Antepar

Elements: seawater, echinoderms
the Fivefold land.
Part of the Caracaran Supplicancy, and became a regional power following its fall. The entire area is expanding, slowly, consuming more land over the centuries.
Miscellaneous notes and questions:

• 5-voiced choral tradition
• how big is the area?
• What are the Cantons named?
• what is the basis for Antepar's political hegemony

Structure

each Canton has its own ruling body, filled with hereditary, land-holding nobles. each of these has an exam-selected canton-head from their number, and these five canton-heads sit together on the supreme council of the land. the canton-heads are theoretically absolute rulers, but in practice they are often assassinated if they go against the will of the body and so have surprisingly little power.
under each body is a large and centralised state apparatus, operated by a professional bureaucracy.
Canton-heads and bureaucrats alike are selected by examinations, administered by the priestly class of Temfep. by this method, The Whispers exercise a great deal of secretive power in the region.

there is no pre-written legal code for Antepar, but instead a bulk of precedent from previous decisions that varies from Canton to Canton.

Demography and Population

The majority of the population are Fivefold or lightly-infused humans; in each Canton, there are also considerable populations from the neighbouring lands, especially near the outskirts and around areas with freshwater springs.
the total population is around 1.5 million.
Has a large slave population, mostly owned by larger landlords or the state. They also engage in slave-trading with their neighbours, especially New Caracar.
rough demographic breakdown:

• Lightly-infused Anteparan (Halite): 52%
• Fivefold: 41%
• frog-infused:1%
• snake-infused:1%
• mirror-infused:2%
• moss-trolls: 2%
• Delunustri: 0.5%
• Srem: 0.5%

Territories

A large 5-sided land (35,000 square kilometres), that rises to form a single mound split by 5 symmetrical mountain-ranges into 5 roughly triangular areas of more level land. At the centre are extremely high peaks. Infused by seawater and Echinoderms, the rain here is salty, leading to salty lakes, streams and rivers that make the area inhospitable to outsiders, and that eventually run into neighboring lands.
Split into 5 cantons:

• North Canton: bordered by Delunustri peaks. well-watered, broken up by rivers that unite into a single outflow.
• East Canton: bordered by New Caracar. has a large lake in the centre.
• Southeast canton: bordered by Poisonlands. Dryer, with a single larger river that runs straight out of the territory.
• Southwest canton: bordered by Mirrorlands. has 2 main rivers that flow out.
• West canton: bordered by the Moss-stone Forest. well-watered, broken up by rivers that unite into a single outflow.

Diagram of the biomes of a single Canton:

• mountain: steep and wild, snowy and wet, these uplands are the most lightly inhabited of all.
• hills: less rugged and wild than the highest mountains, these areas are more wooded, with conifers. small forestry operations and the retreats of lords take up a lot of the land here.
• rockpools: rocky, with the largest and most iconic wildlife. fishery happen here at small-scales, though it is much less populous than the plains and the hills. More salt-water pools than land, in this landscape.
• plains: rich and fertile estuary-like floodplain. The majority of the population lives here, producing salt-tolerant crops and harvesting. towns, roads and farms demarcate the landscape.

Flora and Fauna:

• Fivefold animals
• Holothurs (giant sea cucumbers)
• urchin-infused animals
• Woodland starfish
• flying featherstars

Foreign Relations

In general, although Antepar

• Delunustri peaks: the peaks are mostly ignored as a barrier to travel, instead routing east to New Caracar. a few hardy local merchants cross the Boiling Sea to carry heat-tolerant goods.
• New Caracar: Since The Whispers have sufficient influence in both regions, there is mostly peace between these two - especially since New Caracar is considered holy to the Anteparan priesthood.
• Poisonlands
• Ranaskai: Several of the border-Nobles pay tribute to the Anteparans, and there are frequent squabbles at the border.
• Moss-stone forest

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Demonym

Anteparan

Government System

Meritocracy

Power Structure

Feudal state

Official State Religion

Temfep

Location

Caracar

Neighboring Nations

• Ranaskai

Related Ethnicities

• Fivefold