Vritraprthvirajya, Realm of the Asura
Alias
The Enveloping Kingdom, Kingdom of the Wheel, The Land of Dark Earth, Home of the Foe-Host, Dominion of Thunder, Land of the Voices Ten Thousand, The Cacophony, Wealth of the Nations, Strangler Princedom, Nagath Bleeding, The Martyrs' Charnel, and a thousand other titles & slanders either translated from the many-meaninged name or derived elsewhere.
Government Type: Archonate
Nominally an absolute autocracy; functionally a military-industrial-temple complex stratified bureaucracy, organized by interlaced castes within castes- both professional and racial, and open or closed to advancement- that is then given life through the varyingly blank cheque of sovereign-bestowed state authority granted to governors, priests, warrior-aristocrats, state merchants, professional military officers, irregular border fighters, prominent alchemists, and other parties of interest who will then enact the mandate of the Sovereign.
Faction Species
Asura
Twice-Born
O ye of thorn'd breast
Wrath-crowned, Asura behest
With flame of blood, may ye be born again
With a blackened heart, for sake of Men
Wrath-crowned, Asura behest
With flame of blood, may ye be born again
With a blackened heart, for sake of Men
-Final stanza of the Rite of Asura, otherwise known as the Ballad of the Black Heart or the Godless Prayer
In the first half-century after the Fall of Daigon passed, the Movement of Ten Thousand Voices, with a limited recruitment base and the ongoing general collapse of civilization, was beset by a critical and unforeseen threat; the inevitability of mortal death and its rigors. Though demons and the more-than-human lived long, even indefinitely, their numbers were limited, and the essential vaporization of their population through Castigati action and sheer disunity & opposition to any true reorganization of one Nagath made this all the more acutely troublesome and apparent; few stayed true to the Movement. And even more pressingly, those generals, statesmen and scholars of mortal bent steadily died away by natural cause. Some were simply old; some had sickened or succumbed to wound and maim; some had been preserved past their death by medicine and artifice past their normal lifespans, means that could no longer be sustained; all perished regardless of cause, sooner or later.
As the full century closed, the successors of the first generation of mortal Movement leadership began, too, to show signs of age, and more of the old guard Daigonists perished or deserted in favor of their own doomed efforts. It seemed inevitable that mere attrition would be the end of Daigon's dream. It was at this critical juncture that Asurishvara broke a self-made vow, and bore open his heart to men. He shared a black secret of the kingly arts, and taught his closest 'to walk like Me 'til you may walk like You,' the bleak path of sacrifice for self-actualization; he taught men how to become Asura, to be as demons, black-blooded and high and mighty indeed. And so it was that a fresh generation of man-fiends were wrought, and many more after. A price paid in heart and spirit, a mortgage of the soul, in exchange for the power and longevity to see the Dream through.
The Asura, unlike many beings classed and catalogued under the umbrella of 'demon'- from familiar spirits, to gloomy infernals, to dream-eaters, all manner of dissimilar clade known solely by a shared brand of immundane inhumanity- are universally similar in their origin being derived from man, and their aspect remaining for the most part mannish, at least in the exterior and in personality. Form may be fluid, and those with a mastery of it may shift away from their default, but the shape of an Asura physically and otherwise is 'man.' And a high example of man they appear to be, at a glance; strong, agile, quick in mind regardless of wit, a struggle to wound, a deed to kill, seemingly untiring and definitely sleepless, ageless if death does not take them. Each wielders in theory and general practice of imperium, the power of true and full command vested in and taken out of the state and philosophically though not literally of nature itself, one and all. The depth of price paid is not quite as obvious.
Each has shorn humanity and become one of the highest aristocracy in the Circle of Kings; their state obligations now tenfold and eternal. Sleeplessness drives them to dreamlessness, at least of the unconscious sort, and lucid dreaming grants no break or rest to the consciousness. Long life, aloof stature and the universal twisting of frame of mind lends to off-and-on disillusion, gloominess and tempestuous nature, tempered though it may be by state ideology, meditationally exercised self-control, and mutual reinforcement of both aspects. Their bodies are rendered totally barren; no matter the effort, they will produce no issue, mortal or immortal. Though no memory of their former selves are lost, the Asura are never quite who they once were, but a mythologized analogue, gigantic and unreachable, even as personable as they strive to be compared to similar petty godlets or unseen Justinian.
The manufacture and upraising of an Asura is a momentous thing, the uncommon result of truly meritorious individuals rising amongst caste and rank with full attention of a member or members of the Circle of Kings, and the process is a two-layered secret; first the open secret in the riddle of religious mystery, and secondly the true deed and its technical carrying out. The former is well-known, enough so that moderately learned men well outside Nagath will have heard or have knowledge of stotram, epic poetry or parable regarding it; the latter is true esoterica, so deeply guarded as to be essentially unknown outside the Circle of Kings. Of the process, this much can be said; a thorn is taken 'from the coils about the heart of Asurishvara,' and bestowed upon the subject. 'The blood runs like fire, is replaced by flame,' after which 'the black-heart to be is watched over by his fellows, and left to the struggle of rebirth.'
Whatever the actuality of the process, it is of great import that the subject be ideally of physical prime youth, and no later than middle age at most, 'lest weakness fail and death & abomination result.' Likewise, they must be human or near-human; the result of attempts to use the process on orcs, wild bray-folk, centaurs, and other creatures which do not adhere to a human countenance and a certain proportion of at least human-like limbs can be aptly described by the monicker 'abomination and death.' The end physiological result of a true Asura, beside strength or grace, a degree of shape-changing, and barrenness as previously described, are as follows; the replacement of all non-clear bodily fluids and any fluids of strain (sweat of exercise, fury-born spittle) with a nearly black red-violet blood, a haziness in the consistent placement or indeed existence of internal organs, the ceasing of normal metabolic functions and the need for their normal fulfillment as the body becomes a sorcerously near-closed system, and the skin of the body shifting into often prime colors, exceedingly drained complexions, or other abnormalities, supposedly grossly externalizing aspects of the essential character of the transmuted on some level.
As the full century closed, the successors of the first generation of mortal Movement leadership began, too, to show signs of age, and more of the old guard Daigonists perished or deserted in favor of their own doomed efforts. It seemed inevitable that mere attrition would be the end of Daigon's dream. It was at this critical juncture that Asurishvara broke a self-made vow, and bore open his heart to men. He shared a black secret of the kingly arts, and taught his closest 'to walk like Me 'til you may walk like You,' the bleak path of sacrifice for self-actualization; he taught men how to become Asura, to be as demons, black-blooded and high and mighty indeed. And so it was that a fresh generation of man-fiends were wrought, and many more after. A price paid in heart and spirit, a mortgage of the soul, in exchange for the power and longevity to see the Dream through.
The Asura, unlike many beings classed and catalogued under the umbrella of 'demon'- from familiar spirits, to gloomy infernals, to dream-eaters, all manner of dissimilar clade known solely by a shared brand of immundane inhumanity- are universally similar in their origin being derived from man, and their aspect remaining for the most part mannish, at least in the exterior and in personality. Form may be fluid, and those with a mastery of it may shift away from their default, but the shape of an Asura physically and otherwise is 'man.' And a high example of man they appear to be, at a glance; strong, agile, quick in mind regardless of wit, a struggle to wound, a deed to kill, seemingly untiring and definitely sleepless, ageless if death does not take them. Each wielders in theory and general practice of imperium, the power of true and full command vested in and taken out of the state and philosophically though not literally of nature itself, one and all. The depth of price paid is not quite as obvious.
Each has shorn humanity and become one of the highest aristocracy in the Circle of Kings; their state obligations now tenfold and eternal. Sleeplessness drives them to dreamlessness, at least of the unconscious sort, and lucid dreaming grants no break or rest to the consciousness. Long life, aloof stature and the universal twisting of frame of mind lends to off-and-on disillusion, gloominess and tempestuous nature, tempered though it may be by state ideology, meditationally exercised self-control, and mutual reinforcement of both aspects. Their bodies are rendered totally barren; no matter the effort, they will produce no issue, mortal or immortal. Though no memory of their former selves are lost, the Asura are never quite who they once were, but a mythologized analogue, gigantic and unreachable, even as personable as they strive to be compared to similar petty godlets or unseen Justinian.
The manufacture and upraising of an Asura is a momentous thing, the uncommon result of truly meritorious individuals rising amongst caste and rank with full attention of a member or members of the Circle of Kings, and the process is a two-layered secret; first the open secret in the riddle of religious mystery, and secondly the true deed and its technical carrying out. The former is well-known, enough so that moderately learned men well outside Nagath will have heard or have knowledge of stotram, epic poetry or parable regarding it; the latter is true esoterica, so deeply guarded as to be essentially unknown outside the Circle of Kings. Of the process, this much can be said; a thorn is taken 'from the coils about the heart of Asurishvara,' and bestowed upon the subject. 'The blood runs like fire, is replaced by flame,' after which 'the black-heart to be is watched over by his fellows, and left to the struggle of rebirth.'
Whatever the actuality of the process, it is of great import that the subject be ideally of physical prime youth, and no later than middle age at most, 'lest weakness fail and death & abomination result.' Likewise, they must be human or near-human; the result of attempts to use the process on orcs, wild bray-folk, centaurs, and other creatures which do not adhere to a human countenance and a certain proportion of at least human-like limbs can be aptly described by the monicker 'abomination and death.' The end physiological result of a true Asura, beside strength or grace, a degree of shape-changing, and barrenness as previously described, are as follows; the replacement of all non-clear bodily fluids and any fluids of strain (sweat of exercise, fury-born spittle) with a nearly black red-violet blood, a haziness in the consistent placement or indeed existence of internal organs, the ceasing of normal metabolic functions and the need for their normal fulfillment as the body becomes a sorcerously near-closed system, and the skin of the body shifting into often prime colors, exceedingly drained complexions, or other abnormalities, supposedly grossly externalizing aspects of the essential character of the transmuted on some level.
Neverborn
However much we have gained in our upraising, it is a bitter fate that we lead. Doomed and infecund, to be rendered godfather and godmother to nations. And so we are starved for heirs, for comrade, confidant, and consort, owing to the frailty of mortals and the immaturity of this all-devouring bureaucratic state of yours that would most skillfully separate wheat from chaff. Why, then, should we not bear out children neither by adoption or birth- one method insufficient, the other closed off- but by other means, should they be available to us?
-Quotation of He Xiuying, speaking in heresy to an enraged Asurishvara in defense of her Neverborn. He would later relent in bitter humility.
With the revelation and inception of the Twice-Born, many proverbial birds for the Movement were struck by this one stone. Mortality quashed, lesser vulnerability to generational loss of competence, a degree of the quantity gap with the Justinian occupiers and petty suzerain-successors closed by extreme density of quality, and perhaps most importantly, a pliable crop of fiends that Asurishvara did not have so great a risk of losing his hold on as the old Daigonists that had largely deserted him. With these fresh advantages, the fiends serving as living idols to rally around, and the fruits of Asurishvara's logistical consolidation in the East, the way was paved for a wave of explosive expansionism, the first of its kind. And with that expansion, many of the same cracks formed; with more ground covered, more of Nagath reclaimed, military lines stretched thin and the Movement, by now having taken on its name as The Enveloping Kingdom, was left with a deep want for administrators.
Enter He Xiuying, hag-demoness, arch-misanthrope and sorcerer-queen of the people of Ỵāṇ, at the farthest easterly end of Nagath. Holding the distinction of being one of the sole trueblooded fiends of the old guard to stay with Asurishvara from the inception of her fealty, whether for sentiment or simply in obligation to her geographic position and realpolitik, she had been figurehead of her peoples' enclave in Nagath since Daigon had first invited her and her vassals to settle in Nagath- a matter of his keen interest in far-flung esoterics- uprooting herself all the way from the decadent tributary kingdoms to the far southeast, in much the same way as the people named Bhaskara came from the south and Elladas from the southwest in what is now the Justinian realms came to form. Her governorship, on the other hand, was an off-and-on affair, as she most often locked herself away to labor in her palace atop Mount Xún, working heady magics and sponsoring frivolous art to amuse herself, much as she had always done. To this end she would delegate to one subordinate or another.
This pattern of hermitry was broken with the Twice-Born, and He Xiuying's habit and demeanor changed. The former creature of sour indifference, a rare sight at court, was now putting herself fully at the disposal of Asurishvara; active, cooperative, and a sudden collaborator in the sorcerous realm. She quickly involved herself with the processes of creating the Twice-Born, a subject she was familiar with the theory of but had not herself practiced; evidently it was to her surprise that Asurishvara had been capable. Her insights nonetheless led to a refinement of the process, lessening fatalities, mistakes and abortions within the procedure. Formerly at arms' length if only for her prickly indifference, she became a darling of the inner circle, enjoying full respects to her titles and her vainglory. Certainly, He Xiuying appeared to be on the ascendant, a rising star.
This meteoric rise would come to an abrupt halt when Asurishvara arrived without announcement or invitation to her palace at Mount Xún, and in his haste to see his favored servant, refused all hospitality and placation to directly seek her out within her laboratories deep in the lower reaches. There, he discovered the fruit of He Xiuying's research and the reason for her intense interest in the Twice-Born process; she had melded his method with generative alchemy, and began the manufacture of fiends. Through thorns bequeathed from his heart and the spilt blood of criminals and undesirables, be they man, orc, garuda or brayfolk- punished in Ỵāṇ at that time with punitive justice rather than flagellated as was the orthodoxy- she had made devil-homonculi, then poorly things of locked misshape and fierce features. Asurishvara, infuriated beyond measure at what he viewed as a deep violation of his Asuran formula and its moral precepts, poured out his wrath upon the laboratory and these miserable creations, demanding the halt of her experiments and the destruction of its proceeds; so confident he was in his power of command, and stubborn in his reservation of external punishment for the irredeemable, that he left the task to He Xiuying herself.
He Xiuying, of course, redoubled all her efforts manifold. When the Red Empire overran the turncoat Tshriv principalities, even threatening to penetrate past the Kuzyan borderlands and into the heart of the Kingdom such was the general military disorder caused by the rebellion and subsequent western invasion, it was the arrival of the Ỵāṇ and a brigade of fiends alongside them in right and wrong shapes alike that turned the Red Empire back in terror and deeply shamed the Naukada Krin of the time. When Asurishvara turned wrothfully upon them in the aftermath of the battle, he was disarmed by their universal submission to this fate and their offer of fealty regardless. Thusly humbled, and with some further probing as to the nature of their thought, he accepted the Neverborn one and all into service. Rather than forbid their further creation, Asurishvara forbade the use of irregular punitive action as a pretext to acquiring the lifeblood necessary, instead demanding that it be acquired piecemeal from donation from zealous people amongst the regular populace, the soldiery and the priesthood, allegedly to elevate the character of their creation and the character thus created. The rest is history.
These creatures- some mannish, some twisted, but all of a similar mind- now codified in method and class as items of use to the Enveloping Kingdom, came to be called as Neverborn. What distincts them from the Twice-Born, men who have shorn their humanity, is that they are essentially orphans inherent- children sired by no parent, wrought from blood and sorcery, most often raised as vassals of the Circle of Kings; savant-children grown by the alembic, almost all bereft of any natural early lifespan, thrust into consciousness with intrinsic cleverness, but no experience. As such, despite earning a similar idol status to the Twice-Born, they tend to be straightforward in nature, feckless though attentive, inquisitive to a fault, and steadfast in their loyalties. Where the Twice-Born wished to be as fiends, the Neverborn wish to be as men; and so an equilibrium is formed. These soulless things, bereft of much agency, often serve as attendants to man and Asura alike; theirs are the roles of bodyguard, steward, temple guardian, familiar, understudy, and speaker of wisdom from the mouth of babes.
Enter He Xiuying, hag-demoness, arch-misanthrope and sorcerer-queen of the people of Ỵāṇ, at the farthest easterly end of Nagath. Holding the distinction of being one of the sole trueblooded fiends of the old guard to stay with Asurishvara from the inception of her fealty, whether for sentiment or simply in obligation to her geographic position and realpolitik, she had been figurehead of her peoples' enclave in Nagath since Daigon had first invited her and her vassals to settle in Nagath- a matter of his keen interest in far-flung esoterics- uprooting herself all the way from the decadent tributary kingdoms to the far southeast, in much the same way as the people named Bhaskara came from the south and Elladas from the southwest in what is now the Justinian realms came to form. Her governorship, on the other hand, was an off-and-on affair, as she most often locked herself away to labor in her palace atop Mount Xún, working heady magics and sponsoring frivolous art to amuse herself, much as she had always done. To this end she would delegate to one subordinate or another.
This pattern of hermitry was broken with the Twice-Born, and He Xiuying's habit and demeanor changed. The former creature of sour indifference, a rare sight at court, was now putting herself fully at the disposal of Asurishvara; active, cooperative, and a sudden collaborator in the sorcerous realm. She quickly involved herself with the processes of creating the Twice-Born, a subject she was familiar with the theory of but had not herself practiced; evidently it was to her surprise that Asurishvara had been capable. Her insights nonetheless led to a refinement of the process, lessening fatalities, mistakes and abortions within the procedure. Formerly at arms' length if only for her prickly indifference, she became a darling of the inner circle, enjoying full respects to her titles and her vainglory. Certainly, He Xiuying appeared to be on the ascendant, a rising star.
This meteoric rise would come to an abrupt halt when Asurishvara arrived without announcement or invitation to her palace at Mount Xún, and in his haste to see his favored servant, refused all hospitality and placation to directly seek her out within her laboratories deep in the lower reaches. There, he discovered the fruit of He Xiuying's research and the reason for her intense interest in the Twice-Born process; she had melded his method with generative alchemy, and began the manufacture of fiends. Through thorns bequeathed from his heart and the spilt blood of criminals and undesirables, be they man, orc, garuda or brayfolk- punished in Ỵāṇ at that time with punitive justice rather than flagellated as was the orthodoxy- she had made devil-homonculi, then poorly things of locked misshape and fierce features. Asurishvara, infuriated beyond measure at what he viewed as a deep violation of his Asuran formula and its moral precepts, poured out his wrath upon the laboratory and these miserable creations, demanding the halt of her experiments and the destruction of its proceeds; so confident he was in his power of command, and stubborn in his reservation of external punishment for the irredeemable, that he left the task to He Xiuying herself.
He Xiuying, of course, redoubled all her efforts manifold. When the Red Empire overran the turncoat Tshriv principalities, even threatening to penetrate past the Kuzyan borderlands and into the heart of the Kingdom such was the general military disorder caused by the rebellion and subsequent western invasion, it was the arrival of the Ỵāṇ and a brigade of fiends alongside them in right and wrong shapes alike that turned the Red Empire back in terror and deeply shamed the Naukada Krin of the time. When Asurishvara turned wrothfully upon them in the aftermath of the battle, he was disarmed by their universal submission to this fate and their offer of fealty regardless. Thusly humbled, and with some further probing as to the nature of their thought, he accepted the Neverborn one and all into service. Rather than forbid their further creation, Asurishvara forbade the use of irregular punitive action as a pretext to acquiring the lifeblood necessary, instead demanding that it be acquired piecemeal from donation from zealous people amongst the regular populace, the soldiery and the priesthood, allegedly to elevate the character of their creation and the character thus created. The rest is history.
These creatures- some mannish, some twisted, but all of a similar mind- now codified in method and class as items of use to the Enveloping Kingdom, came to be called as Neverborn. What distincts them from the Twice-Born, men who have shorn their humanity, is that they are essentially orphans inherent- children sired by no parent, wrought from blood and sorcery, most often raised as vassals of the Circle of Kings; savant-children grown by the alembic, almost all bereft of any natural early lifespan, thrust into consciousness with intrinsic cleverness, but no experience. As such, despite earning a similar idol status to the Twice-Born, they tend to be straightforward in nature, feckless though attentive, inquisitive to a fault, and steadfast in their loyalties. Where the Twice-Born wished to be as fiends, the Neverborn wish to be as men; and so an equilibrium is formed. These soulless things, bereft of much agency, often serve as attendants to man and Asura alike; theirs are the roles of bodyguard, steward, temple guardian, familiar, understudy, and speaker of wisdom from the mouth of babes.
Races of Men
(Shameless garbling of Kushan, after the empire founded by the Indo-European Yuezhi pastoralist nomads. Inspiration from the Yuezhi, the Tarim Basin trader cultures, hardy Caucasian mountain townships in the Aul mold, and the Parthian/Persian cultures. The majority make their living along the western riverbanks and on & against the back of the northwesterly mountains, and those areas between, living in ridgeside settlements, bastle houses and peel towers, or at the least palisaded or walled villages & towns with pastoral extensions. One of the earliest cultures to join the Movement of Ten Thousand Voices and most integral. Values are martial, honor-bound, feud-tending and rugged, with strong personal responsibility in militant context; art molds around life and necessity, meaning spartan 'true' art independent of utility, but rich decoration of tools & vestments.
Substantial contributors to both the more independent border irregulars and the state regular army, Kuzyan cultural troops are heavy cataphrachts, horse archers and a handful of dragoons, and mixed-role spearman-archers or musketeers, in the mold of the Iranic nîzagân-î êrânshahr or the Russian Streltsy; the necessities of their living produces good jezailmen, in Pashto style. Although the scythed chariot went extinct with the advent of modern heavy cavalry through the stirrup and warhorse combined with better individual arms & armor, its legacy did not die entirely, redeveloping later in the war wagon, utilized in and useful in both the Hussite horse-drawn-fort-on-wheels fashion and as shock tools, as flying swivel-gun batteries and matchlock units in one, though now regarded with skepticism with the advent of more modern field guns. The ethic of the war-wagon inspired the state innovation of Zamburak camel-guns, which then pollinated backwards into adoption by Kuzyan irregulars.)
(Adopting their demonym worshipfully from one of Asurishvara's titles after his salvaging of the region to the salvation of its people, deriving from the same practice in India of its Sanskrit name Bharata, after that emperor and dynasty. Inspiration from either pole of India and its Indo-Aryan/Dravidian divide, with a bias to the coasts and the naval tradition of the Marathas. The northern bayside is their homeland, where perhaps the greatest breadbasket in Nagath outside ultra-densely fertile Tushienna lies. The more adventurous tend towards fishery, merchantry and marine work. Being largely freer from the marauding that the Kuzyans endlessly contend with, fortified towns are far less prevalent than further west, restricted to major ports and strategic junctures. Another early joiner, brought back from the brink as the Movement fled into the East, providing the armsmen necessary to stave off cataclysm and prevent the ruin of the regions' livelihood. The baseline economic core of the state. Sanctity-inclined, ritualist, moralistic. Incessant appliers of beauty to every edifice, for the function of form. Prime source of metaphysicians and seers.
Militarily notable for their naval contribution, in the form of sleek brownwater ships in Maratha style, marines and privateers, serving well to police the bay area. While there are those state troops equipped in the heavier Kuzyan styles, often raised further west where the cultures intermingle, their land contributions to the army are largely in light troops and skirmishers more alike to the Kuzyan irregulars, fleet horsemen, and composite bowmen. These tend to be quick to displace and fleet in resupplying as they go, making them effective responders to incursions by bayside raiders. In field battles, they excel in the skirmish, harrying attacks and exploitation of disorder created by heavier troops. Living towards and around the core of the kingdom, Bhaskara arsenalmen have gained increasing prominence, and have been at the forefront of military rocketry & light gun development, such that stirrup-artillery between the camel-gun and field gun in weight are found more and more often in Bhaskaran response forces.)
((Pre-placeholder: Far Easterly hodgepodge people, drawn largely from Indo-Asia and a dash of Japan & Korea, maybe a splash from China, this perhaps a result of their not being of a single ethnic origin, but rather drawn from multiple peoples when they were first uprooted as servants of He Xiuying, members of her court and serfdom, drawn from across the tributary kingdoms. Named for the Thai word ญาณ, meaning 'perception,' 'insight,' or 'knowledge.' This is fitting, owing to their being originally a servant-people to a hag demoness, and so a number of esoteric scraps and genuine sorcery bled down to them- her apprentices could ill hope to ever challenge her, and it made things 'more interesting'- alongside general learnedness and a great deal of irrelevant superstitious nonsense. Sifting through the latter to get to the former is rather difficult, but the state manages, even as the wellspring of wisdom has largely run dry and innovation increasingly centers around the capital in Bhaskara. One may expect that this unmixing ethnic hodgepodge might lead to a thousand Chinatowns in separated districts, settlements, and communities. Amongst those people that are not quite indoctrinated by the state, an abiding, humored bitterness generally presides, seeing as they've (mostly) traded the naked tyranny of their former direct master for that of Asurishvara instead. They dub it largely an improvement, as tyrannies go, and are just glad that He Xiuying's arbitrary tendencies and wraths are largely kept in check by her subordination.))
((Pre-placeholder: Indo-Greeks crossed with Byzantium; their particular brand of Asuranism takes from the Greek classics and the historical peculiarity of Greco-Buddhism. Primarily inhabiting the Basileía Baktrion, the southern bayside province-state of Vritraprthviraja, in a rather teetering position due to the mutiny of one of their subprovinces in the West and subsequent annexation by the Red Empire/Naukada Kaumntok. Very strong professional military & mercenary traditions, even if their formations are not so great in scale without levy supplement. Have a liking for fire-craft in grenade and thrower form, even if their solution pales in comparison to Tushiena with its Daigon's Fire. Rich trade hubs within their semi-enclosed lake, overall position geographically and politically alike to the Komnenoi in Trebizond, albeit if they had the backing of a suzerain with serious vested interest in their continued existence rather than snapping them up directly at the same time as another state is looking to at some point obliterate them, or the late Byzantines if disastrous military cuts had enabled them to hold on better as an indigestible enough proposition for Rum & the Osmans that their continued if reduced existence were plausible.))
Kuzyan
(Shameless garbling of Kushan, after the empire founded by the Indo-European Yuezhi pastoralist nomads. Inspiration from the Yuezhi, the Tarim Basin trader cultures, hardy Caucasian mountain townships in the Aul mold, and the Parthian/Persian cultures. The majority make their living along the western riverbanks and on & against the back of the northwesterly mountains, and those areas between, living in ridgeside settlements, bastle houses and peel towers, or at the least palisaded or walled villages & towns with pastoral extensions. One of the earliest cultures to join the Movement of Ten Thousand Voices and most integral. Values are martial, honor-bound, feud-tending and rugged, with strong personal responsibility in militant context; art molds around life and necessity, meaning spartan 'true' art independent of utility, but rich decoration of tools & vestments.
Substantial contributors to both the more independent border irregulars and the state regular army, Kuzyan cultural troops are heavy cataphrachts, horse archers and a handful of dragoons, and mixed-role spearman-archers or musketeers, in the mold of the Iranic nîzagân-î êrânshahr or the Russian Streltsy; the necessities of their living produces good jezailmen, in Pashto style. Although the scythed chariot went extinct with the advent of modern heavy cavalry through the stirrup and warhorse combined with better individual arms & armor, its legacy did not die entirely, redeveloping later in the war wagon, utilized in and useful in both the Hussite horse-drawn-fort-on-wheels fashion and as shock tools, as flying swivel-gun batteries and matchlock units in one, though now regarded with skepticism with the advent of more modern field guns. The ethic of the war-wagon inspired the state innovation of Zamburak camel-guns, which then pollinated backwards into adoption by Kuzyan irregulars.)
Bhaskara
(Adopting their demonym worshipfully from one of Asurishvara's titles after his salvaging of the region to the salvation of its people, deriving from the same practice in India of its Sanskrit name Bharata, after that emperor and dynasty. Inspiration from either pole of India and its Indo-Aryan/Dravidian divide, with a bias to the coasts and the naval tradition of the Marathas. The northern bayside is their homeland, where perhaps the greatest breadbasket in Nagath outside ultra-densely fertile Tushienna lies. The more adventurous tend towards fishery, merchantry and marine work. Being largely freer from the marauding that the Kuzyans endlessly contend with, fortified towns are far less prevalent than further west, restricted to major ports and strategic junctures. Another early joiner, brought back from the brink as the Movement fled into the East, providing the armsmen necessary to stave off cataclysm and prevent the ruin of the regions' livelihood. The baseline economic core of the state. Sanctity-inclined, ritualist, moralistic. Incessant appliers of beauty to every edifice, for the function of form. Prime source of metaphysicians and seers.
Militarily notable for their naval contribution, in the form of sleek brownwater ships in Maratha style, marines and privateers, serving well to police the bay area. While there are those state troops equipped in the heavier Kuzyan styles, often raised further west where the cultures intermingle, their land contributions to the army are largely in light troops and skirmishers more alike to the Kuzyan irregulars, fleet horsemen, and composite bowmen. These tend to be quick to displace and fleet in resupplying as they go, making them effective responders to incursions by bayside raiders. In field battles, they excel in the skirmish, harrying attacks and exploitation of disorder created by heavier troops. Living towards and around the core of the kingdom, Bhaskara arsenalmen have gained increasing prominence, and have been at the forefront of military rocketry & light gun development, such that stirrup-artillery between the camel-gun and field gun in weight are found more and more often in Bhaskaran response forces.)
Ỵāṇ
((Pre-placeholder: Far Easterly hodgepodge people, drawn largely from Indo-Asia and a dash of Japan & Korea, maybe a splash from China, this perhaps a result of their not being of a single ethnic origin, but rather drawn from multiple peoples when they were first uprooted as servants of He Xiuying, members of her court and serfdom, drawn from across the tributary kingdoms. Named for the Thai word ญาณ, meaning 'perception,' 'insight,' or 'knowledge.' This is fitting, owing to their being originally a servant-people to a hag demoness, and so a number of esoteric scraps and genuine sorcery bled down to them- her apprentices could ill hope to ever challenge her, and it made things 'more interesting'- alongside general learnedness and a great deal of irrelevant superstitious nonsense. Sifting through the latter to get to the former is rather difficult, but the state manages, even as the wellspring of wisdom has largely run dry and innovation increasingly centers around the capital in Bhaskara. One may expect that this unmixing ethnic hodgepodge might lead to a thousand Chinatowns in separated districts, settlements, and communities. Amongst those people that are not quite indoctrinated by the state, an abiding, humored bitterness generally presides, seeing as they've (mostly) traded the naked tyranny of their former direct master for that of Asurishvara instead. They dub it largely an improvement, as tyrannies go, and are just glad that He Xiuying's arbitrary tendencies and wraths are largely kept in check by her subordination.))
Elladas
((Pre-placeholder: Indo-Greeks crossed with Byzantium; their particular brand of Asuranism takes from the Greek classics and the historical peculiarity of Greco-Buddhism. Primarily inhabiting the Basileía Baktrion, the southern bayside province-state of Vritraprthviraja, in a rather teetering position due to the mutiny of one of their subprovinces in the West and subsequent annexation by the Red Empire/Naukada Kaumntok. Very strong professional military & mercenary traditions, even if their formations are not so great in scale without levy supplement. Have a liking for fire-craft in grenade and thrower form, even if their solution pales in comparison to Tushiena with its Daigon's Fire. Rich trade hubs within their semi-enclosed lake, overall position geographically and politically alike to the Komnenoi in Trebizond, albeit if they had the backing of a suzerain with serious vested interest in their continued existence rather than snapping them up directly at the same time as another state is looking to at some point obliterate them, or the late Byzantines if disastrous military cuts had enabled them to hold on better as an indigestible enough proposition for Rum & the Osmans that their continued if reduced existence were plausible.))
Brayfolk
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Territory Details
(Brief summation; rich agricultural territory along the freshwater bayside, in addition to blue and brown water ports. Rich trade hubs are precariously situated on the southern lake, now split off as an exclave. The western peninsula finger, directly north of Tushiena, is an increasingly more popular hub of development & trade, owing to the potential danger posed to the lake cities by Naukada Kaumntok. The eastern peninsula holds further bluewater ports of moderate development, waxing and waning in resources dedicated with Tushiena's cooperativeness or lackthereof, as well as fishing communities and foresters; agriculture is not very well developed, as though not on the leeside of the mountain like the Khanate, the peninsula is less windward than the bay, harsher and colder. The western riverside is home to a beleaguered agriculture, to bastle houses, watchposts and the constant millings to and fro of border irregulars, incessantly skirmishing with Red Empire counterparts to keep the peace. Inland along the mountains are shepherds' communities, subsistence agriculture, mines, quarries, and peel towers at the scarce mountain passes; originally intended as strongpoints against potential northern raids and covers for retreat were the south lost, now relegated to supply dumps and stopping points for overland caravans to the Akagi Khanate. The capital of Rajazul is placed with its back to the mountains, about the highlands near the narrower shore on the north-center of the bay, with subsidiary towns on the bay shore being in direct subordination to the capital, the space between filled by deep black arable soil, fed by ash and magic centuries before and developed thereafter.)
(Micro-placeholder for variant titles and other bits. Called Rajazul formally, 'Seat of High Kings,' it is referred to by the Kuzyan as Shhr Peadshahan (City of Kings, simple, cognate to its Dratha/sorcerer-tongued title) the Bhaskara as Bhaskaranagara (Bhaskara's City, personal appellation to its founder rather than ethnic) the Ỵāṇ as Meụ̄xng k̄hxng khrū (City of the Teachers, illustrating at once a fetishization of wisdom and a certain casual irreverance) and by the Elladas in Bakt as I póli (The City, very simple with implicit exclusivity of the title and reverence.) Of these titles, the most fitting to Asurishvara's original intent is the Elladan one; he only ever personally named Rajazul as 'the city, the only city in Nagath and the world,' both to aggrandize it and also because he could not conceive of a definite name he could settle on at the time. A number of the names he'd thought on and discarded including Rajazul were converged on by those seeking to give it praise anyways, but the gesture stands in spite of this.
Is built from coast to mountainside, the whole length of the metropolis run through by the River Gayatri- named for a particular mantra, perhaps in-world meaning more generally 'hymnal'- artificially enhanced and harnessed over the course of the city's construction. Gayatri begins with its source in the high mountains, splits briefly around the oldest Machu Pichu like citadel-estate before remerging, and then truly splits into the Rivers Yami, individually called Vijaya and Vena- Victory and Yearning- to West and East respectively. Vijaya splits into Sati and Savitr- 'truthful' and 'rouser'- and Vena into Uma and Ushas, literally 'flax' or figuratively 'indulgence' or 'prosperity,' and 'dawn.')
Is built from coast to mountainside, the whole length of the metropolis run through by the River Gayatri- named for a particular mantra, perhaps in-world meaning more generally 'hymnal'- artificially enhanced and harnessed over the course of the city's construction. Gayatri begins with its source in the high mountains, splits briefly around the oldest Machu Pichu like citadel-estate before remerging, and then truly splits into the Rivers Yami, individually called Vijaya and Vena- Victory and Yearning- to West and East respectively. Vijaya splits into Sati and Savitr- 'truthful' and 'rouser'- and Vena into Uma and Ushas, literally 'flax' or figuratively 'indulgence' or 'prosperity,' and 'dawn.')
Faction Religion/Ideology
(Brief summation; misotheist hero-cultism as bonded to a military industrial complex with a little esoteric mystery and heady fanaticism. 'To reign is worth ambition, though in hell,' to hackishly abuse the OP quote. Since the world was placed into an unjust order, but a just one exists in concept and spirit, mortals and those who were mortals must bring it into being, by the justest means possible, with the whole fiber of ones' being dedicated to the effort in whatever capacity in which one is able. Nothing dictates compromise in this ideology save pragmatism, and where it dictates, one usually finds mortal sins committed to abate further sins. Essentially a semi-inversion of Justinianism, marked by a lesser segregation between secular & clerical sectors, a lesser power of the latter in its being an extension of the state rather than overbearing it, and a greater centralization in general.)
Faction Description
The State and Asuranism
To he whom has built the city,
And whom has put on coil and chain,
All for the sake of Man
We say, we shall wear coil and chain, too
For he whom has said 'I am that I am.'
And whom has put on coil and chain,
All for the sake of Man
We say, we shall wear coil and chain, too
For he whom has said 'I am that I am.'
-Chainbearers' Psalm, a common Asuran prayer.
The product of the ambition & pathos of fiends and men, and some of the last remaining die-hard Daigonists with a tangible link to His original mandate, Vritraprthvirajya claims itself unique amongst the despotates of Nagath, a cut above in legitimacy and in civilized structure. This indeed is not wholly untrue, for in no other land save the County of Tushienna can it be said that metropolitan life survives in full, and in few that the coherent rule of State and Law prevails, nor the land so thoroughly reclaimed. But 'not wholly untrue' is to say at once 'half-truth,' and shining beacon of civilization or no, it is a state of utopian mandate, not actuality. Two of the kingdoms' many names- 'The Enveloping Kingdom' and 'The Strangler Princedom'- emphasize quite well the dichotomy in thought and the core truth of the matter. In Vritraprthvirajya, everything is within the state, nothing outside the state and nothing against the state, for all allegedly springs from the ambition and machination of Asurishvara, whose four-century and longer lifetime has revolved entirely around its construction and increasing rationalization, as a consolidation of Nagathi potential & power. It is a land without compromise in this respect; all rivers of state power and personal prosperity begin with the Sovereign and thusly return to him in absolutist form.
It is thus that personal freedom also begins and ends with utility to the Sovereign and to his construct. Each man, born within or assigned into his caste, be he farmer, craftsman, merchant, soldier, arsenal-guildsman, temple holder or any other walk of life, functions within it to the utmost and does not function outside it except insofar as it feeds into his well-being so that he will retain this utmost function. It is not that leisure and reprieve do not exist; it is that they are mandated, managed, and inevitably state-born or state-sanctioned in the case of areas rural enough to be allowed some occasionally inspected and subsidized autonomy. The omnipresence is so choking that it is essentially a state without the usual underground; prostitutes fall under the auspices of the temple and those Asura touching upon this aspect, intoxicants the seers and alchemists for whom the need of fresh perspective and data is constant, pit-fighting and bloodsport a mostly deathless affair channeled to martial & military purposes under army authority. By these means are the ends of effective and centrally subordinated distributionism, societal control and ability for relatively coherent central economic direction achieved.
Such a system, impossible under ordinary despotism, is managed on the technical level through what could be called a centralization of decentralization; to elucidate upon the all-rivers figure, through the creation of a sophisticated and often chokingly interlaced bureaucracy, consisting of guilds, functionary offices, councils within councils, and so on in management over each caste pyramid- often with a degree of overlap- and reporting further up the chain to larger umbrellas and smaller, more focused offices alike. Fealty travels up from the lowest gilded chattel, up to the high Asura that make up the directing aristocracy, headed by Asurishvara himself. It is the Kingdom of the Wheel, and so the wheel turns ever onward, spiraling inward and outwards on its axis. On the social level, it is achieved not by the bludgeon, but by consent through the idea of the Ideal.
Asurishvara founded the Movement of the Voices Ten Thousand on 'Daigon's Dream,' the notion of a better world founded through the obliteration of ignorance and the willful bearing of the weight of sin by those willing to stain their hands, and willing to do so as needed and no more. Not the scheming of farcical gods in Justinians' mold, nor abstracts and idols who do not answer, but men, beasts, and those who will answer, anti-gods, Asuras. It is an ideal of self-sacrifice, an ideal of swords, written in blood and tears in outcry against a world crashing down around mankind, universal in its offer of salvation and uncompromising in means applied to achieve it. And so punitive justice does not often fall to the State to deal out, save against the thoroughly unrepentant or those whom exist outside the bounds of the Dream; instead, it falls to the criminal to punish themselves. To the thief is handed the lash, to the heretic chain and rosary, to the murderer the executioners' blade; through shame, guilt, and the imposition of the ideal of the Dream, justice is self-administered, as just one of many individual and societal responsibilities.
So it is that Vritraprthvirajya is described so; as a shining beacon, and as an enveloping darkness. As freedom from bondage, and the heaviest chains. As a land of escape from the world, and as one inescapable. As the sole godly realm on Earth, and as a den of irreproachable fiends. All bear a measure of truth, as a matter of where one stands, and who against. What can be said with certainty is that Daigon's Dream, as manifested by Asurishvara, is ill likely to go away soon, and never quietly, for it has rooted itself deeply in the hearts of men, and has done so by design.
It is thus that personal freedom also begins and ends with utility to the Sovereign and to his construct. Each man, born within or assigned into his caste, be he farmer, craftsman, merchant, soldier, arsenal-guildsman, temple holder or any other walk of life, functions within it to the utmost and does not function outside it except insofar as it feeds into his well-being so that he will retain this utmost function. It is not that leisure and reprieve do not exist; it is that they are mandated, managed, and inevitably state-born or state-sanctioned in the case of areas rural enough to be allowed some occasionally inspected and subsidized autonomy. The omnipresence is so choking that it is essentially a state without the usual underground; prostitutes fall under the auspices of the temple and those Asura touching upon this aspect, intoxicants the seers and alchemists for whom the need of fresh perspective and data is constant, pit-fighting and bloodsport a mostly deathless affair channeled to martial & military purposes under army authority. By these means are the ends of effective and centrally subordinated distributionism, societal control and ability for relatively coherent central economic direction achieved.
Such a system, impossible under ordinary despotism, is managed on the technical level through what could be called a centralization of decentralization; to elucidate upon the all-rivers figure, through the creation of a sophisticated and often chokingly interlaced bureaucracy, consisting of guilds, functionary offices, councils within councils, and so on in management over each caste pyramid- often with a degree of overlap- and reporting further up the chain to larger umbrellas and smaller, more focused offices alike. Fealty travels up from the lowest gilded chattel, up to the high Asura that make up the directing aristocracy, headed by Asurishvara himself. It is the Kingdom of the Wheel, and so the wheel turns ever onward, spiraling inward and outwards on its axis. On the social level, it is achieved not by the bludgeon, but by consent through the idea of the Ideal.
Asurishvara founded the Movement of the Voices Ten Thousand on 'Daigon's Dream,' the notion of a better world founded through the obliteration of ignorance and the willful bearing of the weight of sin by those willing to stain their hands, and willing to do so as needed and no more. Not the scheming of farcical gods in Justinians' mold, nor abstracts and idols who do not answer, but men, beasts, and those who will answer, anti-gods, Asuras. It is an ideal of self-sacrifice, an ideal of swords, written in blood and tears in outcry against a world crashing down around mankind, universal in its offer of salvation and uncompromising in means applied to achieve it. And so punitive justice does not often fall to the State to deal out, save against the thoroughly unrepentant or those whom exist outside the bounds of the Dream; instead, it falls to the criminal to punish themselves. To the thief is handed the lash, to the heretic chain and rosary, to the murderer the executioners' blade; through shame, guilt, and the imposition of the ideal of the Dream, justice is self-administered, as just one of many individual and societal responsibilities.
So it is that Vritraprthvirajya is described so; as a shining beacon, and as an enveloping darkness. As freedom from bondage, and the heaviest chains. As a land of escape from the world, and as one inescapable. As the sole godly realm on Earth, and as a den of irreproachable fiends. All bear a measure of truth, as a matter of where one stands, and who against. What can be said with certainty is that Daigon's Dream, as manifested by Asurishvara, is ill likely to go away soon, and never quietly, for it has rooted itself deeply in the hearts of men, and has done so by design.
Faction History
(Brief summation; sudden appearance of a unifying leader with a scorched earth plan, guerilla withdrawal to the eastern pensinula, creation of a fiendish aristocracy within the guerilla movement and the seeds of bureaucratic rule, development of hero-cultism and religiosity of blood sacrifice to keep magic-starved arcana running a bit longer, reconquest and the rendering of warlords as client states, widespread devolve of weapons & technology from the Imperium-Nagath war standard to medieval/antiquity levels, betrayals and setbacks, rise in technological standards and understanding of old scientific principles as coherent state centralization and the arsenals' reengineering efforts begin to bear fruit.)
Important Characters
Bhaskara Aniruddha Shyama, Unyielding Lightmaker in the Black
The many-titled Lightmaker, known primarily by this appellation or for brevity's sake by the titles Raja or Asurishvara, King or Supreme Lord of Asuras, is the fiend demigod-regent to the empty seat of the late Daigon, and one of the primemost thorns in Justinian's side from the very beginning of his occupation of Nagath. In the chaos surrounding Daigon's death, the then-unknown Raja emerged- as so many shadow-advisors did- with a contingency in hand. Rather than break what remained of Nagath in nation and army on the rocks of Justinians' legions, bleed them, twice-scorch the earth that the Legions had burnt and now set to live upon, and flee easterly with as many bannermen, citizens, chattel and arms as could be mobilized, to strike the enemy where weakest, where off-balance and overextended, and rebuild a base of support from which to reclaim Daigon's lands and his dream.
Those who scorned him, be they man or demi-man or demon, in favor of martyrdom, a change of banners, or their own too-small too-independent efforts largely perished; their armies disintegrated, fledgeling statelets brought to heel. Those whom followed, and did not succumb to consumption and despair, were raised one and all to the status of peer with him, albeit in accordant measure and status, be they high general or low serf, accompanying to the far bay shore and peninsula that he would call Vritraprthvirajya, where man and his fellow beings would be freed from the tyranny of chaos and ignorance, from predation and destruction, all chains unjust broken and all just chains gilded, every life precious, every drop of sacrificial blood priceless and carefully meted. So the stories go.
Dispensing with mythology, what can be said generally of the Asurishvara of those whom meet him, be they high or low in status, is that he does his best to match the image of enlightened dictator. Usually clad in the form of a serene-featured man of braided, blackened hair, blue skin, and red-violet patterned eyes, the only gross hint of his outright inhumanity being a certain otherwordly aura, an overrapt attention, and two crowning stake-like horns from his forehead. At rest, his manners are polite when tongue is not unsheathed, disposition confident and giving, and is as readily prepared to use his image of grandeur & status as tool or weapon as to dispense with it for comradely and personal manner. It is by this dual image that he is able to earn the loyalty of his closest and the reverent awe of the subjects he tows behind him. But in spite of these good qualities, he remains a devil, and a guarded edge lies beneath; he is boastful and blusterous; and prone to gloomy wrath, righteous or otherwise. It is a careful cultivation of image that he does not appear swept away by his own force of personality, but this impression is not absent within the kingdom or without.
What can be said of his abilities; he has dedicated his life to mastery of kingly and sagely arts, or close as anyone, even a demi-divinity, may come. He is skilled in the use of many weapons martial, preferring in particular the use of a long, thin cut-and-thrust sword of blackened metal somewhere betwixt bastard & war sword and the estoc, a relic from when Nagath was still whole and peculiar in make and form which he most often will use of as as stave or rod wheresoever he goes. He is a more than apt challenger in the realm of sorcery, much lost to the men of this age. He is a well-cut commander of men, and a competent administrator when he does not delegate to the ponderous bureaucracy he has constructed. He is capable of grafting other gigantic and contrary personalities at least somewhat together by stubborn force of will. And if all else fails, he is a demon, and in particular one of an unbound form, an energetic ball of wrath waiting to be turned outwards in shapes as yet unseen.
Those who scorned him, be they man or demi-man or demon, in favor of martyrdom, a change of banners, or their own too-small too-independent efforts largely perished; their armies disintegrated, fledgeling statelets brought to heel. Those whom followed, and did not succumb to consumption and despair, were raised one and all to the status of peer with him, albeit in accordant measure and status, be they high general or low serf, accompanying to the far bay shore and peninsula that he would call Vritraprthvirajya, where man and his fellow beings would be freed from the tyranny of chaos and ignorance, from predation and destruction, all chains unjust broken and all just chains gilded, every life precious, every drop of sacrificial blood priceless and carefully meted. So the stories go.
Dispensing with mythology, what can be said generally of the Asurishvara of those whom meet him, be they high or low in status, is that he does his best to match the image of enlightened dictator. Usually clad in the form of a serene-featured man of braided, blackened hair, blue skin, and red-violet patterned eyes, the only gross hint of his outright inhumanity being a certain otherwordly aura, an overrapt attention, and two crowning stake-like horns from his forehead. At rest, his manners are polite when tongue is not unsheathed, disposition confident and giving, and is as readily prepared to use his image of grandeur & status as tool or weapon as to dispense with it for comradely and personal manner. It is by this dual image that he is able to earn the loyalty of his closest and the reverent awe of the subjects he tows behind him. But in spite of these good qualities, he remains a devil, and a guarded edge lies beneath; he is boastful and blusterous; and prone to gloomy wrath, righteous or otherwise. It is a careful cultivation of image that he does not appear swept away by his own force of personality, but this impression is not absent within the kingdom or without.
What can be said of his abilities; he has dedicated his life to mastery of kingly and sagely arts, or close as anyone, even a demi-divinity, may come. He is skilled in the use of many weapons martial, preferring in particular the use of a long, thin cut-and-thrust sword of blackened metal somewhere betwixt bastard & war sword and the estoc, a relic from when Nagath was still whole and peculiar in make and form which he most often will use of as as stave or rod wheresoever he goes. He is a more than apt challenger in the realm of sorcery, much lost to the men of this age. He is a well-cut commander of men, and a competent administrator when he does not delegate to the ponderous bureaucracy he has constructed. He is capable of grafting other gigantic and contrary personalities at least somewhat together by stubborn force of will. And if all else fails, he is a demon, and in particular one of an unbound form, an energetic ball of wrath waiting to be turned outwards in shapes as yet unseen.
Relations to other Factions
Justinian Imperium
The Red Empire
Clan Black Anvil
The Weeping Widows
The Covenant of the Worm
Tushiena
Sanguine Alliance
Akagi Khanate
Standardized Presection Blurb Formation
Big Concept Name
slanty quotation and verse
-creditation, plain expoundment and exposition.
