Belsumese Empire
The Belsumese Kingdom is an arctic nation to the South of the Fortier Sea. It was founded in 713 T.E., much in the same fashion as the Empire, after a religious revolution. The Belsumese are proudly Human, with a long history of racial discrimination against most other races.
Demography and Population
The Belsumese follow a Divine Mandate from Eledhor to subjugate the whole of the material world under their own rule. By this right, they view themselves as superior to all other creatures in Nedia and beyond. The Belsumese are only fully friendly to and accepting of other Humans within their Empire. This means that pure-blooded humans alone are granted full citizenship and protected rights. Interestingly, the Belsumese consider Halflings, Gnomes, and Changelings to be racially human, entitling them to citizenship.
The majority of Belsumese land, then, is inhabited by humans alone, particularly Belsumese humans. The growth in the Belsumese population in Belsum has caused high rates of Belsumese emigration around the Empire, particularly in Maletsok and the southern coasts of the Fortier Sea.
Non-human subjects of the Empire tend to exist in either a limbo-citizenship, are enslaved, or are outright banned from all territories. Half-Elves are considered human enough to the Belsumese to allow for citizenship, however their rights are not protected under Belsumese Law and can be revoked at any time. Elves This same treatment is not extended to Half-Orcs, whose blood is considered to be that of the subjugated. Those non-citizens who are typically physically fit are enslaved as a workforce. Those subject who are not useful to the Empire are banished from their lands. Rumours circulate that the Belsumese actively eradicate those races they subjugate, but this is not confirmed by any evidence
Territories
Belsum is an impoverished land south of the Fortiere Sea, cursed with an arctic climate. It is centred around the Daili River and it's watershed, which feeds from the surrounding mountain glaciers. The land is striking in its raw majesty, and simultaneously horrifying in its inhospitability. Few plants grow which can be domesticated, and the animals that do walk the land are often dangerous and fearsome to fight.
Given the frigid climate and poor soil, the Belsumese sustain themselves on hunting and fishing these terrifying beasts of land and sea, which over time has allowed only the most strong and agile to survive and reproduce. However, since the Belsumese turned to industry and met with a population boom, the Belsumese find themselves in need of land to live and grow food upon. Coupled with the Divine Mandate, the Belsumese have pushed their area of control north into the Fortiere Sea in search of better lands. Slowly, the Belsumese have taken increasingly habitable land stretching from Qamit to the Southern Cliffs of Margathra. With the incorporation of the agriculturally rich lands of the Western Islands and Ilemseach of Maletsok in 1301 T.E., the Belsumese ability to grow food for their population rose exponentially.
Military
The might of the Ethelan Empire may be unmatched on land, but the Belsumese still present an ugly threat. Their forces are of poor quality, but for this they are recompensed by their numbers and zeal.
Their army, the Butet Buteekh (Bearers of Order) as they are so styled, is innumerable and brave. Their armour is light, for they are not accustomed to temperate climates, if they wear armour at all. Common soldiers wield ranged weapons, such as spears with barbaric heads, or powerful crossbows. They may also carry, especially on the front lines, long rounded shields. Alongside the common soldiers go their spellcasters, heavily armour-clad.
The Butet Buteekh tend to operate ruthlessly, sending deep fronts of soldiers in long undulating lines with little care for their safety, save for abjuration mages who hold the line fast. These undulations create salients, wherein enemy troops may be surrounded and enveloped within the very front itself. Once enveloped, the salient bolsters and creates two salients on either side of it in such a way that the front ebbs and flows like the waves on a sea. Once a pocket is enveloped, it is made quick work of by rear-troops, especially war and death mages. In this way, the Butet Buteekh, when in a position of dominance on a battlefield, are a fearsome foe. However, should the battlefield not be in their favour and a flanking easily done, a Belsumese Front is easily destroyed.
Not so is this the case with the Royal Navy, Shurgagu Dalamhor (Riders of Stormless Seas). This, truly, is unmatched in all Nedia. Unlike the Butet Buteekh, the Shurragu Dalamhor favours quality over quantity. The warships of the Shurgagu Dalamhor are clad in Belsum Gold and propelled not by wind or oar, but by great machines powered by enslaved elementals (see AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY below). Any Belsumese ship is swifter and more agile than the best ships of any navy known to the Ethelan Empire, and seemingly as unassailable as a Dwarven citadel among the mountains. It is for this reason these ships are often called Floating Fortresses in the common language.
More dangerously still is the firepower of the Shurgagu Dalamor. Through decades of perverted experimentation on elementals, the Belsumese have been able to create powerful conduits of the Near Worlds (see Polasenok - The Universal Order) that can launch projectiles of raw elemental matter. These can often devastate an opposing ship with a single hit. Each Floating Fortress will often only have one or two conduits, making traditional weapons such as powder-cannons a regular sight to see.
The Floating Fortress' downfall lies in key areas, which unfortunately detract little from the might of the Shurgagu Dalamhor altogether. Firstly, each Fortress is highly expensive to build. Belsum Gold is rare and time consuming in smithy, and one ship alone can take upwards of two decades to complete on top of that. Although the Belsumese industrial prowess has granted them numerous mines and shipyards, the process is still slow to rebuild a fleet after a battle. This problem is only further exacerbated as their empire grows, as the Shurgagu Dalamhor is stretched ever thinner by each passing decade.
Secondly, despite being swift and agile, Floating Fortresses reduce speed tremendously while firing, as the elementals that power the ship also power the ordinances. This leaves ships vulnerable to barrage and boarding by larger fleets, which can overtake a Fortress that has stopped to attack (though not without difficulty, mind you). Belsum Gold, for all its strength, is not invincible and will give under enough strain. Further, once boarded, a Fortress' crew is often ill-prepared for physical combat and will tend to scuttle the ship rather than fight or lose the ship to enemy hands.
Technological Level
Due to their mandate to subjugate the natural world and their harsh homeland climate, the Belsumese are gifted industrialists, and actively strive to bend and pervert nature to their own will. As such, they are the first, if not only race or group of people in Nedia to discover non-magical methods by which to rival the power of magic and even the Divine.
Belsumese industry was born from two key advancements made sometime after the Divine Mandate was handed down by Eledhor. The first advancement came when Belsumese Witches (Dailist priestesses who specialize as spellsmiths) developed a powerful holding spell which could be used to enslave elemental beings to be sources of fuel for machinery. Subsequently, these Witches also learned how to prolong a spell's duration, though at great effort to the casters. Spellcasters charged with holding elementals, then, are often trained specifically for the task, and work in shifts.
Thereafter came the development of Belsum Gold; a brilliant alloy of gold and a concoction of rare metals that not even the cleverest of Ethelan academics can unveil. It appears like gold marbled with cracks of black. Belsum Gold is said to be stronger than steel, yet as malleable in smithing before it cools as bronze. Not only this, it is said to be so unsuitable for magic as to be as resistant to it as the scales of a dragon (though this, doubtlessly, is hearsay). Nevertheless, probably due to its gold content, it is heavy as lead and cannot be wielded as weapon nor donned as armour. Further, its innate spell-resistance makes it impossible to imbue with enchantments.
These two advancements paved the way for an industry such as the world has never seen. The era of mass production entered the world through Belsumese. Gone are the days of skilled labourers in all lands under Belsum's shadow. Cities spring forth from village-huts, fed by mass-produced food and working in massive factory buildings and yards; citizens and subjects alike enjoy cheap products and quick services; and warmakers deployed vast armies wielding cheap yet suitable arms, man and weapon both easily replaceable; all this fed and fueled by the ever-burning fires of elemental industry in vast factories of Belsum Gold.
Religion
Education
The Belsumese education system is strict and gendered. Traditionally, Belsumese society held that women were the bearers of knowledge and lore while men were relegated to positions of enforcers and protectors of family and village. However, in the advent of Dailism and industry, the role of knowledge-keeping was more equally shared (still little by Ethelan standards).
Today, a common knowledge of industry and artifice is shared among the whole populace in order to maximize industrial progress. This, however, is where the equality ends. All other areas of knowledge-holding, especially history, art, spellcraft, medicine, and philosophy, are the domains of women and women alone. Men who work in areas that require a knowledge in these subjects may be educated in that subject (such as political leaders in history and philosophy), but the ability to teach these domains or work toward their advancement is reserved only for women, as their role as knowledge-bearers and educators is deemed sacred.
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