Aquatic Domhulin (Dom-hoo-lin)

The Aquatic Sovereignty of Domhulin is an underwater realm, mostly composed of Squiddles, that has been on the rise over the last century. This was one of the first underwater realms to have a druidic training program, and its druidic schools are some of the best under the sea. These squiddles seek to live in harmony with the shallow water, moving their settlements over the seasons to prevent the resources from being overused. They do this under the watchful eye of a large druidic-priestly bureaucracy, who live in massive temple-cities in coastal caverns, necropoli where the dead are put to rest. This is often called the "kingdom of the grave-reefs" by distant reefs for a reason; the kingdom has a strange relationship with death, especially for an aquatic state. The dead are preserved as long as possible, kept piled in great vaults and given sacrifices; a ghost sits beside the throne, offering wisdom to the monarch; every day, the commonfolk ward off the dark fathomlessness of death with their rituals. To Domhulin, druidism represents a kind of war on the vastness of the ocean, an attempt to order the great open spaces and fill them with understandable things; and they would make everyone a druid. 
As well as grave-keepers and druids, the Domhulinans are also merchants and diplomats with an eye for useful relationships. They keep the waters free of aquatic bandits, and escort merchant ships to protect them from piracy. They work closely with the surface Kingdom of Ashavat to foster good relations with surface-goers. They are known as the friendly cephapeople by their surface neighbors, the funny squid with hats that wave at your passing ship and rescue any who fall overboard.

Structure

The System

The Sovereignty of Domhulin is ruled by the Sun-King, a theocratic monarch who rules the waters with consent of the priesthood. This is fundamentally a theocracy before it is even a monarchy. Real power lies with the top druids of the Circle of Dawn and Dusk, and with the head Gravekeepers (or priests). These powerplayers choose the Sun-King when the last one dies; the title is not hereditary. Religion is synonymous with citizenship; religious outsiders are social outsiders as well, and the rules of the faith are the laws of the land.
The druids and the gravekeepers are technically distinct groups, but they share a lot of people and resources in common. The Gravekeepers are led by the Ancestral Order, old priests that represent the twenty great squiddle groups. They are ritual-masters, bureaucrats, judges, physicians, embalmers, and scribes. Everything holy that is not magic belongs to the Gravekeepers; knowledge, success, power, communion. They keep archives in their caverns, storing tablets and kelp-scrolls alongside the embalmed or buried dead. The druids, meanwhile, are led by three Archdruids, who are the greatest spellcasters among them.
Much of government is concentrated in the caverns of the coastline, in the sacred cavern-temples that have become cities and towns of sorts. But the people live mostly in the Shoals: travelling clouds of nomadic ranching that surround moving cities/towns. Each shoal is led by appointed priest-leaders, who are accompanied by commonly elected minor officials. While mobile, nomadism implies some level of freedom in their movement; the shoals follow careful plans and cycles, as consistent as the seasons, and the ranchers can adjust their grazing courses but only to a limited extent. Regular outposts of sedentary life sit along the shoal's paths, trading goods and taking on those too sick to travel. These outposts can sometimes be sedentary towns in their own right, with mines or kelp forests producing goods to be traded to the shoals for food. The priesthood keeps the entire shoal system functioning, as it can be something of a fragile balancing act of resources and populations (especially during bad fishing years). In many ways, this is a society that has all the movement of a typical squiddle society, but centralized and locked into place to replicate a sedentary one. The high maintenance and careful cooperation of the modern shoal system also makes annexing new land basically impossible for Domhulin; new lands are made into vassals typically.  

The Leadership

The current Sun-Queen is Dulma Mara-Shoal, a squiddle who was prepared for the priesthood at a young age and has spent her entire life in government. She is a stern woman, patient and generous at her best but often quite demanding. She has balanced budgets, run trade missions, managed community elections, presided over ranching disputes, fought bandits, and even went on campaign against raiders in the North. She sees her rise to power as a natural culmination of her success, and harps endlessly on about the values of discipline to those around her. While a bit off-putting in conversation, she is a very competent leader who is quite well-respected by all of her government but one: and that one is the person she has to share her government with.  
The other leader in government is one of the three archdruids, a powerful ghost named Sunkeeper Welpra. Welpra is ancient, truly ancient by squiddle standards - he was born back in the mid-late 1800s! One of the founding fathers (perhaps the founding father) of Domhulin, Welpra is accustomed to running the government when he wants to. As far as he is concerned, the Sun-Queen is a placeholder for when he gets bored of it (which is often). He enjoys casual informality, a good joke, and anything new and interesting to spark his curiosity. He is a brilliant rebel of a long-gone age who sustains himself by pretending that he is forever young. He is also old, out-of-touch with the current culture, and has seen so many names and faces go by that they all blend together now. His role in government is a crime against all laws of ghosts held internationally, but the Exorcist's Guild of the entire region reports to him and reveres him. To prevent neighboring lands from trying to exorcize him, he has hidden his surname and hides his role in government (he is only a temporary advisor and honorary archdruid, and he never officially leaves his burial chamber). 
Currently, Welpra has been letting Dulma do more as a monarch without his interference - from his perspective a reward for her good service, from her perspective a withdrawal of power he isn't supposed to wield anyways. If a crisis strikes and Welpra decides to take back "his" power, a lot of intrigue will surely ensue.

Culture

These waters have a long anxiety around death and the afterlife. It is well known here that, unlike other species, cephapeople don't go to any known plane of the afterlife; it is believed that, for their special spiritual devotion and the love that the Gods have for them, the Darkness preys on them first. In the Darkness, only the light of one's soul can guide them; without virtue to provide that light, one can only pray for someone they knew in life to search the darkness for them. Since little is known about what happens after that, all possible precautions are taken to ensure that the afterlife is a pleasant journey: ancestors are given sacrifices and buried with useful tools; many are buried and mummified in coastal caves rather than have their bodies consumed by sealife in the open. Some powerful elites even have their remains sent to the surface (once upon a time in buoyant wooden boxes; nowadays, they pay merchants to have them buried in stone vaults), or have druids entice birds to hurl their bodies at the sun or moon. To insult one's dead ancestors is a grave offense; to dishonor one's family or shoal is to imperil one's immortal soul (for who else will search for you in the dark?). 
Similarly, memory and knowledge of the past are greatly valued here. In many aquatic states, the short lifespan of cephapeople discourages a focus on the past, but here the opposite attitude is held: our contributions are so small, the future is one we will never have, so we should turn towards our past. Old poetry, old language, and old rituals are all esteemed and kept alive by oral history. There is a constant need to record everything, so that the great history of the waters can grow. 
The surface world is very fashionable, especially right now. The surface occupies a mythic fairy-tale space for the cephapeople of Domhulin, a place where spirits and half-squid-half-hominid-creatures dance together in strange forests. Great monsters, worse than Leviathans, live up there. It is close to God, it is close to dreams, but it is also close to nightmares. The fact that many people now get to go to the surface has de-mystified parts of it, but the exotic and magical sheen is still there. Dressing in surface attire is a favorite fashion here, especially items that don't make sense for squid (like hats!).

History

Early History

The shallow-water Domhulin plateau has been a hub for Squiddles for centuries. It was relatively isolated for a while, interacting occasionally with the tribes and reef to the South until the 400s and 500s ME, when a religious movement from the far South created a formalized network of merchants and trade-houses. This religious trade network thrived until the late 600s and persisted in a weakened state until the early 1000s - but even after the merchant-chapels and monasteries were abandoned, the trade networks persisted in new shapes and forms. 
Domhulin was the first underwater region with druids, even before its recent rise to power. All the way back in the early 700s, a Cuttlefolk known as Bubbletop Hollowhorn learned from the druids of the surface and began teaching students in Domhulin. Bubbletop chose Domhulin for a reason: the caverns and caves made for easy hiding places, the squiddles there were eager to learn and materially wealthy, and the region was just remote enough to avoid drawing attention from any of the big Southern reefs. Simply put, Bubbletop was not a very friendly fellow and saw druidism as a path to domination. They taught a philosophy of power and brutal individualism to their students before they killed with wicked intent and were transformed into the first Inktree (tree made of squid parts, a product of Halcyon's curse on cephaperson flesh). Bubbletop's students so worshipped them and their power that this transformation was framed as ascension rather than punishment. They became the Inkgardeners: cult-like druids who taught as many as they could, drank in as much wealth as they could, and dominated all they could. All druids were expected, in their final days, to slay a lesser life and ascend to become an inktree. As other aquatic societies rose and fell, and cultures changed, the Inkgardeners remained consistent.

Middle History

In 1390, the first squiddle federation in the South formed - an elected government of united clans and reefs that worked together to banish disruptive warlocks, defeat bandits, and otherwise make the waters safe to live in. The Federation pushed the Inkgardeners to insulate their violence with a local government. It wouldn't work anymore to just take what they wanted; now they needed to take through procedure through threats of potential violence, or they would be classified as bandits and destroyed. And so the Inkgardeners retreated to their garden and appointed a war council to work as a government. This government eventually took on a life of its own, collapsed, and then was replaced by a new government created by the local tribes. The great tribes, seeking to harness the magical and spiritual power of the druids, created a new priesthood for their government that would siphon off power through rituals and offerings, and use it to empower their leaders and protect the dead. Even after that government collapsed, the priesthood remained. These became the Gravekeepers: mediators, embalmers, diviners, Exorcists, and wranglers of the druids. 
The Gravekeepers and the Inkgardeners remained pillars of society in Domhulin, consistent still as regimes and cultures rose and fell. The federations to the South were becoming more expansionist and more exploitative as well - they would periodically conquer this area, though they rarely went beyond demanding tribute. In the 1790s, the longest-lived of all the Southern federations was born: Molosefa, the mercenaries-turned-warrior-caste who broke the tribes and the reef alike and unified them under a warrior-dynasty. The Molosefa were practical and commercial; they didn't care if you were reef, abyss, or nomad, only that you were loyal and useful. They made their fortune on escorting merchant vessels from Samvara to Izekra, protecting them from pirates and undersea bandits, and their ability to navigate surface and aquatic political environments made them a superpower. It was not long before they conquered Domhulin - but their patience with the Inkgarden was short. The Inkgarden was bloated, corrupt, and too large to function with its ancient rules, and the Molosefa didn't treat them with fear or reverence. The moment was ready for Domhulin to transform. 

Welpra and Reform

In 1895, a squiddle of immense charisma and intelligence known as Sunkeeper Welpra rose in the Inkgarden. Welpra was a rebel at heart, a former Gravekeeper who joined the Inkgarden to seek a life of personal independence and satisfaction only to discover a manipulative cult burdened by excess. Welpra resisted the cult education, trained as a druid in their own ways, and spent time studying on the surface while wildshaped. When the Inkgarden tried to imprison them, they escaped and rallied sympathetic druids and Gravekeepers in rebellion. They humiliated the archdruid, took the school by force, and essentially handed all control of the druids to the priesthood. The two groups merged, and the Sunkeeper was their grand leader - the first Squiddle to wear both the crown of the dead and of the living.  
When Welpra died during a Comedy Magic gag, they transformed into a ghost. As the head Exorcist, they had power over their own exorcism, and chose to delay their procession into the next life for a while. And when I say "a while", I mean that Welpra is still the crown advisor to this day (though the chances of them being exorcised grows every year). The sudden political changes in Domhulin were initially welcomed by the Molosefa, who lent full military support to stabilizing (and thereby pseudo-annexing) the region under a single government. The tribes were re-organized into Shoals, political bodies that whose leaders would be chosen by either priestly appointment or election rather than by kinship networks or inheritance. It wasn't an instant transformation, but by the mid 1930s it was basically accepted.

Challenging Molosefa

In the 1930s, politics turned against Domhulin: a new regime took power in Molosefa, a reef-based military despotism that wanted to promote sedentary living for the majority of the populace, and to concentrate all power in a few nodes. This regime was hostile to Domhulin, which was foreign, only half-sedentary, and not entirely loyal. In 1938, the Molosefan Emperor tried to uproot the druids, specialists, and head priests to the reef of Songwater to be absorbed directly and forcefully into the government. Domhulin refused, and the shoals rallied in rebellion. Welpra led some of the more adventurous druids onto the surface to seek aid among the landwalkers, and they met with the nobility of the Kingdom of Ashavat. Ashavati nobles and merchants answered their call, and supplied weapons, material support, and even spellcasters. They even connected Welpra with the High Church District of the Shekotan Healing Church, and the squiddle was allowed to form their own Dhampiric division in exchange for help organizing an aquatic Healing Church district. 
With new magic and resources, the Domhulinans had hope. They fought like mad and against all odds, they won. In 1951 The Molosefa finally recognized the Domhulin Sovereignty as an independent state - but the fighting flared up frequently. Finally, in 1989, the Molosefan Kingdom was made into a de-facto Domhulinan vassal. The Sovereignty inherited great power over the East, and great connections across the surface, though they have never forgotten the role that the Kingdom of Ashavat played in their freedom and eventual dominance. 

Modern History

Now, the Sovereignty is living large: wealthy, connected, powerful, developing its waters and adopting new technologies. There are two interconnected issues that loom over current affairs, though: the role of surface organizations such as the Aretan Church and Healing Church, and the role of Old Welpra in government. For Welpra entertained ambiguity in his negotiations, and purposefully kept it vague as to whether Domhuln would be a client state of either Church - the idea was that the surface could never project power well anyways, so it wouldn't matter. But Domhulin's success has provided enough of an incentive for the churches to come calling anyways.
There are multiple keys to Domhulin's success: their highly effective druid training program, their flexible-but-effective bureaucracy, the innovative enthusiasm of their new religious movement, their surface influence, the inherited influence and power of the subjugated Molosefa, and their clever fusion of reef tech and surface tech. But the big secret is that the druids, octopus-engineers, and priests of Domhulin have managed a miracle: they have finally figured out how to do Alchemy underwater, with underwater ingredients. And they are not willing to share that secret with the surface-goers who would monopolize that secret for themselves. The elites have only just started production and have done their best to keep it secret, but already the Healing Church has come to investigate - and their interest has attracted some Aretan priestly interest as well. And that interest has also attracted some scrutiny towards the prominent role of a ghost in government; the dead playing the role of the living. Not all of critique of Welpra has been external, and the internal critiques of Welpra bossing around the Sun-Kings have heightened. 
There are many questions about what comes next: does Domhulin become an empire? Does it become the underwater Healing Church? Does it focus on stability and long-term sustainability? Or will outsiders (surface or aquatic) invade and shatter this golden dream?

Demography and Population

Over 4 million aquatic creatures live in Domhuln. Most are Squiddles or Cuttlefolk, those some Octopeople live in the cavern-towns along the coast.

Territories

The shallow-water plateau occupied by the Sovereignty is 240 miles wide and 700 miles long. It is mostly open shallow water, with kelp forests and microbe-rich detritus floors that are perfect for Crabcow herding. The Western coastline is craggy and full of maze-like caverns, many of which have become sedentary cities and towns.

Military

Domhulin's military is, like their state, centralized but scattered. Warriors are trained in monasteries along the coast, and offered a regular wage and greater social standing for a lifetime of service. Individual officers are elevated by the priesthood (sometimes due to political reasons rather than military competence), and assigned to command groups of warriors to either guard outposts or carry out expeditions. Thankfully, these officers usually either have at least basic combat training, or druidic magic. A great deal of authority and autonomy is given to the officer in question, and there is much anxiety about any one officer gaining too much power. Warrior primarily use spears, javelins, and short swords, and focus on speed and capability. 
Joining the Domhulin standing army regiments are the Molosefa: warriors pledged to a specific person who fight to protect trade caravans or surface-goer ships in order to bring money to their liege. The Molosefa are experts at small-group tactics and combat, and often wield curved blades and short-range projectiles.

Religion

The religion of Domhulin is a unique regional sect, sometimes compared or equated to Areto. It believes that light is sacred, and reveres the power of the sky; the surface is a more magical place, a kind of middle-ground between the spirit world and the material world where miracles can happen, and many stories involve going to the surface to receive magical blessings. The dark represents fear, death, endings, and the unknown - not necessarily evil, but many things that are bad if not tempered with light. 
Light is broken into two categories that are distinct: Sunlight (power, authority, heat) and Moonlight (comfort, cooperation, coolness). The soul is made of both lights and must be kept in balance, or it will burn out. A soul that is truly balanced can pursue virtue: generosity, compassion, bravery. A virtuous soul is eternally bright, is safe from the worst of the darkness, and can provide light to others. A harmonious and virtuous society that both respects nature (moonlight) and orders it (sunlight) will inspire virtuous souls - the primary job of the priesthood is to create that stable, virtuous, and prosperous society. 
The comparisons to Areto are easy: both are heavily communal, divide the world into darkness and light, and praise the sun and the sky as one supreme goddess (which could be called Halcyon) with an emphasis on druidism. The squiddles do not necessarily worship Lily of Red or the Aretan prophets, though, nor do they recognize any dogma from the surface. The Aretan church has worked to change that and has offered resources if the Sovereignty would recognize church supremacy and doma, but so far the surface-aquatic gap has been too great for the Sovereignty to accept if they wanted to (which they don't). 
Religious ritual and participation marks one's inclusion in society, and there is no gap between secular and religious life. The state is the priesthood is the community; "pure belief" isn't necessary, but self-identifying with the community and performing state ritual is.

Foreign Relations

Domhulin is a rising aquatic power, with centralized core territory and a wealthy vassal state - the Kingdom of the Molosefa - to the South. The Molosefa have a strong reef core of their own, with a large sphere of influence that is a mixture of vassals and directly controlled lands. Domhulin now shares control of this sphere of influence, and the Molosefa have become part of the state's military institution. While there is tension, it is generally rather friendly as vassal-overlord relationships go. 
Domhulin has one other close friend and ally: the surface Kingdom of Ashavat. Ashavat helped Domhulin get where it is today, and the two have a historically close bond. While Domhulin generally works well with all surface powers as long as they pay well, Ashavat is more than a friendly business partner - they are considered dependable and worthy of support. 
These two powerful friends are extremely important, since Domhulin is otherwise surrounded by enemies (or at least rivals). The Hungry Abyss and the Coldwater Current to the North are both known for their dangerous Warlock cults and warlords, as well as for the dangerous Leviathans who frequent those waters. The Longjaws to the Northeast are a more organized and dangerous version of this: a shark theocracy ruled by warlocks and a leviathan, who are considered to be dangerous and unknowable alien life by the Sovereignty (who believes that the sharks are hive-minded vessels for dangerous spirits, rather than people). To the South, the Triple Alliance of Swulara, three powerful reefs currently led by an awakened pair of sea animals loyal to Lily of Red: a paladin jellyfish (The Immortal Flower of God) and a Giant Lobster (the Crimson Titan). While the Triple Alliance is much more reasonable than the Longjaws or Coldwater raiders, they are still a dangerous force that has a claim to Molosefan waters. The reef-states surrounding Arvea are also eager to take over the inter-continental trade routes, if Domhulin ever falters.

Agriculture & Industry

The traveling shoals that make up the majority of Domhulinan society focus mostly on Crabcow ranching, Giant Lobster ranching, fish hunting, and manufacturing. The plateau outposts mine, kelp-farm, or pearl-farm. And the cavern-cities along the coast mine, manufacture, fish-farm, and shellfish-farm.

Trade & Transport

Manufacturing and farming tend to be organized communally; while commerce with coins does exist, especially in the sedentary outposts and cities, food and necessary goods are distributed to all members of the faith by shoal leaders.
Trade is still a major part of Domhulinan society. Merchants to the surface are prestigious and hold great social sway, as are mercenaries who defend surface-ships on contract. Merchants also sell goods (particularly healing potions) to other aquatic societies.

"Carry the Light Forward"

Founding Date

1895

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Alternative Names

Domhuln, the Gravereefs

Demonym

Domhulinan

Government System

Theocracy

Major Exports

Shellfish, pearls, ink, stone, poison, Healing Potions

Major Imports

Suntail Grass lights, metals

Location

Samvara

Neighboring Nations

• Holy State of Ayneva
• Kingdom of Ashavat
• Kingdom of Siashi

Related Species

• Cuttlefolk
• Squiddle