Kingdom of Esedeta (Ess-ed-det-uh)

Esedeta is the Keveket power of Ekraht, the silent power waiting in the wings. It is a kingdom of master engineers, warriors, bards, and architects, a land of demanding meritocracy and grim, silent hope. The mountains teem with riches, great veins of gold and the world's largest supply of Kilusha, and leak poison gas. The great volcano lurks in the distance, a constant reminder of inevitable doom. The Empire of Zerua and the great volcano are one and the same looming destruction, forces of nature always waiting to consume the weak and test the strong. 
Esedeta is loaded like a spring, absorbing pressure and waiting to unleash it. The gods will only know what they will do when that day comes. So far, the inventiveness of their butchering machines have been greatly restrained by their isolation and constant military pressure, but it is only waiting to transform into something entirely new. Centuries of war and authoritarian regimes have created a militaristic police state with a hunger for land and bodies, and while there have been softening reforms in recent decades they have hardly dulled the kingdom's sharpness.

Structure

Esedeta is a monarchy backed by robust clerical and military bureaucracies. All land is owned by the state, and the elite families must use business connections, hoarded wealth, and court relationships to maintain their power (rather than legal land claims). Much of the bureaucracy is led by members of these elite families, but leadership positions are not reserved by birth - a sufficiently accomplished or well-connected middling commander has a decent shot at rising in rank. Much is made internally of this meritocracy. 
Much of the day-to-day business of Esedeta is managed by the Provincial Governors, who are assigned to a position for ten-year durations by the monarch. Candidates are usually selected from the military, and much of the local bureaucracy is entangled with the army. There are six provinces - Esekara, Aizidi, Albaya, Lornwa, Kulega, and Alcheka, ordered by prestige of position - and each has its own semi-autonomous Governor. Each Governor is also paired with an Arcane Factory (which may or may not be in their province) - this factory can cater to the needs of the Governor more effectively, and can also monitor the Governor for any signs of disloyalty or inefficiency. 
The Factories themselves are run by the priesthood, which is led by the Arbiter of the Western Office. The Arbiter is chosen by the Highest Order of Keveket from a small stock of candidates already involved in Factory Operations (most of the time, the Arbiter prepares their own successor ahead of time and the Highest Order only confirms that choice). Beneath the Arbiter is an oligarchic council, known as the Western Office Directorate, and the Directorate leads and controls the Factory leaders (known as Grand Overseers).
The current monarch of Esedeta is a prism by the name of King Vermian I Meseled, a stoic and careful ruler known as an optimistic reformer. Vermian is continuing the ambitious and militaristic policies of his family dutifully and with skill, and is known as a capable steward, general, theologian, and engineer. Studious and focused, Vermian is known as the Scholar-King by many - and some within the military establishment feel that he is more interested in ideas and books than the actual on-the-ground happenings of the kingdom. Rather than face the kingdom's nastier parts, Vermian is prone to isolating himself in the pristine sanctuaries of the capital - a bad habit that worries many. Nonetheless, his reign has continued a regime of prosperity that his grandmother began, so few grumblings escalate much beyond that. His son and heir, Parsenian, is a far greater topic of worry - a violent and cruel young man and accomplished magician who is popular on the front lines and deeply unpopular among civilians. The current Arbiter is Ovlen the Pious, a zealot with a fiery commitment to spreading the True Faith whose unorthodox passion has become rather popular among many in Esedeta.

Culture

Pragmatism, Families, and the Social Split

Duty, reason, and clarity are the great virtues of Esedeta, instilled at a young age through public education. Pragmatism and ruthlessness are seen as signs of adulthood; honor is something between fellows of the kingdom, not given to outsiders. Principles are nice, but the enemy is at the gates and principles will not keep them away. Discipline, stubbornness, and strength will. A construct is beautiful in that it will never tire, never surrender, and never doubt - a strong Esedetan is like that too.
But how does one embody such vague virtues of persistence? There is something going on in Esedeta that might be dubiously called "gender roles": there is a perceived gulf between the domestic and the martial, with people being rigidly categorized as either one or the other. This isn't really biologized (how could it be, with mostly prisms and dryads?), but is rather a matter of "have you been groomed for violence or domestic servitude?" Martial culture values stoicism, discipline, bluntness, stubbornness, control over emotion, self-isolation, willingness to commit violence, and a 'commanding presence'. Domestic culture values quietness, loyalty, stubbornness, traditionalism, community participation, and obedience to the Order. One can move between these two cultures, but the transition must be swift, absolute, and socially useful. This cultural movement is covered up and considered shameful if done publicly, though it is not uncommon - it is considered an act of a dutiful child to fill whatever need the family demands. This can create a great deal of repressed emotional turmoil, which is covered up with trauma and bad coping mechanisms. How this actually lines up with gender is extremely inconsistent; the late 1800s and early 1900s dynasty of Esedeta tried tying gender and culture together and only partially succeeded, and dynasties since have walked that back due to fears that it was stirring species conflict. What remains is a weird cultural soup of divisions and shameful crossings, where whatever the ruling authorities and priests say goes. Regardless of one's cultural position, it is believed that one should strive for a large and disciplined family - as many babies as possible, marching in a line to meet their grim fate on the horizon. The most important virtues of a society are how many people it can support and how much order it can bring them, and what is a family but a miniature version of a virtuous society?
A family or relationship must serve a grand social purpose to justify itself - it adds more members to society, it brings stability, it furthers the family's interests. The same is true for virtually everything in Esedeta. Everything must have a logical reason, and one's happiness is never enough. To act to further one's happiness (versus one's productivity or community) is to be weak and undisciplined, and weakness exists to be tempered by the strong. The elaborate scripts for how a romance or friendship or fun pasttime is logical are heavily ritualized, passed down from generation to generation and spoken with desperate conviction. 

The Esedetan Worldview

Conversation in Esedeta favors fewer words and a blunt attitude; 'sharp honesty' and laconic wit are fashionable and virtuous. That isn't to say that people don't talk or ramble like anywhere else, but brief and direct sentences are considered polite (especially outside of a friend relationship). Flattery and extensive courtesy are forms of social mysticism that reveal a person's foolishness, after all. The physical, perceivable, and literally true are all given greater social weight than the invisible or ethereal - excessive interest in emotions, spirits, and the like is seen as a sign of mental weakness. 
Esedetan culture may be very communal, but this communalism is at odds with a strain of odd individualism. The community is all that matters, but the individual must be judged individually. Inheritance is spat upon, and parents are encouraged to hold off on passing down their businesses or wealth to their children until they prove their worth (especially if the parents earned those resources). Basic support for one's family is expected, but parents walk a narrow path between neglectful failure and overindulgence. 
Pairing with this individualism is a technocratic fixation: foreign things are suspicious and flawed, but foreign technologies are glamorous and desirable; safety and caution reigns unless there is a chance to advance the nation through progress. The scientist-adventurer is the romantic hero of Esedeta, and the height of individual prowess. Esedeta has a love for deviant exceptions, heroes who get to bend the rules of society because they are just smarter and better than everyone else. The cult of technology and the cult of the eccentric genius are paired together, and trump all else. 
Most people can only look on from afar, though. They live in a different world of hierarchy, rules, policing, and xenophobic fear. The only thing that matters, the schools and jobs repeat, are to leave a legacy through the state - to glorify the state is to live forever in what you've built. The world is hostile and cruel and seeks your suffering - but the state will make sure you never pass from memory. Whether you become a mark of shame or a person to be revered is your decision.

History

Early History (-800 to 501)

Esedeta and Aizidi (the Northern lakelands) have been densely populated as far back as history exists. The region supposedly is where Wimbo Aizitu received his divine powers and guidance to save the neighboring kingdoms of Zerua from destruction in the -800s DE, and cities developed across Aizidi and Esedeta during the same century. Wars between incoming dryad and existing human populations sputtered across the Divine Era, but the cultural and species lines between these groups dissolved after the volcanic disruptions of the -400s. When massive rebuilding took place in the late Divine Era, a wave of prism newcomers joined in, and became pillars of the new Esedetan society.
Early Esedeta was famous for its medicine. The enormous Kilusha deposits of the region are some of the largest in the world, and by the late Divine Era there was a clear understanding that something in the region was medicinal. Not long after the Architects entered their slumber, the discovery of Kilusha's properties combating gem plague spread across the region and Kilusha went from being a weird rock to a valuable resource. The Prisms of Esedeta had vast surpluses of the stuff, and by 60 ME there was a robust mining industry and trade network driven by Kilusha. It was this trade that helped insulate the early continent from Gem Plague and Corpseblight, and Esedeta became ridiculously wealthy for it. The prism population skyrocketed, cities were flourishing, and Esedeta's leaders fought tooth and nail for dominance. The region pulsed with periodic wars, with hundreds of microstates vying for dominance across Esedeta and Aizidi.
In 402 ME the Zeruan founder, Makoi the Dragon Emperor, entered Aizidi with a grand army and an enormous magical dragon and demanded their fealty. By 404, Esedeta and Aizidi were both conquered by Makoi and placed under the rule of one of Makoi's officers, Inesha Aizuba. From 404 to 480, the Aizuba family ruled the realms as the Governate of Grand Aizidi, which was de-facto independent from Zerua. In 480 ME, an eruption of the supervolcano collapsed the Governate; when polities reformed in 501, Aizidi and Esedeta remained separate from one another.

The First Empires (501 to 913)

From 501 to 595, the priority was recovery and reconstruction. But, after 595, Esedeta began to turn towards conquest rather than just construction. First, it was other prism communities and other mining groups infringing on Esedeta's mineral claims; then it was neighboring inland tribal kingdoms to throw more bodies at mining and construction. In 671, a rising prism merchant landlord with ties to the army by the name of Kaitha Ulontzi was chosen as a general and spymaster - and Kaitha immediately took Esedeta's militarism to the next level. Through ruthlessness and a sharp eye for talent, Kaitha was able to oversee the conquest of Aizidi and much of the interior - creating a blueprint for the borders of modern Esedeta. She seized total control of the country in a coup in 702, and led the army Southwards along the coast in a series of expeditions. Esedeta during this period had a number of major problems: administrative control depended on loyalty, loyalty depended on gifts of land and loot, gifts of land required the administrative capacity to meaningfully occupy land, and Esedeta was quickly overextending itself. This is known as the "Kleptocratic Period" by many histories, as corruption ran rampant and landowners began prioritizing profitability over sustainable governance. This labeling is legitimized by the fact that an actual crime lord was able to slip onto the throne in 759, beginning a brief reign of confused terror that ended in a coup in 761. The kingdom of Esedeta finally collapsed into civil war in 764, and from 764 to 779 the empire dissolved.
In 779, an Aizidian aristocrat by the name of Ikendra Zarata unified the Aizidi and the Southern coast, and began trying to reunify Esedeta under their regime. The rocky landscape of Esedeta was difficult for a non-prism force to occupy, and from 782 to 849, the Zarata dynasty relied more on soft power than hard power to stabilize and rule Esedeta. This period was a time of local power and clan dominance; the old merchant-military class had lost their legitimacy, and Esedetan communities returned to traditional local dynasties. In 849, the major prism clans of Esedeta joined in a brewing civil war in Aizidi, and accidentally invited in royal power when the war was done in 852. For a century, Esedeta was assimilated into Aizidi, and the twin crowns of the Kilusha mountains stood united once again. But nothing lasts too long in Ekraht - in 913, the mountain spat fire and death once again and the world fell tumbling down.

The Heavensent Movement and Federate Period (913 to 1141)

From 913 to 1126, Esedeta and Aizidi rebuilt. Small eruptions in 1040 delayed the healing process and kept grand ambitions in check - the land spat on the idea of empire of grand monarchies. Slowly but surely, a federation of prisms and dryads moved towards reuniting the land under a Federation of Esedeta-Aizidi, but this loose network of warlords was fragile at best.
In the 1100s, a new religious movement began to take hold across the land: the Cult of Wimbo the Heavensent, which placed the Lunar God Wimbo at the head of the pantheon and revered Windweavers as the heirs of Wimbo and the emissaries of a supreme God named Halcyon . The Heavensent movement was strange in many ways; it was one of the first religious movements that demanded primacy over other religions, it uniquely called for global community rather than local community, and it outright chose one Lunar voice to listen to over all others. The Heavensent movement thrived in Aizidi, which had long harbored a strong cult of Wimbo, and the 1120s saw a series of local religious pseudo-revolutions where Heavensent groups asserted their dominance over other cults. The Heavensent movement began reaching out and spreading their ideology in the late 1120s and 1130s, and it began making connections with other Wimbo cults throughout the continent.
The Northern missions were brutally crushed by the Empire of Zerua, which saw the movement's fixation with Windweaving bloodlines as a threat to imperial legitimacy and harmony; the only groups that the Heavensent truly reached were in Rakara, and these communities fled to Aizidi by the end of the century when Rakara fell to conquerors. They did bring a strange bundle of artifacts with them, though: a collection of magical wooden fragments supposedly from the royal sceptres Halcyon had made for dryads and humans to co-rule the continent, which had been shattered by the Goddess' wrath long ago - these artifacts legitimized the movement and would play an important role in the future religion of Daraka, but they did little to reverse the movement's dramatic failure. The Southern missions were much more successful. Wimbo cults in the Far South were amenable to the Heavensent message and were greatly impressed by the broken sceptre pieces. Another factor was the Clarity-in-Purpose expedition. Clarity-in-Purpose was a solar cleric from Shirpratra that arrived with a group of fellow healers in the 1110s. This group of healers and scholars accidentally provided support and legitimacy for the Heavensent movement in the South; the clerics, from distant Samvara, had arrived in Esedeta seeking medical knowledge and cultural exchange (as they had heard that Esedeta was a miraculous land of healing arts). After establishing a base in Esedeta, Clarity and their clerics made it their mission to spread Esedeta's medicines and wealth further South, which they felt was unfairly neglected (and offered a wealth of local medical and natural knowledge to be gained in exchange). Clarity spent the 1100s organizing doctors in the Southern kingdoms and wilds, and accidentally united the medicine cults and lodges of the region. Clarity also spread knowledge of Samvara as they went, and their cult was defined by an association with foreign healing magic; this fueled a rising fascination with foreign religion and cooperation, which the Heavensent slotted perfectly into.
This is all to say that a united faction of theocrats were gathering power in Aizidi, and they sought to turn their evangelical success in the South into an empire of faith. In 1134, this led to a massive civil war within the Federation as the Aizidians sought to conquer and centralize their base of control. This attempt failed, and the Esedetans were able to turn the tables on them. In 1141, Esedeta-Aizidi was united by Esedetan prism clans and the Heavensent leadership was scattered across the South (and would take many more centuries to become an organized religion).

The Keveket Transition (1141 to 1470)

For the next few centuries, Esedeta would be plagued by familiar problems: religious clashes between traditionalists and Heavensent devotees, volcanic disruptions, and wars with the interior kingdoms. This worst of this was a civil war in 1198; the fires of internal chaos slowly petered out over the 1200s and 1300s. Failures by windweavers to contain the smog of the supervolcano combined with economic domination by Zeruan merchants led to growing dissatisfaction with the current regime in the late 1300s and early 1400s - but when the Heavensent finally seized power in 1410, their administration wasn't much more popular or effective. Infighting began to return to Esedeta, and the kingdom's legitimacy began to deteriorate. Rather than sink into a mire of corruption, infighting, and subordination, Esedeta commissioned their merchants to look far and wide for alternatives. They found one in 1428 in a pair of young bards by the name of Akimia Noralek and Kesalio Telastra from the distant land of Latashu. Akimia and Kesalio were merchants, smugglers, and explorers who had been touring the continent looking for opportunities. They were drawn instantly to Esedeta's mineral wealth and craftsmen, and they promised the Esedetans the world: Esedeta and Maradia could raise each other to skies if they worked together. They were able to slowly foster a trade relationship between Latashu and Esedeta, and began worming their way into positions of power within Esedeta. Kesalio began a bardic academy and became Esedeta's advisor of foreign magic; Akimia began to worm her way into the Esedetan mining and military sectors.
From 1428 to 1460, Kesalio and Akimia ascended: they brought Keveket religion, bardic magic, constructs, Maradian engineering, and exclusive Esedetan trade deals, and it seemed like an mutually beneficial relationship. Maradians who wished to get away from the oppressive policing of their home continent came to Esedeta, and they brought shiny constructs and gadgets with them. In 1460, Akimia was able to position herself with a military faction that wanted to place a more favorable candidate on the throne, and she rode in with that faction as one of the most important people in the kingdom. She wasted no time in using bardic magic and connections to ruthlessly centralize power around herself and by the end of the year she was the puppetmaster behind the Esedetan monarch. She transferred control to Kesalio and ventured back home to Latashu for her most ambitious project yet: to make Esedeta into the first and greatest Keveket arcane factory outside of the Maradian continent.
Akimia was able to use political desperation back home to convince the Keveket authorities to allow her to start mass production of constructs in Esedeta, and she returned to the Kingdom with a great construction fleet. A sudden influx of support was exactly what she and Kesalio needed, as the local Esedetans were slowly retaking control of their own country. In a campaign of bribery, mind control, persuasion, and assassination, the Maradians seized total control over the inner workings of Esedeta, and built their factory. Akimia and Kesalio immediately turned on each other and a new game of intrigue began, but it was now a Maradian game. Such began the age of machines!

Esedeta's Moment of Glory (1470 to 1805)

From 1470 to 1650, Esedetan puppet monarchs ruled while Maradians dueled for control behind the scenes. This period is known as the 'Easternization Period', as Maradian culture and religion was slowly used to supplant the old Esedeta. It began with the local elites, who adopted Maradian culture, language, and religion to better seek positions within the Factory economy; then, it dripped down to the commoners through sustained exposure and periodic missionary efforts to problematic religious minorities. It also took time for the factory complexes to expand and for constructs to truly permeate the region. The great distance between Esedeta and Maradia allowed the Esedetan factories to operate with fewer safeguards and regulations; they expanded faster and into more experimental designs than could be seen anywhere in the East.
When anti-Maradian rebels captured the monarch during a summer hunt and tried to wage a war against the elites, the Sovereign Commission of Esedeta finally chose a new, more loyal dynasty with more Maradian ties. When that civil war ended in 1652, Esedeta was finally shedding tradition and was ready to metamorphosize into its modern self: a kingdom of naked power and unshackled industry. The new dynasty quickly made moves to consolidate the Keveket communities and trading partners of the continent under their control, and sent a large navy Northward to seize control of all continental trade. For forty years, Esedeta ruled supreme as the continental power of Ekraht; it began expanding into the interior again, and flooded the continent with soft power. Esedeta's rapid expansion was too bold to go unopposed; the Empire of Zerua, which had lay dormant for centuries, began to awaken. Zerua began to reconquer old lands and contest Esedeta's merchants abroad, and Esedeta unsuccessfully tried funding their opposition at every turn. In 1730, Zerua and Esedeta began to fight more openly.
The first Zeruan offensive was over a tax revolt in Aizidi in 1731 - a minor affair under ordinary circumstances, but Zerua supported the rebels with a flood of arms and mercenaries. This escalated periodically into war multiple times and began a nasty, prolonged series of wars from 1731 to 1792. Part of this was funding religious communities associated with the Heavensent movement, and the Esedetan government came down hard on these minorities - by 1792, the entire movement had been genocidally wiped out within Esedetan borders. While Esedeta defended itself from Zeruan attacks and fortified its borders, Zerua began to win naval victories for trade dominance; in 1805, the Zeruan navy defeated Esedeta and its allies at the Battle of Vikasha, and officially ended Esedetan continental power.

Modern Esedeta (1805 to 2020)

The 1800s were a century of intense competition and war with Zerua, as well as radical militarism and authoritarianism at home. The Zeruans continued pressing Esedeta's borders and funding rebellious factions in a series of conflicts from 1830 to 1850, while Esedeta did the same to Zerua and almost managed to coup the Zeruan government in 1845. Finally, in 1850, Zerua and Esedeta made a lasting peace.
From 1850 to 1970, Esedeta turned fully inwards. The centuries of wartime struggle and decaying grandeur had left a disillusioned populace and broken infrastructure. Periodic rebellions and coups plagued Esedeta over the course of the century, while the governments focused more and more on absolute domestic control and defense against possible Zeruan incursions. Finally, in 1954, Esedeta's new Meseled dynasty began a series of reforms aimed towards softening direct government control and expanding trade. Decades of tight control slowly loosened, and Esedeta finally turned to face the world again over the mid 1900s. In 1970, Esedeta launched a series of small wars against the local border kingdoms, shoring up their defenses in the West and North - and began turning its sights Southward, towards the prospering Southern kingdoms of Yetua and Ibora. Esedetan merchant influence was on the rise again - it looked as if the old age of dominance might be returning.
Zerua saw the return of Esedeta as an existential threat, and immediately set about trying to contain it. This cold war went hot twice over the late 1900s: 1984 and 1991, both of which ended indecisively outside of the mountain of corpses they produced. These prestige wars ended all hope for Zeruan-Esedetan cooperation and have led to Esedeta pivoting more towards land-based imperial expansion. Should Zerua falter, Esedeta is ready to pounce - either to destroy their old rival or to finally seize the South for itself.

Demography and Population

40 million humanoids live in Esedeta. 50% are Prisms, 15% are Dryads, 20% are Hybrids, 14% are Human, and 1% are Other.

Territories

Esedeta is roughly 580 miles across West-East and 340 miles across North-South. It is composed of five regions internally: Eskara, Aizidi, Lornwa, Kulega, Albaya, and Alcheka.

• Esekara: Esekara is the founding core of Esedeta and thrives as Esedeta's wealthiest and most developed province. The region centers around the Hamakalli river and is a land of incredibly mineral-rich hills, where prisms have thrived for centuries. It is also the center of the Kilusha-mining industry and construct production. While populous and rich, it is also the most volcanic and is heavily impacted by fluctuations in the Akrean Supervolcano.
• Lornwa: A land of hilly valleys and swamps, Lornwa is the least prosperous of the Southern 3 provinces. Lornwa has been transformed by massive infrastructure projects, and there are now great industrial roadways and cities that basically terraform the land with terrace farms, mines, and drained swamps. Go too far beyond them, though, and the land returns to craggy volcanic swamp
• Aizidi: A flatland of lakes and fertile soil, Aizidi is the non-prism breadbasket of Esedeta. It is the other pillar of industry and administration in Esedeta, with big cities and dense development
• Kulega: The militarized marchlands protecting Aizidi from Zeruan attacks, Kulega has been restructured around military supply and defense. The meager civilian industries of Kulega are kept directed towards raw resource extraction, to keep the region dependent on Esedetan goods. It is a mixture of temperate forest and hills, a mishmash of a region defined more by politics than geography
• Albaya: A pristine forested mountain valley that was once autonomous and independent, Albaya is more easily defended than Kulega and is known for having a local warrior culture. The local culture has been carefully dismantled on the ground outside of small useful pockets, and the province is now divided between military industries and wealthy estates. Richest of the Northern provinces
• Alcheka: A land of many forests, valleys, and mountains, Alcheka is another theater of war between Zerua and Esedeta. This one is too economically valuable to truly undercut (like Kulega), so it is a tenuous mixture of militarized march, extraction, and local townships.

Military

Much of Esedeta's vast budget goes towards supporting a strong standing army, which is supported by a large military bureaucracy. The military is involved in much of daily life - tax collection, road building, and civil defense are all managed by the martial bureaucracy. The army and the rest of the country have a strange relationship with each other: the commoners both resent the army as a brutal policing force and also admire the army as a path to social betterment. The Esedetan army is the most meritocratic institution in the country - they regularly promote up from the lower ranks and often provide education for particularly sharp commoners (which can then link to better jobs and social mobility). 
In war, Esedeta's military seeks to be an unstoppable juggernaut: unshakeable on the defense, fast and heavily armored on the offense. Unlike most Keveket powers, Esedeta is fully willing to experiment with the military application of constructs - both in the obvious way of strapping blades to a construct and in more intricate ways. A particularly effective use are the automated war wagons: heavily plated construct-powered tanks that serve as mobile firing platforms and troop transports. Many a Zeruan can attest to the raw devastation a mobile incendiary rocket battery can unleash if it is able to traverse the battlefield with ease. Automated war wagons also act as useful protection for controlling the Warforged: Esedeta's state of the art military constructs. While most Empty lack the protection and maneuverability to fight effectively, the warforged are augmented with clockwork to increase the speed and dexterity of their bladed limbs; they are also replated to protect their innards more effectively. Warforged have dozens of different designs, though most tend to focus on armor, size, and power (sometimes containing multiple reformatted constructs to power their gargantuan bulk). The goal is to make them effectively immune to common forms of attack, armored enough to withstand storms of arrows and spear walls. 
While the warforged are impressive, they are also expensive and serve as tasty targets for enemy specialists and artillery. The goal of the Esedetan common military is to provide as much fire support and heavy infantry as possible to support these elite divisions - heavy infantry's durability and reliability is idealized in Esedeta, and the iconic infantry weapon is the spear or the warhammer. Large numbers of crossbows are brought to bear as well. Heavy infantry and crossbows are, unsurprisingly, also the defensive approach - they hit hard and can take a hit. Spellcasters and artillery (such as Zeruan rockets, trebuchets, or Latashan ballistae) are another hammer to go with the warforged, but the anvil must be strong first. 
Of course, such a heavy loadout requires a lot of support staff - it is often forgotten how many constructs and auxiliaries are necessary for the Esedetan standing army to operate, much less advance quickly during wartime. 
Esedeta does also have basic firearms, but these still lack the finesse of other continent's guns and are mostly used for siege weapons - many fear what would happen if Esedeta were to fully get ahold of foreign military technology.

Technological Level

Esedeta is simultaneously ahead and behind the pack when it comes to technology. Even when the technology is dangerous, such as with the possible social disturbances of the printing press, the state goes all in - better to embrace power and correct later with state force than neglect possible progress. Wind and water mills, hand assembly lines, pedal looms, gunpowder, mechanical clocks, rolling metal mills, movable type printing presses, and water-powered smithy hammers are all embraced by the state. However, Esedeta's diplomatic and trade isolation has cut it off from the broader world of technological advancement - they are perpetually playing catch-up, though they are doing it with admirable force and ingenuity. 
Esedeta is most perilously behind in matters of magic: there is no state program for training druids, and the recent attempt to create a wizarding program has produced only middling results - Esedeta lacks any access to advanced wizardry and is trying to rediscovery anything beyond basic wizard spells manually. Nonetheless, the current monarch is hopeful that a successful wizarding college would attract the attention of the Darzan University and allow the country to have access to a whole broader world of technologies and ideas.

Religion

Esedeta is a rogue Keveket country - it follows the faith, but cares little for the Hierarchy's rules. Esedeta's priesthood has been called "the Heresy of the Western Office", though it is still technically still a part of the greater Keveket community. If Esedeta were any closer to Maradia, conflict between them and the other Keveket powers would be inevitable, but as it is both groups know that Esedeta is too distant to effectively police. Still, this leaves Esedeta as a true island of a country in an eternal war against the world. This has shaped the ideology and theology of Western Keveket. They see themselves as a bastion of logic, reason, and sanity in a world of violent superstitious barbarians.
While Western Keveket derides Kamada as a "tyranny of lying magicians and charlatans promoting mass ignorance and profiting off indolence and slavery", it is ironically seen by Eastern Keveket as overly mystical and superstitious. This is because Esedeta has embraced the 'Cult of Agamine', essentially turning Agamine the Lost into a divine figure that is more relatable and emotionally accessible than the usual Keveket theology. Agamine is divided into three parts to make this work: Agamine the Body, a paternalistic figure and war god that acts as a symbol of discipline, loyalty, and heroic stoicism; Agamine the Mind, the perfected hermit who is silent in heaven and who grants insight to the deserving; and Agamine the Spirit, a ghostly force that grants magic, wisdom, and insight, and acts as Halcyon's messenger. Similarly, Halcyon is personalized somewhat but kept at a distance - visual representations of her are seen as blasphemous.
Beneath the tripartite Agamine, a pantheon of lesser gods and spirits (mixed from local religions and Keveket) are worshipped. These lesser gods and spirits are seen as imperfect and subordinate, but they are not outright rejected by the elites like they are in Eastern Keveket. This is all to say that, unlike in the East, Esedeta's Keveket has no massive class split - the mystical Keveket of the farmers and the intellectual Keveket of the cities are kept in balance and recognized as equally valid. While intellectual Keveket does shape policy more, there is no social shame in big shows of religious emotion or proud displays of devotion to a form of Agamine.

Religious Policy

So, what does Esedeta's heresy mean politically? Well, for one it means that Esedeta gets to trample all over the regulations regarding Constructs - no constructs for killing or war, for example. While that rule is already bent by certain Eastern Keveket countries, Esedeta just completely ignores it as long as the state does it - they argue that the rule was made for individuals and heathens, not Keveket countries. This naturally attracts the wrath of the notorious Maradian Enforcers - who struggle to project full power into Esedeta, but are still present. The Esedetan Enforcer Chapterhouse is under total state control to prevent them from going after the government, but that doesn't stop the Enforcers from stirring trouble from time to time. A number of times, Maradian enforcers have meddled in Esedetan politics and even supported rebels in order to try and scare the regime back into line, though this has always been blamed on "rogue agents" to avoid Esedeta fully throwing the Enforcers out. The Enforcers are only tolerated in their limited capacity due to Esedeta's need to keep factory technology out of foreign hands - and in exchange, the Enforcers get intel and experimental technology .
From a more domestic perspective, the Western heresy can be either quite good or quite bad. On the bright side, it means that there is more upward mobility for low-born people in the priesthood and more support for the lower classes by priests. On the other hand, the priesthood also expects more devotion and loyalty from commoners and actively persecutes religious minorities. Public displays of foreign faiths are banned, as are non-Keveket religious organizations; "individual worship" of any religion is fully legal, but this is such a fruitless distinction that it hardly matters. Foreign merchants are increasingly allowed to have minor displays of religious iconography, though, so this zero-tolerance religious policy is thawing in recent years.
Cults are heavily villainized in Keveket propaganda and are seen as a site for the most despicable acts - and unauthorized Lunar contact is seen as a staple of cult activity. While the Lunar Gods aren't much more slandered than in standard Keveket, the Divine Contact is seen as a classic villain move - it is believed that the overwhelming sensory experience has a chance of brainwashing people, and that participating in a Contact with someone else allows the person doing the ritual to steal memories from the other person. Lunar cults are blamed for spreading disease, curses, and are generally tied with ideas of witchcraft and Zeruan spies.
Magic is seen as the domain of the priesthood, and as an inherently dangerous thing - just as dragon sorcery can add to the pollution of the world and must be kept in check, magic in general can create chaos that must be monitored and counterbalanced. Unauthorized magic, even folk magic such as Comedy Magic or Curse Magic, is strictly forbidden among commoners. Windweavers are also the domain of the priesthood, and windweaving dryads tend to have access to good schooling and networking within the priesthood as a result.

Foreign Relations

Esedeta is diplomatically isolated, though it is trying to change that. While the continentally dominant Empire of Zerua has spent decades gathering allies surrounding Esedeta as a containment strategy, Esedeta has done its best to court other rising powers in the neighboring regions- notably the rising Darakan power of Ibora. Only time will tell if this will actually manifest beyond temporary alliances and trade treaties, though.

Agriculture & Industry

Esedeta is an industrial power biting at the bit to mechanize and adopt any new technology it can get its hands on. Empty Construct production is prioritized, and constructs are made for mining, farming, fighting, building, and even for manufacturing. Using a construct for a servant role (like in Maradia) is seen as wasteful; constructs are valuable machines that should have their social usefulness maximized. All constructs are legally property of the state, though they are often de-facto owned by powerful individuals. Constructs are assembled in Arcane Factories, which are vast assembly plants run by the priesthood. These factories are isolated from the rest of the country, and are exclusively worked by client populations - carefully controlled pools of Factory-only labor. These are overwhelmingly prisms, and they live in walled complexes where their mobility is limited in exchange for a higher standard of living. 
People living in Esedeta generally have one of two ways to work: they can either be assigned to a community work group, typically a village or a mine, or they can work as an individual for coin. People have free choice to move between these categories, but they must negotiate the bureaucracy to do so (and often feel pressure to do one or the other). Being part of a community work force is a layer of protection - you get stability and are usually spared any excessively dangerous work. Communities share debt and credit though, and have a way of ending up in perpetual debt - and once a community reaches a debt threshold, it cannot be voluntarily left and the community essentially enters the state forced labor pool. Individuals, meanwhile, must rely on kin networks or other social networks to navigate the world of artisan licensing and labor contracts; one must either find a team or sink into a mire of isolation and debt. 
Most people work in mining, farming, or construction. About half the population are prisms, for whom cash mining and food mining are a combined activity in many cases. Many people work in Kilusha mining, which remains an extremely robust industry here. Those in agriculture typically farm corn, wheat, potatoes, yams, squash, and rice. While most of the population still is rural, the urban population of Esedeta is comparatively high for this time period. Many people work in smelting, manufacturing, and other crafts. Craftsmen have few rights and no guilds - the emphasis is on big workshops run by military-associated merchants.

Trade & Transport

Trade in Esedeta is carefully managed by the government; merchants are viewed with extreme suspicion, and only those vetted and tied to the military are allowed to wield any substantial amount of power. These army merchants are big players here, titans of industry who operate in a network of workshop operations, mining, and shipping. While the merchant class has been opened up to the broader public more and more in recent years, it is still tightly regulated - many new merchant families are forced to send their loved ones to the army as hostages, to prevent possible betrayals or espionage. Given the recent loosening of regulations, there is building tension between the conservative old elite families, with their settled contacts and systems, and the budding new commercial class. 
Outside merchants are treated with some suspicion and are barred from holding land, permanent property, or office. A century ago, merchants weren't even allowed outside of designated areas, but this has also changed with the new reforms. 
Merchants and corporations from the Empire of Zerua are, unsurprisingly, barred from Esedeta with one exception: the Aludarzir Corporation. Aludarzir is one of Zerua's largest shipping corporations, and it has spent a century playing footsy with Esedetan elites under the table (so to speak). At one point, in the 1950s, Aludarzir had a near monopoly on Esedeta's Kilusha exports - and it has a good reputation among Esedeta's established commercial families. The prestige wars of the 1970s and 1990s, and the current trade embargo have reset Aludarzir's progress in Esedeta but the corporation remains unusually present in the country by proxy.

Education

Esedeta invests unusually well in education: all communities have access to public schooling from ages 6 to 14 to teach reading, writing, mathematics, religion, and discipline. Cities and some towns have additional schooling from 14 to 18 for those who test well at the end of public school. Additional tertiary schools and colleges also exist in the major cities.  Basic education is seen as a right for all subjects, a moral good by which the virtue of the state can be measured. Not all public schooling is equally good and school quality tends to reflect the economic status of the local area, but it exists. 
While the classic educational road of advancement is test-based, there is another way to access education: schooling grants, which are given out as rewards to promising soldiers. Since the childhood testing system is rarely accessible to rural poor communities and is often marred by corruption, schooling grants are seen as a reliable and noble alternative that allows the virtuous and disciplined to achieve success regardless of background. This is only partially true, of course, but it serves as a tantalizing incentive for service and loyalty.

"Truth and Power"

Founding Date

1650

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Demonym

Esedetan

Government System

Monarchy, Theocratic

Power Structure

Unitary state

Currency

Maradian coinage: Gold Pieces, Silver Pieces, and Copper Bits (also accepts Zeruan currency)

Major Exports

Kilusha, steel, machines, the Empty, silver, stone

Major Imports

Cotton, lumber, sugar, textiles

Official State Religion

Keveket

Location

Ekraht

Official Languages

• Ortesian Language
• Zeruan language

Controlled Territories

• Tarla

Neighboring Nations

• Empire of Zerua
• Vice-Kingdom of Azalek