Vroldafn

**Vroldafn** is one of the great nations of Ashvattha and one of the most populated and richest nations in Firdaus. Vroldafn, while once a democratic nation, now stands as a monarchy, led by the High-Queen Guan-yin Gloompond, who is given advice and aided in her rule by the former ruling body; The Council of 12. While Humans are not a rare sight in the nation, they are not the ruling race of Vroldafn. The true ruling race is the Calcos, a humanoid reptilian race who treats the resident humans as little more than second class citizens.

Vroldafn is a nation mostly consisting of a colossal desert, reaching as far as the eye can see. Despite being a desert, food and water are far from scarce, leading to a very fruitful nation that prospers with their trade of metals, gems and crafted goods. Vroldafn is above all ruled by the Calcos people and they hold mankind in general in very little regard. Beyond some well-established trade routes, Vroldafn is largely untouched by outside influences, even to the point where the Toranku 15 itself lacks all jurisdiction in Vroldafn. This is due to the fact that the Calcos wants nothing to do with the humans as far as rules and laws come as they do not want to have any humans try to decide how they should rule their own country. Council authorities have tried to compromise with the Calcos by offering them seats in the council, but they have refused every offer because if they were to join, they would have to turn their attention to other nations than simply Vroldafn and this nation is the only nation that matters to them.

## Society

With the recent immigration wave that came to Vroldafn, the nation is now rather culturally mixed. With humans from the various nations adjacent nations, the nation of Vroldafn has for the first time in centuries permitted a cultural shift. The immigrating people now had the right to freely practice their own cultures as long as it is within the comfort of their own homes. Public cultural practice carries with it heavy fines. The still dominating culture of Vroldafn is that of its native people, the Calco.

Much like days of old, slavery is a very common thing in Vroldafn, very much a core element of their society. Anyone can own a slave as long as they are considered true Vroldafn citizens. In many regards, Vroldafn carries a very tainted reputation due to its slavery. While they do not consider themselves as foul as other cultures by claiming slaves from war and kidnapping, believing that their means are far more sophisticated, Vroldafn is infamous for their typical treatment of their slaves. Vroldafn has few to none of the appropriate orders in place to ensure some manner of safety and protection of the slaves. There are two types of slavery in Vroldafn. Traditional slavery, which is what it sounds like. The master can purchase a slave as his or her property after which the master can do anything they so desire to their slave. They could be used as farmhands, gladiators, miners, prostitutes or even used for purely breeding purposes. Then there is the "Debt Slavery". Debt slavery is where the slave holds a debt to the government, either for lack of tax payments or because one has committed a grave crime to the nation. Out of the two forms of slavery, Debt Slavery is the preferred form. A debt is not the property of an individual but rather to the very government, which means that any harm to those slaves is considered a violation of state property, which has some heavy repercussions. When an individual is made a debt slave, any citizen may come to claim one of the slaves for a limited time, depending on the slave's debts or crimes. A debt slave can also not be used for "breeding", mining or prostitution purposes as those are considered to be harmful work.

While slavery is a very common thing in Vroldafn, and most likely the thing they are most known for, but the nation's pride and is its crafting and its music. No nation in the world has produced as many musical celebrities as Vroldafn. Despite the nations general distaste for humans, one would be hellbent to find someone that would refuse a human to study music or to become a musician or singer, as long as they have the will and passion for it. The nation is absolutely littered with music schools, and for the best and most dedicated, there is the world famous Bards Guild in the Capital of the same name as the nation.

The crafting, on the other hand, is something they are not so keen on sharing with those whom are not of the Calco People. Not just typical crafting though, such as tailoring, jewelry making and so forth, because such secrets were leaked to the other nations long ago. What they take the most pride in their crafting is their blacksmithing. Vroldafn have some of the finest smiths in the world, able to creating armors and weapons greater than anything previously seen. How they do so is a very well guarded secret and Vroldafn has made sure to keep it that way. Despite not wanting to share their secrets, they have no issue with selling their forged equipment for a fine penny, seeing no fault in supplying armor which the other races could never hope to reforge.

Marriage and love is something that is held in very high regard too in Vroldafn. The Calcos is a monogamous race, both by nature and by culture. Calcos are very picky choosers when it comes to their mates, so much so that they would rather go their entire life without a partner rather than choosing one which may not be an appropriate match, but once they've found one, they will remain loyal to their partner, and in many cases, won't ever pick another for as long as they live. Marriage is a sacred union to them and is not something they thoughtlessly enter. Arranged marriages is greatly frowned upon, even amongst the noble houses. Contrary to popular belief, Vroldafn is very progressive with homosexual relationships, in many ways it is actually encouraged. Families are often very supportive of a members choice of mate and will go to great lengths to assure a good relationship between the two. That is, as long as the mate is a Calco. Despite being perfectly able to reproduce with one another and having many similarities, relationships between humans and Calcos are considered despicable, disgusting even. There are very few in Vroldafn who would even as much as tolerate such a union. The situation is so bad for such relationships that it is a very common thing for cross-species couples to leave the country just so that they can be with their mate without the unrelenting hate.

## Races

### Calco

The Calco is the primary and governing race of Vroldafn and makes up the bulk of the entire nation. Calco is a humanoid-reptilian people whom share many a similarity with the humans, with a select amount of deviations from the norm of humanity. Clad in scales, horns, tails and various tints of skin color, and with a stark deviation between their own men and women when it comes to height, namely that the men are considerably larger than their females. A common idea is that anything a human can do, a Calco can do better, making the Calco perform a majority of the tasks in Vroldafn with little work left for humans, one of the many displays of their distaste for mankind.

### Human

Humans, while far from being a rarity in Vroldafn, it is a rare sight to see them as free wandering citizens. Humans mainly serve as slaves within the nation's borders. While not impossible to receive citizenship within Vroldafn, it's just difficult to stay off of the slavers until that can be fulfilled. And even those who are citizens are very much second-class members of society and barely have any influence on the workers market. Humans are also not represented by the official population count, meaning that the 53 million citizens of Vroldafn are only accounting for the Calco.