Guromaaz

===Guromaaz (GUR-oh-MOZ)===
==General Information==
Government: Republic
Faiths: Balikar, Harfol, Regdin
Capitol: Raddinoc
Population Density: Moderate
Races: Orcs, Half-Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Orogs
Exports: Raw Iron Ore, Weapons, Jewelry and Gems
Imports: Horses, Oxen, Textiles
==History==
The place where the Windras and Ruddy Mountains meet is where the orcs ofGuromaaz currently reside. The beginning of the orcish people is actually rather unusualcompared to where they eventually wound up. In their early days, the orcs were a barbaric andwarlike people who roamed the mountains that were their homelands and throughout much ofwhat is now known as the Smeltgar Wastes and modern day Druglug. Their first deity wasactually the now less than popular Regdin who, in a fit of boredom, decided to create the firstorcs as a lark. Regardless, in the early days of their existence, the orcs were little more thanroving bands of hostile and barbarian tribes who simply lived for the moment.
It was in these early years of the orcs that they encountered the goblins of what is now Druglug.The goblin peoples, wracked and weakened by their own problems, soon found that they had anew problem from the roving raiding bands and tribes of orcs. These days of simplicity,however, would not last for either culture. The giants of Gronth came from the far north with thenotion of conquest. It was in these ancient days that the giants seized much of the northincluding the original homelands of the orcs. The giants proved to be harsh taskmasters to their‘lesser’ subjects and the years under their rule did much to change the mind set of the orcs.The domination of the giants was not to last, however. With the dawn of the trolls whom weregreatly abused as soldiers by their giant masters, the orcs and goblins saw their chance to rebelagainst their masters and gain their freedom. It was an important time for the orcs as theyrealized that they could no longer live as they once had if they were to survive as a people.During the long and drawn out war, two new deities arose from the orcs who would change theshape of orcish culture from then on. Balikar and Harfol, the now dominant deities of theculture, had their origins as normal orcs whom eventually ascended to godhood.
The post-war years were rough and rocky for the orcs who, after years of slavery under a moreadvanced race and through the elevation of Balikar and Harfol, learned that the way they hadbeen doing things before simply would no longer work if they wished to continue their freedom.The older worshipers of Regdin, however, would prove to be a constant plague to the race’sfuture and consolidation. Early on, this coalesced into bitter infighting on the part of the variousfaith’s followers. When Balikar and Harfol attempted to console with Regdin that he needed torein his followers in, however, he just laughed finding amusement in the whole affair. So it wasthat the eventual taming of Guromaaz came about much later than it should have and thosewho were once allies not so long ago would prove that ancient rivalry was stronger than recentpartnership.
Druglug reached its ‘understanding’, inevitably, before Guromaaz was even a real entity. Thenew khans of the goblins saw their orcish neighbors as easy pickings that would help them buildthemselves up to their own potential and so invaded in the hopes of conquest and cheap labor. Inthe face of fighting one another and the united goblin races, the orcs entered a dark time that for awhile seemed likely to end with their domination yet once again. It was this fear, coupled withthe slowing of the goblin’s advance due to their own changes in lifestyle that eventually led bothsides of the religious camps to come to the understanding that they were faced with a simple truth- unite and change or become the slaves of yet another foreign empire. Faced with this simplechoice, Regdin’s followers reined themselves in preferring to come to terms rather than face thecomplete end of their freedoms. It still would not happen immediately, but eventually the idea ofconsolidated rule spread and through contests of skill and strength a ruler was chosen and themonarchy of Guromaaz was officially born. The winner wound up being a devotee of Balikar,but realized he would need the followers of Regdin on his side if he was to have a chance ofsecuring his people’s future and allowed them their concessions if they would but fight topreserve their race. As most followers of Regdin would rather die than fall to completesubjugation, the terms were agreed upon.
The new Emperor of the orcs knew that if he was to keep his head and his tenuous position that itmeant he had to wage war with the seemingly unbeatable goblin horde. It was fortuitous on hispart that the goblins had grown to squabbling over their gains and were swamped in their ownproceedings and governmental pursuits sorting it all out. The orcs mounted their counter attackand handed the goblins one humiliating defeat after another. It was during this time that thewinds of change amongst the orcish peoples truly began to take the direction that would lead totheir future. Balikar’s standing soared during the reclamation period as it was his followers whocontinually held the title of Emperor and were winning battle after battle. They eventuallyregained all lands they had agreed upon during the post-rebellion years, completely destroyingthe now dead Lau-Khan. It was at this point that the goblins realized the threat to themselves andfinally stopped the advance breaking the war down into an unmoving stalemate. The Emperor atthe time, realizing that he needed to end the war before all the gains made culturally during thewar years became threatened, demanded the Ur-Khan meet to discuss terms. To the surprise ofthe Emperors detractors, the meeting was agreed upon and terms for a cessation of hostilitiessuccessfully reached that favored the orcs. The situation seemed near to hand with new empiresand countries coming to the north that the followers of Balikar would finally reach their greatestaspiration of making Guromaaz into the empire of their dreams. Though this would notsuccessfully happen for some time yet.
Years passed and finally one of the Emperors, after gathering a majority of the aristocracy to hisside in the issue, decided to finally make the move to make Guromaaz into the Republic it istoday. Debates raged and duels were fought, but it seemed as if the reality had actually happenedand the republic was born. Realizing that the new republic needed friends and fast if it was toprevent a brutal civil war, they made alliances with the nearby growing elvish colony of Portiriand dwarvish colony of Halfgan. What the new government didn’t realize, however, was justhow many detractors and how much unrest it had. Soon after these agreements were made, a fullthird of the new countries aristocracy - many devotees of Regdin - decided that the new way ofthings simply could not be tolerated and staged a surprisingly effective coup. Although therebels failed to capture the ruling government, they had succeeded in dividing its armies anddriving a wedge between the colonies of Halfgan and Portiri. In the end of the affair, the republicmarshaled its forces and raced south while the elves of Portiri shifted their forces west in anattempt to save the new dwarven colony from being wiped out. In the end, the rebellion was putdown, but came at the cost of the dwarves of Halfgan who lost their capitol and colony to therebels - a price the republic to this day still venerates as a country wide holiday of mourning fortheir sacrifice that the orcish people could come to be the people it is today. The new republiceased some of the restraints on remaining laws targeting Regdin’s followers to ease the unrestand it seems the slaughter of a basically innocent bystander has taught some of these that the oldways need not necessarily die, but should certainly be governed with more temperance than ofold.
Today, Guromaaz reigns as a power to be reckoned with in the north and has continued itscordial relations with the now nation of Portiri creating a dual alliance that has now lasteddecades.
==Society==
The culture of the orcs of Guromaaz has evolved considerably over the centuries andthrough no little amount of blood, regrets, and sacrifice. Today, the Republic of Guromaazstands as one of the most advanced countries in the northwest with a history richer than mostwould guess at first glance.
The orcs take great pride these days in what they call their ‘republic’; considering it a great blendof traditional orcish values while maintaining the tapestry of an evolved society that hasn’tforgotten who they are and where they come from. The orcs learned the long and hard way thatthe faith should have little to nothing to do with the running of their country. From theboisterous and live for the moment followers of Regdin, the wanderlustful and inspired followersof Harfol, up to the pragmatic and savvy followers of Balikar, the nation boasts a widely diversereligious base that if allowed to have free rein would likely tear the nation apart. By this ideal,religion is a freely practiced thing in orcish society. People are allowed to believe in whateverdrives or inspires them; orcish or otherwise, so long as they keep it out of affairs of state andremember the whole is more important than the one. Something current laws and governing inGuromaaz makes certain happens. Religious unrest, however, has been at a rather dull roarfor some time now with most realizing with a fervent level of paranoia what the alternative couldbe. Worship and live as you wish so long as you do not interfere in the well being of the whole.In this instance it is common for followers of Regdin to be found massed together in wholefiefdoms or districts so that they may be allowed as much of their religious freedom as possible.
The maps orcs draw of Guromaaz has it divided up into ‘districts’ and within each ‘district’are ‘fiefdoms’. The capitol itself is run by an elected body of representatives from each district -each district sending a representative that is representing the civil aspect of their needs and onethat is representing the martial needs of the district. Amongst these representatives is chosen asingle figure that presides over the republic’s proceedings. This figure is a member of thecouncil, chosen by the council to keep things in perspective. The specific factions are not,strictly, divided to a governing house as many such governments are; the orcs believing thiswould encourage potential rivalry between two people who are supposed to be speaking as onefor the needs of their district. Rather, these representatives stand together with their votescounting as one vote rather than two. Any time a shared perspective can’t be reached, thedistrict’s vote is considered as undecided. Each time a council is elected, a new chairman isvoted to this seat. It is traditional honorific that terms this person as ‘Emperor’ rather than anylevel of supreme power as while they govern proceedings are actually rather limited as a nationalspokesman in national/international affairs and arbiter in the actual proceedings in the republic;though he must still consult with his shared representative when casting votes on issues. Ties inGuromaaz politics simply do not happen often due to the fact that there is intentionally an oddnumber of districts. When they do happen, the basic common law is that the district shouldhandle the situation as they see necessary with the government only stepping in officially at thispoint if the fiefdoms of the district raise petitions concerning changes.
Elections occur every three years. Civic representatives are elected by open, popular vote andanyone who is a citizen is allowed to cast a vote. Martial representatives are selected by a carefulseries of tournaments that include war games and single combat challenges [confined to firstblood as terms of victor at the most severe]; these are confined to those citizens involved in themilitia or army with rank being negligible to skill. These are all held at the fiefdom level foreach fiefdom in a district with each of these then competing in same fashion to earn the honor ofbeing that districts representative. Those who do not win the district role are still able to keep thecontrol of their won positions in their fiefdoms respectively. In this way, the orcs maintain theirmartial cultural heritage while embracing the idea of free choice. At anytime the fiefdoms feelthey are being miss-represented by the their electees, they have the right to petition the otherrepublic chairs to remove them from office and allow a new election to fill the place. In thisway, the politicians are more likely to be proper representatives rather than be forced to returnhome to the scorn of their peers in disgrace as the trend is for the republic to side with thefiefdoms as the representatives must ‘prove’ that their intentions are pure which can be difficultunless it is irrefutably true.
The orcish people are proud and consider themselves proudly as a free people. The keeping ofslaves is prohibited and indentured servitude of any kind must be logged on contract with thelocal officials who have offices specifically assigned to ensure abuse of the indentured party isquickly rectified. These punishments are usually quite harsh and have led to exile or executionmore than once. In fiefdoms where Regdin’s faith is prominent, the guilty party is likely to bestrung up in the square and used for a practice dummy by the locals and garrison with thewronged party granted first blow. Likewise, freedom of races is considered the same. If you livein Guromaaz, you are a citizen and must follow its rules. If you are visiting and do now sharethis free look on the world you’d best keep your opinions to yourself. Foes taken in battle areeither executed on the spot, ransomed back to the country of origin, or let loose somewhere tofend for themselves. Unless these are goblins in the midst of one of the short but brutal warsDruglug and Guromaaz sometimes find themselves in, these captured soldiers are given thechoice of either returning home, paying for citizenship as an indentured servant or the release of ablade. Its considered poor grace to slay a defeated foe out of hand unless they have alreadycommitted a grievance meriting the returned gesture.