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The Dehkay Plateau, also currently synonymous with the Second Imperium, is a large, volcanic landmass to the northeast of Sapience, separated from the Tundra by an icy, impassable ocean called the Great Dividing Sea. It is the original homeland of the Grecht and the current domain of the imperial Talons and their Exarch; mainland Grecht such as those living in Arget Massai or Arget Efri are descended from or representatives of refugees who fled from the authoritarian Second Imperial government to seek a better life across the ocean.
Economically and by head count, the Plateau is approximately on par with the combined forces of two mainland city-states. It is a heavily militarized territory and boasts a powerful Taerilan cavalry force (known as dragoons), along with countless thousands of peasant spearmen and swordsmen. They do not have a publicly available pylon and do not appear to make use of ylem. The people of the Plateau are divided by caste, and the deformed, diseased, crippled or infirm are considered beneath contempt, frequently being rounded up and executed by Second Imperial military police or shipped to the isolated settlement at Arget Kemau.
Political climate
The government of the Plateau is nominally a republic, but a pandemic of corruption and a series of military coups has rendered this more or less irrelevant. A council of Talons, or military 'advisors', hold the main body of power, with their nominal head being the Exarch, a religious and economic leader appointed by popular vote. The current Exarch is Rholva the Youthful, a progressive and enthusiastic woman who is shackled by the conservative and reactionary politics of the Talons hemming her in.
The population of the Plateau has historically been divided into three castes:
- the teac, or peasants and serfs, who till the land and serve beneath the regional warlords.
- the nel, or warriors, who serve in the military and actively practice the arts of war.
- the neicel, or priests, who undertake the Plateau rite of undeath and serve as archivists, teachers, historians and mediators.
For the most part, the teac are not permitted to own or use weapons; during the bloody history of the Plateau this was intended to prevent peasant uprisings, but with the enforced stability of the Second Imperium and the rise of prestigious careers in trade and manufacturing, the teac have come into their own power as merchant princes and politicians, forming an informal and disputed fourth caste of weaponless nobility. The nel, diminished in numbers and scattered due to the wide territory they are required to maintain, serve for the most part as generals or bodyguards for the merchant caste when they are not directly employed in the Plateau armed forces.
The nel are bound to a code of honour; a warrior of the Grecht may not willingly surrender without a fight, remove their armour while serving their duty, or allow a teac to command them. Nel who cannot meet this code become teac themselves, breaking their weapon in a ritualistic surrender to their superior officer (or the Exarch, in the case of a Talon).
Religion
The Second Imperium itself is largely secular, but there are many conflicts between this enforced doctrine of non-worship and the traditional worship of Halfat Naru, the 'great spirit' of the Plateau. Many neicel have gone into hiding in the lowest levels of the temple-cities or fled the Plateau entirely due to the use of neicel sacred sites as punishments and threats against the religious teac; for example, drowning in Dau Grecht is considered a holy rite that utterly destroys the souls of those judged unworthy, and has been employed as a method of execution by Second Imperial dragoons in order to break the morale of peasant rebels in the Dehkay Basin.
Worship of the Divine spirit of Air was once very popular on the Plateau, but with the military pogrom mounted against the neicel and the death of Galleus, it was largely abandoned; this was helped along by the Sovereign making several punitive raids against the Plateau in order to kill a number of invested individuals that threatened His domain of Air.
Undeath is held as holy on the Plateau, with all ordained neicel undertaking a rite to bring on such a state. However, whatever the mechanism of this undeath, it is not Ivolnite; it remains to be seen how such a state functions alongside the Rhythm philosophy of mainland Sapience.
Industry and economy
The various regions of the Plateau produce quite specific commodities, but under the Second Imperium trade mandates the Plateau as a whole is largely self-supporting. Venantium, precious gems and metals are produced in the Cradle of Fire, shipped to Arget Tep and processed into tools and devices for sale to the rest of the Plateau in the large Tep markets. Tep itself, or more specifically the leagues of farmland around it, in turn feeds the entire Plateau, supplementing the cave fungi and ash gardens that allow the other Grecht to survive, albeit not comfortably. The Second Imperium enforces stability and open trade through liberal deployment of their dragoon legions, receiving in exchange a ten percent tithe of the yearly gross income of Arget Tep in the form of goods or services rendered to the government.
Regions
The Plateau is divided into roughly three regions, historically opposed but currently united beneath the raised sword of the Second Imperial dragoon legions.
Maur Kemau and the Daughters
The southmost region of the Plateau, and hence the closest region to Sapience, is a miserable, frozen wasteland called the Daughters. The great Kemau river that bisects the Plateau terminates in the Maur Kemau, a frozen lake at the head the Daughters, and spills over the southern lip in sluggish bursts, feeding the glacial morass that makes the Great Dividing Ocean so treacherous to boats. Very few people willingly live among the Daughters, and those that do are usually desperate to leave.
Arget Liek
A military outpost established to keep watch over the Great Dividing Ocean and the prisoners at Arget Kemau.
Arget Kemau
A prison camp established to house political prisoners and undesirable populations ejected from the northern settlements by Second Imperial military police.
The Dehkay Basin
By contrast to both the Daughters and the Cradle of Fire, the Dehkay Basin possesses the majority of the arable farmland on the Plateau. It is home to the largest known population of Grecht, several major cities, and has a bloodier history than most of the historical peoples of Sapience combined.
Arget Sund
The southmost temple-city of the priest caste, and not coincidentally the least war-damaged and best maintained archive on the Plateau.
Arget Tep
The fabled cultural and industrial heart of the Plateau; an enormous, fortified city that acts as the seat of secular government and the strongest military body on the landmass. Renowned for its pleasure gardens and the quality of its food and drink.
Arget Arsa
Sunken, ruined temple-city of the ancient and now defunct First Imperial priest caste. It is the site of an ongoing archaeological dig sponsored by merchant princes at Arget Tep.
The Ebon Basin and Dau Grecht
The Ebon Basin is a mountainous region hosting a single wide valley, as well as the lake known as Dau Grecht. It is a central part of traditional Grecht breeding and religious rites, and the lake itself is reputed to be the source of the Plateau's variant of undeath.
The Cradle of Fire
A volcanic, mountainous hellhole that cups the northern reaches of the Plateau in a half-circle of jagged peaks. Historical home of the priest caste and littered with sacred religious sites and ruined, buried cities.
Halfat Naru
The highest of the mountain peaks, also known as the Talons. Halfat Naru is the largest active volcano on the Plateau and has buried the cities around it no less than three times.
Neicel Arget
The largest and oldest of the temple-cities; currently the central religious authority for the Plateau.