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Kingdom of Maruva (Muh-roo-vuh)

Maruva is a curious corner of Samvara, a kingdom torn between worlds. It walks between faiths and between empires; it is Pratasa and Aretan at once. It is a tributary of the Empire of Shenerem, and yet it is proudly independent and autonomous. It is a conquered kingdom that conquers, and is currently violently occupying the region of Terminar to its South. It is unstable, divided, and in dire need of reform. What will happen here in the coming years is uncertain, but Maruva is reaching a breaking point.

Structure

Systems

Maruva is a monarchy, but not an absolute one by any measure. Maruva has two governmental systems awkwardly stapled together: powerful feudal lords and a central bureaucracy. Many of these feudal lords have essentially made their own bureaucratic states within Maruva - back in the 1960s, the Maruvan government basically handed out parts of its bureaucracy to the local lords, and now every duke with ambition has a swarm of bureaucrats. Those who have failed to do this are being rapidly out-competed and consumed by their neighbors. Eight grand dukes have risen to the top of the pile (though one of these, the duke of Terminar, is dealing with constant rebellions and political marginalization). Each local lord has total power over local religious law, and can draft any local law that does not contradict a royal decree.   The lords gather in an assembly known as the Sanbal, which meets every few years. This Sanbal manages taxes and regional disputes, though its power has been growing over the last fifty years - it can now convene without royal permission, and draft legislative proposals. Some say that the Sanbal's most powerful lords are preparing a soft coup, to give all legislative power (and possibly power over succession) to the assembly.

Individuals

King Tigahl I Saltanar is the reigning monarch, though he is in a bit of a pickle. He is a callous and arrogant old man who clings to any prejudice he can find (even those outside the cultural mainstream), and wears his disdain on his sleeve. He is a slightly-less-than-brilliant administrator, though he was rather skilled back in the 1980s and even 90s; he is still very good at juggling court intrigue, and he has managed to keep the Empire of Shenerem at bay with impressive ease. But his courtly finesse and surprising power in the imperial court has not kept his country stable - while his markets have prospered and his nobles remain loyal, he has deeply alienated the Pratasa druids and local elites of the region of Terminar in the South. Ever since a series of Terminari tax rebellions in the 1990s that Tigahl took personally (his daughter was killed there), he has made a point of using the region as a piggy bank and punching bag. He has taxed the Terminari temples into oblivion, pushed out culturally Terminari elites from positions, and has encouraged outside actors to seize lands and resources there for exploitation. When the locals rebelled in 2015 his response was a terrible mix of heavy-handed and ineffective, increasing instability in the South over the last few years. Many have begun to question whether Tigahl should be allowed to continue causing problems, or if he should be encouraged to retire.    Unfortunately, the line of succession is not in a great place for a sudden abdication. Of Tigahl's two children, one is dead (and refused to be resurrected) and the other was revealed several years ago to be a product of an extramarital affair (removing their entire line from succession as well). Tigahl is infertile, and he is hardly the only one in the dynasty to be. The family has a distinct shortage of candidates across the board. The only hope the family has is Tigahl's cousin and current heir, Countess Narina. Narina is a critical agent in Tigahl's operations in the Shenek court (who is well acquainted with that business), she is a bit younger, she has a child, and she seems competent enough. Unfortunately, she also is a magnet for scandal and supposedly has a fondness for personal cruelty - the rumors claim that she is a torturer and a petty tyrant, who has been involved in some very foul deeds. Those rumors could simply be product of her successful career in court intrigue, or perhaps they could be a smear campaign; but they unsettle people regardless.   Two other people are worth mentioning in all this: Tigahl's son, Vokali, and the Duke of Dashalah, Majesty. Vokali is Tigahl's ex-heir, a son revealed to have been born of an illicit affair and cut from the line of succession. Vokali has been a troublemaker in recent years, ever since he escaped arrest in 2014 - he has courted the support of the Kingdom of Empria as a claimant to Maruva's throne, he has shown support for a Terminari pseudo-rebel group, and he has generally meddled wherever he can. Vokali has been smeared by many propaganda campaigns, and he is rather flippant towards rules - his interest in Lunar cult and his promotion of lower-class supporters has alienated him from Pratasa in Northern Maruva; the Pratasa in Terminar love him more every year, and ignore all of this. If a civil war starts brewing, Vokali is bound to be a part of it. Meanwhile, Majesty is an ancient Aysha-blessed solar wizard with a long history of politicking in Maruva. Majesty has been a part of government since 1866, and is the de-facto head of the Ayshan community and Northern lords. He is a cynical, distant man who cares only for the stability of his lands and the success of his pet projects - but he has enough influence to challenge even the monarch if he can be bothered to. Consider him a deeply apathetic kingmaker-in-waiting.

Culture

Maruvan Basics

The majority of the population, in the Northern half, are commonly understood to be Maruvan culturally; the South is considered Terminari. Maruvan culture is known for its neighborliness; you look after your neighbors, you know them and their affairs in detail, and you treat them like kin. In fact, kin that live far away are considered less reliable and less close than a lifelong neighbor. This ties in with another classic Maruvan quirk: the idea that a lineage that historically worked a plot of land has a deep, spiritual connection to that land. If your ancestors lived on that hill, you fight and die for that hill - and as long as you do, your community claim to it is undeniable. These attitudes make for extremely strong community bonds, but also have led to conflict in recent decades as land plots have shrunk or been enclosed. More people have moved to cities or towns, where they have to live more mobile and changing lifestyles - and face constant derision from those who have had the privilege of living where their ancestors once did.    Those who don't have consistent neighbors on an ancestral house gravitate to another part of the Maruvan culture-sphere: competitiveness. A good competition proves a true hero, according to folk tales; life is full of competitions, of games and contests, and one who cannot game cannot be expected to truly live. Unsurprisingly, Maruvans love sports as a rule and scoff at those who don't. Maruvan merchants and elites favor chess and other board games, as well as physical sports. Any stranger looking to do business or be taken seriously in a Maruvan court will typically be subjected to multiple games of chess, sometimes escalating into more convoluted board games, to try and test their "mental ability" - should a newcomer lose quickly (or not know how to play), they will marked as either a commoner or a fool to the group. Maruvan competitiveness isn't just gatekeeping and mean-spiritedness, though - there is a sporting element to it. A loser should be graceful, as should a winner; a cheater is a sinner at heart. Even a total outsider who fails spectacularly at a game, but manages to turn a friendly joke out of it deserves some basic respect (and a second chance). The performance of competitive etiquette is a major part of the competition, a test of one's emotional discipline and awareness.    Unfortunately, things aren't going well in Maruva, and the culture is unusually hostile right now. Governmental chaos, economic exploitation, religious tensions, and a monarch who has been encouraging a culture of blame and persecution for twenty years have all made Maruva a little bit worse of a place to live in or visit. Unreproductive relationships, roaming young people, people who don't follow norms, people who struggle to control their emotions, and professions deemed socially unwanted are all being put under intense pressure in some parts of the country. People are looking for someone to blame for the state of the world, and their gaze has been directed downwards - and they are all-too-eager to lash out.    Maruvan culture tends to be classist, even in Aretan and Ayshan communities. The Esteemed - the superiors, the leaders, the druidic - are simply superior to the commons, or so it is said. Even in Pratasa communities, there is also a willingness to allow some people to move into the Esteemed class - true winners can prove their worth and transcend the class divide. Making the jump is difficult, but possible. There is also an element of species-control at play here. Local prisms are confined to live in certain areas, and are generally pushed into a kind of mining-serfdom for non-prism lords.    In terms of food, Dolma - wrapping food with various vegetables - is a favorite method of food delivery. Stuffing grapes or cabbage leaves with rice, offal, fish, minced meats, or other foods is also a classic. Stuffed savory flatbread turnovers (gozleme) are a common street food. But everything in Maruvan cuisine needs a covering, be it bread or leaves - even the soup is served in breadbowls typically. 

Terminari Culture

Terminari culture is often characterized in Maruva's public in negative terms: mean, ruthless opportunists who constantly bicker and fume. But it would be more fair to imagine Terminari culture as the introverted companion to Maruvan culture. There are deep ties to the land and the community, but they are to be expressed quietly. There is a push to work hard and keep up, but direct confrontation or boasting is taboo. Relationships are to be built slowly, after a long test period. Terminari people are not encouraged to be quiet exactly, but there is a shyness to how the region traditionally approaches relationships.    This shy, careful attitude can create a gap between Terminari communities and outsiders, especially rude ones. Unknown quantities that move too quickly are to be seen as threats. The Maruvan war and occupation has only intensified this attitude, and mixed it with a sense of paranoid xenophobia. Trust is hard to earn, but once earned it is earned for life - and those outsiders who do not work for trust but demand it, they are invaders and enemies. If someone isn't quite an enemy or a friend-in-progress, they must be tested. That testing is usually by group displays of dominance; gathering together to push the person around verbally (even physically), diffusing the subtle crime of confrontation by making a group activity. Suddenly being verbally attacked by a group of people who all seem to be coordinating, all for no reason whatsoever, can be extremely scary for some people. The goal of these confrontations is to pressure the person into revealing their true colors - so friendly humor, de-escalation, stoic firmness, or full submission are all acceptable in most cases (depending on the town or village you are in). The idea of getting together to test an outsider is an old one here, but in more peaceful and prosperous areas it tends to be less rough and more friendly.    Terminari attitudes towards class are more static. You are simply born an Esteemed or you are not; there are exceptions, but they are rare and not worth striving for. There is also less of a species-divide and more of an underground/surface divide.

History

Divine Era History

The Divine Era history of Maruva is both long and largely uneventful. Cities and kingdoms rose in small clusters along the coast, but the majority of the Maruvan population lived outside of these bubbles. Independent farming communities, horticulturalists, and pastoralist nomads adapted new technologies in their own ways over the Divine Era, and grew alongside their organized-urban counterparts. Early Maruvan religion was split between reinforcing early states (using what might be called an Emprian model) and catering to those decentralized alternatives. The latter form of Pratasam sometimes took Lily of Red's message in extreme directions: not just rejecting the Kima Cities, but all cities and non-consensual states as oppressive. This kind of Pratasa flourished, despite theological condemnations from the South, and kept the decentralized countryside powerful enough to resist annexation from the cities. In fact, this decentralized approach was in some ways more interested in agricultural sustainability and was able to weather the great droughts of the -300s and -200s far better than the cities. When the dusts settled on the great chaos of the late Divine Period, Maruvan cities were small and few in number - the region was deemed "free land" by the other kingdoms of Western Samvara.  
Several groups moves into what is now Maruva to "claim" (conquer) that land for themselves: the Kingdom of Marsham (then called the Empire of Safimir), with their naval empire, planted colonies in the North; the tribes of Shenerem moved Westward over the plains, and conquered the South. Terminari groups just to the South seized the moment to conquer Northward as well, and Emprian druids moved to support the remaining city states in the central area (while bringing their own elite culture). By 200 ME, Maruva was split between six states, with deep cultural divisions between them.   Adding to this, Kima Cities began to spring up across Maruva, though these were mostly independent groups rather than extensions of the grand Kima body to the South.  

Consolidation (0 - 510)

The late 100s and early 200s were a time of empire. Maruva's Southern Shenek state was invaded by the first Empire of Shenerem in 200 ME; the Safimiri colony of Ashimra moved to consolidate the North. Ashimra was largely autonomous by this point, and consolidating this much land made it a local power in its own right. Ashimra seized the narrow straights that would control Shenerem's access to the sea, and began to enter into conflict with the local Terminari princes. This all rolled into the War of the Five Deserts - a complex mess of conflicts from 240 to 300 ME that involved Shenerem conquering all of Maruva, placing it all under the rule of an imperial family member as a vassal state, and then everyone getting conquered by the first selkie empire.   Immediately following the War of the Five Deserts, Maruva was a kind of home-base for selkie military activities; the conquering Empress Kova kept her closest family here, and had the vague idea that Maruva would be the center of administration for the Eastern half of her empire. Unfortunately for her, her eldest child was killed by one of her generals almost immediately, and the rest of her family was scattered to the winds. Maruva fell under the control of that traitor-general, a woman named Tasaha, who asserted her rule over Maruva as a personal kingdom. For about half a decade, Tasaha ruled over Maruva and tried to conquer Shenerem and Terminar; in 305, local officers and elites ousted her in a rebellion. Following this rebellion, neighboring Shenerem tried to invade to reclaim Maruva as imperial territory, and it failed. For the first time in history, coastal Maruva was all under one banner - and it was not that of an occupying power. Except, of course, that it was still a foreign occupation to many. The elites that ousted Tasaha were not of local Maruvan communities, but mostly came from the old Shenek-Ashimran occupational elite. And that elite certainly still saw itself as a colonial master-class.   In a "heated gamer moment", the Maruvan elite jumped across the inland sea to invade lands on the Western peninsula. The area that this invasion focused on was that of Gilmasa: a peninsular bulge of sorts right across from Maruva, which had fiercely resisted Safimiri colonization. Maruva had a much easier time of it - they were more willing to occupy lands further inland using their own larger (colonized) population. Starting in 340, this invasion and colonial spree lasted until around 600 ME.  

The Orchidian Moment (500 - 850)

Around 500 ME, the Lunar Crisis exploded across Samvara: a titanic struggle of Lunar cults across the continent. Maruva was deeply divided along class and ethnic lines, and so was easy prey for competing Lunar parties. From 500 to 610, Lunar cults pushed Maruva into periodic civil wars. Finally, in 610, Lunar Cult of Orchid of Blue managed to bring together an alliance of merchants, colonial lords, druids, and new thinkers to crush the opposition. They met together with traditionalist cultists of Lily of Red, and declared the Lunar struggle for Maruva to be over: divine incense would be tightly regulated, any sign of religious deviancy was punishable by death, and the old families would be purged and have their lands distributed to loyalists.   Maruva became Orchid of Blue's bastion in Samvara; while she and Lily were a team, Lily typically led here (due to being the continent's premier prophet). Maruva was Orchid's chance to shine, and she went to work eagerly reforming the government and society. She created the Maruvan Sansad: an assembly of landowners who could participate in government, and help shape the laws and structure of the kingdom according to the needs of all the regions. The Sansadi, or senatorial class, rose as a new type of feudal lord - commercial, mobile, competitive, actively political. This parliamentary monarchy model of government (one might call it) was intended to be a model for Pratasa kingdoms going forward, but Maruva failed on the battlefield several times and was unable to export it elsewhere: twice they launched grand invasions of Shenerem, and twice they failed. Maruva was more successful in its other wars during this later phase of the Lunar Crisis, but it only ended up slightly expanding its colonial empire and vassalizing the nascent Kingdom of Nadram to the North.   While many West Samvaran kingdoms suffered from species-tensions during the 700s and early 800s, Maruva mostly saw class-ethnic conflict. The Sansadi families and their associated elite layer of society spoke a different dialect and practiced very different customs; they were both a distinct cultural group and an economic class. Sansadi power grew as they further consolidated power and removed lesser families from the mix; their wealth soared as their power became more intrusive for local communities. Local rebellions were common, but few succeeded. And then, in 850, the unthinkable happened: Lily of Red and Orchid of Blue split apart. The Pratasa temple condemned Maruva for Lunar cultism, and the religious hierarchy fell into infighting. Orchid had encouraged a great number of new theological ideas during her moment of dominance, though these ideas sometimes skewed towards Eteza (or centralization of religious authority now the movement was entirely towards Prikia (local conservative tradition). Orchid was thrown from the pantheon and her direct influence was curbed, but the druids of Maruva appropriated her ideas and her structures as their own divine inspiration of Halcyon. The Sansad, they argued, was a model for all religious government as well as secular government - and the focus of authority in a single archdruidic body violated the political and spiritual rights of the regional priest-lords. While Prikian arguments and factions had existed in Maruva since the 700s, it was in the 850s that Maruva began zealously embracing Prikia politics and ritual.  

Otters and Doves (850 to 1200)

The withdrawal of Orchid, the shifting of the priesthood, the collapse of Shenerem (which created military conflict and trade disruptions in the East), and skirmishes with their neighbors all made Maruva unstable - and instability is opportunity for those who would challenge the state. Maruva fell into civil war in 885 ME, and this lasted until 897. The new government centralized power in the East, limited the Sansad, and introduced a representative body for the urban lower classes of the Maruvan core. This angered the Sansadi, but it also angered commoners outside of Maruva's favorite cities. The peninsular Sansadi channeled this colonial rage in 901, when they called their own Sansad in Gilmasa. This was taken as a sign of rebellion and war quickly broke out. This was a perfect opportunity for the conqueror Milen to sail in and exploit, and the Gilmasan Sansad not only won but marched into Maruva's capital - but they did so as selkie subjects rather than their own conquerors. For thirty years of selkie rule, the colonial Sansad ruled over Maruva. In 931, when Milen died, civil war quickly erupted once more. From 931 to 980, periodic conflicts burned across Maruva and Gilmasa; the wars were brutal and destabilizing, bringing plague and famine. A constant background noise of low-level violence developed. In response to all this death and pointless war, the lower druids and the commoners began to organize. How it began is controversial - was it a Lunar cult, a legendary and charismatic druid named Sevaya the Pure, an Ayshan plot, or many local groups rising at once? People disagree, but the result is the same: The White Dove Movement, a pacifistic movement that preached non-violent, humility, asceticism, and decentralized religious power. The White Doves appropriated the Prikian rhetoric of the elites and refashioned it for the commoners and the merchants; they sang of the old times, before markets or international wars, when farmers could farm in isolated peace.   When the White Dove Movement placed their favored candidate on the throne of Maruva in 982, it was during a very tense political moment. The land of Empria to the South had declared themselves the absolute monarchs of the faith, and the Prikia druids quickly seceded from this religious regime to make their own Pratasam. The War of the Three Circles ensued - a great war of the sects, between Empria, Marsham, and Maruva. The Maruvan archdruids were exiled or killed in 1040, and so lost by most assessments, but Maruva kept fighting - and ultimately they were able to get a compromise with the Emprian circle in 1150. Much of the fighting between Pratasa realistically ended in the 1070s, though, as a new threat was emerging: an Ayshan army in the North, which had just conquered Nadram and was spreading into Maruva. Most Pratasa focused on this threat during the early 1100s, and the Compromise helped them coordinate better - in 1159, the united Pratasa forces managed to push the Ayshans out of Maruva and secured a peace.

New Spins (1200 to 1570)

After 1160, Maruva rapidly restabilized. The Sansad was made an elite institution again, now heavily tied to the military. Lands were being siphoned upwards, towards the military houses; the Kima Cities were dissolved (at least most of them were) and were put under the control of several powerful families to better extract mineral resources. The new Maruva was militarized, commercial, and rather authoritarian - the odd one out among their feudal neighbors. Regular wars with their neighbors, land grabs, and colonial expeditions occurred. But Maruva's greatest threats were internal. The Druidic Revolution of 1300 harnessed populist tensions in Maruva; Prikian populists and hyper-Etezan radicals marched together with the peasants and lesser elites against the crown of Maruva. The revolution toppled the Sansad in 1304 - but the crown mobilized against them, and took back control in 1306. The crown began to slowly feed reforms back to the populace, offering relief to try and cool revolutionary fervor - and they seceded again from the Archdruids of Pratasa, which they felt were enabling this behavior. Empria, which was full of revolutionary fervor, took offense to that and promptly invaded. The Emprians won, and created an absolute monarchy in Maruva, banning the Sansad and replacing it with a council of druids. This new order didn't last long, but it did see a big shakeup in terms of politics - new families were bubbling to the top, and lands were becoming fractured. The colonies became their own Kingdom of Gilmasa, independent from Maruva.   Maruva re-instituted the Sansad in 1380, but it just wasn't the same without their colonies. Maruva tried to reclaim their colonies in the late 1300s, but failed spectacularly. Maruva increasingly feudalized as cities became less important, trade slumped, and people sought power more locally. This slow drift from 1390 to 1450 was interrupted by a surprise "return" of the colonies: the Gilmasan monarchy sailed in to seize the Maruvan throne in 1452 during a succession crisis, and they won. From 1452 to 1530, Gilmasa and Maruva flirted with being the same country, but didn't fully connect (they held separate legal codes, different structures, and were typicallt divided between royal siblings). Finally, in 1530, one man, Ardija II, inherited both kingdoms at the same time and decided to re-combine them once again. Radical land and legal reform followed, as well as war: the country re-militarized and began invading many surrounding states. Ardija believed that Maruva's destiny was to remove Ayshanism from the West, and to unite the inland sea into one stable state. These wars dragged from 1536 to 1570 - and, while they included many short-term successes, they ultimately plunged the land into immense instability.  

Free Maruva (1570 - 1830)

In 1570, Ardija's line failed and the greater Maruva-Gilmasan empire collapsed into civil war. Maruva's fighting was particularly bad, and elites there struggled to consolidate power. It was not a landed noble who ultimately won the day, but an ascetic druid named Nasunavi I. Nasunavi was a monastic druid who, after rising to power over a radical sect, mobilized a nostalgia for the White Dove movement and a growing Prikian traditionalist movement to seize the Southern coastline during the civil war. But he didn't win alone - he built a secret alliance with the Aretan Church that is now known by Pratasa as the Infernal Pact. The Infernal Pact promised that Areto and Priki Pratasa would be elevated together as the supreme religion of Maruva; an alliance of old and new against the Eteza-Pratasa. In 1579, Nasunavi seized control of Maruva and seceded from the Pratasa religion for the last time.   From 1580 to 1650, instability predictably followed: Gilmasa invaded to restore the faith with a coalition of allies, rebels sprung up, and Sumoxans invaded. But, in the end, Maruva survived. The Pratasa got another compromise - that some communities could still be part of the mainstream Pratasa hierarchy, as long as their local lords agreed. This agreement factionalized the local elites and fragmented power within Maruva even further. But Maruva pulled together in the late 1600s against a heathen threat: the Ayshans invading once again out of the North. Over the 1700s, Maruva reinstated the Sansad once again and used it as a tool to centralize feudal power; Maruva began to prosper, especially once the Empire of Shenerem re-unified and declared Maruva an ally. Shenerem began increasing its influence over Maruva over time, however, and kept trying to assert trade power over Souther Maruva - the empire's hunger for a port didn't vanish with their alliance.   Wary of Shenerem's domineering attitude, Maruva began to pivot towards Western Samvaran connections again in the late 1700s and early 1800s. When Shenerem went to war with the Ayshans and Halikvar in the far East, they called on their Maruvan allies to support them; but the Maruvans declared that the East was too far away, and refused to fully mobilize. They sent support, but not the desired level of support - the kind fellow Aretan communities were sending. To Maruva, they already gave a great deal in regional protection and trade access; this was a religious war, it was not their fight. To Shenerem, this was a betrayal. Shenerem sued Maruva, and Maruva cut off support entirely. It became a personal feud between monarchs, and the relationship crumbled. Maruva was on their own again - but they were still prospering! The Maruvans invaded Terminar, the land to the South, in 1830 to expand their territorial power and establish their strength as an independent empire.  

Escaping Annexation (1866 - 1900)

Maruva's power was rising, but the internal tensions between central government and local lords was rising as well. In 1866, the Empire of Shenerem invaded Maruva, and those internal tensions blew the kingdom open like a live explosive. Their conquered lands seceded, their lords battled viciously. Shenerem defeated the Maruvan armies early on, but struggled for years to quell the lords and their civil war. What the Empire expected to be a quick victory and a palace coup, was now turning into a quagmire. Complicating matters, an Ayshan army soon appearing in the North led by a powerful solar wizard named Majesty. Many feared that this would be just like in the East, where an Ayshan mage-commander suddenly appeared with an army to drive the Aretans from the coast. Majesty was far less of a threat than the Eastern leader (Graceful-Worship), but his arrival appeared as certain doom to the Imperial general - Narian Tarthvar. To the general's relief, Majesty seemed unusually eager to negotiate, and the two met in the city of Khopen to discuss dividing the country. The two initially planned to divide the country in half between themselves, and they began cooperating to bring stability to the region. What began as a tense process between enemies, ended extremely friendly.   Majesty, it turned out, was not a zealous Ayshan, nor did he have a large army. He had connections to the military of the kingdom of Nadram that he used to supplement his modest army with theirs, but Nadram didn't want to go to war for long. Majesty was mostly trying to carve out a space for himself to get away from the overbearing regulations of the Saraja Family - by creating a small new march kingdom to be ruled by a puppet monarch, they could escape scrutiny while still increasing their status within the Ayshan community. And so, over the course of the next few years, Majesty and General Narian grew to respect each other greatly. Majesty ultimately decided to let his puppet state become a vassal to Narian, as a way to accelerate the peace process, increase stability, and potentially start gathering influence in the Aretan world. In accepting the Ayshans into the kingdom, Narian vastly increased local feudal power: each local lord would decide the religion of their fief, and would operate with great autonomy. In doing so, Narian was also able to bog down the imperial annexation process, saving Maruva as an independent entity. The Empire was furious - they wanted the territory connecting Shenerem to the sea, at least - but was too exhausted from sixty years of religious wars in the East to begin a civil war in the West, especially when Narian was so popular among the public. Narian made his daughter queen of Maruva, and Maruva got to survive as a tributary and vassal of the Empire. To solidify the Tarthvar dynasty's legitimacy locally and in the Imperial court, there needed to be some kind of tangible victory, though. The new regime turned towards Terminar, which had seceded at the start of the civil war and had been recognized as an independent state by their neighboring Pratasa powers. Maruva invaded Terminar anyways, and recaptured it in 1872, angering the Pratasa world and satisfying the local nobility.   

Modern History

From 1872 to 1900, Maruva remained generally autonomous, but the Shenek Empire was not so easily dissuaded from taking territory. From 1900 to 1910, the Empire escalated efforts to bring Maruva to heel. In 1910, the Empire decided that it was sick of the Tarthvar dynasty sabotaging their efforts, and invoked the empire's right to replace the monarch. Rather than swapping out one Tarthvar for another, the Empire went a step further and fully replaced the dynasty with one more loyal to the imperial family. There were immediate rebellions against this action, which gained steam as the new monarch began arranging for land transfers to the Empire and looting local lands and businesses for their own family (why invest in a country that won't exist in five years?). The rebels drove out the new monarch in 1913, and Shenerem had a choice: commit to a full civil war, or withdraw and accept a new status quo. The emperor chose neither, and instead committed enough troops to keep the conflict going without fully committing to an expensive mobilization. The result was a mess that dragged on until 1922, when Shenerem finally pulled out and agreed to a certain level of autonomy for Maruva. While Maruvan rebels were not winning that war, it was proving unpopular at court, in the public, and internationally - Ayshan and Pratasa powers alike were increasing their involvement. It was technically still a Shenek victory (the Tarthvar dynasty was completely removed), but it did not end in Maruva being annexed or fully subjugated.    After 1922, the imperial policy was mostly "secure the ports for merchants and the military, let the rest of the country do whatever"; Maruva increased their autonomy more and more. In the 1960s, a shift in imperial politics led to another attempt to bring Maruva back under control, and the Maruvan Queen did exactly what Narian did back in the 1800s: she increased feudal powers to bog down the imperial bureaucracy until they gave up. In the 1980s, the Empire gave up again and left Maruva back to its business.    Since 1985, Maruva has been ruled by King Tigahl I Saltanar. His mother, Queen Zujaya I, was a wily and capable political operator who is remembered very fondly for keeping the country at just the right level of imperial closeness; and for a time, he was her model successor. But, over the years, he has given up trying to wrangle the local lords and has seemingly done his best to anger every Terminari noble in the South. The 2000s were a major pivot decade for him, when he went from beloved and competent monarch to a controversial buffoon in the eyes of some. His policies over that decade accidentally built the foundations for a secessionist movement in the South, which boiled into a rebellion in 2015. While that rebellion was put down (barely), it has all been downhill from there - scandal after blunder, the royal family's power seems to be collapsing. The rebellion, never truly crushed, has been rekindled. What happens next is anyone's guess: a civil war, an imperial annexation attempt, or perhaps a palace coup?

Demography and Population

Maruva is a populous realm, with over 23 million inhabitants in total.    16 million of these humanoids are in the North, in "true" Maruva. Of these Northerners, 45% are Human, 45% are Dryad, and 10% are Prism or Other. The prisms are overwhelmingly in all-prism kima cities in the South and center.   The region of Terminar in the South contains 7 million people; 4 million in the riverlands and 3 million in the Kima Cities. The riverlands are 55% dryad, 40% human, and 5% other. The Southern kima cities are 50% prism, 45% dryad, and 5% human.

Territories

"True" Maruva is 353 miles wide and 550 miles long. Most of this land is arable, with some hills and plains as well as forests. This area is split into seven populous and powerful duchies:
  • Bashizar, the Southern heartlands of Maruva. Bashizar is a flat region of forests and plains, easy to travel across and easy to farm. It connects to the plains of Shenerem, making it the easiest route for merchants and travelers heading East. It is culturally and religious diverse, and it is the center of royal power. 
  • Kurava, the Southern hinterlands. A mix of plains and shrubland ending in dry mountains. Kurava was once the domain of a local Kima city, named Abakoba, which remains to this day in the North. It is a fringe region known for its ranches and mines. 
  •  Dikima, once another land of prisms that has since been taken over by everyone else for the most part - all hills, bad for farming but great for mining. This is the center of Maruva's metal industries, and home to a number of Kima. 
  • Mesava, the Western coast, is a lush and arable land of many islands. Known for its wines, its fishing, and its shipwrights. Wealthy and very Pratasa - the traditional homeland of Prikia-Pratasa, in fact. 
  • Hesami, the Northwestern bay and lake area, is as populous and bountiful as Bashizar. Has a fierce regional pride, and claims to be the true ancestral home of Maruva. Less connected with inland trade than Bashizar due to the mountains to the East (despite Hesami being closer to Shenerem's cities by technical mileage). 
  • Sarazar, the Eastern fringe, is a land of mountains and hills that are exploited by mines and sheep ranches. The people here are known for their nomadism, and are increasingly being replaced by outside settlers. 
  • Dashalah, the Northern duchy, is a mix of forests and plains - perfect for farming and forestry. This is also the Ayshan duchy, ruled by an unusual solar named Duke Majesty. 
Terminar, in the South, is 400 miles long and 270 miles wide. Most settlement is concentrated around the coasts and rivers; the interior of Terminar is barren rocky desert. Large mountains surround the rivers, and many large Kima cities operate there. A chain of islands extend off the Southern peninsula, and are known as selkie outposts of sorts - many of the local residents have married into the selkie community.

Military

The military of Maruva is modeled as a slow armored core supported by autonomous units of cavalry and a large battery of cannons. The structure of the military isn't always ideal for realizing this - the military is made of many small component armies that mix levies and professional soldiers together. Each duke is in charge of organizing their own piece of the military, which can then be called together quickly by the monarch in times of war - this creates a bit of a disorganized and chaotic military structure. Mercenaries are used to fill in the gaps, and several dukes rely more on hired swords than any local soldiery.    The Maruvan warrirors tend towards using sabers - full soldiers are expected to have a long saber as well as a short saber (also known as a yatagan). Members of high society are expected to have some skill with a slashing sword, or with a bow.    Maruvan artillery is the highest quality and most numerous in all of Western Samvara. Maruvans, with their large metallurgical industry and close access to the selkie homelands, help produce cannons for the selkie fleets - and have become quite good at it. While Maruvan hand-guns are nothing to write home about compared to the muskets of the far East, their field cannons are famed across the continent. This has also helped make Maruvan gunboats formidable.

Religion

Who is Where

Religion in Maruva is complicated. Religion is a very big dividing line in Samvaran identities, and it is rare to see a country legalize multiple religions - Maruva, however, has three dominant faiths.    The country is majority Pratasam - and majority Prikia-Pratasam at that. Prikia-Pratasam is a sect/faction within the Pratasam religion that believes that the centralized power structure of the archdruids is corrupt and fallible, and that regional druidic leadership is superior. The faction here also tends to believe that local druids represent the common will - if druid of the local land agrees, the people who live there must also. This can be good (druids can intervene in local conflicts or exploitation to protect people), but it can also be bad if a local druid exploits this to selfish ends.   But Pratasam is not the only religion here - in fact, technically this kingdom is Aretan. Areto is a more dualistic and communalistic offshoot of Pratasam that is tied to the overlord of Maruva - the Empire of Shenerem. And ever since Shenerem entered Maruvan politics back in 1600 and had Areto legalized here, the Aretan population has steadily grown in the East.   In the North, a third religion - Ayshanism - has taken root. Ayshanism has been pushing into Maruva since the 1000s ME, but only took root in a major way rather recently. Still, Ayshanism has not become a majority-religion anywhere but the Northern duchy of Dashalah.   Lastly, the Kima Cities are Akadist - but are highly isolated and autonomous.   
Maruva 5.png

Power and Law

The technical master of religion here is the Elder Druid of the Etezeva - a Prikia Pratasa druid selected by the local Alkoa and confirmed by the Aretan Archdruid. "Etezeva" means "Guest Church", signifying the symbolic almost-peer status of the Elder druid and the Pratasa in government. The Pratasa of the North follow this Elder Druid's leadership, but the Pratasa of the South do not - they recognize their own Elder Druid and the hierarchy of the Pratasa archdruids. This is a bit of a nasty tangle of hierarchies, which is solved with a supposedly-elegant solution: local lords (increasingly now, dukes) decide who gets to be what religion.   The problem is that this solution has created clear religious divisions among the dukes, as well as a comically inconsistent legal system that can lead to a person's religion being mandatory on one side of a line and outright illegal on the other - and these lines aren't always clearly marked. This system is unsustainable, and will surely face either reform or reckoning.

Foreign Relations

Maruva is a tributary and client state of the Empire of Shenerem. Shenerem controls Maruva's foreign policy, Shenek merchants cannot be regulated or taxed by Maruvan laws, and Shenek military groups can operate here with impunity. For the most part, Shenerem's influence is mostly focused on trade routes and securing the North against Ayshan aggression. The imperial government would like to run Maruva entirely, but the kingdom has done its best to undermine any attempt to do so. To prevent any sly movement towards imperial control, the royal government has an elaborate network of spies and influence that extends Eastward, often utilizing the local imperial military officers as conduits of influence. The game is tricky and dangerous: Maruva wishes to keep Shenerem close to intimidate any threats, but wants to keep it far enough away that annexation is impossible.

Agriculture & Industry

Maruvans farm mostly wheat as well as some maize. Hops, tobacco, and cotton are all cash crops that can be found here as well. The big industries outside of food agriculture are the mining and forestry businesses; Maruvan mines in particular are major producers of iron, copper, lead, tar, salt, Moonstone, and tin. Rural poor tend to be pushed towards mining, as Maruva has many lucrative international contracts - they provide Shenerem with their steel, they sell to the selkies in large quantities, and they sell to Empria to the South.    Farms along the coast often grow grapes and press wine as well. Shipbuilding is a major trade in the towns and cities of coastal Maruva - helped along by the large forests and ample tar deposits found here.

Trade & Transport

Local guilds manage most artisan work and trade. Guilds are typically weak and subordinated to some aristocratic organization or family - most trade is regulated to prevent those outside of the noble class from expanding beyond a certain level, so finding a patron family is necessary.

"We Go Our Own Way"

Founding Date
1865
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Demonym
Maruvan
Government System
Monarchy, Constitutional
Power Structure
Feudal state
Currency
Ekedian Gold Suns, Silver Moons, and Copper Bats
Major Exports
Steel, Moonstone, silver, gold, lumber, food, incense, dyes
Major Imports
Textiles, spices, horses
Official State Religion
Location

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