The Kusharan Principalities (koo-SHAR-rar)

The Kusharan Principalities are a confederation of princedoms in the northwest of Sildair. Most of the land is wild, but there are pockets of civilization surrounding cities and towns, which are run by Princes, Grand Princes, Khans and Tsars, most of whom are little more than warlords, though some rule over lands with decent infrastructure and wealth, such as the Grand Prince of Mayard's Run. They are bound to eachother through numerous alliances and vassalages, and they have an ancient treaty that formed "The Counsil of Princes" which can be called in times of great peril, but in truth, the principalities are as likely to fight amongst eachother as they are to call on eachother's aid.

Government

The principalities each govern themselves, following a more or less similar feudal system. The princes will divide their land into parcels run by knights (called boyars in Kusharan) who in turn provide taxes and military aid to their princes. The principalities are also bound to eachother through trade agreements, defensive pacts, and marriage alliances, but they consider themselves independent nations, and mostly act as such. If any one prince could be said to have the fielty of all the others it would be the Grand Prince of Mayard's Run, whose enormous trade wealth, and cultural standing with the other princes is such that he sometimes appears to be the de facto king of all the principalities.

History

During the Golden Epoch the princedoms of Kushara were little more than nomadic tribes run by chieftains, and many Kusharan tribes joined the forces of Ashagor the Despoiler during the Second War of Ashes, fighting Sarkara, Fiorans and Quakarans in the north, and travelling across the Thualian Barrens to join the invasions of the Empire, Askaria, Perikor and Zashoana. In 64 2nd.WoA, Mayard Barthwaite, a younger son of the ruling house of the Duchy of Burnom, led a campaign up through the Semeyan valley to push back the marauding forces that kept harrying Sarkara's nothern border, and eventually made it to the confluence of the Semeya and the Vostochny rivers, on the Podorozhka Plains, where he founded the city of Mayard's Run in 6 SE. The city grew fast with the trade connections from Sarkara, and its favourable location to import goods from far eastern Suihai, and soon it became the most powerful city-state in the region. In 173 SE, the Grand Prince of Mayard's Run called the first Counsil of Princes, to solidify the bonds between the Kusharan Principalities, and soon enough, the disperate nations became slowly dependent on, an intertwined with, eachother.

The five original rulers who came together to form the alliance that became the Kusharan principalities had a crest commisioned to mark the occation. It is occationally used, especially in texts and art by other nations, to denote the principalities as a whole, but the use of the crest is itself quite rare.

Area
Ca. 239.000 km2

Type

State

Population

Ca. 1,1 million people

Inhabitant Demonym

Kusharans

Included Locations

• Beztrashnia Principality
• Khyzhakov Principality
• Kurakovia Tsardom
• Lantsyuzhka Principality
• Podorozhka Principality
• Richkovia Principality
• Rozmirna Kharnate
• Tsarzviraya Principality
• Vodmazhirov Principality
• Zubnozvikrayina Principality