Ashen Empire

The Ashen Empire is a large empire from the western volcanic half of Surthur. The Ashen Empire is famous for it's master goldsmithing. They have access to a massive amount of gold, and they use gold for almost all of their art and much of their ornate architecture.
The Ashen Empire farms plants that grow plentifully in the thick ash of Surthur, which give them a diverse and plentiful food supply. They also have domesticated some animals, both large and small, that give them food, transportation, working power.

Internation Relations

The Ashen Empire is the sworn enemy of the Obsidian Empire to their east, and they have been in conflict for over 1,000 years. They are not a part of the Imperial Coalition or the Free Nations Alliance, and show no interest in either.
Aside from this, the Ashen Empire has mixed relations with the iron-age tribes to the far south of Surthur.

Architecture And Art

The architecture of the Ashen Empire is primarily made out of medium sized black stone blocks, and they are often decorated with large amounts of gold. The art of the Ashen Empire heavily utilizes the sharp contrast between the bright gold they use and the dark materials they're built onto. Their gold designs are often made with smooth, round flowing and swirling lines of gold, often built onto pottery, furniture, architecture, and many other common objects.

Technology

The Ashen Empire has access to steel, primitive machinery, crude cannons and muskets, and efficient ash plant farming. The Ashen Empire has very advanced mining technology. They need to be good at mining because almost all of their resources are mined from deep in the earth, and their only source of water is groundwater below the scorched surface of Surthur. Due to the difficulty of accessing fresh water, they have developed advanced pump technologies to bring water up to the surface. They also often utilize the open lava flows and lakes for extreme cooking and metalworking.
The Ashen Empire is connected to the trade networks of the Merindian Empire and Regius, but they are very slow to adopt their new technologies. Their enemy, the Obsidian Empire however has been able to slowly begin to adapt to new technology, and are beginning to gain a major advantage over the Ashen Empire due to this.