For over 600 years, the Gnomali Republic was the major power of Northern Ihlathi. While the causes of the civil war that eventually split the nation into four parts are still widely debated, a common assertion is that Gelephian saboteurs and agents were prominently involved in the escalating tensions and early incidents that sparked armed conflicts.

Whether or not this is true, it is certainly the case that the dissolution of the Republic was followed by a rapid expansion northwards by Gelephia into the Miralach territories. Gelephia’s advance into formerly-Gnomalian land might easily have progressed all the way to the coast, but was brought short by an unlikely alliance. In 812, General Hana Cefas, then in charge of the tired remnants of the Eastern Army, was still under nominal orders to proceed with the pacification of rebel forces in the plains of central Gnomali. When word of Gelephia’s advance came, General Hana, according to popular histories, made common cause with Rus Phen, the Black Fox, famed rebel guerrilla. General Hana’s abandonment of the Eastern cause and assumption of the title of Queen Hana I of the nation of Hanarus was widely considered to mark the end of Gnomali civil war.

When the Great Disaster wiped out most of Gelephia, Hanarus opened its borders in limited fashion to allow the ‘‘repatriation’’ of Gelephian citizens of the Miralach territories to their homeland. Since then Hanarus has maintained a complicated relationship with the Miralach territories. While some consider the territories historically a part of the nation, the one attempt in the early 1300s to reclaim them proved to be a disastrous drain on the country’s finances and military power. Since then the territories have been left unincorporated, although a small population has stubbornly remained.