Qisman Caliphate

The Qisman Caliphate is one of the most culturally and regionally diverse nations on Utharia, with this title only being rivaled by the likes of Sitrane and Khodvia. It is a land covered in rich jungles, blazing deserts, and snowy mountains all filled with people of all walks of life unified under the Fated’s grace, and his guiding hand, the Caliph. While it may not be as glorious or grand as it was during its time as the massive Ohzman Empire, it is nonetheless one of Utharia’s greatest and long-standing civilizations.

### Demonym

Qisman (nationality), Sabayan (ethnicity)

## History

Before Sultan Qisma Valhmedi reached apotheosis and formed the Qisman Caliphate under his new form as the Fated, the Qisman Caliphate was one of history’s largest civilizations, even beating out modern-day Sitrane. Even *before* its status as an Empire, and before common recorded history, there was the Kingdom of Sabaya, a kingdom that has mostly been forgotten outside of ancient structures and fragmented texts that spanned most of the mountainous region of Sabaya.

### Kingdom of Sabaya

Little is known for certain about what the Kingdom of Sabaya was like, however, judging by texts written in dead languages, ruined castles and villages dotted around the mountains of Sabaya, and strange temples devoted to lost gods, it is believed that the Kingdom of Sabaya was a theocracy, similarly to the Ohzman Empire and Qisman Caliphate after it. However, unlike the more modern Sabayan civilizations, the ancient Sabayans are believed to have been monotheistic Sun worshipers who may not have even known about the few Ascended in existence. Various magical devices and a faded yet antiquarian dweomer surrounding the southern regions of Sabaya also indicated that they were extremely powerful magic users, perhaps even rivaling the greatest arcanists of today. The Kingdom of Sabaya did not last long, however, as they began expanding and taking over the empty areas surrounding them. They then began reaching into territory belonging to the modern Umdet Tetrarchy and Caosonia. The Kingdom of Sabaya eventually grew far beyond a mere kingdom, and with the rise of Sultan Ohzman I, the Ohzman Empire firmly set itself as one of Utharia’s first great empires.

### Ohzman Empire

The Ohzman Empire, having been formed shortly before common recorded history and lasting hundreds of years afterwards, has much more known information about it than the Kingdom of Sabaya. Like the Kingdom before it, the Ohzman Empire was monotheistic and worshiped the Sun, who they believed to be a deity of great power they called Shamsa. The Ohzmans believed that their people were blessed by Shamsa and were to be the rightful rulers of Utharia, leading them to become a warlike, xenophobic people that tried to conquer the rest of the known world. Clashes between the Ohzmans and ancient Sitranians, Ichtyrians, and Ascanians were common, though the Ohzman Empire never managed to keep the lands they took for any extended period of time. The Ohzman Empire was ruled over entirely by Sultans who were members of the Ohzman bloodline, with each ruler being the son or closest male relative to the previous. Certain noble families managed to gain quite a lot of political power and rose near the top of the caste system, with notable families being the Valhmedi, Ohzman, and Fatim bloodlines. While all of these families, including the Ohzman bloodline, still exist in the Qisman Caliphate today, they are nowhere near as powerful as they were under the Empire.

### Qisman Caliphate

The Ohzman Empire was filled with zealots and warriors who believed in purity and spreading their faith to all corners of Utharia, but even they had their dark underbelly that largely went ignored because of how beneficial it was to their efforts. Alchemists, witches, and practitioners of black magic formed underground organizations to create abominations of flesh and deploy them behind enemy lines, spreading undeath and allowing aberrations to run free in some areas. This often backfired and led to crises like the Ghul Plagues, where ghouls who were being experimented on emerged throughout the Empire and ravaged towns who could not defend themselves. Due to these and the plethora of other issues the Empire had with inequality, colonialism, and weak yet tyrannical despots, eventually it collapsed into anarchy. Once this happened, Qisma of the Valhmedi family rose up from the ashes of his people’s failures and created a foothold in Sabaya. Qisma united the people under his banner and reunited Sabaya while ceding the Empire’s conquered lands back to their own people, eventually leading to his Ascension as the Fated and the beginning of the Qisman Caliphate with the writing of *The Golden Prophecy*. To this day, the Qisman Caliphate is still dealing with issues brought on by the former Ohzman Empire, including a long-lasting group of Ohzman loyalists trying to dismantle the government and destroy the people’s trust in the Fated, hordes of ghouls and other undead living below the sands of northern Sabaya, and lost history that was destroyed by the Ohzmans for being declared blasphemous.

## Government

Since the Fated’s Ascension, the Qisman Caliphate has been ruled over by a Caliph in accordance to *The Golden Prophecy*, a holy text held within Halrajan’s grand palace that is read by an oracle in order to determine who will be the current Caliph and who will rule after them. While this rule has attempted to be broken numerous times by terrorists, assassins, and false claims on the throne, the seat of the Caliph has always been approved by the Fated and his oracles. During their rule, the Caliph is declared to be the absolute monarch of the Caliphate, though this authority comes from and therefore is checked by the Fated. The people of the Caliphate are given quite a lot of freedom and are treated equally. Noble houses are not officially recognized and therefore their power is entirely social and monetary, with the term “noble” itself being nothing more than a left-over Ohzman term now used for individuals who are members of wealthy families. Citizens of the Caliphate are allowed to worship any member of the Ascended, aside from the Outsider and the Fool, who are considered enemies of the Fated, though are expected to answer to the Caliph nonetheless. Diabolism is allowed throughout the Caliphate, and even encouraged to an extent, though direct worship of fiends is outlawed.

## Geography

The Qisman Caliphate stretches across the entirety of Sabaya and is made up of a variety of biomes. Sabaya is most often split up into three regions, dividing it into Northern, Central, and Southern Sabaya. Northern Sabaya is mostly made up of a hot desert near the equator with spots of fertile ground and villages built upon the sides of rivers. The capital of the Caliphate, Halrajan, is situated near the most northern portion of Sabaya and is surrounded by many rivers that make the land liveable. Central Sabaya is made up of thick forests and humid jungles and has the lowest population count of Sabaya, though is still dotted with a few major settlements. Southern Sabaya is vastly different from the rest of the region and is almost entirely covered in high, jagged mountains. While this would usually make such an area almost unlivable, people have lived within settlements built into the mountains themselves and underground since ancient times, creating a strange network of carved-out caverns and massive bridges between mountains.

## Inhabitants

About three-fourths of the Caliphate’s population is made up of ethnic Sabayans from a variety of races, with the most common of these groups being Sabayan Elves. The rest of the population is mostly made up of humans from Umdet and Haitoyuki, though people from all over Utharia, particularly worshipers of the Fated, live throughout the Caliphate. Very few races are seen with distrust in the Caliphate, though because of their history with underground undead, undead are often feared. Despite this, they are not illegalized and sentient undead are legally treated as citizens.