[hider=Shahdom of Kera-Bijan]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/qlS0oml.png[/img]
[b]Name of Nation[/b]: Shahdom of Kera-Bijan

[b]Government[/b]: Constitutional Monarchy - While the shah is a hereditary title, the satraps under him are elected by the common people, as part of a series of liberalization reforms placed by previous shahs. Succession is a difficult matter, with sister assassinating brother for a place in line for the crown and civil wars brewing mere hours after death.

[b]Species[/b]: While the overwhelming majority of the Kera-Bijani are regular humans, there do exist a large majority of oddities within the outlying regions of the shahdom. There are places where magic is strong, and the climate harsh, so much so that the settlers there have begun to change form to adapt. Those living in the plateaus have become short and thin, so much so that an adult of the mountain people is about the size of a child in the cities. On the other end of the spectrum, those that settled in the steppes have grown into giants, easily reaching three meters, and have gained the ability to subsist on the grass itself. All three races identify strongly as human.

[b]Population[/b]: The population tends to hover around 50 million people, held steady by the unforgiving environment and the constant border disputes between satraps. While the colonization of the region did cause a population boom, the occupying forces have by and large returned to their homes.

[hider=Culture and History]
[b]Culture[/b]: The Kera-Bijani faith revolves around five gods, they being Wise Fire, Wise Water, Wise Air, Wise Wood, and Wise Metal. Originally, the five kept supreme control over the universe, and the humans lived in paradise. The gods created a human, who was in all ways virtuous, and they, proud of their work, created a second. The second, however, was envious of the love the first shared with the gods, and sought to disturb their sacred relationship. That second human worked day and night, creating a weapon to destroy the universe, which upon creation he named dishonesty. The moment he spoke the first lie, from his mouth sprang five deities of evil, Corrupt Fire, Corrupt Water, Corrupt Wood, Corrupt Air, and Corrupt Metal.

The good gods found themselves outnumbered. There are five deities protecting nature, but six, five plus the evil human, trying to destroy it. So from their minds cam a prophecy, telling of a shah who will one day deify himself by leading a life of maximum purity. When that day comes, each good god will slay his evil counterpart, and take supreme control over the universe again, with a sixth and most supreme member within their ranks.

It is under this faith that the three peoples of Kera-Bijan stand behind, it bringing each other together and unifying them against enemy forces. The lives of every subject, barring the least pious ones, revolve around adhering to the texts written by the gods themselves, the first human, and the many philosopher-shahs from eons past. The texts speak highly of a purity of the self, as well as a harmonious relationship with nature and the five pure forms, and to manipulate nature in any way is considered an affront to the purity of the relevant form. People are encouraged to live simply, to honor others, and to be forever honest. 

Magic, too, is considered sacred, and is viewed as the will of the gods upon earth. Temples prominently feature magic crystals in their sacrifice, feeding it to fire, sprinkling it in lakes and on the earth, and scattering its fine powder into the very air. Some consider the use of magic the only pure way to manipulate the environment, while others claim that to use it is sacrilege in itself. The most recent shahs, however, tend to lean towards the former side, and thus the latter side has chosen to be silent as of late.

[b]History[/b]: There was once a time when the city people were also many infighting tribes, distrustful of both the mountain people and the steppe people. That was nearly two thousand years ago, and a time no Kera-Bijani looks upon with much respect. From this soup of diffusion and war came a legendary figure, Demes Kehmeyid, who the priests said from birth was destined. He expanded both his dynasty and his land through genius military tactic and even more genius diplomacy. When he conquered the land held by an enemy tribe, he declared its chief his own brother, and forced their family to take on the Kehmeyid name. Through this, he fostered brotherhood within all of the chiefdoms, and declared himself the first shah of the Kera-Bijan Peninsula. He was assassinated but five months into his rule, and replaced with one of the conquered chiefs, but the dynasty survived.

It was the second shah's third son, Vedad Kehmeyid, who expanded his territory to include the steppe and mountain people. It was through his strong faith and charisma that many clans joined his cause, following proselytization and integration of their cultures. Those who didn't join the shahdom were violently subject to genocide, the remaining ones loyal to both faith and shah.

Five hundred years of relative stability followed, and assassinations within the satrapies and royal family reached record minimums, although never quite reaching non-existence. However, when a magnificent fleet sailed over the horizon, carrying an army from a far-off land, that peace was over. War tore apart the peninsula, with the invading army cutting swaths of territory out of the shahdom for themselves, even driving the royal family out of the capital and killing the reigning shahbanu, three of her brothers, and nine of her sisters. 

The people, however, rallied again, under the hero Bandaves Kehmeyid, and pushed the now-depleted foreign army back into the sea. In the process, they captured documents, maps, and jewelry, all speaking of a land far west, rich in all goods and developing in all sciences. The foreigners came from a land called Kratoria, and their neighbors were many. The newly-crowned Shah Bandaves immediately set to work building a grand and mighty fleet, that he may trade and conquer in this new world. He died before he would realize his dream, assassinated by his cousin, and the project was cut before it was completely realized.

It was following the rebellion against the Kratorians that the northern peoples, led by the race-purist separatist Satrap Qaro, defied Shah Bandaves' successor and rebelled. Qaro launched brutal genocides against the steppe and mountain people living in his and his allies' satrapies, claiming to want to restore the pure human race. Those few who survived escaped southwards and eastwards into Kera-Bijani land, as armies serving under the shah advanced northward to reintegrate the revolting satrapies. He and the next four shahs would die over the course of thirty years in combat against the new realm of Qaroitn. 

Eventually, the dust settled, and while skirmishes and raids still exist along the borderlands of the two rival nations, a relative peace has established itself, in no small part due to war exhaustion on both ends. The shahbanu finally completed the task of creating a trade fleet and navy, and sent them westward on a voyage of exploration and trading. Twenty long years passed, and within that time the shahbanu that sent the voyage was assassinated and replaced, before the fleet returned. It was laden with goods and stories, nearly all wondrous and in admiration of the western world. With the exotic trade goods they brought back, the shahdom entered another five centuries of relative peace and isolation.

This peace was broken by the arrival of the island foreigners on two fronts. Those who landed in the cities demanded to be brought before the shah himself, offering gifts of glasswork and bitter herbs in exchange for food. The shah and the present satraps agreed, creating a flourishing trade relationship with their homeland, the islands of Faenaria. Those who landed on the steppes, however, saw less fortune. The steppe peoples, fearful of the alien races that have come to their shores, launched an attack upon the new settlement, hoping to plunder them of their riches and drive them back to sea. The shah had to personally lead an army against his own people, just to preserve the valuable products coming in from the islands. The battle was considered a black day on the honor of both the faith and the royal family, and led to nearly a century of distrust between the steppe tribes and the city people before the new shahbanu could repair it.

Regardless, the islands brought in products from the western world that revolutionized life in Kera-Bijan, not least of which was the firearm. To use it was a controversial practice, with the traditionalists calling it an unforgivable affront and the radicals hailing it as a step forward for the nation. Further controversies were sparked with the arrival of magical weapons, ironside ships, and factories. However, they passed into public use anyways, headed by the progress-oriented shahs and satraps of the last century. 

It was from this period of rapid modernization that riots broke out in all the major cities, calling for an end to the appointment of satraps. They demanded a voice in the government, the way Kratorians would appoint their senates by the majority of people agreeing upon it. The shahbanu, fearing for her nation's stability, approved of this concept and set to negotiating a term length and limit. However, she was found dead before anything was agreed upon, and her successor set the term to life, with the promise that it would be sorted out. He was assassinated soon after.

It is his second daughter's first son, Tivaz Kehmeyid, that rules now as the current shah. Two elder sisters came before him, but they were killed. Now he, but fourteen, has been thrust upon the throne, and the country holds their breath, awaiting his response to the impending crisis.
[/hider]
[hider=Economy and Technology]
[b]Economy[/b]: Kera-Bijan is hardly an industrial nation. Its religion discourages the building of factories and encourages the open lifestyle of the farm, making large businesses incompatible with the Kera-Bijani way of living. Despite that, modernization is an inevitable process, and textile manufacturing has in large part moved from the homes to the workplaces. Cloths of all kinds are worked in large quantities in the trading cities, from cotton to silk, linen, and flax. Robes and carpets and stockings and even Kratorian-style togas are plentiful within the empire and exported in large quantities to its neighbors.

There is little to no oil in Kera-Bijani grounds, and even if there were, to make use of it is sacrilege. Perhaps the gods themselves knew this, for they filled the land with two elements; gold, and magic. It was once said that a man could walk along the surface and collect enough magical stones to fill a basket. Even today, it takes a minimal amount of mining to come out of any Kera-Bijani mountain, arms laden with gold nuggets and magic crystals. It helps, then, to have a valuable neighbor in their neighbor, Faenaria, who buys products from both ends of the world and trades it to much-needed hands on the other side, allowing Kera-Bijan to on some level keep up with their western contemporaries.

[b]Technology[/b]: As far as technology goes, Kera-Bijan is not going to be leading the world any time soon. Much of the technology active within the shahdom are nearly half a century out of date, and their design is often borrowed from their neighbors. Most importantly, factions led by traditionalist satraps actively attempt to block state support for advances in technology, on the grounds that tampering with the ways of nature is an unforgivable affront to the five gods. Modern forms of weaponry, such as the explosive shell and the machine gun, are beyond the minds of the Kera-Bijani scientists, and what technology does is often substituted with magic, considered by all to be more harmonious.
[/hider]
[hider=Military]
[b]Army[/b]: Working metal to produce swords and guns, while technically an affront to the purity of metal, is by sheer necessity tolerated within the shahdom. The world progresses forth in technology, some aspects of the life of purity will inevitably be left behind, and the army understands this better than any. The Storm Guard is the backbone of the Kera-Bijani army, comprised of riflemen fighting in a lockstep formation. Accompanying them is the Wildfire Corps, skirmishers and snipers tasked with harrying the opponent before they meet with the Storm Guard. However, the pride of the Kera-Bijani army is in its cavalry, the Iron Cataphracts, a swift force capable of shooting from horseback.

Armies are led traditionally by the shah and his satraps, and this practice is still in effect today. The royal family is fortunately populous, for the loss of a shah in open combat is all too common a tragedy. The satraps, though in service for life upon election, tend not to survive longer than a single decade, and elections are common. 

The cavalry is equipped with early forms of shotguns, breech loaded and single shot, very often short-barreled. The gun is intended to be fired from horseback, where the soldier could beat a hasty retreat out of an enemy's accurate range. It is, within the bounds of the shahdom, state of the art, and devastating when used against the ranked formations commonly seen in the eastern continent. Infantry is given a modified form of early Kratorian rifles, out of date in the modern age, equipped with a revolver's ammo reserve so that it may fire six times in quick succession. Skirmishers have the worst of it. While their rifles are the longest ranged weapons of the three army branches, they are even more out of date than the infantry guns, and tend to misfire in dusty or wet conditions.

[b]Navy[/b]: The Kera-Bijani have a sizable navy, though a little old fashioned. The primary material used to build them are wood, made from trees specially grown along the coast. The trees have been twisted by magic, in a manner which encourages them to grow into the shape of a ship. When they are considered large enough to hold a crew, the tree is uprooted in a way that allows them to fall in the water, ready for sailing. Although a significant affront to the purity of metal, the navy has done extensive research regarding ironclad ships, and all but the most tradition-minded of admirals keep ironclad fleets propelled by magical means.

The guns on a Kera-Bijani ship, however, are wildly out of date. Most, if not all, ships were broadsides, and the cannons used on them are most often fireball cannons and 36-pound shells, with the intention of softening up an enemy's metal before pounding them in. The Kera-Bijani do not keep explosive shells, as that is an affront to both fire and metal too great to be tolerated.

[b]Air Force[/b]: The idea of humans flying is repulsive to the Kera-Bijani, as it is an affront to the purity of air. They keep no air force, and regard poorly those who do.
[/hider]
[hider=Rolls]
[b]Territory[/b]: 3+6 (9) Your nation is decently sized, with room for cities and lots of farmland to support your population.
[b]Tech[/b]: (9) Your nation is still antiquated, but modernization is about to begin or in its beginning stages.
[b]Army Size[/b]: 9+4 (13) Your army is well-sized, and maintained on a year-round basis.
[b]Economy[/b]: 16+1 (17) Your economy is well-off, and a majority of what needs to be funded is.
[b]Production[/b]: 7-1 (6) Your nation is somewhat agrarian, with okay natural resource exploitation.
[b]Navy Size[/b]: (14) You have a decently sized navy, with a fairly militarized portion.
[b]Airforce Size[/b]: 5-4 (1) You have no air force.
[b]Magic[/b]: (18) Your nation is a leader in magical development and use, almost second to none. Your prowess with magic allows you to neglect the technological side of things, compensating for an absence of modern artillery with fireball launchers, scant telecommunications with short distance scrying and telepathy.
[b]Mobilization[/b]: (16) It takes a month to mobilize.
[/hider]
[u][b]Traits[/b][/u]
Society of Purity: The Kera-Bijani people find that the purity of the body is the highest state of being one may strive to be. They shun intoxicants, such as alcohol and drugs, so as not to corrupt their own bodies and invite evil to fester within. The society strongly looks down upon both excessive gluttony or excessive temperance, and the food is never inflicted with preservatives. Purity of the body is only as strong as purity of the mind, and thus the Kera-Bijani reinforce their purity of mind through good works. They dare not speak dishonesty for fear of weakening the integrity of the universe, and treat their neighbors with respect and good spirit. Most importantly, they keep their environment clean, minimizing waste within the things they use and caring for the living things, for it is they who hold up the five gods.

Might and Magic: Although the technology sector of the Kera-Bijani world flounders, its magical world flourishes. Ley lines stretch across the nation, allowing instant contact between the shah and his satraps as far away as the steppes and as high up as the tallest plateaus. Water, scarce on the surface, is willed up from deep reserves where other peoples would have to drill for it, seeping through the ground upwards to where crops may access it. Magic pushes the pistons that make Kera-Bijani ships go, and enables the deadly fire cannons that keep the navy strong. It is because of this power that the shahdom is still has voice in the world, and its neighbors would do well to listen. 

Brotherhood Among Humanity: In many respects, the life of the city people and that of the steppe and mountain peoples are vastly different. The city people are content to build, develop, and trade with foreign species and races. They are proud of their communities, and live social lives. The other two are anything but. The steppe peoples have a long history of conflict with their neighbors in Faenaria, often raiding over the borders with the intent of killing the non-humans. They do not tend to build anything larger than a yurt, and live nomadic clan-oriented lifestyles. The mountain people are even more hostile to outsiders, living either alone or in small family units. They, unlike the herbivorous steppe people, are strictly carnivorous, and raise great herds of mountain goats to eat and trade with the city people. The city people view the mountain people and the steppe people as brothers, and the feeling is mutual, but the mountain people and the steppe people each regard the other as something alien, and thus tend towards animosity regarding one another.

[u][b]Foreign Relations[/b][/u]
Faenaria: Excellent. They are Kera-Bijan's primary trade partner.
Etresna: Good enough. They have a working trade relation.
Kratoria: Fair. Since the conquest, there has been some diffusion between the two.
Qaroitn: Very hostile. Kera-Bijani are honor-bound to kill Qaroitn on sight.
[/hider]