Elinia (Nation)
Elinia is a wild and much-untamed nation to the northwest of Khazig on the coast of Mare Ecla; its northernmost coast is more properly along the Inim Sea. It boasts a profusion of tiny, grumpy feudal states swearing theoretical loyalty to the King who resides at the Capitol, in Leiden, but in practice the king's reach and powers are limited and the petty wars between the nobles are endless, whether open wars on the field or political and social wars in the background. Family hierarchies are tangled and often the cause of conflict and strange partnerships. Most of the power of the nation is split up among seventeen different dukedoms, though a number of counts and barons also hold significant power, and not every Duchy is as strong or aggressive as the others.
For the commoner, this means that life lacks the underlying stability and prosperity found throughout the Khazigiri Empire, a tantalizing beacon of hope on the other side of the Crushed Mountains. The journey through Elinia can be a perilous one, however, and the mountains are filled with dangerous beasts, monsters, savage humanoid tribes, and possibly even dragons, all of which find some appeal in the idea of feasting on would-be emigres. Moreover, Elinia is a very traditional and in its way, subservient culture where nobility is presumed to have the destiny and fortune to rule; families generally live where they were born, which is where their parents were born, which was where their parents were born, going back thousands of years.
Elinia has the feel of a wild and somewhat unexplored place, but its cave-pocked rocky terrain and generally unfriendly geography for forces on the move has always made it difficult to consolidate and rule; and the relative scarcity of its mineral and other resources has made it less than worth the trouble to conquer. As such, it feels like a place on the verge of turning into something better - but has never done so for any significant period of time. Sometimes dukes in conquest or by diplomacy gain control of multiple Duchies, or even declare themselves king, but once a great ruler or strong king dies, the nation slides back into backstabbing intrigues and border wars among the nobility.
Neighbors
Inimsuji to the north is a fully lawless and dangerous region, not really a country at all; it is the home of the vicious Skalni Inimsuji, cannibal elves roaming the snow and ice sheets who have populated the nightmares of everyone else since the end of the First Elven War when the Drow went underground and they bottled themselves up here, far from the other Elven lands. They cross down through the northern border, the well-named 'Illwall' river - an insufficient barrier to keep them out - with some regularity in winter when the temperatures in Elinia plummet to well below freezing for weeks at a time, just the way they like it. Usually these are just individuals or small bands looking to cause mischief and sample interesting protein, and to steal healthy civilized babies and replace them with their own changelings under cover of night. On rare winters, a sizeable force decides to move in for more disastrous looting and pillaging, which has to be dealt with by local militas. To the much more civilized southeast, Khazig maintains a number of roads through the crushed mountains, and is the largest trading partner with Elinia. From time to time in Imperial history, Elinia has been a vassal state of the Empire; and during the older Cumaean empire that preceded the Khazigiri, Elinia was considered a part of Gaz Agaia, the province that we now know as Khazig. After that old empire fell, the two regions, split by the mountain chain, became fully independent entities. Cekic to the west is a peaceful region now, but it was formed from lands once owned by an Elinian duke, who carved out a nation for himself from parts of Elinia and some of Tiwwar and Dovaln as well, and had grand designs for conquest before he died at the hands of his own harem of courtesans. At the time, neither Dovaln nor Elinia wanted to go to war with each other to reclaim it, but it has been a bone of contention between the mostly human and dwarven lands of Elinia and the mostly Elven nation of Dovaln for centuries since. If it came to blows, Dovaln could probably wrest it away, but at much more cost than it would be worth. The region is still culturally divided, and the lands in Cekic bordering Elinia are mostly indistinguishable in terms of genetic makeup and culture from Elinia proper; but the people have taken on a fierce independent nature in Cekic, much at odds with the agricultural, phlegmatic and mostly accepting Elinian way. Tiwwar to the southwest is a region of plains-dwelling nomadic cultures who all generally trade with Elinia and serves as a source for more exotic goods than the cold and damp region can provide for itself - spices, silks and textiles come to Elinia via the Tiwwari plainsmen. Elinia in turn provides the north and interior with much of its whale oil. Elinia's manufactured goods tend to come from the Khazigiri, or from the gnome enclaves of Cekic.
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Demonym
Elinian
Government System
Oligarchy
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Market economy
Official State Religion
Neighboring Nations
Comments