Little is known of the mysterious and forbidden Tenecian Empire. In the later days of the Shadowed Age, it arose in what is now the southwestern portion of the Coryani Empire. The ethnically Altherian peoples received Althares' First Gift (electromagnetism), which they used to make Altherian steel [which seems better in stories than in game mechanics] and eventually sky ships and even the floating city of Khafré. Other city-states and nations (and even gar) considered the Tenecians to be despotic (perhaps jealous of their advanced technology? or maybe they were), and they worked together the battle the Tenecians. After Khafré fled to what is now new Althré on the Altherian Peninsula, the Coryani Empire and the Mother Church have forbidden exploration of Tenecian ruins.
Nierite wrote:
Cody Bergman [
Nierite] gave a good description of the Tenecian Empire in a post in his "Musings of a Canadian Nierite" series:
http://forums.paradigmconcepts.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=229&p=19553&hilit=tenecian#p19553I theorize that the Tenecian Empire obtained some of their amazing knowledge by plundering an advanced alien race from another world--an outpost of some sort on Arcanis in the vicinity of their Empire. This advanced technology let them move leaps and bounds beyond other Onarans. Whether those aliens were alive or dead, allies or conquests, known or unknown is unclear, but that scenario certainly fits all the clues. The Second Gift of Althares (blastpowder), clockwork creatures, and other advanced Tenecian advances may also be derived in part or whole from that otherworldly technology. The store of the Nelgazzi and val'Abebi (in
Legacy of Damnation d20, p.17) shows that during the First Imperium the Altherians had knowledge and interest in advanced biotechnology from other worlds. All this does not detract from the intelligence and ingenuity of the Altherian people: it till takes lots of ingenuity and hard work to reverse engineer vastly advanced technology, and the fact that PCs are unaware of this (hypothesized) past shows that it is not the direct cause of all Altherian advances.
Now I am more interested than ever in investigating these forbidden Tenecian ruins.