Empire of Shirpatra

The Empire of Shirpatra is the personal domain of the Sun Goddess Aysha, daughter of Halcyon and chief deity of Ayshanism. It is intended to be her great empire of morality and reason, a monument to her power and an attempt at a truly ethical society. 
Shirpatra does manage to be a more ethical society than most. It is easy to find a decent life here, and society accommodates virtually any personality or style. There is little poverty, no aristocratic masters to find yourself chained to, and no overbearing mandatory codes of conduct. Sure, you can't openly worship other Gods or faiths, and sure anyone who accumulates power is going to have a chance of being arrested for factionalism if they stray from Aysha's light, but the average Shirpatran doesn't much care. The more pressing issue for most are finding communities in a culture that fetishizes the individual, and carving out a place for yourself in a society that can be anything. 
As an empire, Shirpatra is a curious thing. It is constructed of fossilized bits of old regimes, with vestigial bits of older Shirpatran institutions hanging on to life and intersecting in a bit of a clumsy-looking way. You have ancient princely titles and community contracts dating back millennia but still preserved in Shirpatra's government. And more parts are always added, as the Empire is hungry for reform. It is clear from the way that the cities are built and the laws are made that this is an Empire of Solars and immortals - everything may be forward-minded, but it also has an ancient memory. The past and the future intermingle constantly in this Empire of light. It strives to be the best of all times, but only time will tell if that is even possible.

Structure

At the top of Shirpatra's organizations is the Goddess Aysha, whose unmoving body is rooted into the capital city of Suwirsha. Aysha is the master of the faith, of the empire, and of the communities - all give their loyalty to her. Unusually for someone who claims godhood, she prefers to rule with a fairly light touch and with an emphasis on popular consensus and consent. 
Aysha works with three main governing bodies to actually administer law outside of her capital. First is the Circle of Prophets, the leading clerics of Ayshanism who lead the faith as a whole. Second is the High Regent, who basically serves as Aysha's representative monarch. The High Regent is chosen by Aysha and serves for as long as she feels they are competent; the position is non-hereditary. Third is the Hand of Aysha, a recently created position that might best be understood as Aysha's personal spymaster. The Hand runs a group of spies and secret police known as the Light of God, whose whole job is to monitor the priesthood and bureaucracy for corruption. 
Most day-to-day administration goes through the High Regent. Beneath the Regent are the local semi-hereditary Princes, representatives of powerful families who run most of the region bureaucracies. The Princes were once fully hereditary, but now are entirely replaceable by the whims of Aysha and are essentially elevated bureaucrats. Beneath the Princes are the Ephors - municipal representatives who run the local bureaucracy. Ephor candidates are chosen by local elites and priests, but are formally selected by the Princes.
On the ground, there are three competing power structures that this government rules over: the Old Towns, the original communities of Shirpatra that manage most of their own affairs and cling to their old democratic rights, and have been described as culturally Aretan as well as Ayshan; the Imperial Lands, those direct subjects of Aysha who tend to be governed by bureaucracy rather than community self-government; and the Solar Tribes, ancient groups of Solars who have their own special relationships with Aysha that tend to be rather more personal. The Imperial Lands are the most common at this point, as many of the Old Town structures have collapsed over time. 
The current High Regent is Wonder of All, a driven young Solar known for their focus, curiosity, and innovation. Wonder's fascination with new technologies and magical arts has been quite useful given the recent revolutions in sugar manufacturing, mass printing, and wizardry, and their youthful energy has inspired a great popular following. Wonder is a skilled administrator who has largely lived up to their reputation, though they are rather awkward and have little experience in war. 
The current Hand of Aysha is Flora Steldek, a Kobold who prefers to keep far from the public eye. Flora has experience as an agent of the Light of God, and is certainly someone with a headcount and plenty of field experience. They are stubborn, callous, conservative, and something of an authoritarian that takes any attack on Aysha as a personal offense. For all their abrasiveness, they are respected as a loyal spymaster that has kept the Light of God on a tight leash in recent years.

Culture

Consent and Individualism

Shirpatra's legal codes and cultural norms are much more preoccupied with ideas of consent and choice than most other cultures. Most any arrangement that doesn't allow for someone to opt out is seen as constrictive and toxic, and subjects even have the option to opt out of participating in society when they reach the age of 18 (though the alternatives, legal hermitage or subsidized exile, are deeply stigmatized). These ideas are mostly reserved for native or naturalized Shirpatrans - newcomers who have yet to integrate into society are looked upon with pity and generally aren't treated with the same respect for boundaries and choices until they take the oath of consent.
While taboos and norms do still exist, personal choices that don't cause any noticeable harm are seen as acceptable. Style is considered a purely individual choice, and a wide range of mannerisms are happily accepted as normal. Marriage, rather than being a standardized arrangement under the state, marriage is a personalized agreement in Shirpatra. It can last a lifetime or expire after several years, and it can include as many people as agree to enter it. Family structures are seen as purely artificial here, and work however everyone agrees (though if a child is had by someone in a marriage, all people in the agreement are held to be equally liable for its care unless they specify otherwise during its signing). Since each marriage is so different, marriage records are extremely important records that are kept under lock and key at church archives.
This individualistic attitude can generate friction in community spaces. In the Old Townships, local communities have worked out a careful balance between individual and community identities, but the Imperial Lands are less well adjusted. While everyone has their church and their guild, there is a pressure to join other personal cliques (as work and church groups are not people you specifically chose to interact with, and therefore have less genuine relationships with). Many of these are organized as auxiliary groups to the church or guilds, but others drift freely as drinking clubs or sports clubs. And many people just float aimlessly, isolated; these people make up Shirpatra's military and industrial vanguard, who are thrown into the most dangerous or demanding occupations.

Class and Species

Class is a tricky thing in Shirpatra. The closest thing to a blooded aristocracy are the princely families, but these haven't even been fully hereditary since the 1700s and hardly represent the kind of aristocrat-commoner divide that can be found in most of Samvara. The solar tribes and the sacred Saraja family (descendants of the goddess) have hereditary claims to state power, but these groups don't really hoard wealth or even interact with the rest of the population. This isn't to say that class doesn't exist, for it certainly does. There are landlords, wealthy merchants, and guild leaders who have embedded themselves in the system and use their wealth to influence local politics, but elites who grow too large are always temporary - after a time, any sufficiently large landlord or merchants is bound to find their holdings shaved down by the state. True poverty in Shirpatra is rare; the church and imperial bureaucracy guarantee food, water, employment, and shelter for all in the empire. Living a decent life is considered a right in Shirpatra, and while disasters and exceptions happen the empire usually provides that. 
As for species preference, there is a light preference towards solar for high-ranking positions, but this has little impact on state distribution of resources as Aysha-blessed solars require incredibly little to survive. Non-solars are generally treated with an even hand between them and the bureaucracy is generally good about maintaining even resource distribution. For the most part, the oppression that does happen falls along religious lines. Those who refuse to join the Ayshan church face state raids, are cut off from social services, and are generally pushed by society into low-paying wage labor with the knowledge that they won't be able to use the court system to demand higher pay or better conditions. Other religious groups also tend to be more likely to be funneled into criminal courts, where they face much higher rates of punitive forced labor than Ayshan populations. 

Food 

Shirpatran cuisine is influenced by cooking traditions across Samvara, as immigrants and merchants have brought a variety of recipes and cooking styles to the land of the sun. Some of the most famous Shirpatran foods abroad are almond-based, such as almond biscuits, almond milk, and white almond cream for cooking. Pine nut sweets from the Northeast usually go in that category as well. But those are just the foods easiest to ship abroad; food in Shirpatra itself is flourishing. Pans of fried olive-oil soaked rice, beans, and various meats or veggies (essentially paella) are currently in vogue, as are croquettes (fried and breaded cylindrical dumplings). Cheese omelets have always been big in Shirpatra, as has cheese and honey plain. The recent beet sugar boom has also seen a dessert boom, with dishes such as creme bruelee becoming more and more common. Lastly, mixing grilled artichokes or garlic aoili sauce with other culture's dishes is a common trend in experimental cooking that is common enough to be found in most towns or cities.

History

Origins of Shirpatra

Through the Divine Era and early Modern era, Shirpatra was a relatively unimportant, out-of-the-way, and sparsely populated land. The land had a drier climate and less fertile soil than lands to the East and South, and storms or unreliable weather often plagued the region. Populations were concentrated around patches of more-fertile land, who kept their more arable pocket of territory while using the surrounding lands for hunting and grazing. These small tribal polities kept their distance from one another, and over time Shirpatra became known a reclusive land of cattle farmers.
At 0 ME, in the year that the Architects left, Shirpatra received a parting gift: a mysterious light house appeared along the Northern coast, near the infamously difficult-to-sail Solar's Point. Solar's Point was also the traditional end of the summer solar migration, a place of great holiness and magical power in the region. The sailors of the region rejoiced at this new lighthouse, but the local farmers and herders treated it with great caution: it was said to echo with mysterious voices, and was undoubtedly tied to the strange and dangerous magic of the solars. The solars themselves picked up from the locals that it was better to avoid the lighthouse, and it took a number of years before either group allowed their intrepid emissaries and youth to approach it. Many of these youth came running back, as the lighthouse apparently had begun screaming. The lighthouse was clearly haunted by dangerous spirits, and those who explored it said that it even tried to convince them to stay... probably forever (ie through death). And so the status quo continued in Shirpatra. The lighthouse allowed for easier coastal trade and sailing, and a number of local priests began leaving offerings near the lighthouse, but it didn't begin to really change things until the wandering god Haru finally arrived in 140 ME to help rescue some wayward youths that had been 'kidnapped' by the spirits of the lighthouse. Haru not only found the youths safe and happy, but they had powerful blessings to boot! On further investigation, it turned out that the lighthouse was not only sentient (rather than a home to other spirits) but that it had the power to grant powerful blessings to those it liked. It took the name of Aysha and became fast friends with Haru.
Haru introduced Aysha to the nearby human, dryad, and solar communities and helped heal the earlier divides between them. It was a time of great change in Shirpatra - the rising Empire of Shenerem was intensifying their Pratasam missionary campaign in the North, and druidism was catching on along with their religion in Shirpatra. The tribal polities became richer and more connected to the outside world, but were increasingly stratified. Pratasa warrior-druids crowned themselves as local rulers and adopted foreign etiquette and technologies, while the common ranchers and farmers largely kept to their old ways. Populations rose, attempts at city-building began, and fledgling states began fighting for power. Aysha, with Haru's guidance, carefully waded into this political mess in the late 100s ME. She began blessing the gentler rulers who respected their people's communities and specifically withheld her blessing from those who she considered to be tyrants. She also began blessing solars to allow them to live with reduced or no food, allowing them to stay with her rather than migrate. These solars worked with Aysha to heal and support the better leaders over the worse ones and helped defend her from retribution. Aysha's chosen were able to eventually conquer or exile the leaders Aysha refused to bless. Tribes began to adopt more community-centered structures from Shenerem, which they mixed with their own local traditions - even going so far as to hold tribal elections for local leaders underneath the Pratasa druid-kings.
At the center of this new order was Aysha, the legitimizer of monarchs and the bestower of magical gifts. Emissaries and pilgrims flocked to her, vying for her attention. In 200 ME, she had them organize themselves under the solars to build a city - the great city of the sun, Suwirsha. Suwirsha was designed to be a hub of trade, diplomacy, and religious leadership, and it quickly lived up to those ambitions. Shirpatra as we know it, with Aysha at its heart, was born.

Early History (200 - 930 ME)

While Shirpatra formed as an idea with the founding of Suwirsha, it existed more as a trade-and-power network than a unified state for centuries. From 200 ME to 400 ME, Aysha was more of a mediator than a ruler. Even Suwirsha itself was led more by elected officials than the lighthouse. Aysha spent these early centuries socializing and trying to be a part of the communities she helped make. Over the centuries, though, the land became more populated and the systems increased drastically in complexity. Over the 400s ME, Aysha had to be constantly involved in regional politics to prevent war or major abuses. In 500 ME, Aysha brought the druid-princes together and worked out a formal agreement of unification. Shirpatra went from a federation to an empire and Aysha assumed direct control of the land. Aysha, uncomfortable with total authority, immediately set limits on her power and brought community officials and the old princes into government wherever possible.
Shirpatra flourished under the guidance of Aysha, Haru, and the solars. They were able to purge the land of Lunar Pantheon cults and interlopers in the 'Lunar Crisis' of the 500s and 600s, and were able to bring the region's druids together in harmony. Religion was centralized around Aysha and Haru to nip any religious infighting in the bud, but Aysha and the local Pratasa leadership were locked in perpetual theological fighting. Aysha was skeptical of their religion and the benevolence of the Gods in general, and her being so involved in the religious administration meant that her outspoken religious views were forced into direct contact with the druidic faith. This ultimately prompted Aysha to declare her own religion in 700 ME - Ayshanism - though this early Ayshanism was more of a philosophical club than a large-scale organized religion. Most of the population remained East-Circle Pratasa, and while the druids of Shirpatra publicly condemned Aysha's ceremony of "Ascension", it didn't take long for them to get back to business as usual. In fact, Aysha's agents were critical in hosting the religious peace talks of 740 ME, and she earned a reputation as a friend of the great temples rather than a religious enemy.
Across the 600s and 700s, Aysha did take a much more pro-active approach to international and domestic affairs. She began organizing refugees and exiles from the Shirpatran established communities into her own directly-governed communities led by her private priesthood. Her reach began extending beyond traditional Shirpatran borders: in the 640s and 650s, Aysha's agents played kingmaker in the land of Keshet to the East, and in the mid-to-late 700s Shirpatra began assimilating the kingdoms of Galzura to the West. In the 800s, Shirpatra ruled ascendant across the North Samvaran coast. And every new community outside of the traditional Shirpatran townships was another group under Aysha's direct rule rather than self-rule. And when the Circle of Eastern Pratasa virtually collapsed in 881 along with the second Empire of Shenerem, Aysha's cult following became more popular across the empire. Ayshanism began to replace Pratasam even in the established Shirpatran townships, and even the druidic leadership started converting. When Aysha's first child, Artaba Saraja, was born in 900 ME, Shirpatra entered a religious fervor: the lineage of heaven had manifested, a miracle child born of two gods and a magician. No one knew what powers Artaba might manifest, but the possibilities were exciting and generated a lot of excitement across the realm.

The Millennial Crisis (930 - 1094)

In 931, Shirpatra's age of prosperity was brought to a sudden close. Khilaian Emperor Milen, Master of All Seas sailed from the West with a great fleet, hoping to subjugate Aysha, loot Shirpatra, and bless himself with supernatural gifts. The fleet ravaged the Western coastline, burning Galzura and easily crushing Shirpatra's untested and undisciplined military. Emperor Milen was able to easily carve its way to Suwirsha, which it attempted to assault before Haru could intervene. The city sustained great damage and Aysha's greatest cleric was slain, but the selkie fleet was stopped and their emperor was killed. The 931 invasion was unsuccessful, but it shattered Shirpatra's image as an unassailable powerhouse and exposed its military weakness. It also sent a message to the people of Shirpatra that diplomacy was not always the answer - the oppressive empires of the South whose wicked deeds they heard about in church not only hated them but were moving to kill them and silence their Goddess. A wave of reactionary militarism swept across Shirpatra, calling for the selkies and their "collaborator" subject kingdoms to be punished and their people liberated. Aysha publicly rebuked this sentiment and declared that freedom cannot be forced upon an unwilling people and that the selkies had been punished, but her words failed to deliver the catharsis the public wanted.
Solars close to Ponder, Aysha's fallen champion, fed the public's jingoism and plotted their own campaigns of vengeance in secret. In 980 ME Aysha finally caught them conspiring illegal military activity, but it was too late - they had already mustered their troops. The three great apprentices of Ponder - Cherish, Reason, and Joy - launched their punitive expeditions. They carved out their own theocracies, and Shirpatra was suddenly no longer synonymous with Ayshanism; nor was Aysha in complete control anymore.
Before Aysha could meaningfully fix what these rogue solars started, disaster struck Shirpatra yet again. A group of Leviathans from the great Northern seas began tearing up the Shirpatran coastline in 1000 ME, and the weakened and disoriented Shirpatran state struggled to respond. For a century, these Leviathans swam across Northern Samvara, attacking vulnerable coastal towns and ports when least expected. Together with the selkie Khilaia, Haru, and a coalition of North Samvaran kingdoms, Aysha's agents were able to fight these leviathans and pick them off one by one. In 1094, the last of the great beasts was slain and the trauma was over - but Shirpatra was weak and demoralized. Aysha herself faced a crisis of legitimacy and was forced to take a step back. Her centralized state was handed over to a bureaucracy of solars and clerics who managed in her stead, and she started having to rely on political allies for support within her own empire.
With Aysha taking a step back from playing moral referee, Ayshanism began to reunify. The militaristic sects that followed Ponder's apprentices rejoined the church, and a new hierarchical militarism seeped into Shirpatra with them. The old, soft, egalitarian Shirpatra was dead; for many, it was time to fight fire with fire, and to adopt the harsh tools of Pratasam and Halikvar.

Factionalism and Family Drama (1094 - 1720)

The old princes, a vestige from the ancient days of the federation under Aysha, stepped up as Aysha decentralized her empire. The princely families were a bit unprepared after centuries of acting as glorified middle managers, and they had largely expanded their magical training and education rather than their political or legal training to remain relevant, but they jumped at the opportunity nonetheless. These princes took in and married with the exiled druid-lords of the kingdoms conquered by Ayshanism, and connected with the broader nobility of Samvara. They remained Ayshan, but pockets of them were becoming culturally Pratasa-Halikvar. That is to say, they saw themselves as the true and proper overlords and sought to undermine the rights and social standings of commonborn Shirpatrans.
Across the 1100s, these princely families slowly gained power, but they felt emboldened enough over the century to declare themselves the "Ayshan Alkoa" in 1230 ME. The Ayshan Alkoa lobbied within the church and made themselves useful whenever possible: they coordinated trade deals, trained as many mages as possible, and helped prosecute Ayshanism's wars of evangelism. While these princes weren't bad at magic or war, they were also undermining the church's authority and further dividing the empire into feudal fiefs. In 1289, the Sarajas - Aysha's children - launched a crackdown of the Ayshan Alkoa along with the solar clans and church bureaucrats. Between violations of church law and counts of tax fraud, the leaders of the Ayshan Alkoa were easily arrested and convicted without provoking civil war. The Alkoa faction was officially disbanded, but the princes remained fairly powerful as a class. And the Ayshan Alkoa wasn't truly finished despite the legal persecution; most of the lower membership went on to form a more discrete conservative faction that had far more broad appeal among local elites. The successor factions to the Alkoa - the "shadow Alkoa", though it stopped considering itself that after some time - moved quietly between major merchant families, military cliques, princely elites, and local powerbrokers. These factions weren't inherently treasonous, and from a certain perspective they contributed to Shirpatra's success as an empire during this period: they strengthened the military, economically dominated other countries for Shipratran interests, and made Shirpatra more efficient at harvesting resources and extracting taxes. They did also increase corruption and wealth inequality in some very inefficient ways, though.
The movement in 1289 to return Shirpatra to the hands of the Saraja family was interrupted for almost a century by family drama. In 1300 ME, Haru and a number of the Sarajas left Shirpatra to travel the world, and the moment of centralization and divine rule faltered back into decentralized feudalism. Th 1300s were far more commercial than the 1100s or 1200s though, as a massive series of selkie outposts were constructed across the Shirpatran coastline.
The 1400s saw the gradual return of the Saraja dynasty members and the faction for divine rule. While a number of solars remained with Haru or the last rogue Saraja (Virtue Saraja, founder of Sumoxa), most returned to help govern Shirpatra. As the family reunited, the Sarajas became unstoppable; by 1500 ME, the bureaucracy had once again risen above the feudal princes. The "shadow Alkoa" remained a constant source of domestic opposition, though. Internal opposition groups would remain a thorn in the bureaucracy's side until 1720, when the aging cleric Glory Saraja led a massive purge of opposition groups in government positions. This purge was far more thorough than the last, and saw a number of major merchant and princely families torn from grace. The prince class as a whole was declawed, and property of wealthy non-Ayshan foreigners were seized. Whether the purge of 1720 was the heroic dismantling of a corrupt conspiracy or a campaign of political persecution sprinkled with the targeting of innocent foreign merchants really depends on whose history you read.
In terms of foreign policy, the princely period was far more active from 1094 to 1400 than 1400 to 1720. The latter period was more focused on internal development than war, and Shirpatra's superior diplomacy and secure geographic position insulated it from most threats during this time.

Modern Shirpatra

Since the 1720 purge, Shirpatra has invested its stockpiled resources in some major infrastructure changes. Wizardry, imported by Aysha's agents from the Suneka, has flourished and Shirpatra's education system has been radically overhauled to be more inclusive. Medical practices from Sonev, such as smallpox vaccination, have been introduced and made mainstream. And as the population has grown larger, healthier, and more educated, Shirpatra has begun embracing and even innovating on other technologies. The most notable of these new innovations has been sugar beet processing, which was invented by experimental alchemists in 1890 ME and allows for sugar beets to be processed into sugar almost identical to that of sugar cane. Combined with new agricultural technologies and Shirpatra having  the ideal soil for sugar beets, and Shirpatra was perfectly primed for a massive sugar boom. 
The changes of the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s haven't been quiet or easy. Many parts of society have changed. There have been sweeping land redistributions, and many industries have risen and fallen. The old guilds were dismantled and reassembled, and the bureaucracy has massively expanded in size and reach in imperial lands. The government and Ayshan church have led from the front at every point, and have bordered on dangerously disruptive in their reforming zeal. 
The speed of change has provoked resistance from some communities and local elites, but 1720 taught the Empire that a purge well done can solve most problems. In order to kill potential rebellions in the cradle and identify potentially traitorous elites, Aysha elevated a Stildanian Kobold by the name of Lizima to be her spymaster. Lizima, while not Ayshan, was a particularly astute investigator and assassin in her native land of Kizen whose time paying off a debt for Haru eventually led her to Shirpatra. Lizima befriended Aysha as a person and offered to hunt her enemies in exchange for a blessing for her child, and from 1870 to 1910 Lizima cut down dozens of dissenting voices. Lizima was such a successful spymaster that the position was enshrined by Aysha as a sacred one (the Hand of Aysha) and a small taskforce of secret police were trained to work for her. 
With the social upheaval, general sense of excitement, and population boom all happening at once, Shirpatra has also jumped back into the business of supplying other Ayshan movements with reinforcements. Excited young people with no clear path forward are offered chances at loot and adventure fighting oppressors abroad, and are siphoned off to conquest across the continent. The largest of these expeditions has been that of Graceful Worship in Ayneva and Shenerem from 1800 to 1860, though other expeditions have marched in the West and South as well.

Demography and Population

Shirpatra is home to around 30 million humanoids. Of these humanoids, an estimated 30% are Dryad, 30% are human, 15% are Solar, 15% are Prism, 5% are Kobold, and 5% are Other.

Territories

Shirpatra is 700 miles West-East and 300 miles at its maximum North-South. The Southern border is defined by the Alapahl mountains, which rise to around 8000 feet above sea level and continue South to the Empire of Shenerem. The climate in Northern Shirpatra is warm temperate forest with patches of grassland, and the further West and South one goes the warmer the summers and the more arid the climate. The area surrounding the capital of Suwirsha is particularly arid and requires careful maintenance to prevent frequent wildfires.

Military

Shirpatra's military is broken into four parts, with a focus on precision strikes and support abroad. 
The most iconic branch of the Shirpatran military are the Liberators: a standardized military made of semi-autonomous companies, each with their own cultures and reputations. The Liberators have immense freedom, and are encouraged to work as mercenaries for other Ayshan states to build up their wealth during peacetime. The only Liberator companies that remain with Shirpatra full-time are the naval companies, who have lucrative pirate-hunting contracts. The Liberators are known for their light cavalry, crossbows, and iconic heavy shields. 
For those who are unable or unwilling to go through the process to become a Liberator, the Idolbreakers are a common alternative. The Idolbreakers are zealous crusaders that eschew the mercenary contracts of the Liberators to undertake armed 'pilgrimages' into idolatrous lands. The Idolbreakers are run by monastic orders that often train and induct the most promising candidates, but most Idolbreakers charge into foreign lands with little training or equipment. When they operate without the assistance of local Ayshan actors, Idolbreaker regiments basically work like swarms of zealous bandits; when they are able to organize properly, they are known for their aggressive tactics and yellow-painted warhammers. 
Closer to home are the Solar Tribes, which keep to Shirpatra's borders for the most part. Solar Warriors of Aysha are fewer in number but greatly skilled, and often weave magic and weapons-use together. 
And last but hardly least are the Chosen of Aysha, the special forces of Shirpatra. Laden with Aysha's strongest blessings, armed with magic items and the cutting edge technology, and given specialized training, the Chosen are the smallest of Shirpatra's martial branches but one of the most deadly. While most train in small-unit tactics, the Chosen are dangerous on the battlefield as well; armed with muskets, magic weapons, wizardry, and Sudraco mounts, they are fiercely loyal to Aysha and devastating to fight. 

Religion

Shirpatra is aggressively Ayshan and they never let you forget it. Idolatry is banned, and idolatry here tends to encompass most public non-Ayshan religious practices. Total religious non-participation is vigorously legally protected, so there is always the option to avoid religion entirely, but the church is important enough in government that talking and registering with your local priest is still necessary even if you are an atheist.
While the Empire does not ban non-Ayshan private religious worship, few can afford a level of privacy necessary to keep their religion entirely secret. Those who are suspected of non-public idolatry tend to face a great deal of social stigma and even violence. Those non-Ayshans wealthy enough to fully insulate their religion from the public often face scrutiny from the secret police if their religion is known. All of this is unlikely to impact travelers passing through, as traveler's inns tend to have less intense stigmas about non-Ayshan prayer or trinkets, but don't expect to find a non-Ayshan temple in Shirpatra.
This isn't to say that casual zealotry is the norm; most of the more intense individuals are siphoned off to the military. Idolatry is just seen as inviting evil into society, which could be disease or curses for the superstitious, or oppression and hierarchical conformity for the academics. A not-insignificant population of pseudo-agnostics who converted away from Pratasam or Areto but retain a number of their cultural practices live in Shirpatra and are accepted. There is even a "secular bow" style for the culturally Pratasa of Shirpatra, to differentiate them from dangerous idolaters.
There are some who refuse to accept this, though. Communities of actively practicing non-Ayshans exist and persist in Shirpatra against all odds. Some of these communities moved into Shirpatra centuries ago, before the religious laws tightened in the 1700s; some are refugees or immigrants displaced by religious war and seeking a decent life; some are evangelical cults that draw in the disillusioned youth. Almost all of these religious communities tend to live at the bottom of Shirpatran society, cut off from the free food and shelter the state provides. Instead, these communities pledge themselves to merchants or local elites who promise to protect them in exchange for cheap labor (an illegal arrangement, but one that merchants rarely are punished for beyond fines). The existence of these illegal temples and communes is well known and held up as a symbol of everything wrong with the other Samvaran religions - that these people 'mentally gravitate towards servitude' and 'force their children into terrible conditions in the name of cultish superstition'.

Foreign Relations

Shirpatra's foreign policy is guided by the needs of Ayshanism and the will of Aysha more than pragmatism. The only cross-religious alliance Shirpatra has is a trade deal and waterway protection pact with The Khilaia - otherwise, Shirpatra only enters lasting military alliances with those of the faith.
Shirpatra projects immense soft power across the Ayshan world, with the neighboring kingdoms of Keshet and Galzura essentially operating as vassal states. Even beyond Ayshan states, Shirpatra's diplomatic corps is finely tuned and well-trained. The empire even maintains embassies and somewhat friendly relationships with the enemies of Ayshanism (such as the Empire of Shenerem ).

Agriculture & Industry

Shirpatra is predominantly agricultural. The soil is excellent for wheat, sugar beets, olives, grapes, citrus, almonds, and pomegranates. Wet rice is grown along the coast as well. Sugar beets and grapes are the most common and lucrative cash crops, and most sugar beets are transported to towns or cities for processing into sugar. Wineries are fairly common along the coast. On top of planting, the ranching of horses, sheep, and cattle are common, with Shirpatran cattle being greatly famed for their quality. In the South, Karbeetles are farmed and taken North for smelting for steel and rubber. Mining is fairly common in the South, for prism food as well as for gemstones. 
A number of specialist trade thrive in the urban centers of Shirpatra. One of these is the creation of 'blessed silk', or silk produced by magically modified silk worms. Another is the creation of 'continual flames', which are heatless magical flames produced by solar clerics (as well as wizards in recent years) and sold abroad as luxury items.

Trade & Transport

Artisan-level work is coordinated through local guilds, which coordinate on an imperial scale with church mediation. Trade is mostly done by individual merchants, usually associated with traveling solar clans.

Education

Shirpatra has a six year compulsory education program that teaches reading, rhetoric, and philosophy from ages 8 to 14. After reaching 14, students are encouraged to pursue trade training or higher education. Most higher education is offered for free in exchange for service for the empire, with each layer of education generally requiring more years of service. Higher education also usually involves standardized testing or recommendations to advance. This all makes a very easy road for those seeking to become bureaucrats, but also means those most trained medics or wizards are under state contracts.

Only Truth Survives the Sun

Founding Date

500 ME

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Alternative Names

Ayshanem

Demonym

Shirpatran

Head of State

Aysha

Government System

Theocracy

Power Structure

Unitary state

Currency

Ekedian Gold Suns, Silver Moons, and Copper Bats

Major Exports

sugar, horses, continual flames, wine, silk, fruit

Major Imports

Paper, lumber, alchemical ingredients

Official State Religion

Ayshanism

Location

Samvara

Controlled Territories

• Suwirsha

Related Plots

• Exploring Suwirsha
• Last Stop
• Meeting of the Gods