Umbuso

The Empire of Umbuso is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, federal institution that dominates the entirety of southern Ludwag. Currently uncontested as the largest empire on Ludwag as of the current age, it is led by a divine emperor that currently resides in the capital of Amica.

### Population

Human majority; with prominent minorities of Raoan and Electi elves.

## History

Spanning back thousands of years, the Empire of Umbuso is one of the oldest standing nations in Ludwag - having been in existence even during the times of Pyros. Originally, the human tribes of southern Ludwag came together to form their own independent tribes and nations - soon beginning to fight one another in petty conflicts over disagreements, or natural resources, despite their abundance in the Ludwagian south. Meanwhile, the tribes would face oppression, invasion, and brutalization from neighboring Elven invaders which they referred to as the "Fey". Aside from themselves, the two greatest threats to the humans of southern Ludwag at this time were the Pyros, and the Rao.

On the ides of July, sometime between 45 - 10 B.C, a divine being known as "the Inkosai" would descend from the heavens to the vast savannahs of Impolo. There, he would encounter a group of humans known Amicans - the original settlers of Impolo, where all other humans of the south derive from. The Inkosai would grace the Amicans with his blessings, guidance, and leadership; he would be happily accepted by the Amican people, who were going through dark times - pinned between Elves in the north and warring tribes to the south and east.

Using his divine power, he would give the Amican tribe the knowledge and resources necessary for them to transform their small villages and huts into proper cities and towns in the span of only a few years - alongside providing them the necessary equipment to fight against their violent neighbors. The Amican Kingdom began to sweep through the neighboring human tribes, starting with the Kasi - who had, at this point, established their own rudimentary Kingdom as well, and were the most powerful of all the other peoples in Impolo. In a brutal, bloody war, the Amicans managed to capture large swaths of Kasi territory, before eventually surrounding them at their capital city of Khane. In a peaceful meeting between the Kasi leader and the Inkosai just outside the walls of the besieged city, the nation of Khane agreed to join the Amicans and establish the Umbusan Empire.

The Diveep peoples were conquered with ease, but they unlike the Kasi were not particularly loyal to their new rulers. The Inkosai had promised the Peijg and Monic people their ancestral territory that had been captured by the Pyros and Rao so long as they joined the Empire - to which they agreed. Unfortunately, these plans were foiled after a huge rebellion sprouted in the Diveep capital of Gahar, which had occurred in the middle of the Umbuso-Pyros war taking place in the northern woodlands of Impolo. The Inkosai was forced to halt his invasion of the Pyrian territory held in southern Ludwag, and returned to the Umbusan capital of Amica to deal with the issue. The Gahar rebellion was quelled at the cost of many lives on either side and the fighting had ended - but the Inkosai did not care for short-term solutions; he needed something long-term. Deciding to use a system that would suffice in keeping all of Umbuso's conquered peoples happy with their predicament, he provided more autonomy to the conquered Kingdoms, allowing them to live under their own laws and cultures.

The Inkosai returned north to continue his invasion of the Pyrian-held territory, though the conflict ended quickly following the fall of Pyros. After this, for reasons unexplained, the Inkosai would recede into the Imperial palace and remain dormant for centuries. Umbuso continued building itself, using faith to keep itself together - but even this would falter. Between 1 and 600 AC, Umbuso would go through political turmoil in which a handful of civil wars would occur. These conflicts would eventually come to a halt after an alteration was made in the scripture of the Umbusan faith - stating that the Inkosai desired the extermination of all non-human races, and desired for humanity to one day rule the world. Already holding a deep-rooted hatred for the Elves given their violent and brutal history with the people of Impolo, these alterations were not questioned, accepted whole-heartedly. Umbuso would be united by their hatred for non-human races rather than by for the sake of living peaceful lives - and the Rao Kingdom would have the unfortunate predicament of being the scapegoat used by the Umbusan government to hold itself together.

Millenia passed until the Inkosai would step out of the Imperial palace once more. During this time, several things occurred - such as the outlawing of runecasters, who once dominated Pyros. The government that ran the nation at the time decided that they were too powerful to be easily controlled, unlike mancers - and they established rules under the guise of divine law to ensure runic writing would never be seen in Impolo again. Later, his Empire would have discovered Amnisica - a land they desired to conquer for the sake of uniting Man and exterminating Elf. Only a few months later with the death of the Old Gods in 2341 A.C, he would re-emerge from the depths of his palace to rule Umbuso once again. Umbuso had steered off it's intended path of being an Empire for everyone - a place where all mortal-kind, regardless of race, could live in peace and unity. Instead, it had become an Empire of blood and war - an Empire that desired the safety of Mankind over anything else. Through radical reform and the conquering of the Rao Kingdom, he would do his best to push his Empire back onto the path it had originally been driven towards.

. . . The presence of their army in northern Ludwag continues to grow, however.

## Economy

Umbuso is self-sufficient for the most part; one of the main benefits of a multi-cultural Empire with semi-autonomous nation-states within it is internal trade and production. Each Umbusan state exports it's own productions to other Umbusan states, and these internal sales are taxed by the Empire at the federal level. Gahar exports textiles, ocean-based resources, produce and sea-faring vessels; Khane exports textiles, minerals and grain; Yocahan exports minerals and lumber; Rao exports lumber, produce, and ocean-based resources; Arcenix exports minerals and precious minerals; and Amica exports precious minerals, produce and violeum - a resource necessary to keep most of Umbuso's technology and machines running

Due to the isolation of southern Ludwag from the north, Umbuso has not had any long-term foreign trade with any of the nations present within Amnisica - and it continues to remain this way for the most part. Trade between Umbuso and the Kingdom of Rao prior to it's invasion did not occur at all due to their long-standing conflict with one another.

Umbuso uses a different currency than the rest of Ludwag. Instead of the Till, Quill, and Crown - the Umbusans use the Isiphon, Caron, and Siphos - worth five tills, five quills, and five crowns respectively.

## Military

The Umbusan military can be broken into multiple separate pieces. It consists of the Imperial Army, the Imperial Navy, and militia-esque organizations that uphold law in security within each Umbusan state known as "Defense Forces".

As of right now, the Imperial Army is by far the best-equipped and one of the best-trained militaries on the continent. Entrance into the Imperial Army is a difficult and tedious process; individuals must first join the Defense Force of their respective state, and gain enough merit and experience after training to be pulled into the Imperial Army. From there, they must go through yet another rigorous training course before being placed into one of the regional armies that make up the overarching Imperial Army. This system serves as a way to not only ensure the competence and fighting capability of the Imperial Army, but is also a way to control the power each individual Umbusan state holds - preventing any successful rebellions or secessions.

The Imperial Navy is a relatively mixed batch. Sailors do not have to go through the process of joining a Defense Force and being promoted into the navy - rather, citizens of Umbuso are allowed to freely join the navy as they please. Umbusan marines are soldiers pulled from the Imperial Army and placed onto Umbusan ships and vessels. The majority of Umbusan sailors are Diveep or Vysarian in descent.

## Government

Before the Inkosai's return, the Umbusan government was a corrupt oligarchic bureaucracy. Since then, it has transformed itself into an autocratic theocracy - an Empire where Ramiel, the Inkosai, holds absolute power over all of his subjects by divine rite. The Empire and it's federal laws are centered around the faith of Umbuso; the Church of Ramiel. Each Umbusan state, as of the present date, is united by worship of the Church of Ramiel. The Church finds itself with just as much sway over the Empire as the Imperial Court and Council. All institutions are intertwined, however.

Despite Umbuso's autocratic nature, the Imperial Court and Council are institutions formed up of state governors, ministers, high priests, and high-ranking members of the military who represent their individual sects of the Empire and make decisions for the sake of the Empire, it's people, and it's future.

## Society

Umbusan society is multi-cultural and greatly varies in multiple places, but religion is the one thing that holds it all together for the most part. Each culture has it's own beliefs - even it's own interpretations of Ramiel and the faith, though there are a few things in Umbusan society that are common within each and every culture.

These are prejudices. For a long time, the people of Umbuso were united by their hate for non-humans. Despite Ramiel, the Inkosai's best efforts - he is incapable of completely erasing the mindset of human superiority that has been engraved into the psyches of the Umbusan people for millennia. At least, not very quickly. While acceptance of non-humans is slowly welcomed into the Empire, many people still refuse this change. Most non-humans continue to face obstacles in their everyday lives based off of race - an example being their difficulty in joining the Imperial Army.

Runecasters are the other group of people prejudiced in the Empire, but prejudice is a light term for their treatment; they are seen as absolute filth, the worst of the worst - demons, even. They are outlawed entirely in the Empire, and the enigmatic organization known as the Testem Kherestor searches through the Empire's territory like a child foraging through bushes, plucking away at runecasters as if they are berries. When the subject of runecasters are brought up to Umbusans, they often tell stories of entire villages being wiped off the face of the earth for harboring runes or runecasters at the hands of the Testem Kherestor. Nobody is quite sure if these stories are true or not, but desolate unmarked ruins rot into the great landmass of Impolo.