Nalthis

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

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Nalthis is a planet in the Nalthian system of the cosmere. The Shard Endowment resides there. It is inhabited by humans and 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
• Unnamed country that uses Awakened machines

The known world contains dozens of kingdoms.

Geography and Ecology

The geography and ecology of Nalthis is largely unknown. 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 known jungle climate. The growth of plants in this region is partly helped by Investiture, much like the Elendel Basin. To Hallandren's east, there is an inland sea that features several islands. At least a third of the coastline is controlled by Hallandren, which has its capital city built abutting the water. The area suffers frequent earthquakes.

There are mountains north of Hallandren, as well as toward the sunrise; those to the north are controlled by Idris. These contain the only known copper mines in the world. Further nations can be found north of those mountains. To the south of Hallandren is Pahn Kahl. 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. The Hallandren jungle is inhabited by panthers, parrots, monkeys, and crocodiles. The Hallandren people have access to fine wines, sweet potatoes, figs, nuts, and garlic, among other foods; it is unknown, however, how much grows in the area and how much is imported. The Bright Sea is full of life, including many sorts of mussels, fish, and tentacled creatures.

Unlike Roshar, Nalthis experiences active plate tectonics.

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. Humans on Nalthis were directly created by Endowment at an unknown point after the Shattering. 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 the Chedens 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.

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 fulfill 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, including Hanald's ready supply of dyes and the discovery of how to Awaken Lifeless with a single Breath instead of fifty. In addition to this doubling the size of many armies, the use of ichor-alcohol 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.

“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

The Events of the Manywar

For more information, see Manywar.

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. The Idrian monarchy refused to begin a preemptive war against their neighbors, so Talaxin sparked a rebellion against them and deposed their government. Talaxin rose to power as Kalad the Usurper and ordered preemptive strikes against the kingdoms of Kuth and Huth to the north of Hanald.

In response to this, several nations joined Kuth and Huth to form a coalition known as the Pahn Unity in order to oppose Hanald. The Five Scholars broke up, taking different sides in the war.

“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

As the first real conflict where Awakening and the Lifeless were put to actual use on the battlefield, the war was one of Nalthis' most deadly conflicts. 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 conclusion of the Manywar. Kalad was horrified by the loss of life caused by Nightblood; 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

According to legend Kalad, called Peacegiver at that point of his life, ended the war with negotiation, but in actuality threatening to use his Phantoms played a role. By the time the war ended, the nations of Huth and Kuth were already destroyed. Peacegiver founded the nation of Hallandren and began the lineage of the God Kings by granting them political power in the kingdom. They also began to hand down his gift of Breaths to each subsequent God King. 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 but instead remained in exile to the mountains of the north, where they formed the nation of Idris. Austrism turned its back on Awakening and began to consider it an abomination, also dismissing the worship of Returned as "pagan" beliefs. The nation of Tedradel would continue to have an antagonistic relationship with Hallandren from that time.

After the Manywar

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

—Treledees to Siri

In the three hundred years following the Manywar, the kingdom of Hallandren prospered under its new government, although over time corruption seeped in. Relations between Hallandren and Idris worsened over the years, as the northern passes Idris had control over were very tempting targets for Hallandren. 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 whereby 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 legitimize 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 unique culture was extinct and thought that they also worshiped 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. Talks of a rebellion began to spread, and the Pahn Kahl began passing on their positions to other Pahn Kahl citizens in order to maintain their control in the Court of Gods. A Pahn Kahl named Bluefingers began to set in motion a 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

For more information, see Pahn Kahl rebellion.

Vahr's Rebellion

Another Pahn Kahl, Vahr, prematurely 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. Along the way, Vahr received help from other nations worried about Hallandren, including Idris, and various crime lords in T'Telir.

by CarloswkArt

Vasher stealing Vahr's Breath before killing him

Fearing this rebellion would draw too much attention to his own efforts, Bluefingers leaked Vahr's location to the Hallandren authorities and had him arrested. Without his leadership, the rebellion fell apart. The Kingdom of Idris had hoped that this rebellion would take 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. However, he hesitated to send Vivenna and ended up sending Siri in her place. Vasher took advantage of Vahr's arrest by persuading Vahr to grant him his Breaths so that Hallandren would not gain them. He killed Vahr in return for the gift.

Bluefingers' Manipulation

By this time VaraTreledees had renamed himself Denth and began working for Bluefingers to help cause the war. He corrupted Lemex, an Idrian spy, and went to meet Vivenna, who went to T'Telir after her sister, in his place. He and his crew managed to gain her trust. Convincing her that he was on his side, Denth managed to kidnap her without her realizing it.

“You should watch yourself, child.

Not all here in the palace is as it seems.

”

—Bluefingers to Siri

Siri's arrival at the Court of Gods created a different set of worries. It was speculated by some that the last-second swap may have been planned from the start and that deferring to the Idrian monarchy actually undermined their authority rather than strengthened it. It was Bluefingers' original plan to use Siri to persuade the Idrians within the city that a rebellion was needed, but he changed his plans once he learned that Denth had kidnapped Vivenna and was using her to do the same thing. He decided it was best to kill Siri instead to further anger the Idrians.

While pretending to entertain Vivenna's plans to prevent the war, Denth in actuality undermined or canceled her plans when she wasn't paying attention and instead did what he could to worsen the situation and support his preexisting plans. Denth's efforts ultimately fell apart when he was forced to kill a friend of Vivenna's and she discovered his corpse as well as the bodies of the soldiers sent by her father. She quickly worked out their true intentions and escaped the crew.

“When this is through, Princess, Idris will fight until either it or Hallandren is destroyed.”

—Bluefingers to Siri.

The Rebellion

Vivenna was saved by Vasher, who discovered how she had been tricked by Denth. Together, they both did what they could to prevent the war by talking to the Idrians and rescuing the child of a head priest that Denth had kidnapped as blackmail. Their efforts were not enough, however, and the push for war was still taking place. The priests feared that the vote would come to pass and went to protect Siri from a potential riot. Seeing the unexpected vote of Lightsong and the sudden increased security for Siri, Bluefingers panicked and moved to cause the rebellion that day.

by Connor Chamberlain

Vasher using Awakening

He immediately sent his mercenaries to go and kill the guards outside of Siri's door and replace them. At the same time, he had Denth go and capture Vasher, who had just broken into the God King's palace in the hopes of preventing the war. During the growing conflict, the rebels managed to kill Blushweaver, capture the God King, get all of the Lifeless Commands, and order the army to go attack and kill the Idrians. The priesthood saved Siri and Susebron from the conflict and sent them to Bluefingers for their evacuation.

Lightsong used his divine Breath to return Susebron's tongue to him; with full access to his Breath, Susebron quickly turned the tide of the battle, saved Siri, and apprehended Bluefingers. In the immediate aftermath, Vasher revealed himself as Peacegiver to the public and granted Susebron full control of the D'Denir Celabrin so that they could go destroy the Lifeless armies and prevent a slaughter in Idris.

After the Rebellion

Following the death of Denth, his crew went to make contact with Yesteel, who resided in one of the kingdoms north of the mountains. Yesteel himself became intent on re-forging the kingdoms of Huth and Kuth; hearing of this, Vasher and Vivenna decided to go north to stop him.

Over many years, their mastery over Awakening and technology advanced significantly, such as creating Awakened circuitry that responds to the Connection of its user to predict text.

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 Returned, 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.

Nalthians are aware of perpendicularities and wish for them to be used for trading purposes.

Nalthian Awakened technology has spread across the Cosmere to some degree, and can be seen on other planets, such as Lumar. The trading of Breaths are looked down upon by others in the cosmere.

Trivia

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

Notes

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