House Name: House Tlaerie
Heads of House: Vialiph Nis'Silvani Tlaerie and Vialipha Sael'Lysi Tlaerie
House Specialty: House Tlaerie is incredibly devoted to the Kammethian faith and are have provided inquisitors of their own family for years. They personally run the Argentum and are granted an unheard of level of freedom in bringing Kammeth's fire to the world while rooting out all traces of the vile darkness.
House Ancestral Artifact: The Cord of Vaelor and Vaela. A long silver cord of unknown material that is inscribed with old runes and glyphs. If a male and female bleed upon the cord and then the bloody ends are pressed to the other with the proper rituals and oaths it will create a bond between holders. This bonding is key to the power of the inquisitors.
Important Members:RoyaltyVialiph Nis'Silvani Tlaerie 34
Vialipha Sael'Lysi Tlaerie 36
Royal HiersVili Il'Dival Tlaerie 17
Vila Tsi'Niri Tlaerie 16
Vila Lia'raya Tlaerie 6
Royal RelativesVi'Trisn Tlaerie 63
Nil'Lora Nicalir 36
Lae'Vesi Trielia 19
Lis'Vorel Jirili 22
Av'Linn Tlaerie 23
Nation/Realms Name: The Vialiphate of Meletis
Flag: Intertwining pillars of silver and gold flame upon a black field.
House Motto: “Our Watchful Fires Burn.”
Region/color on map: Light blue green
Race name: Vaelie
Vaelie: The Vaelie are beautiful and striking beings without a doubt. Their skin is the color of silver and their hair gleams like pure gold. Their bodies look as if they were crafted by some god with an eye for what would be the most desirable traits imaginable. They stand have no sexual dimorphism in height and almost always clear 6 feat tall. They tend to be slender but with delightful attributes and features for both male and female members of the race.
Racial traits: The Vaelie are mesmerizing and have the power to sway the opinions of those around them to a small degree. It is normally just a casual nudge and a favorable inclination towards the Vaelie in question. When multiple Vaelie join together it can be a very effective way to make even the most stubborn talk. The effect is strongest when they are speaking and is often projected through song. Vaelie also take the best to the bonding that creates inquisitors. Inquisitors and entertainers often train to maximize this gift's effects, though for different reasons.
Capital: Thalae, A magnificent and ancient city that dominates the island of Meletis. Thalae was founded long before the rise of the empire when the Vaelie, fleeing from their original homeland after a failed war found the mostly uninhabited island of Meletis
Capital Population: 70,000
Other Major Settlements: Thalae, and Melae are the only settlements of note, with the other inhabitants spread throughout fishing and farming villages and hamlets.
Melae: A small mining city set in the mountains of Meletis. It is build around and above the Vialiphate's goldmines and is well fortified with it's own guard force separate and distinct from the Thalaen Guard.
Population: 100,000
Culture: The Vialiphate has a rather different culture from most of Ethica as they do not originally hail from Ethica. They originally come from a land to the south west, a land that no longer exists as it once did. They have different clothing styles, different weapons, and in some cases different foods and customs.
The Vialiphate buys as much silk as Violette can sell them and uses it extensively in their upper class garb. Traditional clothing is made up of many layers of cloth wrappings around the body, often with different colors and patterns. The interwoven cloth patterns are unique to the Vialiphate and while the material they use to make them is extremely expensive and scarce they seem to be masters of using it. As if it once wasn't.
The Vialiphate's most commonly favored weapon is a long curved sword made of folded steel. A type of weapon that is capable of being drawn extremely quickly in lunging strikes and slashes. There a number of weapon arts that have been created and honed around its use.
The Vaelie despite their loathing of the Kawachian heresies do import a substantial amount of food from the slightly more southern islands as they favor such items.
Type of Government: Theocratic elective monarchy. Each member of the family gets a vote in determining who the next Vialiph or Vialipha of the nation will be. You have to be an adult and hold a rank in the holy Argentum to be eligible to be selected.
Influence and relations: Kawachian South Ethica: The Vialiphate has long loathed Kawachia and the Swiftwaves, viewing them as dangerous heretics hiding behind the thinnest veil of supposed faithfulness. The gods of Kawachia have never been accepted as part of the faith and inquisitors have been dispatched relentlessly to hunt down the worshipers of the false god Watatsumi and the cultists of the sea dragon. House Swiftwave was favored by the late emperor who restricted the Vialiphate's ability to purge them, but now that he is gone the Vialiphate has wasted no time in once more calling for the Immolation of Kawachia and dispatching inquisitors to the neighboring island chain.
Military -Inquisitors: Inquisitors are the elite investigators and enforcers of the Argentum. They always travel in pairs of one male and one female inquisitor and 90% of all inquisitors are Vaelie. They are well trained in both arcane and divine magic and have a powerful resistance to corrupting magic and the touch of Azueral. All are expected to master at least one weapon art and to be able to hold their own in combat.
An inquisitors uniform consists of the following components.
Robe of Vaelor/Vaela: The robe's color differs depending on the gender of the wearer, women wearing silver robes and men wearing golden robes. These robes are voluminous and ornate, featuring a peaked hooded had that covers the head and has a shroud of either silver or gold that obscures the face other than the eyes. These holy robes are the symbolic garb of the inquisitors and the Argentum.
Quilted Armor: Beneath the robes inquistors normally wear padded armor that covers their most vulnerable areas. Because the robes are hard to cut through the main purpose of the padded armor is to stop or reduce the blunt trauma caused by impacts of weapons. The high peaked hood is also stuffed with padding to help reduce damage done to the head if it is struck.
The Lash of Vaelor: A ceremonial whip included in the uniform of all male inquisitors. It is seldom used but highly symbolic.
The Stake of Vaela: A ceremonial stake included in the uniform of all female inquisitors.
Weapon of Choice: Most inquisitors favor a long curved blade but some who are not Vaelie prefer other weapons.
Thalaen Guard: The Thalaen Guard is an elite force never to exceed 500 members who guard the holy city of Thalae from attack. The Thalaen Guardsmen are well trained, well equipped and mostly hardened from years of serving as members of an Inquisitorial Retinue before being allowed to take the easier post as a guardsman. The Thalaen Guards wear armor that mixes their older aesthetic with that of the standard Ethican armor. (Think Akiviri from Elder Scrolls) Their armor is gold in color and they wear silver cloaks.
Inquisitorial Retinues: The Inquisitorial Retinues are a way that the Vialiphate can at least slightly get around the Edict of Neutrality. Each inquisitor can have a retinue of up to 10 accompanying enforcers. Service in an Inquisitorial Retinue is extremely dangerous and involves training to fight against vilespawn, heretics, magic users, and of course normal men and women. Members of an Inquisitorial Retinue do have a uniform but it is only worn when they are advertising themselves. Most of the time the Retinues are not open and are concealed to allow the heretics false confidence.
Unit demographics: (heavy infantry, marksman, etc and their equipment/training, remember no army in real life was ever able to field a fully rounded all capable army. Sometimes a lack of something makes it more interesting.)
Landscape: (What do your lands look like?)
Wildlife: Economy: The Vialiphate is extremely wealthy. It draws its wealth from taxes, tithes, the confiscated resources of heretics, and the gold within the mountains of its island domain. It also is subsidized directly.
Religion: The Vialiphate and the Argentum are very much purists when it comes to the Kammethian faith. They accept the membership of the following gods in the legitimate family of Kammeth.
Kammeth
Lyriel
Alluria: While the Vialiphate was reluctant to cede this point the direct words of the Prophesized One said that Kammeth had adopted Alluria and the words of the Prophesized one are sacrosanct.
Ra-hun-ru
Vaelor/Vaela
Helstar
Kayo
All other gods are considered to be false and heretical to worship. Such worship is blasphemous and unholy, and such gods are clearly false reflections of Azueral that must be purged from the world by holy fire.
History: (At least the past couple generations, include conflicts, major upheavals, wars, etc. You can overlook this part and fill it in as the Roleplay progresses in order to work with other players for maximum cohesion.)
Strengths:State Funded: The Vialiphate is directly funded by revenues from tithes and taxes collected across the empire. They have wealth beyond the wildest dreams of many nobles and can afford the very best in almost everything imaginable.
The Argentum: The Vialiphate is the host of the Argentum one of the most powerful bodies in the Kammethian faith. They control the inquisitors and are tasked with watching over the empire and guarding against any and all heretics. This gives them a great deal of power and few dare to challenge the authority of the Argentum.
Armory of Magic: The vaults in Thalae contain a massive stockpile of powerful magical artifacts, many of which are spoken of in legends. When situations are truly dire the Vialiphate can draw on it's stockpiles and even in less desperate times many of the lesser artifacts are commonly used by inquisitors, with the blessing of the Vialiph or Vialipha of course.
Weaknesses: Edict of Neutrality: The Vialiphate is prohibited from having traditional levies or a proper army. The first Empress valued the services of the Argentum but wanted to ensure it never became an overpowering military force. The Vialiphate is permitted to have 500 members of the Thalaen Guard to protect the holy fortress city from attack and an unspecified number of operatives who accompany inquisitors but barring invasion they are not permitted to muster further forces without direct orders from the Emperor.
Feared: It is not always good to be feared. The Vialiphate and the Argentum have long used fear as a weapon against the heretics and blasphemers. Fear of the scourge, fear of the purifying fire, fear of the rituals of consumption, fear of the boiling waters, fear of torture and scouring, but while the heretics are certainly afraid their fear has made them harder to find.
WE KNOW THEY ARE HERE SOMEWHERE: The Argentum can sometimes get so invested in finding the heretics in a particular area or be overzealous to the point of finding heresy where there really isn't any. While they do not answer to anyone, this is still a waste of time and effort when there really is not heresy in the area.
Export: Gold, Fish, and lots of money.
Import: Pretty much everything.
