[center][u][b][h3]The Principalities of Vös[/h3][/b][/u]

[u][b]Location[/b][/u]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/o5Agpns.png[/img]

[u][b]Race[/b][/u]
Vös-Vishastani 

The elite ruling castes of the Principalities of Vös are Vishastani. Genetically, the Vös are essentially the same as the rest of humanity, however they do share a few traits and characteristics and distinguish them from others. The Vös are typically slightly shorter and significantly more robust and stout than average, their skin the colour of dark copper and their hair darkest brown or black.

What makes the people of Vös Vishastani is their culture, which is almost exclusively derived from the culture of the Visha. The Vös also claim blood descent from the Visha as well, noting their robust nature as evidence of this. They say that in the days of old, the beautiful daughters of the Visha were wed to the human men of Vös to create the current Vös. However, the claim of blood descent from the Visha is a very politicised one, that should not be taken at face value. 

The lower castes have humans from other parts of Gaṇājya, as well as the other races that exist across the continent. The personal slave harems and household slaves of the ruling princes are particularly diverse in their racial composition. 

[u][b]History [/b][/u]

		The Principalities of Vös are old and soaked with the blood of ages. 

They trace their origin back into the days of the old Empire of Vishashtan, when it was emerging from the Northern mountains in its violent conquest of the rest of the known world. Back in those days the Vös had been a warlike human people who eked out a meagre existence fighting one another and their neighbours for control of flocks of goats and grazing land. They were not princes back then, nor truly Vös, as much of what would come to define their culture and their society was given to them by their soon to be patrons, the Visha. 

If the peoples of the ancient Vös had a talent for one thing, it would have been violence. They fought with savagery and brutality that was unrivalled amongst their kinsmen. When a Vös fought, you could think the fate of empires and armies were at stake, not a few hides of poor land and a herd of mangy goat flesh. They were inspired in their ability to kill and maim, but unfortunately something was holding them back from achieving their true capacity: weapons and discipline. The Vös were goat herders, not blacksmiths, they lacked the weapons and the armour to turn them into warriors. They also lacked a strong hand, a controlling force that could turn transform the individually deadly and barbaric  Vös into a fighting force that would unite like an iron fist to crush anything in its path. 

The Visha, would provide both of these.

If you are a clever, ambitious and expanding people, what do you do with a violent, yet poor and wretched neighbour? You arm them, you train them, you make them owe everything they have to you. You make them loyal. The Visha approached the Vös and became their benefactors. They gave them weaponry and armour made in their great forges and factories, they taught them tactics and strategies thought up by their superior thinkers, and most of all, they gave them supremacy over all the human neighbours of the Vös. They became masters of these violent dogs and put them use hunting down the enemies of Vishastan.

The Vös were the vanguard of the oppressing Visha armies. They fought and died as soldiers for the Visha in their wars and conquests, and in return they were rewarded with wealth, power, and stewardship of lands above grounds. And for this the Vös worshipped the Visha. They began to imitate them in all ways, dressing and grooming like them, as well as adopting the Visha tongue. They even abandoned their gods in favour of the ideology of the Visha.

Eventually, using their wealth, they moved from the narrow and poor valleys of their homelands down into the central lands of the rapidly growing Vishastan Empire, which were then rich and beautiful, for this was long before the Visha carved it up to fuel their industries and turned it to desert. Here they built fortresses and palaces atop the mountains and crags from which they ruled the surface slave populations as Rajas, all under the hand of the Visha governors. But obviously, this was not to last...

When the Empire of Vishastan collapsed into smoke and ruin, the Vös endured. Though there was revolt, civil war and conflict in those first few decades of blood and fire, the princely Rajas of Vös still rule from their mountaintop fortress-palaces. They have lost influence and land, as well as having to reform and rebuild their economies, but Vös still endures.

[u][b]Society[/b][/u]

The Vös take almost the entirety of their culture from their former Visha masters, in many ways the Vös wish to recreate the Empire of Vishastan, in their own image. However, Vös is not an Empire, it is not even united under a single ruler. The Princely Rajas of Vös are all fiercely independent warlords who rule their mountain strongholds, half fortresses, half palaces. They all fight for dominance and dominion over all the Vös but none have achieved it since the last Visha governor of Vös died over three hundred years ago. 

Vös is ruled by a number of oligarch families called a 'Great House', headed by a Princely Raja. Each of the Great Houses can supposedly trace their lineage back to the Visha, and therefore, they claim this this gives them, and them alone, the right to rule. Infighting and skirmishes amongst these Houses are common, as is the use of assassins and treachery. Above the Princely Rajas, there is no formal higher authority, however, there is the Magnate. 

The Maharaja (meaning: 'Great King') is considered to be the most powerful individual amongst the Princely Rajas, and therefore the most powerful man in Vös, in a given generation. Their rule is informal, and often changes between Houses and lineages upon their death and often with bloody wars of succession, but nonetheless, they do enforce a slight sense of unity and common purpose into the Vös.

Power in Vös is concentrated in the hands of the few, and wider society focuses in around the Fortresses of the Princely Rajas. There are no real large cities in Vös, most towns are settlements to support the Fortress Palaces, however, some larger market towns are developing in the region.

[hider=The Vös Caste System] However, there are rules and structures which cross the boundaries of the Raja states. One of these is the Vös caste system. People in Vös are divided into seven castes, with an additional eighth caste reserved for the sacred dead ancestors, the Visha. Together these form the eight spoked wheel of existence. Within the living castes, there are three high castes, which are exclusively made up of the Vös-Vishastani, and four low castes which are made up of people of other races. 

The high castes are ranked thus in order of sacredness, from most to least sacred: 
- Suktatar, The Warrior Caste, virtually all Rajas come from this caste
- Vaitana, The Learned Caste, scribes, priests, and the mysterious enchanters are drawn from this caste
- Mutareskt, The Merchant Caste, traders, merchants and large landowners

The low castes are ranked thus in order sacredness, from most to least sacred:
- Junrayan, The Solider Caste, the rank and file of Vös armies, lead by Suktatar, often raised from slavery.
- Kyrania, The Craftsman Caste, skilled trades people like potters, masons, or smiths
- Buratpur, The Labourer Caste, unskilled workers and servants
- Duriatatap, The Slave Caste, all slaves belong to this caste, they can perform any trade from the lower castes.

Men cannot change Caste unless raised by a Raja in accordance with priests of the Vaitana as well. Rajas often do this with slaves as children to raise levies for their armies. Women can marry up and down the castes, but a woman marrying from a low case into a high one is virtually unheard of. [/hider]

[hider=Religion in Vös]The Vös-Vishastani worship their own distorted version of the religion of the Visha, based around the concept of acquiring divinity through conquest and dominion over the world, but with addition ideas of ancestor cult and remnants of the ancient pantheon of Vös from before their integration into Visha culture revived by the priesthood to explain the demise of the Visha.

The Vös believe that like the Visha, divinity can be achieved through shaping the world in one's own image. Great men have great karma is an old saying to this effect, that it is those who shape the world and are powerful and great, who are most holy and most sacred. Where the Vös significantly differ from the Visha is their additional focus on the veneration of the great dead, the ancestors who were most powerful and greatest in their own generations. This has lead of the widespread practice of ancestor worship of both Vös-Vishastani, and the Visha themselves.

The additional major component in Vös theology, is the concept of three primordial Gods who administer the forces of the world and effect change in it: Aem the Creator, Veloth the Preserver, and Sil the Destroyer. These were the principal three Gods of the old pantheon of Vös, originally lost to the ages, preserved only as myth, they experience a mass rival around the time of the destruction of the Empire of Vishastan.

The explanation offered by the Priests was that the Visha had erred in their application of acquiring divinity. They served the Aem the Creator in their empire building, but had neglected their worship of Sil the Destroyer, and thus he had enacted in the forces of the universe and wrought destruction upon them. The Vös survived because they were chosen people of Sil, being principally ruled by warriors who bring destruction and thereby bring honour to Sil and enact his will.  

With the death of the Visha, Aem offered the place of the principal creators in the universe to the Vös, and through their survival of the crisis, they were also shown to have the favour of Veloth the Perserver as well. Therefore, whereas the Visha were unbalanced in their attainment of divinity, the Vös honour all for forces of the universe, and therefore are destined to exceed the Visha, and build an empire that will last for all of time.

Outside of the ruling classes and the Vös-Vishastani, there are many religions in Vös brought from all over Gaṇājya by the slaves taken there, mostly worshipped in secret.[/hider]

[hider=Images of Vös]
[img][/img]
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/1965040_598594920210162_1802169635_n.jpg?oh=db3304e4979580cead7e3fd2e010f7db&oe=55A6990C&__gda__=1435990735_e6bf4cac0411c5013282ac7519cb94ec[/img]
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Jaisalmer_Fort_Exterior.JPG[/img]
[img]http://selectrajasthan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/jaisalmer-fort.jpg[/img]
[img]https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/539224_594053013997686_1837159886_n.jpg?oh=98bb7aa6cfc5e85515af3cda348df59b&oe=55B9058F[/img]
[img]http://i594.photobucket.com/albums/tt23/rammanpandu5/3359491998_a3b4b470ba_b.jpg[/img]
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[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1962844_594051030664551_1985641838_n.jpg?oh=413ace1fd4102c264e8339d6ede2c8f1&oe=55B2CFD8&__gda__=1436985207_b4213ee2c74306b2d9dcc760c49878ad[/img]
[img]https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/66937_594052263997761_2141504284_n.jpg?oh=fe952cea9f1cb0ec1701fc393e81f35d&oe=55B681BF[/img]
[img]https://scontent-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1959313_594051680664486_1712357443_n.jpg?oh=5505fa21b1eef3db124fa62f199f6bba&oe=55AAC2DC[/img]
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1184750_594052843997703_937318590_n.jpg?oh=07646a3b802921bfcf5ff7d710901549&oe=55B56C0A&__gda__=1438163179_881002e726ec1cee0b549c60b44a3fcc[/img]
[img]https://arcangelmichael16.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/iphone-pics-161.jpg[/img]
[img]https://photos.travelblog.org/Photos/13348/125006/f/896286-Palace-Interior-0.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.mysorepalace.gov.in/images/MarriagePavilion.jpg[/img]
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1972349_594052790664375_1430333021_n.jpg?oh=cb282a473f454ac6349a6635747409a8&oe=55E60CD1&__gda__=1436922616_8e4186b1856c3a1def6c053b60f71915[/img]
[img]https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1962828_594052483997739_1760523097_n.jpg?oh=91fd3594b502aa6155281d771bf011ff&oe=55AF87BA&__gda__=1437625404_283fbfd6b642f21ff5dc1e632eaeb32b[/img]
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[u][b]Economy[/b][/u]

The economy of Vös relies on two key cornerstones: slavery and trade routes.

The lands of Vös are now mostly poor in natural resources and infertile, after centuries of exploitation by the Visha, so the Vös make their money off of stealing and slavery. The slave markets in Vös are some of the biggest in Gaṇājya, traders come from all over the known world to buy and sell in life. Vös is both centrally placed, is a nation of slave owners, and has the military might and will to readily acquire slaves, making it an ideal hub for the slave trade.

The location of Vös is also key to its second great preserve, its taxation of foreign trade. The Princely Rajas of Vös control the southern  entrances to the two central mountain passes to the north of Gaṇājya. They also control the deserts to the south of their mountain homes, where trade going between the eastern and western coasts often passes. The Vös never fail to exact their dues on the caravans and merchants that travel these routes, and should one try to escape paying, the Vös will seize their cargo as payment instead. 

The secondary industries of Vös are ceramic wares, silver mining, iron mining, goat herding, and camel rearing.
 
Clay is abundant in the south and west, and ceramics from Vös are known to be of fine quality. There is unexploited iron veins in the north of the territory, and old silver mines dug by the Visha in the central regions. The south-east is the most fertile and best irrigated lands of Vös. All the lands have ample sandstone for quarrying.

Agriculture is the weakest link in the Vös economy, often food and virtually all lumber have to be imported from  outside of their lands.
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