Kernian Republic

Machine and Industry

See ? Much easier than using regular muscles and scaffolding, huh ? Eh, I don't blame you, these mechas are very chunky and hard to maintain. Hey, you wanna try ? Then hop right in, and follow my advice.

A Kernian engineer talking to a Duranian

Lost settlers

The Kernian Republic is the only country on the far-away continent of Ilienos. Technologically more advanced than the rest of the world, and taking a less theological approach on the world, they live peacefully and often trade with other nations. Despite how far they are, they managed to make a small settlement on the Markosian beach, allowing them to facilitate connections between Markos and the Kernian Republic.

According to their archives, they would be descendants of the ancient Technocian Empire. They have few records of this, but they split up from the large escape fleet created by the empire to avoid the devastation of the God-Dragon. Since then, they colonized and terraformed an entire continent for them to live in. However, they cast the previous inhabitants into the darkness of the underground, and a fierce battle has begun.

History

New Arrival

During the rampaging of the God-Dragon, the Technocian Empire was on the front for the extermination of the beast. Barrages of magical discharges rained down upon the dragon, and machines built to fight gods clashed with it. However, no amount of techno-magic was able to kill it, and they knew that they couldn't hold out for much longer. So, using the full industrial might of the empire, they created several aerial colony-ships. These huge vessels were powered by several Major Elementals and were akin to huge flying cities. Once they were all complete, they left the continent looking for a new home.

However, it wasn't enough. Within days of their escape, the dragon had cached them. Despite the powerful weaponry they had, they still got badly damaged and teetered on the brink of annihilation. With no other hope, the leader of the nation overloaded his flagship and warped to another plane. Most ships did the same and followed him, but some jumped to other places due to malfunction and others were too damaged to make it. Among them was the ship of the Kernians, which couldn't breach the barrier between the planes and instead jumped in a random place before crashing.

After an evacuating, the lieutenant of the ship captain decided that they would rebuild here. As they were stranded and in an unknown land, they all agreed. While the lieutenant, named Kern, tried to explore and map the area, the captain tried to repair the ship as he refused to stay there. After the first few explorers were sent, the Technocians were contacted by a species of insect men warriors telling them to " get off this sacred land ". The captain told them that they just needed some more time. But because of a misunderstanding, a soldier shot an insect man with his rifle, killing him on the spot. Scared of the bolt of thunder, the others ran away and Kern had an idea. After sending some of his more agile soldiers to follow them, he donned on an imposing suit of mechanized armor and tracked them.

What followed was a period of both war and negotiation. Kern presented himself as a god and threatened the various tribes of natives to either surrender or be slain. Some complied and ran away to the underground but most instead fought and got crushed. But a few started to worship the new arrivals as spirits and divine beings. This group wasn't a tribe, but several members of different tribes with the conviction that the newcomers were indeed godly in some way. Led by their Green Prophet, they approached the somewhat confused colonists and pledged themselves to their service, saying that they recognized their divinity and that Kern was here to replace the old gods and their blind worshippers.

As time passed, things were looking rather good for the settlers. They cut down most of the jungles, pacified the tribes and even finished building their first city. As well, Kern was showing signs of supernatural powers from his followers and even his armor started to get new abilities. But one day, in an earthquake, the gigantic vessel from which the Technocians came from started to lift itself from the ground. The captain then declared that they could leave using the ships to try to rejoin the fleet. Some decided to come and leave this place, but most refused and rather stayed there. The night before the ship left, a huge fire started in the archives of the city, and while they managed to save some records and stop the fire from spreading, most of their technological records were ruined. When Kern tried to ask the captain about this, he simply ignored him and left without looking back.

First Contact

After many decades, Kern died in his bed. The Slahins, joined the funerals thinking that the god had returned to his divine realm and worshipping him with even more fervor, hoping that if they are devoted enough they could join him. This renewed faith combined with the prayers before that actually turned Kern into a god in the Celestial Plane. With his newfound powers, he became the god of fire and progress and renamed himself Dominus. He created the realm of Meca and then came down to the Slahins to tell them that when they died, they would join his great forges and bring progress to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, the Technocians weren't inactive. In honor of their separation from their new god, they renamed themselves the Kernians and set out to grow stronger and remake their ancient empire, even with their limited resources. They made grand cities, changed the landscape to better fit their vision and found a place for the Sahins in the republic. But they wondered what happened to the rest of the world. Was the God-Dragon dead? If yes, who killed him? Did the other countries recover? What if they were the last humans? In 547, a group of explorers left the continent to find the answers to these questions.

After a long journey, the explorers finally reached the beaches of a continent where they found a small coastal village that seemed very scared and unhappy at their presence. Pointing spears at them and telling them to leave, the villagers definitely wanted them away. When they tried to explain who they were, one villager panicked and tried to stab the leader of the expedition. However, when he caught the weapon with his metal arm and broke it instantaneously, the villagers then complied with all his requests and told the group where and who they were.

While the explorers were at first slightly angered at the attack, they quickly became overjoyed when they learned that the God-Dragon was dead and that new kingdoms rose. However, due to the hostility and mistrust of the locals, they decided to head back to their republic so that they could plan their future course of action. Legend has it that their relief and happiness were so great that the engines of the ship worked way better, although that might just have been the engineer overloading the reactor to get back home quicker. Either way, they quickly returned with news of how the monster that almost wiped them out was dead.

After a long time of debating, the Magnate decided to send diplomats and envoys to the kingdom they identified, before moving on to convincing the rest of their coalition. They also sent in some soldiers just in case and while they left for their diplomatic mission, they prepared another mission to establish a semi-permanent colony, to facilitate logistics. They managed to establish contact between the Markosian kingdom and the Kernian Republic, and while their relations were at first mistrusting and uneasy, they managed to become good friends and eventually have an embassy in every country of the coalition. Meanwhile, the colonization attempt on a small island was successful and it even became a full-fledged town. Many Markosians come to see that strange city full of weird constructs they've been hearing about, and most of the Kernians there are very friendly.

Culture

Religion

Kernians don't often dabble in religion. They acknowledge the existence of gods and even build temples, but they don't really pray. However, most of them still worship Dominus in their own way through hard work and inventions. Some consider praying a waste of time preventing men to work and earn their bread. However, the Slahins are very religious. Having pledged themselves to the service of the new god and his servants, they always try to be as faithful as possible by working or more commonly praying, hence why their temples are so big. Some of their rituals can seem disturbing to some people, so they try to keep them to themselves.

Ideals

The ideal of any person in Kernian is someone inventive and curious, as both played a role in the creation of their country. Something that makes Kernians stand out is how many of them are interested in exploring the outside world in search of their lost heritage. In fact, the rather few ones who don't feel the call to adventure are mostly those who work in huge factories or are too busy trying to find what could help the others in their adventures. However, the nobility prefers to hire explorers from the Explorer Guildto discover things and bring them back in their name.

Perspective

For the Kernians, the world is a place full of wonders and ancient mysteries, and they're more than happy to be able to see it, despite how suspicious it makes them look. However, their government takes a more cautious approach to this, as politics can be more dangerous than ancient ruins. Despite that, they often sponsor and send explorers to other lands to recover their heritage.

Government

Leader

The Kernian Republic is governed by a Magnate who is elected in a vote by the population among a pool of generally between 8 and 12 candidates. After the first round of votes, the half that got the most gets to participate in a second turn, and the two ones who got the most in this one redo a third turn. The only exception to any of this is if a candidate gets 45% of all votes, which historically only happened three times. While it is rare, sometimes a politician will fake the votes to get the upper hand. This never succeeds, and the person who did this will often be somewhat shunned by society.

The Magnate handles the approval of various overseas operations and the creation of new laws. However, the legislative and executive powers are in the hands of two separate groups. The Magnate rules for 6 years before stepping down, although the duration fluctuated heavily in history. To counter-balance his limited power, the Magnate can forcefully approve one law in his reign, provided it's not too unreasonable.

The Other Powers

The Council of Law is a 30 member group tasked with approving or denying proposed laws. A person named the Announcer says the law out loud, and there is a 30 minute period where the council members can debate and share their opinions with others. These debate sessions can be ended sooner if the members so wish, mostly when everyone is on the same side or if the debates start to get a little too heated up. After this, a vote ensues. In the rare case of a draw between those for and those against, the debate and voting are done once again until one side gets the upper hand.

The Committee of Justice is an organization of about 100 judges, with hundreds of attorneys and law experts spread in courthouses all over the country. Whenever someone commits a crime, he is judged and punished accordingly. This lead to a small division between those attorneys defending their clients and those trying to put them in prison. Despite being jokingly named "The Committee of Corruption", the organization is a judiciary juggernaut that often collaborates with other groups to capture and bring back criminals to justice.

Territory

The Bright Side

The territory of the Kernian Republic spans through the entirety of the continent of Ilienos. As such, they have direct access to the sea, as well as a rather good link of rivers. One rather peculiar thing is how little of the land is even remotely savage. A few strategic mountain chains remain but the jungles of before have been long since destroyed or replaced by safer forests, their engineering during the terraformation period being strong enough to create entire rivers and clear jungles. This geography, in addition to making their growth easier, would make them an interesting target, were it not for the massive coastal defense, powerful military, and difficulty of leading an overseas invasion.

The Dark Depths

Despite their strength on the surface, the underground is for them a massive tug of war between them and the monsters below. Many beasts roam the dark tunnels, but none of them are as dangerous as the Synderian hives. These anthropomorphic monsters have a burning ancestral hatred for Kernians that can be traced back to the Slahins who got exiled to the underground. As such, they often dig under cities to try and attack from under, as well as attacking mines. This is why there is a massive link of intertwined tunnels and caverns under the surface. Kernians don't like the underground, and even when far from their country, they're still on edge. Nevertheless, members of the Undergrounders, and more rarely troops of the army, fight in the tunnels to protect their comrades.

Great Technology

During the mysterious fire of their archives, most of the Technocian technology was lost, but not all. Many of the most marvelous things needed materials and infrastructure they don't have, but what they can do is still amazing. The Kernians use a lot of constructs that they call mechas for different things, like farming, building or more infamously fighting. All sorts of materials are used, like wood and steel for civilian mechas or strong Mag-iron for things like the Javelins. They also use machines in their foundries and factories to let them get way more resources than their foreign counterparts. Many Kernian engineers work hard to get back the technologies from their past or invent new ones, as Dominus is a god of progress and machinery.

However this hasn't always acted in their favor. One of the things that complicate diplomatic relations is the threat that they pose, as they are not only more advanced than everyone else, but their mages have a wide variety of things to improve their performance. Another thing is that many are ready to pay a lot for even fragments of their technology. Espionnage is a common thing in the Kernian Republic, and they take care to hide their most powerful machines, which only strengthens the distrust between the republic and the rest of the world.

Hateful tunnels

The Slahins that got stomped by the early Kernian settlers are very much alive, and absolutely hate those dwelling on the surface. Through their time underground, most have forgotten their origins and gathered into great hives, their bodies changing and adapting to their environment and becoming unrecognizable. Only a few scattered clans hold shreds of their past, and those are harassed and mistreated by the larger hives. One of the reasons the Undergrounders are so respected is that they act as a wall between the attempts of the hives to destroy the republic from the inside out. Nevertheless, the army performs regular purges in the tunnels to get rid of any insect too invasive. Slahins rarely participate in this, as they have a religious fear of their underground brethren. However, the rare ones who join the Kernians do so with fanatical devotion, rushing in melee combat to slice anything coming too close with raging fury.