Tel Iskarra

Rivers in the Desert

Tel Iskarra stands as a kingdom of beauty, prosperity, peace, and tolerance. While ultimately a local player, and restricted by their religious, economic and cultural adherence to the continued use of bronze in tools and weapons, Tel Iskarra has persisted and thrived. A traditional people, protected by the desert, the Tel Iskarrans sit upon the most bountiful waterway in Beacepheron, the Great River Khair, which feeds their entire nation, and reaches for kilometres more than it would otherwise thanks to the extensive projects to create irrigation canals. The snakefolk and humans of the Iskar Desert live in harmony, peace, and contentment, treating one another as equals and friends, and Pharaohs of both species have ruled. Not all is well, though - the Shaneslani, a now-conquered people who were driven to attempt to gain leverage of the Tel Iskarrans by controlling the source of the Khair, now fight for their freedom. They are convinced that their ancestral enemy, the God Pashteh, is in league with them - and in return, the Iskar people are convinced that the Shaneslani follow Pashteh. The machinations of the Deceiver-God progress like steady clockwork, driving two people who should be amiable to war and strife...

Geography

Besides an extension of the Stormaki temperate forests on their borders, the entirety of Tel Iskarra is a desert. This proximity between temperate forest and scorching desert is credited to the existence of the Beacepheron Anomaly, the strange force that causes climates to ignore sense around the world, and especially in Beacepheron. Animals are sparse, but present, primarily camels, oxen, fennec foxes, scorpions, and bats in caves. Magical and unusual beasts in the region include giant scorpions, cinder wolves, and sphinxes which migrated from Mykeia and found themselves comfortably in this environment.

Government and Geopolitics

While many would scoff at Tel Iskarra for their choice of using bronze as their primary metal, their system of government is notoriously stable and efficient. Rather than allow petty rulers in feudal realms to jockey for power against one another and the crown, the Iskar state instead centralizes power into their Pharaoh and sends governors to the 9 administrative zones surrounding the capital region. These governors are directly appointed by the Pharaoh and are seldom of the same family as the previous administrator, serving for 20-year terms which may be renewed for exceptional or particularly loyal service. However, the Pharaoh can recall a governor at any time during the 10th year to be replaced with a just cause. These administrators are responsible only for civil administration - each administrative region is also home to a local marshal responsible for assembling, training, and commanding the troops of this region in service of the Pharaoh. Without the administrator, the marshal has no tax base. Without the marshal, the administrator has no police force. Both sides are forbidden to perform the responsibilities of the other without express permission from the Pharaoh. This balance of power has allowed continuous stability and has put a check on the power of both positions.
The position of Pharaoh is hereditary and decided by the direct endorsement of the Pharaoh. Adopted children hold all the same legitimacy of children born to the Dynasty. It is generally seen as good form for a Pharaoh to appoint a successor of the other species - a human should appoint one of his adopted snakefolk children, and a snakefolk pharaoh should appoint a human. This is not a law or rule, just standard conduct that can be bent or ignored for the overall good of the kingdom. The Pharaoh's rule is law without question, though changing certain laws is seen as an event worthy of an uprising without very good reason and a lot of public support. The Pharaoh is also responsible for meeting and discussing issues with foreign diplomats, though he does not travel abroad for these sorts of meetings, instead sending one of his own diplomats. Tel Iskarra's political structure is centered around citizen administrative staff known as Scribes, responsible for bookkeeping, record-taking, writing history, writing orders to send to the marshals, and any other piece of political action that begins at the Pharaoh's palace.
Taxation is claimed in money from artisans, produce from farmers during growing season, and labor from them otherwise. The labour of farmers is primarily responsible for either constructing step pyramid fortresses, building new or repairing existing roads, or digging new canals off the side of the Khair. Laborers chosen by lot are given the farmland made by the canals to give to their eldest child. The military of Tel Iskarra is professional, and soldiers pay neither labour nor monatery tax, are paid a wage and are permitted to practice a trade or run a farm if their positions are close enough to a suitable location, though their responsibilities to the state come first. They also receive the honor of being mummified and burried into their step pyramid fort posting. The rate of taxation is relatively high on food due to the richness of the Khair floodplains and the high amounts of farmland and the long growing season, but much of the food is stored in public granaries for emergency food aid. Monatery taxation is quite average and moderate. All people are promised a total of three months off out of the year, where they are not given any tasks while outside of the growing season.
The Tel Iskarran Panetheon strongly associated defiling the dead with evil, and their religion worships ancestors. For this reason, Tel Iskarra has a major vendetta against the Canate Princes. As the only nation on Iocrade ruled by the undead, and one of the few places that uses necromancy to make more, Tel Iskarra has a religious obligation to remain opposed to the Princes. They form an informal alliance with Stormakt to contain and threaten Canate as a united front. They are unable to invade Canate, however, as the swamps remain a near-insurmountable obstacle to traversing land armies, and the Canate army could easily contest any landing with their massive and widespread army, allowing them for reinforcements to sweep in and deliver the decisive blow. Otherwise, Tel Iskarra is more focused on internal issues than foreign policy.
Of course, the Iskar people hold the Starflame Drow in contempt for their many slave raids up and down the coast. They also are suspicious of the Yalenvans - they believe that the Enshorites wish to convert them away from their pantheon and to their own religion. Many see Tel Iskarra as an extension of the Castapheron continent on Beacepheron, and Enshorism is a deeply missionary religion, and so these concerns aren't unfounded. This rivalry is tepid, however, and very unlikely to lead to any real conflict.
The biggest conflict that exists for Tel Iskarra is within Tel Iskarra - the Shaneslani people continue to resist their conquerors, with both sides believing the other is in league with the Deceiver God Pahsteh. This conception drives the Shaneslani to strike and ambush their conquerors. These attacks result in retaliation on the part of the Iskar government. And in return for these retaliations, the Shaneslani attack once more. It remains to be seen who will win this conflict, and if the Shaneslani people will be free - are they truly in league with Pashteh? Is it the Iskar government who serve the Deceiver? Or is it possible that neither serve him?

Economy

Like other Beacepheron economies, and most economies on Iocrade, Tel Iskarra has a primarily agrarian economy. Unlike other nations in the area, Tel Iskarra is overwhelmingly agrarian, with huge proportions of the population living and working along the Khair and its many hundreds of canals. Wheat and barley are the core staples, alongside chickpeas, lentils, lettuce, onions, garlic, sesame, papyrus, flax, soybeans, cotton, and castor oil plant. Inland fruit orchards, especially date palms, are also the work of various smaller villages who draw their water from wells, oases or simply carry water from the Khair in buckets and vases. In certain farms, however, the main crop is opium poppies. These poppies are sanctioned by the state, but not for internal sale - they are tightly regulated, and sold on to smugglers who proceed to sneak them into various countries. Opium farmers pay their taxes in coin rather than produce. Meat is even rarer in Tel Iskarra than than Canate or Stormakt, and animals are typically farmed in smaller numbers per household. Sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry are the most common animal to raise, with wealthy people often even keeping herds of Stormaki cows bred for hot weather at times. Fishing is common along the primary river but tends to be less bountiful in the canals.
Of the three nations on the Beacepheron mainland, Tel Iskarra has the least cities, and the most sparse cities - the fact that they have a population so similar in size to Stormakt is a testament to how rich the Khair is. Most cities are centered around a local temple and the maintenance and support of the priesthood within. For the stonemasons, candlemakers, and goldsmiths come deliverymen, beekeepers, and guards, and for all of them come food dealers, brewers, and architects. These internal economies eventually take on a life of their own, and soon the temple becomes but a destination of the economy and not its center. Eventually, there may even be a Step Pyramid Fort established to provide a garrison to the city, and some of the city's prouds sons and daughters may train to become soldiers in service of the city, state and Pharaoh. Bowyers are vital to the Iskar military, as archers form the pride of their military.
The mining sector primarily deals in copper, tin, coal, and gold. Copper and tin are primarily internal resources, vital for producing bronze, and mostly purchased by the state for weapons and tools for labour projects. Gold mostly goes into the hands of the clergy for the production of ritual idols and canoptic jars for people of high standing. Coal is primarily exported, though a significant amount is used internally to light the insides of temples. Tel Iskarra also has significant access to high-quality stone, particularly granite, limestone, marble, and basalt, and their ability to extract this stone has been refined to a cutting edge, making techniques that are ultimately simple enough for a commoner to pick up and learn, but effective enough to make stone exports a major source of income.
Lacking many of the same natural resources found in more temperate climates, most magical items in Tel Iskarra are imported, mostly by various administrators and marshals, or the Pharaoh and his direct subordinates. The talisman and trinket economies that exist in the neighboring countries are much smaller in Tel Iskarra. However, those magical items that are within the reach of domestic manufacture are often sold for high prices in and outside of the country due to their well-justifed public reputation for high quality.
Tel Iskarra primarily exports food, quarried stone, cotton, and to a lesser extent gold to most of Beacepheron, and multiple places on the world market. They primarily import manufactured and alchemical goods from the Moonlight Kingdom, beef from Stormakt, and mineral resources from the Shogunate.

Military

The army of Tel Iskarra is, as aforementioned, a professional force, made up of career citizen soldiers. They are led by promoted officers and officers commissioned through the temples, where education is available in many fields, including military fields. The typical Iskar soldier, human or snakefolk, wears an armoured headdress, cotton armour, a wooden shield, a one-handed spear, and a knife. Officers will typically carry a khopesh in the place of a spear, and wear bronze scale mail. Archers, the core of the Tel Iskarran army, vary in equipment depending on their rank, wearing the same armor as the common infantry in the regular divisions, with elite units of Pharaoh's Own Archers wearing beautiful headdresses similar to the Pharaoh's own crown as well as officer's scale mail. Officers among the Pharaoh's Own are gifted suits of Four-Mirror armor. Most soldiers fight on foot, but the human members of the Pharaoh's Own ride chariots into battle, which are armoured and have scythes on their wheels and spikes sticking from their frame to make them difficult for cavalry to attack. Snakefolk Pharaoh's Own are better trained for melee combat, and carry a spear and shield for emergencies.
The Temple Church Militant are units of elite infantry raised by the temples and priesthood of the Iskar religion. They are responsible for defending the temple and, in times of need, supplementing the main army. Church tithes are, in part, allocated to this force. They are led and supported by the priesthood of the temples. While temples to most of the Evil Gods in the Iskar pantheon do exist, only those of the God of War Almubarara are permitted and expected to maintain a Church Militant. Even at times where the Church Militant are not deployed to war, many clerics and other members of the clergy will go to war, wielding khopesh swords, and healing the wounded and dying from the battle, and sanctifying the dead.
Most Iskar Battlemages are trained in the temples, or in the Moonlight Kingdom's Mage College. They are employed as formal state employees upon graduation, and access to the course is very competitive, and weeds out the lesser candidates through difficult trials and high standards. Most Iskar Battlemages are deployed to a certain posting and linked with a group that serves one specific Step Pyramid Fortress. They mobilize with the garrison of the fort to war in teims where their forces are needed.
While the design of their boats are old-fashioned, the Iskar Navy has adapted to a more modern style of war. They employ galleys with both sails and oar banks to move quickly and employ ballistae and catapults to fire upon ships from a distance. Both use heavy stone or lead shot. Their navy relies on speed to respond quickly, and numbers to surround and pick apart enemy ships. Their navy is the weakest of the Beacepheron nations, but they are designed to be able to traverse the Khair and its canals - the ships may have modest capabilities at sea, but are much more dangerous when they are attacking an enemy army inland.

Demographics

The population of Tel Iskarra is nearly evenly divided between Iskarran humans and snakefolk. Iskarrans are relatively dark-skinned with curly dark hair, well adapted to the sun and heat of their home country. Those humans who are not Iskarran tend to be Stormaki, living on the forest border. Some are not even aware that they don't live in Stormakt - the border between the two is quite porous, and preventing migration between the two countries is not the concern of the Pharaoh. In south are the Shaneslani, the atheistic - that is to say, who reject worshipping the quantifiably true Gods of the Iocrade cosmology - people of the conquered land of Shaneslah. They are known to typically have slightly paler skin, on average, than the Iskarran people, and longer hair. The human split is about 70% Iskarran, 25% Shaneslani, and 5% Stormaki, with Ancient Stormaki populations being too small to have a statistical presence. The snakefolk are the other native species to the area, and they are considered as perfect equals to humans and compose about 40% of the population. They are known for their amazing ability to coil and pounce long distances, and for their females being larger and stronger than their males.
Foreign residents are less common here than elsewhere - the heat and challenges of the desert, and the fact that farmland goes to citizens first before residents, means that immigration into Tel Iskarra is difficult. There are several Yalenvan missionaries within the cities of Tel Iskarra and often create small Enshori religious communities within. Those that do reside in Tel Iskarra tend to be involved in work as trade liasons and middlemen. Those that aren't tend to be involved in skilled crafts in the Iskar cities, and typically make good livings.
Almost all worship in Tel Iskarra follows the small Iskar Pantheon. Alsalmawt, God of the Honoured Dead is the most common target of veneration, with Taealamal, God of Learning and, among the soldiers, Almubarara, God of War coming in close second and third. The Stormaki living on the border continue to follow their own God, though this religion has next to no influence among the common Iskar people. The temples to the Gods are responsible for education, and one can find a high-quality education in many fields in their halls. All children are expected to learn mathematics, and their parents are expected to teach them based on their own knowledge. This is meant to ease the burden on the buerocracy at tax time - the amount of grain given to the state is self-reported and weighed to confirm the weight, and the taxpayer in question will be investigated if their farm's size and location suggests that their contributions are too small. Children who have failed to learn math by age 10 are sent to the nearest temple to live for 2 years where they learn the mathematics they need and work for the temple.
The average Iskar person is illiterate, despite their aptitudes at mathematics. This is in-line with most of the rest of Beacepheron and much of the world. Urban residents tend to practice and pass down information on a skilled trade and may buy into literacy classes at the temple to help with bookkeeping and other business needs. Most Shaneslani people live in cities and are uneducated, instead given the only recourse of working as unskilled labour. They are rejected from temple education on the perceived grounds that they are infiltrators and servants of Pashteh. And of course, scribes are by neccesity literate and taught by the Pharaoh's handpicked tutors, as are administrators and marshals.

Culture

The household in Tel Iskarra is run by the eldest individual, valued for their experience and knowledge. When they become too old to provide valuable input due to dementia or other age-related issues, the second oldest becomes the leader of the household, going down the ladder. This is regardless of gender, and regardless of birth parents - in a household that is run by a 80-year-old grandfather dies or becomes unable to continue leader, his 79-year-old wife will take over, and not his 50-year-old son. On the off-chance that two people of exact age live in the same household, there will typically be an quick, informal vote on the matter within the household. Households stay together across generations until a canal expansion has one of the children of the household be settled in a new patch of farmland. This applies across the species lines, though Iskar humans have a slight preference for men, and snakefolk for women.
Perceptions of gender among the Iskar people vary across species line, generally ascribed to the sex perceived as stronger. This is a slight skew, and Iskar society is egalitarian by the standards of the time. Human men are seen as the breadwinners and hard workers of their society, though they are seen as having an advantage and not supremacy in this respect. In snakefolk communities, women are seen as the stronger and more hardworking gender, aided by the fact that they lay eggs to have their children and aren't as burdened by childbearing as human women are. The Shaneslani are fully egalitarian across gender lines, and male and female children are given an equal share of what their parents owned unless they are disinherited. Disinheritance is only done to serious and unforgivable offenders of trust or law.
The Iskar government is advanced, but their technology is behind. They continue to use bronze as the sacred metal of Almubarara for their weapons and lack the resources to develop a production base for gunpowder. They depend on the inhospitable desert to defend their country, as well as their elite and highly effective archer corp, the pride of their military. They primarily use pack animal labour, primarily oxen, to pull ploughs, and sow and harvest their crops by hand.
Iskar culture is centred around the ideals of piety, loyalty to the state, hard work, tolerance and the divine right of the Pharaoh to rule. Sadly, tolerance has taken a backseat as the Iskar people grow more and more angry and frustrated with what they see as terrorist action on the part of the Shaneslani. The Shaneslani, meanwhile, have a culture centered around honesty, charity, family, and the choice of the people in who rules.
Respect for the dead is an important tenet of both cultures, but most famously and intensely among the Iskar people. The dead are seen as hallowed shells once their soul has left their body for the last time - the dead may only be resurrected within an hour of their death, or it is a crime to bring them back. Special exceptions can be made by the Pharaoh, but people will scrutinize this choice intensely for a time, considering the possibility of blasphemy against one of their most sacred traditions. Dead of importance, including administrators and marshals, typically receive a tomb, with sacred idols and figures added on their own dime. Looting such a tomb is hugely blasphemous and illegal, and can result in the death penalty at times. Pharaohs and their family are interred in the Step Pyramid Forts that dot the countryside in strategic locations, and these are actively guarded day and night by army soldiers. Raiding one is near-impossible without very powerful warriors or an army of your own.
Iskarran humans and the Shaneslani both wear similar clothing, typically light but covering clothes to protect from sunlight without overheating. Many have skin well-adapted to the heat to an extent that they do not need to wear shirts or other such tops. Generally, Iskar people have a preference for linen skirts whereas Shaneslani people prefer pants, or even shorts among children. Administrators and marshals tend to dress in relatively modest wear compared to the nobles of other, aristocratic nations, but significantly more expensively than a commoner or wealthy merchant. Gold is only worn by people as a badge of office of the Pharaoh. Posession of gold objects is legal, but they must not be a public part of one's outfit unless they are said badges, which is typically a golden cape buckle for a marshal and bracelet for an administrator.
Iskarran music is centered around rapid, jovial percussion instrumentation, particularly focused on drums and tamborines. Most regions have a wind instrument that their resources allow them to make - on the coast, they use conch shells. Inland, they make use of various flutes made from wood or metal, the latter especially in cities. Religious festivals are the most common place for music, as every village and city come together during their time off to indulge in drink, music, and revelry. Outside of the festivals, target shooting and hunting are very common, as most families own at least one bow and can make adequate arrows. The most common alcohol in Tel Iskarra is a light wheat beer often brewed in collective efforts by the local community. Mead from local bees are considered a delicacy, and is drunk by the wealthy, up to the Pharaoh, and is used in certain religious ceremonies. Iskar bees and the local breeds of flowers are known for producing very high quality honey, but this honey is rarely exported to keep the limited quantities for the uses of the Iskar people.
The Shaneslani prefer to fill all the roles of their music in with vocals. By changing tone, cadence, rate, volume, and pitch, they emulate the roles of instrumentation with different sections of the choir. Shaneslani have a second language dedicated entirely to music - the rules for how to use the language are widespread among the Shaneslani, and was designed to sound good when sang, but awkward when spoken plainly. This singing language, known as Wakoki, has individual words that convey simple concepts akin to how words are in Common, but also composite words that shorten very complex concepts into short words. Using a detailed explanation with full words emphasize the importance of a story element in a song. Using the shortened composite words inform the listener that this is a detail to the important parts of the story. Some instrumentation may be used at points, but this is a community choice that generally is seen as strange. Storytelling is an important cultural art among the Shaneslani, and their oral tradition of storytellers, who memorize and share tales of cultural, historical, and moral significance, has been lovingly and carefully preserved. Persecution of the Shaneslani has resulted in the arrest or death of many storytellers seen as 'subversive' or as simple reprisals to Shaneslani resistance. Many fear that some Shaneslani may be lost forever. Shaneslani people do drink similar beer to the Iskar, but tend to prefer a stronger, whiskey-like drink of their own native formula.

Information

Type: Nation, Kingdom, Despotic, Absolutist
Continent: Beacepheron
Population: 14,000,000
Standing: Local Power, Stagnant
Allies: The Kingdom of Stormakt (Informal)
Rivals: The Yalenva Emirates
Enemies: The Canate Princedom, the Starflame Kingdom