TheMoatedGrange

[IC/OOC] God and Country - A low-fantasy renaissance NRP of religion and discovery

@TheSovereignGrave

Oh yes, I see now upon further investigation. Seems like the map's all full up then!

[IC/OOC] God and Country - A low-fantasy renaissance NRP of religion and discovery

This was the area I was looking at. Hope you can see it...

[IC/OOC] God and Country - A low-fantasy renaissance NRP of religion and discovery

This looks really interesting. Are the areas to the south still open? I'd love to slide in on this just before it starts.

Fabula Elysia - Medieval Fantasy Nationgame

The Kingdom of Thabos

(Often just referred to as 'The Sunswept Isles' in vernacular speech) - claim number 21

Location/Geography

Map Claim

Thabos has a warm, tropical climate, fed by the 'Sunsweep', the name given to the warm wind that blows almost consistently from the south and east and that feeds the climate of the eponymous isles. The seasons are divided into the sunny and the monsoon season, with little room in between pouring deluges of rain and scorching heat.

There is a small amount of variation in each of the isles - the most northerly, Nibari, is also the most temperate, famous for its fruit groves, while the most easterly, Lobessa, is perpetually windswept and devoid of almost all tree cover, instead being covered by low-lying savannah land and hilly bluffs that stretch out into sand dunes and areas of scrub land. Settlement on all of the islands is mostly restricted to the coast - the inlands are populated, but infrastructure can be patchy, and vast sweeps of jungle that smother the interiors of the three southerly islands are home to hostile beasts like Diresabers and Great Snarks, as well as rumours of dark magic wielding cannibals who live in tree-top cities far above the expansive canopy.

The islands are dotted with enormous marble ruins, some of which have been adapted into the cities of the current Thabossian kingdom and others that are buried deep within the jungles, or jut out from the reefs in the sea between the islands. These ruins show the marks of complex stone working and carving, with some statues of various robed persons unknown also being found regularly. Though incomplete and often severely damaged, the ruins show the remains of a level of craft as of yet unable to be replicated. What is more, there are no natural marble deposits on the archipelago, leading some to theorise that the ruins are the remains of an ancient and forgotten Empire that colonised The Sunswept Isles many centuries ago.

General Introduction

The Kingdom of Thabos is a mercantile and yet secretive kingdom at the fringes of the known world, inhabiting a circle of islands far to the south-east known as the 'Sunswept Isles'. The copper-skinned Thabossians are not an infrequent sight throughout the world, rippling silently into most major trade ports on their black-sailed skiffs, trading their stocks of exotic spices, tea, silks and animal parts in exchange for furs and various foodstuffs. Apart from this interaction, however, few people know much about the secretive and unaggressive islanders. Most foreigners are not permitted to reside or to stay for long on the islands, and those who do become aware very quickly of a complex social structure and belief system that shapes the lives of all those who live under the reign of the Tiger-Queen Anetkara, the 'Sun's Avatar' or Salhamat-i Ashvahat.

History

Legend has it that the five islands of Thabos were once one, largest island, known as Kaeramuni, inhabited by the precursors to the Thabossians, who are known in Thabossian mythology simply as 'the Antecedents'. The Antecedents grew haughty and arrogant, building enormous towers and forsaking the power of the Sunsweep. Their arrogance brought about their downfall - one day the centre of the island, deep in the jungle, exploded with such force that it blew them all apart into five distinct entities. The event caused tidal waves across the world, and destroyed the Ancient Thabossian Kingdom utterly. Those who survived had to restart from scratch, foraging in the ruins of their illustrious ancestors for berries, and waging warfare with cannibalistic tribes from wooden shanty towns built in the shade of cracked courtyards and great palaces.

The Thabossians, however, proved to be a resilient peoples, adapting quickly and advancing quicker still. Some semblance of the Ancient Thabossian advancement must have lingered, for their ship-building capabilities were unaffected by the event and they made forays out into the wider world for the first time, tentatively establishing trade relationships with other fledgling nations and mapping the known world as best they could. At this point, each of the five islands was ruled by a Prince who took on the avatar of a different animal - the most southerly islands were the homes of the Crocodile, Snapping Turtle and Elephant Princes, while Lobessa was ruled by the Panther Prince and Nibari by the Tiger Prince. These princely dynasties were frequently in violent conflict, waging bloody war both on each other and on the 'Untamed Peoples' or the tribes that had yet to come under their yoke; those who lived (and continue to live) deep in the jungles and reject civilised life.

It was under the reign of the 'Great Tiger', Kahu'un the Wizened, that unification was finally achieved. The first 'Tiger-King' allied himself to the Snapping Turtle and Elephant Princes and waged a bloody conflict first against the Crocodile Prince, who he is said to have drank the blood of after defeating him in battle, and then the Panther Prince, who ruled the second most prosperous island. The war has come to be known variously as 'The Tiger's Leap', 'The Five Islands' War' and 'The Unification'. From that moment on Thabos began to worship its monarch as a demi-god, responsible for bringing in the warm southerly winds to end the monsoon season. It is not unusual for a Tiger King or Queen to be sacrificed to the oceans for failing to do so.

Government & Society

Society

Thabos operates under a strictly stratified society, built mainly on the back of extensive slave labour. The Thabossians themselves occupy their place at the top of society, with their lives devoted mostly to religious worship, magic, scholarship and the arts, with architecture, painting and instrument playing being the most valued pastimes amongst the Thabossians. The slave class is composed mostly of tame Kahularians, with various races from across the world being brought in to act in various capacities after having been bought from local governments or captured as pirates by the nimble and well-built Thabossian Navy.

Thabossian cities are built from the dark grey stone quarried in Lobessa. Buildings are largely built to be towers, many of which are interspersed with rolling, decorative gardens filled with trees, fountains and open patches of grassy land, most of which is flooded at some point during the monsoon season. To avoid this annual flooding disrupting Thabossian society entirely, a series of stone walkways connects most buildings in every society so that it is possible for the Thabossians to move around throughout their cities even when five or six feet of water submerge the ground level. This is repeated on a smaller scale in towns and villages, with most of the smallest villages containing a single tall tower where rations and medicaments are stockpiled year round in order for the residents to take shelter should the need arise.

Religion

The Thabossian faith is often referred to simply as the 'Diarchy', because it is dominated by two gods. Marrakari the Father of Rain brings the monsoon season, and is depicted as a tall, lumbering figure composed almost entirely of clay and water, with a shifting, ever-changing figure with a vaguely humanoid shape and four arms. He is said to exact bloody revenge on those who wrong the natural order of the islands by sending great floods and tidal waves.

Lakshvia the Sun-Swept Goddess, brings the Sunsweep to the islands to blow away the humid oppression of the monsoon and bring nourishing light to the crops and cities. She is depicted as a tall and beautiful woman, but to look on her is allegedly to burn out one's eyes from the sheer brightness of her beauty. The sun itself is said to be the shining light of Lakshvia's naval, which she presses warmly to the sky in order to warm the world from her loving womb.

The Tiger-King or Queen is said to be the avatar of whichever of the gods their gender corresponds to. It is forbidden for anyone except chosen foreign emissaries, the eunuchs and the scions of the highborn houses (who are also said to possess the 'godsblood') to look upon the Tiger-King or Queen under penalty of death. In public, they travel veiled in enormous corteges.

Sacrifice is practiced heavily in the enormous ziggurat shaped temples of the Thabossian religion, with the offerings ranging from livestock to the Tiger-King or Queen themselves. The spilled blood is said to nourish the earth in times of hardship and rouse the masculine impulse of Marrakari in times of drought. Dozens of slaves are bought from all over the world to be used as sacrifice livestock, also, as their foreign blood is seen to be a special offering.

Government

The Kingdom of Thabos is ruled by the Tiger-King or Queen, usually the eldest son or daughter of the previous monarch. Marriage is not commonly practiced and the Tiger-Monarch is allowed a harem of lovers in order to sate their need to produce heirs. It is considered an honour to be selected for the harem, and some of them have numbered into their hundreds, while it is usual for them only to consist of a few dozen consorts at a time. Apart from the monarch, who rules as a God and whose will is obeyed utterly within the kingdom, there is a relatively low level of civil development, though various offices of import are given to royal favourites who administer taxation, civil order and trade negotiations with varying degrees of success.

The administration of the royal palace itself, which acts as the de facto centre of political life in the kingdom, is held firmly under the thumb of a powerful group of eunuchs. Their dissuasion from carnal lust is seen as the perfect way to ensure that they serve Thabos before their own desires, and nearly all prominent courtly positions - especially those with close access to the King or Queen - are filled by eunuchs. These eunuchs are invariably Thabossians from highborn families, while more menial tasks are performed by Kahularians.

Each of the four other islands is still reigned by the ancestral princely line that existed since before the unification, all of whom swear ritual fealty to the Tiger-King or Queen upon his or her ascension.

Magic

The Thabossian priesthood practices its own strand of curiously druidic magic, with the ability to summon the life-forces that they worship to shape the will of animals, plants and occasionally the weather (if in collaboration). These priests are in constant conflict with the secular magical orders, who are numerous in the relatively learned Thabossian upper classes, who practice a much more refined and carefully trained form of magic with a heavy elemental focus on aquamancy and pyromancy, to represent the two aspect gods of their religion. Most ships carry at least one magister of some description to identify magical items of worth to be sold on to various interested buyers around the world.

Thabossians

The Thabossians are a bipedal, humanoid peoples, closely related to humans. They are copper-skinned, with most of the population possessing bright red or black hair. Physiologically, they are not predisposed to gaining much muscle mass, and they are all taller than humans on average, with females averaging at 7 feet tall and the males averaging at 7 feet and 6 inches, all of which contribute to giving them a tall and willowy appearance that is accentuated by the flowing, loose-fitting robes that they wear at almost every opportunity in order to cope in the heat of the Sunswept Isles. The Thabossians are omnivorous but most remain largely herbivore due to the general dearth of livestock animals on the islands. Their ears taper to small points, and their eyes are either silvery-green or blue, with little exception.

Kahularians

The Kahularians are a bipedal, simian peoples who inhabit the rugged centre of the Sunswept Isles, nominally under the charge of the Tiger-King of Thabos but operating more often as an independent patchwork of tribal states that are constantly warring with each other and occasionally operating raids out onto the Thabossian cities that dot the coast. A wholly carnivorous and ostensibly cannibalistic people, they are generally regarded as barbarians by the Thabossians, who use them both as galley slaves and forced soldiers in their armies, though in reality the Kahularians have their own language, their own customs and their own religion, which focuses on the worship of the 'Great Life Tree' Atakaru, rumoured to be located somewhere within the enormous and near impenetrable jungle of the Snapping Turtle principality, where the Kahularians maintain the strongest presence and most developed infrastructure. Short and stocky, the average female Kahularian stands at five feet, while the males are usually a few inches shorter. Their physiology is essentially humanoid except for their being covered in thick and coarse greenish black hair.

Economy & Industry

Kahularians are commonly exported as slaves due to their stocky build and relatively hardy constitutions in most weather, but the main export of the Thabossian Kingdom is whatever it is that they can trade. Acting largely as middlemen in enormously complex global maritime trade networks, the Thabossians have a worldwide reputation for efficiency and honesty in business, and reliability in delivering cargo quickly and safely.

Military Overview

Though a mercantile culture by nature, the Thabossians are required to maintain a strong and robust internal defence force to fight off frequent incursions from the untamed populations of the Kahularians, many of whom practice various primal dark magic.

Composition

Kahularians are used in droves in the military. Their intrinsic understanding of how best to use jungle landscapes as well as their small size, muscular bodies and quick movement mean that they are the ground troops of most Thabossian military detachments. The Thabossians themselves dominate the archery and magic using sections of the military, however, while Kahularian shaman are allowed to serve alongside Thabossian druidic priests in the healing and moral boosting sections of the military.

Army

Fighting in the dense jungles of Thabos requires a degree of adaptability, and the Thabossian army is composed largely of archers, slingers, saboteurs and light skirmishers, many of whom are adept at constructing elaborate traps, defences and conducting aerial warfare from high in the trees dozens of feet above the thick jungle canopy. In the way of cavalry, there is a special and elite detachment of Tiger Riders, who tame and ride the ten foot tall Diretigers into battle in honour of the Tiger King or Queen.

Insofar as weaponry, the Thabossians are fond of curved scimitar like swords and short, one-handed axes. Their armour is generally made from leather with mesh inlet made from imported iron and steel, but the Tiger Riders wear full suits of gilted green steel plate. There is also a small but increasingly large detachment of permanent snipers, who use the cumbersome and relatively unreliably stocked ammunition stocks of the nation to organise a gunpowder using section of the military.

Navy

The Navy is Thabos' pride and joy, and is famous for its well-constructed and nimble sailing ships. Any confrontation between The Sunswept Isles and another nation will begin at sea, and the Thabossians are experts at creating detachments of archers and slingers who can fight from the ship's decks. The fact that most warships are equipped with at least two magisters of some variety also means that warfare at sea can quickly turn sour for an opponent of the Thabossians. However, though swift, Thabossian ships are not heavily armoured, nor have they quite become comfortable with the idea of power-based weaponry or cannons. If one hits a Thabossian ship with a cannonball, it is likely over.

Magic in the Military

Most armies march with an equally sized cohort of druidic priests and secular mages, though the former is often the more visible, integrating visibly with the ground troops and using their druidic magic to shape the jungles to their advantage, a tactic that has saved the Thabossians from enclosing enemies by closing the literal trees against them and buying them enough time to make their flight on many occasions before.

Fabula Elysia - Medieval Fantasy Nationgame

I think this is finished. Reposting because the format went awry in the original version... Let me know what you guys think!

NS Guide

The Kingdom of Thabos

(Often just referred to as 'The Sunswept Isles' in vernacular speech) - claim number 21

Location/Geography

Map Claim

Thabos has a warm, tropical climate, fed by the 'Sunsweep', the name given to the warm wind that blows almost consistently from the south and east and that feeds the climate of the eponymous isles. The seasons are divided into the sunny and the monsoon season, with little room in between pouring deluges of rain and scorching heat.

There is a small amount of variation in each of the isles - the most northerly, Nibari, is also the most temperate, famous for its fruit groves, while the most easterly, Lobessa, is perpetually windswept and devoid of almost all tree cover, instead being covered by low-lying savannah land and hilly bluffs that stretch out into sand dunes and areas of scrub land. Settlement on all of the islands is mostly restricted to the coast - the inlands are populated, but infrastructure can be patchy, and vast sweeps of jungle that smother the interiors of the three southerly islands are home to hostile beasts like Diresabers and Great Snarks, as well as rumours of dark magic wielding cannibals who live in tree-top cities far above the expansive canopy.

The islands are dotted with enormous marble ruins, some of which have been adapted into the cities of the current Thabossian kingdom and others that are buried deep within the jungles, or jut out from the reefs in the sea between the islands. These ruins show the marks of complex stone working and carving, with some statues of various robed persons unknown also being found regularly. Though incomplete and often severely damaged, the ruins show the remains of a level of craft as of yet unable to be replicated. What is more, there are no natural marble deposits on the archipelago, leading some to theorise that the ruins are the remains of an ancient and forgotten Empire that colonised The Sunswept Isles many centuries ago.

General Introduction

The Kingdom of Thabos is a mercantile and yet secretive kingdom at the fringes of the known world, inhabiting a circle of islands far to the south-east known as the 'Sunswept Isles'. The copper-skinned Thabossians are not an infrequent sight throughout the world, rippling silently into most major trade ports on their black-sailed skiffs, trading their stocks of exotic spices, tea, silks and animal parts in exchange for furs and various foodstuffs. Apart from this interaction, however, few people know much about the secretive and unaggressive islanders. Most foreigners are not permitted to reside or to stay for long on the islands, and those who do become aware very quickly of a complex social structure and belief system that shapes the lives of all those who live under the reign of the Tiger-Queen Anetkara, the 'Sun's Avatar' or Salhamat-i Ashvahat.

History

Legend has it that the five islands of Thabos were once one, largest island, known as Kaeramuni, inhabited by the precursors to the Thabossians, who are known in Thabossian mythology simply as 'the Antecedents'. The Antecedents grew haughty and arrogant, building enormous towers and forsaking the power of the Sunsweep. Their arrogance brought about their downfall - one day the centre of the island, deep in the jungle, exploded with such force that it blew them all apart into five distinct entities. The event caused tidal waves across the world, and destroyed the Ancient Thabossian Kingdom utterly. Those who survived had to restart from scratch, foraging in the ruins of their illustrious ancestors for berries, and waging warfare with cannibalistic tribes from wooden shanty towns built in the shade of cracked courtyards and great palaces.

The Thabossians, however, proved to be a resilient peoples, adapting quickly and advancing quicker still. Some semblance of the Ancient Thabossian advancement must have lingered, for their ship-building capabilities were unaffected by the event and they made forays out into the wider world for the first time, tentatively establishing trade relationships with other fledgling nations and mapping the known world as best they could. At this point, each of the five islands was ruled by a Prince who took on the avatar of a different animal - the most southerly islands were the homes of the Crocodile, Snapping Turtle and Elephant Princes, while Lobessa was ruled by the Panther Prince and Nibari by the Tiger Prince. These princely dynasties were frequently in violent conflict, waging bloody war both on each other and on the 'Untamed Peoples' or the tribes that had yet to come under their yoke; those who lived (and continue to live) deep in the jungles and reject civilised life.

It was under the reign of the 'Great Tiger', Kahu'un the Wizened, that unification was finally achieved. The first 'Tiger-King' allied himself to the Snapping Turtle and Elephant Princes and waged a bloody conflict first against the Crocodile Prince, who he is said to have drank the blood of after defeating him in battle, and then the Panther Prince, who ruled the second most prosperous island. The war has come to be known variously as 'The Tiger's Leap', 'The Five Islands' War' and 'The Unification'. From that moment on Thabos began to worship its monarch as a demi-god, responsible for bringing in the warm southerly winds to end the monsoon season. It is not unusual for a Tiger King or Queen to be sacrificed to the oceans for failing to do so.

Government & Society

Society

Thabos operates under a strictly stratified society, built mainly on the back of extensive slave labour. The Thabossians themselves occupy their place at the top of society, with their lives devoted mostly to religious worship, magic, scholarship and the arts, with architecture, painting and instrument playing being the most valued pastimes amongst the Thabossians. The slave class is composed mostly of tame Kahularians, with various races from across the world being brought in to act in various capacities after having been bought from local governments or captured as pirates by the nimble and well-built Thabossian Navy.

Thabossian cities are built from the dark grey stone quarried in Lobessa. Buildings are largely built to be towers, many of which are interspersed with rolling, decorative gardens filled with trees, fountains and open patches of grassy land, most of which is flooded at some point during the monsoon season. To avoid this annual flooding disrupting Thabossian society entirely, a series of stone walkways connects most buildings in every society so that it is possible for the Thabossians to move around throughout their cities even when five or six feet of water submerge the ground level. This is repeated on a smaller scale in towns and villages, with most of the smallest villages containing a single tall tower where rations and medicaments are stockpiled year round in order for the residents to take shelter should the need arise.

Religion

The Thabossian faith is often referred to simply as the 'Diarchy', because it is dominated by two gods. Marrakari the Father of Rain brings the monsoon season, and is depicted as a tall, lumbering figure composed almost entirely of clay and water, with a shifting, ever-changing figure with a vaguely humanoid shape and four arms. He is said to exact bloody revenge on those who wrong the natural order of the islands by sending great floods and tidal waves.

Lakshvia the Sun-Swept Goddess, brings the Sunsweep to the islands to blow away the humid oppression of the monsoon and bring nourishing light to the crops and cities. She is depicted as a tall and beautiful woman, but to look on her is allegedly to burn out one's eyes from the sheer brightness of her beauty. The sun itself is said to be the shining light of Lakshvia's naval, which she presses warmly to the sky in order to warm the world from her loving womb.

The Tiger-King or Queen is said to be the avatar of whichever of the gods their gender corresponds to. It is forbidden for anyone except chosen foreign emissaries, the eunuchs and the scions of the highborn houses (who are also said to possess the 'godsblood') to look upon the Tiger-King or Queen under penalty of death. In public, they travel veiled in enormous corteges.

Sacrifice is practiced heavily in the enormous ziggurat shaped temples of the Thabossian religion, with the offerings ranging from livestock to the Tiger-King or Queen themselves. The spilled blood is said to nourish the earth in times of hardship and rouse the masculine impulse of Marrakari in times of drought. Dozens of slaves are bought from all over the world to be used as sacrifice livestock, also, as their foreign blood is seen to be a special offering.

Government

The Kingdom of Thabos is ruled by the Tiger-King or Queen, usually the eldest son or daughter of the previous monarch. Marriage is not commonly practiced and the Tiger-Monarch is allowed a harem of lovers in order to sate their need to produce heirs. It is considered an honour to be selected for the harem, and some of them have numbered into their hundreds, while it is usual for them only to consist of a few dozen consorts at a time. Apart from the monarch, who rules as a God and whose will is obeyed utterly within the kingdom, there is a relatively low level of civil development, though various offices of import are given to royal favourites who administer taxation, civil order and trade negotiations with varying degrees of success.

The administration of the royal palace itself, which acts as the de facto centre of political life in the kingdom, is held firmly under the thumb of a powerful group of eunuchs. Their dissuasion from carnal lust is seen as the perfect way to ensure that they serve Thabos before their own desires, and nearly all prominent courtly positions - especially those with close access to the King or Queen - are filled by eunuchs. These eunuchs are invariably Thabossians from highborn families, while more menial tasks are performed by Kahularians.

Each of the four other islands is still reigned by the ancestral princely line that existed since before the unification, all of whom swear ritual fealty to the Tiger-King or Queen upon his or her ascension.

Magic

The Thabossian priesthood practices its own strand of curiously druidic magic, with the ability to summon the life-forces that they worship to shape the will of animals, plants and occasionally the weather (if in collaboration). These priests are in constant conflict with the secular magical orders, who are numerous in the relatively learned Thabossian upper classes, who practice a much more refined and carefully trained form of magic with a heavy elemental focus on aquamancy and pyromancy, to represent the two aspect gods of their religion. Most ships carry at least one magister of some description to identify magical items of worth to be sold on to various interested buyers around the world.

Thabossians

The Thabossians are a bipedal, humanoid peoples, closely related to humans. They are copper-skinned, with most of the population possessing bright red or black hair. Physiologically, they are not predisposed to gaining much muscle mass, and they are all taller than humans on average, with females averaging at 7 feet tall and the males averaging at 7 feet and 6 inches, all of which contribute to giving them a tall and willowy appearance that is accentuated by the flowing, loose-fitting robes that they wear at almost every opportunity in order to cope in the heat of the Sunswept Isles. The Thabossians are omnivorous but most remain largely herbivore due to the general dearth of livestock animals on the islands. Their ears taper to small points, and their eyes are either silvery-green or blue, with little exception.

Kahularians

The Kahularians are a bipedal, simian peoples who inhabit the rugged centre of the Sunswept Isles, nominally under the charge of the Tiger-King of Thabos but operating more often as an independent patchwork of tribal states that are constantly warring with each other and occasionally operating raids out onto the Thabossian cities that dot the coast. A wholly carnivorous and ostensibly cannibalistic people, they are generally regarded as barbarians by the Thabossians, who use them both as galley slaves and forced soldiers in their armies, though in reality the Kahularians have their own language, their own customs and their own religion, which focuses on the worship of the 'Great Life Tree' Atakaru, rumoured to be located somewhere within the enormous and near impenetrable jungle of the Snapping Turtle principality, where the Kahularians maintain the strongest presence and most developed infrastructure. Short and stocky, the average female Kahularian stands at five feet, while the males are usually a few inches shorter. Their physiology is essentially humanoid except for their being covered in thick and coarse greenish black hair.

Economy & Industry

Kahularians are commonly exported as slaves due to their stocky build and relatively hardy constitutions in most weather, but the main export of the Thabossian Kingdom is whatever it is that they can trade. Acting largely as middlemen in enormously complex global maritime trade networks, the Thabossians have a worldwide reputation for efficiency and honesty in business, and reliability in delivering cargo quickly and safely.

Military Overview

Though a mercantile culture by nature, the Thabossians are required to maintain a strong and robust internal defence force to fight off frequent incursions from the untamed populations of the Kahularians, many of whom practice various primal dark magic.

Composition

Kahularians are used in droves in the military. Their intrinsic understanding of how best to use jungle landscapes as well as their small size, muscular bodies and quick movement mean that they are the ground troops of most Thabossian military detachments. The Thabossians themselves dominate the archery and magic using sections of the military, however, while Kahularian shaman are allowed to serve alongside Thabossian druidic priests in the healing and moral boosting sections of the military.

Army

Fighting in the dense jungles of Thabos requires a degree of adaptability, and the Thabossian army is composed largely of archers, slingers, saboteurs and light skirmishers, many of whom are adept at constructing elaborate traps, defences and conducting aerial warfare from high in the trees dozens of feet above the thick jungle canopy. In the way of cavalry, there is a special and elite detachment of Tiger Riders, who tame and ride the ten foot tall Diretigers into battle in honour of the Tiger King or Queen.

Insofar as weaponry, the Thabossians are fond of curved scimitar like swords and short, one-handed axes. Their armour is generally made from leather with mesh inlet made from imported iron and steel, but the Tiger Riders wear full suits of gilted green steel plate. There is also a small but increasingly large detachment of permanent snipers, who use the cumbersome and relatively unreliably stocked ammunition stocks of the nation to organise a gunpowder using section of the military.

Navy

The Navy is Thabos' pride and joy, and is famous for its well-constructed and nimble sailing ships. Any confrontation between The Sunswept Isles and another nation will begin at sea, and the Thabossians are experts at creating detachments of archers and slingers who can fight from the ship's decks. The fact that most warships are equipped with at least two magisters of some variety also means that warfare at sea can quickly turn sour for an opponent of the Thabossians. However, though swift, Thabossian ships are not heavily armoured, nor have they quite become comfortable with the idea of power-based weaponry or cannons. If one hits a Thabossian ship with a cannonball, it is likely over.

Magic in the Military

Most armies march with an equally sized cohort of druidic priests and secular mages, though the former is often the more visible, integrating visibly with the ground troops and using their druidic magic to shape the jungles to their advantage, a tactic that has saved the Thabossians from enclosing enemies by closing the literal trees against them and buying them enough time to make their flight on many occasions before.

A Gilded Throne- The Shadow Looms (Recruiting)

I'm still here, as an aside.

Fabula Elysia - Medieval Fantasy Nationgame

WIP

The Kingdom of Thabos

(Often just referred to as 'The Sunswept Isles' in vernacular speech) - claim number 21

Location/Geography

Map Claim

Thabos has a warm, tropical climate, fed by the 'Sunsweep', the name given to the warm wind that blows almost consistently from the south and east and that feeds the climate of the eponymous isles. The seasons are divided into the sunny and the monsoon season, with little room in between pouring deluges of rain and scorching heat.
There is a small amount of variation in each of the isles - the most northerly, Nibari, is also the most temperate, famous for its fruit groves, while the most easterly, Lobessa, is perpetually windswept and devoid of almost all tree cover, instead being covered by low-lying savannah land and hilly bluffs that stretch out into sand dunes and areas of scrub land. Settlement on all of the islands is mostly restricted to the coast - the inlands are populated, but infrastructure can be patchy, and vast sweeps of jungle that smother the interiors of the three southerly islands are home to hostile beasts like Diresabers and Great Snarks, as well as rumours of dark magic wielding cannibals who live in tree-top cities far above the expansive canopy.
The islands are dotted with enormous marble ruins, some of which have been adapted into the cities of the current Thabossian kingdom and others that are buried deep within the jungles, or jut out from the reefs in the sea between the islands. These ruins show the marks of complex stone working and carving, with some statues of various robed persons unknown also being found regularly. Though incomplete and often severely damaged, the ruins show the remains of a level of craft as of yet unable to be replicated. What is more, there are no natural marble deposits on the archipelago, leading some to theorise that the ruins are the remains of an ancient and forgotten Empire that colonised The Sunswept Isles many centuries ago.

General Introduction

The Kingdom of Thabos is a mercantile and yet secretive kingdom at the fringes of the known world, inhabiting a circle of islands far to the south-east known as the 'Sunswept Isles'. The copper-skinned Thabossians are not an infrequent sight throughout the world, rippling silently into most major trade ports on their black-sailed skiffs, trading their stocks of exotic spices, tea, silks and animal parts in exchange for furs and various foodstuffs. Apart from this interaction, however, few people know much about the secretive and unaggressive islanders. Most foreigners are not permitted to reside or to stay for long on the islands, and those who do become aware very quickly of a complex social structure and belief system that shapes the lives of all those who live under the reign of the Tiger-Queen Anetkara, the 'Sun's Avatar' or Salhamat-i Ashvahat.

History

Legend has it that the five islands of Thabos were once one, largest island, known as Kaeramuni, inhabited by the precursors to the Thabossians, who are known in Thabossian mythology simply as 'the Antecedents'. The Antecedents grew haughty and arrogant, building enormous towers and forsaking the power of the Sunsweep. Their arrogance brought about their downfall - one day the centre of the island, deep in the jungle, exploded with such force that it blew them all apart into five distinct entities. The event caused tidal waves across the world, and destroyed the Ancient Thabossian Kingdom utterly. Those who survived had to restart from scratch, foraging in the ruins of their illustrious ancestors for berries, and waging warfare with cannibalistic tribes from wooden shanty towns built in the shade of cracked courtyards and great palaces.
The Thabossians, however, proved to be a resilient peoples, adapting quickly and advancing quicker still. Some semblance of the Ancient Thabossian advancement must have lingered, for their ship-building capabilities were unaffected by the event and they made forays out into the wider world for the first time, tentatively establishing trade relationships with other fledgling nations and mapping the known world as best they could. At this point, each of the five islands was ruled by a Prince who took on the avatar of a different animal - the most southerly islands were the homes of the Crocodile, Snapping Turtle and Elephant Princes, while Lobessa was ruled by the Panther Prince and Nibari by the Tiger Prince. These princely dynasties were frequently in violent conflict, waging bloody war both on each other and on the 'Untamed Peoples' or the tribes that had yet to come under their yoke; those who lived (and continue to live) deep in the jungles and reject civilised life.
It was under the reign of the 'Great Tiger', Kahu'un the Wizened, that unification was finally achieved. The first 'Tiger-King' allied himself to the Snapping Turtle and Elephant Princes and waged a bloody conflict first against the Crocodile Prince, who he is said to have drank the blood of after defeating him in battle, and then the Panther Prince, who ruled the second most prosperous island. The war has come to be known variously as 'The Tiger's Leap', 'The Five Islands' War' and 'The Unification'. From that moment on Thabos began to worship its monarch as a demi-god, responsible for bringing in the warm southerly winds to end the monsoon season. It is not unusual for a Tiger King or Queen to be sacrificed to the oceans for failing to do so.

Government & Society

Government

The Kingdom of Phabos is ruled by the Tiger-King or Queen, the eldest son or daughter of the previous monarch. Marriage is not commonly practiced and the Tiger-Monarch is allowed a harem of lovers in order to sate their need to produce heirs. It is considered an honour to be selected for the harem, and some of them have numbered into their hundreds, while it is usual for them only to consist of a few dozen consorts at a time. Apart from the monarch, who rules as a God and whose will is obeyed utterly within the kingdom, there is a relatively low level of civil development, though various offices of import are given to royal favourites who administer taxation, civil order and trade negotiations with varying degrees of success.
Each of the four other islands is still reigned by the ancestral princely line that existed since before the unification.

Thabossians

The Thabossians are a bipedal, humanoid peoples, closely related to humans. They are copper-skinned, with most of the population possessing bright red or black hair. Physiologically, they are not predisposed to gaining much muscle mass, and they are all taller than humans on average, with females averaging at 7 feet tall and the males averaging at 7 feet and 6 inches, all of which contribute to giving them a tall and willowy appearance that is accentuated by the flowing, loose-fitting robes that they wear at almost every opportunity in order to cope in the heat of the Sunswept Isles. The Thabossians are omnivorous but most remain largely herbivore due to the general dearth of livestock animals on the islands. Their ears taper to small points, and their eyes are either silvery-green or blue, with little exception.

Economy & Industry

(What are your primary exports and imports? How much you trade? How are your craftsmen organized? How developed is your technology? What kind of unique creations you have? etc. If you haven't described your involvement with magic in the society/government section, you can do it here.)

Military Overview

(Yeah, of course you also need to tell us some about your military. Try to avoid number games and unhealthy arms races. We play this game for fun and that needs balance and sensible approach. One of the main guidelines is that your nation's military shouldn't be much better than a historical 15th century medieval army. Don't worry, I don't ask you historical accuracy. So-called "super units" can be okay if they are rare enough for their worth and don't make your army unbeatable. The point is to let you do cool things and explore your creativity but at the same time don't do it at the expense of others. Also if you have magic or magicians involved in your military then perhaps you can describe that, too.)

Fabula Elysia - Medieval Fantasy Nationgame

Didn't monkeypants take the south eastern islands?

@Isotope

Do you mean number 21?

Fabula Elysia - Medieval Fantasy Nationgame

This is the claim I'm gunning for.

Fabula Elysia - Medieval Fantasy Nationgame

Is the circle of islands in the far south east available? If so I'd like to claim it.