Kingdom of Taneth

The Kingdom of Taneth is also called 'The Burning Coast', for its coastline is dotted with great pyres on which captive Dryads are burnt alive. Many more thousands of dryads are shipped out of Taneth in chains every year to distant Desmia, to serve as prestige sacrifices for the rich and powerful. This is the burning frontier of Orthodox Desmianism, a land where foreign crusaders come to pillage and the natives live in a constant sense of paranoia and terror. But Taneth wants to be more than a frontier: it wants to be a crucible, in which a new kind of Desmian society can be built, a more aggressive and mobile Orthodoxy that can adapt to any climate and culture. 
Taneth is somewhere between a war and a country right now. It does not fully control its own countryside, which has numerous pockets of uncontrolled jungle where Dryad and human refugees hide. These pockets have almost become captive dryad farms, where sacrifices are harvested by periodic raids. Raiding parties often ride out of the borders of the kingdom for more captives, and enemy raiding parties often carve their ways in.  The rest of the state is in a paranoid state of perpetual war, always ready for attacks from without and within. The upper classes distrust and police the majority, which is not fully Orthodox Desmian, while foreign Desmian mercenaries ride through the land looting without any accountability.

Structure

The Monarch of Taneth rules absolutely in theory, but relies on a small circle of military and priestly elite in reality. The Five Marshals, who manage Taneth's military districts, do a lot of the actual administration. The Emerald Ambassador, a representative from the Perpetual Conclave of Desmia also holds a major position of power as crusade-coordinator. 
The current monarch is the young King Tevros I, son of the founders. He is a seemingly stoic, competent, and direct leader with a lot of experience in the field, and who has been careful to keep his Marshals loyal and close. He is a pragmatist, who has shown almost no interest in theology or Gods but seems most passionate about great monuments and building projects. His greatest problems have actually come from his own father, the retired and elderly King-Father Estren the Butcher. Estren has never stopped messing around with politics and constantly meddles to push Taneth "in the right direction", with little care for his son's policy or intent. 
The general population is divided between the Orthodox ruling class (a mixture of Desmian crusaders and converted local elites) and a half-Ishkibite commoner class with few legal rights.

Culture

Fear and Loathing

There is no culture of Taneth, no people of Taneth. What Taneth is, is a system of resource extraction and violence imposed from above. There are those who profit, who are complicit, who live apart from the rest; and then there is everyone else, whose world is perpetually burning. Every community silently fears the others, and even within communities there is a deep sense of paranoia. Foreign Desmian crusaders, elite enforcers, Ishkibite raiders, and guerilla fighters from the uncontrolled zones are all a potential threat that faces these people daily. 
The average person in Taneth species a hybrid language of the three local languages that predate the kingdom, and eats a mixture of local cuisines. Elites, meanwhile, speak a dialect of continental Desmian and act very performatively like someone from the Holy Republic of Pakray. Retired Desmian crusaders, who settle in cities along the coast, have formed their own cross-Desmian cultural milieu as well, while they have also adopted local dress and architecture to survive in the humid heat of the tropics.

History

Old Taneth

The modern realm of Taneth encompasses several traditional ethnic groups. The modern kingdom has no ancient predecessor and no precedent. For millennia, Taneth was an isolated land that treated foreign merchants and missionaries with suspicion. They rallied together to resist those who would raid or conquer them, but they mostly just lived, traded, and occasionally fought each other in minor conflicts. 
It took until the 1200s for Ishkibism to really permeate the region, and it took until the 1400s to fully absorb the local traditions and rituals. In 1490, the first Tanethan city-state emerged as a center of Ishkibite faith and coastal trade. From 1490 to 1730, this city state slowly spread and a commercial strip emerged all across the coastline. Five cities dominated this area, and projected soft power across the inland tribes. It was in 1730 that the first Orthodox Desmian raids started. The five great cities did their best to fight off these merchant-pirates and raiding parties, but it was quite a struggle. The Ishkibite priesthood strained to try and weed out Desmian collaborators, who sold out their dryad neighbors for weapons and coin. But, for two centuries, Taneth held. Desmians even sacked the city of Zezelten in 1870, but the Orthodox forces were unable to hold the city and were repulsed within the year. 
As Orthodoxy struggled to hook its claws into Taneth, Orthodox adventurers stopped trying to actually convert the land. It was more profitable to simply raid the coast for dryad captives and merchant-traded coin. Taneth began to be known as the 'Burning Coast' for the constant devastation that the Orthodox pirates brought. The idealistic Desmians left the land to the ruthless profiteers. The dryads abandoned the coast and retreated inland, leaving all trade and war to the humans. The Desmian privateers lost much of their profits; some abandoned Taneth for greener pastures, some began trading in illegal human slaves, and some just turned to peaceful trading. Many back at the Perpetual Conclave of Desmia even used Taneth as evidence that Desmian society simply could not spread too far into the tropics. 

The Butcher and the Hound

It is important to understand of the foundational figures of Taneth to understand what mentality drove the early kingdom. 
Estren Okvia, Butcher of Dryads and Father of Taneth, was born in 1940 to a wealthy human family in the city of Zezelten. He was raised proper Ishkibite by a clan of merchants and warriors. He demonstrated an iron will and laser focused mind at a young age and was quickly selected for training in druidism. His ego was unmatched, and he despised the dryads and common humans of interior Taneth for hiding from the fight while "people of value" like him fought and died. His naked spite and narcissism was identified as a major problem by the elder druids of the land, especially as he rose to the head of the class in his studies. He was held back in studies and promotions while his superiors tried to mentor him away from such a destructive (and potentially dangerous) mindset. Instead of accepting their guidance, he reached out to criminal elements and foreign merchants for money and resources. He brought two other students with him into the underworld, one of which was his cousin, Pelken Okvia. Pelken quickly became enamored with the huge potential profit to be made and the whole situation spiraled wildly out of control. They got wrapped into illicit dryad-slaving and, being awful people, took to it well. Pelken was always just in it for the money, the other boy was in it to try and get out, but Estren desperately searched for reasons why he was still a good person. And that's how he began to get into Orthodox Desmianism.
Eventually, Pelken got too greedy and was found out by another student. He struck the other student down in desperation and greed, and was transformed by the curse that binds all Land Druids. If a druid of Halcyon's tradition takes a life for greed, vengeance, or sport, they are transformed into a monument of sin (a tree if dryad, stone if prism, or meat-thing if human). Estren was absolutely horrified by this and did his best to hide the transformed Pelken. He began to see his own druidism as a pollution, a curse that could get him next. He was wrongfully convinced that he could break this curse with sufficient training, and set about trying to steal what secrets of druidism he could by any means. He swallowed his ego, accumulated blackmail over his superiors, even killed when he had to, anything to free himself from the curse. But their secrets were of no use for him. He did find out about Moon Druidism, though, another druidic tradition that was free of the curse. And so he left Taneth to the druidic university of Desmia, to learn of this art and purify himself.
On his journey North, Estren met a Desmian raider and adventurer with an eye for talent: Lady Sadra, the Hound of the Sea, a noblewoman turned crusader turned pirate whose greed was matched only by her ambition. Sadra's family was a disgraced Pakrayan noble house, was incredibly devout, and had sent her off to the Emerald and Silver crusades. She learned to bend her faith and her hatred of demons to justify just about anything, and she drifted between careers seeking gold and glory. She dreamed of nobility, and met in Estren a kindred spirit. And so the new friends headed off to Ederum together. Estren was not confident the curse was broken even after they realigned themselves with Moon Druidism, and slowly grew more paranoid and manic about it over time. 

Taneth Rises

Estren had the insider information and allies; Sadra had the Orthodox connections. When together, their egos escalated into nigh-delusional territory. And so they went about planning to make Estren druid-king of the city of Zezeltren. And, through luck and skill, they succeeded in taking and even holding Zezeltren. Estren sewed the seeds of civil war and infighting, while Sadra appealed to the leaders of the Emerald Crusade for reinforcements. In order to divide the Ishkibites as much as possible, Estren even feinted making his own faction that opposed Sadra's invaders. In 1979, the coastline was entirely conquered, and the two egotists had an elaborate wedding and coronation. 
The crusaders rushed inland, which had been packed with dryads and was poorly defended. For decades, Taneth has conquered virtually unopposed. They rushed along the coastline, pushed aggressively inland, and grew quite rich seizing dryads. The humans were dragged to the coast and forced to build cities or work on great estates; those who cooperated were welcomed into the orgy of greed and violence. 
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Taneth hit its first roadblocks. Ishkibites were evacuating the coastline and fortifying trading hubs; merchants were growing upset with the disrupted trade lines and started harassing the crusading navies. They alienated the selkies and overestimated their crusading allies' willingness to fight them. They alienated the Aquatic peoples, who began harassing all Desmian vessels off the coast. And they overextended their forces. In 1987, a massive Tanethan army led by Queen Sadra herself besieged the distant Ishkibite port-town of Silena in an effort to smash the Ishkibite forces. At the same time, Aquatic forces managed to build a large device to fling canisters of poison gas or imported Fire Termite oil out of the deep ocean and into the cities of Taneth. King Estren withdrew the navy from supporting Sadra to crush this siege device (a wild overestimation of its abilities), and did so by fling hundreds of massive boulders into the sea - but they took heavy casualties in the process. The selkie fleet then swept in and torched the remaining navy. Sadra was left unsupplied and trapped deep in Ishkibite territory, her army was destroyed, and she was captured and sacrificed by Ishkibite warriors. 

Modern Taneth

After the 1987 disaster, Estren made peace with the selkies and aquatic peoples and stopped trying to expand along the coast. He focused on consolidating the interior, where thousands of dryads were trapped by the rough terrain and lack of roads, and were struggling to escape. From 1987 to 2000, the crusaders slowly encircled the lands of modern Taneth, focusing on defense and territory control.
The focus since then has been on consolidation and profits. The navy has slowly been rebuilding, the people have been pushed to convert to Orthodoxy, and cities and roads have been built. The Crusade has continued as an extended looting and slaving expedition, protecting and propelling Taneth forward. The state is not fully stable yet, but it is thriving.

Demography and Population

400,000 to 500,000 humanoids live in Taneth, not counting the unknown number of Dryads and humans hiding in the uncontrolled areas. Almost all of these 500,000 humanoids officially living in Taneth are humans, with a few Selkies, Vespers, and Haltia scattered in.

Territories

Taneth has 330 miles of coastline and extends 60 to 100 miles in. Mountains defines much of the Eastern border, except for the Southeast (which is incredibly dense rainforest). Much of Taneth's terrain is jungle, and the coast has a number of lakes and islands.

Military

Taneth's military is a mixture of Desmian crusaders, retired Desmian crusaders, a local standing army, and local levies. The lines between these groups can be blurry at times, but it makes for a very difficult to wrangle military at best. That many of these crusading expeditions are privately led and tend to prioritize profit over strategy tends to complicate things even more. 
Due to the heat and humidity of Taneth's climate, most warriors here wear light armor. Local warfare traditionally has focused on mobile light infantry and skirmishers wielding bows, javelins, spears, and short swords. Cavalry use here is extremely limited and horses are almost entirely imported by crusading forces, though local groups do use elephants to a limited extent.

Religion

Taneth is thoroughly Orthodox Desmian in government, and the elites are expected to be very performatively pious. According to the law of the land, all foreign religions are strictly forbidden, but this is only really enforced among the wealthy. The courts are all Orthodox, and all state-supported temples are Orthodox as well.
Commonfolk can do as they please as long as they pay their taxes and act as obedient subjects. Many are loosely Ishkibite, with elements of traditional religion. Any who have hopes of advancing their status or working directly under one of the elite have to act Orthodox, and some of these converts are genuine. The coastal cities have also been hubs of missionary activity by foreign priests.
The heresy of Seruvianism has taken hold in the last few decades, but has been difficult to detect or remove in this atmosphere of chaos and persecution.

Foreign Relations

The Kingdom of Taneth is closely connected with the world of Orthodox Desmianism, and relies on their crusades for the trade and military. Taneth is also at war with just about every Ishkibite group in Izekra.
Taneth has trade agreements with the local aquatic reef-states and The Khilaia, though these can be tense at best.

Agriculture & Industry

Much of Taneth is agricultural. Wet rice and yams are staple food crops here, though much land has been devoted to cash crops under the new regime. These cash crops include bananas, pineapples, guarana (caffeinated berries), and cocoa beans. The selkies have also introduced breadfruit as a joint cash-food crop. 
Lumber harvesting and stone quarrying are common industries as well, feeding the construction and shipbuilding industries (which are quite big right now). Artisan manufacturing is at an all time low right now, but still exists in the towns and cities.

Trade & Transport

Taneth's coast is alive with trade, both from Ekraht on its way to Samvara and from crusading fleets to and from Desmia. Crusade-affiliated guilds rule the world of production, though entrance to these guilds is extremely limited for the commonfolk. Most low-status artisans teach and organize their craft through small, unregulated trade associations - illegal by technicality, but accepted as long as they benefit the legal guilds. 
Non-Orthodox merchants that enter Taneth have a very bad time unless they enter with one of two approved groups: the Selkie fleets, or the Aquatic Elemeer coalition. Ships that are approved by one of those two groups can enter Taneth's waterspace without piratical threats and Taneth's ports virtually without scrutiny. This has basically created a Selkie-or-Octoperson merchant tax, as international traders have flocked to those groups seeking protection. Taneth's monarchy seems to resent the growing power of these foreign merchant monopolies, but is in no position to fight them at this point.

Education

Education is provided to Orthodox communities through the temples as an incentive for conversion. The Ishkibite temples try to provide their own competing education system, but it is far less well funded.

Infrastructure

There are several large royal roads circling the country that have been built in the last few decades to facilitate trade and rapid movement, and many more projects are likely on their way.

Fire Will Save US

Founding Date

1979

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Alternative Names

The Burning Coast

Demonym

Tanethan

Government System

Despotism

Power Structure

Unitary state

Currency

Asalay Dungeon Coinage: Gold Dragons, Silver Eagles, and Copper Bulls

Major Exports

Lumber, dryad sacrifices, bananas, cocoa

Major Imports

Weapons, steel, specialists

Official State Religion

Orthodox Desmianism

Location

Izekra

Related Plots

• Pure Blood and Blasphemy