Huon Sa

Huon Sa is a country situated on the Geung Peninsula. It is bounded by the West and North Seas, the Huon mountain range to the south, and Vadya to the east.

## History

Huon Sa's history goes back to the Great Gap, the time in which it was founded. Due to the confusion caused by the Gap, most people try to avoid thinking about the origins of Huon Sa. Scholars conclude that the regions comprising Huon Sa were likely settled up to three centuries before the Great Gap, but this is an uncertain claim. It was certainly preceded by the Jagseum Boat Culture and the Turquoise Bay City-States, though the time at which these became the state of Huon Sa is a point of contention.

After the Great Gap Huon Sa was a small state around the Turquoise Bay coast and centred in Huon Gug. Settlers soon began to travel into the surrounding lands. After one hundred years, Huon Sa had achieved the size it currently maintains, though the kings Beuk-Noy and Beuk-Chung sent scouts and emissaries to set borders long before settlers arrived. The east border was set in 408 though settlers did not arrive in the area until well into the 500's. These settlers initially conflicted with the Vadyan tribes in the region - the Eretnii and Jireii in particular. This issue was overcome by setting the border back by several leagues, giving up the lands now comprising Ofkia and Teger.

As of the current year, 764, Huon Sa has only experienced a few major events. The Great Gap marked the foundation of Huon Sa as it was then known. Huon Sa was largely unaffected by the Tungrid invasion of the early 500's. In the 630's, Huon Sa joined the Dalforean League as both a method of maintaining a monopoly on ocean trade routes and as a mutual defence pact against outside powers such as Tianguo.

## Geography

### **Location**

Huon Sa is a nation on the Geung Peninsula. The peninsula itself, in the north of Huon Sa, is flat and green, while the south is mostly rolling hills up to the Huon Range, the southern border. Two rivers, the Yang and Tseung, run to the east and west of the peninsula respectively from the Huon Range. There are no large forests in Huon Sa, though groves of oak and birch trees are spread throughout.

### **Climate**

Huon Sa's climate is mild, with summers averaging 20 degrees and winters being as cold as -5 degrees. Snow is uncommon but not unheard of, and rain is similarly viewed. There are generally no natural disasters in Huon Sa; while the Huon Range lies on a tectonic plate edge, there have been no earthquakes in living memory as of 764CE.

The geography of Huon Sa has limited cultural significance - the people are progressive, and understand that the geography must be altered to improve their quality of life. The rivers are heavily used by barges and watermills are a common sight, while many of the foothills in the south are sytematically strip-mined. The Huon Range is the only geographical feature viewed with reverence - the Huon people are peaceful and view these mountains as a natural border against potential enemies, even though the countries on the other side are close allies.

The borders of Huon Sa are relatively secure from local threats. The south is bounded by the Huon Range, and any nation nearby knows better than to go into the mountains. The eastern border is eight leagues east of the Yang River, and is manned by the bulk of the Huon army.

Huon Sa is home to three million people. The main centre, Huon Gug, has a population of around four hundred thousand, with several other centres containing between fifty and two hundred thousand each. The rest of the population is dispersed among countless smaller villages and farmlands. People tend to congregate in the main cities and the middle of Huon Sa is more densely populated than either the north or south. There is no logical reason for the north being sparsely populated other than that it has only been settled for two hundred years. The south is more logical - people of all races fear the mountains.

### **Administrative Regions**

Huon Sa is divisible into three distinct parts, and further by geography into five total regions. The far north consists of flat grassland, the region of Bujigu. This land is mainly used for crops and dairy farming, and its administrative centre is the city of Ancheon. Other towns in the region include Sinuhae, Chungju, Manyong, Posong, Gyerwon, Jecheon, Cheowon, Kuyeong and Mancho.

East of Bujigu lie the islands of Jagseum. While the islands themselves are uninhabited, several villages in the area are considered part of Jagseum as they are too far from Ancheon to effectively be part of Bujigu. These towns are Wonbak, Wongeup, Ikwang and Jonglyo.

The midriff of Huon Sa is dominated by the capital city Huon Gug, and is referred to simply as Central. Towns in the area are Huisong, Uiyong, Huichon and Kuchon, Central handles all advanced craftsmanship and specialisation.

Nanjigu lies west of Central, and is administrated from Changsung. This is a sprawling region containing the towns of Kongwon, Tokcho, Iksan, Gangseong, Huihae, Haeje, Uineung, Sunsu, Gimgye, Chuncheon, Jesong, Hyeseong and Woncheon. The Tseung River flows through Nanjigu, splitting it in two. The north of the region acts similarly to Bujigu, focusing on agriculture, while the south is closer to the Huon Range, and is occupied by the mining industry.

The easternmost region of Huon Sa is the semi-autonomous Gongye. This region has two centres: Yeoneung in the west and Ponan in the east. The towns of Ling Hill, Jinhu, Tanhung, Yeocho, Chuncho, Gimsu and Gyernan are in Gongye, and most of these are mining towns. The Yang River flows just west of Ponan, splitting it from the rest of Huon Sa, and the same distance to the east of the city is the border with Vadya, making Ponan a major trading hub between the two.

## Politics

### **Government**

Huon Sa is an absolute monarchy whose kings hold complete authority over their subjects. The king is held in reverence by his citizens and, while there has been unrest in the past (such as at the handing over of power from the Jibae dynasty to the Chungseong dynasty), the kingdom is currently undergoing a golden age of loyalty and respect towards its ruler King Hyeon-Sok.

Traditionally the king is determined by primogeniture and the king's brothers are disqualified from the throne; they are instead given important governmental positions or sent as diplomatic envoys to Huon Sa's allies. Often the king dies without an heir, and in this case the king's oldest nephew is chosen as the king; if this candidate is too young to rule then his father rules as regent until the candidate reaches the age of seventeen.

### **Legal System**

A council of forty is selected once every five years; its members are chosen from among the country's most upstanding and popular traders, craftsmen, landowners and businessmen, with two from each administrative region. They are provided lodging in Huon Gug and meet once a month to discuss matters of state and vote on legislature, though they are not permitted to make a change without the king's permission.

These men do, however, have the power to oversee court hearings and pass sentences, and as such the vetting process to select the forty is rather extensive.

## Economy

### **Agriculture**

Commonly-grown foods are various grains, fruits and vegetables. The north of the Geung Peninsula has a booming dairy industry, so milk is widespread and beef is the meat primarily eaten throughout the country. There are no shortages of food or drink. Foods containing spice, or foods that require tropical or colder climates are considered exotic; though the populace cannot afford them, the Huon kings often hold banquets using tonnes of imported exotic food, feeding whole villages at a time as gestures of their generosity.

Huon Sa only tends to grow the food it needs for its populace - it very rarely exports any of its resources and prides itself on self-subsistence. Huon Sa lacks in wood, however - oak is imported from countries on the heavily-forested north shore of the Trade Lake to build the ships that Huon Sa then hires out as caravan guards to trade fleets sailing between the North and West Seas.

### **Transport**

People travel by foot, or by horse and cart. Long hours and high job security mean that the average citizen does not often travel more than a few miles from their home. The roads between major cities are paved and regularly maintained by governmental departments, while smaller roads are less well-maintained and range from pristine thoroughfares to winding dirt tracks. Huon roads are straighter than those of their neighbours owing to the efficient ideology of the engineers involved. This gave rise to one of the more famous Huon sayings, "Cut corners but do not cut corners", meaning that one may cut corners when building a road to make it straighter and more efficient, but one should not 'cut corners', as in slacking off or being untidy in one's work.

### **Labour Division**

The people of Huon Sa are industrious and most work as hard as they can. Towns tend to specialise and focus on the production of a single resource, with the local administrative centre receiving surplus and redirecting it where needed.

The town of Jinhu, for example, focuses solely on mining, and produces copper, iron and tin by the ton. Once the town has its share, the considerable leftover is is carted to Yeoneung and split among any towns in the region without a focus on mining. Vice versa, Uiyong produces a vast quantity of wheat, rice and fresh fruits, which are then split in the same way. Some of this produce filters into Jinhu and, along with the contributions of other agriculturally-focused towns in the region, forms the entirety of Jinhu's food supply.

This system ensures that towns are mutually dependent and fosters relations between populations, while the fine balance of production means that to gain or lose land to its neighbours may be disastrous for the people of Huon Sa as a whole.

### **Currency**

The rural areas of Huon Sa have no definitive currency, nor do they need one due to the system in place. Any currency in Huon Sa is that of foreign nations, and passes almost exclusively through port cities - money comes to Huon Sa in exchange for the little export that occurs or in fees for caravan guard ships. That money is then stockpiled to trade for materials in short supply in Huon Sa such as wood, marble or silks.

## Demographics

### **Race**

The people of Huon Sa are slight, averaging around 5' 8", and have yellow-brown skin. Their eyes are almond-shaped and all have jet-black hair and flat faces. They fall into the Caharlic culture group, along with the Cudumbians, Oshi, Tianguese and Kaiganese. Near the Vadyan border in Gongye the people are slightly taller and whiter due to Vadyan settlers in the area.

The Huon people are believed to be an ancient offshoot of the Tianguo people given their similar physical characteristics, though this is no certain thing - their cultures are entirely different, as are their languages, writing systems and moral values.

### **Class Division**

Huon Sa can be broadly placed into two categories: the very rich or the very poor. Landowners of vast areas tend to be rich - if not in currency, then in their positions of power. They are generally mindful and respectful of the poor in that, if they are seen to be anything but upstanding, model citizens, there will be petitions to the capital and their position may be assigned to another.

## Military

### **Strength**

The professional Huon army stands around two thousand strong and most are stationed at the Vadyan border, with small detachments in the major cities. Volunteer town guards are considered the peacekeepers for smaller towns, and are trained by retired professional soldiers. Training for Huon soldiers consists of simple spear and sword drills, survival and guerrilla tactics. The army is not expected to stand and sacrifice themselves in the event of an invasion, but to make the most of their resistance - to militarise and assist civilians and ambush small patrols - to make the invasion of Huon Sa a logistical catastrophe.

### **Equipment**

Building on the previous paragraph, Huon soldiers are lightly armed and armoured - leather breastplates and helmets, stout medium spears and a pair of swords each.

## Culture

### **Folktales**

Oral tradition in Huon Sa is limited to stories of brave pioneers traversing the Huon Range. It is said that famous mythical pioneers like Chang Il-Hung survived and thrived in the Range and that the smoke of their factories can be seen coming from the mountains on clear nights. In reality these are likely Mountainfolk settlements.

### **Arts**

Most people have no time for arts in Huon Sa, though there are several small guilds of artisans and craftsmen commissioned by the government to improve and beautify structures. They tend to be educated in simple mathematics to allow them to work with architects ad engineers to make their artworks more functionally, as well as aesthetically, pleasing to see.

### **Sports**

Sports in Huon Sa are purely amateur and vary by region. The centre prefers individual sports like running and swimming, while the north and south play team sports on their days off. Written rules are few and far between so the rules of games tend to change swiftly.

### **Ideology**

The people of Huon Sa do not consider what the future holds; they would much like the situation to remain as it is. They fear change only if it affects their way of life in a negative way; they are happy to make their production methods more efficient, for instance, but would not be friendly to conscription officers if they were to appear.

Power is associated with the colour blue because of Huon Sa's maritime power. Virtue is associated with blue as well - one of the paradigms of Huon society is 'Virtue is Power'. If fights break out between Huon people, both parties involved are expected to apologise and move on, though if this is obviously not going to happen, parties tend to fight until one accepts responsibility and backs down.

Alcohol in Huon Sa is viewed oddly by their heavy-drinking neighbours. Wheat is distilled into weak vodka, usually kept at the same alcohol content as beer. It is seen as irresponsible to get drunk during the week in Huon Sa, given that the country highly values productivity and hard work; alcohol seems to hinder these.

### **Family and Marriage**

In Huon culture, a man can have only one spouse, and marriage is for life. Divorce is simply not an option. Marriage, due to the communist nature of the villages, is mostly for love as nothing is to be gained from political marriage. Higher up in caste, political marriage is more common. Domestic violence is common, though it is often ignored and seen as normal. There is no preference as to girls or boys - both are vitally important in Huon society, as they are associated with different necessary tasks. If a marriage ends, the children are taken into the custody of the village and raised as everyone's children.

Families were initially named for defining characteristics and virtues, but were then passed down patrilineally. Examples are Chang (Tolerant), Jeong (Fair) or Ilhm (Miner).

### **Traditions**

The transition between child and adult is considered to take place once a child can manage to work a full day with the adults. Weekends are reserved for free time, and due to the devoted hard work of most Huon citizens, there is also much free time after daily work is done - normally after around 3pm.

The common people mostly own their own land, which is passed from parents to children and rarely divided. Marriage between families, then, has caused a very complicated situation as far as land ownership goes. After several centuries of this system, it is generally accepted that all land in an area is owned by all the residents of that area, and the produce is evenly split between these residents.

### **Religion**

Huon Sa is mostly nonreligious. Huon people believe that a person makes themself, and that nobody but oneself is responsible for one's situation. This encourages self-growth and means that most Huon people, in the presence of religions, would paradoxically be considered paragons of faith and virtue.

There is limited, non-organised religious presence in the practice of ancestor worship and of simple fortune-telling, though this is discarded if it gets in the way of work.

### **Education**

Few in Huon Sa are educated, and those that are tend only to be educated in required areas. The sons of traders are taught mathematics and stocks, while farm managers' children are taught to read the soil and tend crops most efficiently.

### **Technology**

Huon technology is at a crucial point - it is the most efficient it can be without bringing about drastic change to the society. Foreign scholars believe that Huon Sa is on the verge of an industrial revolution, and when it occurs it may drag its neighbours with it into the future, possibly making the Dalforean League one of the foremost powers in the world in technology as well as trade.

### **Stereotypes**

The people of Huon Sa are ethnically unique in the area, brown-skins surrounded by white-skins. As such, they are slowly diluting with immigrants from other countries close to the Vadyan border, leading to a loosening of Huon culture - near the border people are slacker and less productive, more prone to drink but can hold it better. Stereotypically, Huon Sa is split in three: the north are seen as farmer hicks, central Huon are thieving cityfolk, and southerners are sickly miners. All three are cold towards immigrants, though not violent, and are generally welcoming of anyone born in Huon Sa, immigrant or not. Foreign-born Huon residents are required to wear necklaces with tin dog-tags.

### **Flag**

The Huon flag consists of a golden lily on a green background. The lily is derived from an identical carving found in the wood of the largest building in Huon Gug and assumed to be the first King's seal.

## See More

List of monarchs of Huon Sa

History of the Geung Peninsula