Five Provinces

The Empire of the Southern sun is divided into five provinces, each of which was once an independent realm before the formation of the alliance. The provinces retain a stubborn autonomy under the overall rule of the Imperial Sun Throne.

Daarion

Daarion, in the foothills of the Greenwall, is a province of two parts. In the northern highlands, mines generate immense wealth and power, while the southern lowlands have an agricultural base that barely sustains the province. The highlanders are a mixture of dwarf and goliath lines, the lowlanders elves and humans, all mixed with the gens of earth and air.
The influence of traditional dwarf culture has led to the development of a social system based on local strongholds, fortified towns supporting an extended territory. Daarian culture emphasises local community over either province or Empire. This builds strong local bonds, but has also exacerbated the division between north and south. The north is wealthier than the south, but also receives significant support from the Imperial organisation because it grants the boundary with the Federation. This also means that large numbers of Imperial troops are billeted in the highlands, sometimes creating friction with the locals. The local military is made up of hold militias and the Daarian Spears, a provincial formation of eagle riders.
Daarian religion revolves around the Faith of Foundation, but with elements of transcendental and esoteric spirituality borrowed from the mountain communities, and observance of the dwarven ancestors.

Urogan

Urogan, on the northern coast, is the agricultural heartland of the Empire. The plain behind the coast is rich farmland, while the coast itself is a hub of fishing and industry. The farming population is primarily descended from indigenous humans and earth genasi, while many coastal residents have orc heritage from a cohort of Legionnary troops who deserted from the beachhead in the north. It was these newcomers from the sea who introduced the indigenous population to the discipline of the Legion, and a sense of social unity which enabled them to withstand the Age of Fire better than most.
Urogan retains a stong sense of provincial solidarity, with less class division than most. It also has a driving ethos of civic and military service. Those not involved in agriculture and industry will almost all serve with the militia for three to five years, even if they do not qualify for full military service, and many are born into civil service. The province's industrial base is mostly built on salt, fish oil production, and alchemy. It is also a significant steel producer, importing Daarian ore and combining it with orc metallurgic know how.
As the orcs of Urogan are mostly descended from deserters, rather than rebels, they accept the gods of the Empire and the Faith of Foundation, rather than rejecting all gods, and indeed are noted for their piety.

Jaridan

Jaridan is, like many of the provinces, a domain of two parts, in this case divided by a line of high cliffs separating the high and low plains. The high plains rise from the southern edge of the cloud forest lowlands to an arid plateau. Below the cliffs, however, the low plains are lush grasslands.
The low plains are home to traditional, nomadic herders, mostly earth genasi of human and hobgoblin extraction, but also smaller populations of goliath and Vagabond elves. After the formation of the alliance and the Empire, the landscape changed, as seasonal camps were transformed into towns, cities and manorial estates around which the herds now orbit. Each fixed settlement also supports an area of arable farmland, as well as grain silos, dairies and other agricultural industries. The low plains are not as wealthy as Urogan, but they are wealthy, especially Jaridara, the provincial capital.
Jaridara sits at the base of the cliffs, in the centre of the province, directly below the Imperial capital of Golean. Golean is both the cultural and economic centre of the high plains. Agriculture in the high plains is at best subsistence level, and quarry­ing produces only a small quantity of rare dyes. The primary export of Jaridan is neither food nor dye, but is, instead, government.
The city of Golean is designed to be a place of diplomacy and order, where representatives of the provinces can meet and reach agreements without the obstacles of aristocrats and politicians, at least in theory. What the Imperial city actually provides to the Empire is organisation and the confidence that someone is in charge.
At the heart of the Empire, the Imperial Gods have a strong and pious following in Jaridan, with the Gods of Foundation a supporting cast of more distant, parental figures. Religion in Jaridan is a mixture of highly orthodox worship in the towns, and eclectic, extramural folk practice. In many ways, despite being the functional heart of Imperial worship, the orthodox cults are seen as outsiders or at least as detached elites by the populace.
Jaridani culture is hierarchical, with a militaristic bent absorbed from hobgoblin culture. The other hallmarks of the Jaridan character are a stubborn pride and love of freedom. City culture is a very diff­erent beast, valuing social position, wealth and organisation. The houses of Jaridan are all based in urban areas, and the herders of the open plain all owe fealty to houses who, by convention, they both despise internally and savagely defend against outsiders.
Status in Jaridan is displayed through portable wealth - fine clothes, high-quality tools and weapons, horses and herds, and especially jewellery. The ultimate expression of wealth is the torugan, a wooden staff, shod in copper, and capped with a set of copper loops, from which large rings are hung, each in turn threaded with rings, keys and jewellery demonstrating social status, property and wealth.

Oolian

Oolian is the great maritime power of the Empire, controlling a fairly narrow strip of coastal territory and resisting all offers to trade control of their ports for agricultural independence. Urogan controls trade with northern Caino and Talahaea, but the Ooliant shipping fleets of Liat Tas and Liat Nor fiercely defend the best trading routes to Suto, the rest of Yethera, and to Ladonia. It is the most cosmopolitan province, with many foreign merchants and their households resident in the coastal ports and a sizeable population of immigrants, including Ladonian petari and seafolk from Coronaea and the Jagged Teeth.
Given its nature as a melting pot, Oolion is easily the most democratic of the provinces. Its houses are mostly mercantile in structure and activity, and mirrored by a network of trade guilds. The guilds lack direct power, but their influence within the province is a check on that of the houses. Status within Oolian is strongly linked to fiscal wealth, which is almost uniquely represented by a system of speculative and promisory notes backed by reserves of valuable material. The three Ooliant banking houses represent the greatest concentration wealth on Aiaos that is not a dragon's hoard, and there is a lot of speculation about draconic involvement with two of them.
Religion in Oolian is mostly focused on those gods of Empire and Foundation who are associated with maritime travel and trade. The cults within Oolian have little direct power, but significant influence through their patronage of the province's trades of choice, as well as the piety of the trading houses.

Tirikan

Tirikan sits furthest from Golean and the seat of power, but has the distinction of having sent more Emperors to the Sun Throne than any other province. It is situated in the deep jungles of the interior, alongside the impermeable part of the Elysian boundary.
Tirikan claims to have the oldest civilisation on Aiaos, but it has certainly been through a number of changes of ownership. The government is built on the ruins of a pre-Cataclysm eladrin civilisation and its successor, the Chromacy, an alliance of seven genasi kingdoms devoted to the Elemental Princes. The Chromacy was overthrown by a rebellion led by an an anurin-descended earth genasi recor­ded by legend under the name Tirik anTrep. Known as Tirik the Great, this figure established the single kingdom of Tirikan, with five local regents to administer the territory. Tirik and his successors abolished worship of the Princes and replaced the institutional slavery of the Chromates with a rigid caste structure.
Provincial Tirikan still retains its aristocracy, headed by members of the upper and Imperial houses. The majority anurin population still hews to the traditional structure of one 'parent' with authority over many children, who are bound by filial piety. The overriding social principle in Tirikan is that the good of society supersedes any personal good, and that society is embodied in authority and the state.
The religion of the province follows the Gods of Foundation, but with some idiosyncratic rites, most notably the last Canticle, a voluntary rite of sacrifice that any Tirikand may request if they believe that either their death in supplication to the gods will serve society, or that their quality of life has fallen to intolerable levels.