Gladsome Antglade

The Gladsome Antglade was a mountainous tea-growing region adjacent to the River Athafon. It was ruled by Duchess Catherine O'Daisies and her husband, both descendants of siblings & step-siblings of King Athanasius. Life on the tea plantations was idyllic, luxurious, and boring. Antgladers became steadily more depraved in their search for entertainment, turning to ever more Unseelie practices. Rumors of slavery, torture, cannibalism, and elfin sacrifice ran the length and breadth of the Empire. Eventually it got so bad that King Yngvar imposed a Tea Embargo, shutting off all trade with the Antglade. The province responded by seceding from the Empire and declaring itself an independent state.

The ensuing war was fought with excessive brutality on both sides, but Antglade independence was a lost cause. The conflict ended with the once-mountainous province being magickally flattened, after which it quickly filled up with water from the Athafon and became a reeking, festering swamp. The Antglade was declared terra non grata, with commerce and travel severely restricted.

No longer able to grow tea, the Antglade sought to boost its economy by the sale of an invigorating soft-drink called "Persoc-Itoome" which was enormously popular during the latter years of the Dull Ages and throughout Sartorius' reign. Adler the Prudent outlawed the drink after several independent alchemists & herbalists concluded that it was Addictive as well as Detrimental to Health, dooming Gladsome Antglade and its inhabitants to renewed poverty and obscurity.