Shogunate of Cygia
Controlling the narrowest point between two continents, the Shogunate of Cygia exercises an outsized influence for it's small size. Both the Shoguns and the citizens of the country walk a tight line between guarding and preserving its cultural heritage while, by physical necessity, interacting with cultures from far outside its own shores.
Structure
The Shogun of Cygia rules over all, dictating and delegating his orders to two regional lords, one each side of the Cygian Strait. Each Lord has designated royal knights to govern provinces and villages. The lords also have their own authority to designate officials to administrate the Shogunate as they see fit, with success or failure of their subordinates falling squarely on their honor. This includes, chiefly, the administration of the ports, and the training of naval forces to patrol the strait for invaders or pirates.
Culture
Cygia as a culture prides itself on honor, interpreting that word as being of service to others and comitting duty as well as possible. In adherence to Quargh, they are hospitable and gracious to foreigners, as it quite common, but still maintain a sense of cultural superiority, derived from having been more or less unchanged for centuries.
Public Agenda
The Shoguns have long since believed that Cygia's role in the world was to help establish a peaceful world, even if it means preparation for war. That has also meant, to them, to preserve old traditions and beliefs meant to bring people together. The nation is naturally seperated by water through the straight, and makes deliberate effort to stay together despite the separation. To the degree that they can, the Shogun uses this metaphor to teach both leaders of other nations as well as his subordinates.
Assets
The strongest asset for the Shogun is his navy. The ships are small in size compared to others like the Linthalian Dreadnoughts, but they are agile and more numerous, allowing them constant surveillance, and maneuvering through the wetland rivers. The number of coastal cities with servicable ports also provides a great deal of revenue from trade coming from nations unable or willing to make the full transcontinental shift to nations like Linthalia.
History
Cygia is one of the oldest nations in T'sara, and in the ancient times of the First Age, may have claimed a larger territory than it does currently. After the dust settled from the Fey Crisis and the Sundering, it was an especially hard time for the survivors to try and make a life, and hold onto what they could of their old world. People gravitated towards strength and authority, and in what is now Cygia, that was offered with a little more. The early version of what would become the Shogun promised that she would not only protect those pledged loyalty, but that she would do all she could to preserve a sense of the world from the Lost Age and, if possible, turn back to that world. It would prove impossible to do the latter, but the belief that traditions and unity, on top of providing needed safety and security, proved enticing.
Demography and Population
Although the country is in the bottom fifth of total populations, its settlements remain quite dense and rich, as well as unusually diverse. Elves, Orcs, and Humans reside here with roughly equal number, although the Elves have had a slight plurality here from the beginning. With the Northern Cygian territory bordering on the Nuled mountains, it also has a strong propensity of Dwarves. Few of them transit to the southern side of the nation; few dwarves, even in coastal nations, grow comfortable with the concept of ships and ocean travel.
Military
Cygia's military is predominantly in it's naval capabilities, with flotillas of small boats built to interdict and intercept known or suspected pirate ships. Smaller number of larger, more conventional ships stay closer to land as national defense.
The Cygian army is a secondary concern, positioned small garissons along the northern border, with larger defensive positions against the larger southern border with Wilver Empire. Numerous watchtowers have been build along the coastlines to quickly relay signs of invasion.
Beyond protecting the borders, the Army provides regional defense to the citizens. The marshy wetlands provides suitable home for a number of threats, from large predators to more fiercesome monsters.
The Cygian army is a secondary concern, positioned small garissons along the northern border, with larger defensive positions against the larger southern border with Wilver Empire. Numerous watchtowers have been build along the coastlines to quickly relay signs of invasion.
Beyond protecting the borders, the Army provides regional defense to the citizens. The marshy wetlands provides suitable home for a number of threats, from large predators to more fiercesome monsters.
Foreign Relations
There is a restrained hostility between the Cygian Shogun and the warlords of Skald, where the majority of the eastern pirates and pillagers come from. If the warlords continue to encourage this behavior, war could break out. The hordes from the west, though less prone to seagoing, are still a regional threat that openly encourages chaos and violence, with Cygia being the bulwark against it.
Of it's immediate neighbors, the WIlver Empire to the south appears to be trying to emulate the Intransican model far way, with a predominantly human-centric, militaristic society. They are, for the moment, more intrested in westward and southward goals, possibly pushing into D'arcan. The Shogun refuses to be caught unaware, and has strengthened his force both at sea and on land if necessary.
Of it's immediate neighbors, the WIlver Empire to the south appears to be trying to emulate the Intransican model far way, with a predominantly human-centric, militaristic society. They are, for the moment, more intrested in westward and southward goals, possibly pushing into D'arcan. The Shogun refuses to be caught unaware, and has strengthened his force both at sea and on land if necessary.
Never far apart
Type
Financial, Merchant League
Capital
Demonym
Cygian
Leader Title
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Command/Planned economy
Gazetteer
The Lover Monuments are the largest marker of Cygia, both in sheer size and in cultural relevance. On either side of the Cygian straight is a statue hundreds of feet tall, one of a man and one of a woman, facing each other in a display of love and physical separation. The monument was built very early in the First Age, when there was still hope that the land and people's of Cygia might still be reunited as one. That ethos still helps define Cygian culture, and remains a powerful symbol for outsiders. Sailors going through the strait will often pause from the work when passing through them, recognizing that they too, are physically separated from their loved ones.
Currency
Silver has been mined from the mountains to the east of North Cygia to create simple coins. Depending on value, the coins will either be marked with the insignia of the Shogunate, or Lovers Monuments. It is a heavily traded society, so coins and other currency from neighboring states will be accepted, with the exception of the Skald coins. These coins will rarely leave the trade hubs of the coastal cities.
Major Exports
The wetlands of Cygia allow for the growing and harvesting of rice. The country is not the massive food exporter that Linthalia is, but the comparitive rarity of the crop does allow for some decent profits for the small surplus that is created.
Related Ethnicities
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