Federation of Medeina

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Federation of Medeina is a nation on the North east coast of Western Continent on the Sea of Three Islands. It is a loose federation of numerous clans held together by current Kunkadai, Reysora "The One-eyed Crow" with its center in the capital city of Medeina. It is a home of Kashai people, a race of humanoid cat-people who live in tropical rainforests. Religion and culture of the Kashai people aren't monolithic, and some clans have their own religious and cultural practices. Official language of the Federation is Kielen.

Medeina borders the nations of Pindorama in the west and Argata in the south. As it is positioned on the east coast of the Western Continent, Medeina trades and has close diplomatic ties with Mediterranean Islands. The biggest export of Medeina are mercenary services provided by many mercenary bands and clans.

Capital city of Medeina is the cultural and religious center of the Federation. Religious and cultural practices of the capital can be considered "mainstream" and clans of the capital are very similar culturally and religiously. Clans outside of the capital are harder to control so they have greater autonomy and are culturally very distinct in their practices and beliefs.

Basic Statistics

## History

### Origin

How Kashai as a race came to be and much of their early history is lost to time as not many written records of that time still remain. Many notable scholars believe that the ancestors of the Kashai people migrated from the sea and settled the North east coast of Western Continent. Scholars also agree that the first settlements of ancient Kashai were on the coast and not in the rainforests as they are now. This theory is backed up by very old written records kept by clans that still inhabit coastal areas and their oral tradition which is full of tales and bedtime stories about how their ancestors crossed the sea and settled the areas where they now live. What is known about the early history of Kashai is that after some time, a unified political entity came to be. This period was important as it was during this time that Kielen emerged as a universal language spoken by Kashai people and some practices that were first recorded during this period have still survived in some forms to this day. This period of Kashai history is known as "The First Unification".

### The First Unification

This period of history is shrouded in myths and epic tales and facts can hardly be distinguished from fantasy. Folk tales and old records speak of a mythical figure known as The Kunkadai or Great Uniter, who unified warring clans and proclaimed the creation of the first unified state of Kashai people. For the first time in their history, the Kashai people were unified under the rule of a single person. This was a period of great prosperity. It is said that the great spirits blessed The Kunkadai and made him their representative so he was given the authority over all religious institutions within the nation. He used his new authority to create an organized religious institution with a unified doctrine that would further be used to unify the clans. With the help of priests from all over the nation, he created a language that was a mix of different languages of many clans and this language was taught in all temples by the priests. Old records say that The Kunkadai lived for 200 years but many scholars agree that there probably were multiple people who carried the title of The Kunkadai. What happened after his death differs depending on what source you use. What most sources agree on is that before his death, The Kunkadai proclaimed his second son to be a rightful heir. This is where sources start to contradict one another. Some sources claim that the first son was furious and wanted power for himself so he rallied minor clans to his cause and rose in rebellion against his brother while other sources claim that the younger brother went mad from paranoia of thinking that his brother wants to take power from him so he started oppressing his people and killing whoever he found suspicious, so his brother rallied the clans to stop him. What all sources agree on is that a brutal civil war began and that the older brother lost the civil war. Clans that supported the older brother fled from their homes fearing the retribution for their rebellion and this moment is known as "The Great Migration".

### The Great Migration

Clans that were on the losing side of the civil war had no options but to migrate to the rainforest to their south. These rainforests were unforgiving and full of dangerous wildlife, but clans saw possibility of survival preferable to certain extermination. Clans experienced great suffering during The Great Migration but in the end, they managed to survive as their pursuers withdrew, believing that living in that environment is fate worse than death. During this time, many old clans fell and new ones rose to take their place, with many clan leaders of that time becoming legends in their respective clans. Kashai had to adapt to this new way of life which created a culture completely different from that of the coastal clans. They became great hunters and warriors, and family and clan became cornerstones of society as individuals couldn't survive on their own. Individual's only worth was how useful he was to his clan and people who couldn't contribute to their clan were deemed outcasts of society. People also started worshiping nature and the rainforest as "she" offered them her hand in their greatest time of need and allowed them to be reborn as new people. Great emphasis was also put on the ancestors who gave everything for their clans and Kashai took great pride in that. However, this newfound pride in their clan became a new source of conflict for the people of the rainforest.

### The Second Unification

Clans waged war for domination with one another and some clans even managed to establish hegemony over the other clans, but all of the attempts of unification were short-lived. Clans that waged war with one another grew weaker while those who remained neutral only grew in power. One such clan was Silent Fangs. Their leader Vareh stayed out of the conflict and focused on strengthening the position of his clan. He married the daughter of the chief of Scarlet Eyes, Ireya, to forge an alliance between those two clans who remained neutral up to that point, and he was just waiting for the right opportunity. He got his chance after the two strongest clans at the time, Savage Claws and Gaping Jaws, clashed with each other and were left vulnerable after the devastating battle that lasted for days. Vareh rallied both Silent Fangs and Scarlet Eyes and minor clans joined him as soon as they understood that Vareh had already won. Savage Claws and Gaping Jaws both put up a desperate fight, but in the end, Vareh and the Silent Fangs were victorious. Other clans submitted to the Silent Fangs seeing that further resistance was futile and would only put their clans in danger, and so, in a small village that would later become the new capital Medeina, Vareh was proclaimed the new Kunkadai. Vareh was loved by the people as he put an end to years of infighting and finally brought peace and during his reign the whole nation prospered, earning him the name Vareh "The Lightbringer". After his death, he was succeeded by his daughter Neinera. Nation was once again on a brink of civil war as clans saw Neinera as weak, but she manipulated clans into turning on each other and used that to consolidate her power. She established the Council of Great Clans where 8 strongest clans would have their representative vote on certain laws and policies to appease the more influential clans. She also established a system where clans with no representation on the council could put in question the power of a great clan and potentially replace them in the council. All clan leaders would be summoned to the capital to take part in Mahanosto where clans in question would both present their case and then the leaders of other clans would vote on if the great clan should remain on the council. This angered the great clans but also earned Neinera the support of minor clans so the great clans couldn't do anything about it. The rest of her reign was marked by economic development and prosperity and she would be remembered by people as Neinera "The Great". Her daughter Otomea would build the Gear Temple of the Mother in the capital city of Mediena which would attract people all around the kingdom and cement Medeina as a religious, cultural and economic center of Kashai civilization. Otomea would use this to reform and centralize the religion of Kashai to further unite people just like how The First Kunkadai did. Temples were also given the task of educating people and resorting minor quarrels between the people and clans. Her reign would earn her the name Otomea "The Chosen of The Mother". She would be succeeded by her only son, Jareg , who wasn't respected by the great clans as he wasn't the wisest ruler and was irrational and hot headed. He would implement a law that would allow any clan leader to challenge the Kunkadai to Kaishtermahat for the title of the ruler of the kingdom. Many would try, but none managed to best him in combat. Apart from that, his reign would be an uneventful one and he would be remembered as the Kunkadai who doomed the nation. He would be succeeded by his son Urie who was a weak ruler and was a puppet of great clans who conspired to stay in power. Minor clans were not happy with this, but none dared to challenge him as they feared the great clans, who worked together, would crush them. Son of Urie, Horek, would grow up seeing his father being used by great clans and being called Urie "The Weak" by the people and he grew to hate his father. He would challenge his father to Kaistermahat and kill him, making him the new Kunkadai. Horek wouldn't let himself be controlled by the great clans and so he disbanded the great council. This angered the great clans as they lost a lot of power that they had and minor clans were angry that now they didn't have a way to achieve power at all. They all rose in rebellion and during a fight, Horek and his older son would be killed. That left Liora, his youngest child, as a sole heir to the throne. As she was a sickly child, she didn't live for very long and would die shortly after. This left the nation without an heir of the main bloodline. Clans would all support different claimants to the throne and the civil war that would destroy the nation that Vareh and his descendants had built would start.

### The Time of Great Suffering and The Third Unification

This period is remembered as “The Time of Great Suffering” because of the devastating conflict that caused immense suffering. This conflict was the most brutal conflict in the history of the Kashai people. Clans fought over whose claimant would end up on the throne in Medeina but not long after, all of the claimants were killed, and the nation that Vareh and his descendants created officially came to an end. This made the conflict even more brutal as now clans weren’t fighting for the claimant of another clan but for themselves to establish hegemony over other clans. Many clans perished during the war and from their ashes arose new clans. One such clan was Crow Eyes Clan lead by Reysora who was a slave of Bloody Whips Clan that was know for slavery and for their treatment of the slaves. The Bloody Whips clan was involved in the conflict and after suffering defeat after defeat in battles, they were left severely weakened. They were forced to send all available people to the battlefield and only few remained to guard the slaves. Reysora used this opportunity to rally the slaves and attack the guards killing them. After they broke free, they killed everyone who put up a resistance and they only spared young women and children. They then ambushed remaining members of the Bloody Whips Clans and killed every last one of them. Now free, slaves decided to create a new clan and they chose Reysora to be their new leader who proclaimed the creation of the Crow Eyes Clan. She chose that name because her hair was black as a crow and black hair was seen as a bad omen and crows were seen as messengers of evil spirits by Kashai, and because she lost an eye during the uprising and now that eye was on the flag of the clan. Reysora and her clan hated the great clans as they were responsible for the civil war that caused so much suffering and they wanted to make them pay. The only problem was that they weren’t powerful enough. Then Reysora remembered reading about clans that once lived on the coast. No one was in contact with those clans for hundred years, so she hired the mercenary band “The Mad Fangs”, the only mercenary band crazy enough to accept to go to the coast and make contact with those clans. When they returned and confirmed the existence of coastal clans, Reysora went there personally to negotiate with the coastal clans to ally with her. When she met up with chieftains of coastal clans, she was shocked by what she found. People living there were cultivating  plants and domesticating animals, fishing and weren’t living on the trees. They even wore weird clothes made out of the fabric from one of the animals and they spoke a weird variation of Kielen language but they could still communicate with one another. She explained that she wanted them to join her so she could crush the rest of the clans and in return, they would be able to trade with people of the rainforests and have a seat on the Council of Great Clans that she would establish. Most of the clans dismissed her offer, but two clans, the Shark Tooths and Children of the Waves clans, were intrigued by the proposal.  They agreed to help Reysora if she guaranteed them that they would represent the coast in the council after she conquered the rest of the clans and she agreed to the terms. The first target of their alliance was one of the great clans, the Long Blades, who were left in a weak state after their forces were ambushed by another clan and wiped out. She employed the Mad Fangs again to infiltrate the stronghold of Long Blades and create as much chaos as they can. While the Long Blades were in disarray, combined forces of Crow Eyes, Shark Tooths and Children of the Waves attacked the stronghold which was now unguarded. Crow Eyes would massacre everyone who stood in their way as the other two clans watched in horror. They expected that the clans that were living in the rainforests were a little bit savage, but this was not a little bit. They understood that they would be destroyed if they decided to betray her. This event would be known as “The Long Blade Massacre” and after it, many minor clans joined Reysora as they feared that they would be next. Great clans stopped their fighting and agreed to form an temporary alliance that would last until the threat of Crow Eyes is dealt with. These two factions would face off in the capital city of Medeina and the fighting would last for days. The alliance of great clans managed to hold off Reysora and her allies, but they became aware that it was only a matter of time before they lost. They agreed to submit to her as she wouldn’t be able to destroy them because she would lose the support of other clans and with that, The Time of Great Suffering was over. Leaders of all clans were summoned to the capital of Medeina where Reysora proclaimed herself the new successor of The First Kunkadai and Vareh “The Lightbringer” and the establishment of Federation of Medeina. Reysora wasn’t happy because she couldn’t crush the great clans, the great clans weren’t happy because Reysora became the new Kunkadai and some of them lost the status of the great clans and the minor clans feared the Crow Eyes clan and were happy that they were still alive and that some of them gained the status of the great clans. The new balance of power forced all parties to work together to avoid another civil war and open battles were replaced with political maneuvering and backstabbing by all sides.

## Geography

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## Languages

Official language of Medeina is Kielen and it is the most widely spoken language within the nation. Every clan speaks some kind of a dialect of Kielen and only some isolated clans have their own distinct languages.

## Politics

Medeina is a federation of clans. The leader of the Federation holds the title of Kunkadai, and together with the Council of Great Clans, he rules the federation. Council of Great Clans is comprised of 8 most powerful clans within the federation with each one having a representative on the council. Every clan, including minor clans not represented on the council, can propose a law or a policy but only clans with their representatives on the council can vote on it. Voting is decided by majority vote. If a law or a policy is voted in by the council, it is presented to the Kunkadai who has the final word on it. As the Council of Great Clans is represented by 8 most powerful clans, every clan has the right to question the power of members of the council. When that happens, Mahanosto is called where all clan leaders that wish to participate assemble in the capital and clans in question present their case after which the great vote starts. Clan that wants the position on the council needs a 3/4 of votes, and even if their proposal is passed, the great clan can still challenge them to Kaishtermahat. Clan that wants the position on the council can also bypass the Mahanosto and challenge the clan on the council to Kaishtermahat. On the second day of the new year, Mahanosto is called where clan leaders assemble to discuss the future of the federation in the new year. Every clan leader can challenge the Kunkadai to the duel for the title, but even if they win, if the Kunkadai was seen as a good leader or the challenge is seen as pursuit of own self-interest or greed, by other clans, not only will the challenger not become the new Kunkadai, he will also lose the position of the clan leader.

Current Kunkadai Reysora of the Crow Eyes Clan became Kunkadai after she came on top during a long and brutal civil war. Only 2 of the clans on the Council are her allies while the rest were her enemies or were neutral during the civil war. Most of the great clans are not happy with the way she came to power, as her clan beat other clans, who were already weakened from a long civil war, into submission and because she has black hair which is considered a bad omen by Kashai people. They, however, can't get rid of her as they don't want another civil war and aren't strong enough to oppose her directly. Reysora also hates the old and powerful clans because they were the main cause of the civil war and suffering of so many, but she too lacks the power to crush the old clans. This balance of power forces both parties to work together so that the nation doesn't erupt into another devastating civil war.

Medeina has a natural ally in people of Pindorama as their people were once part of the same species. The other ally of Medeina are people of Blackcliff who regularly employ Kashai mercenary bands and even have a regiment within their armies entirely made out of Kashai. Medeina also cooperates with Mediterranean Islands and has negotiated many agreements with island nations since its creation. The Federation also has a strong diplomatic presence in the North east part of the Western Continent.