The Ithri
The Ithri are the majority people of Ithragran, named for the massive Ithra trees found on the islands. The trees serve as major cultural touchstones, their fireproof bark and quick-growing cuttings providing for many aspects of Ithri society, most notably their shipbuilding. The similarities between the wood-like skin of the Ithri and the trees so important to Ithri culture is not lost on anyone, and many theories on their connection have been proposed, but none proven.
Like the people of Umbigal, the Ithri came to Aegeroth by boat, from the North. However, the journey of those who would become the Ithri was even longer and more ardous. While the majority of Umbigal’s peoples fear the ocean as an untameable source of danger, the Ithri see it as an enemy they have defeated and a hardship they have mastered. Upon arriving in Ithragran they longed to return, a process that began with the creation of riverboats. These boats brought the Ithri ever deeper into Ithragran’s forests, resulting in a people increasingly strange to those who remained along the coasts.
Increasing use and mastery of Ithra wood eventually resulted in seaworthy ships, marking a new and important era of Ithri history. Power in Ithragran came to be centered on a single, powerful fleet, eventually uniting the Ithri people under a single empire. It set out for new lands, quickly conquering much of Bag and later the Eastern deserts of Umbigal. However, its expansion was halted and military devastated by a united front of Lu’egal kingdoms. This is turn led to a loss of foreign territory, and when combined with an increasingly complex domestic reality resulted in the collapse of imperial authority.
Ithragran now is divided into several city-state republics along the coasts, and becomes increasingly decentralized and non-Ithri as one moves inland. Although the Ithri city-states still traditionally refer to themselves as belonging to a greater empire, there is little if any central authority in Ithragran at any point in time. Its various polities act in competition to each other and at times fight, and subtle differences in the traditions and attitudes of their people further separate them. The only outside power over the city-states are the Ithra Cults, small, semi-religious organizations which care for the great trees, and are seen as independent from the rule of any one state.
Although divided politically, the Ithri are united in culture and identity, as well as the memory of the difficult journey that brought them to their home long, long ago.