Doujatar Kingdom

The Doujatar kingdom is the political organization ruling, more directly or indirectly, over the lands where the Moon Church has enough influence. It is a feudal state controlling regions through a complex system of vassals and local nobles. It is the successor kingdom to the old Zitari Kingdom, which disappeared after the Nesto treaties, merging with the Church's territories. Complexity is something seemingly intrinsic in the kingdom's logistics. Everything seems to require a lot of bureaucracy and often ends in licences and taxes to pay.

Structure

The Doujatar Kingdom inherited the feudal structure of its predecessor, the Zitari Kingdom. Local landlords swear loyalty to more powerful nobles, becoming their vassals. They give up part of their ruling freedom and put their army at their lord's service in exchange for protection against external threats. Marriages among noble families often consolidate and strengthen vassalizations. Unlike the Zitari one, Doujatar kingdom did not suffer many rebellions and secessions, in part because of the common religious ground founded upon the Moon church, in part because of the massive power the High King can dispose of, considering all its vassals' armies. In compliance with the Nesto treaties, feudal titles are no more hereditary. Each time a feudal lord dies, local priestesses meet with the most important noble families in the city and nominate a successor, chosen among the nobles themselves. The choice is driven by political, military and religious factors alike: heroic high-rank officers and influential family members are prioritised, but devotion to the Moon's goals is a crucial criterion. After the designation, all the vassals submitted to the previous noble must reiterate their pledge to the successor.

Culture

The two most noticeable characteristics of Doujatar Kingdom's culture are an inexplicable love for overly complicated bureaucratic iters and licenses, and more understandable hate for undead and demons, even peaceful ones. The latter derives from a belief deep-rooted in Doujatar culture, that demons, undead and otherwise abyssal abominations are inherently evil or at least dangerous. They believe individuals can abruptly go frenzy even in pacific communities, thus making living close to them hazardous. Some foreign scholars claim this belief is a deception designed by the Moon Goddess to ensure people value more her protection. They point out as in many regions, including relatively close areas in the Free Lands, peaceful demons live in harmony with other civilised sophonts. In the Empire, the Movement for Demons Rights Recognition found wide approval among citizens, too, and it is now expanding even outside the borders. The Church is unmovable on the matter, and people seem to almost unanimously back the position, though somebody argues only out of fear. Since priestesses refer the will of the Goddess, it is clear that she wants the population to hate demons, but why is discussed (outside Doujatar borders, at least). The nineteenth-century abyssal crisis and the decisive divine help are still too fresh in people's stories for them to depart from the Goddess' position. Moving back to more light-hearted matters, licenses are the other main characteristic of the kingdom, accompanied to a fair amount of bureaucracy. Almost every job requires a license, including adventuring. Not even priestesses can avoid it. While the complex paperwork associated with them seems largely excessive and unmotivated, the reasons behind licenses are pretty clear. They are taxed: obtaining and renovating them (usually once a year) costs money. Local nobles acquire payments and immediately use them to feed their armies, in the best case, or their own palaces, in the worst.

Public Agenda

As an organization tightly tied to the Moon Church, Doujatar kingdom's objectives reflect the Moon Goddess will. They mostly follow her commands, through the intermediation of the priestesses. Currently, fighting the Undead and investigating the Dark Lands are the announced goals. Sabotaging the Empire is also equally important, especially now, when they seem to be close to rediscovering circuitation of energy. Though this does not seem to be a primary objective of the Goddess and her Church, it is especially significant for a couple of reasons. First, the Empire is the only other powerful Nysian political entity and has always opposed the kingdom. Second, the Empire grows more tolerating day after day of demonic minorities.

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Nobody will ever officially acknowledge this, but the main goal of the kingdom is to slowly gain rule over Nys. Through silent annexations, vassalizations, organized marriages and sporadic wars against abyssal enemies, they hope to bring all countries of Nys under a single banner, possibly one with the sign of the Moon on it. No one suspects such an ambitious goal, and those who do, think about it more like a utopia, than a problem. Considering the Arkadhian New Empire is doing the same thing, but through war, Doujatar peaceful ways seem good enough. Among wayfarers there is the feeling this achievement is also the will of the Goddess, as if it was she who wanted to reign over Nys. In this case, what would happen if a country, like the Shajīn, did not bow? Free Cities are already organizing among themselves in a league, much like Cajena, to avoid falling prey of larger expantionist political entities, be it the Empire or Doujatar kingdom.

History

During the first centuries of the third era, Doujate was divided into small villages and cities, as much afraid of each other as of abyssal creatures. Some of them waged war against the others, some voluntarily submitted and a feudal organization was born. It was the Zitari kingdom. It grew until western Doujate was essentially under its control. At that point, it almost touched Moon Church territories, in the eastern part of the region. Zitari demanded surrender and the church refused. Hostilities escalated into a full war for hegemony over Doujate in the year 1112. After two hundred years of more or less continuous conflict, the two sides came to an agreement and signed the Nesto Treaties, a series of lengthy documents explaining in details how the two political entities were going to merge into a new Doujatar kingdom. The Nesto war was the last major conflict for conquest or hegemony Doujatar people lived. From then on, neighbouring countries and cities voluntarily joined the kingdom and those who did not were coerced into doing so under threat of war. No small country could hope to withstand church mages and Zitari tamed doujin united. Nowadays Doujatar kingdom can no more force countries into submission since their relative power gap is not large enough. During centuries, the kingdom partecipated in several lunades called upon by the Church against abyssal abomination. In particular, Nejayne Terin uf Elaique ta Peprouf called the Second Lunade against the Undead in year 1427 and Jen-Cheva Menaux uf Tarin ta Furmouf the Third Lunade during the abyssal crisis.

Demography and Population

Total population is estimated to be around 15 million. It is evenly spread more or less across the whole region. Large cities, like Krylach, Holy City and Burmeleu host well over half a million citizens each, but, according to the royal administration data, no more than 5 millions people reside in large cities. The vast majority inhabits small rural villages serving some local noble vassal.

Military

The two most important weapons the kingdom relies upon are magic and doujin. About the latter, several army divisions exploit these large reptiles for warfare. They are resilient, strong and generally tameable, tough those who lack this last quality are often the most effective. Douji-riders are common on the battlefield and substitute cavalry almost completely. An airborne division exists too, the Oubri-Douji Riders. As for mages, they are not deployed with soldiers on the battlefield. They constitute a chosen group of agents for special tasks. They usually perform undercover operations, espionage or carry out otherwise particular missions.

Technological Level

The kingdom did not invest much into technological research, partly because of the dedication to magic, partly because of the lack of proper instruments and places to do research. Scholars, which in Doujatar context usually means mages in some academy, believe the present situation derives from lack of interest for the matter from the landlords. As long as nobles spend their money on armies and palaces there cannot be any means to found universities. Nevertheless, the kingdom does not still live in the second era. Most houses have access to fresh water and military-related technologies are fairly advanced, almost on par with the leading non-magitechnical state of the art, which is the Cajenian level. Guns circulate, though expensive and uncommon, and musket are being developed. It is important to note, that weapons using gunpowder are an imported technology. Cajenian specialised smiths who knew how to build handguns came in Doujate, attracted by the possibility of selling their knowledge to nobles.

Religion

The official state religion is the Moon Church, as per the Nesto Treaties. While at first people outside the original church's territories lived the new religion as a forcing, in time they accepted it, beginning to see abyssal creatures, undead in particular, as a threat to the kingdom. After the Goddess' help during the abyssal crisis, virtually everyone began truly believing in her, embracing the idea Doujatar people is invincible under her divine protection.

Foreign Relations

Being essentially the armed side of the Moon Church, the kingdom's diplomatic relations align perfectly with the church's beliefs. The war against the Abyss translates into fighting the Undead Cities,. The fact that wayfarers have, for unknown reasons, a deep sympathy for the undead, makes war against them an arduous task. Relations with the wayfarers are further complicated by the fact that, according to the New World Treaty, any artefact found in Doujatar territory can be confiscated by them. In many cases, the kingdom tries to exploit some bureaucratic clause to still keep them. Among the others:

flat out lying and saying the object was retrieved in the Dark Lands or the Elven forests, outside territories subjected to the treaty;
arguing it was found in a vassal's region, which is not exactly under the king jurisdiction;
deny access to artefacts found within temples, since the Moon Church did not sign the new world treaty and temples are its territory.

The kingdom entertain commercial relations with all the other major countries like the Shajīn, Cajenian League, the Free Lands and the Elven tribes. Nonetheless, the kingdom has claimed over some regions in the Free Lands. War is not an option, though, since they are considered allies against the Arkadhian New Empire and the Abyss. Someone says that a war would be a serious problem since in the Free Lands people cultivate and press tomatoes to produce sauce for catri (see Laregni Festival about catri). Tomatoes are toxic for several military-employed doujin (like irkys stenun), and their presence would rule out the possibility of using the most powerful divisions in the army (like Oubri-Douji Riders). In addition to these facts, many free cities are already under the influence of the Church, especially in northern regions, so that it would be a fratricidal war. The current goal of the king is to nominate Free Judges vassals or organize marriages between them and Doujatar nobility so that they need to swear loyalty to the crown.