[center][b]Kingdom of Vohemia[/b][/center]

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Nation Overview
Though not a backwater, Vohemia is certainly a seldom thought corner of the Fiorentian world. More concerned with petty conflicts between mountain clans than the political apparatus of the continent. It is more of a nation kept on it's toes and with an opportunistic mindset, away from legal or religious prying eyes on the edge of the world.
Even though Vohemia is an absolute monarchy, the titles of the King not only include the Obsidian Crown of Vohemia, but also Lord of the Kretz Valley, Lord-Patron of the Damolong Marches and Paramount of the Southern Snow. 

King Zikmund III is a cruel young man. Having lost his right eye in an assassination attempt, he hung all his father's bastards from the bridge to his keep in Radobyl. The Queen-Consort Sabina is a headstong woman prone to arguing with the king on a regular basis. Though they have produced an heir, Stepan, and a princess, Noemi, the two spend as much time apart as possible. 

Geography

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[hider=Geography]
The lands that range from the boreal mountains of the south and the Kretz Valley to the more temperate lands north, towards the Damolong Estury. The mountains of the Kretz Valley are populated with tall peaks and a pair of active volcanos, lined and wrapped in blankets of pines and firs.
The Beaches and cliffs of the coasts are bulkwards to thin layers of farmland and pastures, dotted with villages and keeps of various sorts between the larger towns and connected with veins of paths and roads.
The course of the Damolong is seated with marches and border barons on the eastern banks and the kingdom proper on the west. There is more autonomy on the border baron side, though that lasts for the bare few leagues thoses lands penetrate eastwards. Along the coast and in the interior of the kingdom, the rule of thumb is the further south you are, the less farmers and the more loggers.

The port cities of Bystre, on the estury, and Dehylov are more dedicated to trade and shipyards than for fishing.
Valkerice built along the banks of Lake Giz, famous for being surrounded by layers of canals and irrigation. 
Lisen is a mountain keep where eventually all plunder of border barons ends up. Their ventures into the barren lands or against mountain clans on occasion vecome profitable. 
Radobyl is the ancestral fortress of the Vin Casomir family for some three centuries. It's castle and palace kept at arms length above the city, with the Svatlava Bridge seperating the two.
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[hider=History]
The land that was Vohemia was a imperial frontier populated by small settlements and forts. Local history is dominated by the conflict between the imperial settlers and the Mountain clans.
The Vohemians were initially a cultural and ethnic group that lived further east. The Vohemians were forced out by the Kessites who uprooted them from their steppes and forced them westward. 
They conquered and settled the lands of modern Voheima from both the imperials and the clans of the mountains, eventually making an alliance between the Red Griffinmen and consolidating their hold. The first king of Vohemia have since worn the obsidian crown, having taken the very land as their prize.

The Vin Casomirs however, are descendants of the hetman who overthrew his newly appointed king and married his daughter shortly after. Thus sealing the line of Vin Casomir as the sole rulers of Vohemia.

Conversion to the Ambrusian church came in the Kessite Wars. Not a century after the formation of Vohemia, the Kessites, soon followed them to the banks of the Damolong. In exchange for crusader swords and monetary aid, King Stepan II became the first ambusian King of Vohemia.
With the eastern Damolong purged of Kessites, the crusaders would later become the first border barons and set up their own baronies in liege to the Vohemian kings. Though their numbers fluctuate, a strong hundred or so barons still patrol and maintain their lands. Border barons are known to make ventures up the tributaries of the Damolong, though not without charter from the king or ducal sponsorship.

Though unassuming, an invasion of Rehabe, in conjunction with one of the islander kings, saw a parcel of land given to the Vohemian invaders. The Vohemian's control however was eroded over time as economic pressure and intimidation saw a diaspora of the migrants back to the mainland in the reign of King Ripand 1st. 
The southern mountain clans have often been home to covens and camps of heretics and witchcraft inclined. Often having to be surpressed by local lords and their Plukovniks (colonels) to put down efforts of uniting or rebellion.

In more recent history, the eruption of Mount Tizana has devastated the lands of the eastern Kretz Valley, forcing many of the landed gentry and lords north to the Radobyl and to Dehylov in the west. 
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[hider=Society]
The Vohemian calendar is full of both Fiorentian holidays and national festivals, such as Wenceslaus Day and the Reindeer festival. The peoples themselves are divided in the commons between serfs and freemen, then onto gentry, both landed and not. Finally you have the nobility ending with the king at the top. 

Vohemians are devout Ambrusians as part of their national identity. It's what separates them from the heathen mountain clans and the kessites before them.
The Vohemians of the migratory period were known for their horsemanship, thought that has declined with the introduction of knights and heavy cavalry. The resurgence of Uhlan cavalry regiments have only reinvigorated this stereotype a little and even then only amongst landed gentry and aristocrats.

Most cultural carvings and decorations are made from the various woods that are available in the Kretz Valley mountains. It is not uncommon of clergy of Vohemian to where icons of various saints and martyrs made of wood, nor is it to pass wayshrines carved into hollowed out trees beside roads.
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[hider=Economy]
Despite logging and subsistence farming dominating most rural economies, it is mining of raw materials such as iron, copper, tin and sulfur that is the real business and fillers of coffers in Vohemia. 

With limited manufacturing in cities, the only manufactured exports are either merchant ships produced with native lumber and gunpowder from nitratries and sulfur of nearby volcanos. It is other manufactured goods, such a cloth, silk and artillery, along with spices and exotic luxuries that are in high demand in Vohemian ports.
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[hider=Military]
The Vohemian army is divided between plukovniks each in charge of a regiment of roughly five hundred men. Most plukovniks are chartered by lords, it's not uncommon for the lords to make themselves their own plukovniks for direct control of their own regiment. The higher the rank of a soldier, the more armour they can probably afford generally, as very few plukovniks pay for extra armour for their troops.

Each regiment of Pike is made up of five hundred pikemen, made up mostly of freemen and gentry.
Each of the more uncommon regiments of horse are made up of five hundred uhlans, armed with lances and sabres. They are recruited from the landed gentry that descend from vohemian knights of old.
Regiments of Axe are made up of the woodsmen and serfs. They combine arquebusers with axes as a combined ranged/melee unit.
All of the Cannons of the Vohemian military are monopolized by the navy. Twenty carracks carry their pairs of sakers and handfuls of falconets on their forecastles and aftcastles.

Altogether, there are about twenty five thousand men available for service. Two thousand of which are dedicated crews of the Vohemian navy. The rest are divided between the three regiment types.
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