Ducal Confederation of Vedolía
The Ducal Confederation of Vedolía is a young Rodłowi state which has emerged as a counterbalance to the powerful Kingdom of Spólństawo. Historically, Vedolía has been the wild frontier of the Rodłowi peoples, with its warlord-dukes battling for centuries to establish dominance. Consequentially, the Vedolíans are known as both militarily powerful and the "wild men" of the Rodłowi cultural sphere, though they remain settled and civilized. The Vedolía are known to be the closest of the Rodłowi peoples to their southern cousins, the Erleting, and a few historical Erleting tribes remain within their lands.
History
Pre-unification Vedolía has a fairly murky history, due to the constantly fluctuating borders and various conflicts that existed during this time. To call the Vedolíans "feudal" during this time would be a misnomer. Before the 14th century the region was settled by a mix of both Erleting and Rodłowi tribes, and although most of the region was settled by a Rodłowi population by the 14th century, the first Vedolían duchies were generally both weak and filled with tribesmen rather than farmers. This is of course in spite of the general fertility of the Arceisel river basin, which forms the bounds of the Vedolían lands even today.
During this period, the Vedolían Dukes would consolidate their nations, with borders becoming much less fluid than in past centuries and a cohesive "nationality" arising within each of the duchies. The Vedolían dukes, or at least some of them, would also pay tribute to the Rodłowi Empire, although a conquest of the dukes was never attempted. They did perform consistently as mercenaries, with Vedolían mercenaries being used in wars with the Relvetsian Empire. Some of these mercenaries would settle down in the east, with small communities of half-Vedolíans still able to be found as far east of Rikkedenn. Despite many seeking employment abroad as mercenaries, this was a sideshow to the main event- most dukes were consistently locked into conflict with their neighbors at almost all times.
A major part of this conflict is the Vedolían belief in their war gods. Originally, all of the Rodłowi tribes had their own "patron" god or goddess, which was historically a major part of the Wysoki Wyunałt religion. However, with the establishment of large, multitribal kingdoms, such locality would fall out of practice, with most countries focusing on a few of the many gods. This was not the case in Vedolía, each of whose tribes worshipped their own distinct god, and all of whom were war gods, thus ensuring the faithful would continue to fight one another.
In 1563, the geopolitical map would be shaken up, as the Rodłowi Empire collapsed back into the Kingdom of Krókłość and the Kingdom of Spólństawo emerged as the most powerful Rodłowi state instead. With Spólństawo's rise came a very real fear that the Vedolían duchies would be conquered, and indeed two of the outer-lying duchies would soon be incorporated into Spólństawo, leaving the remaining duchies fearful. Seeking to form a strong state that could resist Spólństawo, the first meeting of dukes would be held, and all that was settled was that none of the dukes could agree on anything. Their fragmented and disjointed domains, almost all of which had competing claims and goals for the region, were simply in too much of an impasse to form a proper alliance. However, this meeting would end up doing some good in the end, as twelve of the remaining duchies agreed to an alliance of their own. These dukes agreed to swap lands to make each duchy territorially contiguous (or at least close to contiguous) and to form a defensive pact against the other dukes as well as Spólństawo.
Over time, the twelve duchies would slowly expand their respective domains, as having allies to back each other up as well as consolidated holdings allowed them to leverage their strength far better That's why, by 1725, only 3 non-allied duchies remained within Vedolía. By this point, all twelve allied duchies pretty much formed one long snake throughout much of the basin, which finally made it possible to unite Vedolía. Hence, the Ducal Confederation was formed, finally uniting all duchies into one single country... kind of. The young confederation was disunited, and even though the twelve rulers agreed on general policy, they were still twelve different countries in reality. That's why, in an unprecedented move in 1733, the twelve war gods were declared to actually be one war god with twelve faces, uniting the people behind a single god and uniting the clergy of each nation into one body.
This unity would soon be tested as Vedolía would come under attack by centaurs during the rise of Secyudugaart Khanate in the 1290s. After the Khans secured the highlands, many ambitious tribal leaders led raiders into the valley, catching Vedolía off guard, though the dukes eventually recovered and beat back the raiders. However, this was but a sideshow, as the Secyudugaart Khan desired a push into Blazennia instead. This invasion would never materialize, however, as the Blazennians annihilated Secyudugaart rather easily, and Vedolía was once again the target of raids as tribes scattered. However, by 1810, the nation was fully cleansed of centaur tribes and several Vedolían dukes were actually able to expand their domains to the south, seeing mild gains.
Over the years, the nation would become more and more centralized, with the modern Vedolía very different than it was at the fall of the Second Centaur Khanate.. Each of the twelve duchies maintain sole rule over their duchy, in terms of laws and taxes, but there are also certain taxes which are used to fund the national army as well as other functions of a proper nation. This tax is also levied on the Joint Lands, which are areas falling outside of the control of any of the duchies. Consisting of the capital territory and other lands conquered from Erleting tribes or from the last few duchies which existed after the unification of Vedolía, these lands are critical for maintaining the balance between the twelve, not all of whom are as powerful or as populated as one another.
Demography and Population
Vedolía boasts a very respectable population for its size at over 2 million, with around 2,250,000 people counted in the territory it occupies.
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