Kingdom of Ralev

The Violet Star of Ralev rises above great hosts of marching monks and zealous warriors. Ralev is a rising power, a new kind of Desmian experiment based on a romantic past. The Kingdom of Ralev is a kingdom of warriors but not of knights - traditional feudalism is shunned, and common communities are seen as the basis for the military. This does not make Ralev a democracy, but rather a clan-based monastic theocracy led by a monarch, where everyone is expected to fight for their land. Ralev is on the march, struggling to return to an immaculate past. The people fight to restore the world to before the heresy, the invaders, and the monsters. This zeal can sometimes spill into neighbors fighting neighbors, but the small pockets of instability and monsters near the Desmekal Wilds tend to focus Ralev's attention and violence to a point. And when those pockets are finally extinguished, it is anyone's guess for where Ralev will march to sate their thirst for blood. 
The symbol of Ralev is the "Lo-Monk" or the "Empty Monk" - the common footsoldiers of the monastic order, famous for their discipline and meritocracy. Where so much of Ralevan society is preoccupied with kinship or theology, the Lo-Monk cares only that the land is safe, the demons are slain, and their bodies are empty of evil. Lo-Monks are ascetics, with short hair (or entirely shaved heads) and affordable arms and armor. Their glaives, short-swords, and red-circles-on-grey-cloth robes mark them wherever they go. Anyone, no matter how low, can become a Lo-Monk, as long as they surrender to the Struggle.

Structure

Ralev is ruled by a powerful monarch who manages the formal military and tax system. There is no formal aristocracy here, but rather an extremely powerful priesthood and system of 'Monastic Feudalism'. Local monasteries, led by an Abbess or Abbot, manage the countryside in the place of local lords. These monasteries focus on local military production and self-sufficiency, and tend to be rather autonomous.
The rural lands are divided into large provinces known as "Hegumenos", led by the arch-abbots or 'Hegumen'. These Hegumen are elected from the local Abbots as for-life positions. The Hegumen in turn elect the Archimandrites, or head monks, who represent the Lo-Monks in royal government. The priests have their own parallel system, which operates in a similar way - temples meet annually in regional conclaves to elect First Among Equals, who then represent that region in Ralev's regional high church, or 'Ecclesia'. To name an heir, two out of three of the monarch, Archimandrites, and Ecclesia must agree on the candidate - theoretically leading to only the most qualified of the royal family holding the throne.
The current King is Henibar I, who is well loved and widely respected. Henibar's success is largely the success of the kingdom despite him - he is a skilled administrator, but an abysmal diplomat and general; his temper is great, his charisma is like wet cardboard, he lacks ambition, and he is a mediocre fighter and theologian. But as a very conservative and patient master of coin with an eye for talent greater than him, he is just the ruler Ralev needs right now - and his flaws are regarded with affection while the country thrives.

Culture

Food Culture: Hearty and Balanced

Ralev is the perfect climate for a great many crops, from wet rice to wheat bread to maize. This has made for a very diverse set of grains with a great potential for variance. But there is always a kind of balance to Ralevs cuisine, a well-roundedness of sorts. Meat, starches, and veggies all have their places in a day's meal (which is notable, given that the majority of the world is more vegetable-heavy or starch-heavy in their average diet). So you see breads or noodles with meat sauces; dumplings with chicken or eggplant; flavorful meat-and-veggie pies. 
A quirk in Ralev's cuisine is their focus on dinner. The day is a time of light food, typically dumplings or boiled eggs. You save the heartiest food and drink for dinner, which is to be enjoyed to its fullest. Speaking of drink, the stereotypical drink of Ralev is whiskey: enjoyed with a dash of sugar or syrup whenever possible.

Family Matters: Kinship and Ralev

For those not in the priesthood or monastic orders, family is central to status in Ralev. There are few to no formal legal categories in Ralev, such as noble titles, serfdom, or indentured servitude. And while the coast is heavily stratified along economic lines, much of the population lives in the interior as freeholders. Taxes and government approaches the world by monastery or temple; but the land is controlled by families, and families are the glue that bind regional villages together. Some families rise to prominence enough to own hunting grounds, ranches, or mines, but these acquisitions often rely on dozens of households of funding. 
The nitty-gritty of land ownership and funding aside, Ralev sees family as a big deal. Family elders are not to be disrespected, family hierarchy is seen as incredibly important, adoption is considered downright religious, and courts are known to pardon those who kill to avenge a family loss.

History

Ancient History (-200 DE to 1519 ME)

The Forests of Ralev were long-burdened with war. No one knows of the Ralev that existed before the fighting came - only the polarized Desmian Ralev that came from it. Desmian merchants, adventurers, and slavers began arriving along the coast in the Divine Era, sowing discord and dividing communities. A group of dryads known as the 'Adalka', an Eastern splinter group of the Mathari, hid deep in the forests and hills of Southwestern Ralev and waged relentless war against the Desmian newcomers. While Desmians held the coast, raiders from the Adalka and Feywilds terrorized the inland territories. From -200 DE to 600 ME, this violence was constant- but by 600 ME, the endless Desmian reinforcements had put on Adalka on a perpetual retreat. In 680 ME, though, the Adalka unified together for a final, desperate push. This push was unexpectedly successful, and managed to cause immense destruction along the coast - and so total was the devastation in one area, that not a single humanoid was left for miles. In this ruined land, a Starmetal meteor crashed. According to legend, the meteor crashed into an old shrine in a hidden valley - perfectly hidden from any who might search it out. Only Relia, a common laborer and Desmian human forced into war, was able to find the valley. Some say she was guided by the ancestors, others say the ghost of her priest, and others say she found it through her raw skill and wit alone. Regardless, she found the meteor and rebuilt the shrine around it - and not long after, it it said that a terrible blight killed many of the roving Adalkans and allowed for a great offensive along the coast. Relia was seen by many as divinely ordained, and she rose as a significant warleader through charisma and priestly support. In 700 ME, the victorious Desmian army crowned Relia queen of all of Ralev. She ruled for forty years with a great council of priest-generals, who she allowed to choose her successor. A kind of theocratic monarchy was born, where succession was still within families but controlled and mediated by a strong centralized priesthood.
By 830 ME, no dryads were left in the region. Ralev expanded over the lowlands across the great Northeastern forests of Desmia, and set up a series of outposts in the surrounding mountains to ward off Feywild or mountain-clan raids. From 830 to 1100, Ralev prospered in relative peace. But tension was always there: crusading to the Northwest, periodic outside raids, and a growing coldwar with the Western kingdom of Valick (that was rather strategically Desmian rather than the pious crusader-state Ralev wanted them to be). And in 1100 ME, the tentative peace snapped. A wave of Feywild raiders broke through the perimeter (the Empire of Nefka previously having drawn these raids South). Peripheral groups in Ralev entered rebellion, and disorder bred disorder. In 1109, the priesthood turned on itself and civil war broke out. The Kingdom of Valick, smelling blood in the water, launched a formal invasion in 1110. In 1115, a group if Ishkibites began rallying local groups and carving out their own fiefs. Feywild raiders became settlers as well, moving into the vulnerable lands to create tiny kingdoms. The Ralevan forces were able to unite against Valick, but much of Ralev's army went rogue in pursuit of Valick's forces- looting Valick while Ralev burned. Those who remained were too exhausted and fragmented to keep the kingdom together. 
From 1120 to 1190, Ralev was divided among many rulers - some Orthodox, some Ishkibite, some Feywild. The Orthodox began reuniting in 1190, and seemed destined to fully reconquer the region - but fell to civil war in 1280 after the aristocracy launched a coup against the reformed priesthood. In 1288, an Ishkibite general was able to defeat the Ralevan army in the field for the first time. The resurgence had officially failed. And the Ishkibite Kingdom of Ralev (known as Sonava, or the Kingdom of Peace) was on the rise, conquering rebels and feywilders left and right. The 1300s were a century of back-and-forth skirmishes and ceasefires between Ralev and Sonava. And the 1400s saw a resurgent Feywilds, with a new conquering Empire of Nefka that was more ambitious and brutal than the last. Feywilders again punched through the Sonavan borders and even into the Orthodox lands. The Kingdom of Ralev attempted to take advantage of this disruption with a grand crusade into Sonava, but the corrupt and collapsing kingdom failed dramatically. Storms, raiders from Boram, and plague arrived on the coast, and many crusaders became bandits. Other bandits began to move into the chaos - and over time, the unresolved issue of banditry led to a veritable outlaw epidemic. One bandit leader, an exile from Boram by the name of Chalmir the Red, even built their own Bandit Federation that rivaled the aristocracy in power at its height. 
These disturbances and chaos bled into neighboring regions - including the Northeastern corner of the Empire of Avana. Avana reacted by organizing its own crusade - or more accurately, five lesser crusades under prominent Avanan families that each carved out its own small state. These Avanan crusades targeted Orthodox and Ishkibite alike, any were indistinguishable from outright invasions. But the bandits were dispersed and the Sonava was losing ground. Unfortunately for the Orthodox priests, Ralev was crumbling faster- and Ishkibites seized the throne of the Orthodox kingdom in 1519. 

The Lotaran Crusades (1519 - 1840)

While Southern Ralev burned, the far North stabilized. The Northern fringe, traded between Ralev, Valick, and the neighboring kingdom of Belmay, became independent in the late 1400s was ruled by a monastic clique known as the Lotara. This Kingdom of the Lotara prospered even as its neighbors suffered from repeated civil wars and invasions - and the newly formed Perpetual Conclave of Orthodoxy came to rely on this pocket of stability in their efforts to coordinate crusades in the North. In 1522, the Lotara were given a free reign by the Perpetual Conclave to conquer the entire region of Ralev for themselves. 
The Chaos of Ralev, 1522 ME

Slowly but surely, Lotara gained ground and began to succeed where so many others had failed. The South and the interior forests were still a mess of Ishkibite successor states and disgraced crusader-bandit states, but the slow-and-steady push of the Lotara saw huge gains in the North and along the coast. Most of these offensives started really gaining ground in the mid 1600s - though increased Feywild raids (after the fall of the Serene Principality of Okina ) and the arrival of the Crimson Death certainly slowed their progress.
In 1700, the Lotara seemed certain of their eventual success. And then, a shadow passed over the region: a small fleet of foreigners known as the Kivish that arrived in the Kingdom of Satrek, Ralev's Eastern neighbor, in 1701. These invaders came with Ederstone weapons and nightmarish monsters, and Satrek struggled to fend them off. More and more Kivish arrived over the years, bringing Satrek down bit by bit. In 1730, a massive fleet of reinforcements arrived from distant Stildane, smashing the remains of Satrek and their coalition of mountain-clan alllies. Kivish monsters began infesting the mountains and seas, and kivish war-beasts soon crossed into Ralev. 
In 1790, the Lotara finally finished conquering the Avanans and the Ishkibites- but they were losing enormous stretches of land to the Kivish, and they struggled to protect local peoples from the monstrous infestations. In 1792, the united Lotaran army was dashed to pieces against the Kivish horde. The focus turned from field battles to local resistance. Lo-monks, the monastic order of Lotara, began to dissolve into the countryside to protect individual towns and villages. Lotara even allowed Ishkibites into their ranks to provide a unified front. The many factions of the region all came together in a united front, and fought the Kivish on every hill and in every village, waiting for reinforcements. 
In 1805, the Perpetual Conclave directed resources from the Amber Crusade (the Northern fight against the Mathari ) towards the Ralevan Kivish. The First Speaker of the time, Izena of Drinika, essentially redirected all resources towards destroying the Kivish from 1805 to 1840. And the Kivish, themselves divided and increasingly tired, broke. Ralev was cleansed, and the monsters were driven from the coastline and into the interior, where they remain in pockets to this day.

A New Ralev Emerges (1840 - Present)

To the victors, go the spoils. But who qualified as the victors, here? So many factions had worked together to liberate Ralev - would it be divided among them? Most assumed so, and began settling in as tiny crusader states. Many actual Ralevan residents felt that they should have rulers that respected them and their new order of Lo-Monks. But even Lotara did not fit the bill anymore; the monastic clique had settled into an aristocracy that was quite divergent from the active egalitarian warrior-monks that ruled in the countryside. In 1830, Lotara attempted to assert control, using the 1522 Perpetual Conclave regional grant as proof of legitimacy. Not long afterwards, though, Lotara fell into civil war- and Ralev returned to a free-for-all. 
In 1834, a powerful Lo-Monk crusader by the name of Olaina the Silver-tongued rallied the villages. Olaina was a crusader with her own small fief, as well as a master of the new Bardic school of magic. She was able to gather aristocrats, crusaders, monks, and merchants alike to her banner - and in 1841, the last remnant of the old regime was conquered. Olaina sought to remake Ralev as it originally had been - a romantic theocratic kingdom of crusaders that valued the commonfolk. Her message and vision became the unifying force of her new kingdom. And the quasi-revolutionary-traditionalist rhetoric remains to this day. From the ashes, Ralev has risen once again as a great power of Desmia.

Demography and Population

6,000,000 humanoids live in Ralev. 95% of these are Human, and the remaining 5% are Vesper, Kobold, and Haltia.

Territories

Ralev is 500 miles long and around 250 to 300 miles inland. In the Southeast are the Desemkal Wilds - mountains inhabited by Ishkibite mountain clans and infested with Kivish and monsters. The Western border is entirely marked by the Kulindra mountains, which include pockets of bandit fiefs, Kivish remnants, and Feywild exiles.

Military

The Ralevan military is a glorious experiment, though it seems to be going fairly well so far. Each village is set up and encouraged to act like a potential military regiment: they not only train relentlessly like most other Orthodox states, but work to try and produce their own weapons and armor. The hope is that any region could, at a moment's notice, rise up and organize itself into a fully fledged army. The monks are the shock troops of this decentralized eternal army, acting as specialists, disciplined frontliners, and officers. In theory, this great rural mass of militarized Desmians will then be supplemented with urban specialist divisions, creating a truly enormous army at minimal cost.
What this translates to is a very large, very difficult to control army that sits somewhere between professional standing army and militia. The majority of these forces are light infantry, skirmishers, and light cavalry - the focus is on spears, arrows, and lancers. The Lo-Monks, meanwhile, vary in their specialty but can vary from sharpshooters to heavy infantry to spellcasters. 
A taboo and semi-secret element of Ralev's military is their use of "Binders". Traditionally, the idea of a Binder-Magician is a Belmayan idea (ie from the kingdom to Ralev's North) that relates to keeping Dryads or other "demons" captive for military purposes. While Belmayan "Binding" focuses on traditional "demons", Ralevan "binding" is less obvious and more personal: the use of paladins, who forge contracts with the 'Demonic' Lunar Pantheon, most often with Theia the Liberator. These paladins are also permitted to keep or use Kivish Ederstone-spawn for war, though such instances are extremely rare.

Religion

Orthodox Desmianism is very strong in Ralev. The spirit of crusading is alive and well here, with the constant threat of Kivish, Ederstone monsters, and raiders inspiring a constant sense of danger that can only be answered with religious violence. All elements of society are religious - monks and priests manage the government, and it is impossible to avoid a temple while living here. Granted, many of these communities are low-key Ishkibite, and have been silently tolerated since the Kivish wars of the 1800s. This toleration has gaps where it spills into inter-community violence, but that is rare and often involves other factors (such as resource competition).
There is a strange 'mysticism' of the Struggle in Ralev that some have labeled 'quasi-Seruviani': that holy war has a spiritual healing property, a way to heal the land and its people. The crimes of the past can be literally magically reversed through purifying violence - or at least that is what many believe (perhaps more accurately, what they desperately hope). 
The most popular ancestor in Ralev is Relia the Star Empress, founder of the first Kingdom of Ralev and she who lifts commoners into priests and heroes. Olaina the Silver (also known as Olaina Silver-tongue) is another common one, a representation of unity, magical power, and the archetypal Lo-Monk.

Foreign Relations

Ralev is a rising Orthodox power tentatively allied to the The Holy Republic of Pakray against their neighboring rival, the Empire of Avana. Ralev has also reached out to and courted the neighboring Kingdom of Belmay, seemingly in hopes of creating a regional power bloc.

Agriculture & Industry

The vast majority of Ralev is agricultural. Wheat, rice, and maize are all extremely common crops here. Small-scale herding of sheep, horses, and cattle is common. Small mining operations and lumber mills also dot the countryside. Only recently has Ralev dropped a proper manufacturing base to process these raw resources - but the towns and cities are flourishing now. Textiles and smithing are the big rising industries along the coast, along with whaling and shipbuilding.

Trade & Transport

Most trade is managed by the Great Clans: massive extended families that sprawl across and out of the country. These Great Clans rely on large networks of lesser clans, who they often marry into - creating a massive, complicated network of families and sub-families that can be extremely difficult for an outsider to navigate. This web extends into guild leadership and city leadership - and local priests or monks often end up playing powerbroker in the middle.

Education

Temples handle most of the common education, providing basic literacy and religion lessons to all Orthodox and Ishkibite children. The College of Senrail provides more advanced education for interested priests - though, The Holy Republic of Pakray has shown great interest in opening new universities along the coast.

"We Shall Restore the World"

Founding Date

1841

Type

Geopolitical, Kingdom

Demonym

Ralevan

Government System

Monarchy, Theocratic

Power Structure

Feudal state

Currency

Asalay Dungeon Coinage: Gold Dragons, Silver Eagles, and Copper Bulls

Major Exports

Lumber, Iron, Tar, Textiles

Major Imports

Spices, glass

Official State Religion

Orthodox Desmianism

Location

Desmia

Official Languages

• Desmian language

Neighboring Nations

• Empire of Avana