The country of Sl
that’s with an L, not an i, and it’s said like “Sul” or “Soul”
For a long time, the region known as Sl was occupied by a pretty large number of smaller kingdoms who generally got along pretty well. however, when the imperial expansion of Vwagru began in the mid 800s, many of the countries in the Sl region found themselves under attack. The vastly superior Vwagruan army quickly occupied several territories, and the rest did form a coalition to try and stop the Vwargu expansion, but it was hurried and still not nearly strong enough, and the countries all fell under Vwagruan occupation.
during this time, Sl was heavily exploited for its resources and was generally pretty poor because of how poorly they were treated by Vwagru. this lead to increasing hatred against Vwagru, and although many rebellions were attempted, most were put out shortly due to lack of coordination or large numbers, as compared to the Vwagruan army. that is, until the early 900s, when during a period of more stability under a more conservative ruler led to the beginnings of setting up a rebellion, and with Vwagru shifting its focus to the Mlios empire, they were finally able to begin what’s now called the Five Year Revolt which was, like it says in the name, a five-year long rebellion against Vwagru rule. it ultimately ended in failure, but it did significant damage to the Vwagru army, and halted their invasion of Mlios. This rebellion did also give the people of the Sl kingdoms a stronger sense of comradery among the countries, which would prove a major factory in the formation of Sl later.
In the year 923, the country Asandy was formed on the west coast, and it included a decent bit of land from the original Sl kingdoms. The formation of Asandy gave hope to the people, and with the war between the two countries that followed, it meant less forced occupying Sl directly which allowed them more freedom. the 920s and 930s were difficult for Sl, as Vwagru was completely out of money to spend, but this did mean that Sl Kingdoms were able to operate more independently from Vwagru than before, and when less expansionist kings took the throne and Vwagru became more stable, Sl saw even further improvement, and hope increased. It all came crashing down in 978, however, when a new ruthless and very imperialist king took the throne, and gathered a force to invade Asandy. however, the attack failed, and not long after, the King was killed by a revolt in Vwagru. with the formation of the new Vwagru government, they decided to end occupation of the Sl kingdoms, thereby granting them freedom. just as quickly as they lost hope, they regained it. the now independent Sl kingdoms came together to figure out a solution for the future, and ultimately came to the conclusion that they should band together to protect each other, and thus formed Sl.
Sl’s government is led by a number of representatives, with 3 from each province (39 total), who make the main decisions for the county. While the government is independent, they often work with Asandy, and the two countries are very close. they have a trade relationship where Sl provides lots of its excess crops to Asandy as Asandy doesn’t control much farmland, and in return Sl gets protections as well as access to many of Asandy’s technologies.
The Culture of Sl is much like that of Asandy, while also retaining many elements of the smaller kingdoms that were there before as well as adding some elements from Vwagru that remain from the long occupation. Some argue for purging the elements Vwagru culture because of what Vwagru did, others say that it’s all in the past and they’re free to do what they’d like now, and the latter is the generally more popular belief. Sl ends up with a weird balance of the three, but it works out for them.
The Language of Sl is of course Vwagra, but the dialect of it varies depending on where you do. Eastern Sl speaks the Asandian dialect, northern Sl speaks a purer form of the language, and the southern form speaks what’s called the Sl dialect, which is mostly Vwagra but mixed with several elements from the local Sl languages that merged into one. speaking of local languages, most of the kingdoms do have their own languages that are generally pretty similar to each other and come from the same language family as Vwagra, so many have simple transitioned to speaking the regular Vwagra language and the local languages are becoming less common over time, or they merge with Vwagra to create local dialects used for casual chatting while business is done in Vwagra.
Sl has a pretty small standing military who’s only real purpose would be to slow an invading force down long enough for Asandy to come in with guns blazing. in addition, they have Vwagru, a kingdom that’s been peaceful for 200+ years to the north, a really strong ally in Asandy to the east, and Mria to the south and west, which is currently in no state to try and invade anything, thus making maintaining an army mostly pointless.
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