Fifty years after the seccession of Stryre, at the end of Varkar's final campaign against the orc-holds of the Erean Mountains, the central province of the Empire followed the example of the Stryrans and broke from Imperial rule. The character of the leaders of the revolt and their reasons could not, however, have been more different.Following the death and ascension of the Voice of the One in 453, the cult had been slowly growing in and around the places where the prophet had lived. The priesthood were a dour and intolerant lot, and for them the final straw came when Emperor Titus gave sanctuary and lands to the displaced orc peoples of the Erean Mountains in 1500. Anger turned to action, the people were stirred up and secretly armed, and late that same year, the priesthood decalred that the central province was no longer Imperial territory, but rather a Theocracy, for which they chose the name Nhased.
Titus was a different emperor from the man who had hesitated to risk an army to retake Stryre, however. Preparing carefully for more than seven years, he gathered a mighty force, put his best general in charge, and sent them into Nhased with instructions to retake the province, wipe out the priesthood and stamp out the cult of the One once and for all. He made several fatal miscalculations, however. He assumed the dwarves would march with the Empire, as they always had before; he assumed that Stryre wouldn't interfere; and he assumed that the elves weren't even interested. In all of this he was dead wrong.
The dwarves, disgusted by the inclusion of orcish troops in the invasion force, refused to send any aid at all. The elves of Belegond - by now the last remaining elven city - not only followed suit, but actually sent troops to the aid of Nhased. And Stryre sent a large force of crack troops to help its' neighbor, setting the scene for the good relations that have existed between these radically different nations ever since.
There was no one pivotal battle, but a long series of inconclusive tussles seperated by continual guerrilla attrition, coupled with increasing disapproval back in the Empire - several important Senators were followers of the One - eventually led to the withdrawl of the Imperial army and the reluctant recognition of Nhased as an independent country.
Today, life in Nhased is permated top to bottom by the influence of the Church of the One. While not oppressive or corrupt, the heirachy controls the whole country and functions as the effective nobility. Initiation in the cult is a requirement of citizenship, and all important business is at least overseen by a priest of some sort. The great mother-temple, the Cathedral of The One, is the largest religious structure ever created in Alair. There are several knightly orders which serve the Church, of which the most notable are Vokrid, Rogryn and Fimgalet. Knights of Rogryn are particularly noted for their unceasing vigilance along the fringes of the Desolation.