Etska

Etska is a land of wealth, intrigue, and turmoil. It is known as 'The Rainbow Land' or 'the Land of Many Colors', as the hills and forests here teem with a range of colors found few others places on the planet. And the people here are just as diverse, beneath the Sunekan uniformity - there are traces of Stildanian culture, plains cultures, and a dozen different local cultures beneath the surface. The people of Etska are famously unruly by Sunekan standards, with a can-do, take-no-shit attitude. Purges past have not removed this, and the current purges will not either.
Speaking of which, Etska is in the middle of a great number of re-settlements and purges at the moment. The old Grand Republic of Etska has been crushed and partitioned into many smaller, more manageable republics, while the people are being forcibly scrambled and resettled to shake away the traces of the last bout of heresy.
Five large coastal republics dominate Etska's most abundant regions (listed here West to East):

• Kakora, the least forested and most agrarian of the republics
• Krelikala, a wealthy land centered around a bustling port
• Gozumok, the richest and most urban of the republics, the bustling heart of Etska
• Orkual, a land of great pristine forests known for its lumber mills
• Talaklazi, a land of ancient fortresses and deep traditions of Sunekan militarism

Fourteen small hill republics have been carved out of Etska's old state. These republics have been kept small and manageable so that intense focus can be applied to each. Once the hills were the refuge of heretics, but the Sunekan priesthood has decided to scour those hills with a fine-toothed comb to prevent that from happening again.
One republic, the Republic of Zesela, sits in the drier, semi-plains area of the Northeast, and has curried great favor with the broader Suneka. It currently thrives as a trade area and as the favored headquarters for holy orders in the region.

Geography

The region of Etska is 200 miles of coastline, about 75 miles inland. The land is dense subtropical forest, flat near the coast but hillier as one goes inland. The Western reaches of Etska are less humid than the rest, and have large stretches of grassland amidst the forests. A small mountain range known as the Nevnokai marks the edge of Etska - and the beginning of the great plains of the Sunekan interior. 
South-central Etska is a land of lakes, small rivers, and small coastal islands. It is the richest and most fertile part of the Etskan region, as well as the most humid and occasionally swampy.
To the North of Etska is the region of Tuweska, currently dominated by the Republic of Merishka. To the South and East are the regions of the Great Sunekan Plains: Quiku to the South and Kiota to the East. These plains regions are currently divided among many small Sunekan republics. To the West is the region of Ezaket, a windswept land of swamp and plains currently held by the Republic of Utima.

Fauna & Flora

Pangolins (non-sentient), leopards, giant salamanders, ibex, monkeys, and extremely large and fat purple toads can all be found in Etska.

Natural Resources

Dates and mushrooms grow in great abundance here, as do a wide variety of berries, flowers, and lichens. Many of these, such as the Indigo plant, grow in Etska better than anywhere else in the world. The hills have unusually colorful and diverse sediment, with great blocks of rainbow sandstone and colorful dust that color the sky at sunset. The landscape is alive with color. It makes logical sense that Etska is one of the great centers of dye production in the world, and is often known as the Land of Rainbows for its great array of dye-stuffs. Few lands not touched by mutations such as Ederstone or the Feywilds can create dyes as vivid or diverse.

History

Early History

Etska adopted aspects Sunekan religion, culture, and styles of government in the -600s DE. Etska was seen by the heartlands as the civilized land to the West: noble trading partners, partners in civilization, and allies against the plains nomads. This romanticization of Etska continued for quite some time, and allowed Etska to hold onto its cultural quirks for longer than many other regions. When the Sacred Sunkan Empire rose in the 500s and 600s ME, Etska's Southern kingdom joined the Empire willingly and found great autonomy and freedom. The Northern kingdom, which refused, was shortly afterwards conquered by the Emperor's ally/satrapy, the Empire of Tuweska - and found much less freedom and prosperity. 
The Southern kingdom did adopt republicanism in 1040, when a large number of international crises undermined the old order: plague was sweeping the land, nomads were invading, and foreign Asuna Heretics had joined with the monarchy only to be immediately deposed. The first Tlakra, a warrior-prince by the name of Aekao, is still celebrated to this day as a founding hero of Etska. Aekao also expanded Etska as an empire, and went so far as to seize parts of Tuweska for the republic.

The Nemekan Crisis

In the 1580s, civil war broke the Republic and foreign armies looted the cities of central Etska. The Kingdom of Merishka was invading from the North, and nomads were invading from the South. The land was in chaos and the republic seemed to have failed for many.
Amidst this crisis, a leader rose from the countryside: a rogue priest who had trained their followers in military means. The leader went by the name of Nematzin ("the exalted will of the universe"), and was a charismatic Prism who seems to have risen from absolute obscurity. Nematzin's movement was tolerated by the crumbling republic as long as it fought off Etska's enemies, but it soon revealed itself to be an extreme cult of personality. Nematzin wanted to create a hierarchy of priests to rule the populace absolutely, and demanded absolute loyalty and discipline from their followers. Nematzin seized the republic's government for themselves in 1585 ME, and crowned themselves 'Tlakratzin' ("Tlakra above Tlakras"). Their followers seized positions of power, and Nematzin won over many of the poor by negotiating peace with Merishka. Nomads and splinter-sects were ruthlessly put down, and Nematzin's new heretical regime was left as the one true republic of Etska in 1594.
In 1605, the Keepers of Olkum assassinated Nematzin and helped launch a coup of Etska - but civil war broke out not long after yet again. The thirty years of Nematzin's rule had created an organized, devoted new heresy: Nemeka, the heresy of excessive authority. Nemeka, infighting, and nomadic raids continued to plague Etska for years, and the region entered a period of instability and obscurity.

The Rise of Kanaltzin

Etska began to recover in the 1700s, when new dye-making technologies were harnessed during a period of peace to rejuvenate the three coastal republics. The coastal flatlands flourished and heresy seemed to wane there - though the hills remained a dangerous, bandit-and-heretic infested space. This was seen as a tolerable arrangement for a while, but then the Suneka was struck by disaster: a massive invasion in the 1870s and 1880s by the Empire of Calazen. In 1882, a Calazan army smashed into Etska from the North. At first, the Calazan army struggled, but when their Emperor and archmage intervened personally in 1886, Etska's major cities were occupied. The armies fled to the hills to hide, where they mingled with the heretics and bandits. After the Calazan emperor left, the Empire's occupational forces were not only overextended but hubristically still pushing West. The exiled warriors of Etska began raiding their occupied homeland and found it remarkably poorly defended. A leader arose: Kanaltzin, a former nomad, experienced warrior, charismatic leader, and Occult mystic. Kanaltzin was, unsurprisingly, also a Nemekan heretic - but beggars can't be choosers, and their obvious heresies were ignored. 
Kanaltzin was not the only Etskan war leader, but they were the most effective- and they managed to reconquer the cities of Etska when others could only raid. And when the Calazan forces returned to defeat the Etskans a second time, Kanaltzin alone weathered the storm and defeated the Calazan army - and proudly marched the Calazan general in chains through Etska's largest cities. When the Calazan emperor personally teleported into the city and promised to permanently withdraw from Etska in exchange for their prisoners, Kanaltzin was enshrined as a regional hero. After Calazan wars ended in 1900, Kanaltzin's heresy was again ignored for stability's sake. And, for all his wild tendencies and heretic priests, Kanaltzin was willing to pretend to be standard Sunekan. It was actually after Kanaltzin's death in 1915 that the Nemeka started to formally occupy positions of power. 

Modern History

The Tlakra after Kanaltzin was raised by Nemekan heretics and was far more committed to heresy than their predecessor - but they still played at being standard Sunekan. Rather, Etska was just tolerant of heretics generally and silently embezzled money for heretic communes - nothing openly dangerous on the surface. This continued for another Tlakra after that - but it was Kanaltzin's young and impetuous great-grandchild Azilketzin that finally broke the appearance game when they were coronated by open heretics in 1984. They tried to walk it back, but they were simply a scandal magnet with little self awareness - and it was quickly revealed that elections had been rigged and heresy funded with tax money. 
After a failed coup by the Keepers of Olkum, an alliance of Sunekan states invaded Etska to depose Azilketzin in 1989. The war was swift and decisive, and Etska was partitioned into the current twenty republics. For the last few decades, these republics have been scrambling populations and enforcing the Suneka, and in 2019 and 2020 they are scheduled to have a conference where they will negotiating reforming a united Republic of Etska and a popular referendum to enact it. As every republic will have to have approval by the Keepers of Olkum (to prove their lack of heresy) to be represented at the conference, these states have been stepping up their enforcement of the Suneka and their pursuit of deviants in recent years. The Conference and Referendum will likely be disrupted by Armageddon.

Alternative Name(s)

Eteska

Type

Region

Location under

Suneka (place)