In any scenario where that was possible – where everything between Sojourn and the Olossar ocean had been broken down so far that Sojourn was the best-placed faction to prevail – the name for the realm would be “Xaos.”
If the Laconniers got the secret of Ward-making, which of course is a level of mystery even better-protected than the secrets of Theurgy, then yes, they’d probably be keen to wall off Shayard with Wards.
The tech for full plate armor exists; it’s just mostly a thing of the past, as in our world’s early modern period. Even more than gunpowder tactics in our own world, battlefield Theurgy has pushed Phalangite infantry to prioritize mobility and rely on more flexible, lighter armors. Plate armor would give you extra protection against arrows and blades…but good luck trying to hide from a Theurge or adopt any meaningful anti-Theurge tactics while you’re lurching around in it.
I don’t think I’ll be writing that in, fun and poignant as it could be. You’re not known to the de Irde as an aristo, and if they find out who you are, I don’t think marriage will be the first thing on their minds. 
And I’ve got to keep the RO numbers (including hookups) manageable.
Both geographically and in population terms, Shayard was just so much bigger than Karagon–a Karagon which was working its way through Erezza when the invasion of Shayard started, and was at war with Nyryal by the time it was finished. The history also doesn’t mention that the “last Queen” who fell in 30 HE was the tenth de Syrnon monarch to fall to the Thaumatarchy over that 26-year war. Karagon broke the military power of Shayard much more quickly than it was able to quell and control the countryside; by 30 HE, the de Syrnons had for decades been fighting a slow guerrilla resistance, hiding among a sympathetic but increasingly subdued population. At last they stopped naming new heirs, and shifted from fighting to conspiring in the shadows.
The Houses that became early collaborators with the Karagonds are indeed blamed for betraying their liege. But it’s pretty hard for most people who know the history to imagine Shayard winning. Anti-Theurge tactics aren’t easy to carry out even now, and back then, they were barely known at all.
Confiscated it. Stilos and Calea aren’t barbarians.
No, that won’t be possible. The magic of my gameworld is a technology, at heart; and once a technology is out of the bag, especially one that can power such a wide range of outcomes, it’s easier to destroy the world than to destroy that technology from the world.
I like Wardfall a lot…and I’m wondering whether I like it more than Downfall as a prospective title for the former G4, now G5. That game ends with the final collapse of the Thaumatarchy, but a lot of the action throughout it will be driven by falling or fallen Wards.
Hmmph. Maybe I’ll go with XoR 3: Burgeoning Glory.
They absolutely are. Same in the Westriding.
I hope so! That’s certainly a balance I think should be possible. Idealism and ambition are far from opposites, even if they also reliably each throw up problems for the other.
Yep. Either a nationalist or cosmo MC might decide that Shayard needs a single dominant dialect, though probably only a nationalist would cast it as the One True and Ancient Language of the Nation.