Hello!

If there's still room and still an opportunity to join while things are fresh, I'd very much like to sign up as a state I've been conceptualizing as being located in the Sour Fen and the surrounding region.

The very most basic summary is that it's a land inhabited by the 'pagan' (read: Non-Justinian) humans who found themselves allies of convenience with Daigon in times way back, though they were hardly his most devout followers and hardly his most effective warriors. They were a loose bunch of clans from the bogs, forests, and hills who saw their way of life as being threatened by the encroaching westerners. An escalation in their participation in the war, perhaps killing an important member of the Imperial court or military as they made their way through the region, warranted an actual dedicated campaign against them by the Justinians. To this end, a well-appointed crusader order was mandated the task of pacifying the region and either converting or eradicating the locals. 

Ultimately, the order found itself disillusioned with its task as their campaign became more of a systematic slaughter than an actual war, and higher-ups on both sides became inclined towards some sort of peaceful resolution. This created discord in the Justinian Court, as retribution and total victory were the typical modus operandi of the armies of the west, but these were fellow men, even if they were heathens, and the crusader order saw that perhaps 'redemption' was possible. Members of the court, particularly scholars and academics and some radical theologues, saw this as a flagship means of consolidating order and control in these newly taken territories and also as a moral imperative. They were swayed by the arguments of the masters of the crusader order and departed to join them as they tried to open a dialogue with the locals.

Ultimately, the Justinian powers-that-be, as the war moved in their favor elsewhere, quashed this dissent through the massacre of all those in attendance at a peace summit between the warring parties. The knightly order was condemned for its defiance and heresy, and they were shown just as little mercy and consideration as the pagan locals. This massacre took place at one of the most sacred sites of the Sour Fen peoples, and it's postulated that this awakened [i]something[/i] primordial and powerful. A sacrifice, as it were, of thousands of men and women upon sacred ground that predated even the Justinian Imperium.

A Marcher Province was established by the victorious general, a man whose unscrupulous works won him a massive chunk of land and a great deal of wealth. He continued with the previous efforts of the Justinian Imperium, steamrolling the natives and creating a capable buffer state. The province was ill-fated however. It was swallowed up by the treacherous Fen, which grew only worse, as tales would have it, as the balance of power shifted. Folk claim the horrid massacre, or some oath uttered in the midst of it, cursed the land and those who'd try to master it. There may be some truth to that, as the marcher province was utterly swallowed up. Ruins of citadels and towns dot the mire, while the natives, still traumatized by the war generations ago, live furtively. Horrid monsters inhabit the land. A thick blanket of fog twists and roils over murky waters. It's unwelcoming to all but the most cunning of its residents.

As far as the actual 'nation' goes, I'd be playing as a host of restless spirits, as well as the natives who alternatively worship them and attempt to placate them. Nature spirits, awakened by the 'curse', as well as those slain in treachery by the Justinians.