Kingdom of Wesdaland
Wesdaland, also called the Kingdom of the Western Humans, is one of the Great Powers of the Continent of Teria, despite being a relatively young nation. It was founded 200 years ago by a former Seris mercenary under Steplian service, called Mithradates, and since that time onwards, the Mithradatids have remained in power, ruling, expanding and modernizing the country in order to survive and compete with its powerful neighbours to the North ( the Witharphians), the East (the Nomads) and to the South (The elvish-Oronai Kingdoms of Brire and Stormitia). The land is famous for its castles, feudal nobility and their famous and brave knights. Knighthood and its values is an important part of the Wesdalandian aristocracy, which is, for the most part, made up of members of the Royal Family or descendants of the 300 companions of Mithradates I during the time of the Unification of the Wesdalandian peoples under his rule.
History
Wesdaland before the unification
Wesdaland and wesdalandians are an old people, these lands as well as the lands of neighbouring Witharfia were home to a mysterious civilization called the Stone Masons, who left a significant influence in the culture, fashion an architecture of the region. The wesladandians themselves were already living there in the 1500s BP. From that time onwards the wesdalandians were divided into multiple tribes and realms, some settled in the valleys while other prefer the mountains for better defence. After the 7th century BP parts of Wesdaland came under direct control of their cousins, the Sephenians, while other wesdalandian realms remained as tributaries of the Sephenian Empire, influenced by their culture and government, but Wesdaland remained a backwater region in comparison with other regions of Teria well until the 6th and 7th centuries AP.
During this period Sephenian influenced and control disappear due to the Oronai conquest of the Sephenian Empire and the later oronai conquest of the South, who brought the Wesdalandians in contact with one of the most advanced and cultivate civilizations of the time. Oronai products, like wine and pottery, became highly demanded before and during the early period of unification.
The period of unification
In the early 7th century AD, Mithridates had built an impeccable reputation fighting in the army of Boros the Conqueror. He had also helped several cities that had been attacked by hordes of goblins that had escaped from a dungeon. This reached the ears of the elites of the Duchy of Poniria, which was plunged into a deep crisis since the last king had died without issue and a horde of goblins and orcs threatened to destroy the duchy. So, the nobles of Poniria decided to offer the title of Duke to Mithridates in exchange for him defeating the monsters that threatened the country, which he did.
And because Mithridates was a very ambitious man, he sought to expand the duchy, he sought to transform the land and unify all the Wesdalandian peoples into one single country or kingdom, based on traditional wesdalandian ideas about monarchy and chivalry combined with the ideology and systems of government of the neighbouring Oronai kingdoms. He began by trying to convince diplomatically the neighbouring wesdalandian realms to join his cause, the Republic of Cagrade submitted to the new duke as well as the County of Artas.
But Laison and Defiled refused and thanks to the veterancy of his 300 companions and the combined wesdalandian army he had mustered, as well as some Radali mercenaries, he managed to conquer these two realms. He kept Laison for himself while Defiled was divided into multiple counties given to members of the 300 loyal companions of the Duke's retinue. In 598 Mithridates moved east and at the battle of the Lorell Valley he achieved the submission of the local Radali tribes and at the battle of the Golden fence in 601 AP he defeated and killed Onfroi, duke of Grites, the wealthiest noble in the land, whose capital of Grites. On the battlefield Mithridates was acclaimed King of Wesdaland, and a royal diadem (in the style of the Oronai Kings) was placed on his head. The capital for the new kingdom was established in Grites, the wealthiest city of Oronia.
One of the first reforms of the new King was to divide the land according to the traditional wesdalandian feudal system, with duchies, counties and other type of fiefdoms, among his loyal companions and supporters. He convinced many of them to marry Wesdalandian noble women and very quickly, the aristocracy of the realm was composed of mostly seris speaking aristocrats. In order to unify the land and the administration he established Oronai as the official language (due to its prestige and the fact that He and his companions were very oronized in culture and language too). And also declared Yemmuism as the State Religion, something that was also happening in the neighbouring Kingdom of Stormitia, from where he requested missionaries and monks to convert the wesdalandian population. Soon, the religion of the Wesdalandians was a blend of Yemmuism, Seris davidovian religion and the indigenous wesdalandian faith.
Mithridates also introduced coinage, unknown to the wesdalandians until then, basing the currency on the Oronai currency.
Wesdaland under the Mithridatids
His successors continue to expand the borders of Wesdaland to the North, under his son, Barzanes I, who conquered the Urioan tribes and who also took Curbora and Storhorn after the 1st Wesdalando-Witharfian war in 658 AP. But by far the greatest and most well-known Wesdalandian King was Toryn I, knicknamed "The Fat" because of his robust complexity. Despite his name he was a great military commander and warrior, he expanded the frontiers of Wesdaland to the south to the borders with Stormitia and to the west he conquered the cittadel of Fearun and successfully fought against the nomads and the radali tribes allied to them. He was the son of Togash I of Wesdaland and Nikaea of Brire, and he was married to an Stormitian princess, Apama. So, because of his Oronai ancestry he ambitioned to become the ruler of a great Empire that would cover Wesdaland and the Elvish-Oronai Kingdoms, but he was defeated and killed at the battle of the Saluvian forest against a coalition of the two elvish-Oronai kingdoms.
After a humiliating treaty and a regency due to his son being a child, Wesdaland slowly recovered, becoming wealthier due to trade and the improvement of agriculture and the expansion of cities across the Kingdom, but also continued to challenge the Elvish-Oronai kingdoms, mostly Stormitia, for supremacy, this time at sea. Nowadays despite these conflicts, the Wesdalandian kings are in peaceful terms with the half-elf Archons at the other side of the great rivers and forests, focusing their attention more on Witharfia and the Nomadic threat to the East.
Culture and society
Wesdaland is home to many cultures and ethnicities despite the wesdalandians being the most widespread and the most powerful of them. Over the course of the centuries and due to multiple conquests, exiles and population movements, Wesdaland has absorbed multiple cultures. To the East, you have the Razali and Sephenians both cousins to the Wesdalandians, who speak languages belonging to the same family group. To the South, in some pokets you have Oronai settlers, brought by the Wesdalandian rulers to serve in the King's armies as phalangites like in their native Oronia, especially against other fellow phalangites from Stormitia and Brire.
In terms of society, Wesdaland is a feudal society, divided at it has been said into multiple fiefdoms, with peasants working the land of their lords, who usually live in imposing castles, and whose main job is to make war and protect their peasants and vassals. Knighthood is an essential part of Wesdalandian culture, no matter if you are a native lesser noble or a powerful aristocrat, a duke or a count of Seris descent. Just to clarify, after centuries of living here, most of the seris descendant aristocracy, including the Royal family have already integrated fully into Wesdalandian society, to the point that, from the mid-8th century onwards the official language at the court ceased to be Oronai, which was replaced by wesdalandian, although Seris is still use in private to denote a high status, and Oronai remains the culture language and the language in which legal documents are written and is also the language of the High Court of Justice.
Wesdalandian society is divided in classes as follows:
At the top of the society is the King and the Royal family, followed by the high nobility and the high clergy (the latter formed by priests and archpriest from this social background), in the middle you'd have the lesser nobility formed by the poorest nobles of Seris descent as well as the native wesdalandian nobility that dates back centuries before the unification and at the bottom you'll have the free farmers and the serfs.
Inside of this last category you'll also find the common people at the cities but many great cities in Wesdaland are under direct Royal control, they're given a Royal Charter, similar to the Authonomy Decrees of the Oronai Kings, that establish the rights, duties and privileges, as well as the laws that the city has. The taxes of these cities "under royal charter" are collected by envoys from the king and go directly to the royal treasury.
Government Structure
Wesdalandian government, at it has been stated, is a blend of both indigenous feudal traditions and also Oronai institutions. The Royal Court is modelled after the Court of the Oronai Kingdoms to the East. You have the inner circle of the king formed by their "friends" (usually close friends of the king and their closest relatives), and a High Court or Parliament which works as a Consultive Assembly composed by the friends of the King, the High Clergy of the Yemmuist faith and the Upper Aristocracy (Dukes and Counts) of the realm. Delegations from the kingdom's cities might also be heard in Parliament and also at the king's court.
Then, each county and duchy are ruled by its respective lord, who, in turn can have vassals who own little fiefdoms and castles inside the aforementioned county or duchy. Each duke, count or lord is in charge of collecting the taxes in the kings name (apart from the taxes that belong to them as feudal lords).
Religion
Before the unification of the Wesdalandian lands into one single kingdom, the Wesdalandians worshiped a wide variety of indigenous gods, similar to the pantheons of their Radali, Tushpite and Sephenian cousins. They seem to worship specially the goddesses of water and wind. After the creation of the Kingdom of Wesdaland and the establishment of the Yemmuist faith as the official religion of the country, many missionaries and monks began to convert the local Sephenians to this new faith, who put a lot of emphasis on the individual and the power inside oneself to overcome the challenges of life.
Monasteries were found and given land by the new Seris aristocracy who ruled the country, and, in the span of a century, most of Wesdaland had already converted to Yemmuism, which connected it to the neighbouring kingdom of Stormitia, who also adopted this faith as their official religion alongside the traditional Oronai Faith. Because of this interaction between traditional wesdalandian religion, with the yemmuism and Seris religions, the Yemmuism practiced in Wesdaland was inspired, but quite different from the one practiced in Stormitia and not to mention the one practiced in Seria, the birthplace of this religion.
The Order of the Knights of Life, founded by a Weslandian, and its brave knights are also to blame for the quick conversion of the wesdalandian peoples thanks to their kindness to the poor and their courage fighting monsters and enemies of the light.
Of course, other faiths are also tolerated, like the traditional Oronai religion, practiced by the groups of oronai that populated the Southern regions or the Reformed Church, who is the official religion of neighbouring Witharfia and of course the Blatian Empire.
Geography
Wesdaland geography is pretty diverse. The Western regions of the country are cross from north to south by a great mountain range called "The Spine" by the Wesdalandians. This part of the kingdom is humid with abundant rainfall. The coast, except in some points, is quite rocky, so sailors must be careful.
The Central plains have a more temperate climate, similar to the coastal regions of the Thyssalis Sea, while some regions to the South are a bit arid, resembling more the western regions of the Kingdom of Steplia, here, agriculture is only possible alongside the rivers and in some valleys. On the contrary, the Easternmost regions of Wesdaland share the same climate as the western and central regions as well as some areas which are predominantly steppes.
Economy
The basis of the Wesdalandian economy is agriculture. Wesdaland is a very fertile land and most of the people live in the countryside, farming the land of their lords, while the cities are also trade centres where goods from the neighbouring Oronai kingdom are sold to both rich and commoners, and the mines to the north, provide a nice income to the royal treasury.
The Eastern regions of Wesdaland are famous for their mead and beer, which are sold in every realm in the northern regions of Teria. These regions are also famous for their goldsmiths, most of them ethnic radali whose fibulae, brooches, earrings and necklaces are sold from Boria of the Delta to Blati itself. Radali are also famous for their swords (highly demanded by the knights of the kingdom and in neighbouring kingdoms).
The central plains, surrounded by mighty rivers are also the areas with the most cereal production in the kingdom and their livestock is in high demand throughout the country.
Army
It is estimated that the Wesdaland's standing army, so the personal retinue of the King has around 5000 men (2000 knight and 3000 infantrymen), but the Wesdalandian army in total can have around 25.000 to 30.000 soldiers, not bad considering its the size of the armies of their neighbours but small in you compare it with the armies of states like Oronia, Steplia or the Blatian Empire, for whom, a military force of that size would be a fraction of their total armies.
The most famous unit and key element of the Wesdalandian Armies (and of much of the armies of the Northern Realms) is the knight. Wesdalandian Knights are regarded, because of their bravery, discipline and skills as one of the best cavalrymen in the world, only behind Brire's cavalry from the Parana Valley. Protected by their chainmail and kite shields, and charging with their lances, few units can resist a charge from the Wesdalandian Knights, its only real threat or nemesis are the Oronai Phalanxes with their endless wall of long pikes.
Aside from the Knights, the Wesdalandian Kings and noblemen employ other types of units not only composed by native wesdalandians but also of peoples from the other ethnicities. For example, the shock infantry of many Wesdalandian armies is made up Radali warriors, scary and brave beyond measure, whose powerful charges can break the enemy before the knights get to see some action, while the skirmishes and light cavalry are made up of Sephenians and Nomads for the recently conquered regions to the West.
Loving the artwork, very Medieval.