Metahn (Met-tah-n)

Metahn is the birthplace of Nafenan urban civilization and intensive agriculture. It is a region rich in resources, where prisms and humans once fought bitterly for dominance. From the chaos, a savior emerged: Hiku the Muse, the first bard. Hiku guided the people of Metahn into the loving arms of Halcyon. Hiku's teachings eventually formed the basis for the Singing Church of Orisha, which reigns supreme over the region to this day. The Final Choir of Vetevism has tried many times to conquer and evangelize here, only to face ruthless persecution.
Metahn is known for many things: fine wines, fearsome bards, and flourishing swordsman to count a few. Metahnan spies, scouts, and assassins have risen to prominence over the last few centuries, notably the Order of Quiet. Metahn's skirmishers and infiltrators are unmatched, and many local regimes actively patronize religious schools for these types. This land is an amazing place to learn the arts of stealth and subterfuge, but only if you are willing to completely submit to the Singing Church.

Politics

Metahn has been a united empire for many centuries, but is currently fragmented between a number of successor states. The neighboring Empire of Matatha to the West, which took the Singing Church's leading city from Metahn almost a century ago, exerts great power over the region - but hasn't fully annexed it. Three main states rule over the abundant Southern lowlands:

• Hikupa, an orishan theocracy and de-facto vassal of the Matathan empire. Hikupa is the wealthiest and most magical of the three states, and controls the sacred site of Hiku's Cove. It has recently suffered from a succession crisis, almost provoking a war between it and the Kingdom of Karanosi - but Matatha intervened to assert dominance and stabilize the situation.
• Karanosi, a military kingdom where most of the power lies in the hands of a martial oligarchy. Karanosi is a belligerent kingdom mostly controlled by three different noble families, all of whom compete for power. Karanosi's neutrality is the lynchpin keeping Matatha and Nomion from fighting, so it has been able to maintain its independence despite frequently picking fights with its neighbors.
• Omosoli, a feudal monarchy to the North of Hikpua and Karanosi. A very religious and traditionalist kingdom. Recently the monarch has tried to centralize power, and the rural nobility is in open revolt. It is unlikely that this little war will break Omosoli, but it adds further chaos to the region.

In the Northern valley and hills, six states reign:

• Tasemi, the most influential of the six states, is controlled by paladins of Hiku and a strict theocratic order. These paladins have soft influence across the North, and work to block all Vetevic influence. The kingdom itself is very religiously intolerant, and has been actively persecuting the Vetevic minority there. The ruler is an infamously zealous paladin, too radical even for the mainstream Singing Church. The land is known for its great ruined prism-holds, as Tasemi was once the bronze-age center of the conquering prism princes.
• Kijano, the wealthiest of the six states, is fairly small. The economy is entirely dominated by gem and diamond mining, including the famous Jubilee Mine - the largest diamond mine in the world. The Kijano State is entirely devoted to working these mines, controlling their export, and controlling the lives of their workers. Kijano is run by a group of bards, who keep their identities mostly anonymous, and some of whom seem rather powerful - some believe that this rogue state is actually run by a collective of powerful bardic investors from around Nafena. There is one other thing of note here: the entrance to the Dolorona Highway, a large road carved through the mountains in the North connecting Metahn's trade networks to those of Northern Nafena. 
• Jevetin, a semi-feudal monarchy that is quite stable and reasonably prosperous. The kingdom is known for its many saintly relics and shrines, which attract pilgrims and artists to the land. The kingdom is currently at its weakest, as the current monarch is on their deathbed, but a succession crisis is unlikely unless a foreign power or agent decides to intervene.
• Hanalia, a decentralized monarchy with a ruling legislature. Hanalia is currently struggling with an economic crisis - their part of the valley has been seeing less water for their crops, and their few mines are all owned by outside merchants. People are being drawn elsewhere, particularly into Kijano as workers or Chitasi as bandits, and the nobles are fighting each other over access to irrigation and funding.
• Chitasi, a bureaucratic monarchy that is flourishing, but struggling with bandits from Hanalia (as well as from their own under-served forest region). Famously zealous ruler.
• Lakrati: a semi-feudal monarchy that would be prosperous if they weren't dealing with a swarm of rogue Dhampires - the region once held Metahn's Dhampiric curing centers, which were overthrown from within during the 1940s.

Geography

Metahn is 400 miles North-South and 250 miles West-East. The climate is mostly temperate forest and chaparral/Mediterranean forest, with patches of swampy terrain. The lowlands are humid and covered in numerous lakes and rivers; the land is extremely arable, and the population is large. Salt flats along the coast provide similar abundance for prisms. 
In the North, the terrain gets hillier and eventually becomes nigh-impassable mountains. The smaller mountains and hills do open up into a larger valley (The Tepako valley), where the six minor kingdoms of the North reside. The Tepako valley is more arid than the Southern lowlands, and is mostly grassland with patches of forest, but can be quite arable with a little irrigation. 
12 million humanoids live in Metahn. They are 40% Chorical, 15% Prism, 15% Dryad, 15% Human, and 15% Other Hybrid.

Fauna & Flora

Metahn is a part of Nafena's golden coast, and shares the fauna you'd find there. Golden jackals, badgers, hedgehogs, fruit bats, boars, red deer, dolphins, monk seals, lynx, brown bears, racoon dogs, and wolves all live here. Very intense agriculture has hunted down many predator populations, and wiped out several older species (such as the Metanan lion).

Natural Resources

Metahn is rich agriculturally and minerally. The salt here is especially nutritious for prisms, and the soil here is especially abundant for dryads and humans. The hills are full of gemstones, especially diamonds - if you are looking for a large gemstone for a resurrection spell, Metahn is where you should go. The biome is well-adjusted for citrus, allspice, sugarcane, and mushrooms. Recently, Suntail Grass has been introduced as a cash crop as well (and has revolutionized urban lighting).

History

Early History (Pre-1060)

Metahn is the cradle of Nafenan civilization, where humans and prisms warred and enslaved one another over the salt flats and fertile valleys and accidentally built the first cities and states. The early wars of the region were so brutal that they created a default state of mass slavery, that set the norm for cities and states across the early Golden Coast. The Goddess Halcyon intervened, with a message first sent by the Sacred Muse and First Bard, Hiku Matsune; then by visions to all prisms of Nafena; then by Theia the Liberator. Bit by bit, slavery in Nafena was eradicated and peace between species settled over Metahn.
Metahn during the early modern period was known for its many rich kingdoms, and its great bardic universities. The first major centralized magical education center in the East was built here, at Yahati Cove in the modern-day kingdom of Hikupa. For several centuries, Metahn was fragmented, diverse, and innovative - and then the Final Choir of Vetevism rose in the East and began their conquests. The Lunar Gods, especially Hiku, helped unify Metahn under a single warrior-bard (named Shasha of Yahati) to resist the onslaught. Eventually, the war against the Choir became a matter of Lunar politics, and the alliance that had once supported Metahn turned against it. The realm was only saved by the prodigal power of Juchi Ika, the greatest of all bards, who founded the Singing Church of Orisha.
The wars with Vetevism only intensified now that Metahn had its own organized religion, but the realm was now better equipped to organize foreign support. For several centuries, the titanic faiths clashed in Metahn and neighboring Nomion - but finally, in 1060, religious peace was declared.

Middle History (1060 - 1900)

Metahn rose as an empire after the 1060 peace, and controlled all of modern-day Matatha and parts of modern Shaniku. Even while the faith prospered, the empire struggled with civil wars and succession crises - after peak expansion in 1270, the empire only shrank. After losing the Western frontier to cultists of Emesh and Wimbo Aizitu in 1320, the region of Matatha rebelled as well. Matatha was more aristocratic and less commercial, and they felt alienated by Metahn's international and non-hereditary leadership. In 1338, Matatha formally split from Metahn but remained a vassal. 

The 1400s through 1600s did represent a resurgence of Metahnic influence and economic prosperity, though. A massive diamond mine, known as the Jubilee Mine, was opened in the far North, along with many others; the Lunar God Haru began to depend on Metahn for premium spell components. Several of Metahn's greatest schools and temples were consecrated as a gift, but much of the influence and power obtained from Haru was funneled towards the Orishan church rather than Metahn itself. The Church was able to cave out major strongholds across Nafena and even in Maradia, but Metahn itself began to stagnate. 
Tensions rose across the 1700s, as Nomion fell to a theocratic coup and religious war threatened Metahn's borders once again. There were also fears that the Empire of Gemiku in the West would conquer the interior mountains, cutting off Metahn from its mountain trade routes and strongholds. The 1700s and 1800s were when Metahn began investing heavily in assassins, spies, and covert agents. The The Order of Quiet was formed, distinct from the actual Theocracy of Metahn in order to insulate the realm from geopolitical consequences. These spies helped prevent war with Nomion, through a campaign of assassination and sabotage; they also helped Metahn in their war against Gemiku in 1852. All of these skirmishes and wars did drain Metahn's budget, though, and it exhausted many of their people. Tensions were on the rise.

The Chaos of the 1900s (1900 - 1950)

In 1906, Nafena was a very unstable place: Gemiku was collapsing in the West and Nomion was close to a civil war in the East. Metahn was exhausted but ready to build up their coffers and exert influence over the chaos - to the clerics, the nearby civil wars represented possible shifts in a very long game of politics. To the standing army of Metahn, formed in 1710 to guard against Nomion, the collapse of Metahn's two great rivals was more than a potential for gradual change - this was a chance to rebuild the empire of the 1200s. And so, in that year, the army launched a coup in the capital city of Ashino. The Singing Church fled to Matatha, to prevent the army from trying to take control of the faith. 
The military regime of Metahn ran the country for twenty years, but did not manage to rebuild the old empire. They helped destroy the Empire of Gemiku, but the actual gains were minimal. People were not fond of the military's internal changes, and a great civil war broke out in the 1930s. Matatha marched in to put the Singing Church back in power; the Kingdom of Nomion marched in to stop them. In 1942, the two powers signed a compromise: Metahn would be split into 4 kingdoms, which would not be annexed by either great power. In 1947, the Northern kingdom of Tepako collapsed into its own civil war, leading to the creation of six small states. 

Modern History 

Metahn's state collapse in 1942 meant the end of some of the realm's greatest institutions. The academies were looted during the war, and have not fully recovered to their former glory. The great monuments took decades to repair, and most of the last century has been devoted to preventing Metahn's cities and schools from vanishing altogether. The political instability of the last fifty years has made recovery especially difficult. 
All has not been grim decay, though. The 1960s through 1970s were a time of renewed trade, with new trade networks opening up across the Eastern ocean to Garadel and through the mountains with the creation of the Grand Highway of Dolorona to the North. And while the grand academies can no longer train as many bards as before, the disruption to the old order has allowed for all kinds of intellectual and magical innovation - the salons of Hikupa are full of all kinds of new ideas and new bardic styles.

Type

Region

Location under

Nafena

Included Organizations

• Kijano Bright State
• The Order of Quiet

(6 is mislabeled as Kijano; 6 is Lakrati)