Empire of Miuta (Mee-oo-tuh)

Miuta is the Empire of Orchid of Blue, her favorite child and the kingdom of eternal wisdom. It is synonymous with refinement, with medicine, with cleanliness and care. It rejects the brutish and the violent and the superstitious in the name of efficiency and gentleness - or so it claims. 
Miuta is a vast land containing many millions, and it controls those millions through a vast policing apparatus, a monolithic imperialistic set of cultural norms, an invasive religious structure, and a formidable military well-armed with chemical weapons. Miuta prefers not to shed blood, though; its strongest weapons have always been the mental ones, the cultural tricks that leave a person inviting imperial authority into their most intimate spaces. It is just gentle enough to create the illusion of consent and just harsh enough to leave little resistance. And it isn't just the schools or the spies - no, when outside conquerors take Miuta by force, they too are lured into the system and worn down until their culture is a safe commodifiable bauble to be placed besides the rest. 
Of course, Miuta is hardly evil; it is a tolerable living for most. It has great medicine, much food, and a semi-real meritocracy. It is certainly less foul than the evil that spawned it - the looming Empire of Runeva, which Miuta works day and night to contain through its navy and conscripts.

Structure

Miuta is a monarchy, but not an absolute monarchy. There are rules, known as the Divine Constitution, that dictate the powers of the monarch, the departments, the generals, and the Navanan church. The Divine Constitution can only be changed by Orchid of Blue herself and is policed by the Supreme Architect of Navana. Any monarch who ignores the constitution and does not submit for review and punishment is considered a tyrant and no longer a legitimate ruler. 
The monarchy is hereditary, but a new monarch requires a committee of succession that includes the religious, military, and bureaucratic elites. Typically the old monarch has already passed their chosen heir by the major parties involved and the process is a matter of rubber-stamping the paperwork, but if something goes wrong succession enters into a 1-year regency and debate period to select a new candidate within the dynasty (with Orchid acting as the final vote if the committee runs out of time). When reigning, a monarch has substantial authority within Miuta: they can pass executive orders (temporary laws which can last up to ten years before requiring renewal), they can select departmental heads and generals, and they dictate foreign policy. Monarchs must choose candidates from within the system, though - they cannot inject outsiders into the bureaucracy unless it is a state of emergency. Serious diplomatic actions, such as major wars, also require a confirmation committee; the ambassador's council ranks each state by military strength and prestige and reaffirms what counts as a "major war" every five years, to make that judgement clearer. 
Beneath the monarch are the five departments of the bureaucracy: the Department of Harmony (espionage, diplomacy, secret police), the Department of Prosperity (taxation, infrastructure, trade), the Department of Health (public health, vaccination, medicine), the Department of Civilization (local guild organization, education, and common guard groups), and the Department of Peace (the army and the navy). The Department of Peace (the military) holds the most authority and prestige, and is the most involved with the monarch; the others are not far behind, though. The Five Department heads form the Star Council, which is the oligarchy that holds the most power in the government. 
The current monarch is Marjiten Enashali, a Half-Dryad, an even-handed diplomat known for his ascetic lifestyle and his unshakable composure. Marjiten is well-connected, good at politics, and has kept the bureaucratic leadership both loyal and efficient (a difficult task). While the other major Enashali states have fallen into internal discord, Marjiten has kept Miuta more-or-less stable and prosperous. There are two main problems that Marjiten is facing right now, though, that are undermining his authority. One is his cultural disconnect from his empire: the man has flirted with Esarat religion and spent a great deal of time in distant lands. Add to that his laughable scholarship (which fails all standards of Navanan literary-scholarly standards) and his failure to understand natural philosophy, and you have someone who is all too easy to mock and undermine for the middling classes. 
Marjiten's other problem is less quiet: it is his older brother, Sovu Enashali, who was passed over by their parents and the bureaucracy for a number of reasons. Marjiten has always been extremely trusting, especially of family, and Sovu has proved to be Marjiten's weak point again and again. Marjiten almost allowed Sovu to upstand him during the formal succession process, and despite numerous acts of sedition and rebellion has failed to do more than exile Sovu. This is a problem for multiple reasons: Sovu is a warlock of a Leviathan that wants to usurp Miuta's Goddess, he is a reckless leader that is all charisma and no long-term planning, and he openly disdains Miuta's culture and legal system. That Marjiten has tolerated Sovu inciting rebellion in Bataya and getting civilians killed has made many commoners skeptical of their emperor despite his skill as a leader.

Culture

Civilization

Miuta has many regional cultures with quirks and variations, but the empire is united in its love of 'civilization' - hierarchy, technology, power, and a shared language of cultural sophistication. This concept of civilization is inherently Navanan, and religion sits at the heart of Miutan identity. A civilized heathen in Miuta is something of an oxymoron, but would be someone who acts on Navanan religious norms and taboos, and respects Navanan church hierarchies. 
The culture of Miuta is, in this way, relatively repressive. Tattoos are something to be afraid of; visible inebriation is deeply shameful and sometimes illegal. This doesn't mean alcohol is not drunk or that Miuta is drug free - people drink casually at times, people violate drunkenness norms, and it is common for youths to 'play chicken' by drinking alcohol in competing amounts to try and make the other party noticeably drunk. Situations also exist where drunkenness is less stigmatized - parties, certain holidays, youthful reveling, sailors returning home, visiting places with foreigners - and these situations and contexts draw in Miutans to binge drink (which only reaffirms the dangers of drunkenness). Drugs are villainized and treated as practically magical. Public displays of affection are carefully limited, with hand holding being scandalous. Break any of these taboos too publicly, and your social status will sink - do it enough, and you may find concerned citizens executing vigilante justice. 
Miuta goes beyond the prescribed Navanan norms to add a handful of their own: punctuality, distance, and sophistication. To live according to the hours and minutes of the day is to live efficiently and orderly, it is believed - it is a fundamental difference between man and beast. Physical and social distance is another thing: a person should not inflame bodily passions and comingle vapors by touching another person without reason. Handshakes are unclean, money should be put in bowls rather than pass between hands, and touching others in line is disgusting. There is a health component in this as well - a person should respect their own health and others by avoiding disease vectors that include touch and sharing air, and face masks are considered fashionable. Social distance includes avoiding asking excessively personal questions and avoiding direct personal critiques. Sophistication, meanwhile, is a mixture of education, mastery of formal language, and willingness to cite poetry. Using the right words for one's superiors or inferiors, referring to the right references - the marks of the Miutan school system. 
There is a line in Miuta between the civilized and the uncivilized; it is presented as a sharp dichotomy most of the time, a choice between right and wrong. This is particularly true for cats - like in Desmia, Sonevan cats can be humanoid or catlike depending on their time of birth. Miutan cats are forced to decide between Navanan religion and Miutan social norms - civilization- or to live beyond those things and be treated as nonsentient animals. To some in Miuta, all animals could choose civilization, but they simply choose immorality and therefore are fit to be slaughtered.

Food, Art, Family, Love

Each region of Miuta has its own food, but all share the same format: a meal should be a soup, a main course, and satellite dishes on rice or bread. Barbeque is a famous main course - meats or seared vegetables dipped in sweet sauces - though these tend to be special occasions outside of wealthier circles. Diversity in recipes is celebrated, especially when incorporated into Miutan culinary frameworks of the meal orbit and the barbeque.    Meals are to be shared with the family, and involve hierarchy most of the time - where you sit in relation to the main course and the exit is a sign of status. Every family has rankings - no one is ever equal in Miuta, not even in the most intimate settings. Parents rule over children, but some children are more virtuous than others and some parents are higher status. Who goes through a door first, who takes the first bite of a meal - it all follows a script of power. But that power is not all self-serving; family leaders are pushed to provide for all those beneath them, and Miutan society is marked by large extended kinship networks that provide materially for even their lowest members. Navigating the family network is a big part of growing up in Miuta - finding which family members you get along with and moving towards them is an expected part of childhood and a continual process in adulthood, and a child choosing to live with a favored uncle or cousin is considered perfectly normal. 
Family tends to be involved in courtship as well; there is a whole genre of romantic comedy in Miuta around navigating a new partner's zany family. Families have significant say in whether a relationship can progress to marriage, though a full legal veto typically requires a vote (with weighted votes by social status) in front of a priest. Polyamory is normal in Miuta, but it must be ranked - you can only have one primary partner of equalish or higher social status, and then multiple socially lower tertiary partners that aren't quite concubines but aren't quite as important as the primary. This can be quite a difficult thing to balance for young people, whose priest-kept virtue scores are likely to change more dramatically in comparison to one another than older people (who are more likely to be more well defined in difference) - a volatile mix for hormonal teens with no relationship experience. Romance (but not sex) during one's young teens is expected to better master this complicated game - and it is simply accepted to be a dramatic and explosive affair. Romance never really becomes unfettered from complicated feelings of power and social standing, though, even well into adulthood.
Even as the world of Miuta is blanketed in social fiction, artists strive for realism. Realistic landscapes and hyper-toned bodies grace Miutan visual art. Generally speaking, paintings are divided between glory paintings (which emphasize the utopian, the perfect, the ideal) and romantic paintings (which emphasize the passionate, mysterious, and emotional in the mundane), with romantic paintings being somewhat more subversive in their focus on the everyday, the intimate, and the unrefined. 
What is more accessible to the average Miutan than paintings or sculpture, though, is written art; Navana, like all Orchid worship, fixates on the written word and loads it heavily into all rungs of education. criticize, to mock, or to subvert without being unsophisticated. A barbarian rudely insulting someone can be dismissed, but a biting poem that has artistic merit would only be suppressed by a tyrant. Poetry is included in virtually every newspaper or pamphlet, and works its way into near every holiday. On the other side of culture are the superstitions. Miuta only gives credence to superstitions that sound technical. Numerology, for example, is big. Ten is the world number; you are inviting in big change if the number is ten. Three is a stable number. Seven is a lucky number. Nine is a lonely number. 13 is unlucky; so is 4.

History

Early History (-500 to 530 ME)

Miuta has been a crossroads of trade and cultural exchange for as long as people have had boats, and a trading post sat in the early days of the Architects where the modern city of Kalturi now stands. During the crises of the late Divine Era, Miuta was flooded by refugees displaced by climatic disturbances, bringing technologies and cultural quirks from the Northern forests and the Southern steppe. The land was facing some turmoil over who would be in charge, when a grand fleet from the far East arrived with the dawn - filled with Runevan emigrants. At their head was the Architect-blessed Orchid of Blue. Through trade, bribery, and a little bit of intimidation, Orchid was able to bring the different leaders of the region together in a council of rulership. When Orchid was further blessed by the Architects with visions and magical half-dryad children, the new regime was proven to be blessed from he heavens.
The Sacred State of Kalturi, led by its council of Overseers, became known as the City-State of Half Dryads and rose to be a trading metropolis. It planted the seeds for many tributary city-states, and over time lost control of these; by the time the Architects left the world, Orchidian 12 city-states dominated the region, and the cultural practices of Kalturi were spreading and mutating across Miuta. For some time, Kalturi's status was diminished; its strategic and commercial position was great, but it lost its sense of magical importance. That is, until the Divine Contact arrived in the middle of the first century, and Orchid of Blue returned as a guiding spirit. Kalturi rose again, not by conquest but by diplomacy, at the head of a grand federation of Kamiuta. In the North, in Hamiuta, things were less peaceful - the region had settled its disputes in the Divine Era by war rather than divine-sanctioned peace, and Orchid cult came to symbolize forceful state assimilation. Orchid tried to gently guide these kingdoms to gentleness, bt ended up essentially playing favorites and supporting militaristic regimes. In the end, Orchid's personal favorite used her support to conquer the others - and the Kingdom of Hamiuta emerged in 380 ME.

In between these two kingdoms lay the Sellik Coast, a mountainous region with prisms and volcanic activity. Dragomanders had moved into the mountains, and against all odds it was the local cat clans who first figured out how to bond with them (to this day, cats manage the dragomanders of the region). One cat, Murla Firestep, rose as the strongest of these sorcerers and helped unite the Sellik coast during the 460s ME. When the Federation of Kamiuta broke into a civil war in 468, Murla jumped in with the united Sellik Kingdom and played kingmaker. The sorcerers helped Moven Klirikalu, a merchant and warrior with loose ties to the line of Orchid, seize control of Kalturi and eventually all of Kamiuta. Kamiuta was transformed into a unified centralized kingdom, and the new elites began rapidly expanding its territory to bribe local elites with land and loot. The presence of Sellik elites in the new regime made Kamiuta more Hamiutan, and the two kingdoms became more and more intertwined. In 510, rival Lunar cults launched a coup in the Kingdom of Hamiuta- and Kamiuta invaded to restore Orchid to the head of the pantheon. In the end, in 529, Kamiuta had conquered Hamiuta entirely, and became the First Empire of Miuta.

Cult Wars and Katkatun (530 to 910 ME)

From 529 to 570, the other Lunar Cults tried to seize power in the united Kamiutan kingdom, and were systematically crushed. Eventually, Orchid was so absolutely dominant that the other Gods had to seek power in the kingdoms at Kamiuta's borders - and Kamiuta's expansionism took on a pre-emptive religious aspect. From 529 to 570, the other Lunar Cults tried to seize power in the united Kamiutan kingdom, and were systematically crushed. Eventually, Orchid was so absolutely dominant that the other Gods had to seek power in the kingdoms at Kamiuta's borders - and Kamiuta's expansionism took on a pre-emptive religious aspect. The tribes to the Northwest proved the most resilient, and Miutan was unable to conquer them. At its zenith of 600 - 630, Miuta was a continental power player, connecting with Runeva to project religious and cultural power. In the 640s and 650s, human and prism coalitions targeted Miuta from the Northwest, destroying the empire. These coalitions were unstable, and collapsed after defeating the empire, leaving a chaotic patchwork of microstates. One group, the Katkatun, were able to navigate the treacherous waters to marry into the conquered royal family and occupy much of the best land. In 661, the Katkatun leader - Batheta - finished this leap from one side to the other by betraying their patron god, Ishkibal, to pledge themselves to Orchid. This would be the first of many times that Miuta's divine blessings and cultural power would overpower and assimilate those who militarily conquered them. The new empress Batheta began reconquering Miuta and reforming it into what it once was, and retook a good chunk of land before dying and splitting the empire between her heirs.
The 700s were largely a century of recovery. Miuta remained splintered in a new status quo of five inheritor states, which periodically competed with each other but banded together whenever faced with outside threats. These fragments began to drift apart over time, but in the late 700s the South began to consume the North and reforge the old empire. Queen Malima Bathevi, born of a union between the Southern plains warriors and the royal line of Batheta, is credited as the great unifier who reforged the Miutan empire in 802 (though her family had been laying the foundation for generations). The new Miuta created a vast new bureaucracy, invested heavily in a powerful navy, and turned again to conquest. This conquest headed both Northwest into modern Bataya, and across the straights. The Southern fleet expansion was incredibly successful, and Miuta began planting coastal colonies across Southwestern Sonev. For a century, Miuta reigned supreme - but in their Southern expansion, they armed and energized a rising tide of plains nomads. One Southern tribe, known to the Miutans as the Faro, united the others in a great confederacy. At first Miuta hoped to wield the Faro as a weapon of expansion, but they overestimated the influence they had on Faro politics.

The Faro Period (910 to 1060)

In 910 ME, Miuta was struck by a succession crisis - one that seemed small and negotiable at first, but which quickly escalated. As political factions moved with excessive force to better secure a position in the new regime, chaos seized the capital. Political outsiders started to get ambitions. A general with kinship ties to the Faro conspired with the Runeva-oriented priest-druids to seize the throne for himself. To secure the empire, he invited the Faro into the Northern interior - and miscommunicated to the leader of the Faro, Zenwa Kujuyem, exactly what position in the Miutan government she would be given. She led her people across the straights and occupied the Southern ports with great efficiency. After some politicking, Zenwa ended up seizing the throne for herself with help from the Runevan priest-druids. With the great resources of the Miutan empire at her disposal, Zenwa became the Great Faro Khan. Her conquests raged across Sonev, crashing as far East as Runeva itself.

The Faro conquests occurred in bursts, and left behind a patchwork of states led by various generals or other warleaders. Wherever they went, though, they brought Miutan religion and commercial connections. Miuta itself was preserved as the personal holdings of Khan Zenwa. While this in some ways spread Miutan influence abroad, it also led to immense internal chaos - Zenwa legalized previously forbidden Lunar cult, and drove a wedge between Miuta and Runeva, West and East Sonev. Zenwa also never converted to Miutan religion, but instead kept the military elite culturally and religiously Faro, which led to increasing stratification and discord after Zenwa's death.
The Faro were quickly assimilated in Miuta, as they never had the martial supremacy of full conquest there. Miuta was proud that it was never actually conquered by the Faro, but arguably did much of the conquering. Nonetheless, there were holdouts of Faro elitism and Lunar cult that lingered across the 900s and were associated with Zenwa's dynasty. This dynasty, the Kujuyem, were held to blame for the great Leviathan onslaught of the 1000s: starting in 1030, Leviathans swarmed the coastline of Miuta, destroying their precious navy and terrorizing coastal ports. In 1050, when distant Runeva fell to revolution, the Kujuyems still hadn't brought the Leviathans under control - many in Miuta threatened their own revolution, and prophesized the end times. In the end, a general who came from both Faro and Miutan warrior families and a warlock joined together to put an end to the chaos before Miuta collapsed. Altiva, Maiden of the Under-King, was a warlock who sought to deify her patron Elder Leviathan in the eyes of mortals, and she contacted General Damarati and told her that the Leviathans could be divided and turned against one another. The two worked together to slay many Leviathans - forcing those who remained to bow to the eccentric "Deep King" that Altiva served. Altiva sowed the seeds of many Leviathan cults as she traveled, and Damarati looked the other way and allowed them to take hold. For her part, Damarati went on to seize the throne of Miuta - beginning a new day, where the un-assimilated Faro were driven back into the steppe.

The Church Rule Period (1060 to 1800)

From 1100 to 1200, the reformed Miutan empire stabilized and prospered once again. The empire focused on expanding its trade powers rather than get lost in military adventures, and the cultural influence of Miuta returned as a continental force. Great investment in medical technology saw a population boom, and new deals with the selkie Khilaia created stronger trade connections Westward. For all its prosperity, Orchid and the ruling dynasty weren't always on the best of terms; Orchid wanted more from the empire than it could always deliver. In the 1200s, the continent and the empire were seized by a new set of tensions: in the far East, Runeva made its intentions to conquer the entire continent clear, and a new religion known as Elemeer was spreading into Miuta's sphere of influence and resisting Orchid and Suwota both. Orchid demanded more direct control; the emperors responded by trying to marginalize her control over the bureaucracy.
In 1290 continental tensions boiled into war. Runeva fought off a coalition of opposing powers, and Miuta played its part in sending troops and supplies. Suwota for her part began supporting rogue Elemeer groups that wanted to fight Miuta, sparking war between Western Elemeer and the Miutan navy. This ended in 1320 and left Miuta exhausted but with a large military-religious alliance at its back - the continent was dividing into teams, and Miuta was Orchid's team leader. From 1320 to 1475 Miuta prospered, but became politically unstable as new factions and old factions clashed: the druids and old aristocracy supporting an older and less religious system, and the merchant-paladins supporting a new international theocracy. The old elites played with fire in their attempts to seize authority from Orchid - they had old connections to the Leviathan cultists, and were more than willing to give them church power if it meant that kings spoke before Gods. Add in a succession crisis and you get the War of the Overseers - a massive civil war that raged from 1479 to 1499. In the end, a new church-backed dynasty known as the Luziati seized control. The old Leviathan cultists flocked Northwest to found their own kingdom in Bataya and many of the old aristocrats fled to the refugee colony of Mitaka in distant Larazel.
Now that outside influences had been purged from Miuta once again, it was time to push back against the encroaching Elemeer evangelists. Adventurers and expeditions were funded across the North, ending in 1650 when the Elemeer missionaries finally agreed to avoid the lands of Orchid. Other expeditions were sent to Runeva. Meanwhile, Miuta was spreading its influence back down into the Southern coasts and steppes. Expansion and expeditions abroad served as useful release valves for social reformers and potential rebels - these people could find glory and gold abroad even as the social order set in back home. After the peace with Elemeer in 1650, though, opportunities for easy short-term loot and land seizure declined. Miuta turned to its nearby rivals and began to consider expanding its empire instead of just its church and trade league. Bataya, the kingdom to the Northwest that had its own Levaithan-themed church, was the natural opponent, but it proved troublesome to conquer. Bataya had too strong an army, too much selkie support, and too great a threat of Leviathan support - it was able to force Miuta to tolerate its existence. Instead, Miuta expanded Southward and Northeast - seizing more of the Southern coast and conquering the kingdom of Anvata to the North in 1780.

The Enashan Period (1800 to 1900)

The prosperity of 1500 through 1800 could not last. The military was bloated and factionalized, the bureaucracy was corrupt and obsessed with tradition, and the church was more concerned with overseas power projection than domestic prosperity. The failure to subjugate the Leviathan Church was proving to be a source of immense internal displeasure, and in 1805 Miuta tried to conquer Bataya again to bring it to heel. The invasion was a circus and a waste of resources, where Miuta claimed small scraps of land at great cost. Leviathans had destroyed Miuta's greatest trading fleet, and Miuta had forced to allow steppe nomad officers to take control of much of the low-level strategy in order to salvage operations. The introduction of steppe nomad officers enraged many within the officer corps, and these nomads were purged from the roster in 1807 along with anyone deemed insufficiently high-born. The purges angered many in the public, who felt that the meritocracy was being openly ignored. Further populist attempts to seize power were met with similar purges. Public belief in the meritocracy collapsed. Attempts at reforming the laws and hierarchies were ruthlessly suppressed in a series of political scandals. Factionalism and rage infused the public sphere. The economy was stalling, the rules of the game seemed openly flaunted by the elites, and people were radicalizing. In 1816, a sailor-turned-merchant-captain by the name of Teseto rallied a group of sailors to attack a customs house in the city of Saritha to reclaim what had been taken from them in tariffs; his revolt spread across the harbor, and when the local fleet moved to suppress it they were overtaken by a mutiny. Teseto moved quickly to capitalize on the riot, and by great luck and skill were able to seize control of the local government offices. They burnt down the local church, imprisoned the officials and priests, and seized the city's treasury. The local people of the city rose up beside them to reclaim taken lands and social positions. Teseto sailed off with the city's wealth while the military brutally conquered the city, and spread news of the revolution to nearby towns. It was known as the Floating Revolution, as its central command was based around this rebel fleet.
From 1816 to 1824, the Floating Revolution tore through Miuta. For the first two years it was more of an annoyance, but in 1818 it was able to bribe over a chunk of the standing army. A Cat officer known as Kozumia Reed-Claw, who had been demoted during the purges due to being a common cat and had gotten into the business of conspiracy, led a massive military mutiny that captured the Northern city of Harshura. Reed-Claw and Teseto worked to dismantle the Miutan state, but when a palace coup divided the government Reed-Claw accepted the new Empress and Teseto did not. Miuta was divided into a number of discrete factions, all at each other's throats. And then, from the South, the sound of hooves. A steppe army emerged, like before; called the Ni-Faro by the Miutans but known to themselves as the Saranem. They entered as invaders and mercenaries both and quickly took over Miuta's Southern holdings - but the revolutionaries of the North assumed they couldn't cross the channel in meaningful numbers to invade the heartlands. They underestimated the Saranem, who were led by one of the greatest warriors of the time: Khagana Enasha Arshi , the scourge of heaven and the breaker of lesser kings. Enasha had connections in Miuta's Southern capital of Kalturi, and was an inventive strategist and politician who quickly adapted her mercenaries and nomads to Miuta's politics. By 1829, Enasha had conquered all of Miuta for herself and brought the empire to heel - the reign of the Barbarian Queen had begun.
Enasha presented herself as hedonistic, irreverent, and unsophisticated, but she was actually quite skilled at navigating and projecting power within Miuta. She oversaw legal reform, restructured the military, and rebuilt Miuta with plunder taken from across Sonev. She expanded her empire across the Southwest, and moved to fortify the West against the Empire of Runeva's predations. She pushed up the empire's borders in the Northeast to grant the navy better trade and military access; she even managed to finally conquer Bataya, destroying the Leviathan church that had plagued Miuta for so long now. When she finally died in 1868, she left her children a vast empire.

This empire proved too vast to effectively govern, and was split into three pieces in 1895 to be governed by her three primary grandchildren. Modern Miuta is the Northernmost of these three sections, and remains governed by Enasha's descendants to this day.

Modern History

Miuta has prospered under the Enashali dynasty since 1895 - Enasha's descendants have mastered the law of Orchid and earned her favor well. Despite a brutal series of wars with Runeva, Miuta has stood strong! Its population has boomed, its economy has soared, and its international prestige has been widely accepted. It has been called a golden age by some, though that might be putting the cart before the horse. While prosperity has reigned, not all parts of Miuta have been entirely at peace with the regime. Bataya, the region to the Northwest, has proved a constant thorn in the empire's side - and when a new monarch took the throne in 2012, many of Bataya's regional elites supported a different candidate instead. The pretender lost a battle for the throne but escaped overseas - and many whisper that they have returned with Runevan assistance, to stir Bataya to rebellion.

Demography and Population

Around 85 million humanoids live in the Empire of Miuta. 50% are Hybrids of some sort, 15% are Humans, 15% are Dryads, 15% are prisms, and 5% are other species.
A large population of cats live in Miuta, including humanoids cats. Humanoid cats are accepted into society as long as they reject their old clan life - something many only do partially or reluctantly.

Territories

Miuta is roughly 1600 miles long North-South and 575 miles across. The straights of Miuta to the immediate South of the empire separate the region from Southern Sonev and serve as a critical trading route.
The empire sprawls across five regions:

• Kamiuta, the Southern tip of the great peninsula and personal domain of Orchid of Blue. Perhaps the most densely developed part of the Empire, Kamiuta is a land of great cities, high literacy rates, and close loyalty to the Goddess of Progress. Culturally distinct in its closeness to Southern Sonev, which has invited many migrations and invasions from the cold plains and forests beyond the straights.
• Hamiuta, the Northern half of the Miutan core, is less evenly controlled and developed than Kamiuta, and has a legacy of some independence. The Western side of Hamiuta is known for being vulnerable to storms and fickle weather that makes farming inconsistent, as well as being a fond point of destruction for the nearby Leviathans - the people there have a history of semi-nomadism and isolationism. The Eastern side of Hamiuta is the seat of ancient empires, immense cities, dense farming, and great warriors - the settled and cultured twin to the West's ascetic isolationist militarism.
• Anvata, the workshop of the empire, is protected by great mountains and home to a large number of prisms. Known for its mines, its shipwrights, and its powerful merchants; once the Anvatans were the greatest explorers and raiders of the interior sea.
• Inzet, the bastion of the North, is known for its uneven geography, salt mines, and architecture. The only majority-prism region in the Empire, with non-prisms centered around the fortified lake valley. Heavily interconnected with Anvata culturally. Infamous for its weird democratic rebellions
• Bataya, the rowdy stepchild of Miuta and last region to be conquered by the heirs of Orchid. A densely populated region often compared to Kamiuta, Bataya is known for its massive rice production, lobster-farming, and ranching in the North. Unlike Kamiuta, Bataya's cities are larger but more infrequent, leaving vast tracts of purely rural agraria. Bataya is also known for their affinity for every kind of weird heresy: their Navana is always dangerously wrong, their culture embraces deviance, and they have a pre-occupation with dhampires and way-monks. Even their selkies are heretical, with their own autonomous Healing Church splinter that always threatens to secede. It is no wonder that Bataya is currently the thorn in the Empire's side, as the region has become the center of support for the rising pretender.

Military

Miuta's military is coordinated by the Department of Peace and the Church of Navana, and it is divided between the Navy and Army. The Navy is run by a council of 5 Grand Admirals; the Army is run by five Grand Generals. These councils are coordinated and run by the Prefect of the Department of Peace - currently, a woman by the name of Larhen Mizuli, who comes from the Naval branch.
The Imperial standing army is supplemented by mercenaries and church forces; levies are considered uncivilized and economically disruptive. Generally speaking, Miuta's navy is more feared than its army; the Miutan army tends to play second-fiddle to the church and the mercenaries rather than the other way around. The Navy, meanwhile, boasts some of the most modern technology and disciplined marines. They have forces across Western Sonev, and are known to have specialized ships for fighting undersea opponents, Leviathans, and Runevan forces. Cannons, poison gas launchers, mortars, flamethrowers, fire mines, harpoons, magic users, the Miutan navy is well-stocked with special tools for any occasion. It is also generally the more meritocratic sector - people are excited to be marines, to climb the ranks and achieve prestige in a way that the land army rarely does.
The land army, meanwhile, is aristocrat-led and relies more on traditional the horse, spear, and bow paradigm. Just as it is stratified by class, it is more stratified by species - prisms tend to be put in heavy infantry, while humans are likely to be archers and cats are likely to be scouts. The cavalry and casters tend to be the most skilled in this lineup: much effort is put into making sure that elite mounted warriors and wizards are operating at peak efficiency. There are also the Daughters of Enasha, berserkers who strive to fight like the legendary barbarian and serve the royal family directly.
While the current land army is not known for its vast abilities, Miuta is not without military traditions. Miuta is one of the original states that developed war alchemy - the refinement of aquatic poison gas, and its expansion into new kinds of chemical weapons. Gas weapons are part of why Miuta generally expects surrender rather than siege of assault of cities: it is common military form to surrender rather than doom the city to die in a blanket of gas. More personally, Miutans are known for their use of dagger-axes - short-axes that can double as impaling weapons.

Religion

Miuta is thoroughly Navanan; other religions are allowed, but Navana shapes the laws and their priesthood runs the courts and the schools. The Supreme Architect and Grand Overseer play important political roles, and without them the monarchy would be instantly illegitimized. Navana shapes daily life - Navanan priests determine social status and access to education, and religious paramilitaries are common. Non-Half-dryads are taxed slightly more and are socially pressured to produce hybrid offspring. In the countryside and in the nicer parts of town, drunkenness is illegal. 
There are commercial spaces for outsiders to enter and trade, and these areas have loosened rules on substance use and behavior. Drinking, gambling, and the like are all allowed there (though drugs are still illegal), and foreign religions are permitted in these spaces. That said, no Lunar Contact to any God but Orchid of Blue is legal for non-priests to perform. 
Cultism is a source of constant anxiety for Miutans: foreign powers corrupting the youth and tempting them towards devilry is a common trope, and new trends are periodically made taboo by popular panics. Warlocks, non-Orchid paladins, and Runevans (who are said to be biologically modified en masse to serve Suwota with their very souls) are all boogeymen to be carefully policed and expelled if necessary. Conspiracy theories are common sights in Miutan newspapers, always baked with religious imagery and language.
The norms of strict Orthodox Navana, policing, and anti-cult activity has inflamed tensions between the region of Bataya (which loves warlocks and heresy) and the rest of the empire.

Foreign Relations

If it is a Navanan country, Miuta is probably its ally - that is a good rule of thumb for foreign policy. The closest allies of Miuta are Amizar and Ozikita to the South, which the empire shares a dynasty with.

Agriculture & Industry

Miuta is a land of immense, focused production. The commons are obsolete. Smallholders are obsolete. Large scale landowners are favored by the law, as long as they maximize output appropriately. Collections of smallholders do exist, but they have to have middle class legal support and proof of their efficiency to justify any government support. Among the landowners, it is a cut-throat competition to maximize output; any reports of inefficiency that do not have moral justification tend to lead to subsidy cuts, which lead to the competition devouring them alive. Generally speaking, a family remaining in the aristocracy depends on its ability to either consistently moralize to their lessers or consistently exploit them (the best do both).
In this world of numbers-obsessed aristocratic ownership, what do people actually do? Well, in the countryside, they grow rice, cotton, wheat, corn, potatoes, and squash. They deforest, they mine iron, they mulch paper, they quarry stone. In the urban centers, they weave, they make ships, they mass-kiln porcelain. It isn't quite industrial (and is generally behind the Suneka) but it wants to be. 
Miuta's porcelain, tea, and silk are their most famous and beloved exports; in exchange, they consume absurd amounts of sugar.

Trade & Transport

Production is largely organized by guilds, which are split between upper and lower guild bodies. Common artisan masters man lower guild assemblies, while workshop owners and merchants sit on the upper assemblies. In this way, production and trade are directly linked together and ideally move together as one to coordinate trade and business. This also organizes merchants by goods produced, and most merchants tend to be specialized in Miuta for this reason (so you've got wool merchants tied to the weaver's guild rather than to a more general merchant's guild). Merchants clubs do exist to provide a more general commercial space, but these lack the official legitimacy of the guild structure. This is also a system that favors merchants and trade over the needs and goals of the artisans.
Between the selkie fleets and the large Miutan navy, Miutan merchants have great access to international markets.

For Orchid, and Civilization!

Founding Date

1895

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Demonym

Miutan

Government System

Monarchy, Theocratic

Power Structure

Unitary state

Economic System

Market economy

Currency

Miutan Golden Orchids, Silver Leaves, and Copper Seeds

Major Exports

Lumber, cotton, silk, steel, tea, porcelain, medicine, Adamantium

Major Imports

Tar, gold, silver, magic items, sugar

Official State Religion

Navana

Location

Sonev

Notable Members

• Enasha Arshi