The Brottoan Empire - The Surface
This is the underground and imperial empire of Brotto, with great spiritual gods and underground megacities and mortal made, underground rivers and a massive focus on building and construction. These are the giants and the dwarves, the imperialist warriors and the heroes that come to the defense of empires fighting against the plagues, a place of sacred and divine orders, a place of tradition and faith. This is Brotto, who appeared in the 5th age as only a small colony of giants and a few dwarves, who built an empire that is loved and respected, even by their enemies, with a strong and efficient legal system and strong relations with the Borrians and the Abirrians.
The Empire is known for its war machines, and its massive, cavernous underground kingdoms, roads, and natural gemstone and mithril, ironward, and adamanine mines. Their cities built into the sides of their mined caverns, and their roads paved with Gold, Bronze, Copper, and magical glowing stones, a journey into Brotto’s underground civilization is sought by many an adventurer, and a glimpse at their Totems physical remnants is said to be a transformative experience. Holding up their cities are colossal statues, hundreds and hundreds of feet tall, made to resemble their holy gods in the form of Totem Poles.
The Gods of Brotto are said to be incredible beings without form, spiritual aspects and embodiments of factors of life, called Totems. Legend says the Totems once had full bodies, but they abandoned them in a great war in Brotto’s ancient past, their people now building them new ones every ten years so that the Totems may speak to the citizens and bless their ever-faithful peoples. This event is known as Saanem’Brotts, and occurs once every decade. The people of Brotto, both the dead and the spirits of deceased Brottoans will work together to rebuild the totems new bodies, and they will take their seats at the Godseats, the volcanic mountains in the center of the Empire(see Saanem’Brotts and The Godseats)
The peoples of Brotto include the Dwarves, the Goliaths, the Humans, the Half-Giants(or The Gattem), and the Giants, with a rare earth genasi or sentient stone or gemstone golem. Here and there, you will find a family of dark elves, and the occasional entirely human settlement separate from the bulk of the Empire.
The faith of the Brottoans is a unique one compared to the rest of the Abraeas’Dor, taking on a much more symbolic yet physical style of worship, including the forging at significant locations for significant items, at the Redforge, The Blackforge, and the Whiteforge. The Brottoans see their faith as part of themselves, and adopt strict rules for adhering to their faith(see How Brottoans Practice their Faith, and Rituals of the Faith). The people of Brotto are all brothers, sisters, friends, and family under the watchful gaze of their totems, and even those who are not blood related can often view their chosen friends as family rather than simply friends.
The history of Brotto is a long one, and their time in the world and underground has marked them as a unique place, their upper lands on the surface being viewed as more dangerous to the people of Brotto, due to its low number of citizenry and a whole host of unique monsters that populate the surface realm.
There are some in the Brottoan empire who make their homes on the surface, and they are known as “Kaanet’Sa”, or more simply known as “Sunbrands,” for their tan skin and their different cultural ideals. While these Kaanet’Sa do not agree with the Brottoan Empires decision to remain underground and not to colonize the surface, they are not enemies of the empire, and are regarded as people who tread on the totems domain, and are viewed as taking a major risk by the common people of Brotto.
The Empire of Brotto has a number of technological advancements that shape their relationship with the rest of the world. Massive warmachines, colossal tools to dig and to build, and many dangerous explosives come from the realm of Brotto. In addition, the Brottoans access to Wardstone and Ironward metals make them a wealthy and prepared empire, the Wardstone being used to build their totems new forms for Saanem’Brotts and to make powerful, incredibly rare(to outsiders) armors, and powerful destructive melee weapons and arrows. Their supply of Ironward is used to make the colossal statues of the totems in their grand cavernous world just below the surface, and their gates and fortresses filled to the brim with Wardstone and Ironward metal makes their established cities and fortresses incredibly hard to besiege and take down.
The Brottoans have a population of 2 billion citizens, and only a small fraction of which are involved in Brotto’s military efforts, but still follow the ideals of the empire. Upon the surface of Brotto, The Sunbrands, or the Kaanet’Sa have a population of 350 Million people.
