Empire of Kizen
Kizen was born from terror and violence. The old scars are still visible, underneath all the shining new decor. The war halls of Kizen's castles still display old forgotten stolen gods, ripped from their people's arms. Ruins of ancient hill forts belonging to cultures that no longer exist peek out from the overgrowth, barely noticeable. When the people of Kizen dig their cellars and plow their fields, so often the soil spits out ancient bones and arrows. No one will ever know the stories of these vanished peoples- the Kivishta of old took their voices away long ago. Their descendants live on, unrecognizable, in the breeding stock of Ederstone creatures used for the Empire's war and construction. Those lumbering beasts, chimeras of multiple animals and bits of stone jammed and fused together, could speak to you of generations of violence and terror, of the true power of Kizen, if you could give them back their thoughts and voice.
The people of Kizen could tell you of the ancient wars in theory, but after centuries of "moderate" conservative regimes they are no longer horrified or excited. The wars belong to the past, which may as well be fiction. The strange beasts belonging to the military and the temples are simply strange pack animals after all. The Kizen of the modern day is one of riches, of commerce, of technology and construction. The violence of Kizen is ancient history- why not appreciate the culture, the great marble temples and monuments, the wonderful cobblestone roads protected by smiling Kobold guarsdmen? Don't you know that this is an age of opportunity? They sell potions now that can seal a wound instantly, they have machines now that let anyone write books, they have great smelters and workshops that mean anyone can go and purchase fine new clothes or tools. There is so much gold, so many jobs, so much wonder to be had!
But that wealth is accumulated through force even now, and built on foundations of blood and terror. This is why other nations hate Kizen to this day- and why Kizen is ever so smug in its forgetting and its current prosperity. That smugness is part of a great economic boom that is felt in the countryside and in the cities. Not everyone is winning here, though- the great smelters and workshops do not have the best of conditions, and the ones truly profiting are the military aristocracy. And beneath the surface, prosperity masks instability. The population is growing, and there is always trouble finding more land and more food. Communities that migrated in through the treaties that made Kizen rich are not entirely in harmony with the local hardline religious community leaders.
But as much as the people of Stildane hate Kizen, no one wants the current regime to fall. As much as it takes and hurts and sneers, it is not the alternative. Five times the Kobolds of this land scoured the continent. No one wants a sixth.
Structure
Kizen has a long history of strict military regimes with theocratic backing- and while that has softened with the more moderate new regime, not much has changed in how power is handled here.
- The Emperor rules absolutely as chief lawmaker and master of the military. Succession follows the oldest valid member of the ruling dynasty, with validity determined by the Chamber of Nine
- The Chamber of Nine are the nine most revered and prestigious Kivish priests. Moots are called among the elder priests to elect a new member whenever an old one dies, though it is generally considered good form to elect an informal heir selected by the former member.
- The Marshal Council, a military council composed of the nine marshals of Kizen, led by a triumvirate of the three Grand Marshals. Almost all generals are aristocrats or large-scale landholders of some kind
- The Military Aristocracy, a collection of families that own much of the land and are obligated to provide land, troops, and money for the marshal council in exchange for social and political privileges. The title system is not as formalized as in other states, but relies on far more detailed and complicated individual contracts with each family. If the Chamber of Nine confirms that a family fails to uphold their contractual duties, the contract and all land tied to it is revoked.
History
Pre-History
In the beginning, the area was primarily non-Kobold. Radiation from the area that is now Rumakel (then known as the Northern Wastes of Azkrubak) made much of the inland area uninhabitable, but pockets of fortified settlement emerged. The region was a safe climate of lush arable land, and the rivers and hills provided many opportunities for safe settlement. Countless fortified towns with their own cultures and customs emerged, and many were beginning to transform into fortress-cities. The same pattern had taken place in the South and many expected the same would occur here. Kobold tribes here were primarily nomadic, wandering the wastes with flocks as they cycled through seasonal refuges. Some Kobolds joined up with the settlements, only to find that feeding large numbers of animals there was often costly and difficult. Raising large kobold families was straining and many more married into the local population that could farm in more compact and limited spaces. As the towns grew, some of the Kobolds began to wonder if they would just be absorbed entirely by majority Dryad and Human settlements.
But some Kobolds did not live on the outskirts of terror, but in its heart- and these kobold tribes were far less accommodating. They had lived for centuries under threat of monstrous attack, and had slowly turned the tables. Now they hunted the monsters and were even domesticating some of them. The Kobolds of the Azkrubak wastes were deadly hunters and warriors and whenever a settlement was in trouble, these tribes would be the mercenaries to hire. The harshness of the land made them skilled in battle, but distanced from the world. Traditional kobold religion posited that the world was a dream- these Azkrubak tribes knew for a fact that it was not only a dream but a nightmare they lived in and overcame.
As the local settlements began trying to subjugate and absorb the outer kobold tribes, these "civilized" kobolds called to the Azkrubakens for aid in 460. This inspired one ambitious warrior, a charismatic leader of kobolds named Verkon the Honest.
The Kivish Horde and the First Empire
Verkon used this opportunity to intervene and test a theory she had been developing: if the Ederstone of Azkrubak could be used as a weapon against outsiders. While rudimentary, it was phenomenally successful and allowed her to seize control of the local Kobolds tribes. When their leadership challenged her, she broke their bodies and used their bones to make her Ederstone weapons. With her new forces and loot, Verkon went to each of the Azkrubaken tribes and demanded they join her in a new mission to bring the region to heel. Those who did not join, she destroyed in battle. After several years of this, she had made her Kivish Horde. All authority was hers, and she summoned the priests to codify a united creed for her army. The ederstone-wielding kobolds swept over the region like a storm. Only a few were spared- most were either enslaved or decimated. The "empire" that was built in its place was more of a patchwork collection of local projects by "civilized" kobolds to try and construct a new model of sedentary living: one built around the needs of Kobolds rather than more omnivorous or herbivorous races. These projects were built by great armies of slaves, who faced Ederstone transformation when they ceased being useless. It is hard to tell what killed more people: the invasions or the construction.
The Horde swept Southward, destroying all in its path in what is now known as the First Kivish Scouring. All was built on loyalty to Verkon- all who failed to meet that standard, even Kobolds, found themselves under the empire's heel. When Verkon died, this became loyalty to the war- each petty kingdom earning its place by contributing to the endless looting and expansion. The horde eventually stopped at Hain, whose druidic magic and organization proved an equal match to the Kivish war machine. The defeat in Hain spurred on rebellions across the empire, leading to a the Second Scouring- where Kivish ederstone weaponry was turned against any settlements with even a hint of rebellion.
Verkon's method of succession was strange: of their many descendants, they declared that only those who faced and conquered the Ederstone nightmare could ever rule. For this purpose, she made the group that would become known as the Children of Verkon: an elite regiment composed only of members of royal blood that trained in the Azkrubak wastes, and who elected new leaders from within their ranks.
In the late 500's, the expansion was starting to become untenable and the horde was losing inertia. With Hain in the way, there were no more wealthy kingdoms to subjugate. In 600, a proper capital was formed in Eveko to try and create a unified functional state. In 730, 3 more capitals were built in the South as the lack of conquest had slowly drained power back into the local kingdoms. Efforts were made to prevent this disintegration, and in 850 a series of grand legal reforms were enacted to reunite the empire, create a caste system, and pivot from loyalty to war towards loyalty to the crown. This worked for a little while, but the rise of the Mageplague in the South empire during yet another Hainish war led to civil war in 980. Initially it was a war of succession- but as the empire fell, diverse new religious opinions began to take over. The old tradition had lost legitimacy, and in its place rose two factions of young priests who had their own visions for peacetime Kivishta: those who sought stability through hierarchy and order (The Reverent Path), and those who sought stability through decentralization and free religious thought (The Liberated Path). When the Liberated Path disfigured the Whispering Star, a massive Ederstone chunk on which Verkon famously meditated, the outrage was enough for the Children of Verkon (which had previously rejected both for the old ways) to side with the Reverent Path. The Schism Wars finally ended in 1100 after 120 years of on-and-off religious warfare, as the Liberated Path was pushed inland. The Children of Verkon ultimately abandoned the empire after this, as the Reverent Path priests began to try and use the Kobold dead to contain the Ederstone of Azkrubak. The Children went to settle other Ederstone sites, to train and retain their old traditions.
Between the Great Schisms
Following the Schism Wars, the Reverent Path stood triumphant but the land remained divided. In the Kizen heartlands, 3 kingdoms rose to prominence: The Holy State of Azkurun in the center, the Kingdom of Kizen in the South, and the Kingdom of Odekar in the North. From 1100 to 1210, these kingdoms competed for dominance- though the peaceful annexation of Azkurun in 1210 signaled the rise of Kizen over the others.
The three kingdoms and united North periods between the Kivish empires gave the region space to actually develop. Great loot had been accumulated during the conquest periods, but the wars had been deeply disruptive to every day life and development and the Mageplague certainly hadn't helped. This wasn't exactly a period of peace, but it was one of less-total war. This period of recovery ended with the rise of Kalazim the Phoenix- a Kivishta paladin who saw the rise of Liberated Path Kivishta to the South as a sign that the Reverent Path needed a new Kivishta empire to "renew" the continent. Stildane was scoured a third time, as Kazalim's magnificent twenty-years campaigning not only restored the empire but razed many surrounding lands. This new empire was even more unstable than the last, and it exploded into civil war in 1420. And civil war in the Kivish empire is religious war.
Wow More Religious War
When Kazalim's last direct heir fell in battle in 1419, the many priestly factions of the Reverent Path invited their own candidates from the ancient Children of Verkon. The following war was brutal and messy and many of the surrounding groups piled on. Eventually the more moderate Reverent Path candidate won, driving out the heretical Exalted Path and Promised Path. The war ended in the Fourth Scouring of Stildane, because moderate theology doesn't mean a genocidal warpath is out of the question.
The peace after the fourth scouring of 1440 was more lasting than most Kivish peaces. The Third Empire sought to rule in the style of other empires: with greater stability and more allies rather than blood and fire. The caste system was abolished, other religions were allowed to exist in a limited capacity, and diplomats were sent to foreign countries. The third empire was still militaristic and brutal, but it looked comparatively soft and cuddly. But not everyone was pleased with these developments- least of all the Children of Verkon, who had become part of the upper echelons of the military following the War of False Prophets. For a while, these detractors were a minority voice: so many were thrilled at the empire's prosperity, and the containment of Kizen's Ederstone in Rumakel had allowed a population boom inland and a campaign of inland colonization. But there were limits to this frontier, and in the mid 1600s these became apparent. Land was running out, the economy was declining, and short-sighted planning had led to food shortages. A nostalgia developed for the old ways of blood and fire. With no lack of popular support, the Children of Verkon led a military coup in 1680. And they brought their own mutated version of the Old Ways with them.
Children of Verkon Period
The Children of Verkon changed wildly during their time abroad. While they still carried royal blood and trained in Ederstone wasteland, they had become something of a self-sustaining cult with its own religious traditions and cultural practices divorced from the rest of Kizen. When they took over, some feared the return of the old caste system- but the Children of Verkon went much further. They brought back the old chattel slavery system and in many ways tried to return to the governing style of the original Horde- with devastating consequences. Even their most radical supporters had not expected them to go this far. The wars quickly returned, but immediately rebellion began to brew. After several failed revolts, the Southern half of the empire was finally able to hijack part of the military in 1730 and begin a ruinous civil war that lasted until 1740 and saw the empire ripped into two. In the North, the Children of Verkon maintained their power through an increasingly desperate reign of terror. Their power began slipping through the 1740's and they were driven from power after their emperor was assassinated in 1749. They clung to power in Rumakel and attempted to start their own civil war in 1750, but the Reverent Path priests were able to hunt down and destroy every last one during the Week of Cleansing. The Kivish empire was gone- the Kizen kingdom returned. The entire period of 1680-1750 is known as the fifth Kivish scouring of Stildane.
Modern Kizen
There has been much to rebuild since the fall of the Third Empire, but Kizen has always had the support of the greater Reverent Path Kivish community and the ruin of the Fifth Scouring left few powers in the position to take advantage of this moment of weakness. The brutality of the last regime has left the new government particularly moderate, although it has done little to heal those hurt by the Children of Verkon. Many communities of non-Kobolds lost all they had in the Children of Verkon's brief reign of enslavement and property confiscation. Rather than repay those who lost under the last regime, the new Empire has defended the rights of the military-aristocrats who ultimately gained much of the seized land and property. This decimated the non-kobold landholding and mercantile classes (as small as they were) and consolidated the power of the great landholding families. The period of recovery from 1751-1900 was primarily to rebuild infrastructure and refill coffers- no justice was done.
After the recovery period, Kizen began to re-assert itself. Through trade deals, its influence has expanded. The merchant class began investing in large production workshops and estates, partnering with the great landholding families who now reigned supreme. The mercantile and middling classes have profited greatly, as have the aristocrats- but this growth is fueled on low-wage work, and the gulf been have and have not is greater than in many places. In order to work these enterprises, Kizen has welcomed in poor populations from across Stildane- many of whom now clash with the local religious communities.Demography and Population
Territories
Kizen is a mostly-coastal temperate forest and farmland stretching 427 miles long and 150 miles inland. The traditional heartlands are the northern region around the Schlenek Bay, where the northern 300-mile Treven River and the southern 60-mile Zuran River meet. The bay is lush and arable, with large lakes and the Irov mountains to the North shielding it from cold winter winds. To the southeast, the forests slowly thin and give way to large patches of open plains. Much of this is relatively recently settled, and the Southeastern-most plains are active Ederstone frontier.
Military
The Kizen military is largely organized under the twenty military families, which each contribute and fund a set number of standing professional troops to the military and prepare emergency levies. Several religious orders also contribute their own specialty divisions to the military.
In terms of composition, Kizen relies on strong centers of halberdiers supported by light cavalry, spellcasters, and some of the finest ballistae in production. Whenever the Kizen face a particularly large or well-fortified foe in open field combat, they also field imposing war-beasts: specially-bred fused Ederstone monstrosities that come in a wide variety of forms and can often be strangely intelligent.
Kizen also has an ace up its sleeve: Ederstone. Kizen sits on the largest collection of Ederstone weapons in the world and constantly works to add more to its armory. They also have one of the only Kobold-bone armories: as Kobolds are the only race to have a physical immunity to Ederstone, Kobold-bone armor and weapons have the unique ability to be used in direct contact with Ederstone (either in fighting Ederstone weapons or using weapons with Ederstone). As bone is brittle and not particularly durable, most kobold-bone armories need constant replacement. Kizen has learned how to ritually treat and prepare bone to strengthen it without replacing it, allowing for less drastic replacement rates; they also have a monopoly on dead Kivish Kobolds, meaning they have the largest supply of Kobold bone in the world to make weapons from. All this adds up to a devastating and diverse armory of Ederstone weapons and devices to easily destroy non-Kobold enemies.
Religion
The Empire of Kizen prioritizes Reverent Path Kivishta religion and legalism, though other religious minorities are allowed to exist in a regulated manner. Because other Paths of Kivishta are strictly forbidden, most non-Reverent Kivishta identify as Uvaran here. This policy of tolerance was originally created for the non-Kobold populations and Kobolds seen publicly affiliating with religions outside the Reverent Path are often seen as traitors and deviants. Kobolds still do, but most wear Kivish-style clothing and are careful to disguise their identities while attending temple.
The Spring-Keeper Crisis
There are exceptions, of course. Most famously right now is the ongoing Case of Iliskr Spring-Keeper, a bit of religious judicial drama that is being watched by many. While there is no real media to cover the case, priests across the Empire are watching closely and keeping their communities updated- often with their own personal interpretation.
The case follows Iliskr Spring-Keeper, a Kobold Uvaran priest in the capital of Eveko that not only publicly displayed her piety, but actively rallied other Kobolds to display their non-Kivish piety as well. A target of much hatred, she often pushed social boundaries to assert her legal rights of Tolerance: she made a show of her attempted pilgrimage to Rumakel (guaranteed to all Kobolds) in Uvaran priestly garb, she has led public Uvaran festivals to which she invited notable Kivish community leaders, has offered free contraception on the streets of Eveko, has offered refuge to runaway Kivish young adults who wished to convert to Uvara, and worst of all has been extremely open about her marriage to a non-Kobold. One year ago Iliskr announced she had finally received permission to pilgrimage to Rumakel at a public Uvaran festival. This provoked a very violent response, and Kivish hardliners stormed the festival to try and disrupt it and attack her. This turned into street fighting and for three days hardliners besieged Iliskr's temple and community. Guards began fighting one another as two different guard captains issued contradictory orders, and a division of military men-at-arms were sent in to end the fighting. The military were not gentle, and many on both sides were killed. Iliskr was apprehended, but before she was let go with no evidence of wrongdoing, a group of Kivishta communities launched a joint lawsuit demanding she and her community pay for damages. She was accused of purposefully disturbing the peace and provoking religious unrest, and the case has been appealed repeatedly. It now stands before the Star Chamber, who are carefully deliberating what to do. The entire case was supposed to be done ins secret, but details have been repeatedly leaked and the entire process has been bungled at every turn. No matter what the Star Chamber decides, they know that more trouble is sure to follow- so they have been taking a very long time in the hopes that eventually public attention will diminish. Rabble-rousers are unlikely to let this die- the most recent bit of public drama is that Kivish hardliners are preparing a petition to the Emperor known as the Spring-Keeper Petition demanding clarification of the Edict of Tolerance, specifically clarification that it does not apply to Kobolds.
So What is a Kivish Hardliner?
So, what makes these communities different? Hardline Reverent-Path Kivish believe in obedience, discipline, and separation. One of the great taboos of Reverent Path Kivishta is for Kobolds and non-Kobolds to intermarry or have children, though hardliners go further. They demand that Kivish communities have large families, and that these many children receive stations in society over the outside masses. In the Holy Uvikov, Verkon is written to have said "Our nation must become the multitude. Let your wombs beget heaven's legions, let us drown the nightmare in holy blood." (translations differ greatly). Translations aside, it is simple arithmetic that if only Kobold bodies can carry souls indiluted by corruption and if unenlightened souls must be reborn after death into new bodies, that to have as many Kobold bodies as possible is the only ethical course of action. What that means differs from community to community. For some, it is that every Kobold is socially expected to have at least one child, for others it means the stigmatization of contraception. The difference between a hardliner and a non-hardliner is how strict these rules are and how intensely they are enforced.
Families and children are not the only areas of concern for Kivish traditionalists. Another is obedience, both to one's superiors and from one's inferiors. Traditionalist communities will try and exclude non-Kivish from guilds and generally try and monopolize access to better jobs. This also means internal hierarchies: traditionalist Kivish communities will often stratify internally into families of higher and lower prestige. Old caste divisions are often preserved within traditionalist communities and the markers of that old caste worn proudly (even lower-caste members, as a sign of Kivishta community membership). The final tenant of the Reverent Path is discipline. Reverent Path communities often value stoicism in the face of pain and emotional control. Traditionalists work to imbue their youngsters with this discipline, some even going as far as to imitate Orthodox Desmian educational practices brought over by distant Desmian merchants.
So what is a "traditionalist" or a "hard-liner"? A Kivish individual or community that doubles down on their internal rules and the enforcement of those rules, and rejects compromise or moderation. These hard-liners are partially preservation of older forms of Kivishta, but are partially a response to a moderate regime and new, more visible communities of outsiders.
Not all Reverent Kivish communities are hardliners, of course. Certain values carry over (even moderate Reverent Path Kivish communities value stoicism and discipline and consider Kobolds having kids with non-Kobolds abnormal and immoral) but they are far less intense.
The majority of Uvarans are non-Kobold communities, which include large immigrant populations from the East and South that have been invited in to provide low-wage labor for the booming Kizen economy. Only truly fringe Kivish priests care at all what non-Kobolds believe or how they worship, so the Uvaran temples are given a great deal of autonomy as long as they don't do anything threatening. Religious censorship and temples raids are mostly used if these Uvaran temples try to link up with foreign church organizations or if the temples try to organize "false guilds" to negotiate better pay for their members. In order to keep the temples in line, a "High Priest of Kizen Uvara" acts as the legal expert for Uvaran religious law and chief manager of non-Kivish religion. This high priest reports directly to the Chamber of Nine and is somewhere between an advocate for Uvara communities and a puppet for the government.
All non-Kivish religions are classified as Uvaran legally, and are lumped under Uvaran law and management. Small urban temples of Ishkibism, Hiku Matsune worship, Lily of Red worship, and the Suneka have all cropped up in Eveko and thrown into the Uvara category. These groups are small and essentially made invisible culturally and legally- but they exist.Foreign Relations
The Empire of Kizen has tense but friendly relations with most other Stildanian states. It markets itself as a peaceful, conservative state dedicated to careful development and regional order, but underneath that friendly demeanor is a subtle threat. Kizen often emphasizes its role as a protector and regulator of both Kivishta and Ederstone, with the implication that if they were not actively working to protect Stildane than a radical Kivish horde brandishing Ederstone weaponry would wash over the continent. Any state that fails to cooperate with Kizen is, the empire would remind you, endangering the state's stability and prosperity and therefore contributing to the next continental scouring. It is a powerful threat, but not one that makes a lot of friends.
What Imperial diplomacy has worked towards is something of a Northern Stildane trade zone: the Empire works to collect Kivishta dead for transport to Rumakel, and this corpse-collection network also supports Kizen merchants and necessitates outposts in foreign territory. Wherever local authorities fail to properly transport the dead, the empire seeds its own military outposts and expands its influence within that country. The operation of the Kizen trade zone is expensive, but brings imperial merchants and diplomats great power. Some have even called it "the invisible empire".
The Invisible Empire
Aside from maintaining the invisible empire, Kizen has one other gap in its otherwise isolationist policy: it seeks the dominance of Reverent-Path Kivishta and will throw its weight behind Reverent-Path Kivish communities that are in trouble. Usually this comes in the form of financial support, but in rare cases it can involve military intervention.
While the lands to the South and East have submitted to Kizen dominance (however begrudgingly), the North remains icy in its disposition. While the North doesn't dare aggravate the Empire, it has been greatly offended by Kizen's recent expansion into the Alchemical Industry and merchant-finance. The Healing Circle of Druids in particular is waiting for some way to get revenge that won't unleash some terrible new scourge, but no opportunity has presented itself.
Agriculture & Industry
This land, like almost all lands, is primarily rural agricultural. Kizen prioritizes the use of its fertile lands for animal farming and ranching. Massive amounts of hay are grown throughout the country, and industrial chicken mega-farms date back centuries here. There are a few niche turkey mega-farms, and there has been propositions for doing the same with pigs. Leftover hay and feed products can be used in Dryad foodstuffs. In order to keep the soil from eroding, crop rotation does cycle in other human and dryad food crops, and small human and dryad villages use what land they can to grow food for them. A large number of residents also focus on fishing, both in rivers and in the bay.
Ranching needs land clearance, and land clearance means lumber. Kizen has a massive lumber industry it uses to clear out land and build up its own cities. Thanks to the vibrant Northern tar trade, this has led to large numbers of ships being built and a vibrant shipping industry developing. As lumber mills fueled construction, there was a matching increase in demand for stone. The Northern mountains and hills have many active quarries and a large stoneworking industry.
Ranching has produced excess leather and wool; quarries have produced metal ore and a demand for tools. The great hunger for expansion, booming population, and great resources of the land have met to create massive industrial projects. Huge smelters, textile workshops, leather-working shops, slaughterhouses, and the like have cropped up in the towns and cities of Kizen. The Empire has used its trade treaties to force open its neighbors, flooding them with cheap manufactured goods and keeping them close as captive markets. As some mines have begun to run out, these captive trading partners are beginning to supply raw resources as well.
The past 200 years have seen a massive growth of financial institutions to fuel that expansion. Many of these have been modeled after similar institutions in the merchant coast of the Northwest. The Imperial Military Bank has arisen as the number one banking institution of the region, and stock trading has taken off. Enterprising middling-class folk have begun to really make money here, and it is attracting many enterprising merchants.
Another industry imported from the North is that of Alchemy. Apothecary supplies such unusual ederstone products, arcane components, and alchemy products have all taken been cornered by large joint stock enterprises in the last 50 years. While the Circle of Healing to the North previously held a monopoly on healing potions, Kizen has somehow managed to steal their secret recipe. While only state-sponsored companies can produce healing potions and the recipe remains a closely guarded secret,
Trade & Transport
The Invisible Empire of Kizen, as it is informally called, is a trade network spanning the old Kivish empire and beyond. It was originally envisioned as a way to transport Kivish-Kobold dead without undue expense on Kivish communities and local governments, as well as a way to encourage peaceful cooperation. The North Stildane Trade Zone has gone a little bit beyond that, and has allowed for a great deal of diplomatic meddling and bullying.
In theory, the Trade Zone has very few obligations or restrictions- just promises to avoid tariffs and keep the roads clear of bandits and monsters. The big inalienable clause that Kizen leans on so much is the Rumakel Clause: that each state must help their Kivish communities to transport their dead to the Sacred City of Rumakel, as is tradition. If states cannot manage it, the Empire will step in and do it for them. The Empire has no obligation to hand that back, and has stepped in many times and effectively taken over those duties. It manages this via Corpse Carts: specially made transport carts, sometimes accompanied by a spellcaster to preserve them or a chemist to treat them, and manned by a crew wearing the infamous Death Cowls. Death Cowls are full-body plague suits with infamously ominous masks, that are cleaned regularly by special sanitation rituals.
As the Clause states, these convoys must be welcomed, supplied, and given unlimited access. And that is where the exploitation begins: To protect these carts, they are sent with military convoys. And to make sure that everyone is supplied and coordinated, merchants that have deals with the Imperial government also have to go along. So each corpse cart is really only part of a larger military-trade convoy. And these convoys not only must be let in, but must be supplied and given unlimited access. Unlimited access also means exemption from road, gate, and bridge taxes which are an important way to tax merchants. So not only are Imperial merchants able to rely on free food, wagon repairs, and animal feed, but they are exempt from local taxes and get free armed protection. These merchants and the soldiers sent with them can also use their access to freely meddle in local affairs. In some instances, the Empire has even set up outposts in other Kingdoms to serve as extensions of the Empire and outposts for Kizen's merchants.
Not only does violation of the Trade Zone treaties invoke a possible invasion from the Empire, but it would likely provoke local Kivishta rebellions if the kingdom failed to deliver the dead to Rumakel. Even worse, the cheap goods from these merchants have undercut local industries in some areas, making them increasingly dependent on Kizen goods.
All of this is to say that Kizen's trade is a part of its military and its religion. The Empire conceptualizes trade as a kind of violence it can use to "win" over other countries. And to better wield this violence, the Empire makes sure to collectivize and control its merchants and financiers. Military oligarchs and priest-lords are tied into merchant cliques, and there is an increasing gulf between the "high" merchants who get to be part of the system and the "low" merchants who are stuck on the outside.
Education
There is no uniform education system here. Military academies teach literacy and basic humanities to those who succeed in the military, and local temples often teach basic literacy, but it isn't a defined policy. Hardliner Kivishta communities have adopted religious education programs imitating those of Ishkibism, but those are varied and experimental. Most education comes in the form of apprenticeships and trade education, which is usually done by local guilds.
That isn't to say there isn't any kind of education: religious colleges exist for the training of priests and lawyers, and wizarding colleges exist to understand both arcane matters and the natural sciences. The four Kizen religious colleges are the easiest way for lower-middle or upper-lower class people to get a decent education, but they are Kivish Kobold only. These colleges are funded by the state and often host classes to train clerks and bureaucrats for the state apparatus. Bright Kobolds can be recommended by their priest or community and receive a state-subsidized education at a young age. Wizarding colleges are much harder to get into, even if they are theoretically open to everyone. Kizen's wizards are extremely particular and require strenuous testing to enter. While a child of sufficient cleverness can apply (even illiterate ones), the amount of travel and limits to access often make poor children de-facto barred unless their communities are willing to invest in them.
"Behold, Prey"
Founding Date
1751
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Alternative Names
The Kivish Empire, True Kizen
Demonym
Kizen
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Unitary state
Currency
Sunekan Gold Lions, Silver Foxes, Copper Stars
Major Exports
Leatherworks, metal products, textiles
Major Imports
Salt, metals, luxury goods, dyes
Judicial Body
The Chamber of Nine for religious law; the Judge-Marshal for military law
Official State Religion
Location
Neighboring Nations
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