Aragon
The highly organized nation of Aragon is located in Downspin Continent and is the home of the grey-skinned Aragonians. Aragon's founding has been lost to time, but it seems to be unique to the New Genesis, as there are no hints of an Aragonian nation in the Old World.
Aragon is ruled by 'The Technocracy', which is the collective name of the politically powerful organizations and institutions found there: Academia (the administrators of the nation's Universities and Colleges), the Civil Guilds (the various guilds that manage the infrastructure of the nation, from civil engineers to road-builders to sanitation workers), The Church of Providence (made of Rationalists, Natural Philosophers, and the Empiricists), and the High Leader.
Aragon is easily the most technologically advanced of the civilized nations, with advanced metallurgy (darksteel), chemistry (including gunpowder and firearms), and Onyx-powered magitek machines and factories.
The land of Aragon itself is dark and strangely beautiful. Copses of immense, fibrous mushrooms fill the niche of forests and strange (yet seldom deadly) diseases teem in the humid air. Great basalt and obsidian mountains claw at the sky, usually back-lit in reds and oranges by the numerous volcanoes just beyond them. The climate is generally humid and uncomfortably warm in the summer and misty, foggy and chilly during the winter. The sky is normally dark and overcast due to both volcanic action and the Aragonian cities that constantly belch soot and coal smoke.
First time visitors to Aragos (the capital city of Aragon) are often given blood-red handkerchiefs to cover their mouths and noses which darken over time. These darkened handkerchiefs are sometimes considered symbols of prestige among ambassadors from other nations, as they hint at the amount of time spent in Aragonian lands. In addition to the cloying smog of the cities, the exotic diseases that inhabit this land almost assuredly lay-up the first-time visitor for up to a week. However, once acclimated, the visitor will never again ail from an infection from that particular bug. Reptiles, amphibians and insects can to grow to enormous size in Aragonian lands and are sometimes best avoided.
Structure
Aragon is a technocracy, where the most 'technologically advanced' (as determined the various Universities and Colleges) rules. It often just so happens that these individuals are also the most educated, most wealthy, hold the most patents, and have the most political and cultural sway in Aragon. That said, there have been a number of upsets, where a relatively unknown Aragonian has been selected to lead the nation, based on their contributions to science and collective knowledge, despite their obscurity, or even infamy.
These selections can happen at the whim of the Academia, at any time. This is a manifestation of the Aragonian's unquestioning trust in reason and rationality, and that Academia is the arbiter of such things. During times of turmoil, a new leader my be selected, or, occasionally, even during a time of peace and prosperity, just to shake things up and keep ideas new and fresh.
The collective name for the political apparatus of Aragon (which includes Academia, the Civil Guilds, and the Executive Branch of the selected leader) is 'The Technocracy', which is usually use as shorthand by Aragonian commoners and outsiders.
Public Agenda
Promote mechanical science, reason, security, and order of the nation.
Technological Level
Having no magic to rely on in a magical world, the Aragonians have mastered a number of purely scientific inventions such as the creation of blackpowder, the use of steam power to provide motive force, the routing and burning of naturally occurring gas to provide light and heat and the creation of various gearworks. For the last 500 years, since the time of the great inventor and statesman Moebius, the Aragonians have been augmenting their mechanikal creations with traces of Onyx. With this magical power source harnessed as if it were just another fuel, the Aragonians have been experiencing something of a renaissance of application in the last few centuries.
Religion
Naturally a literally minded people, the vast majority of Aragonians hold no reverence for a deity; their science and technology provide them with the greater meaning and comfort that most other races gain through their religion. Although not truly a religion, Aragonians tend to believe in the concept of "Providence", which is a mix of luck, timing, destiny, and karma that they believe shapes their lives.
Although they acknowledge the effects of Deities on the other Races, they see the Gods as simply being creatures of immense power... not entities that deserve praise or worship. That time could be better spent doing something to improve the immediate world, they feel.
Some scholars from other Races criticize Providence for being little more than a veneer of reverence coating the Aragonians' innate desire to believe that all things make sense, even if they themselves, as mortals, cannot fathom it. Providence is, at its core, the name that Aragonians give to their psychological need that the cosmos is inherently knowable and understandable through rational, logical means.
For instance, the saying "everything happens for a reason" is extremely common in Aragonian culture, but its said more to comfort the one speaking it, not others around. The suffixes of "...if only we knew what that reason was" or "... if only we had more knowledge of the holistic system, we could know what that reason was" is understood to be there.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The Church of Providence holds subtle, but considerable sway in the Technocracy.
ex Providentia sit, ut de chao (From Providence, Order Out of Chaos)
Founding Date
100 NG
Type
Geopolitical, Technocracy
Demonym
Aragonian
Government System
Technocracy
Power Structure
Provisional government
Economic System
Command/Planned economy
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Related Ethnicities
Comments