Rha'khar

In the Year 65, a military coup flipped the Rha'khar Republic. Staged by Burrorolath, a charismatic general responsible for winning the First Dema'tira War, he was confident that the masses would side with him for his continued leadership of the military and the people. Burrorolath grasp of the situation was proven wrong when after destroying Mephilek's senate, the people showed fear and caution rather than cheer and approval. Drachdekai, noted authority of Gimrune history of the First Epoch, says that Burrorolath could no longer relate to the core of gnomish thinking. He goes on to say that the reason for his change in thinking was dastardly war injuries that led to him becoming a half-clockwork. As a result of his change in composition and mentality, he "encouraged" the populace of Rha'khar to turn their creative thoughts and industry to military applications. In the speech before his council and an audience of 20,000, Burrorolath issued his first edict:

We cannot again lose three cities, not even one, to the mad contraptions of Dema'tira. We must build up the military for the next fight, and build-up the air forces for bombing runs against their clockwork factories and automations.

- Burrorolath, "First Speech"

This taking the fight to the Dema'tira ended up being delayed by a decade. This was because the thirty thousand drowned at Mephilek created an undead problem. The undead that arose from the carnage and destruction of Mephilek were led by those that had made a death pact with the same god worshiped by the Dema'tira. The undead armies, sixteen of them, were of such size and strength that Rha'khar had to position her soldiers facing what came to be known as the Drowned of Mephilek. This horde of undead was led by sixteen undead senator lords, each having pledged their allegiance in death to The Glutton. These undead senators sought nothing but revenge against Burrorolath and those that stood in their way in achieving that goal. The Drowned Senator War went on for ten years, ending only when some enterprising Gimrune captured Burrorolath in a net attached to a balloon. He was then taken over the lines of the Drowned and dropped into one of the densest and darkest of the unnatural fogs. Their goal achieved, the undead senators returned to the sunken ruins of Mephilek, captive Burrorolath in tow.

After the Drowned Senator War, the Rha'khar sent punitive bombing runs against the growing might of the Dema'tira. The bombing runs of Rha'khar's balloon ships were in no way conventional, instead involving dropping electrical munitions on the enemy and mines. Rha'khar also sent long range units into enemy territory. These units were geared and trained to combat the clockworks and their half-clockwork gnome masters. They hunted the enemy on the backs of domesticated rust monsters. These beasts, raised like horses by a special arms division of the military, could be trained for war but their thirst for iron could never be quenched, so their riders used weapons forged of obsidian and crystals and wore armor woven of the Vines of Núlananya. This led to the Second Dema'tira War where in its tenth year, Lady High Tinker Abre'gah took a page from the undead senators of Mephilek, pledging her soul to The Glutton. She sacrificed herself by drowning in the same waters holding the skeletal reminders of Mephilek. Rising as an undead lord, she turned Mephilek's tireless guards south towards the holds of Dema'tira and eventually peace.