Name: Bascheu
History: Deriving its name from the Old Basche term "Bascheviuchi" first recorded hundreds of years ago by none other than King Vytauntin himself, Bascheu has long been a centre for trade and commerce. Emerging as little more than a triad of villages thousands of years ago, what historians describe as an emerging human culture began roughly 5000 years before this role-play, when Feldhase tribes from the north moved into the Bascheu Peninsula, bringing with them agriculture, pottery, and the working of soft metals. About 200 or so years later, what come to be known as the Unmensch arrived from the west, nearly supplanting the Feldhase with their sheer numbers. Fortunately, the Feldhase managed to coexist with the invaders, eventually outnumbering the menacing giants. Around the same time, Kreaturich voyagers from the surrounding islands began establishing trading posts and settlements along the southeastern Basche coasts. However, following a dozen or so years of supposed peace, the Kreatures grew envious of the Bascheu region's expansive territory (take note that no government had been formed yet, and most of modern-day Bascheu was just a couple of meager villages here and there), eventually waging a year-long campaign for control of the peninsula, which they won. All of the remaining Basche were holed up in the northern outskirts of the country, where they stayed for another decade or so. Meanwhile, the Kreatures founded the first city on Basche soil, Ortschaft.
As Kreaturich control of the peninsula declined over the following couple of decades thanks to incessant Unmensch uprisings, the Feldhase people returned from their northern homes, settled in southern Bascheu, annexed Ortschaft, and overran the rest of the peninsula. After a few years they were once again supplanted by the Kreatures, who restored their Bascheviuchi Kingdom in 550 AN (after the discovery of Natahur), leaving the region weak and divided, plagued by decades of fighting. By the time the Feldhase-Unmensch forces retaliated in 711 AN, much of country was abandoned, with the only serious resistance center in Ortschaft. The aptly-named New Bascheviuchi Kingdom was promptly founded in 756 by the revered Feldhase King Vytauntin.
Bascheu would remain under Feldhase-Unmensch control for the next five-and-a-half centuries. In 1031, it was decided that the kingdom would be separated into 23 provinces, each with their own prince, in order avoid civil unrest from the remaining Kreaturich citizens. The majority of Bascheu was under control of the Unmensch Prince Kriegshetzer, whose seemingly perpetual warmongering led to the 1086 Kreaturich conquest of eastern Bascheu, who were in term supplanted by the newly-formed Unmensch Federation, led by Kriegshetzer. The Federation was a restless region of constant poverty and rebel skirmishes, often attempting to seize the region's remaining principalities.
Nearly fifty years after Kriegshetzer's attempts at controlling Bascheu, the Unmensch Federation was successfully dismantled at the Battle of Freiheit, Feldhase King Liebling took the throne, and dismantled the country's provincial government, effectively unifying the region under the New Bascheviuchi Kingdom name. Liebling, believing himself to be a prophet of the Natahur, imposed strict religious restrictions on his people, and led massive bands of warriors throughout the region in an attempt to quell any possibilities of a conflicting religion. Although the Natahur Inquisition proved to be quite ineffective, with Basche followers of Lia amounting to thousands, the country's urban expansion was greatly bolstered by the voyaging knights, with five counties founded from 1140 to 1143, including Bascheu.
The county of Bascheu, a modernization of the term Bascheviuchi, was awarded by King Liebling to his second son, Prince Edlemann the Elder, for the young man's efforts in spreading the Natahur religion. In 1149, the newly created Court of Bascheu defeated Liebling's forces, ensuring Edlemann's sole reign over the county, For the next decade, his son, Edlemann the Young, conducted a continuous campaign against those still loyal to Liebling's former government until, at the Battle of Kriegskunt in 1159, he won a decisive victory. Edlemann was unanimously proclaimed King of Bascheviuchi by his soldiers immediately after the battle, going on to establish his castle at Webern, the former capital of Bascheu, effectively supplanting Ortschaft as the seat of the king. The new kingdom, titled Bascheu, was officially recognized as an independent state by the country's ruling Natahur priest in 1163.
Military: Thanks to the region's centuries of war, the Basche people are hardened, merciless soldiers capable of withstanding even the strongest of foes. Specifically speaking, the military is divided into archers, brutes, and minions, with the Feldhase acting as the land's most experienced and agile bowmen, the Unmensch acting as tanks, both soaking up and dealing quite a bit of damage and the cost of speed, and the Kreatures taking the role of minions, or cannon fodder. They're also pretty navally speaking, I guess, considering their country is nearly surrounded by water.
Relationship to the Gods: They're really big into Natahur. Or at least the king and those loyal to him are. A couple thousand are fans of Lia. Maybe there's a million of them. I don't know. I'll just say a million, okay? Cool.
People: Bascheu's 8.5 million people are comprised solely of three races.
Feldhase (~65% of the population)
Experienced craftsmen, artisans, and traders, the Feldhase are the prime examples of Basque society. Well-groomed, fashionable, and studious, these tall, bipedal, rabbit-esque beings appear to have incredibly long years, those these are in fact ultra-sensitive tendrils, allowing their reflexes to be nearly twice that of a fly's, making them very effective archers.
Unmensch (~25% of the population)
These mute, hulking, tree-like giants are little more than workhorses to the Feldhase, acting as cranes, wagons, catapults, shields, and anything else you could imagine. You'll rarely find them in major settlements outside of construction projects, due to their supposedly ugly appearance (according to the Feldhase, at least) and tendency unroot trees and eat them, potentially killing unsuspecting children a la falling branches.
The Big Things in the Background:
Kreatures (~10% if the population)
Looked down up by the Feldhase and Unmensch, the Kreatures have long been an enemy of the Bascheu region, continuously looting and attacking her in hopes of enriching their lives. These dwarves are largely in poverty thanks to intense discrimination by Feldhase, resulting in many of them either committing suicide, acting as ranch hands on farms too poor to afford Unmensch or Feldhase laborers, or mining. Oh, and they like to wear skull masks, for whatever reason. I guess cause they're mad at the Feldhase?
Important Persons:
King Edlemann the Young: The first king of the Kingdom of Basque, Edlemann is a ruthless, overbearing ruler bent on eliminating any possibilities of a religion outside of one worshiping Natahur. Although he's a mere 24, he rules as though he's over a hundred, taking weeks to plan out the simplest of decisions, and going over every single course of action with each of his advisors multiple times.
