Nalthis

Nalthis
by Isaac Stewart
Shards	Endowment
Investitures	Awakening
System	Nalthian system
Universe	Cosmere

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Nalthis is the name of the Shardworld on which the novel Warbreaker takes place. It has a number of states, including Idris and Hallandren. A person from Nalthis is called a Nalthian.

A single moon named Rrendos orbits the planet.

Nations

Historical

• Chedesh
• Hanald
• Huth
• Kuth
• Pahn Kahl

Current

• Gys
• Hallandren
• Hudres
• Idris
• Tedradel
• Xaka

Geography

The major settings of Warbreaker are T'Telir, the capital city of Hallandren, and Hallandren's bordering mountain state of Idris. The jungles are situated in a large valley surrounded by mountains and a sea.

Not much is known about the geography of Nalthis. There is an inland sea that is valuable for trade, and at least a third of the coast is owned by Hallandren. The area also suffers frequent earthquakes.

Hallandren is unique in the known world of Nalthis as being the only place that Tears of Edgli will grow, as well as being the only jungle climate. The growth of plants in the region is partly helped by investiture much like the Elendel Basin.

Idris is located to the north of Hallandren. It controls the passes through the mountains, which are very profitable for trade. It can be inferred that a few well-populated nations are located past these mountains and beyond the reach of the inland sea. Idris also contains some copper mines.

Flora and Fauna

Nalthis has diverse species of palms, savanna animals, and the Tears of Edgli. Elephants and Zebras are said to be exotic creatures from "the South." Whether this means they come from southern Hallandren or south of Hallandren is unclear.

History

Early History and Mythology

“Now, you may wonder why I must travel back so far. Should I not speak of the Manywar, of the shattering of kingdoms, of the five scholars, of Kalad the Usurper and his phantom army? Those are the events we focus upon, the ones men know best. To speak only of them, however, ignores the history of three hundred years that led up to them.”

—Hoid on the history of Nalthis.

Nalthis was created at an unknown date, but it is not old enough to have had fossils form on it. The system was settled by Endowment, who remains the sole Shard in the system. It is unknown when exactly humans arrived to the system, but they brought with them myths about dragons. A Perpendicularity formed on the world, and near it the Tears of Edgli began to grow.

Early in its history the nation of Chedesh dominated the world, and their sailors eventually reached the area that would later become known as Hallandren. The region was already inhabited by the Pahn Kahl, but they were dismissed as not a 'true' nation. While there they also discovered the Tears of Edgli for the first time. As the nation explored this new continent, they headed northwards; one Cheden died during the trip and became the first Returned. Remembered by the title "the First Returned", Vo declared the Five Visions and then died a week later. The men on his ship received his message and founded the kingdom of Hanald. They chose Vo's wife as the first monarch, beginning the Idrian royal line. This new kingdom quickly grew lucrative due to the Tears of Edgli, and their monopoly on the dyes allowed them to become a powerful economic force.

For most of their history the inhabitants of the planet were unaware of the art of Awakening. The death of Vo helped begin exploration into this art, which was only discovered some four centuries prior to the events of the Pahn Kahl rebellion. Due to the importance of using your native language when using Awakening, the development of the art in other cultures moved more slowly.^{[citation needed]}

The Manywar

Prelude to the Manywar

For more information, see Five Scholars.

Austrism was the predominant religion of Hanald when it was founded, and the Idrian royal family itself followed it. At the same time the Cult of the Returned formed and began to worship the Returned, believing that each individual had been sent from Austre in order to fulfil a mission. They were the individuals who discovered, maintained, and named Warbreaker the Peaceful and Glorysinger.

Three hundred years after the arrival of Vo, these Returned would be renamed as Talaxin and Shashara respectively and joined with other Returned Arsteel, Yesteel and VaraTreledees to form the Five Scholars. The years preceding the Manywar were ones of quick discovery about Awakening led by the Scholars. Beyond this, some of them became worldhoppers. Their discoveries about Awakening and their exploration of the cosmere cemented the legacy of these Nalthians as early scholars of the cosmere by those at Silverlight.

Tensions between Hanald and its neighbors began to grow due to a wide variety of factors; for one, their stranglehold on the world's dye economy caused resentment to grow against them. Major discoveries in the art of Awakening also worsened relations as it was discovered how to awaken Lifeless with a single Breath instead of fifty. In addition to this, Yesteel discovered ichor-alcohol. These discoveries allowed nations to double the size of their armies and made the already durable Lifeless even stronger and longer lasting. The situation worsened even more when Shashara revealed both secrets to the entire world, allowing every nation to benefit.

The Events of the Manywar

For more information, see Manywar.

“I get out of hand, Vasher? Me? When's the last time I started a war? Slaughtered tens of thousands?”

—Denth to Vasher about his past

Despite the increase in tensions, however, the Manywar was not properly triggered by any one of these factors. Instead, a Returned had a vision about an upcoming war and told Talaxin about it, who in turn spread the news to those in the nation of Hanald. Despite the vision, the Idrian monarchy refused to begin a pre-emptive war against their neighbors. A frustrated Talaxin, with the support of the people, sparked a rebellion against them and deposed their government. As a result of this, Talaxin was renamed Kalad the Usurper and rose to power. He began by ordering pre-emptive strikes against the kingdoms of Kuth and Huth to the north of Hanald.

In response to this, a coalition known as the Pahn Unity formed to oppose Hanald. Many nations went against it, with Kuth and Huth forming the main rivals to Kalad. The Five Scholars broke up as a result, taking different sides in the war. Shashara sided with Kalad during the conflict while VaraTreledees attempted to work as a peacemaker in order to prevent the war. As the conflict only grew worse, he instead gave up his efforts and assisted Hanald in its war effort. Arsteel and Yesteel likely both sided with Kuth and Huth during the conflict.

“I wanted to stop it. But by the time I realized what was happening, it had gone too far. It had taken on a life of its own.”

—Vasher on the Manywar

The war was devastating and would be remembered in the history of Nalthis as one of its most deadly conflicts. A low estimate of the deaths measures them in the tens of thousands. This is partly because the Manywar was the first real conflict where Awakening and the Lifeless were put to actual use on the battlefield. As the war waged, more advancements were made in the art of creating Lifeless and other Awakened objects; this made the fighting worse and worse. During this time period, Kalad also created his infamous Phantoms.

Shortly afterwards Kalad and Shashara decided to attempt to create a Shardblade, which they had seen on Roshar, using Awakening. After a period of research, the pair created the sword known as Nightblood. The first battle that Nightblood was used in was the Battle of Twilight Falls, where he was wielded by Shashara. The battle served as the final one of the Manywar, and the leader of the Pahn Unity was slain during the battle. Kalad got the chance to see what the blade could do in battle and was horrified by the results and loss of life; because Shashara obstinately wanted to reveal the secret of the Nightblood's creation to the nations, Kalad felt he had no choice but to kill her.

“It's odd, what history does to a man. I guess people couldn't understand why I suddenly changed. Why I stopped fighting and why I brought the Phantoms back to seize control of my own kingdom. So they decided I must have been two people.”

—Vasher about his past

Resolution of the Manywar

After this point Kalad moved to end the war, despite not changing his name historians reached the conclusion that he was in fact two different people and named the latter Peacegiver. According to legend he ended the war with negotiation but in actuality he admits that threatening to use his Phantoms played a role. By the time the war ended the nations of Huth and Kuth were already destroyed and upon learning of the faith of his sister VaraTreledees turned against Kalad desiring revenge. As part of ending the war Peacegiver founded the nation of Hallandren and began the lineage of the God Kings by granting them all political power in the kingdom. They also handed down the gift of their breaths to the God King accompanied by instructions on how to maintain it, by this stage Peacegiver was held with such reverence that his words were taken to heart. The Cult of the Returned, now the Iridescent Tones, took full power and began to manage the Court of Gods. Peacegiver dispersed his phantoms throughout the city secretly as the D'Denir Celabrin hiding them in plain sight.

The Idrian royal family did not return to Hallandren and instead remained in exile to the mountains of the North. They formed the nation of Idris there. The split between the two nations was so bad that they each developed their own terms for the surrounding geography, as the centuries went on however this distinction was lost and inhabitants of both kingdoms used the terms interchangeably. Austrism as well turned its back on Awakening and began to consider it an abomination. They also dismissed the worship of Returned as "pagan" beliefs. The nation of Tedradel, who played an unknown role in the war, would continue to have an antagonistic relationship with Hallandren ever since.

After the Manywar

In the three hundred years following the Manywar the kingdom of Hallandren prospered under its new government, although over time corruption seeped in. Due to the system of breaths the most benevolent of the Returned died out quicker than their more selfish peers meaning over time the court was filled with the most selfish of all the Returned. The Priesthood also continued their duties given to them by Peacegiver by cutting out the tongue of the God King and covering up the truth about their lineage. They covered up the removal of each God King with stories about how they healed the common people with their divine breath.

“Your people are in a state of rebellion against the rest of the kingdom.”

—Treledees to Siri

Relations between the new kingdom and Idris worsened over the years as the Northern Passes Idris had control over were very tempting targets for Hallandren. Relations were also poor as the region was viewed as a rebellious province by the Court of Gods and not a true nation. Despite this Idris remained powerful with many allies north of the mountains. In order to try and maintain good relations king Dedelin negotiated a treaty where his eldest daughter would be sent to the Court once she was of age in order to introduce the Royal bloodline to the God Kings and further legitimise their authority. This was accepted by the court.

Over the centuries the control and subjugation of the Pahn Kahl people grew worse. Their oppression over time reached the stage in which many presumed its culture was extinct and that they also worshipped the Returned. As the years went on its people grew tired of their position in Hallandren society and the few lowly jobs they were offered. Overtime talks of a rebellion began to spread and the Pahn Kahl began giving up their positions to other Pahn Kahl citizens in order to maintain their control in the court of Gods, of particular note Bluefingers was given his job by his predecessor who was also in on the conspiracy. Now in position as a lead scribe in the Court of Gods Bluefingers began to set in motion the plan to overthrow the Hallandren government. His hope was to incite a war between Hallandren and Idris and use the resulting chaos to allow Pahn Kahl to rise up in society.

The Pahn Kahl Rebellion

Vahr's Rebellion

Prematurely another Pahn Kahl, Vahr, began his own rebellion against Hallandren. He had spent a decade getting the contacts needed for it and had persuaded his fellow workers to grant him their breaths so that he could grow in power. They did so and the influx of breaths from fellow like minded people made him even more dedicated to the cause. Vahr quickly rose up as a hero of the people and he got to work on creating an army to attack Hallandren. Along the way he received help from other nations worried about Hallandren, including Idris, and various crime lords in T'Telir.

Fearing it would draw too much attention to his own efforts Bluefingers leaked Vahr's location to the Hallandren authorities and had him arrested. As a result Vahr was apprehended and the rebellion fell apart. The allies Vahr had recruited didn't truly care for his cause and so with his arrest the movement stopped. The Kingdom of Idris was displeased with this as they had hoped that the rebellion would have taken attention away from them for a time, instead they found even more focus was put on them than ever before as Hallandren grew paranoid about its potential enemies. In order to stave off a potential war king Dedelin moved to fulfill his contract with Susebron but hesitated to send Vivenna. It was worried that if they sent her the court of Gods could use her as a hostage and Dedelin was too attached to Vivenna in order to sacrifice her. Instead it was decided that it would be better to send Siri to fulfill the contract.

by CarloswkArt

Vasher stealing Vahr's Breath before killing him

After the failed rebellion Vahr was taken in for questioning. Hearing of Vahr's arrest Vasher saw he had a chance to get another large influx of breath and so set out to contact him. He persuaded Vahr to grant him his breaths so that Hallandren would not gain them and offered to in return kill Vahr so that he could not be tortured for additional information about Pahn Kahl's efforts.

After the Rebellion

“There were five of us. Me, Denth, Shashara, Arsteel, and Yesteel. It looks like Yesteel has resurfaced, finally.”

—Vasher to Vivenna

Following the death of Denth Tonk Fah and Jewels went to make contact with Yesteel who resides in one of the kingdoms north of the mountains. Without Denth to guide him Tonk Fah grew more violent while Jewel's hoped that Yesteel knew of a way to restore Artsteel's memories and personality. Yesteel himself became intent on reforging the kingdoms of Huth and Kuth using the secret to create Nightblood like weapons.

Cosmere

The Shard Endowment has been confirmed to be present on Nalthis. This has had the effect that every human born on Nalthis is born with one Breath, the source of energy for Awakening and Returning. Endowment is related to the flowers which grow around T'Telir, the capital city of Hallandren. Endowment has been known to revive recently deceased people, awarding them a single Divine Breath under the requirement that they consume a normal Breath once a week to stay alive. It is believed, and confirmed for at least three characters, that all Returned come back to fulfill some divine goal. It is unknown what Endowment's purpose is, or how long she has been doing this. Warbreaker accounts for only a brief history, which mentions Vo as being the "first Returned", according to the Idris religion.

Trivia

• Nalthians know what dragons are.
• Nazh finds Nalthis too colourful.

Notes

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