The Satraps of Gilgesh
A fallen nation in every sense of the word, Gilgesh has been trying to regain its former glory for decades. So thoroughly was it trounced in its fall, that its capital is still in ruins, waiting for its people to gather the pieces.
Structure
Lugal: the Gilg term for ruler or regent, the Lugal has absolute power, even while many other monarchies have been stripped of some or most oof the authority that they held even 100 years ago. What they say, goes, without question.
Below the Lugal is the nobility that cares for specific portions of the nations rocky landscape, paying a tithe to the king in material, money, or food. These portions are the titular 'satraps'.
Assets
- The Perfumed River
- The Fertile Scar
- Solomon's Grave
- 660,000 Baraspa, Shield Men
- 27,000 Amarti, Immortals
- 1,000 (or less) Divine constructs.
History
Avalon and Tir Na Nog haven't always been the superpowers of Hinaestrum. In fact, up untill the Age of Exploration, the shadow of Gilgesh was cast across the whole of its home continent.
Formed soon after the Realmshatter turned the area into an arid scrubland the ancestor tribe of the Gilg started to grow in power. Known as the Fademia, this tribe hooked itself into many of its neighboring tribes through marriages and childbirth. A few dozen marriages and children later, what had been a few scattered tribes had been lashed together to form a high functioning society. With the crowning of a king (after a few proper poisonings and assassinations of course), the Satraps of Gilgesh was born. From the Age of Wounds, until the Age of Exploration, the Gilg would leverage their armies to conquer their dessert neighbors, and the economic might they built through plunder to twist the arms of their northern neighbors.
Of course, their policies didn't earn them many friends. Any at all in fact. So when the knights of Avalon and spears of Tir Na Nog marched on Gilgesh to curb the opulent nation's influence, no one stood with them, bar the few bootlickers that stuck around for a reward that never arrived. The foreign auxiliaries that Gilgesh had swelled its ranks with deserted en mass, or joined with the marching invaders. The nobles left in command, who only received their positions through nepotism or bribery, barely put up any resistance. So little, in fact, that the campaign lasted less than a year. Nine months after the Boar and Clover crossed the boarders of Gilgesh, they stood outside the gates of the capital city. Umbar.
And that's when they lost control of their newfound allies. The auxiliaries that had deserted Gilgesh, assaulted the city, and easily took the forts that protected it. From there, they surged through the city, burning and looting as they went. Thesken, Djinn, Faun, and a hundred other peoples all united in a single purpose. Revenge. And that is where the history books lose track of what happened. As Avalon and Tir Na Nog attempted to create order so that proper peace negotiations could take place and the Gilg nobles scrambled to save what they could of their own valuables and the city burned, someone on some side found a container of Black Mirror.
Outlawed by many many many treaties today, no historian is quite sure where the liquid came from, nor how it came to be housed in the capital city. But to make a long story short, the city was turned into a graveyard. The shambling dead claiming most of the looters before the invaders could establish a perimeter.
Gilgesh is still attempting to reclaim its capital from the Black Mirror and without it's previous allies, resources, and military assets, it's more than slow going. In a strange turn, however, the death of the capital has spawned the most profitable industry the nation has seen in the past 300 years. Scavenging. Brave and Foolhardy explorers delve into the city and the hordes of undead to retrieve the artifacts of noble familes, ancient texts, and priveless works of art. All in the promise of a massive payout.
Demography and Population
87% Gilg
11% Assorted (assumed to be the descendants of slaves who didn't manage to leave the nation during the Invasion of the Boar and Clover
2% Assorted Foreign
Technological Level
Behind. The focus on reclaiming their capital has caused them to sacrifice most other forms of advancement.
Education
non-existant. In most cases actively suppressed by the nobility.
Infrastructure
Dirt roads at best. The fields that rely on the Perfumed River are heavily irrigated.
Mythology & Lore
Gilgesh is a monotheistic nation. To them, there is only one being that will help their nation in times of peril or instability. Eurejis the Imperial.
Said to be a god of law and judgment, Eurejis is believed to grant and protect the royal bloodlines' divine right to rule.
Founding Date
149, Age of Wounds
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Alternative Names
Old Eilbra
Demonym
Gilg
Leader
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
Gilg Daric: A red-orange note that bears the likeness of the current Lugal on one side, and the royal seal on the other.
Official State Religion
Deities
Neighboring Nations
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