Sutekina The Future Belongs to Those Who Dare To See It

Sutekina is a small island nation in the midst of a technological revolution. Steam has changed the way many people interact with society and especially with magic. As the towns grew larger and more profitable the ruling military class made moves to acquire surrounding islands and bring them into the age of steam.   Many people on the outlying islands prefer magic and are wary of the new inventions but the influential and charismatic Minister of State has managed to make deals with most of them. Sutekina has a rich cultural identity marked my strong nationalism and pride in their inventive nature. The god of choice for many is Kiro, God of Invention. There are shrines to Kiro in every city where people will bring pieces of scrap metal that are then provided to the church for use in making armor and machinery in his name. Most peoples relationship to Kiro has strengthened over the course of the revolution with many seeing steam as a gift bestowed on them by the God himself.   Kiro's symbol is a gold circle, members of the church and military will incorporate the symbol into their armor in a number of ways. While industrialization flourishes, citizens of Sutekina still find a place for nature in their daily lives. This is presented primarily through the protected forest lands around the country and areas of dedicated nature for meditation and rest.   Inventions of any notable worth are to be presented in front of a council of inventors who will decide if your work is of use to the state. If it is discovered that someone has been working on something with the potential for use in war or scientific progress and has not alerted the correct officials they are subject to search and seizure of their project   Some inventors are opposed to the pressures on talented creators to join the countries military or church however and have moved their operations underground. This is a particularly popular choice for non human inventors who have long felt they are not as respected as their human counterparts by the predominantly human government. A particularly powerful faction of these inventors is The Bani, a gang of lapine, elves, and dwarves that travel through the underground criminal circuits in the capital city of Shio. Bani members deal in black market magic and steam contraptions, drugs, and weapons. They are considered by many to be dangerous simply by association however they rarely commit crimes themselves.   The Bani's symbol is a purple ring with two lines to symbolize a broken chain, a circuit, and the lapine that founded the organization.   There are rumors of the State acting much worse than anything the Bani has ever been accused of. There are stories of dark magic, biological experiments, poisonings of innocents and kidnapping. But no one can say if these stories are true or just twisted rumors...   Many of the surrounding islands are still developing their own cultures at the pace they are comfortable with. Most are slow to adopt new technology however some island territories have become more closely connected to Sutekina. Seibetsu stands in opposition to Sutekina culturally, though they have adapted well to the industrialization. Gorudo, conversely, as a mining town, has primarily taken what they needed for the industry they export and accepted the religion without incorporating much more of the technology into their lives.