Kingdom of Rakara

Rakara sits on a crossroads between Makal and Ekraht, a place where the winds meet and travelers from all over the world converge. Whomever controls Rakara controls the trade route, and the flow of goods and ideas that comes with it.
Rakarans are well aware of their importance in the world. They are proud traders, builders, craftspeople, and innovators. They are also well aware that they are not in control of their country. A century ago, they worked together to seize the government for themselves, to make something new that could benefit everyone; but that revolutionary experiment has been crushed. Zeruan corporations run the show now. Foreign mercenaries patrol the city streets and collect rural taxes, foreign merchants own the land and the public services, and local artisans are banned from running their own guilds. The great wealth of Rakara is being stolen, squeezed out of every possible opportunity and hauled South to Zerua. The people know that their own government is at war with them, and the fiction of peaceful commerce has been dispensed with.
The Kingdom of Rakara is made of a combination of these forces: an angry populace that has turned to its own brand of religious populism, ruthless and domineering foreign businesses, and a fragile puppet government desperately trying to keep the peace.
In the words of one mercenary captain: "This isn't a kingdom, its a ceasefire". But some still cling to the dream of lasting peace and stability - perhaps even justice. To those working to make the government more than a corporate puppet, this isn't even a ceasefire- its a silent war.

Structure

Rakara is something of a hollowed-out version of a feudal monarchy. There is a monarch, a royal council, and a tiered ladder of nobility. But the nobility hasn't been particularly robust since 1600 and most of the land has become crown land that is leased out to noble families. What land the nobles did still have was stripped from then in the last few decades - so they are at their absolute weakest. 
This doesn't mean the monarch has gained substantial power. Monarchs in Rakara have always been beholden to aristocratic assemblies and the council of advisors, but now the monarch has been reduced to a desperate middle-man. The current monarch, Kamundi II, spends much of his time clinging to the past and pining of glorious military victories he will never have, and seems to envision the role as something of a "top aristocratic general" position rather than a true role of political leadership.
The actual de-facto ruler is the Crown Protector, who is also coincidentally the Minister of Coin. Also coincidentally, the Crown Protector is elected by the board of directors for the Rakaran Compact Corporation also known as the Joint Corporate Venture Group. The current Crown Protector is a Zeruan sorcerer, aristocrat, and mercenary leader by the name of Metu Iskariba. Unsurprisingly, Metu is a former member of the mercenary-and-rocketeering corporation, the Iskariba Family Company.
Much of the land has passed to the Rakaran Compact Corporation in the last few years, as has immense legal power. But this company is not a monolith: rather, it is a shell company operated jointly by leaders from the Iskariba Family Company (Zeruan), B&G Company (Zeruan), the Aludarzir Corporation (Zeruan), The Aizadara Stock Company (Zeruan), the Greater Makal Trading Company (Iskaworan),  and the Alashan Federate Company (Owned by Squiddles). 
The only real power in Rakara that balances out the Crown Protector is the High Priest of Rakara, currently a Prism woman by the name of Badua the Opalescent. The High Priesthood has largely survived the corporate storm thanks to their close connections to the Empire of Zerua, but have largely been stuck trying to provide education and health services for a struggling, wealth-deprived, unstable country. They have danced a careful line of directing rage towards the Crown Protector and avoiding any direct calls to action that would see them dissolved.

Culture

Food Culture: Sweet Treats, Light Food

Rakara is the birthplace of mass sugar production, and its cuisine developed alongside that. Cotton candy, glazed buns, licorice, fruit leather, and marzipan are all common treats. Non-processed sugar also plays a central role in Rakaran cuisine, in the form of fruit salads and juices. The abundant salt in the hills has also mixed with the sailing culture quite nicely to create an emphasis on salted pork and jerky. Light, sweet and salty food is just classically Rakaran. Pan-fried red cooked pork belly for big meals, and lots of small tea-time snacks throughout the day (such as lobster dumplings or vegetabe rolls).

Species, Age, and Social Tension

Species are semi-segregated in their community living in Rakara, with certain jobs with reserved for certain groups. Wind dryads alone can enter Windweaving; Prisms alone can enter sugar harvesting or refining; Humans have Giant Lobster herding and pig herding reserved for them; and normal dryads are given the responsibility of poison-farming and apothecary work (traditionally done in every community). The divide between human and dryad roles is fairly recent and has caused a lot of strain as many older communities have ignored these new rules. Those who have embraced the new social divisions and those who ignore them has become something of a cultural-religious issue that has created deep discomfort. Prisms have also felt the strain of new changes - they were once a central pillar of society that held quite a lot of sway over the government, but they have lost collective ownership of the sugar plantations and sugar trade. As non-Prism laborers have been desperate enough to break the taboos and strike-break as sugar harvesters, prism culture has become increasingly resentful at the human and dryad populations. 
It isn't just species-tension and cultural tension that are at their peaks, but generational tension. Over a century ago, a massive revolution (known as the Youth Revolution of 1895) overturned society and changed the way age gaps were perceived. As young students, farmers, and artisanal journeymen were the main footsoldiers of the revolution (and the actual figurehead of the movement was a teen), the entire affair was heavily associated with that generation of young people (despite people of all ages participating). The revolutionary government that followed encouraged religious youth councils and student unions, whose primary purposes were opening up opportunities for newcomers by occupying land for new farms and asserting the rights of apprentices. A sort of "generational awareness" developed, where society began looking at young people as generational blocks with their own personalities and tendencies. This generational awareness has survived beyond the revolution that birthed it; now it might better be labelled "generational tension". Old, middle aged, and young all see each other as independent identity groups worthy of scorn now. The big exception to this generational tension are the prisms, who are much more socially cohesive - creating yet another cultural difference and divide between prism society and human-dryad society.

History

Early History (?? - 250 ME)

Rakara has always been something of a trade hub, even before large-scale organized agriculture. For most of the Divine Era, this was primarily done by established boating-gardening communities, which formed into large coastal trading towns with little formal leadership. Sugar was cultivated and traded in large amounts here before anywhere else, and crops were introduced from around the world in exchange. The population skyrocketed, but remained largely unorganized outside of kinship networks, community elected chiefs, and priest-healers. When Prisms arrived in the late Divine Era and early Modern Era, Rakara was the most welcoming of these outsiders: they were happy to help mine minerals to feed them in exchange for their help cultivating sugarcane. The sharp leaves and barbs of sugarcane were painful for humans and dryads to harvest but easy for Prisms, making for a perfect commercial-symbiotic relationship. In the first centuries of the Modern Era, Rakara thrived as the world's sugar-producing capital, and the local communities began forming into federations to make exchange easier and travel safer. Protected from the rest of Makal by mountains, Rakara seemed to be safe and prosperous. But they did not consider attacks from across the seas, and they did not know that foreign powers were eyeing their riches with envy and want.
In the late 100s ME, invaders from Northwest Zerua (modern-day province of Arasha) began to arrive by boat. These Arashan invaders, led by militaristic merchant-princes, saw Rakara as "uncivilized" because of its lack of kings or warrior-castes, and began building fortress towns on top of or next to existing Rakaran cities as "colonies". Some of these merchant-princes slaughtered the local priests and leaders and tried to impose their own laws; others married into the local elites. Either way, Arashan warrior-culture began to take over the coastline, and the Federation crumbled under its advances. The newcomers seemed content with the coasts, though, and were even willing to protect the inland towns from other groups, so a new kind of status quo developed: a new Zeruan leadership of Wind Dryads stapled onto the old ways. The newcomers also brought their priests, who worshipped Wimbo Aizitu as a God and glorified the new rulers as his demigod descendants.

Kingdoms and Conquerors (250 ME - 913 ME)

These princes feuded and fought, and their invading alliances crumbled into chaos. In 250 ME, an outsider from the North rode in with an army and a dream of uniting Makal: Loramazu, a Paladin of Emesh turned conquering monarch. As the divided princes struggled and failed to fight this invader, one local priest by the name of Kala Wimba rallied the Arashans. For a year, the two fought for control of Rakara, before finally they were able to hash out an agreement: Loramazu got Rakara for their empire, but Kala Wimba and the other Wind Dryads would have special legal privileges and a sacred assembly with legal power. Under Kala Wimba, Wind Dryads went from rulers to priests, able to channel Wimbo's sacred knowledge and strength. And the local people, freed from the Arashan yolk, flourished once more.
This new arrangement lasted until the Great Eruption of 480 ME, which destroyed neighboring Zerua and brought a decade of unnaturally cold weather. Crops died, storms raged, plague and famine stalked the land. The empire made by Loramazu collapsed into feuding local warrior-princes once more. But as the weather returned to normal, trade returned to the land. The throne of gold was up for the taking - and again, a foreigner would swoop in to steal the prize. This time it was a Pearl Pangolin named Osko from the far South, leading a nomadic fleet of Wind Dryads and Pangolins. Osko conquered Rakara and Ilwora (the land to the North of Rakara), creating a new kingdom from the heartlands of Loramazu's old one. Osko brought with him the shards of an ancient stave, supposedly sent down by Halcyon to an ancient priest and destroyed in an act of betrayal. For a time, this new kingdom was a theocratic state of Wind Dryads and Pearl Pangolins, but slowly the priesthood lost power to a rising alliance of Prisms and local Rakarans. In 645 ME, the Prism cliques seized full power and "the sacred blood of Wimbo" decreased in importance. A more stable, equitable system emerged, a blend between the old ways and the new. Rakara-Ilwora flourished for centuries.

The Balance (913 - 1895)

So, in 913, another major eruption hit Ekraht. Weather, ash, storms, famine, government collapse - the classics on repeat. Again, local fiefdoms emerged from the collapsed government. But this time, the land of Ilwora to the North did not collapse. Instead, a series of brutal civil wars temporarily wracked the country before a new, more militaristic government emerged. In 999, they launched an invasion of Rakara, and they ruthlessly crushed the local leaders. The new Ilworan government had no time for fair play - they wanted Rakara's wealth to recover and they saw little need to share it with the local residents. This new government had new rivals, though: the warhorses introduced by Arashan colonizers way back when had slowly led to the emergence of horse nomads to the West. And after the 999 invasion, these nomads began regularly invading the Rakaran interior. The Ilworans sought to subdue these nomads and incorporate them, just as they expanded aggressively in every direction. War became a fact of life for Rakarans - arriving for multi-decade bursts every so often. From 1010 to 1570, Rakara was juggled by various Ilworan empires - but when the nomads launched a grand invasion in 1570, the Rakarans had enough of it. The local merchant elite invited in the nomads, working with them as allies against the domineering Ilworan government. In 1583, Rakara was independent for the first time since 913.
The independent kingdom of Rakara did not emerge unscathed from 600 years of occupation. Militarism and social stratification remained culturally ingrained even after independence, and it would decade centuries to rebuild the land. But the classic Rakaran neutrality and welcoming spirit survived, and slowly the Kingdom established itself as a kind of "neutral zone" between empires. In the late 1600s, the Rakaran elite welcomed in foreign traders from Maradia and even dabbled in their religion of Keveket, turning it into a site of intrigue and competition between Zeruans and Maradians. Rakara played these foreigners against each other to prevent either from gaining too much power or influence. The idea of community Circles was imported from Zerua and modified for local use. These Circles cross-pollinated with existing guilds and smallholder associations to lobby for greater social mobility: more peasants acquired their own land, more artisans and petty merchants rose to prominence. The elites even encouraged these Circles in exchange for help in balancing Maradia and Zerua. It wasn't a perfect system, but it was more equitable than its neighbors.
But the system needed balance and peace to exist - and balance is always temporary. In 1805, a last desperate gambit by the Maradians turned into an open naval battle between the merchants. The Zeruans won, finally ending the two centuries of prosperity that had allowed Rakara to grow into what it was.
From 1805 to 1895, the victorious Zeruan corporations bought up and plundered Rakaran guild and trade associations, bending the Kingdom to their will. Rakara was unwilling to ask for military aid from the distant Maradians, and was too afraid of Zerua's growing power to openly contest their merchants. The luxuries and prosperity Rakarans had become accustomed to began to fade. Guilds and associations became eclipsed by foreign capital, clipping the social mobility once enjoyed by Rakaran artisans, petty merchants, and land-holding farmers. Corporations began to buy up rural lands to build large sugar plantations and estate farms. Smallholders (farmers who owned their own land) became renters. The vestigal Guilds became corporate puppets, with the vast majority of artisans stuck perpetually in journeyman status (Mastership allowed for voting on guild matters, and therefore had to be restricted). Everything they had built, they lost- and more.

The Revolution of 1895

As Rakara became a playground for Zeruan business and political interests, the upper-lower class seethed with rage. Initially, the increased stability and investment offset some of this dissent but after a lot of these benefits dried up, a culture of anti-corporate resistance began to develop. Some of this rage became xenophobia, some of it became nihilism, some of it became spiritualism, and for some people it was all three. Paladins of Theia the Liberator and Wimbo Aizitu both became incredibly popular in this atmosphere, and small cults of personality developed around religious figures who might restore things to the way they were.
The first wave of attempted resistance came through the old channels: the Circles and associations, in the 1850s and 1860s. This attempted social movement was a resounding failure, as many of these groups had already been co-opted by elites or outsiders and what radicals did emerge were quickly noticed and suppressed. But from its failure came a drive to make something new. In the 1880s and 1890s, the new religion of Kamada became the vehicle of social dissent. This was a time when the Kamada faith had just been formalized (in 1882) and lacked clear power structures or established elites - it could mean anything. And to the people of Rakara, religion was so deeply associated with commercial power (control of the winds) and civic leadership that popular religion directly represented social and economic justice. It also represented a return to an idealized golden age with a splash of utopianism - perfectly harnessing the rage and desires of many different competing groups and uniting them into one movement. The paladin-cults found themselves competing with many of these small charismatic Kamada communes. 
One religious community in particular rose to unite the rest: the Temple of Sacred Breath, which began as a traveling rural group that gathered poor renting farmers and estate workers to wander the land and live ascetic lives. This group gathered a very large following, but it didn't really bloom until 1893, when the leader of the Temple (a mysterious magician by the name of Seb-Makoi) was killed during an attempted government raid outside the city of Vikasha . As the followers of the temple gathered to mourn Seb-Makoi and the Sacred Breath community seemed bound to disband, a Dryad girl by the name of Farema miraculously gained wind powers as if a Windweaver. Many reported that Seb-Makoi's breath could visibly be seen entering Farema's body, and that Farema physically healed and purified the wounds of the martyr's corpse. The community then rallied around this teenage dryad, who began having strange visions of a better world. She toured the land, rallying supporters and eluding law enforcement. The vagueness of her doctrine, the hopefulness of her visions, and the her identity as the innocent child of a family that lost it all to corporate buyouts brought the whole movement together - and also attracted the paladins that had previously been suspicious of the Kamada movement. Farema was very fond of these paladins, and chose to bring them close as her personal bodyguards and entourage - and they began driving and organizing the movement around her. 
In 1895, soldiers attempted to detain Farema for blasphemy while she was publicly ministering. Fearing the worst, her paladins fought the soldiers off and a mob of zealous supporters helped chase them to their barracks- which they began to besiege. The terrified soldiers appealed to Farema, and wove an elaborate tale that they had been tricked by a wicked Zeruan witch that controlled their commanding officer. The soldiers then joined the crowd in looting the armory and attacking nearby estates. This looting and rioting escalated into rebellion, which spreading rapidly across the country. Young journeymen torched guild offices and organized into religious militias. Sailors mutinied. Rent-farmers killed their corporate land managers. A large number of government and corporate officials were poisoned. The military was mobilized, but parts of it were in rebellion - including a growing faction of rebellious lesser nobles. In 1897, after years of chaos, Farema's paladins were able to storm the monarch's estate and capture the royal family. Farema was crowned Perfect Master of Rakara, and one of the rebellious minor nobles was crowned monarch. 
Following the capture of the royal family and the hasty declaration of the new monarch, chaos continued to stir. The new leadership had little control of the country, and much of the old government continued to fight against it. The fragile coalition that had placed Farema in power began turning on itself. The Theian paladins were closest to Farema, were the most radical in their politics, and had the fewest allies in the movement. Opposing this Theian faction was a coalition of 'conservatives' that wanted to simply return to the Pre-1805 norms and religious populists that wanted a powerful new religious institution. Farema remained personally close to the Theians, but sympathized with the opposition.
At the end of 1897, a fleet from Zerua arrived to evacuate the remaining corporate employees and "restore order" to Rakara. While well-armed, this fleet was astonishingly tactful and focused on the shared religious bonds of the new government and Zerua. The Emperor and the Patient Masters of Zerua, they said, wanted to respect Rakara's new god-chosen government and establish a new bond of peace between the two countries. Farema and the new monarch met with these ambassadors, and then shocked the radical wing of the revolution by embracing the Zeruans with open arms. The corporations would withdraw, Rakara would get to set its own economic boundaries, Kamada would be the new state religion with a powerful institution, and the civil war would end. The Theians were shocked by this betrayal, and when Farema returned to them they immediately spirited her away from the rest of government to "separate her from corrupting influences". The opposition saw this as kidnapping and rallied mobs and militia to chase after them- and the Theians were soon besieged in their new castle with Farema as their hostage. Farema panicked and tried to flee, and the paladins cut her down in the confusion. The mob proceeded to butcher the Theians, and the new government welcomed Zeruan troops in to help them purge the remaining radicals. The revolution ended in reform and infighting, but its basic goals were achieved. 

The Counter Revolution (1900 to Present)

While Guilds now had guaranteed independence and legal power, the new government was too afraid of Zerua to confiscate all the corporate land. The old corporate entities creeped back into the cities - but in the countryside, they found their lands occupied and the new tenants refusing to pay rent. The new monarch refused to help the corporations collect rent, and the new Temple of Kamada pardoned virtually all people convicted of corporate theft. The merchants and elites of Zerua seethed at these policies, but the Empire found them to be acceptable prices to pay for regional stability. A century of this went by, and the Zeruan elites nurtured their grudge against the Rakaran monarchy. 
Over the decades, Zeruan domination and Kamada religion in Makal became entrenched and the stability of Rakara stopped being essential for Zeruan interests. The Zeruan Emperors stopped actively holding back the merchant elite, who did their best to lobby for change with the Rakaran government. The new monarchs still depended on the revolution for legitimacy, and held firm for the most part. And so various aristocratic cliques in Western Zerua began plotting with local Rakaran actors to seize control - but these cliques rarely worked together and were easily detected and suppressed. In 1995, the major corporations of Ibaisha had had enough of incompetent aristocrats and indecisive emperors. The Big 3 convened and drafted an agreement that they would cooperate fully to influence the government of Rakara and reverse the last century of land "theft". They began infiltrating the government with spies, courting allies, and bringing other corporations into their 'Joint Corporate Compact'. They were able to quietly slide into positions of influence, and seemed ready to play the "long game". That is, until the announcement of Sophan Eramzir as heir to the Zeruan Imperial Throne. 
Sophan Eramzir was a militarist with judicial experience - and his judicial record indicated a deep suspicion of corporate activity independent of the empire. It was unknown as to when he would succeed the current empress, but it was obvious that he was going to be much less tolerant of interferences with imperial diplomacy than the existing administration. If they were going to take aggressive action, they needed to do it immediately. And so, erring on the side of caution, they prepared a full-fledged coup of the Rakaran government.
In the autumn of 1999, the Corporate compact launched their coup, using local allies, adventurers, and mercenaries. It was a resounding success; they captured the monarch, the heir, and their major noble backers in one fell swoop. For several months, they attempted to use the existing structure as a puppet government - but after some initial resistance, the old pre-revolution dynasty was simply reinstalled. And to solidify their gains, the Corporate Compact pooled their Rakaran assets into a new corporate entity shared by all of them. The upcoming Zeruan emperor would find it difficult to interfere now that it wasn't technically a Zeruan corp calling the shots. It was finally safe for the merchants to have their feast. 
The plundering of Rakara has been unlike any other Ekratan corporate takeover in its almost inefficient levels of spite and short-sighted greed. To many, this wasn't just profit, but vengeance for slighting their families and occupying their 'rightful' lands. This relentless exploitation crossed a number of lines, and in 2005 an alliance of Rakaran nobles tried to rally with the commonfolk against the new regime. This attempted revolt was extinguished quickly and brutally - and saw the confiscation and sale of many noble lands by the corporate-guided monarch. 'Tax farming' (the use of outside private contractors for tax collecting, an infamous and exploitative practice) has provoked several minor tax revolts, and there was another attempted uprising in several towns and cities in 2012. It seems that the current regime has become almost addicted to the vast profits it has gotten used to extracting and now seeks to "break in" the country into accepting it as a status quo. If that is even possible or if this is by-nature unsustainable has yet to be seen.

Demography and Population

4,000,000 humanoids live in Rakara. 40% of these are Dryads, 30% are Human, 25% are Prism, and the rest are mostly Half-Dryads.

Territories

Rakara is 355 miles long and 125 miles across. The entire western border is a singular mountain range, known as the Dumengosh mountains. The Dumengosh range averages around 2000-3000 feet tall, so they aren't particularly high mountains, but they are numerous. East of the Dumengosh is a large flatlands covered in humid forest. Temperatures tend to be fairly warm but rarely hot - the summer is more dangerous because of its fierce windstorms than its heat. A large number of freshwater lakes dot the flatlands, creating very nice farmland and fishing spots.
In the Southeast, Rakara reaches out in a 121-mile peninsula, which is dotted with lakes and marshes. At the end of this peninsula is Zadharan islands - named after the largest island, Zadhara. These 11 islands are lucrative trade spots surrounded by shallow ocean, coral reefs, and kelp fields.

Military

There are 3 models of military force in Rakara: the Old Way, which is based around militias, the Aristocratic Military, and the New Military of the Crown Protector. All three co-exist in modern-day Rakara to some extent, though the primary army is the New Military.
The Old Way of Rakaran warfare is a mixture of heavy spear walls and masses of skirmishers and archers using poisoned arrows, javelins, and darts. Traditionally, the heavy spear walls were levied from the Prisms communes and the cities, while the outlying villages grew their own poison. Prism champions would also cover themselves in poisoned spines. While the Old Way does not constitute a formal military anymore, the local militias keep the fighting styles and strategies alive. During times of major social mobility, the militias of the Old Way have stepped up in terms of technology and discipline; during the 1700s and 1900s, militias increasingly armed themselves with poisoned crossbows, and the Rakaran crossbow skirmisher remains infamous in their lethal aim and skill. Nowadays, these militias are illegal and they have had to hide their crossbows - but that hasn't eradicated them, especially in the countryside and among the prisms. 
The Aristocratic army is a foreign import that became traditional after centuries of foreign occupation in the distant past. The aristocratic warbands focused on small corps of highly-trained and heavily armed cavalry and sorcerers, often with mounted Windweavers to block enemy projectiles and obscure enemy vision.
The New Military is primarily a mercenary army, with many of those mercenaries settling into Rakara as a permanent home to work as tax farmers (tax collection contractors) and city guards. These residential mercenaries have become known as "Goldeneyes" and are their own independent culture at this point. The New Military, and goldeneyes generally, focus on disciplined corps of heavy infantry backed up with artillery, magicians, and light cavalry. The eclectic variety of adventurers and mercenaries makes for a very flexible and professional fighting force, if a tad difficult to control.

Religion

Rakara is aggressively devoted to the religion of Kamada, religion of breath, ghosts, and time. The faith here is more charismatic and mystical than in other countries, and the difference in how the Zeruan elites and Rakaran populace practice the same religion is staggering.
For the most part, the temples of Rakara are attached to that charismatic religious populism. The institutions aren't fully egalitarian and do try and cater to the more academic-religious elites, but the mysticism of the populace infuses much of the structure and priesthood. The temples are also the closest thing the kingdom has to an educational system, medical system, or judicial system.  
As the temples are overstretched trying to provide so many resources, much of the priesthood is decentralized, with individual priests operating with very little oversight. The emphasis is on community outreach, fundraising, and education - largely leaving medicine to prayer and community knowledge. This also means that individual priests can mold dogma and ritual around their own personal beliefs, with incredible variance from temple to temple. 
Rakara is rather intolerant of other religions, not so much out of dogma as xenophobia. People are assumed to be Kamadan unless they assert otherwise, and the only court systems for nonbelievers are corporate courts or community courts. This isn't much of a problem for practitioners of traditional folk religion, who are seen as indistinguishable from mystics, but it is a problem for the small Ishkibite, Keveket, and Darakan communities. 
While outsiders often label this mystical religious populism as blind zeal, it can be difficult to distinguish religious intolerance from the general cultural xenophobia that has escalated since the corporate takeover. This is not entirely the work of priests, either; every temple is supported by strong community religious groups that provide mutual aid, raise funds, and assist in teaching children. These community aid groups are often as powerful as the priest within the temple, and have been known to drive out and replace unwelcome priests. These lay groups contain the embers of the old revolutionary spirit, and have been known to organize strikes and rebellions. So while the mysticism and folk healers of Rakara are often mocked by Zeruans, the 'irrational religiosity' they see is a lot more strategic than they can understand.

Foreign Relations

Rakara is a tributary state protected by the Empire of Zerua. It mostly relies on Zeruan protection and support for its foreign policy direction, as the foreign interests that largely control the country's politics cannot agree on anything else. Luckily, this total indecision and outside protection pair nicely together for what looks to be perpetual neutrality. Rakara has a historical reputation for being a neutral party, so even if this were to change, war is an unlikely future. 
The greatest foreseeable change in Rakara's diplomatic status would be annexation: there are some lobbies in Zerua who see Rakara as a de-facto Zeruan kingdom and deserving of direct Zeruan administration. The current emperor seems entertained by this annexation idea, which is thoroughly opposed by the Zeruan corporate lobby.

Agriculture & Industry

Like most places, Rakara is largely agricultural. Wet-grown rice, millet, maize, squash, and potatoes are all common crops that produce both human and dryad food. Giant Lobsters and pigs are also common. Oyster farming and fish farming along the coasts is also done, with cooperation from the nearby Aquatic Federation of Alasha. Alongside farms, apples, mango, and citrus orchards are extremely common. Lumber-milling, salt mining, Prism-food mining, and iron mining are also big rural industries. 
But what Rakara's countryside is most famous for is sugar. Vast sugar-growing estates dot the Rakaran countryside, as do many small community sugarcane fields. Large central sugar processing workshops follow suit. These sugar estates and fields are often concentrated around Prism-communities, for whom the work is traditionally reserved. Cotton is also grown here, to a lesser extent.
Aside from raw resource production, manufacturing also takes place here. Rakara is traditionally the ship-building and carpentry capital of Makal, and while serious competition has emerged for that title, Rakara remains a fierce competitor. The iron mined from the hills is also smelted here and processed (though recently it is often shipped in blocks over to Zerua for manufacturing instead). Rakara's large towns are artisanal hubs, with large guild-run co-ops mass producing all sorts of goods for sale abroad or at home.

Trade & Transport

Trade is managed by the Chamber of Guilds - traditionally, an assembly representing guilds and merchants across the kingdom, but currently controlled by the Rakaran Compact Corporation. In fact, almost all of the guilds are regulated and managed by the Compact Corporation or some other outside entity. The entire system is structured to divert resources and money out of Rakara - which is significant, since Rakara's production and trade positioning are very lucrative indeed. 
Things are at their most confusing when multiple corporations are in competition for the same resources. While the Rakaran Compact group is willing to work together for most things, many still have their own separate subsidiaries that they use to compete for contested resources.

Education

The only education in Rakara is either through temples, or private teachers or schools. The Temple of Kamada here emphasized literacy as an important national project during the revolutionary days, and religious lay societies have kept the project going with or without state support. Due to a severe lack of resources, it doesn't go much beyond basic literacy, though.

Infrastructure

Critical to Rakara's amazing agricultural success is their control of water: great rains pour over the land in spring and summer, and previously flowed out to sea. A massive system of reservoirs have been built to retain this deluge of freshwater, providing year-round water access. 
Great drydocks and canals allow for efficient ship repair and travel through the straights, providing an excellent safe harbor. Canals and roads also allow for the minerals and stone from the mountains to be transported to the coast with ease.

"Eternal Peace, Eternal Profit"

Founding Date

1999

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Demonym

Rakaran

Government System

Monarchy, Constitutional

Power Structure

Feudal state

Economic System

Market economy

Currency

Zeruan Gold Dragons, Silver Storms, Copper Serpents

Major Exports

Iron, sugar, fruit

Major Imports

Gunpowder, silk, textiles

Official State Religion

Kamada

Location

Makal

Official Languages

• Zeruan language

Controlled Territories

• Vikasha

Neighboring Nations

• Empire of Zerua
• Kingdom of Umeda-Kokora

Related Plots

• Leaving Vikasha
• Swimming in Static
• The Creeping Rot