#tisli

The people of Tisli are mostly Descendants of the peoples once part of the Empire of Gom (which existed even before the First Necromantic Age).

In the Era of Relief they became known for using ogrish mercenaries in their wars with one another, until they were unified under a King named Tis, who came to power by enticing ogrish mercenaries away from his enemies. The name Tisli means “lands of Tis”.

King Tis lived to face Ninefingers, a thousand times cursed Necromant queen, besieging his realm.

In the end she offered him an agreement, in which he would capitulate and see his lands become part of her empire, but be granted better treatment than other peoples she conquered, including having to pay only half of the regular taxes to her Empire. In exchange the people of Tisli would keep maintaining and handling the ogrish mercenaries for her, as she saw use in them. A fair trade, as these mercenaries were expensive to maintain in times of peace.

Under these conditions, the people of Tisli prospered. They grew to become an industrial power, producing many goods exported into every part of Ninefingers Empire.

As Ninefingers accident ends her own life and destroys and poisons most of her Empire, merely a tenth of the human population in tisli survives the blow of the fall. The numbers of their ogrish mercenaries in turn barely changed, as their bodies weren’t as sensitive to the effects of Ninefingers curse.

The giants were quick to claim the reign over what was left of the Tisli people.

One of the more prominent mercenary giants of that time was Daya the Prophet, later known as Daya the Conqueror, a giantess who claimed to have met Odhr, a deity giants credit with creating their kind. Daya proclaimed that Odhr wanted their giants to rule over humankind again, as they had done in the ancient days.

These gaints reigned a couple of decades, before accepting the truth that cursed land was not growing enough food to sustain them in the long term. Daya decided to lead her people elsewhere, to a land said to be uncursed and unscathed. But before they left they did unspeakable things to the Tisli people, leaving so few alive that the once proud and powerful people pretty much disappeared from the face of the world. Only few survivors lived to share their knowledge of what Tisli once was and the gruesome events that ended it.

( A tislic old lady showing two wanderers a book that is important to her. One of the wanderers is called Urwe I’d like to try tell their journey in small comics sometime. ) Tisli is remembered as one of the shining lights of Ninefingers Empire, and as one of the great tragedies caused by the giants, and as a lesson not to trust them, as the giants who Tisli once saved from certain death turned out being its end later.