Kingdom of Nolina

## Description:

The Kingdom of Nolina, often referred to as simply Nolina, is a kingdom known around the world as a fanatically religious country that derives its monarchy's right to rule directly from God; as such, Nolina's belief in the regional religion, Catollianism, is fervent and extreme. Nolina maintains extensive trade relations with most other world nations, and holds the position as the 2nd largest trade partner in the world, beaten only by the Westgaardian Royal Empire.

Nolina exists on the Nolinian Peninsula along the western coast of Breit in the Old World. Nolina is known for its natural beauty, including rolling hills and grassy fields, stunning sunsets, cool beaches and oceanside cliffs, and a large amount of arable land. Nolina's climate is very temperate and warm, perfect for growing fruits and other plants all year long; Nolina's position next to the coast keeps the area properly damp with precipitation and cool with gentle winds from the seas which flank the peninsula on its north, west, and south. Nolina's colonial holdings are found all around the world, but are centered primarily in Westerland and the Sky-Islands.

### Organization:

#### Capital: Mondego - "[REDACTED]"

The Kingdom of Nolina is ruled at the highest level by the King of All Nolina, the title held by the nation's ruling monarch; the monarch's wife, the Queen of All Nolina, is the 2nd-in-command and wields an amount of power rivaled only by the King himself. Being an absolute monarchy, attempts to question or undermine the monarchy are considered worse than treachery, as Nolina's monarchy claims to derive its rulership from God Himself. The King and Queen rule over the country with iron fists that are not questioned or doubted. Below the monarchy sits the Catollian Church, a powerhouse of influence within Nolina that has unmitigated access to the King and Queen; the Church is incapable of exerting direct control over the country or forcing the monarchy to do something, and it is known that the Church often conflicts with the monarchy over manners of Church versus State, but this does not stop the Church from scheming its way into an advantageous position. Below the Church come the nobility of Nolina, the middlemen for the peasantry who control smaller regions, settlements, and swathes of territory; Nolina's history is very long and incredibly well-documented, which has allowed the country's noble lines to trace their lineages back to the origins of the nation as it is recognized today, creating a noble culture of genealogies and blood quality which is not found in other monarchies around the world. Nolina's nobility answer to the Crown and the Crown's direct servants, enacting the monarchy's laws as they are ordered to do; however, Nolina's diverse population and large rural communities make centralized justice difficult, a situation which requires Nolina's ruling Crown to delegate local operations to the region's nobles. Below the nobles sit the merchants and other untitled aristocrats who may be wealthy, but who do not trace their lineages to the ancestral rulers of old and who are therefore unfit for the high honors bestowed upon the gentry. Beneath the aristocrats sit the rest of the peasantry, a majority of whom are farmers, factory workers, or soldiers.

Despite its reputation and storied history, Nolina is no longer the martial monster that it once was. The country's extreme wealth and colonial successes in Westerland and the Sky-Islands have allowed the gentry and monarchy to grow lazy, content, and fat, making them complacent in the face of the Post-War world. Nolina played an important role in the War of Vile Men's colonial engagements, and served to gain the most from liquidating the Kodian Empire's Westerland assets, but nearly faced bankruptcy for its involvement the 15-year-long war. This created harsh times for Nolina and a severe economic depression which created several years of hardship for the peasantry and colonial citizens of the widespread empire; however, in recent years, Nolina's wartime investments have begun paying their dividends, and have spurred a surge in economic growth that has allowed Nolina to expand across Westerland with little resistance. Nolina's military resources were significantly downsized after the War of Vile Men, in order to compensate for the massive debt which the nation accrued; as such, most of the remaining assets were dedicated to bolstering Nolina's sea-based navy, which is used to patrol trade routes between the Old World and Westerland to fight off pirates and guarantee the safe travels of merchants and treasure fleets. Nolina's ground forces, limited as they may be, are primarily to be found in Westerland, used to prevent and quell slave revolts, capture new slaves, conquer more indigenous empires, and expand Nolina's empire further and further. The armies to be found in Breit are mostly ceremonial, equipped with black powder muskets, swords and halberds, and flashy uniforms to display Nolina's ancestry as well as its wealth and confidence; Nolina feels that it has little need for home defense when its economic power is so great and its empire so large. This arrogance earns little respect from Nolina's allies and draws the attention of criminal elements and scheming merchants who see an opportunity in manipulating the weakened system.

The Kingdom of Nolina dedicates almost all of its resources to its empire building. This is accomplished via the funding of an ever-growing armada of ships and Airships, the training of some of the world's greatest pilots and marines, and the continued exploitation of foreign resources and colonial wealth. Treasure fleets sail from Westerland and the Sky-Islands to Nolina's homeland constantly, as trade routes are greedily protected by Nolinian warships to defend against pirates and privateers; these galleons and caravels carry untold riches from conquered Westerland native tribes and plants grown by the labor of hundreds of thousands of slaves. Nolina operates according to a mercantilist economy, and as such is the world's largest exporter of tobacco, sugar, rum, gold, and slaves; an overwhelming percent of Nolina's wealth comes from slave labor, a fact which displeases many of the world's nations. This dependency on unpaid labor has created a colonial culture of racism, discrimination, religious extremism, oppression, and expansionism which paints native populations as heathens to be conquered, converted, and healed of their sins through a "reconciliation" of unpaid slave labor; the sheer number of slaves which Nolina requires also creates a heavy demand for soldiers in the colonies to discourage and shut down revolts and rebellions, a fact which forces Nolina to place most of its military resources overseas. The demand for more and more slaves also creates a thriving business of bounty hunting and **Conquistadors**, who are paid to travel to Westerland or the Sky-Islands in search of tribes and indigenous peoples to subjugate, convert, and enslave.

Nolina maintains very complicated diplomatic relations with the other nations of the world, especially the countries of Breit and the Old World. Nolina's cultural emphasis on historical records, bloodlines, and grudges makes diplomacy with other cultures difficult; however, most other countries find Nolina's arrogance, hedonistic tendencies, and slaver culture to be abhorrent and evil. Nolina's economic influence requires that other nations tolerate Nolina's unique cultural quirks in order to receive shipments of cheap Westerland goods. Behind closed doors, however, plans are in the works to undermine Nolina's predatory business tactics and insane religious leaders...

The War of Vile Men hit Nolina less than other nations, but nowhere escaped the conflict unscathed. The people of Nolina bore witness to the warfare, the naval battles and aerial dogfights, they watched Airships crash into farm fields and lakes, and they suffered from droughts, famines, shortages, and great hardship as a result of the economic depression which nearly bankrupted Nolina's government. Peasant revolts threatened to overthrow the monarchy, local nobles sought to grab more power while the Crown was weak, and outside forces intended on stealing the colonies that Nolina felt were rightfully hers. In the end, however, Nolina's heavy hand and penny-pinching fingers managed to scrape by and, in recent years, profit quite handsomely off of the Post-War world.

#### Nolinian Slavery:

Considered different from the ancient slavery practices encouraged by Catollianism, modern Nolina has adopted a twofold system of slavery. Nolina's mainland continues to follow the Catollian standard of slavery, treating them with some respect, following the 3-part caste system, keeping slavery hereditary, etc.; however, Nolina's colonies follow a separate, very different standard of "chattel slavery," in which slaves are treated like cattle or property to be used and then thrown aside. The excessive population of Westerland and the Sky-Islands' Natives leaves Nolina with an excess of prisoners and indigenous tribes to "convert" and assimilate; this leaves them with too many slaves to integrate normally and forced Nolina's colonial governments to adopt a more brutal, harsh, and irreligious system to cope. Chattel slavery lacks a caste system; education is not required, unlike under Catollianism's regulations; and failures are met with severe, often corporal punishments, including torture. The standards of living and treatment expected for a colonial Nolinian slave are far lower than those found on the mainland; a colonial slave's life expectancy is only a few years, while most mainland slaves live nearly as long as their masters.

#### Internal Factions:

1. Nolinian Royal Family (
2. Nolinian Inquisition
3. Noble Factions & Families
	1. Murcia Family
4. Businesses and Guilds

#### Colonial Organization:

Nolinian colonies, as numerous and globe-spanning as they all are, operate under an identical system of centralized government. Ultimately, all of the colonies of Nolina answer to the royal family; royal decrees supersede all other orders handed down to government officials, even overriding orders from the Church or Inquisition. Below the monarchy's direct intervention sits the Council of the Nolinian West, an organization established by the Nolinian monarchy a decade or so after the colonial efforts began; the Council oversees colonial affairs, provides updates to the Royal Family, and attempts to manage the 2 primary goals of Nolinian colonialism: spread Catollianism to the savage population of Westerland/the Sky-Islands/Ostia, and extract wealth from both the land and its people. Below the Council sit the Viceroys, the title given to Nolinian colonial Governors; the Viceroys are responsible for overseeing the operations of a single colony or island, managing taxes, resources, defense, trade, etc. Below the Viceroys sit local mayors, advisors, wealthy aristocrats, etc.

Nolina's colonial efforts are supplemented by the so-called "Systema Conquistadora," or "Conqueror System," which dictates that any man capable of taking and holding a portion of foreign land for more than 1 year has rightful ownership of that land in the name of the Nolinian Crown. The Conquistadors come from all walks of life: criminals, the poor, farmers, murderers, priests and religious zealots, minor nobility, and anyone else with want of money, power, influence, or fame. The Conquistadors raise armies to fight the local tribes and native empires of Westerland and the Sky-Islands, dividing what they conquer amongst the soldiers and converting the populace - either by the helping hand or by the sword. These Conquistadors are brutal, cruel, and unwavering. They are also responsible for most of the exploration conducted by foreigners in Westerland, traveling deep into unknown territories, facing threats unseen anywhere else on the planet, and coming back to tell the tale with maps and heads for proof. Many of these explorers do not return, but the Crown pays handsomely to those that go, even if they perish in their service of the Crown.

Nolinian colonies are, therefore, incredibly expansionist and heavily militarized. Every colony is required to field a large militia, raised and managed directly by the Viceroy, in addition to the standing occupation force of Nolinian troops which is required to garrison the frontier regions of colonial expansion. Nolinian colonies are infamous for their aggression and brutality towards native populations, so much so that their religion, Catollianism, had to conduct theological debates on the nature of Westerland's native population in order to rationalize Nolina's massive slave trade and abuse of the conquered natives. As a result of their focus on colonialism, over 90% of Nolina's armed forces are stationed overseas, and their entire armada, fleets of both naval and aeronautic mediums, is dedicated to the protection of Nolinian trade routes between the colonies and the homeland.

Nolina's colonies are dedicated to 3 things: Extraction of wealth, expansion, and conversion of local peoples. The extraction of wealth comes in 2 forms: the cultivation of massive plantations across Nolinian colonies, which produce thousands of tons of exotic goods that are then shipped to Breit, and the taking of slaves, which are then transported to other colonies or back to the homeland/neighboring countries. Expansion is conducted in 2 ways: official expansion via diplomatic relations and alliances with local tribes, and warfare. As would be expected, Nolina prefers war. Conversion occurs in 2 ways: the peaceful assimilation of local peoples into a Nolinian colonial society, and a forced conversion conducted through kidnappings, torture, executions, blackmail, extortion, and other similar methods; Nolinian priests were, at one point, against this poor treatment of native tribes, but quickly lost their compassion when Church leaders rationalized this mistreatment with theological debate. Nolina's colonies are spread across Westerland and the Sky-Islands.

Nolinian colonies maintain tense relations with other colonies. This conflict is generated in part by Nolina's insatiable thirst for more land and more trade, but also by its religious extremism and intolerance. Nolina's unwavering adherence to Catollianism and an absolute monarchy have caused friction between it and other neighboring superpowers, including the staunchly anti-monarchist Republic of Truseau and the constitutional monarchy of the Union of Birmingham.

The War of Vile Men had a significant impact on Nolina's colonies despite Nolina's neutrality for much of the colonial period of the conflict. Trade routes between colonies and the homeland suffered greatly, and Nolina was forced to dedicate most of its resources to protecting them, which left the homeland open to invasion; to prevent attack, Nolina felt it best to conduct a preemptive strike against their likeliest foe: the Republic of Truseau. Whilst the War dragged on, slaves across Nolina's Westerland colonies rose up, detecting the homeland's split attention and divided resources; some of these revolts succeeded, but an overwhelming majority were crushed utterly. Economic troubles brought on by exorbitant and sudden war expenses also placed inordinate pressures upon colonial citizens and slaves, forcing quotas up farther and farther each year to keep the newly raised armies supplied and maintained.

#### Economy:

Nolina, whether its homeland or its colonies, operates according to a somewhat antiquated mercantilist economy. This means that Nolina's economy depends on exporting more goods than it imports, and exporting more goods than anyone else, in order to accrue more wealth than other countries. As a result of this export focus, Nolina exploits its colonial holdings for all that they're worth and then some, a harsh attitude which places great pressure on Viceroys and other colonial leaders to meet quotas or face demotion, imprisonment, or execution. Nolina's Royal Family is heavily involved in the macro-economics of the country, and works to direct major operations and changes in the country's efforts; similarly, the Council of the Nolinian West keeps a very close eye on Nolina's imports and exports as they relate to the colonies. Nolina's private sector is, however, very small as a result of the country's strict adherence to mercantilist feudalism; only nobles and land-owners are allowed to approach the Crown for permission to found an export/import company, and most of Nolina's merchants and trade guilds are relatively small and localized. However, there are some notable exceptions, especially when it comes to noble families with long-term ties to the colonies; noble clans like the Murcia Family have built trade empires in the colonies thanks to their influence with the Crown and historic ties to the explorers that led the initial investigations of Westerland.

Thanks to Nolina's heavy export-focused economy and its stranglehold on many exotic goods from Westerland, Nolina exports far more goods than it imports. Much of Nolina's imports are exotic goods, spices, and foreign goods which are bought by the nobility as part of Nolina's extravagant habits and party-heavy culture. The country exports tobacco, salt, gold, silver, copper, iron, and, most prominently, sugar and slaves, from its Westerland colonies; Nolina's homeland exports luxury goods, art, culture, philosophy, and religion. Nolina's awe-inspiring colonial empire forces most other major nations to tolerate Nolina's existence in order to secure their own trade routes and logistics; out of all nations, however, the Union of Birmingham is forced to bend the knee to Nolina's trade concerns, as Birmingham relies on Nolina's exported raw goods in order to process and manufacture the products which Birmingham's economy is built upon. As a result of this close relationship, Birmingham tolerates Nolina's abuse of its citizens and, more importantly, its slaves and the native tribes, as well as its arrogant, self-important attitude.

## Religion:

Nolina operates according to a state-sponsored religion: Catollianism. The Catollian Church sits as the nation's second most powerful organization, directly underneath the monarchy. Catollianism is monotheistic and outwards-focused, centered around the conversion of others. Divine interaction is reserved primarily for the ordained clergy, who act as intermediaries between the people and God. It involves the possibility of excommunication, a focus on the elimination of heretics, forced conversions, and a stated superiority over other religions and groups of "less civilized" people. The Afterlife is presented as threefold: a Paradise for the goodly, a Purgatory for the nonbeliever and the imperfect, and a Hellscape of eternal torture for the impious. The supernatural exists only in their God; everything else is works of demons and other evil spirits that corrupt goodly mortal souls and should be destroyed. Forms of worship include individual prayer, both silent and aloud, and public mass services in Churches. Major holidays are rare, but many include multi-day celebrations; major holidays focus on specific holy days purported to have occurred in the [REDACTED], Catollianism's holy book; major holidays are rare, but minor holidays occur constantly, roughly 1 or 2 per day of the year, and tend to focus on Saints and Martyrs.

### Clergy:

The Clergy in Catollianism functions as intermediaries between the laypeople and God; as such, they perform all religious duties and ceremonies, maintain religious sites and Churches, etc. Furthmore, Catollianism is infamous for its belief in, perpetuation of, and use of Inquisitors as part of the Nolinian Inquisition; additionally, Catollianism is infamous for its use of Crusades as a means of forcibly spreading its influence farther afield. Inquisitors and many Crusaders are ordained members of Catollianism's clergy, and are just as capable of facilitating a marriage as they are burning a heretic alive at the stake.

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