Trocno

Structure

Trocno since the revolution has been run as an Theocrical form of goverment, with 5 priests of Trocnian decent being elected every 40 years by the people in a grand ceramony. These priests are selected based on the publis view of how pious and humble they are, and who truly lives a life closest to godly amongst the land. The Council has a seperate represenative serving for life that represents the needs and desires of Trocno to the wider empire in offical meetings.

Culture

Despite being known as firey rebels and firebrands, in truth the Trocnian people are also a loving people at their core. For being such religious zealots, most if not all famalies in Trocno are remarkably welcoming of outsiders, so much so that several religous minority groups have flourished in Trocno lands. Famalies in Trocno are typically small, rarely having more than two kids, and its become increasingly common to own small houses outside the main city. Aside from farmers of course, many Křousites enjoy having their work near the main center part of the city, and hike back to their homes after a long day of work. This has unspririnsgly led to many to be hiking enthusiats, and supposedly there is even some towns that have competitions as holidays. More small villages are of course more close together, but for the big cities they enjoy walking to and from their professions. Aside from this, most cities are run by community leadership, and seemingly believe in communal ownership of property and land. This has led many to claim that the Trocno are very community driven and its almost second nature to help each other to survive.
Of course one cannot forget the faith of the Křousite land. Known offically as Křousniasim, it is similar enough to the mainline church of the flame, but is diffrent enough to confuse outsiders. Some points of major diffrence are Křousniasim are the rejection of worldy possessions, and primarily based around living a humble life. Helping thy neighbhor is seen as virtiuos, and resisting percieved tyranny is the work of a martyr. Prayer is to be had daily unlike once a week with the mainline faith, but prayer is noticeably shorter and able to be completed at home rather than needing to go to church. Despite this its still socailly preffered to go to church at least once every other week, but the faith of Trocno emphasises the idea that faith in the Flame and in the martyr is a very personal affair, and as such can be undertaken in ones personal free time. Another pecurliar practice is the act of scour blinding, primarily resulting as a form of flagellance derived from stories of famous priests and generals during the rebllion that fought while blind. Its common, espically in war, for some men and women to wear blindfolds, to show their devotion that the flame will keep them safe. The more extreme of some of these practioners do scour blinding, where they rituallisticly brand their eyes with the symbol of the flame, resulting in either heavy or complete loss of sight. Aside from the rather worrying pencient for self blinding, the land also bears host to many writers and artists in Ustaria, and houses one of the more famous bard colleges in the north. It's also quite common to see monks and pilgrams living like beggers, living off of goodwill of the people to show their devotion by rejecting all worldy possessions.

History

The Raskovian people to the north may be known for their utter faith and diligence, but the same can be said of course for old Trocno. The Křousites are a fiery people, said to be quick to anger and mighty in a fight, and woe betide any who stand in the way of their homeland. However they have been a part of the Rusilvaynian Empire for a long time, even if things have been shakey throughout history.
The earliest known tribes of Ustaria are said to have moved to Trocno lands along with the other tribes that migrated from Ishtar to the wider continenet. It is said that they share some ties to the Proto-Neunmen tribes (or those now inhabbitng Neundorf). It is said they first came to the land after tribes people claimed to see blips of fire in the distance when gazing down the mountains into the land, but upon arriving, the source of the lights were gone. The land was, however, incredibly fertile and perfect for living, and so the Trocno people eventually settled in the land, and eventually form communities and cities. Before Ustaria was united, the Trocnovian Kingdom stood as the goverment inhabbiting the Trocno lands. It had been fighting bloody skirmishes with both the Raskovian nation and tribals and feral orcs hailing from the Badlands when the skys darkened and the demons poured fourth from a great tear in Ustaria.
The liberation of the land came at heavy price, espically for Rasko and Trocno. In the latters case, it is estiamted the total population of the land was reducded by as much as 40%, something that would take ages to bounce back from. Regardless, when the tear was sealed and the land saved, the task of rebuilding and uniting came upon the land. While Tilvania and Rustil would keep to their heathen, paganistic practicies, Trocno adopted the church of the flame as their faith, the land being blessed and chapels being made. The church of the flame considered this a big win, as not only were the other lands pledging to the church welathy. but Trocno was and still is rich in minerals and what would later be discovered to be gunpowder.
In truth, not much happened after that leading up to the great revolt. Most of Trocno history consits of battles in the Badlands, and small on and off skirmishes with Rasko and Tilvania that ultimetaly didn't lead to any major military action. However, around the year 3780EC, the Křousite Rebellion would begin with the death of one man. A Trocnovian priest named Jan Křoupal was said to have recieved a holy vision leading him to the teachings of an ancient saint lost to time. This saint was Saint Javan, said to have been the prophet before Heymon Gundobad, hailing from the tribes of mortals as they still immigrated from the east to the west. It was him who carried aloft a great torch that burned with holy light, and he led the true diciples north to Ustaria, Heymon was simply just someone from the south who was the most influential in forming the church. Jan preached his new found wisdom, said to have used a golden cup that would help cure the sick and wounded to show how his faith has proved the validity of his wisdom.
Jan's preaching of this vision and event decried the church for its seeming corruption within its hierarchy, and how many of the priests wish to fill their coffers more than their souls with the gods love. While this stayed local for a little bit, it didn't take long for the wider church to catch wind of this. At this time the church was in a delicate place both financially and politically with Ustaria, and were worried that such doctrine could tip the delicate balance in Ustaria between hardline faith and the pagan rituals of old completly off. So they made a big show of sending in a witch hunters and priests, who jailed Jan. They tortured him, and tried to make him confess that demons had taken his soul and made him say such heresy, but to theri astonishment, he refused. Even when put upon the burning pyre, with the town forced to watch, he song hymnals of his love for the Flame, and for his fellow mortals watching this event. The church thought this was over and done with, and assigned the head priest of this inquisition to be the new town priest. However, Jan was a beloved member of the community, and such action was not taken lightly. It's unclear if the rebellion was a well planned event or a moment of heated passion run loose, but the truth of the matter is the inquisiton barely escaped with their lives as the head priest and 5 others were brutual beaten and hung by the town, them screaming for justice for Jan. These Trocnian peasents, along with several priests of local churchs that remained loyal to theri home country, unoffically cannoized Jan as a Saint and Martyr, and declared themselves the Křousites, in honor of his name.
Retribution was to come, and it did. Hearing this flagrant killing of their members, the church called upon a minor crusade, taking holy warriors from Neundorf and Ashenfeld to march into Trocno lands and pacify them. Armies from Bolsilva and Rasko were razed, but curiously enough Rustil and Tilvania seemingly dragged their feet for as long as they could, as neither had much intrest in furthering the church's strangle hold on the land. When the armies did arrive, it is said that the fighting was perhaps some of the bloodiest and cruel the lands of Ustaria had known since the War of Dark Skies. The Křousites were fanatic, with armies of peasent millitas with scavenged gear from armories and priests chanting hymnals of the martyrs deeds spurring these warriors on to greatness. They worked around their few armored cavalry units (as some but not all of the noble houses of Trocno threw their lot in with the Křousites) with sturdy war wagons. This coupled with the land having ample stocks of gunpowder, meant they barely managed to survive several attacking armies from all sides, and even hold off barbarian raids from the Badlands. All the while, the courts of the empire were in shambles, as near the beggining of the fighting the provincal king for Trocno was found dead in his personal quarters. Some say it was suicide, but others still whisper of conspiracy.
The fighting was said to last for about 5 years before eventually the land was ravaged and bloody. Křousite forces had begun on and off raiding of local lands and soon enough even the church simply wanted the fighting to be over with as quickly as possible. So it was that hostilities were ended with the signing of the Northern Compromise, declaring that:

• All mortal sins shall be punished by those whose office it is so to do, no matter the sinners position
• An end to the Indulgences, these being a special donation people (typically the wealthy and sinful) can pay to have their "soul redeemed" without having actually done any work
• The priests within Trocno lands shall claim no ownership of worldy possession either within Trocno territory or anywhere else in the world
• Jan Křoupal was to be cannonized as a minor saint offically by the church as Jan the Martyr (this compact was only barely able to be agreed upon)

This marked an end to fighting, though some breakaways of more extreme groups of Křousites had to be quashed by civil forces. A new ruler of the land was chosen, being the first community elected priest represenatives, effectively turning Trocno into an Theocracy. The nobles of the land were largely okay with this as many of them also had strong ties with the priesthood already. Since then Trocno has lived on to this day as a land of fierce rebel spirt but at least begruding loyalty to the empire. While many still look suspicouslly at the lands, they remain a strong economic center for mining, and a border nation from the threats of the southern Badlands.

Foreign Relations

"Heathens the lot of them, somehow I can tolerate the Rusti more than those cup pissing freaks." - Stanko Yoanov Hristov, Raskovian nobleman
"Though they be far from us, know that they have seen the truth path of the Flame. The lords of this land have feasted on the bounty of the gods land for too long, and its people are left in famine! Rise my borthes, my sisters, my comrades, rise and throw these nobles to the wolves!" - Marley Ross, Ashfeldian rebel conspirator
"Though my eyes be burned and reduced to slag, I can see everything god has promised! The fluid writhes within my sockets as penance of being blessed with such holy virture!" - Zora Moravcová, Trocnian flaggelant upon blinding himself.

As mentioned before, the people of Trocno are seen with some suspicion and concern by the wider empire. While still a vital mining power in the land, the rebellion was hard on the empire, so hard in fact that it is not offically recognized as a crusade in the churches records from how disaterously it went. This occasionaly leads to low scale skirmishes, espically with Rasko given the Raskovians utter zealotry for the mainline church. However, Trocno must still be respected as a hard working people, and having surprisngly wise and genious tacticians that can manage walls of wagons and gun lines booming against all who stand against them

Type

Geopolitical, Province

Demonym

Trocnian, however also commonly referred to as "Křousites"

Government System

Theocracy

Parent Organization

The Rusilyvania Empire

Location

Ustaria