Galt

Galt

(Nation)

CN

Land

Shining Kingdoms

Alignment

Chaotic neutral

Capital

Isarn

Ruler

Citizen Camilia Drannoch

Government

4721 AR—: Council
4667–4721 AR: Revolutionary anarchy

Demonym

Galtans

Adjective

Galtan

Languages

Common, Hallit

Religions

Calistria, Cayden Cailean, Erastil, Iomedae, Norgorber, Shelyn

Images of Galt

Source: The Inner Sea World Guide, pg(s). 70ff. (1E)
World Guide, pg(s). 126 (2E)

The statblock reflects Galt as of 4719 AR. Details after that point are from Firebrands.

Galt (pronounced GALT) is a land in the Shining Kingdoms of northeastern Avistan where once high ideals were long laid low, and mob rule led to rampant paranoia and chaos. Only the fall of the feared Gray Gardeners in 4721 AR has broken Galt's feverish cycle of revolution known as the Red Revolution, and the nation's fate is now at an inflection point, with forces seeking to pull the nation either toward long-awaited stability or back into a chaotic morass.

History

A Gray Gardener prepares a final blade.

Founding and uprising

Galt was founded during the early years of the Age of Enthronement as a province of the Empire of Taldor in 115 AR.

Galt has always been a nation of free thinkers and radicals renowned for brilliant poets, artists, and philosophers whose ideas shaped the politics of the whole of Avistan. Despite being acquired by Cheliax during the Even-Tongued Conquest, which commenced in 4081 AR following Cheliax's secession during the Taldan conflict with Qadira, Galt continued to uphold this image. It drew independent thinkers to its prestigious universities and adventurers to its unspoiled forests.

Galt's tumultuous fall into mob anarchy began after the death of Aroden led to the ascension of House Thrune in Cheliax in 4640 AR. Seeing the blatant devilry and capricious cruelty of their new masters, dissent began to bubble up in Galt. One of the most elegant proponents of this unrest was by the aiuvarin philosopher Hosetter, who wrote the scathing political essays Imperial Betrayal. These essays helped increase dislike of Imperial Cheliax and spread dissent across Galt, Andoran, and even into the heartland of Cheliax itself.

Then Darl Jubannich, the poet of Woodsedge, capitalised on this by publishing his own attack on Cheliax and the concept of the divine right of kings called On Government. This created further hatred of the new government of Cheliax which quickly blossomed into all-out rebellion. Mobs tore down all the symbols of Chelaxian oppression and executed those they felt were sympathisers, predominantly the nobility.

Queen Abrogail I responded to these rebels with a heavy hand, which only further incited the polity, and Galt soon declared independence in 4667 AR. Hosetter and Jubannich, along with other heroes of the revolution, formed the Revolutionary Council to rule the newly independent nation, and one of the council's first decrees was the creation of the final blades, Galt's feared magical guillotines.

The Red Revolution

Little did they understand the beast they had created, for within five years the first Revolutionary Council had been overthrown by another set of bloodthirsty revolutionaries who wanted change and executed the first council as counter-revolutionaries. This began the cycle of bloodshed and revolution after revolution that has lead to Galt's decline into a nation inhabited by mobs of paranoid, revolutionary fanatics.

Many of Galt's most prominent scholars and wizards fled the nation or were killed. Andoran, once sympathetic to Galt's anti-aristocratic ideals, closed its borders in the Verduran Forest to Galtan refugees for fear of the Red Revolution's spread. Galt's surviving nobles fled for other nations near and far, from northern Taldor to the city of Kridorn in Iobaria.

After Hosetter's death, more than a dozen governments ruled Galt, none effectively. Galt's cities, formerly centers of art and learning, fell into ruin. Without a strong central government, Galt's armed forces collapsed, allowing brigands and fell beasts to flourish in the wilds. The Revolutionary Council persisted without progress through many incarnations, often renamed as the Cabinet of Skulls, the Cailean Council, the Common Council, the Eye of Law, or the Galtcreed Pact.

Firebrands infiltrated Galt in 4716 AR soon after the organization's creation, inspired by a coup of self-proclaimed Firebrands called the Blade Breakers. The Firebrands responded too late to assist with their rebellion but helped free their members from Gray Gardener imprisonment. The first true Firebrands insurrection in Galt also failed, but several agents survived and remained in the nation, including Handish Tremmel, who as of 4723 AR continues to work on behalf of the Firebrands to smuggle messages and people out of the nation through the Verduran Forest.

Fall of the Gray Gardeners

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Unbeknownst to its populace through the decades of chaos, the unending cycles of revolution were in fact the machinations of a conqueror worm and its cult, with the Gray Gardeners acting as its public arm. Its deployment of the final blades was a plot to compress enough souls to release gray deaths, massive disasters of undeath, in every Galtan city to ultimately destroy the nation.

The Gardeners themselves manipulated much of Galt's chaos, staging execution festivals and funding the bandits that terrorized its rural regions, and were empowered by a psychic network of worm prophets.

The Gardeners staged an attempted coup in 4721 AR, an event called the Masque of the Gray Death in which they opened their Gray Monastery headquarters in Litran for the first time. In an unprecedented act of transparency, the Gardeners claimed they would unmask themselves. However, the announcement was a ploy to consolidate Galt's ruling class into one place and release a gray death upon them.

A band of foreign Firebrands thwarted the plan, culminating in the destruction of the Gray Gardeners, their Gray Monastery, and several of the once believed indestructible final blades. As of 4723 AR, these adventurers were believed to still pursue the destruction of the nation's remaining final blades.

Geography

Galt is located on the easternmost edge of Avistan, and is bordered by the River Kingdoms to the north, Kyonin to the west, and Taldor to the south. The vast Whistling Plains of Casmaron are to its east.

Galt is a fertile area of predominantly plains but also boasts several large forests within its borders, such as the Verduran Forest and the Boarwood. It contains several beautiful cities, and before the Revolution the capital of Isarn was renowned as a city that bordered on a work of art.

Government

Historical

For decades, few who claimed power kept their heads for more than a few years. The Revolutionary Council that rules Galt changed leadership with shocking regularity as a new group of bloodthirsty revolutionaries claimed power, although the previous governing council had been in power longer than most.

For over a decade, the previous chairman Citizen Korran Goss, a talented demagogue, skillfully united the Council by diverting the mob's anger away from himself and the Council and attributing Galt's problems to neighboring nations, particularly Andoran. However, like many leaders before him, Korran became the target of a brutal wave of violence that not even his immense charisma could control, and he was succeeded by Citizen Camilia Drannoch.

Post-Revolution

As of 4723 AR, the Revolutionary Council's chair is Citizen Camilia Drannoch, who lost her mother Apalma—the nation's ambassador to Kyonin—to the final blades at a young age and strives to destroy them.

She became a household name and earned a seat on the Revolutionary Council by exposing the Eye of Law as a hag coven. She has since survived multiple coups, and became Chairwoman when her predecessor Citizen Goss was torn apart by an angry mob. She enacted several popular reforms to bring back some stability, notably putting an end to xenophobic policies and improving foreign relations.

Drannoch firmly believes that Korran's tendency to attribute Galt's problems to external forces only exacerbated the country's plight. During her tenure, the Revolutionary Council has ostensibly initiated a campaign to eliminate rogue elements and destabilizing influences within Galt. However, in numerous instances, this endeavor has primarily served as a means for Drannoch to maneuver the mob into ousting those who could challenge her authority.

Senate

Even though the Revolutionary Council makes most of the decisions in Galt, a legislature of elected senators exists and is supposed to look after the interest of the common citizens. Originally composed of 300 representatives, as of 4711 AR their number had dwindled down to around 100 thanks to the Gray Gardeners. New elections are supposed to happen every eight years but were continuously postponed due to internal conflicts for decades.

With no practical way of replacing these senators, their presence provided a small modicum of stability in the otherwise anarchic nation. While their power was largely ceremonial, the senators still met monthly for week-long sessions of posturing, demagoguery, and debate, and no one achieved political power in Galt without their support.

Organizations

Gray Gardeners

Gray Gardeners abduct a man in Litran.

For decades, the only stability in Galt's government were the Gray Gardeners, executioners of Galt. They maintained their power and safety through anonymity, as no member could be targeted by an angry mob, and most feared the threat of execution via a final blade should they move against the organization. Because of this, no Gray Gardener ever voluntarily unmasked themself.

The Gray Gardeners were based in the Gray Monastery of Litran, rather than in the capital of Isarn, home of the Revolutionary Council.

The Gardeners themselves created the final blades beneath their headquarters, and the artifacts demonstrated a strong resistance to physical damage. However, as of 4719 AR rumors circulated in Isarn that covert operatives had discovered a ritual capable of destroying the last remaining blades and thereby releasing all the trapped souls within them. These rumors were later validated when the ritual was decoded by the Firebrands who halted their coup plot.

After their failed coup in 4721 AR, the Gardeners were officially disbanded. However, due to their concealed identities, all surviving members remain potentially active in Galt, along with any final blades not already located and destroyed by the Revolutionary Council or the Firebrands.

Firebrands

Galt has been a significant front of the revolutionaries of the Firebrands since 4716 AR. The breaking of the Gray Gardeners further emboldened Firebrands and their operations within the nation. A cell known as the Unmaskers pursues alleged Gray Gardeners to expose them for their crimes, while another called the Sheperds of the Lost researches the fates of people who vanished through the prior decades. The Able Jinxers also assist in moving refugees out of Galt.

Firebrand Ambre Morel works with the church of Abadar to return wrongly confiscated property to its owners, while the Firebrand Professor Thistle wanders the nation to help rebuild its newly independent educational system. Firebrand cells also provide material support to Citizen Drannoch, the head of the Revolutionary Council as of 4723 AR, who struggles to coordinate their efforts.

However, as the nation transitions to more stable self-rule without the influence of the Gray Gardeners, the continued role of foreign Firebrands remains a contentious topic. Idle Firebrands have also gathered a reputation for being restive and volatile. Some Firebrands departed Galt for Taldor after the fall of the final blades, raising concerns among the Lion Blades that Taldor was their next target for destabilization.

Broken Ghosts

An anarchic sect known as the Broken Ghosts threatens to undo Galt's progress toward stability and plunge it back into chaos. Named for the now-shattered final blades and souls released from them, the fiercely independent and elusive group has a particular animosity toward the Firebrands for, as the Broken Ghosts describe it, hypocritically forcing their own ideologies upon others instead of promoting true freedom.

Knowledge of Ages

An occult society called the Knowledge of Ages holds the final blade known as Razor Jenni in a hidden chamber beneath the Torvin Academy of Edme. They conduct near-nightly séances in an attempt to commune with its captured souls, many of whom were intellectuals and political philosophers executed in the Red Revolution.

Pathfinder Society

The Pathfinder Society maintains a small lodge in the Galtan city of Woodsedge. As of 4723 AR, its venture-captain was Armeline Jirneau, who succeeded Eliza Petulengro after the latter unmasked herself as a member of the Decemvirate.

Foreign relations

Until recently, Galt's neighbors worried that Galt would send bloodthirsty mobs over its borders due to the xenophobic rhetoric of the previous chairman of the Revolutionary Council, Korran Goss.

Andoran

Andoran, once sympathetic to Galt's anti-aristocratic ideals, closed its borders in the Verduran Forest to Galtan refugees. After the Red Revolution broke down into bloody mayhem, Andoren leadership feared that the chaos might spread to them, as Andoran was founded with many of the same guiding principles as Galt's revolution.

The Andoren government attempted but failed to dissuade Firebrands from intervening in Galt around 4716 AR, considering it a hopeless cause, but the Firebrands' travels through Andoran contributed to the nation later becoming a hotbed of the organization's training and recruitment.

Citizen Drannoch entered into a clandestine alliance with Supreme Elect Andira Marusek, who also wishes to get rid of the final blades. Knowing that Marusek would balk at some of the unsavoury things she had to do, Drannoch limits the flow of information to what she wants Marusek to hear.

Cheliax

Believing that outdated ideologies across Golarion will soon be discredited, Drannoch openly supported and dispatched agents to aid rebels in the former Chelaxian colony now known as Vidrian, and to the former Chelaxian archduchy and now breakaway nation of Ravounel.

Geb

Citizen Drannoch has sought an alliance with Geb, with the hopes that their knowledge of undeath will help free the souls captured in the blades. She has offered intelligence on Nex and the Spire of Nex in exchange for aid and lobbying to allow any freed undead to continue existing in Geb or to help their souls pass on to the afterlife. Geb has begun to consider Drannoch's offer due to his lack of living spies to infiltrate Nex.

Kyonin

The elven lands to the west are separated from Galt by the Sellen River and the elves monitor this border carefully. The elves are somewhat sympathetic to the harried refugee camps on the other side of the river but such sentiments do not extend to allowing Galtan exiles access to their lands. Despite not allowing Galtans to cross into Kyonin, representatives of the elven government have recently established a minor presence in Isarn.

Citizen Drannoch holds little love for her birth nation of Kyonin, and its Queen Telandia Edasseril is reluctant to align her nation with any cause, including Galt's. Some of her detractors have begun to refer to her and the female leaders of neighbouring countries as the "Four Queens".

River Kingdoms

A few exiled members of Galt's nobility fled to the River Kingdoms, where they have been amassing armies of mercenaries to eventually take back their homeland. The two most prominent of these Revenant Princes are Lord Halidan Tarne and his cousin, Casal Tarne. While Halidan leads regular raids into Galt, Casal prefers to bide his time and gather his forces, waiting for the perfect time to strike and bring down the Revolutionary Council.

Taldor

Taldor long held a dim view of the revolutionaries to its north. Under the rule of Grand Prince Stavian III, all travelers from Galt were searched, and a worrying number of handbills insisting that the Taldan people rise up and overthrow the government were discovered in caravans and ships. Some of the senatorial class lobbied to send the military north to end the revolutionary nation once and for all.

The prefecture of Northern Tandak is particularly strained due to an influx of penniless nobles exiled from their Galtan homes, combined with the "soft invasions" of bandits and brigands from the north. This left a substantial strain on the territory's resources and frustrated the regional government.

Grand Princess Eutropia Stavian, Stavian III's successor following the War for the Crown, has since offered friendship to the Revolutionary Council, while Drannoch believes that Eutropia is holding back, and seeks to radicalise her so Eutropia can realise Taldor's true potential.

Inhabitants

Galtans were once renowned for their free-thinking and lust for life, but during the long years of revolution this has slowly turned bitter and violent. They have become fanatical, revolutionary zealots, and their lust for life has turned into a bloodlust towards those they perceive as responsible for the terrible conditions now prevalent in their land. All too often, the residents of Galt are forced into homelessness, as the infrastructure of Galt has long since collapsed and food has become a scarce commodity.

The people of Galt are generally distrustful of strangers, which was not helped by the previous chairman of the Revolutionary Council's fiery rhetoric that blamed all of Galt's problems on outsiders. As such, few foreigners visit Galt and those who do have to be very careful that their neck does not end up meeting one of the feared guillotines of Galt.

Adventurers

While foreigners must constantly watch for roving bands of bloodthirsty mobs, Galt attracts adventurers from outside of the country. They sometimes come to loot the hastily abandoned homes of departed nobles or seek to reclaim a lost birthright.

Religion

After the Red Revolution, the worship of the demon lord of traps Andirifkhu rose across Galt. Her worshippers tended to focus on Andirifkhu's mastery of mechanised forms of execution and torture. While Andirifkhu worshippers are usually lone fanatics, those operating in Galt tended to form small cells of up to half a dozen followers. These cells remained isolated and showed little interest in cooperation with each other, and their fates since the fall of the Gray Gardeners in Galt is unknown.

Champions and clerics of Milani worked alongside Firebrands in Galt.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.