Claim: Resmi (@BingBong on discord)

NAME: Resmi

FLAG/SYMBOL: None yet.

LOCATION: Just south of the UHSR

Here is the location. For some reason my photo editor couldn’t do anything other than curved lines, but that’s the general area (the border follows the UHSR and joins the bottom of that peninsula)

GEOGRAPHY: The actual landmass is very flat, with hills higher than 50 meters called mountains by the locals (occasionally an actual mountain caused by the rings has an entirely different name in the local dialect, Enil), but somewhat significantly is, is the large coastline and Mediterranean climate. There are many beaches along the north coast that are used as trading ports, as well as a handy bay/cove in the east of the country that houses the navy (which usually stands idly by, boats rotting away), and then some. than legal activities. The south coast is much marshy and not very useful for trade, but is good for fishing, with fertile lands nearby.

BIOLOGY/ETHNICITY: The people of Resmi (or as they call themselves, the Elum), are like a cross between elves and aarakocra. Their bodies are largely covered in feathers from the neck down, have small wings (they cannot safely fly more than 5 meters above the ground) and average 2.5 meters in height. Within the Elum, being slightly shorter is taken as a sign of greater confidence (their height is conflated with the ‘height of their honor’. If something is shorter, it has a harder fall). They usually have blond hair, but darker shades occasionally appear. The nobler the family, the lighter the hair will be (due to inbreeding). Their eyes are very similar to ours, except their pupils are about 10% larger, so they can see much further than the average human. Due to the strict rules of their society, they are extremely cautious and tend not to make decisions until they have all the possible information. Eh, that’s about it, I think. I might draw diagrams at some point, but that’s descriptive enough for now.

HISTORY: Long ago (not that long actually, but long enough that no one remembers) the Elum were just people. Closer to variant humans, with a bit of other races mixed in, but relatively vanilla. They were a nomadic people who lived off the land, but eventually they discovered the wonders of trade. Spend your day fishing, and someone will take care of you if you give them some fish. Back then, most people were powerful magicians, but they mainly used magic to make the job easier. Then the Eluminor family (from which the breed gets their modern name) saw the opportunity to take over. They set up a monarchist system and a state religion. Now, instead of normal people having access to powerful magic, common folk are only allowed to use cantrip-like magic (think prestidigitation), and powerful magic is reserved for nobility and “law keepers” (the Elum police, who handle the large amount of crime in the country). There are rumors of revolution in the masses, but for now real magic can only be practiced in secret.

SOCIETY: As I’ve already said, this society is a monarchy, and I have an extensive genealogy for the monarchy over the past ten generations, and currently there is a succession crisis (in six ways, and it’s messy). This, combined with the general unrest due to the recent mismanagement and corruption in the government from the start, indicates that the monarchy will soon collapse (perhaps society will become less strict and more open to things like magic once that happens). The country is certainly more urban around the port cities, but overall most of the area is quite rural. The majority of people live within 100 km of the coast, mainly because of trade, and also because there is a lot of land compared to the population, land costs are not too high. Society is very classist, as explained earlier. There is a great divide between the nobility and police who are allowed to use magic (and control most of the money), and the proletariat who can only use basic magic and perform mainly menial labor. , especially fishing and agriculture. Patriarchy is not a particularly prominent part of the wider society, but it is clear that the monarchy follows male primogeniture (or a similar system). Mechanically, the country works a lot like Prohibition America (think the streets of New Capenna), where the executives operate like criminal families, which have been around so long that they have a facade of legitimacy. The executive branch of government is effectively a mafia made up solely of ‘nobility’ and their grunts.

CULTURE:

• Philosophy: There are three principles of the Elum philosophy: you must respect the laws, respect the elders and respect the system. Due to the strict restrictions on the freedom of ordinary people, people are often very cautious and secretive. If an Elum likes to tell you something, you should always assume it is a lie, or irrelevant.
• Clothing: Most people wear an ‘akkad’, which is close to a toga, as the climate favors much looser and lighter clothing. People who work on boats tend to wear much heavier clothing, closer to the pelts, because it gets much colder at sea.
• Religion: As I explained above, the Elum follow a state religion. It’s a bit between monotheism and polytheism. 15 major gods make up the main pantheon, and they all answer to 1 ‘omnipotent’ God, who ratifies his ‘approval’ for the ruling family every year during their annual festival. Each city is responsible for pleasing a specific God, with the city of Rishad responsible for keeping the main character happy. There are also minor gods that are commonly worshiped by smaller towns and cities. Each God has no specific domain, but they share the responsibility of upholding the way of the great man.
• Food: It is very similar to Greek cuisine, but it is much more fishy, ​​based on the abundance of animals.
• Art: They are big fans of sculpting, clay and not marble. Clay is plentiful in the southern swamps, so this love of sculpting is largely because clay has always been available to release the creative pressure.
• Customs and traditions: The Elum are big fans of the water. Most celebrations end with the people being celebrated being immersed in the nearest body of water, and they tend to spend as much free time in the water as possible. As I mentioned earlier in the philosophy section, they are very secretive people, especially when it comes to things like trade and economics. If you have the respect of an Elumi, they will talk to you openly and not whisper in front of you. There are other customs and traditions, but I’m running out of words (in fact, I went over 300, but I had to fit in as many as I could).

PREVENTION OF MAGIC: More powerful magic is considered extremely taboo. The only people allowed to use it are nobles and law enforcement. Powerful magic in this case is anything above a 1st level DnD5e spell, and certainly nothing that can be used offensively. To use magic, the Elum have 2 options to fuel the power: sap from your life force (which is regained up to a certain point over time), or draw it from your environment (usually living creatures, but anything natural or moving works). For most people, magic is used to make life easier, things like tidying up, doing menial work and making life easier. In battle, most humans are completely useless, but the army and navy (which, as mentioned, aren’t very good at the moment) are fairly trained in using them offensively. Magic is usually used to perpetuate the class divide, which is why many revolutionaries feel the need to practice magic in secret to prevent this divide from widening. Magic users are seen as reckless (to the common folk) or as threatening (to the nobility, since for them magic is usually used to get what they want by force).

IMPORT, EXPORT AND MAJOR INDUSTRIES: The main industries of Resmi are fishing, olive growing, grape growing and the production of small electrical appliances (light bulbs, wires, etc.). The Mediterranean climate, coastal zone and fertile southern soils make these crops and animal products plentiful and easily farmable, and the large wealth gap makes labor cheap for production. Resmi olives are reputed to be sweeter than any in the world, but depending on your supplier, it’s entirely possible to get ripped off. Their biggest imports are ores/metals to build their infrastructure, and food (staples such as wheat and meat), as not much is grown in the area, and imports are needed to feed the country. The port city of Rishad is a trading hub in this part of the world, and the navy was originally built to protect this city and other major port cities in the north of the country, but has become complacent with the end of the world’s golden age. piracy. There are still pirates, but they tend to plunder coastal cities in the east rather than attacking large trading ships. The Elum aren’t the kind of people to expand their territories overseas, but they do look west to control more of the continent, and so the army prepares to march west (I’m going to talk to people before this canon is, but it seems about right imo, and I don’t see anyone on the map in that area, so I don’t see any problems).