Sarland (SAR-land)
The sparsely-populated Sarland is another nation carved out of the desert. In large part, only two groups of people live in Sarland: the Sarlani, an ethnicity of humans that dwell in the mesas at the heart of the country, and the Elasi, a nomadic group of dark elves that descended from an ancestral dark elf clan with roots in Elasiril. The relations between the group have always been strained, but the chaos of the Severing has only driven tensions higher and higher.
When the Circle of Nine consolidated Sarland as a state, they handed political power to the Sarlani, who at the time of the nation's founding made up less than 40% of the region's population, recognizing the Elasi as "transient settlers" with no particular connection to the region, rather than as a populace that had inhabited Sarland continuously for almost two thousand years. For a few hundred years, the Sarlani thrived, benefiting from the vast majority of the nation's resources and infrastructure, while the Elasi were largely disenfranchised.
In 323 YC, a group of Elasi protesters were violently arrested in Sandana, the capital of Sarland, and one of them later died from injuries inflicted in custody. In response, several Sarlani-Elasi skirmishes broke out, and inter-group tensions have erupted regularly thereafter. The government of Sarland has come to depend on significant assistance from the other Nations of the Circle in retaining control over their nation's territory, a fact which many nations resent. When the Severing struck, throwing the government into chaos, these tensions reached a boiling point; inter-group conflict has escalated so drastically over the past few years that the country is widely believed to be on the precipice of civil war.
Like the other Nations of the Circle, Sarland's administration was decimated by the Severing. Worsening the situation, Prime Minister Cahaya Rahet, Sarland's head of government and representative to the the Circle of Nine, disappeared in late Dawning of 717. He is widely presumed to be dead but officially remains missing.
Demography and Population
The census of 710 YC—the last global census before the Severing —recorded the population of Sarland as approximately 7,980,000, the smallest of any Co9 nation. That census asserted Sarland's population to be roughly 47% human, 37% elven, 11% orcish, and 5% mixed heritage. While humans were a minority when the nation was created, the human population has grown more quickly than the elven population, and Sarland's human population surpassed its elven population in the late 490s. However, accurately counting Sarland's elven population has proven to be troublesome in previous censuses, as Sarland's elven population largely maintains their historically nomadic lifestyle. Some analysts attest that the 710 census undercounted Sarland's elven population, given that the ratio of humans to elves increased by almost three percentage points between 700 and 710, a rate which represents a significant acceleration of the modestly-quicker population growth among humans.
Sarland's human and elven populations are both essentially mono-ethnic. Greater than 98% of Sarlander humans are Sarlani, and greater than 95% of Sarlander elves are Elasi. Sarlander orcs are more ethnically diverse, though there is still a clear majority: more than 60% are Kharadakh, and the remainder are mostly Jasar'at. Most of the people identifying as mixed-heritage are Elasi-Kharadakh; there are relatively few Sarlani-Elasi people in Sarland.
Sarland also has a relatively high incidence of Otherborn: 0.126% of its population is Otherborn, according to the 710 census. Both the Sarlani and Elasi appear to be unusually likely to produce certain types of Otherborn; the nation's populations of aasimar and genasi are both much higher than the population-based statistical average. The 710 census recorded an aasimar population of 3,940 (0.049%), making Sarland's aasimar population larger than that of Solisvar, a state two and a half times as populous as Sarland. Sarland's populations of tieflings, changelings, firbolgs, and kalashtar all appear to be low-normal.
Founding Date
1 YC
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Alternative Names
Llansa (Elasi toponym)
Demonym
Sarlanders
Government System
Democracy, Parliamentary
Neighboring Nations
Related Ethnicities
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