Underkingdom of Orokar

The Underkingdom of Orokar is one of the great Aquatic kingdoms of Northern Ekraht, ruling the great Bay of Orokar around the Zeruan heartlands.
It is home to one of the few sedentary Squiddle populations, which have lived in the great kelp forests her for millennia. While most aquatic kingdoms tend to be based around Octoperson-ruled coral reef cities, Orokar proudly stands as an exception. It sees itself as truly unique, the bastion of true rulership and good living in the damned and dangerous oceans.
While Orokar sees itself as the pinnacle of existence and the aquatic counterpart to Zerua, it has little desire to conquer the seas. It is content to sit and trade in peace, gathering resources to conserve in case the volcano erupts once again. They do as they always have: they keep to their own and build. This is how they became the first squiddle city, the first to build a spire to the surface, the first to master kelp-farming.
The underkingdom is surrounded on all sides by march-settlements of sentient sharks and warlike squiddle-bands, which serve as the wall against all who seek to enter or invade. Only those who bear the badge of the underkingdom may even approach without risk of death.

Structure

There are fifteen squiddle tribes, two cuttlefish tribes, one octoperson tribe, and one shark clan that are represented at the spiremoot. These 19 tribes are the basis for most government here, and any dispute between them is to be resolved peacefully at the spiremoot. Representatives of the tribes are not chosen democratically, but are chosen from within the tribal elite and are often hereditary.
The spiremoot elects a new monarch at the death of the last one. The monarch is the supreme executive, coordinator of the military, and can give edicts that require a majority-vote of the spiremoot to cancel out.

History

Orokar has been densely populated for millennia, as the ash-fed rivers of Ibaisha transform the bay into a massive algae-bloom and encourage dense kelp forests. Crabcows do not need to migrate for food here, but instead can just sit in place and dine happily. This has meant that the squiddles of Orokar have a history of sedentary living, which they have used to build small stone settlements, create art, and specialize more dramatically in tool creation. The Squiddles here even have their own independent written language.
Records of ancient Orokar civilizations exist, but these fragile urban settlements have been vulnerable to volcanic disruption, outside invasion, civil war, and plague. Following the 480 eruption and ensuing chaos, an outside squiddle warlord was able to seize power and create a draconian militaristic regime, but a cuttlefolk rebel (the great hero Ashua, known as the founder of the cuttlefolk tribe of Orokar) slew them and destroyed the city built by forced labor- returning Orokar to a smattering of tribes.
After the 913 eruption, few traces outside of myth and legend remained of these old Orokar civilizations. But the return of written Orokar by squiddle scribes in 1000 begins the new history. The earliest written document of this new history is the 1020 Treaty of the Oroa forest, which bound the fourteen tribes (thirteen squiddle tribes and one cuttlefolk) in peace and unity. This period of peace saw immense growth and development, but ended with the 1203 eruptions and ensuing wars over resources. The treaty was re-written in 1350 and the alliance of the fourteen survived the next round of eruptions through careful cooperation and planning.
In 1700, everything changed: a group of squiddles arrived bringing Druidism, chemical weapons, and Octo-person voicebox technology. A band of these warlike squiddles waged war on the federation and seized control in 1705. From 1705-1790, the druidic regime of outsiders expanded further and further across the bay and surrounding seas as a unified state. It also began the construction of a great monumental capital near the Zeruan capital, where the new regime hoped to potentially hold Zeruan merchant-traffic hostage from below.
But Zerua was a powerful empire and a dangerous enemy to make, and the Squiddle regime failed to see its own instability. Even its own tribes had begun to become culturally Orokaran and disillusioned with pointless war, and they reached out to Zeruan emissaries seeking peace and friendship. In 1790, after three years of useless fighting, the old monarchs were captured and put on trial by the now fourteen squiddle tribes and cuttlefolk tribe. They elected a new monarch in their place, and from the foreign empire, the structure for a new Orokan kingdom was born. The great spire-fortress of the conquerors was transformed into a great monument reaching up to the surface world in peace.
But just as Orokar inherited structure and wealth from its conquerors, so did it inherit problems. The surrounding nomadic tribes, previously content to ignore the bay, were now constantly attacking it in revenge for the invasions of the old monarchy. Even worse, pointless forays into the open ocean had attracted the attention of the shark tribes, which started to move inland in search of food.
In 1845, a shark merchant by the name of Sharp (Sharp-Wolf*-Under-Southern-Ocean is her full name) gathered the sharks families in pursuit of glory. Sharp launched a great invasion of Orokar, driving the nomadic Squiddle tribes in front of her into the kingdom and creating chaos. From 1845 to 1850, the Shark wars left Orokar bankrupt and in chaos- but Sharp was open to reason. Orokar bartered with the sharks, offering monthly food tribute in exchange for protection. After Sharp's death, Orokar turned the tables on them- playing kingmaker among the shark warlords. After the dust cleared in 1863, the sharks and border-squiddles began to slowly be integrated as border-marches. In 1910 and 1990 respectively, they were granted seats at the spire-moot.
Peaceful at last and increasingly connected with larger trade networks, Orokar invited a group of Octopeople into the bay to act as mechanics and chemists in 1865. To facilitate this, druidic magic was used to help create an artificially protected miniature coral reef around the tower. These octopeople were largely exiles from the rising Western Alasha empire, and have their own culture that is distinct from the other tribes.
*sharks do not know what wolves are, but comparisons by humanoid merchants have led them to believe that they are sharks that can either fly or have legs and live on the surface. They have religious importance as guardians of the afterlife, and are associated with foreign-ness and magic.

Demography and Population

Orokar's population is around 1,000,000.
890,000 Squiddles, 90,000 Cuttlefolk, 8,000 sentient sharks, and 8,000 Octopeople live in the Underkingdom.

Territories

The heartlands of the kingdom are the Orokar bay: 57 by 110 miles of shallow continental shelf. The fringe territory extends much further, around the land of Sanari and all the way to the dropoff point in the North.
Central Orokar is the most densely populated, particularly around the massive kelp forests. Intense deforestation of the central forests in prior centuries has led to kelp farming using lobster and crab chitin as well as increased kelp-foresting in the East (where a number of squiddle villages live isolated from the underkingdom and unhappy about this new development).
In the South, the Ash Blooms near the Belikoi river block out the sun with ash and algae. The conditions here aren't great, and it can be dangerous during eruptions, but the Crabcows and Giant Lobsters swarm here like nowhere else.
A labyrinth of islands and sandbars provide great natural structure to massive crabcow ranches and secluded and protected squiddle villages. Planted kelp-and-stone pathways form "roads of the mind" - essentially, highly visible path markers for squiddles trying to find their way to a specific location.
Near the massive island of Sanari and just off the coast of the Zeruan capital of Sagrena is the great city of Orokoro. It is loosely defined (as squiddle cities are) and is largely urban sprawl of stone-and-kelp buildings surrounding the artificial reef and great spire.

Military

The tribes of Orokar are all expected to have a minimum number of warriors on retainer in case of war, and this professional elite is known for their speed, stealth, and finely-made obsidian-and-chitin weaponry. In the last century, the obsidian weapons have become more and more relegated to ceremonial guards and old militias as bronze weaponry and armor has become the new standard.
While theoretically every tribe contributes to the military equally, most of the actual army power lies in the squiddle tribe and shark tribe that manage border security. While more octoperson-heavy armies tend to rely on ranged firepower, Orokar's army prefers to either armor up to close the gap or ambush with melee (ideally both).

Religion

Orokarans traditionally worship the city and land itself as embodiment of their ancestors, with the spire serving as a culmination of their ancestral power. In Orokara spiritualism, effort is the transfer of both spiritual and physical energy into an object- by working the land and giving their bodies to it in death (by burying them in kelp roots), the spirits of the dead are anchored in this world and have influence over it. The ancestral energy and combined power becomes a kind of "spirit of the community" known as Orokama, who is the default object of prayer here. When abroad, Orokarans typically keep trinkets made by family members and pray to their ancestors or deceased family members for protection. There is an idea of an "afterlife" known as the Trench Beyond or the Great Mystery, but there is no consensus on what lies there.
There is no priestly class, but rather communal and family ceremony and ritual. This is not a significant part of day-to-day life, but part of an ambient worldview and cultural belief system that is part of Orokaran identity.

Foreign Relations

Orokar is on very good terms with the surface world, notably Zerua, which it trades gifts with periodically. Zerua considers Orokar a tributary and visa-versa, and neither want to risk their friendship by clarifying this confusion.
Orokar may value the surface for its willingness to respect its territory and demands, but it holds no such respect for its aquatic neighbors. It has a nearly-closed border on all sides, with only four gates of entry that visitors can enter without being attacked. All of those gates are heavily guarded and regulated. Approaching across the open border means risking an attack by the shark or squiddle border federates. This isn't a death sentence, but they are likely to confiscate all material possessions or leave trespassers with nasty injuries.
Orokar is particularly wary of the Empire of Alasha to its West, which dominates much of the Northwestern continental coast. Alasha and Orokar have yet to go to war, but Orokar has long associated it with its former conquerors and invaders and it is true that Alasha is an expansionist state. While tensions are really high right now, Alasha is working to calm the waters and peace may be on the horizon.

Agriculture & Industry

Crab and Lobster herding is the main source of work here- protecting, herding, cleaning, raising, and slaughtering the great crustaceans is the central pillar of life in Orokar. Aside from that, artisans fashion kelp and chitin into tools and rope, miners gather stone and obsidian from coastal deposits, clam farmers raise clams for meat and pearls, kelp farmers grow new kelp forests, and stonemasons construct new houses and do periodic repairs. 
Professions here are mostly hereditary, though dissatisfied squiddles can easily seek apprenticeships to be something else. Cuttlefish, border-squiddles, octopeople, and sharks are generally pushed into default professions (artisans, warriors, tinkerers or alchemists, and warriors again) but it is possible to escape these defaults with enough effort.
Money and property is help in common with the tribe here, and tribes tend to share with one another- so there isn't a ton of class stratification. Outsiders and refugees without a tribe are out of luck, though, and are forced into indentured servitude working for a tribe for a period of five years (this is not hereditary, luckily, and their children born after the servitude begins will be full tribe members). These servants are often given the worst jobs (usually mining). Criminals and deeply unpopular residents must choose between exile and indentured servitude as well, and persecution of unpopular families for mining work has taken place in the recent past.

Trade & Transport

Trade is limited to five primary locations: The Spire (for surface trade), the two Western gates, the North gate, and the East gate. Incoming aquatic merchants are often subject to heavy taxes and are typically barred from entering past the trade gate. 
Commerce is fairly limited, and merchants being a purely voluntary profession with little direct profit hasn't made it a particularly popular choice among Orokaran society. As trade has become more and more profitable, the tribes have slowly increased incentives for accountants and merchants, but they have been wary (lest the new merchants become too foreign).

Education

Education is primarily done by family units, teaching agricultural and basic literacy skills. More advanced mathematical, literary, or political training is done in the central city by a small clique of tutors.

Founding Date

1790

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Alternative Names

The Federation of Ooroonoo

Demonym

Orokaran

Government System

Monarchy, Crowned Republic

Power Structure

Federation

Economic System

Command/Planned economy

Currency

Gold Tokens, Bronze Tokens, Cowry Shells

Major Exports

Mustard gas, food, obsidian, pearls

Major Imports

Bronze, copper, rubber, alcohol, fire termite oil, pangolin-shell-steel

Legislative Body

The Spiremoot

Judicial Body

The Court of Elders

Location

Ekraht

Neighboring Nations

• Federation of Alasha
• Vice-Kingdom of Sanari