Glom Union
The Glom Union is one of the largest nations on the planet Ahno formed out of an alliance between Dailic humans and Gemheart Dwarves.
Though the Union has existed for more than 250 years, recent natural disasters, religious upheavals, and military threats have begun to wear away at the seams of the once unshakable alliance between dwarves and men.
Similar to the other nations of Ahno, the Glom Union does not have access to spelljammers, but has made obtaining them one of its primary concerns.
Structure
Nationally
The Glom Union is led by the Consultation, presided over by an internally elected Elder. The Consultation is the supreme governing body of the Glom Union, managing its military, internal taxation, trade, and diplomacy with neighboring states. Its name traces back to the foundation of the Union, when it was a collection of allied settlements rather than a single governing force. Members of the Consultation are referred to as councilors. The current Elder of the Union is Tireen Jugo, a human male that has held the title for seven years. Elder Jugo is also the head of Common Cause, the largest political party in the Union that has maintained control over Glom for the majority of its history. Common Causers, or Pegasi in reference to the symbol they share with the Union has a whole, favor balancing Unionist power with local autonomy. Other major political parties, and their denonyms, within the Union include:- The Cooperative (griffons): Favor decreased local autonomy and increased national powers. Currently led by the human Sabine Reth.
- Thuldor (bullettes): Dwarven-led party focused on preserving dwarven culture and autonomy. Currently led by the dwarf Hadrag Stoneskew.
- Inner Focus: Fringe party of Dailist and human suppremacists that desire a more explicitly human-centric government. Currently led by the human Ida Plowguard.
- Vallahir: Fringe party of dwarven seperatists that desire a solely dwarven state. Currently led by the dwarf Idri Varran.
Locally
Despite the democratic practices that govern the Glom Union nationally, local laws and customs are extremely variable, a relic of the concerns over autonomy that colored the Union's founding. Most dwarven strongholds maintain a traditional clan system, while human-dominated settlements can have elected governments, local dukes, a monarch and advisory council, and so on. This diversity of governance has been cited as the Union's greatest strength and weakness in equal measure. Owing to its site as the capitol of the Union, Graypost and the surrounding Graypost Canton are governed by the Consultation directly.Demography and Population
Though made up of a variety of humanoid species, the Glom Union is primarily inhabited by Gemheart dwarves in the north and Dailic humans in the south. While nearly 1.7 million reside within the Glom Union, the vast majority of them, nearly 90% reside in rural communities, with the remaining few gathered in various small cities and dwarven strongholds.
The human population outnumbers the dwarven population of the Union by nearly 3 to 1, a factor that is represented in the population demographics of the Glom Union's largest cities. Of the five settlements exceeding 10,000 residents within the Union, only one, Naram, is a dwarven stronghold.
The capital city of the Union is Graypost, the 10th largest city in the nation, and was chosen for its location on the border between the dwarven north and human south and for its seat on the Swirling Bay, making it ideal for trading. Despite this, Graypost is overwhelmingly a political city and has not attracted the influx of immigrants that was expected during the Union's early years.
In addition to the dwarven and human populations, there is a notable representation of kobolds in the most northeastern cantons. Ancient enemies of the Gemheart Dwarves, the kobolds and their lands are nominally under the control of the Union, but a permenant military presence is stationed in the hills to prevent any uprising.
Despite once being unshakable, tensions between the dwarves and humans of the Union have been growing for years. Recent natural disasters, which have predominately afflicted the dwarven north, a growing human population that threatens to continue to further outnumber the dwarven population, and renewed calls for a dwarven only state have led to talk about the northern half of the Union seceeding. Meanwhile, elements of the human south, experiencing renewed evangelicism through recent conflicts with Snowmerean Cultists and the tyrannical control of the Duchy of Gras over the Dailist Church have led to questions about whether the Morndinsamman worshipping dwarves are fit to share control of the nation with them. Though not an immeadiate concern, these issues represent cracks in a Union that has stood strong for two and a half centuries.
Geography
The Glom Union is geographically diverse. Its northwestern border includes the southeastern edges of the Expanse Desert while the other northern territories, referred to as a cantons, contains the southern edges of the mountainous Unyielding Stone and its foothills. Trailing south, the Union's central cantons are predominately tropical seasonal forests, with a few tropical rainforests, in the west and savannah and grasslands in the east. Below that, the savannah and grassland give way again to cooler forests and then wetland, before settling into a taiga at its southern penninsula.Military
Despite its agrarian population, Glom maintains a sizable standing army of around 12 thousand, though that is outnumbered by neighboring Sunfalia and Silhalia.
The strength of the Unionist military comes in its use of mixed tactics involving its heavy dwarven infantry and faster human scouts and fast moving infantry and calvary, a combination that hasn't been successfully reproduced by its neighbors.
Technological Level
Like all nations on Ahno, the Glom Union has yet to obtain access to spelljammers, despite having knowledge of the greater astral community. The courting of the mercane, the only species capable of providing spelljammers, is a chief concern of the Union, as they are believed to be the edge the Union needs to weather the ongoing disasters, potential war with Sunfalia, and strengthen the weakening bonds between the Gemhearts and Dails that formed the Union centuries ago.
Religion
Historically, the human populations of Glom's south have been Modern Dailists, with a notable community of Old Dailists on its southern pennisula and along the border with Sunfalia. The dwarven population has historically worshipped the Morndinsamman, the dwarven pantheon.
Recently, communities in the west, both dwarven and human, have begun converting to the Snowmerean Cult, a movement that began spreading out of Sunfalia in the late 1450s. Snowmereans believe that Dailism, both Old and Modern, have attributed to the goddess Gratia the attributes of three seperate dieties, which they refer to as the Three Aspects. Named for the city of Snowmere where the cult was founded, Snowmereans are distinguished by their firm, evangelical belief that the true nature of the Three Aspects can only be uncovered when all the heretical Dailists have been converted or removed. The recent conversions in Kzizdushel Land may prove to be a harbinger of radical changes to come.
Foreign Relations
Due to its location and size, the Glom Union maintains diplomatic ties with nearly every other nation on Ioya.
Though technically a union of dwarves and humans, Glom's human majority often sees it classified as a Dailic nation. With its fellow Dailic states, the Union maintains favorable relations with the eastern Republic of Silhalia. While the two nations have quarrelled in the past, the demarcation of their shared border to generally follow the treeline of Silhalia's expansive forests led to a stabilization of relations that continues to this day. The Union also maintains a long alliance with Hildtownia, despite the two states not sharing a border, that stretches back to the Subjugation of Step.
Though nominally independent, the Kingdom of Step is a vassal state to the Glom Union. This state of affairs traces back to the early 14th century, when an alliance of Unionists marched into the kingdom to secure the independence of Hildtownia. Following a brutal war, lasting from 1318 to 1325, the Treaty of Bleakbel guaranteed Hildtowner independence and gave the Kingdom internal autonomy, so long as it maintained a reduced standing army and followed the Union's lead on foriegn affairs. Despite these harsh restrictions, and multiple failed rebellions, relations between the Union and Step are generally positive, as the Union has not attempted to enforce its own governmental system or culture on its vassal state.
Like the other predominately Dailist nations, the Glom Union is engaged in a protracted conflict with the Gras Duchy over the latter state's overt meddling in the affairs and decisions of the Dailist Church, which has its headquarters in the duchy. Though its unlikely the duchy could win a serious war against the combined forces of its neighbors, concerns about the post-war settlement and the harm that might be caused to the Dailist Church have so far prevented the conflict from becoming an all out war. Instead, the Union has ennacted trade embargoes on the duchy and frequently aids Step and Hildtownia in border skirmishes.
On its western border, the Union has few allies. The Kingdom of Deadcrest to the northwest and the Glom Union have both engaged in minor conflicts over the past several decades over their border in the Expanse. Divisions are further sowed by the Deadcrestians giving little autonomy to the Gemheart dwarves in their midst and fears that the Union dwarves may inspire an uprising among their desert-based cousins.
Within the past thirty years, Unionist relations with the Dirongulf Theocracy, the center of Old Dailist beliefs, and Sunfalia have completely inverted. Though Sunfalia and Glom were long trading partners, despite the differing religious traditions of their human populations (Old and Modern Dailism respectively), the birth and spread of the Snowmerean Cult in Sunfalia has shattered those once peaceful bonds. Believing that all previous understandings of Gratia were incorrect, the now Snowmerean nation has waged war against the Dirongulf Theocracy, conquering much of it as Sunfalia spreads its newfound religious fervor. Though war has yet to break out between Glom and Sunfalia, Snowmereans radicals have begun converting both dwarves and humans in Glom's northwestern territory. The recent disasterous floods and inexplicable, devastating snowfall in the dwarven stronghold of Kharb, have brought the Union to begin preparing for war.
All of these tensions have resulted in an unusual alliance between Glom and Dirongulf, which normally maintained outward hostility towards any Modern Dailists. Desperate for money and resources, Dirongulf has begun accepting favorable trade agreements with the Union to keep its failing military afloat.
The Khuzd Empire is the only non-Dailic nation Glom shares a border with. Though the orcish empire's glory days are behind it, leaders of both Khuzd and Glom view each other with hostility and rivalry, knowing that only their treacherous mountainous border has prevented a war between the two in the past. It is an open secret in the court of both nations that money and resources are often ferried to the other's enemies.
Shoulder to shoulder
Founding Date
1234
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Demonym
Unionist
Government System
Democracy, Parliamentary
Currency
Wings (gold), Saddles (silver), Clips (copper)
Location
Related Ethnicities
Comments