Autumn's Breeze

"You are lost, and our roots will drink your blood. Come then, o Emperor, o mighty Crucible, and let us break you." - King Traus Alleman IV

In this modern age, one of Change's ever growing momentum, one nation amongst the Gretlewood defies the coming force of social evolution.
Her boarders are the Stahlbark, and her charter is to ever frustrate Crucible. Of course, Crucible is no more, but sharing a boarder with the Commonwealth mutates that great tension.
This is a land of Kings and Title built upon the labor of serfs, and it shares a boarder with a reformed superpower state whose leaders often change, and whose national conscience is anathema to monarchy.
And ideas, dogmas, and philosophies... are like intellectual contagions.
While most of Autumn's Breeze resides within forest, the kingdom's south eastern territory is gentle rolling farmland that reaches all the way to the edge of Basini claims. Through the centuries, several trading cities grew forth along the boarder, and none so iconic as Goliath, an ancient tower that reaches to the sky. Its prominence on the horizon made it a logical navigation point for commerce heading in both directions, and so a large city developed around it.
While Goliath lies well within Breetian territory, the city is split between Autumn Breeze and Basin management. It is a rare, and profitable, example of Basini extention. and the perfect symbolic location to hold diplomatic talks between that great eastern empire and the other powers.

Assets

Exclusive access to Stahlbark Veteran military with a profound proficiency in guerrilla tactics

History

This Power's modern story begins, as with almost any state today, with self preservation.
Long ago, a people fleeing a great calamity found refuge deep within the Gretlewood, hiding amongst arguably the most effective natural defense of which any land should be terribly envious.
The Stahlbark Groves.
These massive, stalwart woods grow in predictable, near grid-like formations and possess a strength unparalleled throughout our known continent. It is accepted that in some forgotten age, man or gods cultivated these trees, who are now all that remains of their keepers' legacy.
The refugees built battlements, then homes, then a civilization around these trees who are themselves guarded by the unnaturally crowded and tangled deep Gretlewood. Together, they provide a near impenetrable barrier, and stability with which to raise armies; one capable of turning Crucible back towards her own lands. So it would be for generations.
Invaders would come, hoping to dislodge the government and take the stahlbark trees for themselves, but life among the forest breeds certain flavors of warfare unknown to other armies. Occasionally, some will commit massive amounts of time and resources to deforestation in order to maneuver their equally massive supply lines.
However, the Breetian Arborists will have frustrated their efforts with constant, effective guerrilla raids, and their Knights will have bloodied their ranks. Both organizations aim to shepherd their foes through the natural maze towards fortified positions.
Aside: These fortifications were each the responsibility of a Breetian noble house. The House of Alleman, for example, headquarters at theirs. These embattlements and fortifications each reflect an aspect of their respective noble House.
The invading trails of deforestation become evacuation routes, and the retreating armies are constantly harassed along the way both by martial and verbal attacks hidden in the new tree lines. To make matters worse for other would-be belligerents, there are certain areas of the Gretlewood whose regeneration may complete within a single generation of men.
The Kingdom in the Trees remains ever vigilant, and always ready to respond, however, Such a hostile incursion has not occurred in nearly two centuries. The Commonwealth, formerly Crucible, have not yet waged an offensive since her Reorganization, but the young nation's very existence creates a new kind of existential threat.
The Monarchy's formerly imperial neighbor is now a system of free men, descended from peasants and nobility alike who broke Crucible in a way no foreign nation ever could. Do they see the Breetian serfs and think, "He too should be free,"?
The Breetian nobility no doubt sleeps less soundly, and must keep their watch because the next invasion may bring with it a nearly unstoppable force, something that could rot the tree from the inside: an idea.
For now, the two nations operate in mutual, if tense, cooperation. Each side hitherto abiding by the ink of treaties. But how long can it last I wonder.
Autumn Breeze fears an uprising inspired by the Reorganization, and the Commonwealth fears their southern neighbor may attempt to reinstall the Crucible monarchy and quell the notion of free societies.
Time will tell as it always does.

We Break the Tides

Type

Geopolitical, State

Alternative Names

Stahl

Demonym

Breetians

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Feudal state

Economic System

Mixed economy

Currency

Rossi

Legislative Body

The Gold Counsel

Judicial Body

The Iron Counsel

Controlled Territories

• Alleman's Ferry
• The Drain
• Whip

Neighboring Nations

• Basin
• The Commonwealth

Notable Members

• Lord Melborne