Country: Pilgis

Country Name:
Pilgis

Government Form:
Conditional Monarchy-Theoretically the king rules absolutely. However the King is not a strong central figure, and the whims of the court of nobles can play merry hell with any and all of his plans. Please note that while it is common for the first born of the king to inherit the throne it is not guaranteed. One's right to the throne is judged by how many familial lines one has to a certain group of people in this countries history, hence if the king marries a commoner, then practically everyone else in the court has a better claim to the throne, and the son shall not take the throne. Rather there shall be a bloody big argument over whether being the 3rd cousin to the aunt twice removed is a closer tie than being the second son of the 1st cousin once removed but only by marriage.

Military:
Pilgis has two basic military organizations, both of which report directly to the crown first, then to whichever noble is paying them second. Who they actually obey between those two can get tricky. Both of which are divided into sub-legions.

Black Lions- This is the offensive branch of the Pilgis military. Sieges, raids, surprise attacks. If you want to hurt someone or take over a location, these are the guys to do it with.

White Lions-This is the defensive branch of the Pilgis military. Suppression, rolling trenches, and holding the line. If you want to defend against a foreign army, suppress a rebellion, or just defend a location from minor raids these are the right guys to do it with.


Major Cities:
Capitol: Sivre-Malis
x1 Holy City- Balim Terrace( x1 Kalal Earthly Seat)

Trade Goods
Pilgis produces many textiles, wines, and a wide range of seasoned timber, harvested from their many hard-wood forests. however they're real fortune comes from they're fine glass-works.

Religion
Major Religions found in Pilgis:
The Most Holy Church of Kalal
The Children of Pol
The Church of Urtem.

Minor Religions:
Many and various. Reports of the Chaos Cults are not unheard of and there is a confirmation of several druidic cults, quite expected as Pilgis is a well forested region.


Society & Culture
Pilgis holds the pre-Great War world in awe, bordering on reverence. Indeed even the pecking order of the Aristocracy is based upon how closely they are descended from a small group of military officers, of an ancient city-state that existed prior to (and for a surprisingly long while, during) the Great War. Said military group existed at the tail end of the war (having floated around amongst other organizations & causes for about 15 years after the home-country was absorbed) and eventually founded Pilgis. Taking the land itself through short, and brutal conquest.
Hence the people of Pilgis proudly proclaim that they can trace their ancestry back to before the war, though in truth only the luckiest of nobles can trace their lineage even 200 years into the war.
Though Pilgis cannot claim any of the few cities that survived the Great War and show the Southern States architecture excellent money can be made by stonemasons in the capitol, as there is a nigh constant renovation of the capitol to model it after these ancient cities.

Politics & Foreign Relations:
Internal Politics:
The politics in Pilgis are...unstable to say the least. In theory the King rules absolutely, however the court of nobles, should it unite against him, can reduce him to little more than a figure head. Hence it becomes a careful game for the king. He must do as he feels he must, but can't dare cause the nobles to unite against him, so he must find ways to apease the nobles without endangering the kingdom, or causing his people to rise against him.
For the Nobles part, some houses are more influential than others, allowing certain nobles more influence over the court (which is a powerful body capable of running at least parts of the country in it's own right.), while others use the favor of the king to gain power. Those with the most power are often able to forward their own agenda's, as the most powerful are able to strongarm the court into demanding things of the King. It becomes a huge game, of careful lies, broken alliances, secret trists, and god only knows what else.

Foreign Relations:
Pilgis became the country it is through conquest and treachery, and the surrounding inhabitants haven't forgotten it. Relations between Pilgis and it's neighbors are sour, but oddly private. One could compare them to the fierce squabbling of young siblings. Fierce, and inevitably sour-mooded, but god help anyone who tries to intervene, for the countries would almost certainly unite to fend off the outsider before going back to sniping each other at every possible opportunity.

Relations to more distant countries fare better, and indeed Pilgis has a valuable trading partner in Atimar, receiving all sorts of goods from the sea faring nation, and providing much of the wood Atimar uses in it's great ships in return.

Important Figures & Organizations
Court of Nobles-This is basically the political soup that contains just about everyone interested in and participating in politics.

The Organization-This is an criminal organization that spans many nations, especially in northern Ara'niel. Smuggling, slave labor, narcotic trafficking, assassination, character assassination, robbery, sabotage, and all manner of other criminal activity are theirs. They influence all levels of society from the most powerful nobles in the most powerful countries(some of which they put there) to the peasants in small villages.

Garim Pilgis XIII-Current King of Pilgis. The last name is assumed upon taking the throne.

History
Recent:
Pilgis, has prospered in the years following the war, finding ready markets for their high-end wood and glass products. For many years they simply prospered, reveling in their new peace, and cultivating their complex political atmosphere.

Indeed only one act of military significance has occurred since the end of the war. In a poorly thought out move the king agreed with the court of nobles demand to abstract taxation, which immediately resulted in each noble taxing his land, taking massive amounts of the peasants little lucre, and only moving a fraction of it on. The peasants rose up in rebellion, but were quickly disbanded and further uprisings suppressed, as the King quickly revoked the abstraction of taxation.

Ancient:
In the Great War which enveloped the world countries came and went, flowing like grains of sand, and just as numerous. Some 50 odd years into the war one country in particular, let us call it Samael, for while there are certainly records of it, it's language was quite obtuse and even it's name is under some question. Samael was a powerful nation before the war, but in the out and out melee of the War was quickly brought low. Within 50 years it was flagging and chunks of land were being taken almost every other week. Samael rallied it's armies and defended, but still slowly and surely lost ground.
Seeing the inevitable course of the future a group of nobles rallied a section of the army, and in the midst of an attack upon the heartland of Samael, reneged upon their promises of loyalty and fealty.

With their splinter of the army they fled the country, and made an incredible journey, one which is still told of in songs. In a distant part of Ara'niel they came to an agreement of terms with another country. Their army would fight for this country, and in return they were given a plot of land upon which to live. Here the fared better. This country was not large, but at the time the major conflict was farther to the east, and the aristocrats were able to avoid sending their armies to fight offensively, instead suppressing rival countries nearby. The country in which they settled was small and weak, as were those surrounding it, and hence they settled, and took wives, and lived.

For an unknown number of years (scholars suspect somewhere around 250) they and their descendants were able to stay alive. The aristocrat's were able to take advantage over the tricky politics of an autonomous people living within the borders of another, and thrived. Especially as they made it tradition that all their people's sons should be soldiers, and soon had a greater army than their host.

However this brief respite could not last. Their new host became aggressive, and embarked on massive invasions of the small nations surrounding them. With vigor the Sameans aided them, for they were a people of war now, and yet, were kept out of the Great War that still raged, drawing closer with each passing week now, but not yet upon the host country. With the aid of the Sameans the host became, a powerful empire, absorbing those nations around it.

However in a coldly brilliant stroke the nobles of the host nation, managed to secure the loyalty of their newly conquered land and rid themselves of the Sameans, whom had begun to slowly take more and more of the host nation, having as they did a larger army. The Host Nobles sent into every newly conquered city a battalion of Samean warriors. At every massacre the Sameans were present and highly visible. With clever plans already in place it took little maneuvering for the Host Nobles to place the blame for the invasions upon the militant Sameans. Rebellious groups sprang up like weeds after a hard rain, all with the taste of blood in their mouths and the Samean's in their sights. Like a man tormented by stinging flies the Samean's suffered. Unable to find their foe they nonetheless took grievous losses from the constant attacks.

In the span of 25 years the Samean's were a ragged, bitter lot, barely a shadow of their former selves, when finally the Host Nation was drawn firmly into the Great War, which had suddenly expanded strongly.

What happened next is unknown. It IS known that the host nation was destroyed, and that the Sameans became a guerrilla operation for some few years before being forced to run. When and where is unknown and they do not appear in history again for many hundreds of years. It is only nearly 500 years later that records are found of another group, bearing strong resemblances to the Samean, their language clearly based of the ancient Samean language but much, much closer to the modern language of Pilgis.

These people were, at the time a group of rebels, fighting against a king, presumably of the same stock, which is to say, another Samean King, but also speaks of another enemy. One which the rebels feared greatly, but also seemed almost gleeful about. Scholars suspect an enemy which had declared genocide upon Samean's, thus equally likely to kill the king as they were the rebels.

Battles, arguments and aspects of daily are described in great detail, but alas world news and politics were not, so the then-Sameans can only be roughly placed. It is known that the "other enemy" entered whatever country the Samean rebels were in within the last 200 years of the great war. War broke out, but from the sounds of it, all the Sameans together were outnumbered.

Our next records come in the form of the personal journal of the great Pilgis himself. Pilgis, as all know, was a military commander of a legion of some odd 5,000 rebels(it appears that by this time the rebels had the backing of several nobles), with associated camp followers. The precise date is unknown but experts guess at some 100 years before the end of the war. Pilgis was a hero of many battles. Oh how great his sword, how mighty his spear! He led his army to victory after victory, but alas even he could not send his men to death against the great other enemy. Vowing to save his people he took his army east, far, far east and brought war to the savages living there. With contemptuous ease he took the land from them, and for many years defended against all comers with ease. Until at last joyous word spread throughout all the land, The War, the Great War, which had gripped the world like madness was finally over! Upon hearing this mighty Pilgis, now an old, nearly ancient man, sitting upon this throne closed his eyes, and with a gentle smile, breathed his last.