Four Kingdoms of the Makovai

"How noble, how wise, were they who founded the Four Kingdoms. To sacrifice our oldest way of life, so that we might not destroy ourselves in the end." - Denabryn Word-Weaver

The Four Kingdoms of the Makovai were the chief governing institutions of the Makovai people, as well as those who lived in what was traditionally Makovai territory. Founded during the Third Era, the Kingdoms enjoyed tremendous prosperity as they became one of the dominant powers in Beurum, establishing the Makovai Mountains and the Boundary Hills as economic and cultural centers of the continent. During the Fourth Era, however, the Kingdoms suffered a gradual decline as more centralized Trebai rule as well as the rise of the Daphnea encroached upon their power and land. This eventually culminated in the Twenty-Year War, in which the Kingdoms combined with the Sverden Dominion to form the Five Dwarven Kingdoms, which quickly fell apart following their disastrous defeat in the conflict.

Structure

Typically, there was no one head of the Four Kingdoms; rather, each kingdom was ruled by a Sovereign who coalesced to solve problems affecting all of the Makovai. During times of immense crisis, the Sovereigns would elect a High Sovereign, who could be one of them or someone in the royal family. Their position would expire by the end of the season, no matter what.
Each of the Four Kingdoms (Amberyn, Oktoshyn, Glegaver, and Zhardja) were ruled by a regional Sovereign. Different kingdoms had different methods of succession; for example, in Amberyn, the oldest was carefully trained to rule, while their younger siblings were relentlessly educated in statecraft so that they could advise the sovereign. In Zhardja, on the other hand, the Sovereign's children competed to see who could do the most heroic deed. Whoever accomplished this, in the eyes of the Sky Elders, would be permitted to rule.
Below the Regional Sovereign, each kingdom governed somewhat differently. Glegaver featured a full parliament, who had almost as much power as the Sovereign, whereas its neighbor Oktoshyn featured a war-council made up of the nobility, who enforced the Sovereign's policy in the realm's various locales.

Culture

The culture of the Four Kingdoms of the Makovai was vast and varied, featuring a number of different Makovai cultural customs.

Public Agenda

The primary mandate of the Four Kingdoms of the Makovai was to ensure peace and unity between all the Makovai people. The Sovereigns sought peace not only because it promoted the welfare and prosperity of their subjects, but also because they knew that if they succumbed to their ancient ways of near-constant warfare, they would lose power on the world stage.

History

Since before the start of recorded history, the traditional way of life for the Makovai had been perpetual warfare. The ancient belief was that such a lifestyle let only the strongest survive, and thus made the people as a whole strong.
Makovai attitudes toward this way of life began to shift when, having become so fractured and split up by fighting, they were gradually overtaken by the Teran dwarves in the Second Era. Most Makovai concluded that their constant infighting had made them vulnerable to rule by a foreign power, which they despised. They watched as the Teran dwarves expanded their empire into the Third Era, but became weakened in the First Dwarven War, which was cut short by the Kantaran Invasion of Beurum. As the Teran squabbled with the massive Kantaran Empire, they gradually lost power and territory, and had to fall back into the Makovai Mountains and Boundary Hills.
All the while, the Teran dwarves had been treating the Makovai under their rule more and more harshly, and the Makovai became sick of it. In 6558, they came together and revolted against the Teran, siezing power for themselves and claiming most of the territory in the lower Makovai Mountains and Boundary Hills. Under the leadership of Igdramil the Peacemaker, this land was split up into the four kingdoms, and four families were elected to rule each territory. It was declared that there would be no more fighting, and that the welfare of the dwarven people would always come first.
Many Makovai were unsatisfied with this new arrangement at first. Having just thrown off the yoke of Teran rule, they were unnerved at the idea of being ruled under distant Sovereigns once again. This anxiety, however, was mitigated following an economic boom in the area, driven by generous trade agreements with the Kantaran Empire. What followed was the Makovai Golden Age, in which universities and artist communes were built on the sites of old battlefields, age-old bloodfeuds were settled peacefully, and expeditions into the Lands Beyond took place.
This golden age ended, however, as the Kantarans were driven out of Beurum, taking their trade agreements with them. The re-emerging High Kingdom of Beurum looked upon the dwarves with much less kindness, seeing them as associated with their centuries-long oppressors. They largely closed themselves off from the Four Kingdoms, and war was only narrowly avoided at the start of the Fourth Era, mainly because the Trebai and Alois were exhausted from fighting the Kantarans.
As bread became less plentiful while the Makovai population grew over the centuries, so did unrest within the Four Kingdoms. A series of unpopular Sovereign through many of the kingdoms did not help the situation. The High Kingdom of Beurum began to expand into the Boundary Hills, taking traditionally dwarven land, tensions began to grow substantially. Not all was in decline, however; the Four Kingdoms began to unify more with the Sverden Dominion, putting aside cultural differences to stand together as dwarves against the Trebai, who also encroached on Sverden land.

Disbandment

At the end of the Fourth Era, tensions grew stronger than ever before. A number of popular Makovai and Sverden leaders were killed under mysterious circumstances during the Era's last century, and many in the Four Kingdoms became enraged at the Trebai, who they saw as responsible. Following the Stribna River Valley Event, in which open hostilities broke out between dwarves and humans in the Boundary Hills, the Four Kingdoms of the Makovai combined with the Sverden Dominion to form the Five Dwarven Kingdoms.
Most viewed the Five Dwarven Kingdoms as a temporary arrangement. However, after their catastrophic defeat in the Twenty Year War, most of the Five Kingdoms fell into complete disarray. By the Fifth Era, it seemed unlikely that the Four Kingdoms of the Makovai would ever exist again.

Demography and Population

While the majority of the Four Kingdoms were made up of Makovai individuals, there were several minority groups throughout the lands. While these populations changed over the 1500 years that the Four Kingdoms existed, there were certain trends in each kingdom.
Amberyn, the most central of the Four Kingdoms, had the highest proportion of Makovai. Nevertheless, there were a number of large minority groups. The Ikkatha had a sizable presence in this territory, as did the Kefala.
To the west of Amberyn was Zhardja, which, in addition to its Makovai population, was home to a large number of peoples mostly unknown to those outside the Makovai Mountains. These included various groups of centaurs, dragonborns, orcs, genasi, and winged. Ikkatha and Kefala peoples also resided here, though not in as great numbers as in Amberyn.
South of Zhardja and Amberyn was Oktoshyn. The most significant minority group in this kingdom were the Red Makovai, who often viewed the regional Sovereign negatively, since they saw them as encroaching upon their land. Originally, Oktoshyn also contained a significant number of Ren Berig peoples, but they were largely pushed out via warfare by the Fourth Era.
In the Boundary Hills, the kingdom of Glegaver featured large numbers of Makovai, but also significant minorities of Sverden, Trebai, and Alois peoples. In particular, criminals and indebted people from the High Kingdom of Beurum would often flee here to escape punishment.

DISBANDED/DISSOLVED

United in Prosperity, United in Strength

9th of Harvest, 6561 - 30th of Second Frost, 8027

Alternative Names

The Four Kingdoms

Government System

Monarchy, Constitutional

Power Structure

Federation

Location

Makovai Mountains

Related Ethnicities

• Makovai