Sebikahd (Seb-bee-kahd)

Sebikahd is the Southeastern edge of Samvara, a river valley and strip of coastline united in a shared aristocracy, commercial network, and religious hierarchy. It is exoticized by many as a land of healing and medicine, a land of luxurious drinks and spices, and a place of religious war and mysticism. And these notions have some root in truth; Sebikahd produces most of Samvara's Kilusha and has a famous river with medicinal properties, Sebikahd produces an emormous amount of spices, cocoa, and coffee, and Sebikahd is divided by two opposing religious factions. But beneath it all are just people farming, mining, and living in relative safety and harmony. 
In the West and center reigns the Sebikahd Sumoxa temple, the most centralized and militaristic of the Sumoxan sects. It is led by Grand Harbinger Sumet Imasha, a pragmatic warrior with a thirst for vengeance and profit. And in the East and coastal region are the Halikvar, led by Su-Alkoa Devi Enivar, an eccentric mystic who seems content with the status quo. And all around are the Kima Cities, which are unusually open and friendly here.

Geography

Sebikahd is a region in Southeastern Samvara spanning about 900 miles West-East and 950 miles of coastline. It is primarily divided between the large Sebinet river valley in the interior and the great span of Southeastern coastline. The Sebinet river valley is centered around the Dwanara river, which is 890 miles long and known for its reddish waters. Near the coastline, the river pours into a large lake - Lake Sesara - before emptying out through a broad delta into the sea. Coastal Sebikahd is mostly defined as the space between the Kingdom of Severesh and Chalja island in the far South. Chalja is over 100 miles off the coast and is 60 by 100 miles across. 20 miles East of Chalja is the much smaller Shina island. 
Wrapping around Sebikahd are great mountains that prevent easy Westward travel and grab the rainclouds out of the sky. The primary mountain range is the massive equatorial Sarisen range in the South and West, which averages above 18,000 feet above sea level. The Sarisen range is poorly mapped and understood by non-Prisms, and has a reputation as a place of mystery: according to legend and myth, the gate to the underworld can be found there. In the North, separating Sebikahd from Severesh, is the much smaller Elbinev range - still tall and rough enough to make travel and administration difficult and to squeeze out passing rain, but not nearly as impregnable as the Sarisens. 
Sebikahd's biome is mostly tropical forest, with the occasional small patch of savannah. It isn't quite equatorial rainforest, but it can grow quite dense in places. The climate is best suited for Dryads, who thrive in large populations here, but many humans and prisms manage quite well also.

Fauna & Flora

The majestic orange-and-black striped tigers of Sebikahd are internationally famous, as are the native spotted and clouded leopards. Elephants, crocodiles, spotted dear, sun bears, sloth bears, water antelope (or nilgai), pythons, miniature rhinos, monkeys, boars, cobras, gibbons, lemurs, water bison, and "bearcats" all live here as well.

Natural Resources

Sebikahd is known for its large Kilusha deposits, which are easily the largest in Samvara. The Kilusha-infused minerals that infuse the river water are said to treat Gem Plague, though the water doesn't seem to be potent enough to make export viable - the people here seem to find health benefits from washing and exposing themselves to the waters regularly, but the river is hardly a cure-all (and it can definitely still make you sick from drinking it if you don't treat it). Local religious traditions now associated with Sumoxa treat the river water as the blood of the Earth, to be revered and ritually used. Halikvar traditions, which stigmatize blood as polluted, tend to find these rituals and concepts religiously taboo, and many conflicts have begun over the ritualized use of the Sebinet river water (which both sides revere in their way). 
While the river water has done a good job helping push away malaria, gem plague, and parasites from the local populace, the kingdoms that rule the region are not content with Kilusha infused water - they eagerly mine the raw mineral from the mountains where they can find it for export. The Kilusha mining trade has always been a cornerstone of trade in the region, and wars have been fought for commercial control of the mines and export. 
In recent centuries, the region's economy has diversified; new tropical crops are growing in demand as international trade grows and preservation methods are refined. Cocoa, sugar, and coffee are major cash crops grown in the more tropical corners of Sebikahd.

History

Early Sebikahd (Pre 1400)

Sebikahd has long had sedentary agriculture, nomadic hunting-foraging communities, and cross-regional trade, but it was the Kilusha mining and trade that ultimately led to the birth of the region's cities and kingdoms. From the 800s onwards, the demand for Kilusha internationally drove more and more communities to mining and commerce, and a network of major prism and dryad tribes formed large trading towns to try and organize and capitalize on this. Halikvar merchants were attracted to these more stable towns and began to attach themselves to the larger mines; they offered easier river transport, new mining technologies, and business connections abroad in exchange for a piece of the pie. These merchants brought their customs and religion with them, and the major dryad tribes attached to the mining and commerce began to convert. Halikvar kingdoms emerged in the late 900s, starting in the East and leapfrogging from tribe to tribe Westward. From 1000 to 1600, the Halikvar kingdoms and the Western Kima Cities were the twin powers of Sebikahd, the masters of mining and trade. 
The Kima cities had their own history, beginning with the migration of Akadist exiles in the 200s. From 300 to 600, the Kima cities were divided along religious lines, as some saw a looser organization and a more fluid relationship with the neighboring prism tribes to be ideal while others clung to the more absolutist model. In Sebikahd, the less rigid and controlling Kimas won and conquered the others, even forming their own Empire of Saridem in the 600s through 1200s. This empire (more of a coalition at times, that went through waves of centralization and decentralization) eventually collapsed, but they set the status quo for Kima Cities going forward: a kind of Eastern Akadism that allowed for easier movement in and out of the Kima Cities and better conditions inside of them. The Kilusha helped bankroll that effort - it was easy for the less-insular Kimas to rely on easy trade money to sustain their ways and attract outsiders with profit. And while the increased numbers of non-prisms mining and trading reduced the Kima's overall influence, Sebikahd's strain of Akadism had crystallized into something less hostile than most other sects.

Missionaries and Mines (1400 - 1700)

In the 1400s, the Eastern District of the Healing Church moved in to the Kilusha business of Sebikahd. The Healing Church managed most matters of continental medicine, and therefore was drawn towards the Kilusha export business from the beginning, but the decentralization of the Healing Church had also opened the way for the Halikvari temple to entangle themselves with this Healing Church division. The temple was also consolidating its power, and was in the golden age of religious unity. The Archdruid of Dakavar Halikvar, enthroned in neighboring Severesh, issued a divine mandate in 1430 demanding all Kilusha be directed through religious channels involving the Healing Church, cutting all local actors out of the Kilusha trade. Mining was increased, but the locals saw ever dwindling cuts of the profits. The Kima Cities began to try to make their own trade networks through the mountains; the Temple and kingdoms responded by doubling down on their own mining. And with that increased investment came increased numbers of missionaries, more religious law. The common people, particularly humans and prisms, were still mostly not Halikvar, but were locked out of their own systems of power completely. More druids meant better crops, so it wasn't instant rebellion, but the growing power of the temples and monarchs worried the commonfolk. 
In 1590, a Sumoxan missionary and apostle by the name of Pirna the Hopebringer arrived from the West. She was a kind and gentle prism who hoped that her faith could bring cooperation rather than chaos, and she spent a great deal of time among the mountain tribes rather than the Halikvar riverlands. Pirna encouraged non-Halikvar groups to preserve their traditions through the system of Sumoxa and encouraged more West-facing trade through the prism-holds; her Sumoxa was syncretic with local Akadism and local lowland beliefs both. But, after Pirna's death, the networks of mutual aid and traditional religion that she made drifted away from the Kima Cities and towards the riverlands. For a while, this Sumoxan sect co-existed with the Halikvar temple - but as Halikvar power spread out from the mining and trading towns into the countryside, Sumoxa was forced to push back or perish. 
Two figures dominated the 1600s: Zaraja Enivar, an Eastern merchant and magnate of the century, and Emeji Imasha, a Western paladin of Emesh and warrior of the Imasha hill tribe. Zaraja was a Halikvar merchant-aristocrat (and amateur botanist) with ties to the holy kingdoms to the North, who was able to weasel into land deals across Sebikahd. Zaraja felt that Kilusha mining was unsustainable and over-hyped, and saw great potential in cash crop farming - Sebikahd's humidity and heat was unusual for the latitude, and allowed farmers to grow tropical crops without having to deal with full equatorial heat and logistics. From 1610 to 1800, the Enivar family thrived across the coast and riverlands, and while they never formally ruled any particular state they wielded more power than any one monarch. And their crops brought wealth and power into Sebikahd - but also brought the expansion of the state into the countryside. Previously, farming communities were a haven for non-Halikvar families and traditions, but they were quickly losing their land and facing religious attacks from above. 
Meanwhile, Emeji Imasha was a human warrior, a semi-nomad with history working with the Kilusha miners. Emeji was a devout traditionalist raised in the early Sumoxan temple, as well as a sincere idealist who wanted to bring freedom and peace to Sebikahd. Emeji became a paladin of Emesh at a young age, and had a following of miners, tribal agrarians, and petty merchants alike - he was respected as a warrior, a healer, and an inspirational speaker. As trade increased in Sebikahd and the state expanded into the countryside, banditry became commonplace. Emeji hoped to change that, and founded an order of Sumoxan holy warriors known as the Sebinet Defenders to protect communities from banditry and provide support and healing to communities left behind by the mines or estate farms. The Defenders became the centralized military arm of Sebikahd's Sumoxan faith, who spread Sumoxa as they went. And while the Defenders and the Halikvar didn't initially see each other as enemies - Emeji and Zaraja were on good terms for much of their lives - it wasn't long before the peoples displaced or hurt by the expanding cash crop plantations would turn to the Defenders for protection. 

The Religious Wars (1700 - 1930)

The first religious conflicts in Sebikahd began in the early 1700s and were largely tied to local farming communities rebelling against enforcement of Halikvar religious laws. The Defenders often intervened and brought their allied villages with them, so these rebellions could get quite large and nasty. Generally speaking, these revolts checked growing state power but did not actually stop the growth of estate farms or religious law. There was one exception to this rule that changed everything in 1820, though: the rebellion of Levela Imasha in the Western kingdom of Haribar, which was far more organized and ambitious than any before. Levela, a Sumxan priest and charismatic descendant of Emeji, used the Defenders and their network as a way to mobilize holy warriors to take the fight to the aristocrats, and was able to overthrow the local monarch. Levela visited all the forced conversion tactics on the Halikvar that they had used on Sumoxans, and she stoked the fires of region-wide rebellion in a major way. Rebellions from 1820 to 1840 flipped five other states and were able to muster enough warriors to fight off Halikvar counter-attacks. Levela was also able to win over the Kima cities, creating a regional alliance against Halikvari hegemony. 
From 1840 to 1890, there was a tense but promising peace. But the wars had radicalized both sides and broken the norms of mutual acceptance, and it was far harder to repair the world than to break it. From 1890 to 1930, the wars between Sumoxa and Halikvar continued. This time, the war was between rival states as well as between neighbors, and the scale was even larger. The Sumoxans were able to slowly whittle down the Halikvar advantage through attrition and co-opting Halikvar industries - while the Eastern kingdoms saw their holy warriors drawn North to the Halikvar Wars of Religion, the Sumoxans were laser-focused and relentless. In 1926, they were able to seize the largest and most central of the Halikvar kingdoms, Nadwa, and in 1930 they were able to completely secure the central riverlands. A peace was made with the Halikvar Su-Alkoa and the Sumoxan Harbinger in 1930, and stability finally returned to Sebikahd. 

Modern History

While it would be deeply wrong to state that religious peace reigns in Sebikahd, the imminent threat of a major war has passed. The Halikvar have strengthened their hold of the East, while the Sumoxans of Sebikahd have organized in the West. The normally decentralized Sumoxans elected to form a more traditional hierarchy in 1934, and are now led by a Grand Harbinger, who manages the faith militant and who polices the local priesthood. 
While the Sumoxans have the fertile center of Sebikahd and many of the mines, they lack access to oceanic trade or outside networks of support. Even worse, there are many within the Sumoxan ranks who are unhappy with how the priesthood has kept the systems of mines, church orders, and plantations - same institutions, different names and specifics of religious law. As long as the Halikvar continue being vaguely antagonistic, the Grand Harbinger can use them as a boogeyman to keep everyone in line, but this path of peace is a very tenuous balance indeed. 
In recent decades, trade routes into the Southern tropics have expanded and brought new possibly threats and opportunities. Whether this means more war or a new peace is anyone's guess.

Tourism

Sebikahd, as a land of medicines and healing minerals, hosts a modest health tourism industry. Much of this is concentrated in the city of Dwenra, in the Eastern part of the river valley along the shores of Lake Sesara.

Alternative Name(s)

Sebikaad

Type

Region

Location under

Samvara