Avicenna

A nation on the eastern edge of the continent of Liat. Founded by a guild of rebel engineers who believed Gameth wasn’t investing enough into technological research in the 4th Cycle's fourth century, they fostered research and development into technologies that didn’t rely on the use of magic. Humiliated in the Avicennan War of the 870’s, the country spiraled into economic ruin before Sardivelian investment provided a level of stability in return for de facto vassalization. The Shroud's headquarters is located in Avicenna's capital of Kanara.

Structure

A Chief Engineer oversees the technological development and stability of the nation. With most of the nation's technological expertise seized by Gameth after the Avicennan War of the 870's, the position has become solely administrative as the nation now lags behind many kingdoms in terms of technological advancement.

Assets

• Avicenna still maintains vast riverways and bountiful coastal territories for fishing

History

Administration of Komene Avicen (376 - 416) Komene was one of the great national founders on the continent of Liat, establishing the principles of innovation and research that Avicennan leaders would try to live by for centuries to come. The constitution he helped draft in 380 established the three tenants of Avicennan society: innovation through nonmagical means, research and advancement available to all, and a strong military to defend against foreign invaders.
Much to Komene’s chagrin, he had to focus most of his reign on the third point as Gameth fought several wars to try and reclaim its eastern territories from Avicenna. Gamerian rulers like Gibbous II even hired mercenary bands of Myltevian pirates to try and interrupt Avicenna’s trade routes, but to Komene these attacks had the inverse effect of establishing a strong sense of national identity and unity. Komene was buried in his hometown of Erdine, and a 110-ft tall statue of him stood in downtown Kanara until the Fairouz Terror of the 870’s.
Administration of Kiraz Sezer (416 - 444) Komene’s handpicked heir and longtime apprentice, Kiraz tried to take Avicenna off a war footing and focus more of the nation’s resources on research and innovation. She established amicable relationships with Gameth’s western trading cities of Garavecchio and Trecce, much to the Gamerian government’s ire in the capital. Komene had to spend much of his reign fighting Gamerian forces and had little time realize the second part of his vision, but Kiraz helped move Avicenna in forward by encouraging former soldiers in the rural villages to move to the towns of Ravi and Kanara and begin careers as researchers and engineers.
The Demirel Dynasty (444 - 536) Generations of Demirel rulers from Avicenna’s northern region led the nation for close to a century. Faithful to Komene Avicen’s founding principles, the Demirels fostered a national culture of research and innovation where anybody could advance themselves if they put in the effort. This mindset was reflected in lax immigration policies that allowed thousands of refugees to apply for citizenship, like gnomes from the Elflands fleeing Polonius III's regime and dwarves from Glace persecuted by the oppressive elven government of Old Glace.
These policies made Avicennan society more technologically advanced than any other nation in Pescaliat and turned Kanara from a fishing outpost into one of the great world capitals, but it brought with it a simmering xenophobia that would alienate many Avicennan natives. The nation’s worst impulses would be realized during the reigns of Timur and Seda, the former’s reign beginning with a coup of radical engineers against the Demirels.
Administration of Timur Ozal (537 - 559) Timur was a ruthless and paranoid ruler who filled his cabinet with a radical sect of engineers that believed any use of magic was blasphemous and punishable by death. Scholars have tried to identify any yuan-ti influence in Timur's royal council during this tense period in Avicenna’s history, but modern day historians have concluded that the years of violent persecution were started by Timur’s own volition.
A week of mage-hunting in Kanara in 548 left more than 3,000 people dead, and many gnomes had to go into hiding or flee into Gameth to take menial service industry jobs in the capital city of Gameria. Timur became a victim of his paranoia when he was killed by his own detachment of guards and replaced by Yildiz, a consensus pick with support from the nation’s military and moderate engineers.
Administration of Yildiz Evren (559 - 615) One of Avicenna’s longest-serving heads of state, scholars theorize that Yildiz could have ruled the nation for another twenty years if she hadn’t been killed at the Temple of Drachma Massacre in Garavecchio. Yildiz, a native of Avicenna’s rural villages in the Nestorian Mtns., had a deep understanding of the nation’s history and its relationship to the kingdoms that existed before Cosmere’s landing. Her team of researchers rediscovered ancient farming methods used by tortles and dragonborn in the region to increase harvest yields in the country’s arid climates and make it less dependent on foreign imports from Gameth and Sardivelia.
She even tried to enact constitutional protections for the nation’s minority communities in the early 7th century, but following her assassination the nation was racked by paranoia and suspicion that led to many of the policies relegated to the footnotes of history. Her assasination at the age of 83 was marked by months of national mourning in Avicenna, and many scholars list her as one of the greatest rulers of Liat in the 4th Cycle.
Administration of Selim Kotuturk (615 - 647) Following the killing of his predecessor at the Temple of Drachma massacre in 615, Selim went from being an obscure civil servant to the most powerful person in Avicenna’s government. Pressured to stabilize the nation and prevent any unrest, he installed strict curfews and censorship laws that unfairly targeted members of the nation’s gnomish and dwarven communities.
An engineering strike in 644 led to weeks of violent rioting in Ravi, just a handful of years before Selim died without a chosen heir and plunged the nation into a yearslong constitutional crisis.
Avicennan Constitutional Crisis (647 - 651) A widespread plague left the nation of Avicenna in a constitutional crisis where various factions fought over who should lead the following Selim's death. Engineers advocated for an experienced technocrat from Ravi, the military fought for a general from the border with Gameth. This fighting pitted brother against sister and mother against son, complicated by an increase of pirate raids from Myltev.
The Massacre of Kanara in 650 precipitated to a ceasefire on both sides that allowed for a new constitution to be drafted to establish clear paths of succession in Avicenna. Nuray Sunay, the first leader under the new constitution, worked tirelessly to accommodate both factions during her administration.
Administration of Nuray Sunay (651 - 684) Nuray aggressively fought to secure Avicenna’s coastal borders and bring the island of Charybdis firmly under Avicennan control. Bands of pirates and sahuagin had harassed the nation’s coastlines for centuries, but a merciless yearslong campaign left pirates fleeing back to Myltev and sea monsters all but eliminated from eastern Liat. This ruthless slaughter was applied to Charybdis as well when the island’s tortle and bullywug populations were hunted to extinction.
Administration of Seda Gursel (684 - 713) Seda’s time in the highest echelons of power was a time of innovation and discrimination. Avicenna’s military was reorganized and modernized by the start of the 8th century, setting it on an inevitable warpath with Gameth in a few decades. This increase in nationalism and research also led to an uptick in hate crimes against minority communities like the gnomes and dwarves who had moved to Avicenna to work and study. Seda kept Avicenna on neutral terms with Gameth, but she did seize several islands from Myltev.
Administration of Ece Bayar (713 - 737) Ece was an ambitious leader raised in Avicenna’s military tradition, leading to a war with Gameth from 731-737. This protracted conflict led to a retrenchment of the national borders in the Nestorian Mtns, and years of fighting only ended after Ece died at the Battle of Cosmere in 737. Ece favored a martial law style of rule, and her reign saw innovations in the use of crossbows. Gen. Boua Ussaki was said to have been a longtime admirer of Ece's time in office.
Administration of Zoltan Inonu (737 - 756) A placeholder leader in Avicennan history following its stalemated war with Gameth, Zoltan is best remembered for the work he did to establish an engineering school in Ravi known as Suleiman’s. He died in a carriage accident in the capital of Kanara just nineteen years into his rule, leading to the first use of the constitution’s updated laws of succession.
Administration of Enver Renda (756 - 788) Enver is best remembered for ensuring that Avicenna avoided a disastrous war with Myltev during Cpt. Gordiefsky's reign. He was a steadying force in Kanara, donating generously the kingdom’s engineering guilds that would help ignite the industrial revolution of Izzet’s reign. Ironically, he was wounded during a sailing trip in the same storm that destroyed Cpt. Gordiefsky’s fleet in 783, and he died of complications from his wounds a few years later.
Administration of Izzet Immagoglu (788 - 856) A gifted engineer, Izzet ignited an industrial revolution in Avicenna with the discovery of rare metals in Ravi’s mines that could power firearms and airships. Technologies researched in this era wouldn’t be realized until Gen. Boua’s reign in the 870’s, but Izzet’s reign was a time of imaginative thinking and boundless potential.
This innovation came with the bitter side effect of magic-phobia as many of Avicenna’s higher classes vilified anybody caught using spells. This alienated Avicenna from many of its neighbors, leading to the tense situation that Queen Astrid of Gameth found herself in upon coronation. Izzet died in his personal workshop in 856, succeeded by his chosen apprentice Ashraf Ekrem.
The Second Avicennan War (874 - 875) Territorial disputes between Gameth and Avicenna led to all-out war in 874 between Queen Astrid and Gen. Boua. Avicenna made gains in its western borders, but plans were disrupted when Gen. Boua Ussaki was assassinated by halfling named Sebastian the Character  in 875. A naval assault of Oakengaard failed miserably due to a Kraken attack, forcing Avicenna back on the defensive in the Nestorian Mtns. The kingdom's new leader, Adm. Aldo Snaggletooth, won mountainside skirmishes but his plans of an airship bombing campaign on Gameria were ruined when a party of Gamerian adventurers known as the Royal Knights Brigade destroyed his ship. Aldo was presumed to have died in the crash, and no body was found.
The war ended when Interim Leader Idris was killed by Fairouz the Undying's Coven radicals and the Avicennan town of Ravi surrended in 876. Post-war, the city of Ravi was claimed by Gameth and the island of Charybdis was granted to Sardivelia for its contributions to the war effort.
Poverty in Avicenna Ravaged by war and stripped of one of its most vital cities, the nation of Avicenna was reduced to a state of abject poverty after its war with Gameth in the 870's. Highly educated workers and engineers immigrated to Gameria, while those less fortunate carved out a meager existences fishing on the coasts of the Largas Ocean.
Many years passed before Kanara’s population returned to pre-war levels, and a downtown revival was assisted by investors and developers from Sardivelia. The Shroud established their headquarters in Kanara in 877, providing even more jobs to the ailing region.
With the death of Ashraf Ekrem, a Sardivelian nobleman named Luigi Vincenzo took control of the country and continued the nation on its path towards economic recovery and political realignment towards Sardivelia. Taking the nickname 'Izzet' in honor of one of the nation's most popular leaders, he proved to be a capable leadership despite coming from a minor family by Sardivelian standards.

Demography and Population

• 89% Human
• 4% Kalashtar
• 7% Other Races

Territories

Rulers of Avicenna

1. Komene Avicen (376 - 416)
2. Kiraz Sezer (416 - 444)
3. The Demirel Dynasty (444 - 537)
4. Timur Ozal (537 - 558)
5. Yildiz Evren (558 - 615)
6. Selim Koroturk (615 - 647)
7. Constitutional Crisis (647 - 651)
8. Nuray Sunay (651 - 684)
9. Seda Gursel (684 - 713)
10. Ece Bayar (713 - 737)
11. Zoltan Inonu (737 - 756)
12. Enver Enda (756 - 788)
13. Izzet Immagoglu (788 - 855)
14. Ashraf Ekrem (855 - 874)
15. Boua Ussaki (874 - 875)
16. Aldo Snaggletooth (875)
17. Ashraf Ekrem (875 - 900)
18. Luigi Vincenzo (900 - Present)

Ever Forward, Never Back

Founding Date

376, 4th Cycle

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Capital

Kanara

Leader

Luigi Vincenzo

Head of State

Ashraf Ekrem

Government System

Technocracy

Official Languages

• Common

Controlled Territories

• Central Palace
• Erdine
• Kanara
• Lyman

Neighboring Nations

• Gameth
• Myltev

Notable Members

• Aldo Snaggletooth
• Luigi Vincenzo