Absolute Monarchy - Tsunatontu is run by a king or queen. Various delegates are hired to manage the various provinces, but power ultimately lies with the monarch
Geography
Culture
The main species of Tsunatontu are the Drow. Grey skinned, glassy eyed and pointy eared, they physically resemble Elves if they had been reanimated by a novice necromancer about two weeks after the spell should have been cast. But dont let that fool you, Drow are perfectly serviceable as a species. They tend to be a little taller than humans, and a cultural standard for beauty means that any ugly drow aren't going to be reproducing without committing a capital offense, as well as being functionally ageless.
I say functionally, because the older a Drow gets the higher the risk of it going feral is. Thanks to some old Primordial trickery, every Drow is cursed with a pretty horrendous aging process. Where most races only have to worry about going senile, Drow become monsters, their minds slowly warping to become as darwinistic and selfish as possible. What was once a venerated old soldier becomes a murderous, cannibalistic brute with his only source of joy being spilling the blood of his fellow Drow. Worse, that old Primordial trickery means that the longer a Drow is feral, the faster and stronger it gets, so its prudent to kill it as quick as possible. This has resulted in a kind of ritual suicide, where Drow that notice the changes happening before they lose their mind choose to die honourably, rather than let themselves devolve. Some choose to die by honourable combat, others prefer a simple execution.
Naturally, the Drow have become aggressively atheistic - one bout of old Primordial trickery is quite enough, thank you. In a world dominated by Prophetess worship, this makes them something of an outlier, with no national churches. Certain regions do worship objects they know to be safe, like rocks carved into idols, or the sun, or the spirits of their ancestors, but its not so much out of religion as "this is what we've always done and it hasnt hurt". Overall, Drow have a habit of rejecting modern religions, including any kind of prophetess worship.
Drow also make for keen adventurers. The country is rather sparsely populated, and there are very few big cities beyond the capital. Lacking a strong industrial core, the nation instead relies on large pockets of agrarian workers to fuel its economy. This can be rather boring, especially for young drow who are keenly aware of their own mortality, so the nation has a surprisingly roaring trade in swords-for-hire. The aristocracy hardly object, since it means their troops get trained AND they get paid for it.
Those who stay and remain farmers are big sources of flax, wheat, wool and most importantly fruit. The first three are self explanatory, but the fruit is used in the brewing process to make the exquisitely sweet Sima, usually sold abroad as Drow Brandy. Sima stands out from the usual drinks for being sweet on the tongue and not burning your throat when you drink it, as well as its incredibly low alcohol rating. This makes it one of the few alcohols suitable for children and women, and can be given to soldiers to boost their morale without necessarily costing them efficiency. Different fruits create different types of Sima, from a more sour Lemon Sima to the immensely sweet Peach Sima, which is more popular amongst women.
Military
The standing army is composed mostly of cavalry units, but there is a small core of infantry units that can be mobilised when a war starts, or used for raiding. A levy system is also in place, but most nobles avoid this due to the economic damage it can do.
Tsunatontu has a big mercenary trade, from small bands of hopeful adventurers to great companies. They do all sorts of missions, from bandit control to holding entire fronts during a war. The monarch doesn't tax them, but between veterans returning and inheritance from the dead coming back to families, they still make their money.
Heroes
I suppose something has to back the lofty title of "High Chief for Justice" and you can't say Acadia Caeli doesn't have that. Most well known for his frankly grotesque iron mask that obscures pretty much every part of his face except one eye and part of his mouth, he's a relatively small, unassuming figure that is basically in charge of the management of every and all law enforcement around the kingdom. He's also ancient as Drow go, having been kicking about since before even 'eteyata was out of nappies, and has managed to stave off the dreaded curse that hangs over the drow race like a great big pancake thanks to the aforementioned mask, which is probably the reason why he still looks like a twelve year old. Said mask hasn't just imbibed him with super "not getting older" skills but also granted him the ability to see things through super slow mo, so his reaction times are through the roof. He's not the most magically adept of the Drow, so he's stuck with a sword, but that's not really gonna slow down Mr "slow time to a crawl" now, is it?
On the topic of how he got the mask, it's simple. He killed the lad who had it last. He killed him by challenging him to a one on one duel without the mask, which is always a bad thing to accept when you're used to prancing about with a Primordial artifact glued to your face, but some people just have too much pride. Interestingly enough, the mask was created by Wendigo, the same bastard who wound up cursing the Drow in the first place. That's must have made one hell of an awkward Christmas gift.
Katyusha comes from a very special school of military experience. That is to say, she has no real military experience. As a kid, she was pressed by bandits into joining their street gang, ever a faulty employment method, because then suddenly the people who have your back are the same people who want to stick a knife in it. Katyusha took the logical step - after being taught how to slit people up, she turned around and slit all her kidnappers up. That's when she decided to use her powers for slitting people to up to become the best at slitting people up there is, so she assembled a little scooby gang and decided to flog her skills to the highest bidder.
After practice her stabbing skills on some street thugs throats, some minor lords starting hearing about her and from there her name went through the aristocracy like the clap in a swinger's party. Since Aristos are pretty much the richest of people, she obviously got recruited by them the most. The King finally gave her a place in the army with her own band just so his nobles would stop banging on about her and how bloody good she was, and its proved a valuable investment so far. She's not been tested in an actual military environment yet, so Wendigo knows how that's going to work
The Black Guard is the psuedonym of the bodyguard of the royal family. The Black Guard is hand selected by the royals, and is expected to be totally loyal, highly trained and, of course, willing to give their life for the royals. The Black Guard is considered an extension of the royal family, and must give up their old name and family to become the Black Guard
Like Katyusha, Aliisa is a mercenary. Born to a mercenary, her entire life has been war. Even as a kid, she was sharpening swords and studying war plans. Now, Aliisa was a pretty hardcore girl, and this was a hardcore environment. Aliisa probably killed more people in her teenage years than most soldiers ever do in their entire lives.
Aliisa eventually got tired of the mercenary company, being forced to do what someone else told her to do and taking contracts that they found acceptable, not her. At the age of twenty, she left, seeking to refine her glory as a nobleman's retainer or perhaps even start her own company. Tsunatontu had various fighting arenas around it, so she joined up with one. And damn, did that help spread her legend. She was able to go toe-to-toe with some of the hardiest warriors they had and come out with barely a scratch. She joined tournaments that she won no problem. Money and fame flocked to her like flies to shit, and she loved every minute of it.
After one tournament, where she knocked out six fighters in one fight, she was approached by the Army. They wanted her fighting with them. There was a hefty promotion, some pretty sweet perks and the kind of money she only won at big tournaments as a regular wage, so she said yes. Now, she leads her own detachment of elite soldiers that she trains herself.
History
Drow history stretches to perhaps 700 years ago - possibly more - back when Tsunatontu was a loose confederation of tribes. And I mean very loose. Ideally, the tribes were to protect each other from outside forces, but they went to war with each other as often as they did with invaders. For years, these tribes would fight each other for dominance. Some would pick up swords and stab each other, others would raid their neighbours so they had money, which they spent to stab each other with. Take note of this, it'll be important later
That changed with the rise of Queen 'eteyata. She got lucky because both her parents kicked the bucket shortly after she was old enough to take over, leaving her in charge of two decent sized clans - or one very big clan, since she could combine the two. Having a very big clan meant she could easily beat up her neighbours and steal their land, making her clan bigger and bigger. Now normally, the little clans would get pissy and fight the big clan in one big, organised coalition. But you remember those raiders from earlier? Well, they decided to raid Freishann. That made Freishann's ruler a bit annoyed, and they decided the best thing to do was just annex the bastards. Since these clans had entire populations the size of maybe half of a division in Freishann's army, and all their soldiers were used to stealing money from fat merchants and their two pet gorillas, the fight wasnt exactly long or hard. From the Freishann perspective, that was the end of it. Raiders were dealt with, merchants safe, bibbity bibbity boo. They didnt want the whole of the Drowlands, they just wanted to cart their stuff back and forth without some dirty greyskin nicking it from them.
Shame they didnt tell the Drow that. From their perspective, Freishann was a toothbrush moustache away from full blown invasion, and they kind of needed to make a decision. They could fight either Freishann or 'eteyata. Whoever they didnt fight would end up annexing them. So instead of fighting, they decided instead to swear fealty to 'eteyata. That way, they had a unified front against the Freishannians, and they could just rebel when the threat was dealt with.
Of course Freishann didn't invade, but 'eteyata spun a yarn about them being so scared of the unified might of Tsunatontu that they dare not attack. This might have been true, to some extent, as the rampant militarisation of the new kingdom meant that for a brief period of history Tsunatontu may have been the most terrifying nation to attack on the planet. The problem with that was that alongside the militarisation was the spread of national unity, and the very idea of a unified Drow nation was incredibly appealing to the underclasses. Gradually the reason for hating Freishann changed for "they are going to demand the Sudetenland any minute now" to "they HAVE the Sudetenland and we need to get it back". As an added bonus, the image of 'eteyata as queen became more and more prominent, and the idea of a chieftain became viewed as a military role and nothing else. "We'll rebel after the war" became unfeasible because the old chiefs no longer had any land they could influence. When 'eteyata died and there still hadnt been a war, several chiefs declared they would not submit to the new king and go back to their old territories. Problem is, most of the old chiefs were dead and to the smallfolk, these newcomers were jumped up military commanders, not leaders of the community. Needless to say, they didnt go along with it and the pitiful rebellion was crushed.
Nowadays, the Drow still enjoy their great national unity, but they are still making side eyes at Freishann. The idea that Freishann's people really hate Drow is deliberately cultivated by the higher ups, and they still want their old territories back. There still hasnt been a major conflict yet, but unless there's some smart diplomatic manouvring, its incredibly likely that the Drow will seek a return by force.
Relations
Matathran - You mean other than harbouring one of the foulest traitors to the Drow race, a monster who has committed Fratricide and Rape, as well as a dozen other slightly less severe crimes? Yeah, they don't like them Lynn-Naraksh - Vlaanburg - Tarkima - the Emerald Empire - the Heavenly Sphere - Frieshann - No language in this or any other universe has a word for how much the Drow hates this nation Morkt -
That's what the spirits said. They needed to rise.
"But what does that mean? What are they telling us to do?"
The druids were, as usual, vaguer than a vague thing. "They just told us to rise. Nothing else."
The Brehin groaned into his paws. To rise. What could they mean by that? Was it a warning, a threat, just some helpful advice? Was it the manifestation of their destiny, or just some helpful guidance?
The people were getting antsy, and simply telling them to "rise" wouldn't do much to qualm their fears. No, no, he needed something more substantial than that.
With the druid's advice in mind, the Brehin made the decision to settle by...
A) The River
The Tuatha is tired, dirty and thirsty. Without access to clean water, they will surely die of thirst. The waters can also be used for cleaning - Cait Sith HATED being dirty. Perhaps in the future, they could expand up and down the river but for now, the priority was holding somewhere with safe, clean water. The running water would also dissuade hostile spirits from attacking.
