Žito

Žito is a inhabitable moon of Snídaně, and its surface is covered with relatively dry savannas, scrub lands, and large shallow freshwater lakes. It has very little geological altitude variation, its highest points barely a kilometer above sea level.

Four humanoid species originate from Žito, Leonin, Aarakocra, Tabaxi, and Thri-Kreen. The early history of Žito is a vastly complicated affair, but for most people, Žitan history begins with the formation of the Southern Lake Empire. Using its increasingly massive irrigation systems, this empire rose to prominence, conquering or absorbing everyone living around the southern lakes. This empire has fractured, fell apart, and reformed many time over it's history. The ruling faction may change, but the cultural group has remained unified for thousands of years. The southern lake empire was a caste based society with Leonin warriors ruling over Tabaxi and Aaracokra peasants.

A little less than a thousand years after the formation of the first Southern Lake Empire, the earliest recognizable form of the Northern Lake States came into being. A series of culturally connected city states loosely organizing for defense and trade. This vague union waxed and waned but as time went on, tended to strengthen. Society in the North tended to organize and separate itself based on wealth or class rather than species, though Aarakocra tended to be treated poorly.

The final major cultural group of Žito were the nomads, composing almost all of the world's Thri-Kreen and many Aarakocra. This is by far the most vague group, incorporating thousands of clans spread across the vast dry equatorial region, but due to the lack of written sources, and relative tininess these highly varied clans are grouped together for convinces sake.

For a few thousand years after the creation of the first southern empire, the massive population and agricultural output lead them to dominate the planet. However, the northern states eventually entered the first Magi-Industrial revolution. This greatly empowered the north, as manufacturing of mass magi-tech allowed for massive strides in economic and military power.

This magi-industrial revolution slowly brought the world together, increasing trade, lowering travel time, allowing a person to communicate with others on the other side of the world in an instant, but unfortunately brought Žito to the darkest times of its history. The demand for magic users, especially psions, lead to common practices of northern kidnapping and enslaving nomads for their magic abilities and several massive wars between various northern states and between northern states and the southern empire, resulting in massive casualties and ecological destruction. Eventually, the magi-industrial revolution of the southern empire, species equality groups in the north and world wide peace movements brought relative stability to Žito.

Žito's next great step, was to space. Žitan's first space ventures were a few northerners during the later stages of the magi-industrial revolution, even making first contact with Řasians. However, Žitan space exploration, expansion and colonization came into its own approximately over the century after Žito stabilized. At first Žitan's took some of Snídaně's uninhabited moons, and some asteroids, but rather quickly, opportunistic Žitan's took to Řasy, establishing small trading posts, missions and micro settlements, but eventually Žitan's used their massive technological edge and began to conquer. This lead to the Žitan-Řasian Wars, and the Řasian Technological Ascendancy. Although those events are now a few centuries past, many people of Žito still hold grudges.