Well that took longer than expected. Ahh well, here it is folks, the overviews of the available nations for the RP, as some of you may have noticed, there were a number of cut downs made primarily to slice down time. So without further ado I hope the information presented provides a clear picture of the nations, if you have any questions feel free to ask me.
The Eclenian Empire
For more than a three hundred years the mighty Legions of the Eclenian Empire have watched over her borders with great vigilance. Their motto, “Brick From Our Bone, Mortar From Our Blood,” as macabre as it may sound, is something which the Legionnaires hold close to their hearts. In the days before the Orphirian Reforms the saying was a resigned protest from the nobles of Eclenia who were called to defend against the overwhelming hordes of the Burjionese Empire, sending their brave but mediocre quality levies into a horrible meat grinder.
When King Orphirian came to the throne his intent was to build a truly professional army, the likes of which hadn’t been seen on the continent since ancient times. He led his efforts in building that army by subverting the tragic quote making it a source of honor and pride to be the walls with which Eclenia’s people were protected.
By the time the Burjionese returned for another invasion of the Eclenian homeland, the Sons of Orphirian were ready for them. In a place at that time known as Blodwenfeld (Meaning the field of white flowers) the armies met in battle. The feudal army of Burjion’s empire slammed into the wall of Eclenian spears and tall shields like water on a rocky shore, and there, the Eclenians outnumbered twenty to one utterly broke the Burjionese tide sending them back across the river from whence they came. That terrible day, so much blood was spilled, the white flowers for which the fields were named were forever stained with the blood of the fallen thus bringing about a new name, Sanguinfeld.
The Eclenian Legions proved more than effective in teaching the Burjionese a lesson at the battle of Sanguinfeld, the blood roses that grow on the fields today are a stark reminder of it. For decades after, the Burjionese hadn’t the stomach to order their own noblemen across the Eclenian border. They however still had no intention of ending their hopes for conquest and eventually they tried again. The Sons of Orphirian were as always... ready for them.
More than three centuries have passed since the battle of Sanguinfeld, and much has changed. The once fully defensive army was reformed by the last king and first emperor Marius to both incorporate the venerable Haragladian Army into the new Imperial Army. He would use it to conquer Mercia, Antilonica, and Ubanal, as well as liberate Medeas, and launch multiple incursions deep into Burjion’s heartlands alongside the Wardens of the Dark Angel of Galifor.
With every new people enveloped into the Empire, the Legions would adapt to reflect this, but always the heart of Orphirian’s Army would remain beating strong. To this very day, above any other unit motto or battle cry, every single Eclenian battle flag bears the words “Brick from our Bone, Mortar from our Blood.”
The Kingdom of Burjion
A people fighting to crawl out from the long shadow of shame and decay. When the Eclenian Empire rose, it marked the death of the Burjionese Empire, but it would not be a quick death. The mercy of Marius saw to it that Burjion would stagnate, then rot away as the wolves of the north, and the cancers within ripped the once mighty nation apart. They lost territory, and were abused by the nobles who without plunder from war turned their greed upon their tenants. The Burjionese are a peaceful people by nature, known for their patience and extreme level of trust in their leaders. It took more than a century of being robbed and and starved by their lords for their patience to finally break. But when it did, the whole of the world felt the shock wave from their rage.
The 18th century in Burjion was home to its revolution, a period of twenty years worth of bloody civil war as every ideology imaginable made their claims on returning Burjion to its former glory and more. In the end however the Revolution would bring both more and less change than expected. Burjion remained a Kingdom, though under a king who held no blood from the old royal line. The war hero Mikkel Salome, a controversial figure to be certain, who started the revolution fighting for republicanism, but eventually pledged his loyalty to the last surviving prince of the Royal family who would unfortunately not survive the wars. Whether Salome ever wished to be a king is unknown, but he married his friend and sovereign's widow, and took in his son as his own. He very well could have been a regent, but instead the people gave him the crown. King Mikkel Salome would become the first of his new royal line, and the first to lead Burjion into the new era.
However, Burjion was not fully united under King Salome. He was not the only victor. During the revolution a sizable portion of the country had sought out the protection of the Church, and the men of the cloth had been more than happy to defend their flock from such senseless violence. The Church accepted Salome enough to give him a proper coronation, but they were not about to let go of the massive amount of wealth, land, and most importantly power they had taken. Burjion would remain a united nation, but it for all intents and purposes had two states. Both the Kingdom and Church upheld entire systems of administration, education, law, and militaries.
During the revolution there were almost as many military ideologies involved as there was political ones. However the largest difference between the bigger factions were in recruitment, and foreign aid. In the beginning it was the nobility against a multitude of rebel factions rising up against them. The former levied their forces in the feudal way, pulling what loyal if starving tenants they had and giving them what weapons and training was readily available in a timely manner. The Rebels on the other hand were entirely volunteer forces proud to be fighting for their liberty, and they had foreign help. The fairly new Republic of Kanbi were more than happy to send both weapons and advisors to their fellow Republicans in Burjion. It was because of this open aid that the Republican movement that Mikkel Salome joined in his early career were so well armed and trained.
After the Revolution, King Salome knew he had not the money and the people had not the heart to uphold a professional army. His army was loyal, but they were tired and wanted to go home to the families they had fought to free from tyranny.
On the day of his coronation he mustered his army out with his most famous speech, known as “Never Forget.” He pleaded with his men to never forget what they had done, the victories, the defeats, the heart and soul they had poured into their cause. He prayed, if darkness should again threaten Burjion, that they remember him, and may it remind them of their cause.
Instead of a Royal Army, King Salome founded ‘The King’s Men’ a program of military training throughout Burjion centered around local communities for the purpose of national defense. It was in essentiality an army reserve built off of veterans and volunteers. At first this was just an idea that Salome passed on to his officers, and on down the chain of command shortly before the dissolution of the army. By the time Salome was ready to put it into law, he had full national support to do so.
Once again keep in mind that this was not a conscription system like in the Church holdings, this was an all volunteer force, but Salome ingrained it into the culture of every town he could by way of his veterans.
By the time the next war came half a decade later, the King had more than enough trained volunteers than he could have dreamed of.
Speaking of the Church, their military force was far different from the King’s Men. The Church focused their military efforts on the Monastic Orders and their auxiliaries, centered around an elite corps of zealot knights and squires, backed up by an extremely well armed and well trained, if somewhat reluctant, foundation of auxiliary conscripts.
The Enclave of Roncalas
The Merchant and Banker’s paradise, the debtor’s hell. Home to the single largest bank in the world, Roncalas has had no need to levy its citizens for military service in centuries. No, Roncalian Redcoats are also quite accurately known as the Debtor’s Army. Those men and women who have the misfortune to borrow too much money from the Roncalian Bank without the ability to pay them back have found themselves in service of their army and navy. They come from every corner of the world trapped in a profession they never wanted, but they do it without question as the bank is often smart enough to take other collateral in the form of debtor’s family members. They’re not the best trained, not always the best equipped, but they’ll rarely flee from a fight. And while these debtors are good for national and company defense they are also a good foreign enterprise, being loaned out to whatever organization or nation should have enough to pay for them. For that reason the Roncalian Redcoats are among the most experienced and the most well traveled soldiers on the planet, fighting in every terrain, against every sort of enemy imaginable.
The Frozen Realm of Galifor
Ancient tradition, and archaic equipment, are the best terms to define the armies of Galifor. As the last free domain of elves ruled by elves on the continent of Galindia, The Barony of Galifor has spent much of its history fighting to survive the tides of enemies who sought their destruction. During the medieval age, you would be hard pressed to find any better warriors than the black steel clad knights of the Frozen Realm. But the alarmingly fast evolution of warfare since the 15th century has unfortunately not been kind to them. Elves living within a primarily elven society are by human standards sluggishly slow in social and technological development. With such slow changes in generations, systems of belief are allowed to stay set far longer than in human societies. Before the invention of firearms, this wasn’t so bad, the development of armaments were for the most part small evolutions of tried and true concepts: bows that shoot further, armor that repels more blows. These things were easy to adopt. But gunpowder changed things vastly away from a system that favored the elves.
Firearms were a miraculous and revolutionary invention that made it possible to effectively train far larger groups of people in a shorter amount of time than was before possible. If the elves had been badly outnumbered before, this invention would make every war they fought one of near to impossible odds.
The Galiforians had to get creative, and they did. With in some cases literally a thousand years of experience, the Elves didn’t want to give up on their old skills with the sword. They reduced the amount of armor they wore, but didn’t give up on it entirely as it wasn’t as expensive for them than it was for humans. The organization of the elven army changed little aside from a far wider inclusion of women in active combat roles (though only out of necessity, it was not a well loved change by either sex) but their doctrine changed immensely. It was the gunsmiths of Galifor who first developed rifling out of the necessity to gain any possible advantage over the enemy, and they didn’t waste this development. Galiforian armies became a deadly combination of snipers and light infantry, backed up by their best melee fighters still clad in black steel plate armor.
The Galiforians adapted themselves, by elven standards at lightning speed, and with the support of their allies in the Eclenian Empire, they would not only have the strength to defend their homeland, but also enough to aid their allies when it was needed.
The Kingdom of Thorndain
Final remnant of the Dwarven Dominion of Rhiannon, the primarily human Kingdom of Thorndain are still proud to call themselves vassals of the most holy Dominion, that by any other nation's account has been dissolved for more than a thousand years, including Rhiannon's. This obsession for their former dwarven masters has led the Thorndainians to be among the most paranoid nations in Galindia. They do admittedly have good reason to be wary, they're surrounded on every side by enemies who would love to snuff them out. The 18th century however was not defined by defensive wars like those of centuries past but instead by something far worse. Since the conquests of Eclenian Emperor Marius, the nations of Galindia had slowly adopted more professional armies. The invention and development of firearms had only accelerated the process. In 1695, the Thorndainians knew it was their turn. Using the kingdom’s massive wealth, the King at the time made an unprecedentedly large purchase of the newest flintlock muskets from the Eclenian Empire. He also hired an army of instructors from everywhere he could find them. The formation of the new model army was only the beginning for the vision of Thorndain's king. The dream of this King was to do what all his ancestors had failed to do. Reconquer the Dominion. For a thousand years Rhiannon had remained shut away from the world. This King sought to wipe away the shame and renew the glorious golden age. So began the bloody 18th century
The Yabani Empire
built on a foundation of spider's silk and broken chains, the Yabani are the youngest of the world's empires. A mighty warrior people, the Yabani once lived as prisoners within their own domain as a vassal of the Magilisian Empire. A status they waited quite patiently to change for a very long time. Their opportunity came when a naive old Eclenian Emperor picked a fight with the Magilisians in the late 15th century. While the Eclenian returned home with nothing but tears and a son to lay to rest, the oppressive elves of Magilis were severely weakened. In centuries past they called the Yabani their loyal dogs. At the turn of the 16th century, the dogs, long abused and underfed chose to finally rip out their masters throats. Under the leadership of a virgin queen known as the Lady of Silver Light, the Yabani's elite An Nasir warriors swept across the empire they had spent centuries serving. Within five years, they had conquered all but the very heartland of Magilis. Their bid for freedom, had forged them an empire. The Lady of Silver Light was crowned Empress of the Yabani, sovereign of the land of spider's silk, and broken chains.
Sadly, the great Empress's life would eventually come to a peaceful end, but so deep was the wound in the Yabani's heart that there were none who could ascend her throne. So it fell to the noble An Nasir, defenders of the Empire, to lead the people in her absence. For two hundred years they have led and fought for the empire and they have been very successful in both. But being in charge of government as well as maintaining their original post as the warrior class has left them strained and depleted in numbers. The armies of Yaban are today a size expected of an elven dominant populace, not a human one.
Little has changed in the two hundred years since the rise of the Empire, the An Nasir maintain their long lasting traditions and still fight the same way their ancestors did, on horse or in some rare cases dragonback with sword, and bow, it has only been in recent years that they have begun to adopt firearms.
Going into the 18th century, the An Nasir were happy to remain at peace, but time has never been kind to such wishful thinking.
