History of Ethax

An absurdly brief summary, simplified into narrative at the cost of accuracy
Ethax has existed in some form of the other since the early Egyptian era. However since then it has transformed so many times as to be almost unrecognisable. Initially, when Syracuse was explored and colonised by the Greeks, Ethax was familiar with the lodestones but not how to use them. They developed this knowledge over some time;most of their advances are credited to Archimedes (or the equivalent). During this period, the city acquired a reputation as occultists and magicians- wayward priests of Hephaestus, with the eldritch ability to manipulate metals. This is when they established their great temples; the temple to Hephaestus which doubled as a forge, and the temple to Zeus which originally lay at the center of the lodestone yards (later expansions have caused to effectively shift a bit). These temples are crumbling and lie empty of worshippers, but are still of immense cultural and historical importance. The history of the city can be seen as the history of its trade; it has slowly been growing to play a greater role in the famous renaissance commerce. This in itself was mostly fuelled by the improvements in technology and the growing capability of the shipwrights- Ethax's economy has grown by leaps and bounds since it established the guilds. Even internally, the city has transformed. The political system of plutocracy is a novel development; less than a century ago the banks were simply seen as places to keep money, and the nobility was smug and secure in its power. A few decades ago, the banking guilds realised that they could bring the city to a standstill by withholding funds, and effectively decide what policies were put into place. Since then, a series of very small and cautious steps has propelled them to power, to the point where they can draw up amendments, and select the members of parliament. Fortunately for the city, their economy is prospering and there haven't been any diplomatic incidents (at least none which can't be smoothed over by some strategically chosen gifts).

Cultural History
The city has also evolved culturally. As a Hellenistic city it was purely a colony of Greece, and a theocratic one at that. It wasn't so much that inquiry and exploration was punishable by death, but that at the time it simply wasn't done to explore. At best, people of the time would attempt to construct logical justifications for religious dogma, and use it to justify that dogma as the way things must be; the same path as Aristotle who was famously wrong about almost everything. Since then, a rather ironic change has occurred- the law has gotten stricter and more dangerous, but the city itself (especially the university) have become borderline freethinkers. This was the sort of change that creeps up on people; no one really noticed when the arcane guild overtook the church because implicitly they were already expecting it.​

Global/Diplomatic History
The city is amazingly complicated in terms of diplomatic history. Its policy, both historically and currently, is a mix between their political isolation and their trade empire; they buy and sell from every Italian city-state. Since their establishment, Ethax has fought exactly one war, during the Hellenistic era. There was also an informal diplomatic and religious crisis many centuries ago, when Christian missionaries arrived in Ethax, asking if they had heard the word of God.