Ebrasa (Eh-brah-suh)

Arcadia of the Ashes

Culture

Life in Ebrasa comes in three varieties. If one lives in Claion or Oromis, daily existence is not too dissimilar to that in Tethas, or Mahran. Beyond their walls, however, the majority of the Ebrasan population live simple, in many cases semi-nomadic, lives. Those who chose the settled life dwell on small, often highly-isolated, farmsteads. These are often several farms, surrounded by a stockade perimeter. The inhabitants tend to be suspicious of outsiders, other than the wandering traders who bring much-needed supplies, along with gossip and stories (often at least somewhat inflated) of the outside world. Unlike most of the rest of Southern Mardet, there are no local lords or powerful landlords to collect feudal dues or royal taxes. State income is raised by taxing the itinerant merchants based on their earnings, assessed whenever they enter a major settlement. Naturally, the system is very hard to enforce properly, but strict rules and harsh punishments ensure that a reasonable revenue stream exists, and the Ebrasan monarchy is not utterly bankrupt. This is important enough of an issue that a significant amount of the Ebrasan state apparatus exists just to make sure this system is as effective and mutually beneficial as possible.

The remainder of the Ebrasan population are huntsmen or herders, following their flocks or their prey respectively as they wander across the vast emptiness of the Ebrasan wilderness. These are rarely encountered by outsiders, except when they arrive in settlements to buy supplies, or on the (mercifully rare) occasions when greed, desperation, or boredom drives groups of them to turn to raiding. Such events are the main cause of the above-mentioned border skirmishes, with rogue Ebrasan raiders sometimes pillaging deep into the Free States. While direct retaliation is rare, all intruders are mercilessly destroyed and there are generally subsequent incidents of disappearing merchants and mysteriously assassinated bandit leaders.

History

Ebrasa (or, rather, the lands now known as Ebrasa) first appears in the historical record around the year 91 PE (Pre Empire) in an inscription from the late reign of the Elven High King Aramosnil. In it, the king decrees expansion into the ‘houseless west’, with the formal establishment of three cities that appear to have been intended as hubs for further growth in the region. Of these, all of which were located in what is now Eastern Ebrasa, none now survive; Aramosnil died of advanced age in 87 PE, succeeded by his cousin Belegsil. Young and inexperienced, the new king opted to focus on the ever-fractious politics of the heartlands, with little to no attention being given to his predecessor’s colonial side project. By this point, humans from the then-Kingdom of Tethas had already begun to settle on the northern shores of what was then Lake Amië (later Lake Servan), with trading posts and fishing villages springing up. When General Servan became Emperor Servan in 1 YT, those outposts were quickly and easily folded into the new Empire. Servan and his successors used the relatively unsettled lands of the area to found settlements for their veterans, with whole cities of old soldiers springing up practically overnight. The struggling Elven colonies, meanwhile, faded away entirely. It was here that, as Tethan territory rubbed up against Elven borders, that the tensions built up which would explode into war, resulting in the death of Belegsil and the fall of his Kingdom.
The Ebrasian Provinces (Ebrasa-of-the-Mountains, Elven Ebrasa, and Southern Ebrasa) were peaceful during the long reign of the Empire. However, when the Elven Revolt came, there were those within the former Elven Provinces that were not satisfied with merely having driven the Tethans from their own homeland. As chaos descended, warbands made incursions into Ebrasa, with cities burning and massive exoduses of terrified citizens. The collapse of the region was completed when the governor of Ebrasa-of-the-Mountains, one Leontaea Aptorides, declared herself Empress. In order to press her claim, she plunged all three provinces into irretrievable disorder, with the would-be Empress’ forces fighting loyalists and vengeful elves, both of which were also fighting each other. With the disintegration of the supposedly restored High Kingdom into its own bitter civil war, the Elven incursions ceased. Ebrasa, however, continued to be rife with conflict, even after Leontaea Aptorides’ death at the Battle of Amboria in 751 YT.
As the Years of Tethas became the Years of Chaos, the situation in Ebrasa slowly began to resolve itself. At the former provincial capital of Claion, a warlord by the name of Coros Antoclaeus began to establish himself as a powerful ruler sometime around 27 YC. His great-grandson, also named Coros (and referred to as Coros Diopyrgos Antoclaeus by historians for the sake of clarity) managed to defeat his major local rivals in 103 YC, establishing the Kingdom of Ebrasa. His kingdom, however, has never recovered from the Wars of Sundering. The forests have reclaimed huge swathes of land, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for the lost or the curious to stumble upon the ruins of a long-forgotten city, obscured by centuries of greenery. Outside of Claion, few major settlements have been established, and only the capital itself and the port of Oromis can really be described as cities. Through the centuries, the one constant from the dark days of the Wars is an indelible, mutual dislike between the Ebrasans and the Elves, with constant facedowns and skirmishes around the borders. However, when the Kingdom of Carnas invaded the Elven city-state of Thernis in 386 YC, inadvertently bringing down the wrath of the unified Free States down upon themselves, the Ebrasans were not above seizing the opportunity to take advantage of the situation. As Carnas crumbled into oblivion, the Ebrasans used a mixture of persuasion and force to secure a slice of the heartland of the dying kingdom. The most important gain was a relatively narrow strip of land, wedged between the formerly Carnasi segments of Mahran and the Free States, connecting with the port city of Oromis. This access to the sea has given the Ebrasans more options. Their merchants can now be found up and down the length of the eastern coast, although Ebrasa is yet to use their naval capability in a military capacity.

Founding Date

103 YC

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom