Azuren

## Inhabiters

### Inhabiters

Locaster Helios, Soul Kawasaki, Cherry Amana, Windflower Amana, Veena Lu, Hikage Ishuko, Nabi Haluška, Fēng Xu, Ashton Khanh, Hideko Inazuma, Shizuka Ikami, Damion Halloreen, Crow Watanabe

**Azuren** is a country in the world of Lyakvat, and is also the main setting of *Challenge of The Shadows.* It is one of the worlds many countries and the largest out of all of them, being a transcontinental country that borders Lyarik to the east near its southern desolates and Soraya to its eastern forest.

Historically, Azuren had many troubles of who had full control over the land. Many tribes that were created used to rule peacefully, but had troubles with trying to control the rest of the land, which were owned by other tribes besides their own, specifically demon tribes that had begun to travel to find a safer place. As a result, the disputes over the land caused the war between humans and demons, resulting in discrimination in demons and how they had managed to win against the tribes. The tribes, realizing that no one could truly own the land, decided to unite the areas they once controlled and made Azuren, also known by them as the "Azure Land." The tribes had continued to rule for a long time before disbanding.

Azuren has faced rapid industrialization, leading to a technological renaissance for a short period of time. However, during their renaissance also came many wars and a decline in their spirituality, along with more imperialist ambitions and motives. With their new motives set, they went on to take over Lyarik, which was then called Illyria, and many other nations prior, causing many conflicts and wars, including between the kingdoms.

## History

### Early History

Azuren was said to once be a chain of islands before all of them had merged together via continental drift. With the drift, the many islands were able to come together and create a transcontinental country, including several others such as Soraya, Ostravik, and Lyarik.

### Tribe Settlement

After thousands of years, many tribes from an island that was surrounded by only water began migrating over to the new world that was created, the main ones being the Orisians, the Skuas, the Alokans, and the Shias. As tribes begun to settle, they each claimed a portion of the land and did not conquer due to its views on being immoral to do so.

However, the Shias, one of the many tribes, discovered that larger amounts of land had greatly benefited them and started to expand their territories unbeknownst to the other tribes. the Alokans, one of the Shias ally tribes, had noticed the expansion on the land and alerted the other members. When alerted, the tribes suddenly got into a conflict with the Shias for taking over other tribes land. The leader of the Shias, angered that the Alokan leader had betrayed them, started a war between all four tribes.

### Troubles between the Tribes

As the Shias begun to take over, tensions between the Shias and the Alokans were starting to arise, but the Orisians and Skua's attempted to calm things down, even threatening to launch an attack on the Shias, resulting in them backing down from the Alokans. The conflict further erupted when the Shias begun to take over tribes owned by demons, who had settled within the northern territories in order to start a new life, causing a war between the humans and demons. Because of the severe conflict, the other tribes were forced to intervene because of the mass damage coming towards their land. Because of the magic and powers demons possessed, the demons subsequently won the war and defeated the tribes, even their most advanced warriors.

Upholding the shame of the defeat, the tribes suddenly harbored an immense hatred for the demons, despite them only fighting off the tribes to keep control of their land. As the tribes had vanished, the conflict further arose and the other tribes had also broken off the treaty, fighting over the land and attempting to claim leadership. The Orisians and the Skuas had started to fight with one another, leading to chaos with other tribes in different provinces. Three other tribes would fight over the northern land and the others fought for the other parts in order to gain power. As the conflict started to worsen, the tribes started to decrease in population and the occupation of the land started to effect the tribes because of the constant conflict.

In the northernmost province of Azuren, which is modern day Misterin, other tribes were starting to fight over land after seeing how greatly they could benefit from it. The tribes started to take extreme limits into taking more land to an extent where they had forcefully taken demon land in order to demonstrate power and domination. As the tribes continued to fight for more land, it started to become scarce when having to find damp environments due to the North Desolates being rather high in altitude.

After fifteen years of prolonged fighting, the tribes soon realized it was pointless to fight for the land if they already had taken up so much. The tribes' leaders then decided to come to a meeting, where they would all share a piece of the land and be considered as equals. If anyone attempts to attack another tribe or has strained relations with any of them, they would be prohibited from taking more land. They then agreed to not split the land among them no longer and labeled the country as Azuren, which can translate to "The Azure Land."

### Peaceful Era

After the conflict was resolved between the tribes, it sparked a massive boom economically and technologically: Azuren had started to expand on its resources and had started to advance as technology such as bow and arrows, walls and aqueducts were being invented, along with villages and states that were considered as provinces. The population had grown significantly, with many migrating from other countries such as Soraya, a country that borders Azuren in the east. The tribes had started to fix their relations with one another and managed to improve. However, the hostility towards demons was still there and they would often be hostile against them, but allowed them in their society despite all of their hatred and hostility. Though, they were still marginalized because of the war between humans and demons.

The tribes no longer controlled parts of land and decided to label the country as Azuren, translating to "The Azure Land" in their native language. Being a new nation, there was no ruler or government that would be able to rule larger masses of land. A certain clan, the Roseritas, offered to take on the offer of governing the country in order to ensure stability. Because of their high status and fairly good reputation, the tribes and people agreed to allow them to rule under the circumstance that they do not get corrupt with their power.

### Roserita Era

The Roserita's quickly ruled over Azuren after winning the majority vote and became the first monarchy established within the region. Throughout Ume Asaki's reign, an era of prosperity was brought among the people because of her effortless ruling style and advancements in technology. The Roserita's were respected by the other tribes and were looked at highly for their rule as they became increasingly more powerful because of their influence over parts of the land and their provinces. In this era, many occupations began emerging and the economy began to flourish because of their abundance in natural resources.

The Roseritas were the first clan to utilize cannons and other weapons such as steel swords that were stronger than wooden bow and arrows that most tribes used and allowed the tribes to have the new weapons because of their friendly relations. Because of their prosperous era, Ume had created a set of laws in order to sustain the governmental system she had set, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Her daughter, Rosalina Asaki, would son take the throne after her death, but by that time, she was unstable because of the loss of her mother: The beginning of her rule was, at first, rocky because of her emotional state. At times, her husband, Takashi, would have to substitute in for her so the country would not collapse under her rule.

Eventually, Rosalina would recover and began ruling responsibly and resuming her duties, giving aid to the other tribes and citizens of Azuren and called for the construction of villages in order to sustain a new lifestyle that was not expected for those around her to follow. She would provide benefits that would give the citizens a boost in starting their villages by donating food, water and other necessities, much to the people's pleasure, and was perceived as a proficient ruler with high approval ratings.

However, despite her generosity, Rosalina had a darker side to her: During this time, she begun persecuting demons after propaganda was spread about them being monstrous creatures because of the Human-Demon war. Many demons were murdered for their specie and were, at times, held in prison or publicly executed. Demons did not have the same rights as humans and were not allowed to marry humans, let alone interact with them because of their risks of being executed. Because of the persecution, most demons had went into hiding for long times out of fear.

### Lyakonian-Azurian War

After the Roserita's colonized Soraya and Lyarik, both native Sorayans and Lyakonians began rebelling. Yet, despite the times she tried to silence them, the people refused to be silent and started to unite and become their own armed forces. As a result, the Lyakonian-Azurian war broke out after the Astrada's, a tribe that formed it's own government, pleaded for liberation as a colony and being independent once again, but refused and resulted in multiple rebellions the soldiers and Rosalina herself attended. In the heights of the war, many Roseritan soldiers died because of their strategic location and fighting skills that the Roseritan soldier's were unable to match up to. Because of the war, the Astradas and the Roserita's were fighting with one another and many soldiers were killed and pursued them until they forced Roseritan soldiers out of Lyarik, leaving them to be independent. Rosalina, in a deep fit of hock, attempted to re-colonize Lyarik, only to be overthrown by the people and died because a bomb being placed within a castle wall, with the building collapsing on her and the first monarchy was abolished.

### Rule under Erothite

Shortly after Rosalina's overthrow, Erothite Asmathus, a soldier who fought in the war, took power after many of her higher commanding officers recommended she'd do so because of her renowned charm, personality and leadership skills. Being impressionable and young, Erothite agreed to her commander's reccomendation and assumed power, making Runia the de-facto capital and main area where every Azurian citizen would reside. During her early years, she was eager to assist the people that were effected by Rosalina's actions, giving them homes and food, along with necessary supplies and medicine. Support grew for Erothite throughout the many years to come because of her help and willingness to care for those around her, perceiving her as a deity for her selflessness: Seeing how people viewed her, Erothite realized how much power she held and started to shift her views to that of a dictator, having a tighter control on her people in her later years.

Erothite started to aid less and her selflessness quickly transformed into selfishness, hoarding her power and beginning to wipe out any political opponent that would attempt to get in her way or attempt to overthrow her while still masking a selfless demeanor she fronted to still earn support. However, things started to shift when Erothite stormed into a political opponent's residence and murdered them for opposing her views, causing those around her to see her in a different light, perceiving her as a tyrant and power hungry. As a result, many started to rebel against Erothite, including Seléne, her childhood friend and soon-to-be goddess of astrology. Erothite killed multiple protesters and attempted to shut them down, most of which were successful while other attempts were futile.