Nations

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The map of the main continent has remained relatively stable since Alexandria fulfilled the prophecies and defeated the Dark Fiend. The nations on the main continent are Gildenhome, Hakan, Flannery, Fresia, Celstia, Petara, Odessa, Ubrekt and Alexia. The elves of Sidhe-Praxen live on an island to the north-west of the mainland, and have had little if any contact with other nations for many decades, and the huge forest to the south - the Ulan - is filled with shapeshifters and pagan tribals.

Like most fantasy worlds, the Mainland is an ugly pastiche of poorly disguised real world analogues. Lacking a catalog of adverb-laden pulp fiction to establish these cultures, the following can be used as a rough historical guide. Most of the nation-states of the Mainland are actually sizable empires, and a great deal of regional cultural variation does exist, and so most nations have subregions that are also modeled on historical examples.

Temporal Authority

Odessa

Celestia

Fresia

Fresia - with its decentralized administration, confederated nature, multiple autonomous cities, weak Imperial seat, glorious yet faded past, and geography of deep forests and many rivers is clearly the Germanic states of the late middle ages Holy Roman Empire. Its capital is Aachenveltd.

Flannary

Flannary, as its description suggests, is best understood as the France of the high and late middle ages: an absolute monarchy where powerful nobles reign from the capital over endless seas of grain and serfs. Culturally, it exists of three places: The Capital City, The Port City, and Everywhere Else. Its position as exporter of food provides a great deal of international influence, and it relies on that soft power coupled with gigantic corvée military to provide security.

Ubrekti Empire

As an object of historical significance, the Ubrekti Empire is clearly the Roman Empire: an expansive force of political transformation and acculturation. Administratively, however, it was much closer to the Mongol or Persian empires: allowing for a huge degree of autonomy in exchange for loyalty and tribute. Thanks to the stability provided by high magic it was able to avoid fragmentation and grow more centralized, eventually becoming a cumbersome enough polity to require bifurcation on the East/West Roman model.

Old Ubrekt

Ubrekt

Alexia

Gildenhome

Gildenhome is Dwarven country, so it leans more on fantasy tropes than the historical. However, at least conceptually, Gildenhome conforms to some historicity. Its heavy reliance on well maintained roads, latifundia production system, and propensity for engineering marvels, coupled with its nearly unstoppable army and functional but unremarkable navy make it most similar to the Roman Empire of the Pax Romana.


Old Hakan

Hakan

Sidhe-Praxen

Halflings

Petaran Empire

Bedowyld Steppe

The Ulan