Cordyan
The Mountain Men.
The dwarves are the men of the mountains, yes they have farms, and everyone needs food, but where they truly shine is in their mining, craftsmanship, and trading. While dwarves are by far the least populous of the corporeal races, and never really spread beyond their starting region, they are the ones who discovered the settled lifestyle first, they were the first to build fortresses, to process metals, even to cultivate edible grains. This has earned them a prestigious position on the world stage as wealthy and strong people.Government
Cordyan is a unitary monarchy, meaning they have a monarch, but they aren't really feudal. Their ruler is hereditary, but their country is really ruled by the government, of which the king is only the head. There are representatives from the merchant, bourgeoise, and priest classes, who all get a say in how things are done. They don't have provinces, instead, the entire nation is ruled as a single entity, with each city being an independent municipality. Farms are taxed independently by an overarching farmers' union, a government agency responsible for all farming-related matters. The clergy plays an important role in the enforcement of laws, and the leaders of the merchant classes are largely in charge of infrastructure, while the king handles financial management, general administration, and foreign policy. There are a bunch of sub-branches and smaller parts of the government, each of which is an important part of keeping the country running.
Regions
While Cordyan doesn't have any provinces, there are geographical regions, which arent important in administration, but are nonetheless useull for other reasons, such as figuring out who lives where, and where to build roads. The Western End Mountains is the most populated of these regions, it is where their capital is also located, this is where the dwarves first settled, and where they feel most at home.The Central End Mountains, which were colonised later by the dwarves as their conquered it from the goblins, who are their archnemeses, is an often forgotten part of the country, is is much less populated, and settled only by miners, for the sake of gathering valuable resources such as metals and gems, there are a few larger settlements around particularly lucrative geothermally active areas.
The Northern Region, which his largely made up of artic tundra, is the least populated, as this barren wasteland is inhabited only by reindeer, walruses, and polar bears, the people that do live there, rely on hunting some of these creatures for food and avoiding other of these like the plague.
The Stakhrand is Cordyan's largest grain farming land, this is where they first cultivated crops, and this is the second most populated region, especially thanks to the river that runs here, this is also where their second largest city can be found, Azdanil.
The Isles. which includes all the islands, has a distinct culture separate from mainlander dwarves, this is because the arm of the law is much weaker here, the king is far away, and a sea devices them, the people living here have a strong sense of independence and freedom, they are also much less zealous, and much more welcoming to strangers, than their mainlander kin.
The Khazkudal is the final region of Cordyan, it is also the most recently dwarven, although that isn't saying much, as it was conquered by them many centuries ago. This is Cordyans part of the black wood, the people here have their own woodland culture, it is quite densely populated, as there is much here, the coast is rich in fish, and the forest is rich in wildlife, especially during the summer. The dwarves here also look distinct, they are taller on average than other dwarves, this is because of their crossbreeding with the dendorians from whom they conquered these lands, it is unknown whether this crossbreeding was voluntary or forced on the natives by the dwarves. The language here also has distinct dendorian influences, with loanwords being common. All of this has contributed to the rest of Cordyan seeing them as a strange aberration, with their unusual appearance and dialect.
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