Kingdom of Acumen

Acumen is one of only two human-majority countries considered to be a major power, having existed for over two-thousand years. Unlike its predecessor, the Normalia Empire, which conquered most of Sunntondra by force over its three-thousand-year history, Acumen has existed in relative peace and is renowned as being home to the greatest collection of mentant-engineers in the world. Acumen is constantly putting out new innovations in mentant-engineering and has created many products that have had a huge impact on the world, including the vornwood quickener staff and the advanced orcrus. Acumen engineers are also extremely talented core technicians and are tasked to repair and maintain city cores around the world.
Though a peaceful nation, Acumen boasts a powerful military. The standing army serves as a bulwark against any country that may try to attack it, especially the Republic of Marshroot at its southern border which retained the more expansionist tendencies of the former Normalia Empire.

History

The Kingdom of Acumen was one of many domains founded after the fall of the Normalia Empire which once ruled the whole of the inhabitable part of Sunntondra for the majority of the TS era. After centuries of war, the founders wanted to build a country that could exist in peace, but they knew that this would be impossible if they didn’t devise a way to protect themselves. They took over Mount Normalia to have a location that was partially protected, but they knew it would only be a matter of time before a larger power sought out the coveted land.
Much of the citizenry of the fledgling country were scholars, engineers, and creative minds, and they soon discovered that the mountain housed a secret, a core that was never uncovered by the Normalians. The Acumens were able to revive the core and put it to use for their endeavors. They took advantage of the protection provided by the mountain core while they built up their nation’s strength. The country was officially named Acumen and the mountain was renamed Mount Perspicacity with the city within named Clandestine.
The ever-curious minds of the country’s mentant engineers were able to create massive advancements in the field. Acumen slowly built up both its military and economic might in tandem and though many surrounding cities and countries tried to attack them to claim their land and resources, Acumen was always able to rebuff them through the combined power of their military prowess and the mountain core.
Despite having to rebuff multiple attacks in its early years, Acumen had a strict non-aggression policy. They would vigorously defend their borders but never attack other domains, not even in retaliation. Instead, the country actively reached out to its neighbors, forging trade agreements and alliances. Over time, several surrounding countries dissolved in order to join the growing kingdom, and Acumen began to focus more on making sure their people were able to live peaceful lives.
Acumen soon became the most prosperous human-majority nation in the world. It’s renown in mentant engineering allowed it to even build a relationship with the Kingdom of Ellenon where they exchanged knowledge and expertise, something no other nation has ever accomplished.

The Hidden Nation

Unknown to the rest of the world, the founding scholars and engineers of Acumen discovered more than a hidden core under the mountain that houses the capital city of Clandestine. The core was not truly dormant, it was in use by the small dwarf nation of Surrepitous, which had lived in secret under the mountain for over four-thousand years. The Surrepitous dwarves explained that they were the descendants of dwarves who once lived in the fortress city of Pridor, which was the original city inside the hollowed-out mountain.
Pridor was one of the few remaining dwarven settlements left when strife between the races really started to escalate in the PM era. Because of the mountain and city core, Pridor was able to rebuff all attacks. In the end however, a horrible plague killed most of the inhabitants of Sunntondra, including the dwarves of Pridor. The plague was caused by heavy pollution from the mining towns in the Wayo Mountains which even seeped into the Almanian River. This made most of the continent uninhabitable for several hundred years. The surviving dwarves of Pridor moved underground where they were safe from both the plague and attack. They built a new nation, Surrepitous, and stayed hidden for around three thousand years until the Acumens found them.
The dwarves of Surrepitous had lost much of their knowledge during the plague because so many of their quartzsmiths and engineers had perished, taking their expertise with them. The dwarves still had the skills and abilities needed to maintain the core but could not utilize it to its fullest, especially since they were trying to remain unseen. When the Acumen engineers found the hidden nation of dwarves, they forged a tenuous alliance that would benefit all of them.
To the rest of the world, Pridor had fallen millennia ago, and the dwarves had no desire to join the outside world. They were still wary of humans in general and did not want to end up in a protracted war. For their part, the Acumens shared their desire for peace. They had experienced near-ceaseless war during the fall and aftermath of the Normalia Empire and only wanted a way to protect themselves from attack as they built up their new mountain home. Because of this, and the fact that there were a few elves among the Acumen leaders, the Surrepitous dwarves were willing to trust them.
The Acumen leaders agreed to keep Surrepitous hidden, even from the vast majority of their people. In exchange, the dwarves would allow them to use the core to protect the mountain as it had done in the past. The Acumens and Surrepitons pooled their resources and knowledge and combined they were able to better utilize the core and even add to its functionality over the course of several centuries. As their alliance grew stronger, the two nations shared more with one another, developing a symbiotic relationship. Acumen leadership continued to uphold its vow of secrecy so that only the monarchy, the ducal houses, and the high-level academy engineers know of the underground settlement. Eventually this knowledge was also extended to the Fantasma and the Ellenon royal family.
The dwarves of Surrepitous are one of the main reasons Acumen was able to rapidly grow and flourish. As the only country in the world that consistently employs dwarf, human, and elf mentant engineering practices, they are able to advance technology and quartzsmithing in ways that haven’t been seen since the early PM era when the three primary races coexisted.

Government and Politics

Acumen was founded on the principle that ingenuity, innovation, and excellence in one’s chosen domain were traits worthy of leadership. Though many of the founders of the country were engineers and scholars, they understood that it was not enough to have only academics in leadership. People who excelled in the area of military strategy and defense were also valued as the country needed a way to protect its citizens. They needed advanced leadership across many fields, and leaders that excelled across multiple disciplines would be highly coveted. This was used as the foundation for their government.
They settled on oligarchical rule with a monarchy at the top and an aristocracy to run the various aspects of government. There were two reasons behind this choice. First, oligarchical rule was what most people were used to, having all been citizens of the defunct Normalia Empire. Secondly, they believed that effective government required decisive leadership not bogged down by the limitations associated with more democratic bodies where large numbers of representatives hold voting power. Oligarchical rule kept power among a limited number of people which in turn kept government lean.
However, in order to make sure that those who ruled were truly the best of the best, the aristocracy was chosen based on merit and achievement making it more a hybrid between a traditional aristocracy and a meritocracy. The premise being that noble titles, and even the monarchy itself, were not automatically inheritable; they have to be earned. The criteria to gaining power was that a person had to have proven themselves to be excellent in one or more disciplines. Promotion to higher titles required greater accomplishments and eventually excellence across multiple disciplines with the king or queen at the top being the most proficient in a variety of domains including military, academic, and economic.
In a majority of cases, noble titles, once earned, are passed down to the most deserving child within the family as they are the first ones considered. However, there are many times when a noble title is stripped from a family that has been proven unworthy, or cases where none of the children are deemed fit to take up the mantle. In such instances, another is granted the title. Because of this, members of nobility who wish to keep their legacy, push their children to gain achievements in various fields in order to be seen as worthy of inheriting their noble titles or possibly gaining an even higher title. In addition, those outside of the noble ranks know that with hard work they too can gain a noble title or high government post.
At the founding of the country, ducal titles were given to five people to help govern. Each held the power to bestow the titles of count, viscount, and baron to those within their ranks that they found were worthy and revoke those same titles as needed. In the beginning, dukes did not govern over a particular area, but this changed as the country grew and expanded beyond the mountain. Currently, there are nine ducal titles. Each one presides over an area of the kingdom, effectively a duchy, including one whose region includes the capital city of Clandestine.
Dukes utilize the nobility within their ranks to help them manage their regions and handle various high level governing tasks. Each dukedom is allowed to run as it sees fit as long as it stays within the boundaries imposed by the constitution and the laws of the kingdom. The monarch also has some restrictions imposed by the kingdom’s constitution but otherwise has fairly unrestricted rule to create laws, levy taxes, and take military action as they see fit.
The nine dukes form the Ducal Council. When the current monarch dies or abdicates the throne, they are the governing body that decides whether the title is passed down to one of the princes or princesses or if another monarch altogether must be chosen. Because of the serious nature of this, all members of the council must agree. In the same vein, the reigning king or queen makes this decision for ducal titles, but they still must have the support of a majority of the Ducal Council. The council is also the only governing body that is able to veto a royal decree or law. Again, this requires a unanimous decision as it indicates a vote of no-confidence in the crown and would usually lead to the appointment of a new monarch.
In addition to all of this, the covenant between Surrepitous and Acumen gives the dwarf nation some say in Acumen nobility, allowing them to petition the Ducal Council if they feel the kingdom is heading in a direction that would put the dwarven nation at risk. Because the dwarves hold the proverbial “master key” to the mountain’s core, their concerns are taken seriously. However, this authority has never been asserted in the entire history of the kingdom since the Ducal Council and monarchy understand the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with the dwarves and therefore work hard to keep corruption out of the higher ranks of government.

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Domain Profile:

Domain Type	Country
Established	3068 TS
Population	≈ 15,000,000
Government	Constitutional Monarchy
Power Structure	Unitary State
Time Shift	-5 FT

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by chaimholtjer