Url'thiir

Five generations ago Url'thiir was a land covered in all sorts of plants and wild life. It's western border was dominated by a massive forest that was unique in that the rare hele drop flower grew in abundance. With careful cultivation, Url'thiir was able to use the flower to provide exemplary healing poultices and cures to its populace as well as to foreign traders. This gave Url'thiir an unexpected level a wealth for a country dominated more by small, tribal city-states than any true kingdom. Then the Great Razing came to pass.
It started suddenly, without warning. A horde of Scrofa in numbers never before seen emerged from the mountains in the west, rampaging through the Hold'ir forest. They burned, and destroyed anything and everything in their path, decrying the primitive civilization's that the Url'thites exhibited as an affront to Krothgir. The loose collection of city-states, villages, and tribes, independently strong, and powerful, if unorganized, quickly fell and were overwhelmed by the Scrofa. They had come in too large of numbers, and too quickly for any kind of defense to be mounted. But the Scrofa had not invaded to seize control of the country, enslave the populace, or anything of the sort. They had come, fueled by religious fervor to enact divine wrath. 
The great shamans of the Scrofa had discovered some foul ritual, spell, or curse. What it was they did, is unknown, but its effect was relatively swift, and permanent. After driving the survivors of Url'thiir to the Eastern shores, the Scrofa set about enacting their true plan. Over the course of a few weeks, the great shamans cast their curse upon the land… and the land died. Not instantly, but over the span of months every plant became desiccated, withered up, and died. The animals were afflicted with a rotting disease, becoming living corpses until their flesh sluffed from their bones and they collapsed upon the barren earth. 
The survivors of Url'thiir were left horrified living in a formerly wondrous land, turned into a dead, barren desert. So much of the populace had perished in the Razing, that the majority of the Url'thite's cultures, traditions, and heritage had been lost. It was the intervention of Salthræn that allowed their survival. He empowered those who devoted themselves to him, and through their direct magical works, some of the land was able to be restored, but only temporarily. Without the hands of Salthræn to tend the land, the earth quickly withers and dies once more.
After the Razing, the survivors banded together, once separate, but peaceful allies, now forced to survive or die together. For the sake of their continued existence, the Url'thites had to change. Once a group of mostly isolated people that produced medicine, they who were invaded and destroyed, invaded to survive. The Url'thites opted to invaded the now Keel-stone islands, seizing as many of the spices and crops from the islands as they could, and destroying any remnants of their stolen goods they could find. While superficially the same act the Scrofa enacted upon them, the Url'thites did not draw the ire of Salthræn like the Scrofa, because the land still lived, the people still lived. They had just stolen as many of the valuable crops they could, trying to leave no living copies behind. With their stolen plants in tow, the people of Url'thiir returned home, and used the blessings of Salthræn to grow these foreign plants. Since it was only the power of Salthræn that allowed the land to live again as it is, it didn't really matter what they planted and grew, as Salthræn allowed it to survive, regardless of the growing conditions. And thus the spice fields of Url'thiir were born. They used their blessings to create great fields of valuable crops and products for the Url'thites to export, seizing control of the spice trade that once belonged to their victims.
But the Url'thites and grown distrustful of outsiders, expecting sabotage and destruction, as had been done to them before, as they had done to others. So the people of Url'thiir dedicated themselves to protecting their own. They created a new force of warriors, the Gimi'lar of Url'thiir. Their sole purpose is to protect the spices, during cultivation and transportation.
Over time, they have expanded, becoming the primary defenders of all of Url'thiir. With so much of the culture of Url'thiir lost during the Razing and the assimilation of survivors in the years that followed, Url'thiir has developed a whole new culture born from the remnants of those that came before. As such, Url'thiir has developed an odd culture, built from half-remembered traditions of the Feldir catfolk tribes of Southern Url'thiir, the lost practices of the Loqualya Elves of the Hold'ir forest, and the stories and rituals of the scattered human villages and towns.

Type

Geopolitical, Country