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Ettalamos (version 1.0) - Western Nation
Nestled along a series of island chains, south of Wavecrest and north of Lintha territory, the nation of Ettalamos is one of the major power players of the Southwest. Situated just far enough from Realm territory to be able to assert a certain degree of independence, it is a warrior nation well aware of how tenuous their own freedom really is. As the world passes into the Time of Tulumt and the Ettalami face their own threats, its fierce people will have to decide what they truly value.
Ettalamos is made up of nearly two hundred islands, stretching across five hundred miles of ocean - the smallest only a few hundred yards across, and the largest covering nearly forty square miles of land. All of the islands are close enough to at least one other island for signal fires to be visible, and a mixture of these and the alliance of a nearby court of air elementals keeps the diffuse nation connected. With a total population of over a million people, it has become one of the largest nations in the West.
The nation's cities are located on its five largest islands, three of which cluster near the chain's northern end, and the other two being located much further south. The region is tropical, with rich jungles and oceans rich in life. Mineral wealth is less common, although a few small iron mines operated in the southern islands, and a trio of small volcanoes provide obsidian and diamond.
History
The history of the Ettalami dates back to the days of the Balorian Crusade. When the raksha overwhelmed the world, Shogunate officers in the area declared the mess of islands they were guarding unfit for proper defenses. They retreated to a single island, withdrawing all of their forces and accepting as many local citizens as they could support, and then sealed their defenses and left the other islands to the ravages of the fae. Fortunately for the people of the archipelago, most of the local fae were more interested in cracking open the Shogunate fortress than they were in ravaging the local population. Still, the people would likely have died if not for the intervention of a Lunar Exalt, Five Tides Falling. Tides, retreating from the fae, chose the islands as his last stand, and used his magic to hide what villages he could from the fae, redirecting their attention towards the Shogunate base and occasionally weakening or outright murdering patrols whenever he could do so without attracting raksha attention. He worked out a deal with the island's local gods, letting them take the credit for his actions so that the populace wouldn't panic and turn on the Anathema they believed him to be, and remained in the shadows. As a result, when the Scarlet Empress turned back the fae, close to a hundred thousand survivors existed scattered across the islands, rather than the ten thousand or so that the Shogunate had protected.
The Dragon-Blooded soldiers of the region decided to accept the Empress's protection, naming the area a satrapy. A young mortal soldier, Ettelia, felt differently, and she led the people of the islands in a revolt against the overlords who the islanders felt had abandoned them. The Dragon-Blooded were weakened and few in number, and were defeated and killed or exiled. Ettelia herself was slain in the war, and her people named their new nation in her honour.
Over the next several hundred years, Ettalamos has fended off fair folk raids, the occasional Realm incursion, and even an attack by a Solar Anathema once. They aren't aware that Five Tides Falling has been active in the region, helping to keep them independent, and slowly modifying their culture not to fear the Anathema any longer. Tides, however, is not present any longer; Fifty years ago, he set out to save a young newly Exaletd Lunar from a Wyld Hunt, and ended up in direct combat with several Immaculate masters. The Exalt he saved now watches the region in his name.
Culture
Ettalamos is a strictly hierarchical society with a strong military bent, fiercely independent and suspicious of foreign influence in their lives. Reputation and glory are codified cultural values, and the nation puts strong emphasis on reverence for and obedience to one's ancestors and family lines.
Ettalamos is also an extremely egalitarian warrior society. Strength is respected much more than scholarly or subtle pursuits, and every member of the society is expected to learn how to fight. Even the nation's marraige customs are rooted in these traditions - in order to marry, an Ettalaman man must defeated his prospective bride in a ritual duel. Traditionally, these duels are fought exclusvely with blunted weapons, and resemble dances more than battles, but one of the nation's most famous legends retells the story of a woman who fought to the death rather than submit to an arranged marriage with a man who loved her, the two of them dying on the arena floor rather than giving up their desires.
Clan
The ranks of the Ettalami are a complex mixture of social status, family reputation, and clan regionalism. At its base, the Ettalami divide themselves into five clans and nine tiers of status.
Clan membership determines what purview a person's life will relate to. While any clan may have soldiers, or scholars, or craftsmen, their clan determines what it is that they will study, craft, or fight. An Ettalami inherits his clan from his father, and may not change it except by the permission of the ruling council. The clans have a rough status with regards to one another, and members of a lesser clan will be generally deferential to members of a greater clan.
Of the five clans, the lowest is the Jungle clan. The Jungle clan has dominion over the surface of the land, and is the second-most populous clan, containing about a quarter of the Ettalami population. Farmers, tanners, and any scholar of living things are members of the Jungle Clan, and their warriors often train with short bows and long spears.
The next-most respected clan is the Mountain Clan. Smaller than the Jungle Clan, it contains about a fifth of the nation's people, and covers dominion over all things found below the earth. Smiths, miners, caretakers of the dead and scholars of science and history are found within this clan, and they use all manner of weapons.
The second-most respected clan is also the largest. The Sea Clan contains nearly a third of the population, the sailors, fishermen, naval soldiers and harbormasters, and scholars of the sea and of the weather.
The most-respected clan is the smallest - the Sky Clan, with dominion over magic, healing, and the gods and spirits of the world, contains only one in ten of the Ettalami. Many of them are priests, although minor thaumaturges and teachers are also common, as are entertainers and poets.
Finally, the Mist Clan exists to one side of the social order, given the task of holding dominion over all the places where the other four clans intersect. As such, their purview is complex, and they are considered to be of equal rank to every other clan.
Status
Within their clans, the Ettalami hold to nine (or ten, depending on how you look at it) social ranks, each with greater power and responsibility than the one before. Unlike clan membership, social status is inherited through the mother's line. Marriages between a woman of lower status and a man of higher status are thus uncommon; few parents want their children to be less privileged than them.
The lowest two orders are the common orders, serfs and peasants. Serfs are bound to the land where they work, whereas peasants are free to offer their services to other landowners; otherwise they are identical, and frequently intermingle. Neither group is allowed to own weapons more complex than a knife or sling. Generally, just under three out of four people are commoners.
The next three orders are the landowning orders. Citizens are free to own land and run a single business, and to hire peasants, but may not own serfs or slaves. Squires may own land and run multiple business, and may own serfs but not slaves, nor may they support troops. Finally, peers are considered to be only one step down from the nobility, and may own both serfs and slaves, but cannot support troops. Just under one in four people are landowners.
The top social orders are the noble orders. These orders may control progressive larger domains, and are allowed to support troops for that purpose and make progressively larger alterations to law with the support of their local councils. Each domain possess a council made of one noble from each clan in that region. The highest noble order are the five royal families, each numbering between five and twelve members, who rule Ettalami. Just under one percent of the population are nobles, with their numbers shrinking rapidly as they advance in rank - there are about eight members of each rank for every one of the next rank up.
Below all of the social ranks are the slaves. Slaves are fairly rare in Ettalamos, and are made up of captured enemy soldiers and pirates, or those who committed a small number of crimes - serfs who attempted to flee their lands, for example. Slaves may not be sold to anyone who is not an Ettalami citizen, and are given the same protections against violence or murder as livestock, but otherwise are much the same as slaves in the Realm. The children of slaves are taken by their owners and raised as serfs of the owner's clan, except in the rare cases where a slave has a child with a landowner or noble who subsequently acknowledges her as a legitimate child, in which case the child possesses the clan of her parent and a status one step lower than her parent's. Slavery is never hereditary.
Religion
The Ettalami worship three gods, who have largely shaped their religious and cultural views. The first is Rudhira, the Celestial Admiral of the West, who they worship as the incorruptible mother of the waves and goddess of honourable battle. The second is the elemental dragon Blue Skulking Bear, Master of the Western Winds, who they consider to be the lord of all the skies. The third is their regional god, Laorus, who they believe to be the offspring of the Sky and the Sea. Laorus is fond of his people, if occasionally exasperated by their lack of understanding of just how hard he feels he works for them, and freely helps them keep Immaculate priests out of his territory. He is slightly corrupt, but basically decent, and tries to balance the influence of the other two major gods to prevent either gaining a major foothold in his realm.
Foreign Relations
Ettalamos has engaged in several minor battles with the Realm over the years, aided by their gods, their Lunar support, and a bit of luck. The people have a flawed understanding of how powerful the Realm truly is, and consider the occasional attempts by lone Dynasts to exert control to be full-fledged invasions. As such, they believe that they are more than capable of stopping the Realm. Some soldiers and scholars know better, but they comfort themselves with the knowledge that it is not an illusion likely to be shattered any time soon, especially with the Realm's current troubles.
Ettalamos has also had extensive trade dealings stretching as far afield as Wavecrest and An-Teng over the years, and has fought many skirmishes with the Lintha. They occasionally pass through militaristic phases, during which time they conquer a few of the surroudning nations, and then give them back a few decades later when they become too much trouble to maintain and provide too small a benefit. Some of these nations remain client-states in the present day. As such, most of the surrounding nations have strong opinions about Ettalamos, few of them good.
Ettalamos (version 1.0) - Western Nation
Nestled along a series of island chains, south of Wavecrest and north of Lintha territory, the nation of Ettalamos is one of the major power players of the Southwest. Situated just far enough from Realm territory to be able to assert a certain degree of independence, it is a warrior nation well aware of how tenuous their own freedom really is. As the world passes into the Time of Tulumt and the Ettalami face their own threats, its fierce people will have to decide what they truly value.
Ettalamos is made up of nearly two hundred islands, stretching across five hundred miles of ocean - the smallest only a few hundred yards across, and the largest covering nearly forty square miles of land. All of the islands are close enough to at least one other island for signal fires to be visible, and a mixture of these and the alliance of a nearby court of air elementals keeps the diffuse nation connected. With a total population of over a million people, it has become one of the largest nations in the West.
The nation's cities are located on its five largest islands, three of which cluster near the chain's northern end, and the other two being located much further south. The region is tropical, with rich jungles and oceans rich in life. Mineral wealth is less common, although a few small iron mines operated in the southern islands, and a trio of small volcanoes provide obsidian and diamond.
History
The history of the Ettalami dates back to the days of the Balorian Crusade. When the raksha overwhelmed the world, Shogunate officers in the area declared the mess of islands they were guarding unfit for proper defenses. They retreated to a single island, withdrawing all of their forces and accepting as many local citizens as they could support, and then sealed their defenses and left the other islands to the ravages of the fae. Fortunately for the people of the archipelago, most of the local fae were more interested in cracking open the Shogunate fortress than they were in ravaging the local population. Still, the people would likely have died if not for the intervention of a Lunar Exalt, Five Tides Falling. Tides, retreating from the fae, chose the islands as his last stand, and used his magic to hide what villages he could from the fae, redirecting their attention towards the Shogunate base and occasionally weakening or outright murdering patrols whenever he could do so without attracting raksha attention. He worked out a deal with the island's local gods, letting them take the credit for his actions so that the populace wouldn't panic and turn on the Anathema they believed him to be, and remained in the shadows. As a result, when the Scarlet Empress turned back the fae, close to a hundred thousand survivors existed scattered across the islands, rather than the ten thousand or so that the Shogunate had protected.
The Dragon-Blooded soldiers of the region decided to accept the Empress's protection, naming the area a satrapy. A young mortal soldier, Ettelia, felt differently, and she led the people of the islands in a revolt against the overlords who the islanders felt had abandoned them. The Dragon-Blooded were weakened and few in number, and were defeated and killed or exiled. Ettelia herself was slain in the war, and her people named their new nation in her honour.
Over the next several hundred years, Ettalamos has fended off fair folk raids, the occasional Realm incursion, and even an attack by a Solar Anathema once. They aren't aware that Five Tides Falling has been active in the region, helping to keep them independent, and slowly modifying their culture not to fear the Anathema any longer. Tides, however, is not present any longer; Fifty years ago, he set out to save a young newly Exaletd Lunar from a Wyld Hunt, and ended up in direct combat with several Immaculate masters. The Exalt he saved now watches the region in his name.
Culture
Ettalamos is a strictly hierarchical society with a strong military bent, fiercely independent and suspicious of foreign influence in their lives. Reputation and glory are codified cultural values, and the nation puts strong emphasis on reverence for and obedience to one's ancestors and family lines.
Ettalamos is also an extremely egalitarian warrior society. Strength is respected much more than scholarly or subtle pursuits, and every member of the society is expected to learn how to fight. Even the nation's marraige customs are rooted in these traditions - in order to marry, an Ettalaman man must defeated his prospective bride in a ritual duel. Traditionally, these duels are fought exclusvely with blunted weapons, and resemble dances more than battles, but one of the nation's most famous legends retells the story of a woman who fought to the death rather than submit to an arranged marriage with a man who loved her, the two of them dying on the arena floor rather than giving up their desires.
Clan
The ranks of the Ettalami are a complex mixture of social status, family reputation, and clan regionalism. At its base, the Ettalami divide themselves into five clans and nine tiers of status.
Clan membership determines what purview a person's life will relate to. While any clan may have soldiers, or scholars, or craftsmen, their clan determines what it is that they will study, craft, or fight. An Ettalami inherits his clan from his father, and may not change it except by the permission of the ruling council. The clans have a rough status with regards to one another, and members of a lesser clan will be generally deferential to members of a greater clan.
Of the five clans, the lowest is the Jungle clan. The Jungle clan has dominion over the surface of the land, and is the second-most populous clan, containing about a quarter of the Ettalami population. Farmers, tanners, and any scholar of living things are members of the Jungle Clan, and their warriors often train with short bows and long spears.
The next-most respected clan is the Mountain Clan. Smaller than the Jungle Clan, it contains about a fifth of the nation's people, and covers dominion over all things found below the earth. Smiths, miners, caretakers of the dead and scholars of science and history are found within this clan, and they use all manner of weapons.
The second-most respected clan is also the largest. The Sea Clan contains nearly a third of the population, the sailors, fishermen, naval soldiers and harbormasters, and scholars of the sea and of the weather.
The most-respected clan is the smallest - the Sky Clan, with dominion over magic, healing, and the gods and spirits of the world, contains only one in ten of the Ettalami. Many of them are priests, although minor thaumaturges and teachers are also common, as are entertainers and poets.
Finally, the Mist Clan exists to one side of the social order, given the task of holding dominion over all the places where the other four clans intersect. As such, their purview is complex, and they are considered to be of equal rank to every other clan.
Status
Within their clans, the Ettalami hold to nine (or ten, depending on how you look at it) social ranks, each with greater power and responsibility than the one before. Unlike clan membership, social status is inherited through the mother's line. Marriages between a woman of lower status and a man of higher status are thus uncommon; few parents want their children to be less privileged than them.
The lowest two orders are the common orders, serfs and peasants. Serfs are bound to the land where they work, whereas peasants are free to offer their services to other landowners; otherwise they are identical, and frequently intermingle. Neither group is allowed to own weapons more complex than a knife or sling. Generally, just under three out of four people are commoners.
The next three orders are the landowning orders. Citizens are free to own land and run a single business, and to hire peasants, but may not own serfs or slaves. Squires may own land and run multiple business, and may own serfs but not slaves, nor may they support troops. Finally, peers are considered to be only one step down from the nobility, and may own both serfs and slaves, but cannot support troops. Just under one in four people are landowners.
The top social orders are the noble orders. These orders may control progressive larger domains, and are allowed to support troops for that purpose and make progressively larger alterations to law with the support of their local councils. Each domain possess a council made of one noble from each clan in that region. The highest noble order are the five royal families, each numbering between five and twelve members, who rule Ettalami. Just under one percent of the population are nobles, with their numbers shrinking rapidly as they advance in rank - there are about eight members of each rank for every one of the next rank up.
Below all of the social ranks are the slaves. Slaves are fairly rare in Ettalamos, and are made up of captured enemy soldiers and pirates, or those who committed a small number of crimes - serfs who attempted to flee their lands, for example. Slaves may not be sold to anyone who is not an Ettalami citizen, and are given the same protections against violence or murder as livestock, but otherwise are much the same as slaves in the Realm. The children of slaves are taken by their owners and raised as serfs of the owner's clan, except in the rare cases where a slave has a child with a landowner or noble who subsequently acknowledges her as a legitimate child, in which case the child possesses the clan of her parent and a status one step lower than her parent's. Slavery is never hereditary.
Religion
The Ettalami worship three gods, who have largely shaped their religious and cultural views. The first is Rudhira, the Celestial Admiral of the West, who they worship as the incorruptible mother of the waves and goddess of honourable battle. The second is the elemental dragon Blue Skulking Bear, Master of the Western Winds, who they consider to be the lord of all the skies. The third is their regional god, Laorus, who they believe to be the offspring of the Sky and the Sea. Laorus is fond of his people, if occasionally exasperated by their lack of understanding of just how hard he feels he works for them, and freely helps them keep Immaculate priests out of his territory. He is slightly corrupt, but basically decent, and tries to balance the influence of the other two major gods to prevent either gaining a major foothold in his realm.
Foreign Relations
Ettalamos has engaged in several minor battles with the Realm over the years, aided by their gods, their Lunar support, and a bit of luck. The people have a flawed understanding of how powerful the Realm truly is, and consider the occasional attempts by lone Dynasts to exert control to be full-fledged invasions. As such, they believe that they are more than capable of stopping the Realm. Some soldiers and scholars know better, but they comfort themselves with the knowledge that it is not an illusion likely to be shattered any time soon, especially with the Realm's current troubles.
Ettalamos has also had extensive trade dealings stretching as far afield as Wavecrest and An-Teng over the years, and has fought many skirmishes with the Lintha. They occasionally pass through militaristic phases, during which time they conquer a few of the surroudning nations, and then give them back a few decades later when they become too much trouble to maintain and provide too small a benefit. Some of these nations remain client-states in the present day. As such, most of the surrounding nations have strong opinions about Ettalamos, few of them good.
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