Captuage

Captuage (CAP-tu-ajj) is an absolute theocracy in Southern Vargelia. Located within the southern part of the continent, most of Captuage's land is covered in lakes, marshland, and inhospitable steppe. Thus most of the population is gathered along the northern coastline, within the same temperate rainforest that runs through Galros and Morianna. Captuage is ruled by the Sun King; Tophet Ba'al, who is considered a living god and the divine ruler of the Capts, a people closely related to the Cochesians to the east, who migrated and conquered the native Puni, Belks, and Confederates to the west. They are actively hostile to most nations in the region and have been placed under numerous economic and international sanctions. Due to its aggressive and expansionistic nature, the nation of Captuage maintains one of the largest active militaries in Vargelia, though not nearly the best equipped or most advanced.

## History

### Prehistoric Era

Evidence of settlement in Caputage has been discovered, with the earliest Mazurkian artifacts dating to 55,000 years ago. Discovery of copper and bronze tools in the area places the beginning of the Chalcolithic to 4000 BCE, and the Bronze Age to 1500 BCE. Urban civilizations based around the Zurkulian Peninsula, such as the Carininites and Bosqu, created complex pictographic systems of writing, established trade networks as far north as Gurit, and developed rigorous methods of navigating the shallow seas of Vargelia.

The earliest records of the Puni, who comprise the majority of the inhabitants of modern day Captuage, date to 400 AD, where Bosqo chroniclers mention them as a tribe of "Gosgo" (related to modern day Confederates) from the north. Due to the scarcity of burnt settlements found from this era, the merging of Puni, Bosqo, and Carinite cultures was likely non-violent, though in the end the Puni became recognized as the dominant culture of the Zurkulian Peninsula and surrounding regions. For the next millennium, Puni civilization would rule over a fairly peaceful collection of cooperative city-states lining the coast of the Zurkulian Peninsula and their influence would be intermingle with the local Confederate tribes as far north as Osheawaga. The Puni would trade amber and gold from the mineral rich Zurkulian Mountains in exchange for furs, bitumen, and exotic vegetables. During this period of cultural hegemony, the Puni established trade relations with the Belk on the Western shoreline of the Bay of Ramon, who would become the main supply of mercenaries for the Puni.

### Arrival of the Capts

In the year 1547, a multitude of calamities hit the Puni civilization at once. Changes to the regular monsoon cycle resulted in a year without rain, which devastated peasants and resulted in famine and intense social upheaval. The arrival of Orosilian traders and Ninhavan missionaries, who until now had been unable to venture far below the equator without running out of supplies, came into contact with the Puni for the first time. Trade in Northern weaponry resulted in city-states normally under hegemonic control of the Puni capital at Besquima breaking free of the mercantile trade agreements which they had been placed under. Civil war within the Puni Confederacy shattered the empire into a hundred separate city states, all of which became easy prey for a conquering tribe from the east.

Refugees of the Sagiri Empire of Colchesia, the Capts had been pushed from their homeland in the far east of Vargelia to the central steppes. The same drought which had shattered the Puni Confederacy had also forced the Capts to migrate northwest, where they transgressed Puni borders in the summer of 1547. Encountering no resistance, the Capts, lead by the Xsyathlo Gabal, commence raiding those cities south of the Zurkulian Mountains, hoping to loot the land thoroughly before the Puni army arrived. At the time, Xsyathlo had no intention of settling within the region, as the land south of the Mountains was over cultivated, and the jungle north of the mountains was even less appealing to the nomadic tribesmen. Nevertheless, summer came and went, fall arrived, and no force came to push the nomads out. Xsyathlo thus felt it prudent to send scouts north beyond the mountains to observe the situation with the northern city-states and to plan his next move.

Two groups of tribesmen were sent beyond the mountains, and observed the general state of chaos between the city states. While conducting reconnaissance on the eastern part of the Zurkulian Peninsula, the scouts were approached by militias from the city of Quqiba, then a city of minor importance. The emissaries inquired if their tribe would assist in the defense of their city while the militia campaigned out west toward Besquima, and hold the city for such a time as they were absent. The scouts returned word to Xsyathlo, who obliged and committed his troupe to crossing the mountains as soon as possible and occupying the settlement. While the city expected the mercenaries to arrive in the following spring, when a token force of new recruits would be available to dissuade the Capts from taking over the city outright, Xsyathlo arrived in the dead of winter, and his troops, starved and hungry, set about to conquering the defenseless city as quickly as possible, consuming winter hordes already strained by a year of famine. By the time the Quqiban forces returned in the late spring, the land had been drained and the city ransacked. What little food that was left was firmly under Capt control and the townsfolk were pressed into raiding neighbouring cities for extra supplies. Initially, the Quqiban militia had planned on retaking the city, but mutiny and hunger within the ranks persuaded the army to bargain with Xsyathlo, who integrated them into his own forces. Following the subjugation of the Quqiban army, Xsyathlo declared himself Absolute Ruler, executed all Puni noble families who had not yet fled, and installed Captic tribal leaders as the new elite. Xsyathlo then adopted the title of "Tophet Ba'al" (meaning Lord of the Gods in Puni) and set about conquering the rest of the Zurkulian Peninsula. The combination of Puni infantry and Captic cavalry lead to Xsyathlo decimating resistance north of the mountains and by 1550, the realm would be united under Captic rule. Following these victories, Xsyathlo renamed Quqiba as Captuage, and commissioned a new calendar based on the date in which the realm was made whole.

### Modern Conflicts

Since the unification of the Zurkulian Pennisula, the Capts have waged an unending war against their neighbours, pushing out into the swamps and rainforests of the southern Vargelian interior.

## Geography

Prior to the expansion of the Captuagi Empire, most of the empire was concentrated within the Zurkulian Pennisula, north of the Shural Mountains. Much like the rest of the eastern Vargelian continent, the coastal regions of Captuage are characterized by large swathes of tropical rainforest, which extend to the edges of the mountains. Despite attempts by the Caputuagi government to utilize the rainforest's commericial capabilities in rubber and banana farming, much of the forest has yet to be penetrated, and populations are concentrated in large cities besieged by jungle.

In the western part of the empire, the northern portion contains vast wetlands and swamps which extend continuously from southern Galros. These swamps are muggy, humid, and breed a cornicopia of various tropical diseases which have previously hindered movement by land in the past. Moving south, the swamps eventually give way to the Great Colchesia Plain which extends across most of southern Vargelia, a vast steppe of short grass characterized by brutally hot summers and devastatingly cold winters. Temperate alpine forest can be observed on the southern slope of the Shural Mountains, and along the foothills of the Shikai Mountains, which serve to obscure the vast riches of gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, and oil which powered the early industrialization of Captuage. Recent geological discoveries in the Shikai foothills have shown that vast quantities of rare earth elements and cobalt, as well as semi-conductors such as germanium, remain undeveloped.

## Government & Politics

In theory, Captuage is an absolute Theocracy, run exclusively by the Sun-King Tophet Ba'al. Each king since The Xsyathlan Conquest has taken the name Tophet Ba'al upon coronation, and imperial records are written so as to imply total physical continuity with previous Tophets, creating the impression of a single God-king who has ruled for 500 years. In reality, Sun-king generally only concern themselves with intrigues in the Royal Court and leading armies on acts of war, leaving the internal management of the realm to a collection of overlapping bureaucratic departments, who fight for control over their assigned territories. While in the past many of these advisors were drawn from the nobility, in the modern era, any individuals may rise to the top of their division, so long as they display a unique ability to backstab their superiors and menace their subordinates. No one with any magical ability may take an government position however, as the Sun-king banned all magic users from taking office, seeing them as an inherent challenge to his rule.

Internationally, Captuage has embraced their status as one of the few remaining autocracies to bully their neighbours into unequal trade agreements, financial, and military aid and a one-sided defensive pact known as the Hurrian League. The Hurrian League, consisting of Hurria, Aisen, Udinia, Karabanyan, and headed by Captuage, pledge financial aid and support to one another in exchange for giving up a measure of autonomy in international relations, taking a single seat in the House of Nations Assembly. This seat is always occupied by a Captuagi diplomat. Most of the nations of the Hurrian League appoint their own leaders, this is always done with at least implied consent from the Captuagi Foreign Ministry. Each nation must also maintain a token military to support the Captuagi war machine, but the command structure is always dominated by Capts.

Internal politics are heavily supressed and media is tightly controlled by the Captuagi government. Citizens of certain ethnicities and magical abilities are heavily discriminated against. No citizen who is not of Captic origin may take a position in the government higher than that of a desk clerk, and no citizens who do not hail from the Zurkulian Pennisula may advance beyond primary school. Universities are only open to Zuni and Captic citizens, and all magic users are banned from meaningful work and employment, with Internal Affairs rounding up any reported magic users and sending them to work camps in the western marshes, where many die of malaria, heat exhaustion, or starvation.

## Economy

Ironically for a government which discriminates heavily against magic users, over 55% of Captuage's economy is generated by enslaved magic users. Since the discovery of tech-friendly ores in the western mountains, as well as due to the vast quantities of gold, silver, coal, lead, and oil, Captuage sees a great deal of foreign investment from otherwise politically hostile nations. Most of this resource extraction is conducted by a large force of unfree labour, drawn from a land which is ancient days spilled over with magic users. Technologically, Captuage is behind the rest of the world, having been cursed with this easy supply of cheap and unusually productive workers, preventing the development of an advanced labour sector even while exporting the raw material needed to develop it.

## Demographics

Approximately 80% of the population consists of native Puni residents of the Zurkulian pennisula. Prior to the invasion of the Capts, most of the Puni were members of various disparate city-states such as Ququiba, Besquima, or Bosqo. Puni ethnicity did not emerge until long after the Captic conquest, when Tophet Ba'al (birthname Svent Hyalo c. 1880-1934) conducted the first censuses in 1910-1920 utilizing "ethnicity" as a category. Most Puni did not speak a shared language, nor considered themselves to be the same people, prior to this designation. Most Puni today speak a variety of "Punic" languages, most of which are unintelligble, which are grouped together as "dialects" by government administrations for greater coherency. Only 10% of the population are derived from Colchesian nomads and settlers, and these are the only groups which enjoy unlimited access to education, utilities, and credit amenities. A total of 5% of the population belong to the Belks, a nation of merchants and sailors who formed small refuges along the western coast of the Bay of Ramon, essential to the North-South Vargelian trade routes that lead from the southern steppes to the Elves of the Northern Forests. The final 5% of the population consists of Condederate Registered Indigenous bands, who live almost completely on the western mainland. These are the remnants of tribes who enjoyed great autonomy before being conquered by Captuage, who separated the Confederates from their close brethren on the other side of a once permeable border with Galros in the early 1800's.

Over 70% of the population is concentrated on the Zurkulian pennisula, with only 30% dwelling below the Shural Mountains, and most of that population hugging the temperate coastline of the Bay of Ramon.