Dunlaw

Dunlaw is a nation located located in the middle of Falen within the Ashfall Desert. It is a highly hierarchical nation with a majority population of Hobgoblins who wrested first their minds and then their independence from their elven overlords of the Novagleam Empire during the Voidgate War. 
The nation operates on a highly refined form of meritocratic rule that pervades both their culture, government, and philosophy. It was through this highly focused state of mind that the first hobgoblins broke the locks placed on their minds, and it was through its spread that they gained the numbers needed to rebel and win their independence. 
While other races are accepted in Dunlaw, it has taken time for outsiders to come and adapt to the society's unique hierarchical structure. Many find it chaffing, though some who fully integrate themselves are given the opportunity to excel and rise within the ranks like any other citizen. 
The capital of Dunlaw is Freedom's Birth, a city founded on the site of the mind slaved hobgoblins' first act of rebellion, where they rose up and slew their elven masters down to the last individual. The blood soaked ground is considered sanctified, and the first battlefield there is a site of pilgrimage for the people of Dunlaw.

Structure

The government in Dunlaw is organized around structured Councils of Five. The Nation is ruled by a five-person council, which in turn oversees the councils of provinces which in turn oversees councils for cities. Within each level are secondary departments and structures which those councils either oversee or advise. It is the duty of the council above to evaluate and promote those most qualified up to their own ranks, as well as shift or demote those within their own rank as their responsibilities or capabilities change over time. Rising and falling within the governing structure brings neither praise nor derision, as finding one's place within society is to be commended, not the direction of the move. 
Likewise, someone's position in the hierarchy does no confer on to them any particular social or material capital. Someone on the ruling council of a city has roughly the same living conditions as someone on the ruling council for all of Dunlaw, and both are not notably more materially wealthy than someone at the hierarchical rank. Boons are given for personal acts of excellence or achievement, and those acts themselves are celebrated and commended.

Culture

While moors exist around the behavior and treatment of those between hierarchical ranks, there is little in the way of deference except for one's personal level of ability and achievement. A person is to be commended for what they have done, not for what they own or how much they control. It is considered rude for someone of a lower rank to improperly demure to one of a higher rank for that rank itself, and vice versa. 
Each rank in society confers its own forms of responsibility: to oneself, one's superiors, and to those who have been put in their one's charge. One is expected to guide and care for one's inferiors and do what one can to build them up, and when they are ready to be recommended for advancement. Failure in ones role reflects more upon the superior for improperly advancing them than the individual for failing. 
There are few taboos or restrictions upon personal behavior in Dunlaw. One has their responsibilities to their job and society, and as long as they fulfill those responsibilities and does not harm the ability for others to fulfill theirs, one is free to do as one wishes.

Public Agenda

Dunlaw's primary focus remains on its own survival, both from the harsh environment in which is exists, but from its foes--namely the nation of Stralk to the northwest. Dunlaw occasionally allies with some of the independent city-states in the surrounding area, but more often than not they fight their battles alone, as they did in their war to free themselves.

History

The Hobgoblins were, along with the other goblinoid races, created through malign flesh warping magic by the elves to serve as shock troops in their war to conquer Aramanth. For many generations these beings fought with only a modicum of sapience granted them, enough to fight, organize, and follow orders. Unlike the goblins and bugbears, however, the Hobgoblins had been left with more freedom to their thoughts to better handle the intricate needs of the martial responsibilites--namely the outmaneuvering and slaughtering of Aramanth's defenders in open combat. 
The elves misjudged the ability this modicum of freedom would allow the hobgoblins, for overtime the ranks of soldiers began to express ideas to one another, ideas which formed into axioms of thought, which ultimately formed into the mental philosophy the hobgoblins were able to use to outmaneuver their mind control like any other battlefield. The elves low regard for their slaves meant this happened under their very noses, and they were taken completely by surprise when their created slaves, in an act that lasted barely an hour, rose up and slaughtered an entire community once its primary martial force had departed. It was the beginning of a grand rebellion that would see the downfall of the elves in that region of the world, though not before they could do irreparable harm to many other groups of people.
The weapons of thought the hobgolbins used to break free of their mind control was refined further in a philosophy they coined "The Way of the Iron Mind", and this philosophy would go on to become the basis for the overarching hierarchical structure that permeates Dunlaw to this day.

Religion

While personal faith is not something the people of Dunlaw concern themselves with, the vast majority of citizens follow the Way of the Iron Mind, the philosophy refined by the original founders of Dunlaw, who used it to escape their mental slavery and kill their former masters. It is a philosophy that teaches incredibly structured forms of thought with which one can order one's thoughts and actions and exert overt will over one's mental and physical state, as well as purposefully regulate impulses and emotions. It is a philosophy of deliberateness and intention.

Freedom is Born From Our Minds. Freedom is Kept Through Our Structure.

Founding Date

-103 SE

Type

Geopolitical, Technocracy

Alternative Names

The Ash Nation, The Oasis of Liberation

Demonym

Dunlish

Government System

Meritocracy

Power Structure

Unitary state

Economic System

Command/Planned economy

Currency

Iron Script