Reole
Reole began as a military outpost and the center of the campaign headed by a religious order known as the Divine Coalition. From the period of 0 CE to 100 CE the Divine Coalition held dominion in the region, and aggressively expanded its territory with the help of the Second Southern Emperor.
Despite the city of Reole being founded significantly later than any of the surrounding settlements, the centralized power structure of the expanding empire led to the entire continent being named after that single settlement. Reole operates as a city-state and has subjugated trading agreements with the surrounding lands. Very few settlements remain independent from the capital. Shinjuku, which is the dominion of the Southern Emperor, is the only region to have secured a conditional independence from Reole's culture and governance.
Structure
Reole has a House of Representatives, which is staffed by elected representatives from the various Guilds across the continent. In order to be considered a guild, an organization must have a minimum of 10 members as well as be able to afford the annual guild fee of 1 platinum piece a year. Initially, this created a bit of a divide as the majority of less-skilled professions did not have the capital to start guilds and therefore the majority of the House was seated by rich nobles, mages and artisans. This changed as the people unified to create general labour guilds to protect unskilled workers. One of the newest of these guilds is the Farmer's Guild.
Guild membership is synonymous with citizenship in Reole. This is why there was such a huge push for guild-coverage of unskilled workers and general labourers since they were a large class of unprotected peoples. Membership is required to petition the House of Representatives to act on any matter. People in Reole without an active membership in a guild are denied access to healthcare, protections and all other forms of hospitality and aid.
Culture
Reole values diversity, but for perhaps all of the wrong reasons. Contrary to scientific study, the people of Reole feel strongly towards the cultural stereotypes of each race, and use those to dictate their professional proclivities. While this does mean that a lot of organizations have an incredibly diverse workforce, the actual application of that diversity breaks down when it only supports dwarves in metalwork or brewing, elves as upper management or mages, with all the cracks being filled by the 'jack of all trades master of none' humans. The limits of these 'glass ceilings' for racial promotions hampers many individuals from pursuing their dreams or passions in areas outside of their racial stereotype. Anyone wanting to diversify finds themselves struggling to find an area outside of Reole's limitations in order to explore their nature.
Public Agenda
Reole forces its way into international conflicts as the role of the mediator. They view themselves as benevolent liberators of the communities and cultures that they colonize. In public discussions, Reole is always the first to suggest moderation or talking things out, but when no other countries are present, the government tends to act without notifying other parties.
Assets
Their largest export is the services of their trained professionals. They are a prime location for mages, fighters, and other guild services. They are also extremely self-sufficient in almost all aspects and do not need to import many things. Their only imports are precious metals, and ores from the west, which have been recently taken up by Blumond.
History
Stages of Reole's Government:
- The Divine Coalition (-50 CE to 100 CE): During this time the primarily order within the city was based on a religious organization focused on divination magic, faith based magics, and elemental magic. The Divine Coalition was started by Kalin Ithregar, an elvish Way of the Four Elements monk, who wanted to use their power to expand and cleanse the continent of "heretics". The elemental faction led by Ithregar joined forces with the divination wizards of the south who were facing potential expulsion due to the previous Emperor's hatred of divination magic. With their combined forces, they swept through central Reole and cut out a faction at the northern point of the southern empire, founding Reole. In a skirmish Ithregar killed the Emperor of the south, a human named Riku, who had his adopted son Tsun Wei take his place. Tsun Wei started waging heavy war on the invading faction and in a siege of Furukawa Ithregar was killed. Unknown to Emperor Wei, the coalition had become weary of the elementalists power and might. As a result they intentionally weakened Ithregar, allowing Tsun Wei to kill him in a duel. The coalition then made peace with Tsun Wei, offering partial ownership over the south and the ability to continue their way of life, so long as divination magics could be openly practiced there. Tsun Wei agreed, and a shaky alliance between the southern lords and the city-state of Reole was formed in the year 75 CE.
- The Coalition (100+ CE): After the Divine Coalition formed a system of government in Reole, it primarily allowed schools of magic and faith-based people to vote in guild affairs. As time went on, the faith-based guilds and divination schools slowly lost power and guilds outside those pre-set ideals started popping up. The fighter's guild being one of the first guilds to be established beyond religious or magic based means. The next two guilds that came currently have the largest membership due to special guild-membership requirements they established early on. The guild of Law and guild of nature both established themselves as "free" guilds. That is; you could join their membership without being exiled from being a part of another guild. This type of freedom caused people to flock to their guilds, forcing the other guilds to allow this new rule to be in place. Slowly several other guilds opened up their doors; the artificers guild, tailors guild, blacksmiths guild, etc.
Demography and Population
Predominantly human, high elf and half elf. The remaining ten percent is orc, dwarves, gnomes and tieflings as well as any other races.
Territories
Reole governs the majority of the central continent.
Military
The largest military in sheer numbers. Made up primarily of members of the Fighter's Guild which focuses in introductory magic training for all guild members with specializations in swordsmanship; shield-training; pole-arm training; ranged training; etc. These warriors are trained more as individual fighters and less as a unit, meaning they have less group cohesion in battle than Southern fighters.
All new recruits are outfitted with chainmail and martial weapons. Within the city guard, and even most soldiers, they have breastplates for protection at the very least. Officers and specialized units can be seen wearing full plate armour in most combat circumstances.
The Fighter's Guild is not the only organization heavily involved in populating Reole's military. They receive training from, and are provided battlefield support by, the various colleges of magic. These operate as Guilds and as such have an active participation in Reole's government and military decisions.
Foreign Relations
As Reole subjugated the majority of the communities under its current governance, there is much animosity within individual communities for the Capital.
Shinjuku is a ally of convenience, having traded autonomy for a cessation of war and troop support in the northward expansion.
Oriasall was founded on the refugees of Reole's campaign through the northern lands and, as such, still hold a grudge against the tactics employed and the slaughter of many people during that time.
Pyra has a purely economical relationship with Reole, only interacting to trade the ores and metals found in their region.
There is no known continent outside of Reole, and no other major foreign powers.
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