BurningCold
Fallenreaper
Zapdos
Xaltwind
Spiffy
dwyer austin
The Otter
Dezuel
Izurich
Danyel@Liotrent@Jeddaven It is done. Well, mostly complete anyways. The flag and image of the colony's location are things I want to add to it sooner or later!
Also is not meant to be some invincible undead nation. Undead can get blown apart and living lives lost, etc. Just because I overthink and worry. I just wanted to add fun flavor for the undead and such. Hopefully no one else has tried to do undead? Maybe? Eh, anywho... (@_@)
Name of your Nation: The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki (Known as the “An-ki Republic” in/for short.) (Colony on the map in particular is known as “Gukou Colony” or “Gukou Island” to the Republic.)
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(Flag and Map Images To Eventually Be Placed Here)
Type of Government:: Constitutional Democratic Republic
Demographics:
Population: 10 million (Sentient/Living specifically, not counting mindless undead or reanimated because they aren't sentient/sapient.)
Governance & Politics:
The nation is built with a constitution by current times, and has an Oligarchy at the top formed of the persisting-since-ancient-times though had-to-replace-members-at-times “Council of the Seven Deaths”. These, however, are simply at the very top of the government and at the top of the political food chain. The government below them is split into three parts, with the Council existing as the Executive part and holding these executive and certain special powers, a Legislature split into a House and a Senate who do the law-making work, and then a Judiciary which has nine members maximum by law.
The Council is the oldest part of the government, originally being the whole of the government in ancient times before time and war and other factors have led to its persistence into modern times as the constitutionally designated Executive body at the head of the nation. It was formed as a simple Oligarchy founded for undead alone to rule, but through countless wars and internal struggles and replacements and reforms it has changed and shifted along with the various types of undead-scholars who still form and compose the body overall still. Unlike in older times, where the amount of Council positions shifted depending on the types of undead they classified to actually exist, the modern Council is hard locked into seven Council members proper. The Council, if a position is somehow ever opened up, fills it in by appointment and approval by the remaining council members. Usually there’s a list the Council updates and maintains, which of course changes from time to time, of prime candidates to replace Council members in the case of a potential vacancy. One type of each undead is required to be on the council, no doubling up allowed by law.
The Legislature is voted in within both houses, and brings a voice to the people from across the Republic proper. It is also the newest and youngest part of the government, having been adopted about 110 years ago alongside the nation’s constitution in the aftermath of a number of ideas adopted and put into place by the Council after a series of internal corruption cases and struggles to maintain the aging bureaucracy that the Council was looking to replace in general by doing research into other and new ideas emerging in the rest of the world. It has also taken an amount of pressure off of the Council itself to do all the lawmaking as well, which has been a boon in the Council’s eyes to boot. Both living and undead serve in the Legislature, with term limits used to keep both types of citizenry in-check and in-balance more so in this part of the government.
The Judiciary is formed from a body of lifetime-serving judges, and is the highest court in the nation proper. Albeit they are limited to being living (not undead ever) and cannot use magically-based or magically-generated means of life extension in order to ensure a fresh influx of judges will occur at some point. The Judiciary is composed of nine members, who are nominated by the Legislature, interviewed and investigated by the existing Judiciary (or if none of the Judiciary is alive then a joint temporary council of lesser judges from one governmental level below this), and then denied or approved by the Executive. Below this, things are electoral in nature. Judges start with a proper and required Judicial education to become valid potential candidates to become judges. Said candidates usually gain experience by getting voted into judicial positions in order to climb the ladder, making them seasoned veterans and qualified to enter elections for higher judicial positions in the land. Albeit they must actually live in the area, district, province, etc they are gunning for to be able to seek the position. Those most seasoned and experienced candidates are then applicable to be nominated for joining the Judiciary.
At lower levels one can find sometimes regionally varying laws, though it’s the really far fringe or isolated enough boonies that one can find some of the stranger things still in place. For example, in one small isolated county’s case one can challenge the person their spouse cheated on them with to a serious, lethal duel and it is fully legal and just in the eyes of the law. In another one cannot skin deer on the first two days of the week, with a fine being placed on them and that includes being publicly shamed in the town square.
Culture & Society:
Magic & Technology:
Undead have been a staple of industry since ancient times, even having been used under the original council as far back as 1000 years ago in rudimentary assembly lines before falling out of favor and then going back into use once technology returned to that idea. Enchanted bone sword blades that seek out the foe when swung in battle and are rendered harder than steel, cursed undead hounds used to harry invaders when evacuating towns and dealing lingering curses to those they bite, disease-filled miasma spells set off by saboteurs in the enemy’s supply line during a major battle, detached undead limbs used to operate doors or handing supplies to working necromancers, and the like have been present historically as well.
Even as technology began to tread forward, some now-outdated things were once used…such as (but not limited to, as with any of this): Wild Geist possessed doors that open for the owners but stay closed or wail at potential thieves/intruders. Cursed fingers taken from enemy soldiers that are fired back using old muzzle-loaders as homing bullets that dig into the body to try to carve it up from the inside. Vengeful wights used to sniff out murderers. Metal-cast enchanted beast/humanoid teeth taken from the dead and placed in old blunderbuss-like guns, only to grow into minor skeletal minions when ‘planted’ in the bodies of unfortunate victims they got embedded in by being shot at them like shotgun pellets. Even skulls imbued with angry non-sentient spirits cast inside of metal cannonballs or metal objects like a skull goblet, either fired at enemy fortifications or camps or ships with secondary functions or respectively being used as hidden home defense measures to keep around the place.
In modern times, similar trends in technology have been created in the vein of merging magic/necromancy and industry/technology together. Machines with pulsating parts made of undead to help automate their functions, undead augmented with explosives inside of them that detonate on being riddled with bullets or struck with spells, magic communication devices that will eventually be blended with radios for further efficiency at home and on the battlefield, the wood of unique magic vampiric trees created from being fed lots of blood used in gun stocks to help keep soldiers alive through horrible hurt and damage on the battlefield, bullets steeped in curses before being fired at enemies in order to afflict them secondarily, geists used to chill the inside of boxcars to help deliver ice and temperature-sensitive products to far away safely, artillery shells imbued with toxic gases and wraiths (a type of malignant Wild Geist by An-ki’an classifications) that do horrendous things to those in the effective radius of the shell once it is fired and detonates during a battle, and the like have emerged as technologies (etc, etc, etc).
Military Overview:
Trench-like warfare has eventually developed within the An-ki Republic as its primary mode of defensive battle and sieges, stemming as far back in some ways as the 1600s in its existence with tactics used to siege out fortresses or enemy cities or the like. Defensive fronts usually have had trenches dug about, smaller concrete-wrought higher-up bunkers for gun-toting infantry to fire out of or to protect placed or embedded artillery, and the use of things such as barbed wire and defensive wards and other shored up spots to hide behind or store things in and allowing defending parties to protect themselves or hide in. Likewise in use are things such as artillery, hidden back and placed to fire over at enemies, and illusion-infused charms, embedded loosely or hidden in some trench walls to confuse invading enemies by leading them in circles or disorienting them, are also employed defensively. Not to mention some of the most important defensive setups will incorporate means to reanimate slain soldiers as reanimated as a contingency and to try to get the enemy if the defensive position is overrun/taken from them.
For offense, the idea of softening up enemy lines and moving in more or less quickly (depending on the situation) is generally the approach taken. A far call from the zombie-horde and magic-toissing tactics of very ancient times. Artillery barrages and cobbled undead monstrosities (also used as any sort of cavalry if any) and such being sent in to soften lines and harass the enemy and hit them in irregularly-spaced waves is the general way things start, before the major sentient troops move in backed by monstrosities and further leading artillery fire before they truly push hard. Whilst the idea of tanks and machine guns does not yet exist, once they do prove themselves they will see ultimately/eventually integration of both the offensive and defensive tactics of the Republic’s military in one way or another.
History: ((Need to get this hammered out one day in a general version at some point in the future if I can. If i can. (@_@)
Until then, a hider below this part will contain the basic gist and rough overall history of the region as seen via the survival and progress of the old “Undead Council” through it and its governed land growing and changing and shrinking and so forth to the point of becoming “The Grand United Democratic An-ki Republic”. I typed that bit out before ever writing the rest of this app, and so it is the closest I have to a general history section at this point to be honest.))
Other:
1 ) The homeland is vast USA-grade size, sits somewhere between the east and west, has a large southern coastline, lots of mountains on the western and eastern borders as well as rough terrain, and the terrain varies from north to south. Since the homelands aren't the major focus, and the colonies are, it goes without saying that is just a sort of fun flavor and style for the homeland at least.
2 ) The Gukou Colony itself, to give a brief summary, is a prosperous and industrialized colony that has been worked on since its inception a few years after the The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki formed into its current state. Not that it didn't have colonial ambitions beforehand or during that time, as it was prepared to launch those expeditions and ten years later would settle the Gukou Colony proper.
3 )
Also is not meant to be some invincible undead nation. Undead can get blown apart and living lives lost, etc. Just because I overthink and worry. I just wanted to add fun flavor for the undead and such. Hopefully no one else has tried to do undead? Maybe? Eh, anywho... (@_@)
The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki
Name of your Nation: The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki (Known as the “An-ki Republic” in/for short.) (Colony on the map in particular is known as “Gukou Colony” or “Gukou Island” to the Republic.)
Type of Government:: Constitutional Democratic Republic
Demographics:
- Undead - Classified and specific according to the national “Two Categories and Seven Types of Undead” created by the Council after thousands of years. In the case of actual national demographics, it specifically refers to the sentient/sapient undead population in this case.
- Vampires - An undead created by means of a Primordial Curse of super-ancient times that originated from fiddling with demonic presences and natural laws. Its origin is unclear for the most part, save for the general gist derived from all the ancient knowledge the An-ki Republic has in its possession. It has been dubbed, within vampiric society and the Council and An-ki Republic since then, as “The Crimson Rose” or “The Bloody Tulip”.
Said curse is infused into a living body, but it does not initially take effect at this stage. It is binding and bitter and deep-rooted in its nature, and only takes effect when the bearer’s body physically dies. After this the curse blossoms and matures within the deceased bearer, it goes about altering the body and flesh. After this the user awakens once more as an undead vampire. The more damage to the bearer’s body, the longer it takes. A vampire created from someone hacked to pieces and tossed in a mass grave is still very possible, but it would take a much longer time to rebuild and reanimate the body via the curse in this particular situation.
The curse even has ‘strains’ that run within it, mostly due to the original curse versus derived ones spreading around that sought to mimic it by copycating. The Lesser Curse produces Lesser Vampires, whilst the Original Curse creates Greater Vampires. Most Greater Vampires in the world live multiply within the An-ki Republic’s borders by modern times, though their kin are far, far more numerous. Meanwhile Lesser Vampires are the most well-known in the world due to their greater numerical presence historically and so forth as well as due to being far more common. What makes the two differing vampiric curses distinct is that the Original is far stronger than the Lesser one, very notably so in application.
Lesser Vampires have more weaknesses, but are more easily created due to their numbers historically and prevalence of material about them. They are very weak to blessed or sanctified holy weapons, can be repelled with certain types of magic talismans, die if beheaded and then have a stake driven through their heart in combination, are allergic and weak to silver and do not have a reflection. Yet in return, access to magic and superhuman capabilities and shapeshifting into animal forms (specifically, and how they can fly at all), eternal youth as a form of immortality, fire, disease immunity to standard non-magical diseases, and subsisting by drinking blood are among their prime benefits. They can out weather and outlast, and even make use of charms and enchanted clothes and such to protect them from sunlight and such if they are prepared and wealthy/intelligent/skilled enough.
Meanwhile Greater Vampires are far stronger and have the same powers and greater strength whilst lacking most of these weaknesses, not burning in sunlight at all, having a reflection, not as drastically weak (but still vulnerable to) holy weapons, not vulnerable to special talismans, they have no reaction to silver, and beheading and heart-staking being useless against them entirely. Starving them out is the best tactic, weakening them and restraining them away until they starve of blood and burn up from the curse is the most reliable, even if not-quick, method of defeating one. Keeping them stuck or bound up in a fire until they burn to ash is also viable. Blessed holy weapons or consecrated/hallowed ones will, as long as they remain such and aren’t broken or tainted, do extra damage to them as well. Yet removing the heart and burning it fully in a very hot fire is the one singular and sure way to kill one most quickly, but not doing so quickly enough will result in the vampire regenerating back again with a vengeance. Mistakenly eating part of the vampire’s heart will infect one with the curse, as is partaking of or having the Greater Vampire’s blood forced or put into your body (even if it simply consumed and in the victim’s stomach somehow) otherwise.
Vampires can also make thralls by tainting another with their blood, but then activating the curse early and hollowing out the mind and life of the victim into that of a Reanimated-type undead.
It goes without saying that Lesser Vampires are far more common, Greater Vampires are far more rare but a lot stronger.
- - Soul Gem Constructs - Once held under the same general category of undead a Liches for a while, they were eventually separated out as distinctions became clearer and better understood. Whilst Liches had phylacteries, these did not have to be some kind of Soul Gem. Meanwhile the nature of a Soul Gem was different at a fundamental level, and its creation and use made it applicable in non-living constructs such as automata and golems and otherwise.
At first they weren’t even part of the classification, and simply rendered as ‘sentient constructs’ in their classification. Yet with time they would see eventual reintegration into the broad umbrella of ‘Undead’, especially after it was found the souls of the already-dead could be harvested from beyond to create Soul Gems. Whilst it is more technical a definition than the Council like at first, it was cemented formally in law by the time the modern government of the nation emerged. With the general restrictions and issues regarding Soul Magic even historically, the population of these undead has always been on the small side in a general sense.
Can destroy these by just destroying the Soul Gem, like by shooting it with a gun or something like smashing it off the side of a mountain. Etc.
- - Liches - Undead who can possess a skeletal or non-skeletal appearance (more often the former than the latter much more notably so by modern times), depending on one’s preferences, created through the shunting of one’s soul into a phylactery which differs from the likes of a Soul Gem. The body is preserved and operated like normal, but with the soul residing in the phylactery it means that even if the body is destroyed it will be restored to the same appearance and conditions as it was when it died. In essence, an undead that can only ever be sentient/sapient in nature and possesses a ‘magical backup’ in the form of the phylactery.
However, if said phylactery is destroyed the lich will automatically die as well and their body will disintegrate. This being noted, a phylactery is usually kept in a safe spot or secure and legal “Phylactery Storage Facility” by those who can afford to keep one there.
- - Revenants - A type of undead akin to Wights, wherein a spiritual being possesses their own corpse or the corpse of another living thing and reanimates it. This is caused by strong enough attachments to the living world, usually very specific things powerful enough to attach them back, or otherwise to seek out revenge for their death. Whereas “Wights” are merely Reanimated-type undead who are overcome by their emotions and desire for vengeance that they have no higher mental faculties and are no more than beasts at best that are possessed by angry mindless spirits, many once anciently inhabiting graveyards as cannibalistic beasts who subsist on the flesh of anything to survive, Revenants are a higher-tier version that have their mental faculties intact and control over their bodies.
It is as such one of the most common forms of ‘voluntary undead’ created within the An-ki Republic, due to the ease of creation when magic is involved, though its non-sentient counterpart is used for police work by using it to find murderers and killers by police. Wights are so very single-minded they can be recycled by using magic to transfer some of another Wight or Revenant’s lingering emotional energies into the bestial Wights to track killers in some other cases to boot!
Revenants can come in a range of flavors, as it were, ranging from banshee-like physical beings to others bound back into the flesh proper in one way or another. Will not be covering all of those subtypes here though for the sake of sanity and time. But they are also by and far the most common form of sentient/sapient undeath living in the Republic have chosen at one point or another. Rather reasonably and consistently so since they can be rendered to look like normal or like they did in life basically. It is just a matter of re-binding the soul to the deceased body, but not resurrecting the body to full living status again, unlike the natural process of the soul having to grasp to the mortal plane in some manner or another.
- - Geists - Sentient/Sapient spiritual beings, ranging from the wailing banshees to poltergeists to myriad others. The most general and varied category of sentient/sapient undead that can interact with the physical world. Also the second least-common type of sentient undead above that of Soul Gem Constructs. The wild versions are usually found as trouble and cause a number of issues, even being impossible to normally see due to their instability in some cases, whereas sentient ones can at least remain visible consistently and go about.
Spiritual exorcisms and the use of necromancy to purge them out and put them to rest forcibly is the best way to ‘kill’ these beings. Magic and consecrated objects/weapons/tools can be used to hurt them properly as well, though mundane weapons and things without magical or holy natures/blessings cannot so much as touch them in return.
Those who choose this as a form of voluntary reanimation into an undead do so for a number of reasons, a more common one being usually to watch over loved ones or such during the rest of their lives before eventually retiring to be put to rest after said loved ones eventually die themselves. Like an elderly husband watching over his wife as a Geist until they can both attain rest together. Etc, etc, etc.
- - Greater Mummies - Undead created through holy rites/symbols/magics and the act of preserving the body of the targeted undead. In a sense, religiously-created undead who usually only awoke in ancient times when robbers came to pilfer their tombs and the protections on it reanimated them and any buried animals or such with them to help protect said tomb. Now mostly used as a category to designate undead created by holy or religious magics, including holy symbols and sacred trinkets and other religiously-oriented tomb/grave-based protection magics, who have incorporated means of bodily preservation or embalming along with this.
Their most notable trait is being immune to any and all holy-originated symbols and magics that seek to harm or damage them, and they are further immune to traditional undead-slaying or anti-undead spells. Proper spiritual exorcisms, carefully dispelling the magics binding them together, and even the use of knowledge of the proper religious rites used to make them to undo them in reverse are all applicable. Likewise blasting them to pieces and chopping them to bits properly and fully will destroy them assuredly just as well. Otherwise they will eventually regenerate back from the damage done to them if a big enough chunk of their body is left behind for it to 'rebuild' from.
- Vampires - An undead created by means of a Primordial Curse of super-ancient times that originated from fiddling with demonic presences and natural laws. Its origin is unclear for the most part, save for the general gist derived from all the ancient knowledge the An-ki Republic has in its possession. It has been dubbed, within vampiric society and the Council and An-ki Republic since then, as “The Crimson Rose” or “The Bloody Tulip”.
- Humans - General humans who seem to live everywhere in the world and whatnot. Includes both ones native to the homeland and ones native to the Archipelago, as well as any human subspecies not too distinct to be separated into something like elves and dwarves and so forth.
- Amirai/“Amazons” - An all-female race of women who lived in the An-ki Republic colony’s land, before their eventual conquest by colonial forces scattered many about the other colonies and even as far back as the homeland in a forced diaspora. They have gained a distinctly growing presence as a minority population within the homeland in the last 100 years, alongside the spread of other colonial races throughout the Republic's colonies and back to the homeland. It has also remained a prominent demographic within the Gukou (named for a famous foreign expert who sought audience and funding to explore the seas for the An-ki Republic, and who helped guide colonial efforts of the homeland to several key places including to routes that led to the founding of the colony in the Archipelago named after him) Colony as well, since it was and is their homeland.
They are tall, densely-muscled, and yet somewhat lithe yet curvy humanoids/humans who formed a small bit stone-working kingdom within the Archipelago. They were known for raids on other fellow natives, and anyone else within striking range, even raiding the tribes and peoples of the lesser kingdoms on their home island for goods and slaves and so forth. Some even came to hold positions of power within (insert sigma’s bug people’s race’s name here) cities within what would eventually become the Gukou Colony itself. Yet for all their strength, they became stuck in a number of ways and exposed to other factors that kept them held back in that age of a civilization whose cities were wrought from stone and warriors.
Initially their greatest single kingdom traded with the initial colonists for some time, but initiating trade made them look on the colony inherently as a tributary of sorts whose trade was exclusively for them alone in return for not getting raided or sacked. Eventually this led to war with other locals who wanted ‘such a valuable tributary’, and then eventually to war with the kingdom itself once the truth was finally realized and relations had begun to deteriorate. That war started off decisive for the locals at first, but rapidly turned for the colonial side as reinforcements and other things were pulled into the conflict. The war was swift and decisive, and the following consequences notable, for this people/race in the aftermath as well.
Those who surrendered or submitted, as befitted their culture to a certain extent, and mostly assimilated peacefully. These were also vectors by which some of their culture has remained preserved and through which the old ways were ultimately recorded down alongside the work of other early colonial scholars. The remainder had their children raised in the homeland/colony’s ways and in their vein of education, with those too old or adults too stubborn and still fighting back sentenced to lifelong labor in hard labor camps for the rest of their natural lives alongside other ‘un-rehabitable’ trouble-making native locals from within what would become the colony’s borders.
- Amirai/“Amazons” - An all-female race of women who lived in the An-ki Republic colony’s land, before their eventual conquest by colonial forces scattered many about the other colonies and even as far back as the homeland in a forced diaspora. They have gained a distinctly growing presence as a minority population within the homeland in the last 100 years, alongside the spread of other colonial races throughout the Republic's colonies and back to the homeland. It has also remained a prominent demographic within the Gukou (named for a famous foreign expert who sought audience and funding to explore the seas for the An-ki Republic, and who helped guide colonial efforts of the homeland to several key places including to routes that led to the founding of the colony in the Archipelago named after him) Colony as well, since it was and is their homeland.
- Elves - Any types of elves within the An-ki Republic, bearing the approximate elvish traits to be placed under this category.
- Dark Elves - A local species of the Archipelago, members of whom have been assimilated either locally or from freed and rehabilitated Amirai slaves/captives. Some have entered into the colony and become citizens via defecting to elsewhere and eventually migrating to the colony proper indirectly via trade and other means.
- Sea Elves - “{ }” = notes added by the ones compiling the demographics report to the quote describing the sea elves as noted by Bessarugan sources. Quote-
Native to the vast coast of Bessaruga, {which lies to the south and west of the Gukou Colony} Sea Elf tribes made their living with semi-aquatic lifestyles, often migrating for whaling seasons atop large, flat-bottomed boats. They are very capable divers and swimmers.
- Dwarves - (Dwarves.)
- Dragonkin - Used to refer to any draconic-like peoples or draconic-blooded peoples within the nation’s demographics as a general term. Subspecies are further broken down below-
- Vasiris - Inhabiting the colonially-owned mountains to the South, and along the East of Bessaruga's frontier, the Vasiris closest to the colony were noted as being at constant odds with the Amazons of the northern part of the island. Especially the kingdom the Amazons had formed in that part. Often the target of land raids and warriors wishing to fight against a foe at dangerous attitudes for ‘the challenge’, a number were found among the Amirai slaves that were freed after the subjugation of the latter.
{The} Vasiris are a humanoid peoples with several, Lepidosauric features, including predominant horns and scaled appendages. Some have been led to speculate that the Vasiri peoples may be distant ancestors of other draconic peoples -- an idea that has gained traction in academia, but so far has little concrete evidence to validate this theory. Vasiri are quite strong and do not tire easily, and are also known to pick up kinesthetic and athletic skills quickly.
- Vasiris - Inhabiting the colonially-owned mountains to the South, and along the East of Bessaruga's frontier, the Vasiris closest to the colony were noted as being at constant odds with the Amazons of the northern part of the island. Especially the kingdom the Amazons had formed in that part. Often the target of land raids and warriors wishing to fight against a foe at dangerous attitudes for ‘the challenge’, a number were found among the Amirai slaves that were freed after the subjugation of the latter.
- (insert sigma’s insect people’s race’s name here) -
- Centaurs - (or Centaurs/etc, basically, or whatever works best)
Population: 10 million (Sentient/Living specifically, not counting mindless undead or reanimated because they aren't sentient/sapient.)
Governance & Politics:
The nation is built with a constitution by current times, and has an Oligarchy at the top formed of the persisting-since-ancient-times though had-to-replace-members-at-times “Council of the Seven Deaths”. These, however, are simply at the very top of the government and at the top of the political food chain. The government below them is split into three parts, with the Council existing as the Executive part and holding these executive and certain special powers, a Legislature split into a House and a Senate who do the law-making work, and then a Judiciary which has nine members maximum by law.
The Council is the oldest part of the government, originally being the whole of the government in ancient times before time and war and other factors have led to its persistence into modern times as the constitutionally designated Executive body at the head of the nation. It was formed as a simple Oligarchy founded for undead alone to rule, but through countless wars and internal struggles and replacements and reforms it has changed and shifted along with the various types of undead-scholars who still form and compose the body overall still. Unlike in older times, where the amount of Council positions shifted depending on the types of undead they classified to actually exist, the modern Council is hard locked into seven Council members proper. The Council, if a position is somehow ever opened up, fills it in by appointment and approval by the remaining council members. Usually there’s a list the Council updates and maintains, which of course changes from time to time, of prime candidates to replace Council members in the case of a potential vacancy. One type of each undead is required to be on the council, no doubling up allowed by law.
The Legislature is voted in within both houses, and brings a voice to the people from across the Republic proper. It is also the newest and youngest part of the government, having been adopted about 110 years ago alongside the nation’s constitution in the aftermath of a number of ideas adopted and put into place by the Council after a series of internal corruption cases and struggles to maintain the aging bureaucracy that the Council was looking to replace in general by doing research into other and new ideas emerging in the rest of the world. It has also taken an amount of pressure off of the Council itself to do all the lawmaking as well, which has been a boon in the Council’s eyes to boot. Both living and undead serve in the Legislature, with term limits used to keep both types of citizenry in-check and in-balance more so in this part of the government.
The Judiciary is formed from a body of lifetime-serving judges, and is the highest court in the nation proper. Albeit they are limited to being living (not undead ever) and cannot use magically-based or magically-generated means of life extension in order to ensure a fresh influx of judges will occur at some point. The Judiciary is composed of nine members, who are nominated by the Legislature, interviewed and investigated by the existing Judiciary (or if none of the Judiciary is alive then a joint temporary council of lesser judges from one governmental level below this), and then denied or approved by the Executive. Below this, things are electoral in nature. Judges start with a proper and required Judicial education to become valid potential candidates to become judges. Said candidates usually gain experience by getting voted into judicial positions in order to climb the ladder, making them seasoned veterans and qualified to enter elections for higher judicial positions in the land. Albeit they must actually live in the area, district, province, etc they are gunning for to be able to seek the position. Those most seasoned and experienced candidates are then applicable to be nominated for joining the Judiciary.
At lower levels one can find sometimes regionally varying laws, though it’s the really far fringe or isolated enough boonies that one can find some of the stranger things still in place. For example, in one small isolated county’s case one can challenge the person their spouse cheated on them with to a serious, lethal duel and it is fully legal and just in the eyes of the law. In another one cannot skin deer on the first two days of the week, with a fine being placed on them and that includes being publicly shamed in the town square.
Culture & Society:
- To say a very large number of languages exists within the An-ki Republic would be an understatement, as over the ages the Republic has seen everything from what amounts to ‘dead’ languages elsewhere all the way up to modern ones that have emerged or been imported as they persist within the borders. Languages almost as old as time itself, languages invented more recently or coming in from the outside, and the like exist aplenty indeed. Yet the ‘Common’ tongue is the most prolific, uniting tongue that living and undead within the nation use. It allows them to communicate with the outside world, it allows them to communicate with a notable ease internally, and so forth. It is the first or second language of many, and the spread of education throughout the Republic has seen it become ubiquitous. Not that all the other languages have disappeared or gone out of use, not by a longshot, but for a foreigner in the Republic’s lands the use and teaching of Common by and to locals respectively is most definitely a boon.
Along this line, visitors will find themselves in a generally cosmopolitan society where some consistent running undercurrents and ideas unite a rather large and varied populace over a rather large but united nation overall. Not that things will always be perfect, pro-undead and anti-undead hardliners are persistent minorities the government has generally suppressed to enough of an extent in successfully seeking to unify and in promoting a proper national identity within its borders. There are also those who don’t like one group or another from elsewhere, but it depends on the region and place and so forth as to ‘who could be a problem where’ to try to word it as politely as possible… - Education has generally been important within the An-ki Republic due to the nature of the Council itself deriving from scholars. Eventually scholastic mindsets would persist over the idea of magical supremacy, however, and this would lead to seeking the establishment of more schools for those of enough wealth and status and the like. The matter became more treated pragmatically as time went on and unity was sought through times of external conflict and internal issues alike, leading to eventually widespread education being provided and enforced as a pragmatic means of instilling unity, keeping up with the times practically, and in part preparing and better utilizing the population during the nation’s several decades of rapid and government-facilitated industrialization. Locally it is touted as a ‘right of all sentient life’ to learn and to grow mentally, and it is highly encouraged with scholastic programs even encouraging scholarships at higher levels of education (among other things). In this vein the An-ki Republic stands as perhaps one of the best-educated nations in the world with one of the higher retention rates for students at various levels of education proper.
- Undead and living do go about living with each other, with various living races and undead ones existing in tandem. Society, especially heading into modern/current times, has also had a lot of force put in forming a national identity. One that brings in all locals under one banner. It has been for the most part successful, in fact rather successful, though being so large and spread out there are still…issues from time to time. Undead who don’t like living descended from certain places internally or externally due to grudges or undead-supremacy ideologies or other things, living who are anti-undead due to ancient influences in the region, and the like have been notably weakened but still ever-present thorns in the side of society. Most of these issues are more pronounced in rural areas, more so in the most rural and remote areas, but not to an extent they’d throw the whole nation into chaos. Mostly the government has used education and so forth to push back on these things, keeping them down but also keeping them silenced. One way this education has worked is, rather than focus on the differences between people, to focus on what all have in common and the unity of fighting under the same banner and learning in the same schools and living on the same lands and the like. One body. One throng. One unity.
- Due to the nature of the Council itself, and its origins, the classifications and types of undead are acknowledged and have their definitions in society. Albeit it has taken a rather long time for it all to bleed and be pushed into society as a matter of fact. The two main categories that exist within local education and such are “Reanimated” and “Risen”, the former being non-sentient in nature and the latter being sentient.
The former includes types of undead such as: Zombies, Skeletons, Lesser Mummies (called “Preserved” formally), Reanimated Vampiric Thralls, Wild Geists, Undead Constructs, Lesser Mummies, and Wights (non-sentient revenants possessing a living body in particular).
The latter category of the two primary ones includes sentient types of undead exclusively, such as: Vampires (Lesser and Greater ones), Soul-Gem-infused Constructs, Liches, Revenants, Geists, and Greater Mummies. This is how society identifies, classifies, and even makes legal use of the undead, as Reanimated are used for labor and in factories and so forth en-masse and with augmentations whilst Risen are treated as citizen species by right. In the case someone creates a sentient Reanimated species, the case is reviewed for prosecution, the subject is treated with citizen rights, and the infractor is punished. - The choice to become a sentient undead is one given to living citizens either just prior to death, if possible, or after necromancy is used to consult their soul on the matter. Should they reject doing so, they are allowed to remain dead. If they choose yes, from there it is a matter of choice of which form of undeath depending on the circumstances of death and so forth (and individual’s desires, etc). Undead can also choose to have release, wherein their undeath is released by magic (or other means like an execution if they are something like a criminal) that puts them to rest.
One can also sign a contract to donate their body to general necromancy, wherein upon their death their soul is left in death and the recipient of this deal gets a sum donation of money depending on the quality of the donator as an undead. From there, the dead body is stripped of identifiable traits and is brought up as a Reanimated rather than a Risen (Risen having their minds/souls when Reanimated have none). It is a form of common ‘life insurance’, though the exploitation of this in certain sensational legal cases has led to increasing regulation on the matter. - When it comes to foods, one can find a wide variety of them spread out within the ____’s lands and regions. It is a big nation, not simply a small one, and to some this has been confusing when traveling through its lands. Seafood and urban staple foods rooted in home cooking along within the greener southern regions butting against the coast, hardy ancient recipes for jerkies and desserts from ancient lost tribes paired alongside new and innovative ideas created by undead or living chefs combining all sorts of techniques, hearty meals and homemade jerky recipes going back thousands of years and even region-unique desserts derived from the more rural northernmost lands, and midland desert delicacies combining foreign ingredients that traveled through the area, one can find a rather large variety of things to eat depending on where one goes within the An-ki Republic’s territory.
It is not really specialized in its tastes in the nation’s food, as they vary and range, but that is also the nation’s strength when it comes to food culture. Variety of both the new as well as historical things once thought long lost, all and everything in-between can be usually found living in this land just as the ancient dead move and work alongside the modern living. That dish that once marked the birth of a faraway foreign king whose kin are long since dead. That dish someone on the coast just innovated by mistake using ice magic and berries. Etc. - Firearms and other weapons are a legal right to citizens as noted in their constitution. Whilst order is enforced in proper, that much can be ensured in the Republic’s case, swords and guns and such can be had with the proper licensing (gotta renew every so many years) and logging of them under a special binding magical contract the city keeps a hold of to keep a count of things. Military grade is kept for the military due to costs, though surplus of these can be sold if they are far enough out of date and enough time has passed. Of course a few landmark legal cases where someone in the military hid guns on purpose to try to exploit this law for profit was….harshly punished. Very harshly.
Policy in the colonies has been more lenient in regards to the logging of the weapons by a binding magical contract, mostly as the build-up of infrastructure usually takes time to catch up with these things. It has led to a bit of chaos here and there, but mostly just local colonial things that get wrapped up neatly as things get built up sufficiently enough.
On the celebration of the day the modern government was instituted in full, 110 years ago, one can definitely find some celebratory gunfire and weapons play going on in the more rural regions. Albeit those who do not use mandated anti-projectile barriers to contain the celebration inside get fines…or worse if some poor individual gets killed or maimed or such by unprotected celebrations. The suburban and urban ones are confined to spaces set aside for it, with barriers usually put up in urban areas by police and other authorities who keep a close watch on such behaviors in those places. Still, the celebrations mark a big national holiday and celebrate the continued survival and independence of the nation in the face of such a long and struggling history. It is not just the day the government attained its modern form, it's this new holiday that has been combined with an existing historical holiday celebrating the survival of the nation since the time of the major crusades into its land. - When it comes to societal jobs, the lowest level ones that are simple or hard labor in nature are mostly filled by unidentifiable reanimated-type undead who have been tweaked with magic. These are maintained by a steady but smaller living force, ones broken into constituent parts meant to keep them maintained, keep things running, and ensure efficiency and so forth. The addition of machines and industry have led to some things like part-machine part-undead constructs that run themselves, undead and unique undead constructs crafted to be magically prepared and ‘programmed’ via magic to be used in assembly line style work to further expedite and improve their efficiency and so forth.
Meanwhile, work and jobs requiring skilled living hands have remained prolific despite the implementation of reanimated-type undead in industry and such. Support jobs in this, and specialized ones needing skilled hands and sentient beings as support, have been areas for the living to really get involved in with this field of industry. There are also jobs reanimated-type undead can’t do, ranging from complex magic use to inventing things to improving and tweaking machines to cutting hair and the like. Larger and smaller farms, for example, still have farmers but also have these farmers trained in basic conjuring necromancy to create reanimated farmhands and safely implement them in many ways. Larger ones will also have minimal needed living/sentient helpers to also assist them in maintaining the undead and getting things done, mostly doing so in ways that the undead can’t be set to do on their own and that the farmer alone can’t handle. Etc, etc, etc. - Whilst Necromancy and such is integrated into the beating heart of the An-ki Republic, there is one aspect of it that does see stricter regulations from even a historical perspective: Soul Magic. The capture of the souls of the living, or conjured up souls of the dead, which are imprisoned in crystal-like “Soul Gems” created by magic. These Soul Gems can be used to create independent and intelligent constructs of some kind, to power magical devices and rituals without ever ‘running dry’ (though a cooldown period is needed when overusing a Soul Gem powered something or another), and even to torture the souls of the unfortnate victims using magical means. It is a far darker side of Necromancy that was once legal and used without hesitation, but as times changed and the Council’s approach changed it eventually became a banned and strictly forbidden magic altogether in most (but not all) applications. The “Act on the Right of the Soul” was a series of edicts, eventually pulled together formally into this act within the modern government, passed even before the modern government emerged about the matter to make note of and dictate legal ramifications for it.
In current times, the use of Soul Magic to act as a medium and contact the dead is fully legal. It can also be used in hidden deep-site government prisons where the worst of any war prisoners go to be interrogated or dealt a harsh punishment before their eventual execution, though by law the soul is returned to the victim’s body (which is kept alive by magic) in the aftermath (likely to be considered cruel and unusual elsewhere in the world). Likewise it is legal to use it to make a willing construct, one where the soul in the soul gem is in full control in a case of ‘willing and voluntary undeath’ a dying or deceased living can choose to partake of. However, the population of these soul gem constructs has remained low consistently due to the myriad crimes involving soul magic even into modern times….and the horror it has instilled even into even the undead about the matter.
Magic & Technology:
Undead have been a staple of industry since ancient times, even having been used under the original council as far back as 1000 years ago in rudimentary assembly lines before falling out of favor and then going back into use once technology returned to that idea. Enchanted bone sword blades that seek out the foe when swung in battle and are rendered harder than steel, cursed undead hounds used to harry invaders when evacuating towns and dealing lingering curses to those they bite, disease-filled miasma spells set off by saboteurs in the enemy’s supply line during a major battle, detached undead limbs used to operate doors or handing supplies to working necromancers, and the like have been present historically as well.
Even as technology began to tread forward, some now-outdated things were once used…such as (but not limited to, as with any of this): Wild Geist possessed doors that open for the owners but stay closed or wail at potential thieves/intruders. Cursed fingers taken from enemy soldiers that are fired back using old muzzle-loaders as homing bullets that dig into the body to try to carve it up from the inside. Vengeful wights used to sniff out murderers. Metal-cast enchanted beast/humanoid teeth taken from the dead and placed in old blunderbuss-like guns, only to grow into minor skeletal minions when ‘planted’ in the bodies of unfortunate victims they got embedded in by being shot at them like shotgun pellets. Even skulls imbued with angry non-sentient spirits cast inside of metal cannonballs or metal objects like a skull goblet, either fired at enemy fortifications or camps or ships with secondary functions or respectively being used as hidden home defense measures to keep around the place.
In modern times, similar trends in technology have been created in the vein of merging magic/necromancy and industry/technology together. Machines with pulsating parts made of undead to help automate their functions, undead augmented with explosives inside of them that detonate on being riddled with bullets or struck with spells, magic communication devices that will eventually be blended with radios for further efficiency at home and on the battlefield, the wood of unique magic vampiric trees created from being fed lots of blood used in gun stocks to help keep soldiers alive through horrible hurt and damage on the battlefield, bullets steeped in curses before being fired at enemies in order to afflict them secondarily, geists used to chill the inside of boxcars to help deliver ice and temperature-sensitive products to far away safely, artillery shells imbued with toxic gases and wraiths (a type of malignant Wild Geist by An-ki’an classifications) that do horrendous things to those in the effective radius of the shell once it is fired and detonates during a battle, and the like have emerged as technologies (etc, etc, etc).
Military Overview:
Trench-like warfare has eventually developed within the An-ki Republic as its primary mode of defensive battle and sieges, stemming as far back in some ways as the 1600s in its existence with tactics used to siege out fortresses or enemy cities or the like. Defensive fronts usually have had trenches dug about, smaller concrete-wrought higher-up bunkers for gun-toting infantry to fire out of or to protect placed or embedded artillery, and the use of things such as barbed wire and defensive wards and other shored up spots to hide behind or store things in and allowing defending parties to protect themselves or hide in. Likewise in use are things such as artillery, hidden back and placed to fire over at enemies, and illusion-infused charms, embedded loosely or hidden in some trench walls to confuse invading enemies by leading them in circles or disorienting them, are also employed defensively. Not to mention some of the most important defensive setups will incorporate means to reanimate slain soldiers as reanimated as a contingency and to try to get the enemy if the defensive position is overrun/taken from them.
For offense, the idea of softening up enemy lines and moving in more or less quickly (depending on the situation) is generally the approach taken. A far call from the zombie-horde and magic-toissing tactics of very ancient times. Artillery barrages and cobbled undead monstrosities (also used as any sort of cavalry if any) and such being sent in to soften lines and harass the enemy and hit them in irregularly-spaced waves is the general way things start, before the major sentient troops move in backed by monstrosities and further leading artillery fire before they truly push hard. Whilst the idea of tanks and machine guns does not yet exist, once they do prove themselves they will see ultimately/eventually integration of both the offensive and defensive tactics of the Republic’s military in one way or another.
History: ((Need to get this hammered out one day in a general version at some point in the future if I can. If i can. (@_@)
Until then, a hider below this part will contain the basic gist and rough overall history of the region as seen via the survival and progress of the old “Undead Council” through it and its governed land growing and changing and shrinking and so forth to the point of becoming “The Grand United Democratic An-ki Republic”. I typed that bit out before ever writing the rest of this app, and so it is the closest I have to a general history section at this point to be honest.))
Other:
1 ) The homeland is vast USA-grade size, sits somewhere between the east and west, has a large southern coastline, lots of mountains on the western and eastern borders as well as rough terrain, and the terrain varies from north to south. Since the homelands aren't the major focus, and the colonies are, it goes without saying that is just a sort of fun flavor and style for the homeland at least.
2 ) The Gukou Colony itself, to give a brief summary, is a prosperous and industrialized colony that has been worked on since its inception a few years after the The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki formed into its current state. Not that it didn't have colonial ambitions beforehand or during that time, as it was prepared to launch those expeditions and ten years later would settle the Gukou Colony proper.
3 )
((“The Undead Council” -> “The Greater Council of Undeath” -> “The Council of the Seven Great Lords”))
The body began back in ancient times underneath the original Magocracy of sorts, being their own ‘department’ and controlling a region of the land as a council of undead magi who as scholars sought to organize the types of and debate the nature of the undead. L:ikewise it was their jobs to experiment with undeath and accumulate knowledge of it. It was a back and forth and debate within this council that took the classification of undead from seven to fourteen to frankly more classifications of undead and types of undeath as they were debated or merged or identified or the like over the decades and so forth. It was equally scholarly and ruling as a body, a vassal of the Greater Magocracy in general but counted as part of its territory. Yet with the eventual degradation of the Magocracy and its parts, The Undead Council would find itself thrust into a position of independence as its own territory was among the few areas to hold firm during the following time of turmoil.
Eventually expanding back out and taking an amount of the territory once owned by the Magocracy, the renamed “Greater Council of Undeath” would seek to arrange a more stable administration underneath them to help manage the day to day matters. It would lead to the adoption of some amount of republican ideas in the process, and in the pursuit of being able to create more undead the matter of the living and how to reasonably arrange things would become the next major issue. Lingering older habits and methods were ultimately rather blunt, and constant warmongering for bodies would only hurt the work in the longer run as it built up more negative sentiment. The eventual uprising of the northern region’s living in rebellion would see the rebels supported by outside powers in the region, mostly as a means to keep the so-called “Undead Menace” in check, and this would persist for some time until the conflict came to an end as the outside powers in one way or another had to or ended up pulling out of the affair.
Despite having to work against some of the more conservative officials in power, and seeing two internal civil wars over the matter that led to losing a couple of council members who had to be replaced, the Greater Council would ultimately avoid the collapse of the nation and grant equivalent social and economic status to the living. Indeed, they could now become scholars and soldiers and mages and so forth, rather than simply being fodder for working farms and producing undead. At the time it was a rather big and controversial step indeed, but with the pragmatism the council was shifting toward in its operations it was seen as a wholly practical step in moving forward after much debate and discussion alongside adopting the use of conjured undead rather than just creating new ones from scratch alone. It would also see the more stable growth of the national borders to absorb some more of their weaker neighbors through battle or diplomacy (mostly the former) to try to remove troublesome elements should those from outside come knocking into the region again to try to stir up or support troublemakers in the region. Again.
In medieval times, the region would find itself subject to a number of religious crusades and military offensives from the west of the region it called home in the mid to late medieval era. Those who sought to purge the undead, wipe clean the region for living settlement, and that sort of thing. It saw several parts of the overall region set up with foreign-controlled or foreign-puppeted or even foreign-supported living states, ones with strong anti-undead sentiment to boot. It would see several centuries of conflict with waves of these attacks and crusades and such hitting the land, though it provided fuel for local undead forces aplenty and the crusaders could never penetrate too far eastward in the valuable middle or southern regions to boot. Trade from the west to east was ultimately a more minor but economic pursuit of the crusaders as well, though the crusaders sought to make links farther east in their wars, with only with the eventual loss of steam in later ‘crusades’ due to financial costs, the reconquest of less-than-stable crusading states left behind, outside rivalries and conflicts, and other factors such factors leading to the end of this.
In the aftermath the Council, a third of which had been killed during this time period, would ultimately rebuild and grow the national borders beyond what it had seen even prior to the medieval time period. Likewise, involvement in the west saw trade and occasional alliances with western powers as time went on. Similar situations would pop up in the east, though more slowly so than in the west, which would likewise lend to the region’s building up of a flow of trade through its lands. Ironically what some of the crusading parties had sought to prevent, a powerful undead-led nation, was created. Likewise what they had sought in trade of exotic goods from the east and vice-versa was enabled by this new reinvigorated undead-ruled nation. Many living had begun to tire of the outsiders during the prior era which made incorporation of a number of areas in the region smoother initially, and those who did resist generally didn’t have the support or resources to keep up independence. Bit by bit they were absorbed, until this general region became something of a united Republic of sorts in its own right. With the Council focusing more on the long-game than the short-term, this time of general stability in a generally post-medieval world was a boon to how the Council worked best then. Fostering a sense of regional unity, long-term plans, education and the application of practical technologies and magics, all would see the building up of this undead-led Republic into a force of its own.
The eventual rise of ships and improved craft seeking to bypass the Republic for trade with the east would see an eventual decline in this respect, but not with some sense of stagnation attached to the Republic in turn. Valuable airship pit stops built up over the years, naval ports that still saw an amount of trade on the nation’s singular southern coastline, and land trade for goods produced in the region itself would help keep it afloat. It would not be the golden age the region had existed in prior, that much would become certain, but it would see some weakening in the region’s once prolific wealth until the eventual (even if later than others) embracing of the Manarite Industry and the discovery of vast deposits and wealths of different forms of manarite in the region would fuel a local boom. A major boom at that. One that would see the region elevated from ‘somewhat backward or stagnant in technology but no one can afford to try to take over its land because of endless undead swarms’ to ‘rising economic and modern power’ that would give the region ground to advance and move forward into current times proper.
Resistance to the changes, outside attacks from certain parties, and other little factors would see another period of internal conflict emerge during this modernizing time period as well. Whilst it would not be as bad as the times of the crusades into the region prior, it would initially see the Republic on the back foot and some northern land lost once more until the eventual buildup of advancement and industry, trade with other nations to import experts and so forth to help them modernize, and the supporting use of necromancy would see the nation and Council pull off a miracle in modernizing within under 40 years. Many credit this most notably to the centralized government, increasing flexibility of the council to adapt to the times over the ages, and the strategic implementation of necromancy and long-term planning in support of industrial efforts.
Indeed, while it took some time the nation was able to adapt and learn and overcome, just as it had for centuries upon centuries. That is also perhaps the region’s greatest strength, as each time it has had to adapt and grow and learn further it has done so in shorter and shorter time periods than ever before. In undeath, unlike the popular living rumors about it, stagnation is not some inevitability. Rather, it is a chance to grow and learn for far longer than the living could dream of.
The body began back in ancient times underneath the original Magocracy of sorts, being their own ‘department’ and controlling a region of the land as a council of undead magi who as scholars sought to organize the types of and debate the nature of the undead. L:ikewise it was their jobs to experiment with undeath and accumulate knowledge of it. It was a back and forth and debate within this council that took the classification of undead from seven to fourteen to frankly more classifications of undead and types of undeath as they were debated or merged or identified or the like over the decades and so forth. It was equally scholarly and ruling as a body, a vassal of the Greater Magocracy in general but counted as part of its territory. Yet with the eventual degradation of the Magocracy and its parts, The Undead Council would find itself thrust into a position of independence as its own territory was among the few areas to hold firm during the following time of turmoil.
Eventually expanding back out and taking an amount of the territory once owned by the Magocracy, the renamed “Greater Council of Undeath” would seek to arrange a more stable administration underneath them to help manage the day to day matters. It would lead to the adoption of some amount of republican ideas in the process, and in the pursuit of being able to create more undead the matter of the living and how to reasonably arrange things would become the next major issue. Lingering older habits and methods were ultimately rather blunt, and constant warmongering for bodies would only hurt the work in the longer run as it built up more negative sentiment. The eventual uprising of the northern region’s living in rebellion would see the rebels supported by outside powers in the region, mostly as a means to keep the so-called “Undead Menace” in check, and this would persist for some time until the conflict came to an end as the outside powers in one way or another had to or ended up pulling out of the affair.
Despite having to work against some of the more conservative officials in power, and seeing two internal civil wars over the matter that led to losing a couple of council members who had to be replaced, the Greater Council would ultimately avoid the collapse of the nation and grant equivalent social and economic status to the living. Indeed, they could now become scholars and soldiers and mages and so forth, rather than simply being fodder for working farms and producing undead. At the time it was a rather big and controversial step indeed, but with the pragmatism the council was shifting toward in its operations it was seen as a wholly practical step in moving forward after much debate and discussion alongside adopting the use of conjured undead rather than just creating new ones from scratch alone. It would also see the more stable growth of the national borders to absorb some more of their weaker neighbors through battle or diplomacy (mostly the former) to try to remove troublesome elements should those from outside come knocking into the region again to try to stir up or support troublemakers in the region. Again.
In medieval times, the region would find itself subject to a number of religious crusades and military offensives from the west of the region it called home in the mid to late medieval era. Those who sought to purge the undead, wipe clean the region for living settlement, and that sort of thing. It saw several parts of the overall region set up with foreign-controlled or foreign-puppeted or even foreign-supported living states, ones with strong anti-undead sentiment to boot. It would see several centuries of conflict with waves of these attacks and crusades and such hitting the land, though it provided fuel for local undead forces aplenty and the crusaders could never penetrate too far eastward in the valuable middle or southern regions to boot. Trade from the west to east was ultimately a more minor but economic pursuit of the crusaders as well, though the crusaders sought to make links farther east in their wars, with only with the eventual loss of steam in later ‘crusades’ due to financial costs, the reconquest of less-than-stable crusading states left behind, outside rivalries and conflicts, and other factors such factors leading to the end of this.
In the aftermath the Council, a third of which had been killed during this time period, would ultimately rebuild and grow the national borders beyond what it had seen even prior to the medieval time period. Likewise, involvement in the west saw trade and occasional alliances with western powers as time went on. Similar situations would pop up in the east, though more slowly so than in the west, which would likewise lend to the region’s building up of a flow of trade through its lands. Ironically what some of the crusading parties had sought to prevent, a powerful undead-led nation, was created. Likewise what they had sought in trade of exotic goods from the east and vice-versa was enabled by this new reinvigorated undead-ruled nation. Many living had begun to tire of the outsiders during the prior era which made incorporation of a number of areas in the region smoother initially, and those who did resist generally didn’t have the support or resources to keep up independence. Bit by bit they were absorbed, until this general region became something of a united Republic of sorts in its own right. With the Council focusing more on the long-game than the short-term, this time of general stability in a generally post-medieval world was a boon to how the Council worked best then. Fostering a sense of regional unity, long-term plans, education and the application of practical technologies and magics, all would see the building up of this undead-led Republic into a force of its own.
The eventual rise of ships and improved craft seeking to bypass the Republic for trade with the east would see an eventual decline in this respect, but not with some sense of stagnation attached to the Republic in turn. Valuable airship pit stops built up over the years, naval ports that still saw an amount of trade on the nation’s singular southern coastline, and land trade for goods produced in the region itself would help keep it afloat. It would not be the golden age the region had existed in prior, that much would become certain, but it would see some weakening in the region’s once prolific wealth until the eventual (even if later than others) embracing of the Manarite Industry and the discovery of vast deposits and wealths of different forms of manarite in the region would fuel a local boom. A major boom at that. One that would see the region elevated from ‘somewhat backward or stagnant in technology but no one can afford to try to take over its land because of endless undead swarms’ to ‘rising economic and modern power’ that would give the region ground to advance and move forward into current times proper.
Resistance to the changes, outside attacks from certain parties, and other little factors would see another period of internal conflict emerge during this modernizing time period as well. Whilst it would not be as bad as the times of the crusades into the region prior, it would initially see the Republic on the back foot and some northern land lost once more until the eventual buildup of advancement and industry, trade with other nations to import experts and so forth to help them modernize, and the supporting use of necromancy would see the nation and Council pull off a miracle in modernizing within under 40 years. Many credit this most notably to the centralized government, increasing flexibility of the council to adapt to the times over the ages, and the strategic implementation of necromancy and long-term planning in support of industrial efforts.
Indeed, while it took some time the nation was able to adapt and learn and overcome, just as it had for centuries upon centuries. That is also perhaps the region’s greatest strength, as each time it has had to adapt and grow and learn further it has done so in shorter and shorter time periods than ever before. In undeath, unlike the popular living rumors about it, stagnation is not some inevitability. Rather, it is a chance to grow and learn for far longer than the living could dream of.
