have been brought here in secret from Sigil. They, ironically, have no idea they're secretly working for their mortal foes.

The Crimson School is a secret training camp in one of the darkened mountains of South Thaera. It is here that the children of convicted criminals and urchins that have shown 'survival' qualities and then spend the next decade learning the arts of the killer. The Harmonium doesn't really approve of this sort of learning but Granin has been employing them for his own purposes (and his masters) for years. Many in the Harmonium are also sympathetic to the idea that they could used to "usher along" colonies becoming Harmonized.

Kalasta is one of the few other major cities aside from Graninstad and the 'public' face of Thaelas. Conditions are slightly better here than in the rest of the province and almost all trade shipping is handed from here to outside Ortho. Almost all citizens in Kalasta are children of military personnel or informers that have won the opportunity to live in limited economic opportunity as a means of public relations for South Thaera. It is also the home of the vast estates of Kakistos Combine's leaders.

One other odd little spot is the Great Game Board that is a sole bit of culture in an otherwise vacant region. It is a gigantic gameboard filled with Knights, Bishops, and Monarchs that was created for the Lords of Order and Chaos according to tradition. No force on creation is able to move the pieces or harm them. However, occasionally, the pieces are said to move.

Adventure Hooks

+ Governor Granin has decided to start a large scale importation of Devils into the world of Ortho. He's ordering large numbers of workers to unspecified locations, having the Devils devour them, and then take over their lives. The PCs become involved when the family of one barely survives. Now she's marked by the insane dictator's agents before she can reveal the scope of the plan.

+ The PCs are asked by 'Karla Rustovich' to go assassinate a high ranking member of Granin's cabinet after they are witness to some of his inhuman activities. If the PCs manage to accomplish this, they discover that he's actually a Devil.

What does this mean for the whole of South Thaera?

+ Akashi has decided to destroy South Thaera again. He will bring a massive chunk of a piece of Arcadia crashing down onto the world through a gigantic spell portal. While some might argue that an asteroid strike could only improve Thaelas, others note the catastrophic effects it will cause.

The PCs must somehow find the device drawing it into this plane while dealing with the Revolutionary levels of panic as Granin refuses to let anyone evacuate.