Kingdom of Azera

Azera is a land in between worlds. It walks between the worlds of Orthodox Desmianism and Ishkibism. It walks the knife's edge between those warring religions, doing its best to maintain a fragile peace in the land of eternal war. That peace is shaky both externally and internally: religious factions abroad pressure the kingdom to pick a side, even as a culture war blazes within the kingdom. Theoretically, Azera has already chosen to be Orthodox Desmian, but its failure to provide for crusades and its failure to properly persecute demons in its hinterlands has left Azera in limbo with the Perpetual Conclave of Desmia.
Aside from the religious tensions, Azera is a land of bountiful trade, art, cuisine, and study. The land cautiously accepts foreign influences from Asalay to Makal, and a segment of Azera's young academic elite celebrate this pluralism loud and proud. The people here are highly literate and the coasts are alive with very loud public discourse and debate. Newspapers have become a common commodity and ideas (including heretical ones) flourish from the gutter to the cathedral.
The interior of the country reflects a different side of the coin: a peace marked by silence and reclusiveness rather than screaming debate and pamphleteers. The hinterlands are tropical but mild compared to some of its neighbors. The people and the government share a silent truce: they pay their taxes (often in the form of cash crops delivered to fortress-towns) and the crown lets them rule themselves. There are some patches of military feudalism that disrupt this peace, and these either face fierce local resistance or have made their own arrangements with the villages they rule. But regardless of who rules, everyone has settled into a kind of middle-of-the-road truce regarding religion. Ishkibites keep their 'demons' to their lands in secret; Orthodox keep to their lands; no one says which side they are and everyone defends their neighbors regardless. Don't ask questions, don't pick fights, and work together to silence any troublemakers who would disturb the peace.
In short, Azera's a vibrant land of tension, riches, and compromises. Enjoy your visit, but tread carefully.

Structure

The Kingdom of Azera is a monarchy supported by a regime of military feudalism where nobles titles must be earned and maintained through military service and rank. The major cities are ruled by the royal family, the Zinzads, and have local assemblies with limited powers, and the countryside is largely governed by local farming communes that pay tribute to their feudal overlords. Azera is currently drifting away from this system as more power is being centralized under the monarch and royal family in an increasingly large bureaucracy. Philosophers and ideologues that buzz around the royal court speak of the divine right of the monarch to absolute power.
The current monarch, the aging King Tevren II, has done little to capitalize on this moment of supreme power. He is more of a warrior-poet than a ruthless administrator. He is known as a scholar and theologian whose curiosity is matched only by his stubbornness. He wears his immense number of demons slain (86) proudly on his chest and takes great pride in publicly humiliating any noble who would challenge his authority. This has made him widely resented by his own aristocracy and has made him a diplomatic liability such that he rarely sees visiting ambassadors. 
For all his philosophizing and showmanship it is not Tevren who is the absolute monarchist in court, but his son and heir Prince Ulendar. Ulendar (who was scandalously named after the Ishkibite founder of the first Kingdom of Azera) may not be the warrior of theologian his father is (yet), but he has the drive, focus, social grace, and administrative abilities his father lacks. He openly walks with absolutists and has a pack of armed ideologues who follow him wherever he goes. The nobility fears and reviles him, and some wonder if it won't be a race to see who imprisons whom first when Tevren dies or abdicates.

Culture

The Culture War

Azera is in the middle of a culture war that has seeped into every social class and ethnic division. Self-identified factions condemn and harass each other in the cities, newspapers wage petty wars of print, bars often hang signs indicating their political disposition, and at least one elite gala has turned into a fistfight. 
Generally speaking, there are three main cultural 'factions' along the coast: the friends of patience, the true faithful, and the coastal Ishkibites or "true Azerans". The 'friends of patience' are religiously Orthodox but culturally pluralistic. They dress in foreign styles, mixing old-fashioned Azeran, modern Avanan, and commercial Makalan styles of dress, food, slang, art, and etiquette. The 'friends of patience' generally support the absolute authority of the Azeran monarchy, support defensive wars, sneer at those who purchase dryads for sacrifice, and talk a lot about "prosperity" and "law and order". To the friends of patience, all threats to stability and harmony (no matter how trivial) are sources of outrage worth brawling over. 
The 'friends of patience' embrace Azera's pre-Orthodox history as "unenlightened but morally Orthodox". The 'true faithful', meanwhile, are Orthodox who base their identity around rejecting Azeran identity and plurality. They embrace the Desmian over even the native Izekran and generally play around with Pakray, Adavan, and even Ralevan aesthetics and language. To the true faithful, the crusade was left incomplete and the crusaders (and their descendants) have been denied their rightful rulership over the interior of the country. Piety in this faction is overwrought and performative, a fashion that distinguishes the righteous from the heretical masses.
The coastal Ishkibites meanwhile, have decided that they are the natives of the land. They depict the Orthodox as foreign occupiers in need of removal, despite the majority of the other two factions being directly descended from converts rather than settlers or invaders (most foreign occupiers are interior aristocrats or have assimilated with local elites by now). Aggressively performing traditional cultural rituals, speaking in antiquated language, and dressing in older styles are all signs of coastal Ishkibite identity. 

Tabloids, Identity, and Gangs

All along the coast and in some of the larger interior towns, these three factions fight like cats and dogs. Pamphleteers and playwrights have made a cottage industry out of stoking outrage: bawdy tabloids and plays that dabble in the taboo (and even pornographic) in order to defame the opposition sell like hotcakes. Those who fail to make it as artists, priests, authors, or bureaucrats end up making their livings as scandal-dealers, selling pamphlets or writing scandalous bits for newspapers (who compete for the most provocative stories, regardless of truth). The common townsfolk have become incredibly literate and unusually politically aware thanks to all of this, but they are up there in terms of most misinformed populations.
This culture war also influences the way children see each other. Neighborhoods are patrolled by "youth orders" of disorderly youths dressed and organized like crusading knights, who align largely according to their family's political factions and scrabble with other youth gangs for territorial dominance. Whenever a particularly strong rumor runs its way through the common press, these gangs inevitably go to war. Strangely for some foreigners, wars between youth orders are legal as long as they don't result in lethalities - in fact, the regular youth-wars that would erupt on Zinbira's Day, also known as Compromise Day, were so regular and massive that they are now a formally regulated sporting event that is mediated by the priesthood and city guard. To be clear, they don't do sports instead: they fight each other with sticks, fisticuffs, and wrestling, typically over the bridges or gates between neighborhoods, and try to claim ground and prestige from one another. Their communities cheer them on from the rooftops and hurl insults at the other adults, and after the youths are done fighting everyone throws nuts at each other. Then, the peace is re-made and both sides eat food with each other. 
The weirdest thing, even stranger than the violence of Zinbira's Day, is that these identities are fluid. People switch sides, sometimes because of life changes and sometimes because its convenient. People consider themselves parts of multiple sides and switch according to social environments. And when someone breaks a rule for all three groups, the factionalism is put aside and everyone bands together to deal with the threat. 
This undercurrent of unity is clearest in the countryside. Out of the cities, the factionalism stops really making sense and things fall more according to "Orthodox nobility" and "Ishkibite farmers" with a few rare "Orthodox farmer" communities here or there. Most of all, communities identify as themselves rather than aligning with some distant political faction. The countryside remembers most clearly the terrible guerilla war of the 1700s, and fears violence the most. In order to prevent any future violence, the countryside follows a strict 'don't ask, don't tell' policy about religion, culture, ethnicity, and origins. 

Cuisine

Azeran food is famously spicy with a little sweetness. The base for many dishes is rice steamed in pandan leaves, but chili peppers, shrimp paste, and grilled coconut are often not far away. Lime, rose apple, guava, yam, and banana are equally beloved. If that list of ingredients don't appeal to you, you'd better stick to the foreign docks (which tend to have a wide range of options), because that is the core of Azeran culinary tradition.

History

Ishkibite Origins

Azera has been Ishkibite since the 100s ME. They were some of the first adopters of the faith after the Holy land of Rukray itself, for a mixture of trading and governing purposes. Ishkibism soaked into the countryside for centuries, but traditional urban settlements only really succeeded long-term along the coastline. These were mostly independent trading cities, and most of the regional powerbrokers were merchant families that worked in multiple states, rather than a single dominant city. The first 'kingdom' as we know it emerged in the late 500s and early 600s from the largest and most militant of these families, the Toritar. The Toritar were also the first to try and spread inland, and their rule was somewhat harsh but helped bring the food of the interior to the coastal cities. By 800, 22 imitator kingdoms occupied the land now known as Azera. 
In 1050 ME, an Ishkibite druid by the name of Ulendra united the kingdoms under one crown through diplomacy, force, and guile. She wanted a strong, united kingdom that was more prepared for growing foreign threats (and having her sister become hereditary monarch was a nice plus). And the resulting kingdom skyrocketed in wealth and power. It grew to dominate the region, and finally made inroads to a permanent infrastructure into the countryside. 
When the Orthodox Desmiani invasion known as the 'Emerald Crusade' hit West Izekra in the late 1100s, Azera mounted a grand counteroffensive. From 1200 to 1280, Azera was the wall against Orthodox pirates who came seeking to capture Dryads for sacrifice, to loot, or to spread their faith. Azera was quickly rising to become the defender of the faith of Ishkibism, and as Halikvar invaders rushed in from the West, the Azerans sailed to meet them. 

The Age of Troubles (aka the Ping Pong Days)

In 1280 ME, a grand Halikvar fleet managed to defeat the Azeran navy at the battle of Senakosha, allowing for Samvaran forces to capture several major cities. From 1280 to 1300, Samvarans swarmed along the coastline and began setting up their own Halikvar puppet state. Azera received the brunt of the Samvaran's invading forces, as their guiding deity (Lily of Red ) had chosen the land to be the launching pad for future Desmian incursions. The old Ishkibite monarchy fled into the countryside and began waging a guerilla campaign against the Samvarans. In doing so, made allies of their old enemies - the Orthodox crusaders. This alliance proved to be shortlived, though, as the Desmian crusaders seized the land for themselves and executed the Azeran monarch in 1301. 
From 1301 to 1310, a new regime of Desmian occupiers replaced the old Halikvar one. These invaders worked harder to convert the local populace but struggled to effectively hold territory. Ishkibite resistance was now fine-tuned and heavily armed, crusading lords were squabbling with one another for land, and they adjusted poorly to the climate. In 1310, the fragile Orthodox crusading alliance that held the coast was crushed and replaced by none other than the Samvarans (again), ready to get back to building their invasion platform. This next war - Orthodox, Ishkibites, and Halikvar brutally killing one another in a constantly shifting web of alliances and backstabbing - was a nightmare for all involved. Ultimately the Ishkibites came out on top, though, and were able to rebuild their kingdom in 1331. 
By the time the Ishkibites rebuilt, there was already another Halikvar invasion on its way. Again, Azera lost control of the straights in 1390 - and again, Orthodox crusaders used the opportunity to seize it for themselves in 1396. This Orthodox regime was even less well-entrenched than the last, and was deposed in a coup-detat by (you guessed it) Lily Cultists! This Lilian regime wasn't even Halikvar, but was their own weird religious group that sought to create their own Lilian religion before they were dismantled in their own Ishkibite coup in 1405. The Lilians caused as many problems as they could on their way out, though, and inadvertently opened the door for Orthodox invaders in 1410. 
The invaders of 1410 had much more realistic ambitions and focus than the last few, and were able to hold onto power for an astonishing amount of time. Through ruthless purging of the Ishkibite upper classes, these crusaders destroyed the old order, burnt the old palaces and cathedrals, and campaigned on Orthodoxy as a kind of 'commoner's ideology'. This regime built up coastal Orthodox communities and slowly established itself throughout the land with equal parts patience and brutality. Even though these Orthodox were ultimately driven out though by 1660, by a grand army of the interior tribes supported by their allies in Dinaketh, they laid the foundations for modern Orthodox Azera. 

The Last Struggles

Even though the Ishkibites had retaken Azera, Orthodox communities were there to stay - and Orthodox crusaders were always lurking in the distance, waiting to retake any scrap of land they could. The dryad-raids had stopped as the slavers had moved onto greener pastures (the dryads here having migrated inland and militarized). Raiders from the Kingdom of Siashi began arriving from the West to pick off coastal villages, though - and while they successfully cleared the way for the last Lilian invasion, they also cemented the coast as Orthodox Desmian. That last Lilian invasion swept through in 1699 and was grand but ultimately too focused on trying to destroy Desmian infrastructure and loot their lands to leave anything that could hold Azera against the counter-attack that inevitably followed. And so, in 1702, Azera's cities welcomed the Orthodox invaders as liberators. 
The Orthodox kingdom of Azera struggled to stand on its own two feet, though, especially as plague and storms hammered the coastline. A particularly disastrous series of hurricanes and nightmarish storms basically cut it off from outside supplies in 1710, allowing the Ishkibites to temporarily retake control of the government. But the coastline had to large of an Orthodox population for Ishkibites to easily hold anymore. From 1710 to 1803, Azera fell into a horrible series of civil wars. Seruvianism even danced through the coast at one point. 

The Current Peace

In 1803, Ishkibites and Orthodox alike were sick of fighting. The Ishkibites were undersupplied and unorganized and had lost several major field battles; the Orthodox were struggling to maintain religious conversion rates without Halikvar around to scare the local communities. It was becoming clear that, even after everything, Orthodox were outnumbered by Ishkibites, and were even beginning to be outnumbered along the coast again. The Orthodox were winning now, but they needed a long-term plan. The leading Orthodox general, Zinbira of Kelentain, crowned herself queen and proposed a compromise: she would end her crusade and allow religious peace, as long as Ishkibites paid their taxes and did not evangelize. The Compromise of 1803 was ratified by the Perpetual Conclave the following year, and was even signed by Ishkibal in proxy. The Compromise was intended more as a ceasefire than a permanent peace, but it has held remarkably well in the last two centuries. And while the continued crusading against Taneth and Rukray have technically broken the compromise, (almost) no one wants Azera to go back to being a bloodbath.
And it turns out that being a major avenue of global trade and not fluctuating between hyper-violent regimes is really good for the economy! Azera has flourished under the new order. While some doubt that this growth and peace will continue indefinitely, many dare to dream otherwise.

Demography and Population

2,000,000 humanoids live in Azera. They are 95% Human, 2% Vesper, 1% Haltia, and 2% Dryad. There is a notable chunk of the interior population only loosely controlled by the state, estimated by some counts to be around half a million.

Territories

Azera is divided across two continents: Lothay in the West and Izekra in the East. The Lothayan part is 110 miles long and 48 to 55 miles across. The Izekran part extends 191 miles North, 360 miles along the Eastern coast, and 180 miles inland at its furthest extent. The interior of both sides is tropical (though the Eastern half has large patches of arid plains-savannah). Both Eastern and Western Azera end in border-mountain regions that the state only controls on paper. 
The straights of Azera that divide the country are less than 6 miles across (smaller than the real life straights of Gibraltar). Both landmasses are easily visible on either side of the straights, and two small islands in the middle allow for extremely easy crossings on smaller boats.

Military

The Azeran navy is one of the best and most well-funded on the continent. It relies on many small war-sloops and galleys that work on out-maneuvering the enemy and protecting the massive galleons and floating fortresses that serve as the hammer of the navy. 
The army is nothing to sneeze at either. Traditional Azeran warriors specialize in a unique weapon known as an 'urumi': a bladed whip made of thin sharpened iron bands that requires great training to use without injury. These tend to be wielded by warrior elites along the coast and Ishkibite monks in the interior, rather than being a common weapon for the average soldier. Common troops focus on light infantry, archers, and skirmishers.
Magical support is another big theme in the army, especially druidic support. Azeran tactics rely on specialist infantry and spellcasters backed up by disciplined light-to-medium infantry and archers, so magical training gets a lot of crown funding here.

Religion

Azera's official religion is Orthodox Desmian, but much of their populace is Ishkibite (with Ishkibites being a significant majority once you get inland). While military officer and government positions are reserved only for Orthodox individuals, Ishkibism is tolerated. Evangelism of non-Orthodox religions is banned, but public community practice is legally protected. Ishkibites hold their own religious courts, have their own priestly hierarchy, and run their own temple-schools. 
Ishkibism here tends to be rather restrained and conservative. While the faithful are to defend innocent dryads from capture and sacrifice, they are encouraged to focus on their communities and lands first. Dryads who are already living on that land are the priority, and the faithful are warned against causing trouble along the coast that might draw attention to the dryads hiding in the interior. 
Non-Ishkibite religions tend to be less well understood or tolerated here, but they do have protections in certain port districts. 

The School of Patient Strength

Azera's Orthodoxy is diverse (as always), but the government largely follows its own unique Desmian philosophy, which they call "The School of Patient Strength". This school of thought posits that demonic retreats are a feint to draw the faithful into attacking and fighting with their fellow humans. Unity with corrupted humans is critical for long-term success, and that true human unity is only possible if the faithful can be patient, stoic, wise, and thoughtful. The struggle can mean having the courage and discipline not to strike evil in order to achieve a greater good. Living as if safe when evil looms is a sign of courage but holds great tactical (and therefore spiritual) value. Some within the School of Patient Faith have even flirted with the idea that the struggle against the demons doesn't need to cleanse the world but could just secure "true Desmia". These controversial scholars point to the fact that the Day of Blood has yet to arrive in Azera as proof that there is a difference between the Desmian heartlands and the rest of the world.
There have been a number of individuals tried and imprisoned on charges of Seruvianism here, though some claim that the School of Patient Strength jurists and judges have used their philosophy to classify those who faithfully protest the crown as heretics. Many of these critics argue that the School of Patient Strength are the actual heretics, and have managed to push this aggressively enough that it has made its way to the Perpetual Conclave of Desmia. The Perpetual Conclave has yet to condemn the School as heretical, but the topic is divisive enough that it resurfaces every few years. 
While the crown and crown-funded priestly college stand by the School of Patient Strength, it is worth emphasizing that not all Orthodox people here follow the school's teachings.

Foreign Relations

Azera curates good relations with just about everyone but obeys no authority but its own. This makes for a lot of "frenemies" one could say. Neighboring Orthodox Desmian states such as the Emerald March and Kingdom of Taneth rely on Azera's trade, military recruits, and naval support to survive, but resent Azera's apathy towards their wars. Azera does as little as possible for Desmian crusades - it sends those who volunteer out to fight, but it doesn't actively mobilize those who wouldn't seek out conflict themselves.
On the other side, the Holy State of Rukray, the Ishkibite kingdoms of Dinaketh, and other Ishkibite powers rely on Azeran smugglers and trade to survive but resent Azera's Orthodoxy.
In essence, everyone resents Azera but they also need the kingdom. And Azera never provokes, insults, or grandstands; they are always cordial and diplomatic, and it is hard for any power to fully dislike them. In recent years, Azera has even reached out to try and make closer friendships with the distant superpowers of the Empire of Avana and Kingdom of Asalay.
Azera is very friendly with the Khilaia

Agriculture & Industry

Azera is majority agricultural (like much of the world). Rice and soy are the biggest crops here, both of which are grown with great care to keep the soil from losing its nutrients. Guava, chili peppers, yams, and even bananas are also grown here for consumption and sale. Taxes are paid mostly in foodstuffs in the countryside and they use the market prices for the food used instead of set quotas, meaning that peasant communities often grow these higher-price luxury foods as well as the staple crops for use in taxes. Any surplus of these luxury foods can also be eaten (unlike other cash crops such as cotton), which makes for another barrier against famine. In order to better track what crops are what prices, rural villages often rely on designated peddlers or small merchants that have become really big deals back in their home communities. 
On top of food, rural communities also produce cotton, lumber, iron, salt, stone, textiles, and pottery for use and sale. The coast, meanwhile, deals in paper milling, dye production and use, smelting, art, shipwrighting, and commerce.

Trade & Transport

Azera occupies a crossroads for global trade: anything seeking to go from Ekraht or Ukaram to Samvara orAsalay must go through here first. Similarly, any crusaders seeking to earn gold and glory in the Kingdom of Taneth must pass through here. Unsurprisingly, this has brought Azera immense wealth that has contributed to a great economic boom. 
All sorts of foreign organizations have lobbying organizations here: the Greater Makal Corporation (from Makal but reliant on the Zeruan stock exchanges), the Temple of Ishkibism, The selkie Khilaia, and the aquatic states to name a few. These groups are tolerated and employed to organize the great traffic of foreign merchants. These groups invest heavily in the foreigner's docks: special seaside districts that act as walled-off autonomous zones, where foreigners may act as they please and (controversially) demons may even exist temporarily. 
The other half of the great commercial machine are the crusader fleets, which ship soldiers to the Kingdom of Taneth and Emerald March to either fight the Silver Crusade or the Emerald Crusade, and return through the straights with dryad captives and loot.

Education

Most education is guild and temple based, but two large crown-supported colleges exist for those who are able to pay for or get recommendations for higher education: the Ulenkra College of Magic, and the Saint Zinbara College for law, science, and astronomy.

"We Guard the Gates of Glory"

Founding Date

1803

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Demonym

Azeran

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Feudal state

Currency

Gold Dragons, Silver Eagles, and Copper Bulls

Major Exports

Salt, lumber, tar, cotton, guava, spices

Major Imports

Steel, tea, gunpowder

Judicial Body

The Crown Court

Official State Religion

Orthodox Desmianism

Location

Izekra