Kingdom of Hydriata

Summary

One of the very few, and only known, sea kingdoms in Solaris. A curious and proud people with hopes of joining the world stage of the surface, they are ruled by a king who they venerate as a god. They are masters of the deep seas with unique traditions and ways of thinking deep rooted into their society. A culture with heavy focused on assigned roles and family names, they are a communal society with an overall concern of the big picture rather than the individual. This can seem strange to their allies within the Dawn Empire at times, whose people see individual achievements as the pinnacle of society.

Citizens

The citizens of the Kingdom of Hydiatra, named Hydiatrians, are made of a mix of many deep sea sentients. The majority of the population is made up of Tritons and Merfolk. The majority of Merfolk being from low to middle class while the Tritons occupy the middle to high class. Even the kings have long been Tritons exclusively. Where as this disparity amongst the population might cause anger and bitterness in other nations, the Hydriatrians are more concerned with their role in society and how they can perfect it to better help the kingdom.

Culture

The culture is based on a person’s role in society and what family they were born into, one’s role is usually assigned early in life depending on multiple factors race, family, gender, and class usually being the key facotrs. The children often taking up the same role as their parents, unless they are from an unknown family where they could raise their family name higher. However, there is still societal mobility for the people. Though it is rare for the people of Hydriatra to desire to change their role in society instead of attempting to perfect their craft where they are. For outsiders they are looked upon in the same way, but their role is determined through what they do and also act as an expectation for the outsider’s family or people. With not much else to go off of, and with their cultural beliefs being what it is, the people of Hydriatra assume that the outsider is a representation of his/her people at large. One must be very careful when dealing with the people of Hydriatra lest they get their entire family or nation barred from the Kingdom for their own personal failings.

Political system

It is a hereditary monarchy where the king’s eldest son takes the throne after his father’s death or his abdication of the throne. Accompanying the king are a group of advisors who are chosen by the heads of different important factions within the kingdom such as the merchants, religion, military, etc. Their role is to advise the Crown on the best course of action to follow, as well as adding their particular knowledge and expertise in a subject to the ruler's decision making. Unlike many human kingdoms, where advisors are frequently changed when the Crown passes hands, most of the advisors to the Crown in Hydriatra will serve in their roles for the remainder of their life even when the regime changes. This does not necessarily have anything to do with the favor of the powerful or any trust in these advisors, more that they are seen to have perfected their role in society. If they hadn't, they would never have been chosen by their faction to advise the Crown in the first place.

Settlements

The City of Hydiatra: The main city built around the great palace of the King with beautiful spiral towers around the borders of the city and of course its main feature is that it is completely submerged under the ocean. Few outsiders have seen the city itself as it is, again, completely underwater. Though, in the years of alliance with the Dawn Empire there has been a floating meeting place above the city for those.....less water inclined.
Scyren: A half-submerged small city that surrounds the embassy between the Dawn Empire and Hydriatra. This place was built with the express purpose of allowing the people of the aquatic kingdom in and out of the Dawn Empire as well as allowing land born to experience some of Hydriatrian society. Scyren also acts as the main trading hub between the two nations.

Army

Their army is specialized, obviously, in aquatic combat made up of people who are given such a role usually born from other soldiers or some other person who proved themselves in some way. They use the sea to hide and drag ships and soldiers underwater through grappling hooks and tridents to bring them to the sea where the Hydriatrians can defeat them with ease. Due to the Kingdom's relatively recent expansion into the affairs of the surface world, their army has also developed anti-ship tactics. Many a ship has thought the sea people's kingdoms a treasure trove ripe for the taken, only to find their ships suddenly sinking beneath them.

Religion

They have a pantheon consisting of the Great Sea King which is a god of civilization, prosperity and law. It is believed that the Great Sea King inhabits each king when they take over the throne. They also worship the Dark Hand, a male version of the Great Darkness of the Dawn Empire, as well as The Matron of the Sea a goddess adopted from the Dawn Empire after one of the kings in the past was converted into the religion.

Notable events

The first contact: The first meeting between the aquatic Kingdom and the Dawn Empire.

The start of the Wave Alliance: The day the alliance between the Hydriatrian Kingdom and the Dawn Empire was made official.
The Fleshmolders attack: The first battle between the Fleshmolders and the Kingdom of Hydriatra.

Allies & Enemies

The Alliance of Waves: An alliance with the Dawn Empire where the Hydriatrians train their naval troops and in exchange, they are given passage into the dawn empire and some areas are not fished or trespassed in.
The Fleshmolders: New enemies that tainted some of the sea because of their dark magic and they take the dead of the kingdom to transform into their abomination of eldritch undead.

Notes

There is currently heavy civil unrest in the Kingdom from the lower classes. This unrest developed once the alliance between the Kingdom and the Empire allowed the aquatic people to travel the dry lands and see other cultures. Since then, discontent of them and their families near perpetual status within the lower classes has risen.
There are special potions made with the help of the Dawn Empire to help their aquatic population travel to the surface for longer periods of time, although it is quite expensive.
All people within the kingdom are enamored by the people of the Dawn Empire. Their exotic ways and tales of adventure and glory is a novelty that many within the Kingdom are quite enamored with.
The Hydriatrian Kingdom is rife with political intrigue at the upper ends of society as the heads of each faction vie for better positions with the king, and those within the factions vie to become the heads of their respective factions. This becomes especially cutthroat when you remember that a Hydriatrian can expect their children to inherit their positions upon their deaths.

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom