Assum

**Assum** is a country in the south of Zebrica. Its capital is the city of Donkele.

Its population is primarily made up of Donkeys.

## Politics

### Administrative divisions

Assum is divided into woreda or provinces, which are further subdivided into kebele or municipalities.

## Economy

Production of coffee is an important economic activity and coffee represents a significant portion of the exports. Assumite coffee is famed for its intense aroma.

Assum also produces khat, which is widely consumed throughout the country.

Other important exports include gold, frankincense and myrrh.

## Culture

### Religion

Unlike most of Equus, Assum is largely monotheistic. The main religion, Amlakism, is centered around an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient god called Amlak.

In ancient history, Assumites worshipped a wide pantheon, but the henotheist cult of Amlak gained prominence until it became the main form of worship, relegating the cult of other deities to fringe groups.

In Amlakism, water is strongly associated with purity. Washing one's hooves is a ritual invoked before entering a temple or an otherwise sacred location, with priests and fellow pilgrims washing the hooves of creatures who are unable to wash their own.

## History

Originally, Assum was a kritarchy without a central government, instead being arranged into judgedoms, led by a judge and typically comprising a large village, with larger judgedoms spanning several smaller villages or urbanizing into cities and neighborhoods. The power of judges was kept in check by the competition with neighboring judgedoms which could win wars against unpopular judges or overextended judgedoms. The position of judge is usually inherited by the eldest male son of the previous judge.

After a long period of kritarchy, one judge unified the land and established a monarchy, turning Assum into a unified kingdom and abolishing the judgedoms. The new king worshipped Amlak more than the rest of the pantheon and declared him to be the patron god of Assum, crediting him with his victory. Over time, the cult of Amlak rose in prominence, and the rest of the pantheon was either forgotten or worshipped as lesser spirits.

With the unified kingdom, a unified organized church dedicated to Amlak was founded with authority to dictate the beliefs of Amlakism and determine what constitutes heresy. While the church of Amlakism was a separate institution from the country of Assum, it held a strong influence on its politics and society, taking sides during civil wars and denouncing heretics such as any creature that didn't acknowledge Amlak as the only god.

In the early 9th century, the king at the time lead a brutal authoritarian rule known for being excessively harsh. He was informed by his spiritual advisors that a jack would rise up against him and end his rule, which lead to his decision to have all male foals in Assum killed. The unpopularity of this decision was a major destabilizing factor during his reign. Three decades into his rule, a transgender jack born during the culling, who was skipped due to being assigned female at birth, lead a rebellion which was successful in dethroning the king and establishing a new rule with liberal reforms.

During this era, the acceptance of transgender creatures increased greatly thanks to the role of the transgender king in the rebellion. As part of the liberal reforms, a unicameral legislature was created to keep the monarch's power in check. The legislature is known as the main court and its members are known as judges, which combine legislative and judicial powers. The seats of the main court correspond to traditional judgedoms as they existed before being abolished. Gender restrictions in the inheritance of the title of judge or monarch were abolished and creatures were enabled to change their gender freely.

In spite of the increased acceptance of transgender creatures, acceptance of non-binary creatures remains low as traditional Assumite culture considers that only spirits, not mortal creatures, can be neither male nor female.