Twentieth Day, Eighth Month, 871 AD.

Lykourgos Sperakos, Prince.

Kingdom of Teleytaios.

Aenirhen.

The River Keep.

My Dearest Lyk,

Well, this certainly seems to be a change, doesn't it? Me writing about a kingdom of the Heptarchy whilst you ask for advice on the writing of a book, I mean. Well, I know that yours is certain to be more of a treatise than a historical work such as mine, however my point still stands. I agree with your reasoning last letter, and I must say that if anyone is qualified to write a piece on the governance and stewardship that goes into ruling then it surely is you.

I also find myself agreeing on the 'other' point you raised in your last letter. Though I will not write much, just as you did not, please know that I could read in between the lines perfectly well. On that personal front, far removed from the stresses and duties of rulership, I know we have much to discuss. Whilst most of that discussion will have to wait until we talk in person once more, I know that we do not really need any solid words for what is to come. We have known each other more than long enough for that sort of thing, I would like to think.

Though I could ramble on about that particular prospect, and no doubt will once we are finally together once more, I recently went on a trip to Triarios at the invitation of the King himself. He wanted me to see the forges his family had built, the lives of his people, etcetera. He wanted us Polaerans to tell the world that Triarios, whilst still a stratocratic feudal society, is not the kraterocracy it once was. Survival of the fittest is no longer the mantra of daily life, and instead newer ideas are beginning to take root. It's taken them eight-hundred years longer than everyone else to get moving on that front, but better late than never I suppose.

On this trip I also got rather intimate with the inner workings of the Cult of Anawroth, and have included my notes and observations on this sect of the church in case they might be of any use or interest to you in your own writings. I am aware that circumstances may soon put that plan by the wayside, but when the dust has settled you will be able to continue with it anyway.

With all else said, I will now relay to you why I was pleasantly surprised on my travels across Triarios. Further personal notes will be included below, as always, and I can hardly wait to see you again. I pray the moment will come sooner rather than later, but there is no way of knowing with such things.

The Kingdom of Triarios is, and has been since its founding, the most militaristic nation in the world. A land of rolling hills and unending rivers of ore, the people who live here are well suited to the lives they have chosen.

In the aftermath of the Aauta Pass and the death of King Harald II, those legions who had not been at the disastrous battle maintained their positions in the lands between Dathan and Tilda, ensuring that a follow-up strike would never occur. Of course we now know with hindsight that the Terranean military had been mauled just as badly as that of the Klironomeans, but aside from scattered reports the surviving legions had no way of knowing this. When it eventually became clear that the enemy was not coming their commanders seized vast tracts of land in what had once been Klironomea, the two legionary commanders wedding their son and daughter together to found a royal house based around their shared martial legacy. Commanders became the fathers of royalty, officers became lords, and soldiers... well, the soldiers remained soldiers, but in Triarios a soldier is held in far higher esteem than a civilian. A few decades passed, and Triarios as we know it was formed.

There is strangely little to say about Triarios when it comes to war, which seems odd given that it has defined so much of their history. Their armies are the most professional in all of Klironomea and perhaps the world, but they tend to bicker amongst themselves and lash out at the Tildan princes and merchants to their south in search of wealth rather than look towards the conquests of land. Then again, the last time they tried such a thing ended up with an entire army disappearing in the Owkrestan mists, so maybe they don't want to push their luck again.

Regardless of the reason, much of Triarian life is focused on internal affairs. Their economy is predominantly agricultural, especially around the fertile Arthaxan Plateau, though mining and metalworking makes up a large portion of their wealth in the rest of the nation. I will go into more depth on their metallurgy later, for I find it fascinating and telling of the evolving deeper character of the Triarian nation.

House Sigiros is the ruling family of Triarios, and has been since the dark days of the Year of Desolation. In the aftermath of King Harald II's death there were a great many opportunists and vultures who sought to gain an advantage in the chaos that was sure to come, and none acted faster than the men and women of what would become house Sigiros. Two men, each in charge of one of the last two remaining Klironomean legions, one with a son and one with a daughter. One hurried marriage held before their legions later and house Sigiros was born.

They quickly took advantage of the forces they wielded, using their children as figureheads as they seized control of every major crossroads, bridge, and ford in the core of what would become Triarios. Minor castles and forts were seized, usually with only the threat of arms rather than a siege, and tributes and tithes poured into the camp around which the legions had been stationed for a little over two years. Inns sprung up around the walls of the camp, then chapels, then half a dozen smithies. You can see where this is going; in a few years, or decades depending on who you ask, the capital city of Triarios was formed around this encampment. I will delve more into the capital after this, however.

King Thrytas sits atop the Triarian throne and has done for a decade at the time of writing. He is a moderniser of industry and a supporter of the Cult of Anawroth, though much like his more recent forbearers he seems more keen to reform Triarios itself than to strike outwards once more.

King Thrytas has two living sons, his young daughter having sadly fallen to the black grave in childhood. The two princes, Kyrtos and Kyrian, are as adept in matters of both business and war as their father. They help with the running of the royal conglomerate handling metalworking industries, as well as keeping a hand on the running of the various royal estates around their kingdom. Whilst they may be more at home when dealing with martial matters they are far from stupid, and any threat they make should not be taken lightly. They are loyal to a fault, especially towards their father, and would make for either excellent allies or fearsome enemies.

The banner of house Sigiros shows two white swords with red fullers, one pointing upwards and one downwards on a red field. As far as I am aware every member of house Sigiros keeps this sigil as their own, save either bastards or adopted members of the family who invert the colours of this sigil.

On that note, house Sigiros is unique amongst the royal families of the Heptarchy for its history of adoption. If ever the number of living family members grows thin, or if a member of the family believes a friend, ward, or even lowborn to be worthy, then the head of the house may accede to a request that the proffered candidate be made a member of the family.

This custom is shared amongst most Triarian noble families as well, for despite their warlike nature, or maybe even because of it, they see blood as lesser than character. If someone is worthy enough, loyal enough, or even just beloved by the family, then they may be consensually made a member of the house. I think it is a wonderful custom, and implore the other nations of the Heptarchy to consider the merits of such a custom as well.

The capital city of Triarios is Stratiopolis, a utilitarian and foreboding place. The city started its life as an overgrown military camp, and it shows. Large straight avenues, organised districts, defendable chokepoints and passageways. The walls of Triarios are second only to those of Sygomidopolis itself amongst the cities and towns of the Heptarchy, and the ballistae mounted on its towers are some of the largest and most modern in the world.

At the centre of any other great city in the Heptarchy lies a palatial district; a grand edifice of bureaucratic offices, palace wings, and royal gardens. Not Stratiopolis. At the heart of the Triarian capital lies a district given over entirely to military uses; it's palace is more of a fortress, the gardens are replaced by drilling grounds, and instead of bureaucratic offices one can find row upon row of armouries and barracks.

Around the east and north of the city sits a sprawling array of workshops, manufactories, and inspectorates making all the surplus equipment that a modern army could ever need. Whilst the production of arms and armour is slowly moving out of the city and into new purpose-built manufactory towns, everything from ropes to barrels and saddles to breeches are made here. Despite falling on hard times recently due to the aforementioned relocation of smithing facilities the workshops of Stratiopolis still remain some of the largest in the world, and their output would certainly be a huge boon to whoever controls it. Even if it were sacked rather than taken, the hundreds of warehouses filled to the brim with stock would surely make a tidy profit for anyone who could surmount the great defensive works of the city.

Further south lies the homes and squares that house the many thousands of workers that labour in the city, their lives surprisingly comfortable for living in a stratocratic feudal state. Whilst the people may have few rights and might be uprooted on the whims of their local lord or king, they still enjoy a relatively high standard of living when compared to the inhabitants of most other great cities. Indeed, Polaeriopolis is perhaps the only city in the Heptarchy that can boast of cleaner streets and lower rates of poverty.

The benefit to having a war economy that never tires is that no man will ever lack for work. Stratiopolis is a city of soldiers, yes, but it is also a city of unceasing activity.

The final region of note in the city lies in the west. The western portion of Stratiopolis is home to a great many chapels and shrines, as well as the Sacred Grounds where the legionaries of the Cult of Anawroth are trained. This personal army of the church often butts heads with local guard forces, and at the directive of past monarchs the west of the city is ran autonomously by the Agiathos Yperoxi Anawroth.

Within this western district there a grand cathedral. It is not grand in terms of size, nor in terms of artistry or prestige. It is grand for what lies around it.

When Triarios marshals its legions and marches off to war every single soldier that follows the Cult of Anawroth will purchase a spear with their name engraved on the head and place it at the walls of the cathedral. This might mean thousands of spears for the greatest wars that have been fought, and it is a tradition that has been followed ever since one of the first Triarian monarchs laid her spear down at the walls of the cathedral and swore it would remain there until she returned with the world in thrall.

Of course the world is very much not in thrall to Triarios, and so many soldiers have now placed their own spears at the cathedral walls that no-one alive today even knows what the lower half of the outer walls of the cathedral look like anymore. One day, when Triarios sits comfortably in an empire which stretches the length of the continent, those spears will be taken away and probably melted into statues. Those spearheads at the bottom of the pile, those rusted and crushed things? They'll probably be kept as souvenirs by the pious or the wealthy. As for the walls? They will finally see sunlight once more.

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Throughout the rest of the nation Triarios also boasts a rather large mining industry. Though not quite as expansive as the Nordican copper mines, and equally as lacking in rare metals such as gold, the iron and coal mined in Triarios sees extensive use not just as items for trade, but also for the Triarian military. Even along their coastline such resources are abundant, for the ironstone found in the dense clay of their shoreline can be burned with charcoal and smelted into wrought iron. Such methods are beginning to fall by the wayside with the introduction of a new innovation, however: the finery forge.

There are some records of such forges being used as far back as the Time of Ending in Sothena, but even on the last civilised remnants of that continent such things are no longer viewed as a necessity. At least, that is what the people of Sothettar say. Regardless of the veracity of their denial, Triarios has built some of the most expansive ironworks in the world centred around these models.

Much of the wrought iron produced here is sent to crucible forges at the same worksite, whereupon the work of turning wrought iron into steel is carried out. The wrought iron is packed into a crucible with charcoal, and is heated until melting once more. I am no metalsmith, but I can recognise an effective approach when I see one.

As a result of the implementation of these methods the foundries of Triarios are some of the most modern in the world, their forges able to churn out hundreds of spearheads and helmets a month. Where a blacksmith may take a month to forge a dozen swords the Triarian forges can churn out that same number in perhaps as little as a day.

The people who own such ventures have started to grow wealthy indeed, and none have capitalised on this more so than the royal family themselves.

In one large conglomerate they have grouped several of their largest iron mines together, and at roughly equidistant points between these mines along rivers and waterways they have built their new forges powered by waterwheels. Now the mines, iron smelters, steelmaking facilities, coppices, charcoal burners, and manufacturing smiths may all be located within ten miles of each other. This has enabled Triarios to really move to the forefront of industry, at least where weapon, armour, and toolmaking is concerned. With the advent of war seeming ever more likely across the continent it seems strange that, for once, the Triarians look as though they might be the ones to try and stay out of it. They make too many weapons for their own hands to use now, but there's plenty of profit to be had in selling the surplus abroad, perhaps even to both parties of whatever conflict they're interested in.

And just like that, with the application of a little potential profit, the warmongers become the peaceful ones. What the Cult of Anawroth makes of that I don't know, but it is foreboding if nothing else. I do not believe the royal family will brook any threat to their new enterprise.

As previously stated the majority of Triarios is nestled into a series of hill ranges and flatland valleys, broken up by small rivers that meander to and fro. There is a portion of deep forest land in the west stretching from across the Owkrestan border, but aside from that there is remarkably little woodland in the kingdom. Most settlements are located upon hills that give commanding views of the countryside, and stretching across the southern border with Tildan there is a series of watchtowers acting as an early warning system in case of an invasion. A substantial force has almost never marched up from Tildan into Klironomea in the modern age, but whenever one does it tends to find more than it bargained for waiting in the Triarian hills. The people of Triarios may not be quite as adept at guerrilla warfare as their Owkrestan neighbours, but they are more than capable of harrying the foe from their borders to Stratiopolis itself, all the way from border to border if necessary.

A key part of Triarian life can be seen in its religious makeup. Somewhere around half of the Triarian citizenry worship under the guidance of the Old-Church, whilst three-in-ten are a part of Anawroth's Cult. Of the remaining section of the population, some two-in-ten people, half follow the New-Church and the remainder a litany of the smaller cults and sects. Stratiopolis mostly follows the New-Church, as is the theme in the large cities of Klironomea, but as mentioned above even here the Cult of Anawroth keeps a major presence. A large portion of the countryside likewise follows the teachings of the Angel of War, resulting in an unbroken swathe of lands that neither follow the New or Old churches matched in size by none other in the Heptarchy.

As mentioned previously there is a great cathedral to Anawroth in the capital of this land, obscured by thousands of spears. There are few churches to Anawroth, for he would rather his followers pray on the field of battle. Instead there has been a recent move towards the creation of a series of monuments depicting the Angel of Battle and Wrath, head held high and sword even higher. These tend to be statues of marble or bronze, depending on where in the kingdom you are. If the statue is in the east, closer to Kortheros and Dathan, then it's likely to be made of fine marble and crafted with artistic precision. If it's in the west nearer to Owkrestos then it's more likely to be made of bronze, less artistic but still with its own rustic and somehow more 'warlike' charm.

There is a statue in the capital, right in the heart of Stratiopolis, which blends these two styles perfectly. A man made of marble with wings and a crown of bronze, colourless all over save the bronze, and yet somehow still looking alive. It looks truly magnificent.

Anawroth might not care much for the monuments built in his name, but they certainly show the world that whilst Triarios is still the most militaristic nation in the Heptarchy it is also not without its own artists and sculptors. It is not without culture, despite what the stereotypical thoughts of this land may be.

I personally have had my eyes opened by my visit, and am glad to have been invited by his Grace.

In times of war Triarios can call upon somewhere around thirty-thousand men to fight in the name of their Angel. Of these men four-thousand are armsmen, and some of the best in the world. Of the four-thousand half of them are dressed in plate armour and armed with billpikes. The Triarian Legionaries, as they have become known, are the single most elite body of heavy infantry in the world. The counterpoint to this is a relative lack of longbowmen, for only one-thousand Triarian soldiers have mastered the longbow. Triarios does also maintain a siege train of a thousand men, and so are able to bring a great number of field artillery and siege weapons to bear whenever needed.

There are few, if any, knights in Triarios. It is not a nation for the 'honourable' or 'chivalrous'. In Triarios wars are fought to be won, not sung about. Instead they rely on lowborn levies to make up the rest of their armies.

To compensate for their relatively low numbers of Longbowmen-at-Arms, Triarios ensures a stockpile of several thousand crossbows for use by its levied forces. Whilst lacking much of the range and rate of loosing that the Longbow has, the crossbow is a simple and easy-to-use weapon that anyone can wield with some degree of skill after about a week of training. It isn't the best ranged weapon, but it certainly helps to make up for the lack of professional ranged soldiery.

To hazard an educated guess I would say that there would be perhaps four-thousand crossbowmen in a fully raised Triarian levy. There would also be a similar number of light horsemen, a mixture of both mounted spearmen, swordsmen, and bowmen. The rest would simply be lightly armoured swordsmen and spearmen, forming the bulk of any frontline.

A formidable fighting force, if rather lacking in heavy horse, but then Triarian doctrine descends from the heavy-infantry focused forces of the old Klironomean legions, and so is to be expected.

The kingdom of Triarios does, at first, appear to be a savage and almost barbarous place. Common knowledge holds it to be a place of war and violence, of constant struggle and backwards infighting, but this could not be further from the truth! Triarios is a place of industry and professionalism, not rampant bloodlust. Whilst the people of this proud land have been slow to advance in some places, they have more than made up for it with their progress in others.

The Cult of Anawroth is not by itself a separate faith from the mainstream Old-Church, after all, Anawroth is often taken as the personal deity for soldiers, bandits, brigands and knights. What can make it dangerous is its tendency to completely side-line the other members of the Angelic Pantheon. The Cult of Anawroth in its purest form rejects the other Angels as being weak and fickle, and elevates those who worship Anawroth above all others in society. Only professional soldiers and knights are permitted to worship Anawroth under the gaze of the extremists, resulting in highly militarised societies with a martial culture, though one that also tends to discriminate against large portions of its population in a survival of the fittest setting. Whilst the mainstream cult, that is to say those who have taken Anawroth as a personal deity, is both legal and a pillar of the faith, its extreme form is combatted wherever it may spring up, with the exception of the Kingdom of Triarios, as here historically the state religion has tended to shift back and forwards between the Ybridica Agiathos and the Agiathos Yperoxi Anawroth every few decades.

Now, that is not to paint all followers of this cult with the same brush. Many people within the cult have lived alongside those who maintain their faith in the Old-Church for years, and as such have no real qualms with coexisting. It is only the truly extreme sections of this faith that call for enforcement of their beliefs, or else the expulsion of the 'weak' from society.

As another example of coexistence between the moderate followers of the Cult of Anawroth and other branches of the faith, the followers of Anawroth also venerate several Klironomean militaristic figures through history, finding common ground with the Ichorian Cult over their veneration of both Harald II and his right hand man in Dathan, Agia Lycaon. The Child-Emperor of Tilda, Agia Abiah, also receives their veneration. This helps them keep down tensions along their southern border in times of peace. The difference between how the Cult of Anawroth and the other sects view these figures is that, in the Cult of Anawroth, these figures are not venerated as people to worship, but rather people to emulate. A small distinction to many, but an important one nonetheless.

Speaking of ancient figures, the Book of the Martial Saint also has an interesting passage which mentions a strange and dark figure. This figure, known as 'The Lamb', crops up in mythology occasionally across the known world, but few legends surrounding this strange figure have survived in a form that we are able to understand today. The passage I speak of reads as thus:

"And lo, I witnessed the one that marked the end of the end. The men-folk crowded and bowed and scraped at its feet, begging for the end. Brave heroes wept as they curled up before the great beast, for the lesser daemons they had fought now seemed as pure as Angels when compared to the horror that lorded over them now. THE LAMB had reigned over the kingdom of men long ago, so long ago that all men who yet lived knew not its name, only that it was THE LAMB.

Emerging from the fog that begged for death did the mighty ANAWROTH stride, resolute in the protection of all the warriors and people of Anamanesis, but his brother-king cast the beast back into the abyss before the duel could commence."

What is not mentioned in this passage, but is later on in the book, is the belief held by the followers of Anawroth that a final cataclysmic duel will one day take place between Anawroth and the Lamb, though who will be the victor none can know until the deed is done.

Though every sect of the church tends towards militancy, the Cult of Anawroth take it to the next level. Where other churches may have Patriarchs that give sermons on the battlefield, the patriarchs of Anawroth fight at the front alongside groups of howling zealots and disciplined forces. They are a church in name only, resembling an army more than anything else. They do not hand out alms for the masses, save the soldiery, nor can one expect to receive communion in any place that isn't a theatre of war.

Whilst typically one of the smaller sects of the church, the Agiathos Yperoxi Anawroth has carved out its own niche in Triarios. Small wonder, really. A nation founded on war must find a suitable deity to justify it, though as the decades roll by his grip on Triarian society grows ever weaker.

I hope you enjoyed some of my writings, Lyk! Triarios truly was nothing like I was expecting, and if I were not so busy I would like nothing more than to sit by your side and talk to you about it in person until the sun rose up, as well as discuss a hundred other topics besides. Still, I hope that the sketches and diagrams of the Triarian royal forges I made are of use to you, or at least interesting.

I do not like to say it, but I do not think my father has long left. I think that, in around eighteen months, I will be sat upon the throne of Polaeros. It is a sobering thought, and means that I will be ceasing my travels for the foreseeable future. Hey, any chance I could leave you my throne and carry on travelling instead?

I jest of course, but it is a tempting thought nonetheless. You'll make for a better king than I anyway; I'd much rather act as an advisor than a king. Still, needs must, and I have my duty to see you.

I apologise for being unable to write more here, but I am afraid that I'm running out of space. I was able to include the most important things I needed to say to you in the first part of my letter however, so I will not fret too much. I hope to see you soon, dear.

Remain ever in my thoughts,

Prince Alekos Virgilos.