Vice-Kingdom of Azalek (Az-uh-lek)

The Vice-Kingdom of Azalek is a mix of grassland and mountains, an unusual part of Western Zerua that is culturally distinct and proud of it. This is the self-proclaimed capital of Zeruan soldiery, farming, and sports; even while they paint the other vice-kingdoms as decadent, they claim to be the most patriotic and loyal kingdom of the empire. Azalek is much more rural and a little poorer than the rest of the empire, but they have some of the better social safety nets to keep most of the farmers from the worst of Zeruan poverty.

Structure

Azalek is a federated kingdom of the Empire of Zerua , and as such respects the authority of the Zeruan emperor and ministers above all. However, many affairs are left to the local viceroyal government.

• The Prince or Princess leads Azalek directly, managing the internal policy of the kingdom and executing the will of the imperial bureaucracy.
• The Archduke/Archduchess of Zalkarek is whoever is the Prince of Princess selects as their heir. It no longer is attached to land management within the kingdom. This is not a mandatory position, and can go unfilled for stretches of time.
• The Azalekan Royal Cabinet manages the bureaucracy of Azalek and enacts the monarch's will. Several major bureaucrats hold great power here, the most important of which are the Court Magician (the greatest sorcerer and arcane advisors), the Secretary of Trade (who sets trade policy and exemptions), and the Treasurer (who manages the budget). Also important are the Secretary of Balance (who manages Windweaving), the Secretary of Public Health (who manages issues of plague, poison, and public immorality), the Secretary of Movement (who manages the canal system and infrastructure), the Secretary of Agriculture (who manages farming, food prices, and tax collection), the Secretary of Justice (who manages legal certification and court operation), and the Secretary of War (who manages recruitment, arms manufacturing, and training)
• The Crown Priest of Azalek manages the religious hierarchy and holds their own court in parallel. They answer only to the monarch
• The Provincial Governors manage the local affairs of the municipalities of Azalek

The current Princess of Azalek is Zalgita Eramzir, the up-and-coming Zeruan government superstar who is likely to be Emperor Sophan Eramzir's chosen successor. Zalgita is a blunt and straightforward idealist with a long history with the Zeruan military and Dragonlancers; she is a close friend of the Empress, and has proven her worth as an officer over and over in the last few conflicts with the Kingdom of Esedeta. 
Zalgita is known for her immense patriotism; to her, the empire is a symbol of stability and fairness, which is meant to ensure the safety and comfort of its subjects. This patriotic idealism has made her popular among her commonborn soldiers, but has also made her even more militaristic - she has a very low opinion of other nations that do not give tribute to the Empire, and carries a particularly nasty grudge against Esedeta. Unsurprisingly, she is a skilled military leader and sorcerer, but she is not particularly good at city leadership or urban planning; she prefers and understands the countryside (where she grew up), while cities disgust and confuse her. This has made her public health and water programs particularly weak, and has allowed local landlords and merchants to run wild in urban exploitation. Thankfully, Azalek is less urbanized than the other vice-kingdoms, but it is still a major issue in those that do exist.

Culture

Azalek is no longer a feudal agrarian land, but their culture portrays them as morally superior for having once been that. They value martial asceticism and the "simple virtue" of agricultural labor; crafts must prove their worthiness through work, and merchants are by-default considered to be drunken decadent seducers. The emperor, in his feudal glory, is a symbol of patriotic goodness; his bureaucrats are to be tolerated as long as they are loyal. Azalek sees itself as the most loyal and patriotic kingdom, the bastion of True Zerua. Kamadan religion is overwhelmingly baked into mainstream culture; appeals to tradition are elevated. 

Most local communities are organized under 'captains', who either hail from the local gentry or from the landed commonfolk, who interface with the state companies and provide social services to community members deemed "true and local". This makes for particularly well-defined, strong, and hierarchical communities. This also means that migratory workers who lack family in Azalek tend to be denied social services and make up the truly destitute poor - the vast bulk or rural-urban poor here have at least a basic safety net, though, which is unusual for Zerua. Community captains and hierarchies both uplift the poorer members who are good at navigating social norms, and police those who are out of the norm. 

Tying into all this is an emphasis on 'roots' - that, even if you travel, you have a sedentary home to return to. True nomadism is associated with immorality here, and peddlers need to go out of their way to prove their "roots" if they don't want to be under constant scrutiny. Foreign merchants frequently need to tie themselves to local ones to avoid being outright rejected by local people - merchants are both seen as default rootless and immorally commercial, and will face hostility here without some kind of local reputation. There is also a toothless anti-corporate pride here, a sense that Azalek is the one Zeruan kingdom free from excessive commercialization and corporate domination - even if that really isn't true.

History

Ancient Azalek (-300 to 940)

Azalek's flat grasslands and tall mountains have always set it apart from its forested neighbors; while horses were largely a luxury item kept in small numbers by neighboring elites during the late Divine Era and early Modern Era, they were bred in large numbers in Azalek. Horse-riding warlords commanded great feudal estates and fought for power over the plains and riverlands, while the mountains isolated themselves into prism kingdoms. These warlords promoted a polytheistic religious system that divided the land between the Lowlands of Wimbo Aizitu and the highland mountains of Jade Atharzen, with common religion focused around the incarnations of the Four Seasons. In the 300s ME, the Azalekan kings were toppled by the ascendant Emperor Makoi, and they became a part of Zerua.
After Zerua was destroyed by volcanic apocalypse in 480 and reforged by Mariz the Conqueror in 535 in smaller form, Azalek became the military heartlands of the new empire. The resurgent feudal aristocracy was given more autonomy in exchange for consistent service to the emperor, and Azalekan warriors received more and more influence in other parts of Zerua over the 500s and 600s. In 710, Nentwa family from Azalek seized control of the empire and brought many of Azalek's local cultural and religious norms Eastward - the period of 710 to 910 was known as the high point of Azalek's political and cultural power over the continent (though it was largely dependent on bureaucracies in Sanari). Azalekan religious traditions became validated and elaborated on during this period into the Cult of the Four Lords - essentially the worship of the four seasons as the Four Architects, who made up the great wheel that turned fate and empowered the celestial bureaucracy of ascended emperors. Zowashta, the many-armed Goddess of Divine Law, was originally a part of this Cult, as a mediating symbol between Jade, Wimbo, the Architects, and Kemegi/Makoi. A second eruption in 935 ended this period.

Old Azalek (940 to 1900)

The weakened empire of 940 to 1690 largely lost control of Azalek altogether. The new empires rejected Azalekan culture and religion, and the agrarian feudal lords were distrusted as too autonomous and powerhungry. The lords of Azalek began to seek their own sphere of power apart from the rest of the empire, and fought in the imperial civil war of 1198 to secure greater autonomy. In the 1250s, a major aristocratic rebellion in Azalek forced imperial bureaucrats to retreat outright. While Imperial symbols remained and tribute was given to the emperor, Azalek's prism and landlords were largely independent from 1250 through the 1380s, when new administrations brought the lords back into the imperial fold. From 1380 to 1530, Zeruan emperors sought to integrate coastal Azalek into the empire, but left the rest of the lords alone to their petty squabbling.
In 1530 an attempted Maradian coup and invasion led to the empire closing its borders; Zeruan emperors from 1530 to 1690 focused exclusively on protecting the imperial core and governmental power. While this is seen as a period of imperial decay, it was also one where Azalek was more directly integrated into the imperial core once more - fears of Maradian infiltration spurred emperors to centralize power and re-extend the bureaucracy. Local nobility rebelled (with some Maradian support) in 1552, but was utterly crushed by the Empire and subsumed. From 1552 to 1690, Azalek was economically exploited and religiously suppressed as deviant; its local dialect was largely erased outside of the prism strongholds. This century of economic disadvantage and cultural oppression ended with the rise of the First Eramzir Dynasty in 1690, which was more interested in "returning Azalek to the fold". Azalek remained a land of debt, poor farmers, and structurally-reinforced poverty until a series of economic reforms over the 1700s sponsored a restructuring of agricultural land and a revitalization of the local urban economy. The Zeruan corporate boom of the 1800s further used these reform programs to centralize agricultural production and invest in Azalekan country towns and villages; a transformation that benefitted some while plunging others into new kinds of poverty.
A small culture war over these changes became religiously charged in the later half of the century, and protests often assumed religious elements. In the 1840s, Esedetan spies and merchants covertly funded Azalekan religious anti-corporate rebels, who fought alongside a growing number of rebellious Lunar cults. A seditious figure known as the "Secret Emperor", supposedly an ancient reborn emperor who would restore the old ways, became a symbol of great social unrest and suppression; this person was never found, and some dissenters claim that he still lives in eternal youth waiting for the day of his ascent. Ultimately, Zerua's attempts to directly suppress this movement failed - but elements of the protest movement were incorporated into the Kamada religious movement in the 1870s and 1880s. Priests played an essential role in mediating between communities, crown, and corporations, and helped sever most of the groups from Esedetan spy networks. Religious change also legitimized imperial political intervention, and allowed the crown to gently move to protect more vulnerable communities from company exploitation and consolidation.

The End of Dissent (1900 - 1984)

Since 1900, Azalek has settled from a hotbed of radical dissent and rejection of Zeruan identity into a region that is ironically known for complacent patriotism. It hasn't been a clean or easy transition, though. The economic protection laws of the 1880s empowered many local "community captains" elected from the local gentry or upper common-class, who came to dominate Azalekan culture, politics, and economic life from 1880 through the 1920s. This group was distinctly religious, with close ties to the clerical structure, and also increasingly framed themselves as aristocrats hailing from an older age. The early 1900s saw a huge cultural change, a kind of 'patriotic' embrace of Azalekan heritage as a part of Zeruan-Kamadan imperial identity framed as a 'return to tradition'. Priests and captains reached back into the first Empire, when Azalekan lords were the loyal champions of the Zeruan emperor who kept the empire afloat with their traditional martial values. They framed invasive companies and sneering outsiders as symptoms of Zeruan cultural decay, which could be corrected through Azalek's participation in Zerua's wars and politics. Ironically, while this rhetoric intensified over the 1900s, the captains who most aggressively promoted these ideas were themselves becoming more commercialized and detached from their communities over time. By the 1930s, captainships were a hereditary position that tended to rent land and labor to big imperial commercial enterprises - often not to the labor's best interests.
Local dissent against the captains started up again in the 1930s, and the emperor revoked many of their privileges in 1933 - which didn't really help the problem too much, as the land and labor was mostly still being used the same way. Captains and companies jockeyed for control once more from 1933 to 1984, before a compromise was created in 1984 by Empress Dariva I: captains would keep some of their old powers, but would no longer have a stranglehold on land or politics. A special set of Vice-Kingdom-level state companies were set up to "for the common good" with captain and priest participation - and these companies were granted special monopoly privileges on certain goods and services. While most generated funds from these companies didn't reach the common folk, they did support the financial protection of some common lands - which was enough for dissent to die down almost entirely.

Modern History

The Special State Companies (SSCs) of Azalek were granted total power over one industry that would explode in wealth and popularity in the 1980s and 1990s: organized sports and sports gambling. Azalek, with its superior herd lands, had been a popular charioteering destination over the last two centuries, and the new Vice-Prince was a major sports enthusiast who was investing in fancy new stadiums and sports complexes. The Prince also organized cross-empire sports leagues, which would have their most important games here in Azalek. This meant that ball-sports, running sports, and archery would all also gravitate towards Azalek's sports infrastructure - and would play directly into Azalek's sports gambling SSC. Sports, as well as military service, were heavily marketed towards Azalek's public as an expression of traditionalist Azalekan-Zeruan culture that would return martial common-sense values to the decadent corporate empire. The spirit of peasant protest was channeled into profitable SSC enterprises, and while not all peasants accepted these ideas, the effort was a general success.
To be entirely fair to all involved, quality of life here has improved since 1984's SSCs and sports professionalization. The support for the rural commons is likely more to do with why life has gotten better, but the two aren't unrelated. And, in 2008, Emperor Sophan Eramzir strengthened the requirements for both wealthy SSCs and Azalek's top corporate entity (Iskariba Family Company) to contribute to community-level social service funds - leading to more of that money actually benefitting the commonfolk through schools, food charities, and housing. For this, many of the people love the new Emperor 
The other big factor in recent Azalekan life has been war. In 1984 and 1991, brutal wars with the Kingdom of Esedeta were fought over prestige and imperial status - and Azalek's large mountain passes connecting Esedeta and Zerua in the Southwest became one of the major theaters of war in both. Azalek's people were pushed into military service at a higher rate than in other parts of Zerua, and Esedetan raiding parties hit local villages badly. Religious militancy and local patriotic rhetoric escalated. So did the importance of veteran support; Emperor Sophan has argued for empire-wide veteran's benefits (possibly even pensions for common soldiers) as a way to professionalize the army and encourage service. While most Azalekans don't support major expansions of the imperial bureaucracy into their lands, the idea of veteran programs has caught on with immense enthusiasm - and created a zealous political base for the emperor's allies. The last century of imperial support for Azalek has won over many locals; in a way, they truly have returned to being the emperor's loyal martial base.

Demography and Population

17 million people live in Azalek; 28% of the population are hybrids of some kind, 31% are Dryad s, 31% are Humans, and 10% are Prisms

Territories

Azalek is 330 miles long and 304 miles wide. To the East are the Ormen mountains, small mountains that divide the region from the Vice-Kingdom of Ibaisha and help contain the volcanic smog. To the West are the much larger Kwazara mountains, which house a large number of prisms and divide the region from the neighboring Vice-Kingdom of Mikena. To the South are the Akrean mountains, which extend out from the supervolcano and divide the region from the Kingdom of Esedeta. 
Azalek is a large flat valley of extremely arable land. It is slightly drier than its neighboring regions, but not so much so that it cannot be farmed - in fact, the drier climate means less blight and fewer swamps, which makes it an ideal breadbasket of sorts, and perfect for both farming and ranching. The most arable and intensely populated area is still that around the Izula river, though.

Military

Azalek has a substantial military presence, even during peacetime. Many border garrisons in Azalek and Mikena are drawn from Azalekan recruits, or at least trained here, and the Dragonlancers and other elite warriors are trained and housed here during peacetime as well. Part of this is because Azalek is the only Western vice-kingdom with access to good warhorses, part of this is because of Azalek's cultural affinity for military service, and part of this is just because there is a lot more military infrastructure here.

Religion

Azalek is an aggressively Kamadan land, with most social services and schools tied directly to the priesthood and a common culture of piety pervading the land. Azalek's brand of Kamada is particularly local, though - there is great emphasis on Uarta, the fire-goddess of primeval sorcery, and on Zowashta, Authority and Order personified. The wheel of time is also emphasized in seasonal ways, with the Four Lords, also called the Four Travelers or Four Architects, acting as the kind of Fates as well as agricultural gods of stable weather. These Four Lords are not really seen as active personalities that provide sacred guidance, so much as they are neutral parts of the world to be appeased and mostly accepted. The Lunar Gods Wimbo and Jade are locally beloved, and can stand in sometimes for the Primordial Chief Gods of Uarta and Aizusha. The Lunar God Haru is seen as particularly tied to the Four Lords, and occupies a similar role as a Neutral Pillar of Fate. Other gods take on uniquely local intepretations; the Stormlord Isari is seen as a gentle Rain God here, for example. 
The local priesthood is skews towards the Mystic and Centrist schools, but has a strong Kinetic component than has been rising in recent years due to their better-performing sports teams.

Agriculture & Industry

Azalek is overwhelmingly agricultural. Cattle and horses are ranched, and cotton, hemp, and wheat are all grown here. The riverlands are lush with maize, pumpkins, and cranberries. The mountains to the Northwest produce copper, tin, and lead - as well as some iron. Land is a mix between corporate estates, gentry joint-estates, and protected commonlands. 
Connecting with these robust production industries is a robust network of small towns; Azalek only has a few cities of notable size, though they are quite large. Local manufacturing in these towns and cities is reasonable, though smaller than usual for Zerua.

Trade & Transport

A mix between noble merchant-elite families, companies rooted in other vice-kingdoms, and State companies (SSCs) organize local commerce. 
The most notable SSCs are the Gloryroad SSC, which handles sports and sports infrastructure, Akaratu SCC, which handles gambling and public entertainment, and Aegis SSC, which handles military infrastructure. Aegis tends to be less visible, as they mostly cover the gap between the imperial military and Iskariba Family Company - Azalek's largest private corporation based out of neighboring Ibaisha. 
Other companies do exist, mostly to handle cotton, food, mineral, and livestock exports, but none of them are exceptionally large or powerful on an imperial scale. The major other outside corporate presence is the Greenspirit Stock Company, an agricultural-exports company from neighboring Mikena. Greenspirit mostly coordinates through local small-company partners, though - Mikena is seen as something of a rival to Azalek, and Greenspirit tends to be very unpopular on the ground here.

"Bravery and Loyalty"

Founding Date

1700

Type

Geopolitical, Vicekingdom

Demonym

Azalekan

Power Structure

Unitary state

Economic System

Market economy

Official State Religion

Kamada

Parent Organization

Empire of Zerua

Location

Ekraht

Official Languages

• Zeruan language

Controlled Territories

• Zalkra

Neighboring Nations

• Kingdom of Esedeta
• Vice-Kingdom of Ibaisha
• Vice-Kingdom of Mikena

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