Waterfall Country

> *"Is freedom ever truly free?"*
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The Empire to it's South, the Iron Country to the East, and the Earth Country to the West, one would imagine that the Waterfall Country is in a rather precarious position on the geopolitical map of the Western Continent. They would, however, be mistaken. The Waterfall country is a small but prosperous nation, protected by the Earth Country it has little need for a large military and has instead been able to spend much of its wealth on the pursuits of science and the arts. At least, that is how it appears to the well off of the Waterfall country. To the normal traveler one will find a population disillusioned to the true nature of the state of their country, blind to what's truly going on. Whether they are choosing to not see it, or simply no longer can, is up for debate.

## History

Originally a loose confederation of riverside towns and mountain villages, the Waterfall Country saw the efforts put forth into unification in their neighbor the Iron Country to the East and began to put forth their own initiative to take the land that is now the Waterfall Country before another country springing forth would decide to do it before them.

### The Insurgency of the Waterfall Country

Starting in 394, only two years after the unification of the Iron Country, the villages and towns of the Waterfall Country would meet steep resistance from their own populations to the attempt to form a country. Many villages and towns wished to stay independent, and were willing to fight fiercely for this idea. Small groups of villages and towns banded together to fend of the would-be Government forces of the cities that had already agreed to unify. Over the next seven years the Government forces would fight a long and grueling conflict with the very people it one day sought to protect. Their enemies were the very people they marched past and the very farmers and craftsmen they required for everyday life. The enemy after short ahit and run engagements and raids would simply dissappear back into the populace, taking with them any matter of equipment they could salvage during the fight to use later against the very men they'd taken it from.

Through the years the Government would win entire cities and remote towns and villages from the Insurgent Forces, only to lose them back in the following months as their inexperienced forces would push on to new centers of populations and leave the recently conquered cities abandoned of all defenses. This pattern would repeat several times before the Government Forces managed to finally oust the last of the Insurgents as they had been taking losses they simply couldn't replenish versus the larger force that the de facto Government had to muster.

Finally the stalemate was broken as the Insurgent forces crumbled and broke, simply blending back into the normal population to never be prosecuted. The Insurgency of the fledgling Waterfall Country cost many lives, and tainted the trust of the people in their own Government, but in the end in the year 401, seven years after the beginning of the unification process the Waterfall Country was finally formed.

### The Earth Country Invasion

Following the Unification of their massive neighbor to the West, the Earth Country, the Waterfall Cuntry began to build it's forces as signs of a possible invasion were being reported by operatives in the West. The preparations were implemented too late to be of any true use when the Earth Country invaded. The larger force overwhelmed the small army of the Waterfall Country and forced surrender in the opening month of the Invasion. The Earth Country was quick to oust the Council of the Waterfall Country and impose a puppet leader in their place.

The war would move East into the Iron Country, where the Waterfall Country would stand as witness to the defeat of the larger Earth Country force by the smaller nation. The population rallied, and like the Insurgency many years before the people of the Waterfall Country took up arms against their new occupiers.

### Earth Country Occupation

The Insurgency that followed in the wake of the defeat of the Earth Country forces by the Iron Country was brutal, and rumors abound of atrocities committed by both sides, although the Earth Country only agrees to those committed by the Insurgent Forces.

In the following months of the Earth Countries embarrassing defeat in the East, the Waterfall Country Insurgency, supported by sympathetic government officials, would raid and slaughter multiple small Earth Country outposts, and burn entire villages to ash that had been expected of lodging Earth Country forces. In the wake of these attacks the Earth Country doubled down on its occupation in the country. Sympathizers that escaped to neighboring countries speak of Earth Country forces rounding up entire towns and massacring all the fighting age males in retaliation for raids and small strikes on their forces. Two entire generations were said to have been lost in the reprisals of the Earth Country, and it worked. The Insurgency lost its heart as innocents were taken from their homes and slaughtered for acts of violence they had nothing to do with.

As if over night the Insurgency ended two years after it began. There was no peace delegation, no letter of surrender, just as during their founding the insurgent forces simply slipped back into everyday life. The Earth Country has had a solid hold on the Waterfall Country since.

## Military

A puppet state of the Earth Country, the Waterfall Countries military is small by comparison to other similarly sized nations. Fielding two full strength light infantry regiments and less than five hundred Shinobi the Waterfall Country relies heavily on the Earth Country for protection against enemy forces.

It's Light Infantry are well known in the Earth Country from joint exercises and trainings that they partake in within Waterfall country lands. Renowned in their abilities of stealth and scouting famed to "never get lost" and "handle a blade as if they've been holding it since birth", with one Earth Country Major remarking in a letter to Earth Country Command,

"Two whole platoons will stand ready to move at any moment, and the moment the order is given they'll disappear before your eyes as they fan out into the mist, or the forest, or the mountains, or anywhere they happen to be standing."

The Waterfall Country owe this renown to a combination of chakra suppression and more so to a special cloth that is woven from a combination of furs and plant matter that is a closely guarded secret in the Waterfall Country. This cloth is fashioned into a hooded camouflage cloak that sits over the wearers non-strong arm and can be quickly brought about the rest of their body with a sweep of their sword arm behind them. The cloaks are normally a dark grey to better imitate the misty, and overcast environment of the Waterfall Country, but they are painstakingly camouflaged with local foliage and ground cover to take on the appearance of where ever the infantrymen may fight.

The cloaks themselves are waterproof, and rough, speculated to be the reason they take the appearance of things rubbed over them and are apparently a pain to wash taking several hours of dedicated focus from their wearers to get back to the dull grey they normally appear as.

The Shinobi forces of the Waterfall are used mostly in an intelligence fashion, and mostly under orders from the Earth Country. They undertake missions into their two neighboring countries to gather information on troop movements, strengths, and dispositions. The Shinobi force is not meant for direct combat and would not function in such a way were a war to break out.

## Demographics

### Population

With a population nearing 300,000 the Waterfall country is well educated and for the most part well off economically with few areas of poverty or strife to be found. Most of the population is sheltered into walled cities and hidden villages in the mists and behind secret waterfall passages, for the Waterfall Country didn't gain it's name from shear coincidence.

### Language

The Waterfall Country speaks mainly Taika, although there are Government officials and military officers that hail from the Hyuzu clan of the Earth Country meaning that small portions of the population do speak Chonobi, but not enough to be counted as anything more than a rounding error on official documents.

### Religion

A combination of the Way of Fire and ancestor worship grace the lands of the Waterfall Country. The largest difference between the practice of the Way of Fire in the Waterfall Country and anywhere else is the fact that Shrines do not keep a constant vigil over a flame as in other countries, instead only lighting it for ceremonies and holidays. This is likely due to the damp nature of the Waterfall Country and the complications it places on sourcing dry wood and good conditions for such a tradition.

## Government

A puppet state at heart, the Waterfall Country does not truly govern itself. Although it's ruler, the First Elector, does make decisions for the country, it his an unspoken truth that almost anything he decides has been carefully planned and choreographed by the Earth Country behind the scenes. The only semi-autonomous portion of the Waterfall Country is that of it's military, as the Earth Country has since conceded that it does not know how to properly utilize the Light Infantry of the Waterfall.

Other arbitrary and simple administrative tasks are left up to mostly independent governmental institutions with minimal oversight from the Earth Country.

## Locations

### Ranbiro

The capital of the Waterfall Country, it is nestled in an impossibly formed cistern of rock and water some distance below the normal height of ground. On all sides it is surrounded by an unimaginably large waterfall that spills forward setting the ever constant sound of the city to be that of a dull roar. The city itself is perched on and surrounding a large island-like slab of rock at the center of this cistern, buildings and bridges jut out from it in all directions and platforms built of stone pierce into the deep blue of the water of the cistern in all directions as foundations for the rest of the city not built on the rock itself to rest on. The only entrance to the city itself is through a large cave in the side of the cistern that begins nearly three kilometers away and five hundred meters up at the normal walking height of terrain in the area. It is still speculated as to where the water from the tremendous falls goes to as to not fill the cistern.

### General Lands

The general lands of the Waterfall of mountains and treacherous. Almost ever-shrouded in mist and overcast the lands are damp and unforgiving. Waterfalls spill off the mountains and into flood plains, filling the areas between the steep cliffs and cultivating perfect areas for cities and farming towns to crop up. The legendary mist of the country has led the Waterfall countries people to have an almost unnatural sense of direction and uncanny abilities in tracking, hunting, and scouting as they must leverage every small thing they are able to see when they can through the mist. Occasionally sun does manage to break through the cloud coverage, burning the mist away and exposing a wondrously lush and pristine environment with breathtaking mountains and waterfalls as dotting every mountainside.