Yakuma

*Written by* Moby\_Dick*.*

### Territory

Yakuma is a fairly small country, bordering the eastern ocean and facing **Dundulgur**. Climate doesn't change much throughout the year: summers aren't very hot, and snow is only occasional. Most of the territory is covered in forests, some have been burned for agriculture or chopped for building, while the rest is mostly bogs and swamps. The region is somewhat mountainous, although they could probably be qualified as hills.

Yakuma is very poor in resources; they're barely able to sustain their population, which would pass as a moderately-sized city in a more bountiful country.

### Important Places

* **Satoka** - The capital city (and the only proper city) in Yakuma. It is a port on the eastern ocean, and the main way in and out of the country for tourists and goods. The city itself is still small, only being home to a few thousand people. The streets aren't really wide, and the city feels a bit crammed, but it is magnificently lit with paper lanterns.

### Society

Yakuma, despite joining the democratic Commonwealth, is still ruled by an Emperor. The emperor has, in theory, all legal powers. He can order the army, every legal dispute is brought to their attention, and the Emperor is the only person able to pass laws. However, since Yakuma joined the Commonwealth and called for the help of the federal army, a significant amount of law enforcement is done by them, and according to Vetushian laws.

The only autonomous military that the Emperor has access to are the **Kishi knights**, a caste of noblemen trained for combat and justice. Traditionally, they wear leather armor with a lamellar chestplate, oftentimes reinforced with layered paper, and a curved two-handed saber. Due to their recent introduction to firearms however, about half of the Kishis have adopted the arquebus as a primary weapon, only keeping their saber for tradition and ceremonies.

The Kishis, as the officers of the Emperor, have the right to exercise low justice.

The country is mostly made of small villages, usually populated by 20-50 people, sometimes going up to 100. Village elders also hold significant power, as advisors and guides for their village.

### Culture

The culture in Yakuma, much like everything else, hasn't changed for centuries. Due to the heavily decentralized nature of the country, local festivals are common, sometimes gathering multiple neighboring villages. These usually include food, street games, dancing, and often fireworks and sky lanterns for bigger occasions.

In Satoka, however, which most Yakumans call the City, things are different. The recent opening of the country and discovery of the outside world triggered a kind of frenzy for foreign items. It's not uncommon to see Satokans dressed in foreign clothes, or wearing foreign jewelry and weapons. Satokans were also recently introduced to the wonders of the modern world, and are obsessed with one innovation in particular: photography. Despite it being still fairly expensive, Satokans like immortalizing even relatively mundane moments like a family dinner or a visit to a monument, and Yakuman alchemists and clocksmiths have been the main driving force for photography and camera innovation in recent years. They are, for instance, the ones behind most processes to produce direct positives and the iris mechanism for adjusting aperture.

### People

People from Yakuma are usually hard-working and passionate. They care deeply about traditions and honor, and work hard to keep what their ancestors left them, to when their turn comes, leave them to their descendants.

Due to their still-traditional society and their comparatively low median income, a lot of yakumans are fairly simple people, not caring much for extravagance and rather focusing on the necessities.

In Satoka, where the outside world is getting more and more present, many people sell specialties of the region like silk and traditional items such as weapons, which are notably made of damascus steel using techniques developed to refine their poor-quality iron and very prized by foreigners. They may also sell kites and sky lanterns. The City thrives mostly on tourism.

### History

The history of Yakuma isn't particularly well-documented. They invented writing independently and relatively late, and most record-keeping is related to the Emperor's whereabouts.

According to legend, Satoka was founded by their god **Satō** a couple millennia ago. Ardellanois historians believe that Satō was probably an ancestor or tribe chief who lived a long time ago, but archaeological evidence found in recent Commonwealth excavations never found artifacts older than 1600 years.

The country's lifestyle hasn't changed in centuries.

Yakuma joined the Commonwealth mere decades ago. They weren't aware of the outside world, and the outside world wasn't aware of them, until a skirmish between Yakuman ships and Dundee fishing boats made the federal army intervene, making them discover Yakuma, and Yakuma discover them. Their adhesion to the Senate happened fairly seamlessly, as Yakumans wanted to have access to all the modernity that the Commonwealth brought.

### Playing as a Yakuman:

As a Yakuman, you are probably proud of your origins and care about keeping your traditions alive on the international scene. You are probably fascinated by everything you're discovering in Vetus and the New World, and you are being introduced for the first time to most relatively modern innovations.

Pretty much all Yakumans have dark hair and relatively light skin, and all have monolid eyes, a genetical singularity of the region.

Yakuman names typically sound like real-life Japanese, Korean and Chinese names.