Neshumai

Neshumai extends in a strip almost 200 miles long at the west bank of the Rock River, claiming a territory around 50 miles west of the river, the Meander River defines the southern border, while the hilly lands of the gazelle beastmen that sacked the Mnemis centuries ago form the norhtern border.

In A Nutshell

Neshumai is an agricultural country dotted with many fortified towns. In the past decade it has gone through a civil war, an abyssal invasion and a cultural and industrial renaissance sponsored by solar exalted. Currently it is a prosperous nation with a nascent democracy and a citizenship protective of their newly found civil rights.

Demographics

• About the same size as: Cyprus, a bit over 9,300 sq. miles.
• Population: 50,000 and still growing, as the inhabitants that fled the civil war and abyssal invasion return.
• Magnitude: 12
• Transportation: Neshumai benefits of the Rock River at the East and the Meander at the south. The terrain is quite flat and dirt roads connect the towns, with a gravel road going south to north, from Redthrone to Mahuapti (and in old times the road went on to Mnemis, but that section suffers from centuries of disrepair).

Luminaries

• Ni Giang, the cynical elder patron of Mahuapti, white-haired and bent of back, who took up Grandmother Spider's mantle when she left.
• Guildsman Tsuo, the former representative of the Guild's drug and shipping interests, now something of an organizer of pan-village interests.
• Corpse-Speaker Alai, the most revered regional priestess of the ancestor cult, representative of the thousands who were ritually butchered by the Winter's Scythe and demand retribution.
• Grandmother Spider (Absent), the ambiguously anathemic, exalted, god-touched, or enlightened headmistress of the Swan College in Mehuapti.

Culture

• Protect their freedom and rights, ••

• Favor learning and personal growth, •
• Hatred to the abyssals and their masters, ••

Economy

• Production: Neshumai is a breadbasket country in principle, exporting wheat down the Yellow River to Great Forks, and overland to Greyfalls. In addition, iron ore, red willow bark (which is used in analgesic drugs) and some silver are exported. Much of the domestic economy is in farmland.
• Standard of Living: Normal for the East, the population is somewhat better educated than in other countries.
• Throughput: A fair amount of the agricultural produce is exported to neighbor countries. Redthrone, in the Meander River, sees much river traffic.
• Stability: Neshumia is almost completely self-sufficient. Even when the harvests are bad in the East, they produce more than enough foodstuffs for themselves. They are not particularly dependent on trade with anyone, and they don't have a real merchantile tradition.

Geomancy

The autharchs of Neshumai sistematically destroyed all known manses and demesnes in the territory to drive away supernatural rivals. The only known manse right now is the Grumpy Skull (abyssal 3, on a level 4 demsne) detailed below.

Government

• Nominally a republican democracy; in practice a loose confederacy of village governments based on a combination of big-men, elders' councils, and public bitching sessions.
• Management: The leaders of the towns, choosen by the population, are equal in the council and make decisions by vote. But in general they do as Ni Giang says.
• Prudence: The nation is fairly decentralized, most towns could survive as fully independent city states. They do have common laws, though, and a central army.
• Integrity: During the war against the abyssals, the country had a very strong feeling of internal solidarity, towns supported each other with fanatical devotion, and coodinated efforts against the undead hordes. After a few years of peace, relations have cooled some, and some rivalities have appeared. Outside threats (particularly Vir Sidus) and cultural traditions keep them friendly to each other.

Military

• Strength: During the civil war many of the adult citizens received extensive military training. About 3,000 still remain as professional soldiers in the standing armies of the towns. The town of Mahuapti is the home of the Rangers of the Eleventh Hour, a Tiger Warrior cavalry dragon that counts with numeroues mortal heroes among their number and was armed by Grandmother Spider with superior gear. It is part of the CDL legion.
• Maneuver: Except for the Rangers, most of the towns armies are geared for self-defense and would be slow to gather in a single army. Many of Neshumai's defenses are natural, and the army is trained to exploit this factor. Preferences for building on scarp, and for palisading all settlements, makes taking a single Neshumaic village at best annoyingly time-consuming without artillery, and taking any significant territory in the nation an exercise is great frustration for most would-be conquerers.
• Militia: Because of recent conflicts, many working adults in the rural villages are capable of fighting if needed to defend their homes, and possess middling quality martial weaponry (though generally no armour).

Travelling into Neshumai

 Jagged stone and scrub trees climb upward to the north, rising into the Stained River uplands and its empty plains. The harsh hills of northern Neshumai are much in evidence here, with ragged blades of granite thrusting up through the skin of earth that wind and water has failed to efface. North Cut Pass is the only clear trail down into Neshumai to be had for miles on either side, and the eastern trade road that heads off along the ridges has no southern turnoffs for leagues past the border. Smugglers and packmen can cross the rough hills, perhaps, but no wagon could hope to manage save at North Cut Pass.

         In evidence of this is the simple stone customs-post that has been erected here on the border. Squat and heavy-masoned, it bears the wear of time and the scratchmarks where the Viridian Eye of old Neshumai has been chiseled away by the new regime. A dozen or so troopers man the post at any given time, hard-bitten men and women of few words and less interest in the passing merchants. No customs duties are excised in either directions, but the sign posted up on the border makes clear what is not permitted. Perhaps alone in this part of the Hundred Kingdoms, slavery is not permitted in North Neshumai, and slavers are warned off at peril of their lives.

         To the south, a surprisingly sturdy and well-fashioned road of raised gravel and guttered margins trails south into the deeper forest of the hill country, while to the southeast can be seen the smokeplumes of Freehold, a former mining stockade and present capital of this new land.

***

History

The Age of Sorrows has not been kind to Neshumai. Once, the nation occupied twice its current area, extending into the plains to the north and capitaled at Mnemis. In centuries past, however, progressive raids by beastmen and Fair Folk sacked and overran the First Age city, reducing it to ruin, and forcing the human occupation of the northern Lesser Rock River Escarpment south, a hundred miles to the current, more defensible border. Neshumai's remaining territory is mainly composed of flat river floodplain and rocky scarp, though in the north east and west forests of willow and oak have sprung up, within living memory. Each village in Neshumai is palisaded and somewhat isolated, due to the recent political history of the nation: a fascist cult-of-personality surrounding the country's former ruler, the Resplendent Autarch, had the country in the grip of paranoid isolation, with each settlement being organized more as a prison-camp for its inhabitants then as a home.

This changed when a Guild prince, whose name is lost to history, financed a rebellion based around the iron mines in the northern extreme of the country. Peasants, trained underground and armed with Guild-purchased weaponry, took the northern half of the country in a rapid series of victories, but were stymied mid-way to the Lesser Rock River. For several years, the situation stagnated. The Autarch was murdered by Abyssal Anathema, and the already-battered South descended into a horror of ritual massacre and supernatural terror. Finally, for reasons that remain mysterious, the Abyssals left; the last holdout, the warlord Winter's Scythe, was seemingly driven from the southern capital of Redthrone, in an inconclusive battle with rival Anathema forces.

Today, Neshumai shows many signs both of increasing prosperity, and lingering social trauma. The governmental system is a patchwork of village democracy, national republicanism, and foreign commercial interests. Centres of power include Freehold, the new capital city of Neshumai built around the northern iron mines, Mahuapti, home of the mysterious Grandmother Spider and her school, the Swan College, and Redthrone, the port city on the Meander River.

Main Towns

Freehold: 15,000

Mahuapti: 9,000

Redthrone: 5,000 (young populace of migrants, almost all of whom who are of working age work on the docks; most of Redthrone's population was exterminated by the Winter's Scythe)

The rest of Neshumai's population live in rural, palisaded towns of 1,000-5,000 inhabitants, though gradually other settlements are cropping up outside of the defensive walls. 

The Manse of Redthrone: Mournful Den of the Enlightened Truth (Abyssally Aspected Demesne 4, CAPPED, see The Grumpy Skull):

((A vicious, twisting, misshapen wreck of pain and suffering, wishing only to curl up and die at the first available fetid pool of rancid water.  This is how the average person would describe feeling upon walking into this blasted wasteland of decay.  Close to a mile round the cancer persists, bleeding at the edges as if were trying to consume creation one blade of grass at a time.  Consume it does, turing life and beauty into ashes and dust.  Blackened leaves rain down like death, carried on a foul howling wind whispering only sweet release.

The sky here is dark, not so much overcast as suffused with a ghostly pallor emanating a sort enlightening sickness that frames your perspective of life's futility and ultimate failure.   Herein lies the truth, the eternity of the afterlife's static perfection.  Sit down and rest a while, friend.))

The Grumpy Skull (Abyssally-Aspected Manse 3):

As of Fire/768, the Mournful Den is no longer dangerous, due to a capping of the demesne by a Manse of extremely odd design. Most people who see it for the first time, contrary to the effects of the uncapped demesne, tend to laugh. It is very simple in construction, with absolutely no amenities and barely any interior at all. Mostly, it is just an enormous human skull made of black stone, with a constipated expression somehow etched into its fleshless face, and purple-black smoke streaming continuously from earholes, nostrils, the corners of its mouth and its eyesockets. It looks like the manse has just eaten something that disagreed with it, and indeed its primary purpose is simply to vent necrotic essence safely into the aether. Inside the mouth of the skull is a simple sealed stone plug with Riverspeak writing carved into it, which translates roughly as follows: "DO NOT ENTER; WHAT ARE YOU, GOOFY? -SPIDER". While largely useless, the manse is extremely durable and hard to damage.

Recent History (Most recent events first):

RY 769 - Neshumai's ruler, Grandmother Spider left with a stranger.  The stranger came just a few seasons after Sesus Ormi ousted her openly as a Solar Anathema.  He challenged her to a duel which she grudgingly accepted if only to spare her kingdom from his wrath.  Sadly, she lost and was forced to leave with him as his servant.  Despite this, Neshumai continues to prosper due in no small part to Grandmother Spider's excellent educational infrastructure.  The population is well-educated which leads to more civilized resolutions to any dispute and a more overall harmonious environment.  All in all, Neshumai remains an excellent place to live with one of the best schools in the East.

RY 768 - Grandmother Spider is outed openly as an Anathema by Sesus Ormi.  Though this is bad for her, the Wyld Hunt does not mobilize against her--presumably busy with other business.  However, a few seasons later a stranger does come and openly challenges her to a duel claiming that the loser will have to serve the winner in some capacity.  Though Spider initially refuses, the stranger's threat to Neshumai changes her mind.  The duel ends in Spider losing to the stranger and leaving Neshumai seemingly completely.

Fire/768 - Thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of Grandmother Spider, the White Sickness is now largely in remission.  Though periodic cases are still surfacing, the disease no longer can claim epidemic proportions.

Earth/768 - The White Sickness is coming to Neshumai; one of the first victims to be struck down is the First Citizen of the republic, Yen Hui, hero of the war of liberation. Grandmother Spider, the goddess-patron of Mahuapti, has organized a startlingly swift and effective response, which has delayed the entry of the disease into the general population so far, by organizing quarantines of traders and travellers who have passed through Eshulai. Quarantine camps have sprung up outside the major settlements of the country for those denied entrance, where medical care is available. The patron-goddess has made known that she is seeking medical advice, particularly from Exalted doctors, having little expertise of her own.

Earth/768 - Rumors abound of a potential treaty between Neshumai and the Barony of Steel, involving a pledge of close mutual alliance centred around the dissemination of industrial and agricultural expertise (detailed below).

Water/768 - Neshumai is beginning to show signs of a Renaissance not unlike that of the Halta Confederacy in the far north. Advanced agricultural and construction technologies are being rapidly produced and disseminated in the region, and the countryside is increasingly marked by windmills, windtraps, deep ploughs, complex bunds and dykes, and better roads. Even a few airboats are seen connecting once-distant villages, allowing fresher produce to reach urban markets! If any individual is behind the changes, their hand is subtle, but certainly the improvements have done little to dampen the young and scattered cult of the patron-goddess Grandmother Spider, whose jovial (almost caricatured) image can be found in roadside shrines -- she is generally associated with the road not only because of her propensity for wandering, but because she is said to have constructed Northern Neshumai's first roads during the war of liberation.