THALIT Union
THALIT was the Union founded in 530 AI by Tzhal and Ges and devoted to knowledge, analysis, and study. It ruled much of Mainframe for more than five centuries and fell in the Credit Revolution of 1510 AI. The TZHAL Emergency Government claims nominal authority over the former Union and intends to restore it by force.
Founding
TZHAL began as a confederation of tribes west of Zion. Its turning point was the Awakening: the discovery of a terminal and a surviving network of degraded mathrons. These ancient machine intelligences taught the TZHAL sciences, division of labor, and the operation of enormous ships that had previously been mistaken for immobile structures. Around the mathron node rose Ges, a city of scholars that transformed a tribal power into a technological state.
In 530 AI, Tzhal and Ges founded THALIT—the Union devoted to knowledge, analysis, and study. Congresses of Specialists and permanent Applied Committees organized society into hereditary professional castes. THALIT fleets expanded east, fought Zion's Communal League in the Old War, annexed the region, and made Ganden their capital. For more than five centuries the Union dominated Mainframe through centralized administration, scientific authority, and overwhelming heavy fleets.
The Old War
The Old War began in 966 AI when the expanding THALIT Union invaded the central city-states. The Communal League failed, defecting lords joined the TZHAL fleet, and THALIT ruled much of Mainframe for centuries. Resistance survived through schism, crusades, periodic reconquests, and the fortified independence of orders such as Ordo Crucis.
Ganden once led the Communal League against the expanding THALIT Union. After defeat, it capitulated and served as THALIT's capital for more than five centuries. The Union moved its Congress of Specialists and Applied Committees into the city, while the old TZHAL capital retained the fleet headquarters. That occupation left Ganden with powerful institutions, deep infrastructure, and a large population of TZHAL officials and officers that survived the regime change.
Fall
THALIT fell during the Credit Revolution of 1510 AI. Ganden seized the richest routes and institutions while surviving commanders formed the TZHAL Emergency Government. Their unfinished war now divides Mainframe alongside city-states, monasteries, fleet domains, manufacturers, logists, tek clans, pirates, and communities too distant to recognize either claimant.