Kingdom of Kiami

When the ancient children of Lily crossed Samvara to build a Holy Kingdom, they dreamed of gleaming lakes and bountiful river valleys. When they arrived in Kiami all those centuries ago, they knew that this was their foreseen garden of paradise, where they could cultivate a perfect society. From their effort, the land has bloomed, the cities have grown, and the holy word of Halikvar has infused every layer of society. 
The realm is far from perfect, of course. There is tension over whether to exploit the land and expand society or restrict growth and preserve nature (when Lily says to both be bountiful and preserve nature's gardens). The holy law of Halikvar is not well suited for all. The land still has its ruins, and the shadow of old wars loom over the land. And the surrounding realms have come to overshadow Kiami in wealth, power, and importance. The kingdom has become a place of culture, education, beauty, and symbolism, a garden to be won or defended.

Structure

The Kingdom of Kiami is an absolute theocratic monarchy supported by a robust bureaucracy. Hereditary succession is something guaranteed only for members of the ruling Dawara family. The Dawaras regulate their family carefully, though, and are quick to jettison obtrusive branches into cadet houses. Among the Dawaras, bloodlines are everything, and each member must have memorized their family tree as far back as the 300s ME to be taken seriously as a peer. This is the bloodline of Lily of Red, the Goddess, and of the Prophets Garland and Sarima. They must each contact their ancestor at least once a year as well, to stand before her judgment and purifying gaze. Only by her blood and her will may they rule. 
Supporting the Dawaran monarchs is an elaborate court that helps them manage succession and administration. Three pillars of administration support the court: the Governors, the Military, and the Red Temple. All three draw heavily from the same 7 great houses, but none are formally connected to any of those families- all power is granted by the monarch temporarily. The Governors are basically appointed aristocrats who specialize in local administration and policy and rule in 5 year contracts granted by the monarch. The Military is a small standing army that has powers of local conscription. And the Red Temple are the Halikvar priests, druids, and judges who manage the legal system, the education system, and a number of government posts. 
The current Monarch of Kiami is King Ulenim I, an elderly dryad who is a better druid-priest than a ruler. Old Ulenim was always impatient, vengeful, and aggressive in his ways of ruling, and age has not helped him in that. His lack of patience with the bureaucracy has led to plenty of wasted funds and boondoggles, which have in turn made the populace impatient with him. The monarchy has only started to recover in public opinion since Ulenim's granddaughter, Princess Dinevra, took over more of the administrative tasks. Dinevra is a shy, friendly woman who prefers to avoid the public and the etiquette of the royal court, but has proven to be a very effective administrator and bureaucratic master.

Culture

Modesty, Status, and Spite

Modesty and humility are considered great virtues in Kiami; displays of greed, pride, and cruelty are all taboo. Jewelry and expensive decorations (all decorations in some contexts) are considered impious and impolite grandstands. People of higher status can show off through costumes, but only in ways that are theoretically useful, glorify Halcyon directly, or mark their station - the more personalized they are, the more questionable. Elites tend towards plain clothing and decoration to give the appearance of humility, though they still use the best materials and make sure to include small hints of their status. Interpersonal interactions are expected to be made from places of humility; all people are equal before Halcyon and the Word. Mortals are unworthy of ruling over one another, but must wield power to fulfill their duty to the divines that chose them (or so the story goes). 
While Kiamen society frowns on revenge, but it openly endorses reveling in the misery of those who endorse it. Kiamen punishments and law often lean towards public humiliation as well as torment; the best cure for misery is seen as the misery of someone worse. The older you are, the society indulges acting on that impulse. Elders are encouraged to humiliate younger folk seen as acting prideful, and old folks who wish to gain status and small scraps of power often form little clubs and cliques around public punishment and the local "virtue gardens", where they arrange the skulls and old wood of the deceased for proper decoration. The priesthood and their judges also bring public catharsis by using schadenfreude and public humiliation as steam valves for class tensions - when people feel unhappy with the elites, it is on the judges to find the worst excesses of elite pride and greed to punish in some funny (but ultimately not so harmful) way. The poor elders and children lead the charge in berating and beating those elites who weren't useful enough to the regime to justify their decadence; often they are dressed in clownish mockeries of the poorest of society, with the signs of lowest horoscopes painted on their face, and they are forced to dance and bray as the old and young whip them with reeds and yell slurs at them. The state sometimes even provides bread and ale to really get the party going. There is also a concept of "karma" (in a Western, non-dharmic sense): that evil deeds inevitably find ways to punish the original sinner in some satisfying, poetic way. 
One's value to the state has a way of shaping the way that justice and equality play out, of course. Those useful or powerful enough are usually not held to the same standards as others - they can wear what they please, eat as they please, and decadently overspend as they please. This produces a constant stream of blackmail for the regime to use on its own members who step out of line. This isn't to say that the entire culture is a cynical mechanism of control - there are legitimate ideals of equality, humility, selflessness, and justice at play here. People do believe these things, and strive for them; the system just exerts power as systems are wont to do. 

Power, but also Life

Speaking of power differentials, Kiami has all the classic Dakavari Halikvar power dynamics at play. Dryads are the center of the world, with other species tolerated just fine but never prioritized over dryad needs or experiences; dryads hold most positions of power. There are also matters of one's Samvaran Horoscope - which moonsign one was born under. Horoscope is not the most important status symbol (class and religion come first), and it is more important when someone is where they aren't 'supposed' to be: in rising bureaucrats that haven't found a wealthy patron, in the new rich, in the lesser elites who compete for power. It also comes up a lot when people are punished - a high sign committing evil makes their pain so much sweeter (since they squandered innate virtue), while a low sign being punished reaffirms the natural order. 
But life is more than power. 
There is food. There is pilaw, or steamed rice mixed with all kinds of vegetables, tofu, and raisins. There is "fat rice", a kind of mushroom risotto (where the rice is cooked in butter and onions, mixed with wine, and then slowly infused with a mushroom broth). There is a lot of mushrooms, tofu, eggs, cheese, and yoghurt threaded through Kiamen cuisine, which is savory but vegetarian. Peppers and other spicy additions are also staples.
There is recreation. Kiamens love their board games, their writing, their smoking, and their racquet-ball. Writing is considered more humble and virtuous than visual arts or theater, and elaborate poetry and prose are unusually common (even among those of lower classes). The physical art scene is largely focused on captured 'authenticity', focusing on pseudo-realistic depictions of everyday life. Some seek recreation through courtship, which is extremely open and unregulated here: freedom of movement (which is protected by the Kifa, or holy law) has been interpreted to also be freedom of love, and arranged marriages have been made illegal. Intermarriage across class lines is only gently discouraged and occasionally happens anyways; divorces and remarriages are not stigmatized, nor are more casual relationships. Love poetry (and more saucy hookup poetry) is extremely common.

History

Early Empires (-800 to 600)

Kiami is said to be the cradle of Halikvar, the promised land that the ancient tribes migrated to during the mythic era of Gods and prophets. The lake at the heart of Kiami, Lake Sudrena, was supposedly a foretold omen telling the early tribes to settle there. It was one of four main areas of settlement for those early tribes, and the sacred city of Avanam was one of the four cities those mythic druids built in Eastern Samvara in -800 DE. For 800 years, the Lake Sudrena tribes built up their cities and settlements around central Kiami, a compact Halikvar state that was highly developed and prosperous. This proto-Kiami was more populous and militaristic than the other three early Halikvar kingdoms (Arnimet, Prisev, and Kokahl) - it also had a more direct connection to the prophet, Lily of Red: proto-Kiami is led by the direct successors to the Dawara tribe, and had the mummified bodies of Lily and two descendant-prophets (Garlands of Red and Sarima the Red) in their possession (known as the Preserved Incarnations). The Dawara were the most imperious of the Halikvar, and they felt entitled to rule the locals as absolute overlords, pitting them against all of their neighbors. While the other three Dawara-adjacent tribes mixed with the locals, Kiami was a divided society. It took the arrival of The Divine Contact in 20 ME to change things: Lily encouraged the Dawara to break down the artificial barriers between themselves and the locals, and to accept that all were equal under the Kifa (Halikvari religious law). The transition from a strictly divided semi-caste society to a more equal theocracy kickstarted what became known as the Pan-Garlandian movement. This movement sought to reunite all Halikvar under Lily's blessing, in total equality and righteousness, and it had sympathizers across Eastern Samvara. The scholars of Kiami assembled a holy book, the Sajafa, that codified the oral traditions of the Kifa and added additional prophecies, poetry, and interpretation.
In 100 ME, the Pan-Garlandian movement seized control of the monarchy of the Dawara. The war-druid who seized the throne, Koswen Dawara, mixed the idealistic unity of the movement with old Kiamic militarism, and created the first Empire of Kiami. This empire sent a wave of missionaries across the region, allied with the other major Halikvar states, and conquered the surrounding tribes - shuttering any attempt to create a rival power in the region. This first empire collapsed after a second coup in 180 ME, but it set the stage for future attempts. It wasn't until 300 ME that any of these attempts stuck. In 300 ME, a paladin of Lily by the name of Sevni Dawara seized the throne and, with the help of a league of Lily Paladins and priests, rebuilt the government from the ground up. Sevni's Empire was less feudal, and envisioned the tribe as an institution of power rather than a family of inheriting equals. Under the tribe, the bureaucracy was made, which was bound together in sacred compacts. The line between Judges of the Kifa, members of the military, and members of the civilian bureaucracy was thin. And with this energized, unified state, Sevni was able to march across Eastern Samvara. The other schools of Halikvar, which did not fully accept the Sajafa as divinely inspired, were conquered and brought to heel. By the time of Sevni's death in 347, Kiami was practically synonymous with Halikvar as a religion - but as the leadership changed and the spirit of enthusiastic unity waned, the empire began to dissolve. In 359, the region of Kokahl in the Northwest rebelled and broke free. Kiami was able to restabilize and prevent future secessions and was fairly prosperous over the 400s, but the 500s finally ended Kiami's sacred empire.

The 500s had it all go wrong at once: mountain tribes invaded the North, local rebellions sprung up across the empire, Kokahl invaded, and a large revolt of non-Dawaran tribes in the Kiamic heartlands paralyzed the government. Prisev, the Northlands (modern South Siashi), and Arnimet broke off from Kiami, and by 570 ME the Empire was forced to grant more rights to the other major tribes and to retreat towards the heartlands and South.

Kiami Dethroned (600 to 1150)

The 600s were peaceful, generally speaking. The Empire of Kiami allowed the Western kingdoms to embrace their own versions of Halikvar as long as they recognized Lily as supreme. All around the continent, the Gods were arming their proxies for a massive Divine war, which ultimately burst forth in the late 600s and 700s as the 'Lunar Crisis of Samvara'. As long as their fellow Halikvar fought against the enemies of Lily, they could be tolerated. Kiami contributed troops to the great expeditions Northward (notably the grand invasion of 710, which took much of the Eastern coast for the Halikvar). Kiami pushed ever further Southwest, into the lands of the Severeshi tribes, to conquer and convert. And when one of these tribes, the Seniwara, conquered the rest in the name of Lily, Kiami married into them and supported their conversion efforts. Under Lily's guidance, the greater Halikvar heartlands had been forged.
Kiami began to pivot from war to scholarship and diplomacy. With completely secure borders and a corrupt military bureaucracy, the government demilitarized and shifted towards priestly power and internal development from the 750s to the 860s. For a time, this brought prosperity and harmony to the region, but the 860s through 910s slowly undermined what the last century had built. Corruption ran rampant, the religious alliances began to deteriorate, and the Empire's relationships with their peripheral tribes were turning sour. Kima Cities in the mountains were raiding Halikvar lands, and Lily's favor and attention was focused on the Northern Halikvar who were on track to conquer the Empire of Shenerem. And while Kiami had found a niche among the Halikvar nations in the 700s-800s as the great manufacturer and coinpurse, the country was having difficulty keeping up with costs: the limitations the faith placed on unsustainable exploitation of the land limited their ability to extract profit, and the surge of wealth from developing the Kiamic heartlands had dwindling returns.
In 910, a new monarch began to try and remilitarize the country, to return it to its roots as a conquering empire. Their reforms granted limited feudal powers to members of the Dawara tribe, centralized all power to the Dawara, and gave military officers power over civilian governors. The monarchy also began purging non-royalist strains of Halikvar and picking fights within the religious community. In 920, the governors had enough of it and rebelled along with a clique of dissenting officers, and after a nasty civil war they were able to forcibly roll back a number of reforms in 925. But the Dawara would rather risk everything and reign supreme than submit to a lesser station among the Halikvar, and in 942 they restarted the civil war of 920 - this time, dragging in Severesh, which the royal family had intermarried with. From 942 to 945 the war raged on, but it just kept escalating - the Kingdom of Siashi jumped in, as did the Kingdom of Kokahl. In 950, the Severeshi Dawara half-evacuated half-kidnapped the Kiamic Dawara, and took most of Kiami's sacred relics with them. In 954, the war finally ended and Kiami was placed under the rule of a lesser Dawara. The royal family did ultimately accept that Kiami was not a suitable vessel for leading Halikvar - the more populous and more militaristic Severesh had joined with them to be Lily's vessel. From 954 to 1150, Kiami and Severesh were joined together in a personal union of monarchs, with Severesh was dominant. The dual union of Dawaran states fought frequent wars with the neighboring psuedo-heretical states of Ashakahd (a union of Prisev and Arnimet) and Kokahl to the West. In 1150, Lily brokered a peace between these factions in what is now known as the First Council of Avanam, which drew a new map of Halikvar lands and united the sects against an outside foe: the Ishkibites of Izekra, who waged spiritual war upon Halcyon and occupied rich lands worthy of plundering. The non-Dawari sects of Halikvar demanded that the royal family formally seperate Severesh and Kiami as part of their peace, and so Kiami became independent once more.

Kiami's Self Discovery (1150 to 1700)

From 1150 on, Kiami became known as 'Kiami' formally, rather than 'Dawara' - it no longer ruled as the tribe of Lily, it no longer lead the faith. The country recovered, rebuilt, and contributed its dues to the overseas expeditions. From 1200 to 1700, Halikvar fleets periodically attacked and raided Izekran and Desmian countries, while also fighting other Samvaran religions in the North. Kiami existed in relative peace, though its military apparatus was rather fond of tactically conscripting disloyal communities as a kind of punishment. The period from 1200 to 1350 was more or less stable and prosperous, though this kind of military overreach and exploitation increased from the 1350s on. The people were sick of fighting, the priests balked at the military's abuse of natural resources, and the gap between social classes was widening. In 1450, the disillusionment with the kingdom escalated into outright revolt, and a combined rebellion of lower class revolutionaries and religious radicals marched against the insular and unprepared elites. The Dawaran monarchs initially tried brutal suppression, but after that failed they turned to reform to try and undermine the revolution's spirit. The military was restricted and rolled back, nature preserves were made, safety and environmental regulations for mines and lumberyards were enacted, and a more meritocratic civilian bureaucracy was empowered. Religious law was also intensified, with all foreign religions completely banned. By 1460, the last of the revolution had petered out into a whimper as the monarchs co-opted the revolution and turned it into a tool of expanding state power.
From 1460 to 1590, Kiami thrived once more. The egalitarian pro-royal energy of the failed revolution energized all kinds of new projects and expansions of the bureaucracy. The monarchs became mediators between the military, the civilian bureaucrats, and the communities, increasingly absolute in their power. New technologies were adopted, many new schools were opened, and Kiami became a place for all Halikvar states to send their children for education. Magical arts from Izekra and beyond were imported and nurtured in Halikvar magic academies - notably, they were able to be one of the first countries to master the Way of the Open Palm and, later, Wizardry. The education system for commoners was aggressively expanded, social mobility improved among faithful communities, and Kiami began to find a new niche among the Halikvar as a place for skilled artisans, magicians, and clerks. The state also exported priests, scholarship, and culture to neighboring Halikvar states, generating tension with the neighboring states of Ashakahd and Kokahl, which held different beliefs and interpretations of the Kifa than Kiami. This tension also came from Kiami's control over both state's trade routes; either kingdom would have to navigate treacherous mountain paths and politically difficult networks of Kima Cities to try and circumvent Kiami's tariffs and trade control. These twin frictions, religious and mercantile, soured Kiami's Westward diplomacy. Kiami attempted to salvage the situation by siding with Ashakahd against Kokahl in the mid 1500s, but that relationship was purely temporary. Ashakahd annexed Kokahl in 1578, ending their mutual enemy. And unwise attempts to influence Ashakahd's government in the 1580s turned an alliance into a rivalry. In 1590, Ashakahd declared war on Kiami to seize contested territory, end Kiami's espionage in their state, and to forcibly end Kiami's monopoly over oceanic trade. Kiami rallied their allies along the coast, but Ashakahd was a well-oiled military machine that had entered this war with clear plans. In 1595 Lily interceded to negotiate a peace. Ashakahd forced Kiami to remove all barriers to trade, seized ports on the river to give themselves access to the sea, and even extracted reparations from Kiami that amounted to yearly tribute. 
The 1600s were a century of humble pie, so to speak. Kiami was acutely aware that they were now surrounded by bigger fish who they needed to pay off, and the possibility that Ashakahd or Severesh could outright annex Kiami loomed like the spectre of national death. Kiami was not annexed, ultimately, and became a neutral space for Halikvari sects to meet and plan their wars against Lily's enemies. Kiami continued pursuing education, magic, and diplomacy as their foci, and the influx of outsiders coming to plan and negotiate combined with that expanded education system created a flowering of art and culture. 

The Sectarian Wars (1700 - 1945)

From 1700 to 1945 the Halkvar Wars of Religion divided the faithful and rocked Eastern Samvara. These wars broke the community and then tentatively mended it, revealing the boiling sectarian tensions of centuries and intensifying them sharply. Kiami technically helped start these wars, and was the central focus of at least three of the six main conflicts, but to say that Kiami was the root cause is blatantly untrue. The two main sects of Halikvar, the centralized Dakavar (which focused on the direct bloodlines of Lily as a conduit for her divinity) and the decentralized Asavar (which focused on saintly cult and cult of local nature spirits as a conduit for Lily's philosophy), had been growing apart since the early days of the Dawara. Both sects had grudge books against the other that were heavy with ink; Kiami as a land of prophecy, destiny, and ocean access for the largest Asavar power just happened to be the perfect middle ground for both sides to get mad about. 
It began in 1700 with the Ashakahdic War of Succession. Three family members claimed the throne of Ashakahd. Two were Asavari, one was Dakavari. The Asavari had stronger claims and support structures within Ashakahd, but the Dakavari candidate had connections to Kiami. Kiami was thirsty for power after a century of being the regional chew toy, and supported the Dakavari candidate despite their weakness as a faction. By the time one Asavari faction defeated the other in 1709, the Dakavari candidate had Kiami and the South at their back. Unfortunately, Kiami's army was still weak and their candidate lacked battlefield prowess, and Ashakahd invaded Kiami again in 1710 to end this civil war and possibly even annex the troublesome state of Kiami. The Dakavari powers rallied to protect Kiami and assert the Dakavari candidate's claim to the throne. An ordinary war of succession began spiraling aggressively into all-out religious war. This dragged on until 1720, and Kiami ended up leaving Ashakahd's orbit rather permanently. Ashakahd tried to return to its prior policies of inter-sect tolerance, and for a few years everyone thought this might be an isolated incident similar to the older 1590 war. 
Peace lasted on paper for 20 years, but it was really only 10. Asavar control of Ashakahd increased substantially, and an Asavar unity movement grew in strength and size across the East in the late 1720s. Dakavar responded with their own crackdowns, and minor skirmishes broke out across Kiami, Severesh, Siashi, Sebikahd, and Ayneva periodically from 1730 to 1740. And then, in 1740, the fire hit the powder keg again. This time it was called the "War of Prisevi Liberation", and it was supposedly over Kiami claiming a right to 'protect' Dakavar population centers in Ashakahd (such as the riverlands they had lost back in 1600). It was also over the increased political and trade power of Siashi's Asavar community, which had spread Asavari thought and scholarship across the sea into Izekra. This war was brutal, nasty, openly sectarian. It ended in Siashi's Asavari communities choosing between exile or death. It bled the land and the people from 1740 to 1770. It killed thousands to millions of innocents. Kiami got their riverlands back, though, so "victory" indeed. 
Those same riverlands were the spark-point for yet another war in 1800. The "War of Reclamation" it initially was called. The riverlands were only an excuse, though; everyone knew it was for religious dominance over Eastern Samvara now. The timing was carefully timed so that Dakavar would be at its weakest when Ashakahd attacked: Ayshans, led by Commander Graceful-Worship were attacking the Halikvari kingdom of Ayneva, was with the Empire of Shenerem were brewing there as well, Sebikahd was burning, and there was a very large Asavari ready to rise up in Western Severesh. So Ashakahd invaded, the Severeshi Westerners rose up, and the East bathed in blood once more. The riverlands were again Ashakahdan. This all lasted until 1840.
In 1870 it happened again. 'The War of Unity'. No more pretense of petty regional concerns. This time, it was Severesh seeking to crush the Asavar for good and unite all of Halikvar under a grand Dawaran empire, like in the days of old. Dakavari non-absolutists sided with Asavari, and the war spread to Izekra this time. Messy business. Severesh failed, of course, but the Dakavari absolutists gained serious ground within their sect. The peasantry sighed in relief when the peace of 1890 was signed. 
The very last one was from 1910 to 1945. This time, an Asivari priests took control of Ashakahd and tried to make their own absolutely centralized structure to match the increasingly-focused Dakavari. The Asavari had been butchered in many lands beyond Ashakahd, but they rose up en masse for a final stand of all-or-nothing bloodshed. They got surprisingly far, too - the Ashakahdan army occupied Kiami before peace was settled. The radical Asavari regime, despite its brilliant military leadership and zealous support, could not hold itself together. It fell in a coup in 1944, and Lily intervened for another peace conference. Kiami hosted the last peace conference, where both sides agreed to tolerate one another as long as they served Lily loyally. 

Modern History (1945 - 2020)

Kiami spent the better part of the 1900s rebuilding and recovering. The wars of religion left the local Dakavari administration religiously extreme and intolerant, but also created a strong aversion to religious war. Kiami focused inward. Recovery was slow but constant, and the leadership of Kiami proved more competent in peace than in war - where it really matters, one might say. Things only started looking better in the 1990s, really, but the population has been booming and the land is coming back together. 
Kiami has kept to itself, keeping a diplomatic and friendly stance. Claims to the riverlands have been quietly shuffled off. It isn't prosperity, per say, but it is a sense of normalcy and stability that has not been seen since the 1600s or before.

Demography and Population

Around 10 million humanoids live in Kiami. The humanoids are 50% Dryad, 35% Human, 10% Half dryad, and 5% Other.

Territories

Kiami spand 550 miles of coastline and extends roughly 160 miles inland. Its natural borders are mostly defined by the Rejvala mountains, which run across the North and have a brief gap before continuing across the Southwest. In that mountain gap, the border is instead the Angita river, which runs from the Northern Rejvala, around Northwest Kiami, and into the sea. 
From the Southern Rejvalas runs the Shimarva river. Between where the Angita and the Shimarva run into the sea is a bountiful wetland valley of lakes and fertile farmland. The largest lake, near the capital city of Avanam, is  Lake Sudrena, which is considered a holy site in Halikvar and the final prophesized destination of the ancient Halikvar migration.

Military

Kiami's military is a standing army that can (but often avoids) levy local conscripts to fight alongside them. The military is supported by mercenaries during times of war instead. The military is a curious mix of old and new, anachronistic and innovative. The leading philosophy is very old: that divine casters should lead the charge, mostly druids and paladins, and that the rest of the army exists to support them. Long-ranged weapons are mostly seen as artillery, and most ranged warriors use slings, shortbows, or javelins. Artillery and magic provides cover for the infantry and paladin-cavalry to engage, and ranged weapons are the tools of skirmishers. 
In that old, archaic structure (which dates back to the early iron age) has been fleshed out with new tools and techniques. All kinds of magic are used to hammer the enemy once the infantry has them pinned now: monks, wizards, and bards now join the druids and paladins as equal warmages. The artillery has also advanced with the times. 
The infantry are largely divided between the common spears, the common swords, the skirmishers, and the elite guard divisions. Traditional Kiamic war tends towards the Khopesh (or sickle sword), and elite units prefer agricultural-themed weapons to symbolize their common connection to the land - war-scythes, Khopeshes, trident-spears, and the like are common. Dual-wielding blades is considered an extremely prestigious and artful style of war as well.

Religion

This is a Halikvar kingdom through and through. The Law of the Kifa is enforced to the word, and heathens are considered perpetual outsiders who should not hold land or public office. Foreign evangelism is punishable by exile, and foreign religious groups can only rent small shrine spaces in major ports. All law is religious law, applied to all people. The priesthood manages much of the bureaucracy as well as the court system. All education is religious and managed by priests. Heathens cannot ply trades, only sell wares or common labor. 
The intensity of the Kifa's enforcement does vary a bit. In the countryside, some eating of meat is tolerated in the periphery. Most priests tolerate eating salted meats, since the person didn't butcher the creature. The islands off the coast have special religious exemptions to eat seafood thanks to Lily's personal intervention. Blue-blooded clams are also seen as non-blooded organisms, and can be eaten. Elites can dodge regulations against greed and vanity, as well as walk the line on matters of natural exploitation. Urban centers tend to be the most intense in terms of Kifa enforcement - salted meats only for sailors, and no public displays of greed or vanity (such as dressing beyond one's station with dyes or frilly fashions). The sumptuary laws, which regulate fashion, can be quite harsh for outsiders (who are more likely to have their foreign styles seen as vain). 
Public punishment is a great spectacle here. Court cases are behind closed doors, but sentencings are public entertainment as the defendants beg for mercy or are struck down with horrible punishments. From floggings to mutilations to torture, the town square is always where you go to see wickedness punished in some elaborate way. To keep the squares clean, corpses of the wicked are dragged to public gardens or parks to be displayed there in "virtue gardens". These spaces typically are full of sweet smelling flowers and the trophies of the wickedly deceased. 
Horoscopes are important culturally more than legally here.

Foreign Relations

Kiami prefers diplomacy to war, and is place of negotiation and international meetings. The kingdom maintains good relations with nearly all Halikvar countries, and has a strong alliances with the neighboring Kingdoms of Severesh and Siashi.

Agriculture & Industry

Kiami is a place of intense agriculture that has done its best to pivot towards manufacturing and culture work where it can. Rice, corn, and soy are the major staple crops, but cotton and tobacco are major cash crops as well. Dairy farms exist, but most of the land is used for plant farming rather than ranching. In the cities and towns, cotton weaving, tobacco processing and cigar production, and paper milling are all common trades. Printing and culture production are unusually large industries in Kiami, and the last few decades have seen a massive industry in 'pulp' authorship arise: producing novels of fanciful adventure, smut, gossip, and comedy for sale domestically and abroad.
Guilds are incentivized with research subsidies to always be on the lookout for new methods and markets, and tend to be bisected between "common masters" who ply their trade traditionally and "greater masters" who pursue greater workshops and experimental techniques. The greater master track of guild advancement is strenuous and difficult, and Kiami is known for having some of the sharpest and richest tradesmen in Eastern Samvara. This is notable among the alchemists, the dyemakers, the shipwrights, the brewers, the glassblowers, and the tinkerers, all of whom have really flourished thanks to research and education subsidies. Textiles are still the largest industry, fueled by a vast network of small workshops and household workers. Kiami's cigars and luxury cigarettes are also high-demand items abroad and are a major growing industry. 
A niche, but notable, industry is that of Suntail Grass Extract. Suntail Grass is a plant native to the region that glows in the dark, and the dyemakers of the region have the longest history of anyone in working with liquid extracts from them. Kiami's glowing dyes and paints are the longest lasting and most refined of any on the market, and one can purchase clothes that will softly glow in the dark in various colors for several years (if one is willing to pay the right price). Things like glow-in-the-dark cocktails and other novelties are also to be found here for the rich and stylish. The paints and dyes made from Suntails also draw tourists to Kiami's holiday festivals, which can be exuberant at night. Lastly, Kiami is the only producer of "glass-lights", small vials of unactive sungrass extract that can be activated by flipping a switching and mixing the chemicals within. These can only be turned on once before it is on, but basically act as soft flashlights for several days.

Trade & Transport

Guilds connected to the state bureaucracy manage virtually all trade and production. High tarriffs bar non-Halikvar merchants from operating efficiently in Kiami, and help protect local traders. Guilds compete internally and between one another for the favor of the priestly bureaucracy, which allocates various subsidies and protections according to their "effect on the common good". Siashan merchants operate much of the export trade.

Education

Kiami has a robust public education system run by the priesthood. There are common schools, which teach literacy, sacred law, discipline, and arithmetic to all; there are second schools, which teach more for those who would like to learn advanced writing, numbers, and social studies. Second Schools are open to all who are able to take the time to attend. Open Colleges offer further education in bureaucracy, law, medicine, and natural science for those able to take the time to attend, but all further education is locked behind either patronage or test scores. 
Education beyond the Open Colleges is typically done through either a religious academy, a military academy, or a guild academy. Religious academies teach magic, law, philosophy, rhetoric, and natural science; military academies teach engineering, logistics, and strategy; and guild academies teach trade sciences, advanced accounting, and foreign studies.

"The Word Is Our Guide"

Founding Date

1943

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Demonym

Kiamen, Kiamic

Government System

Monarchy, Theocratic

Power Structure

Unitary state

Currency

Ekedian Gold Suns, Silver Moons, and Copper Bats

Major Exports

Alchemical herbs, cotton, textiles, culture work, cigars, Suntail Grass extract

Major Imports

Metals, coinage, lumber

Official State Religion

Halikvar

Location

Samvara

Neighboring Nations

• Grand Kingdom of Severesh
• Kingdom of Ashakahd
• Kingdom of Siashi