Druthenia

"Despite our best efforts, despite making it through this awful chaos relatively intact, it appears that war looms on the horizon. Thunderstorms don't seem to mind where it releases its rain."

- King Henrik III

''"Med Hans vrede, med Hennes nåd." ("By His wrath, by Her mercy.")''

- Official motto of Druthenia

The Kingdom of Druthenia (Konungariket Druþenien) is a nation located in the north-eastern parts of Eidora, occupying the entirety of the Druthann peninsula. It is one of (if not the) oldest nation-state still independent on the subcontinent, having managed to defend itself from outside invasions thanks to its professional army and large navy, but also due to the favorable and stable political climate inside its borders. Its capital is Travandersborg.

While Druthenia is rich in resources and land, it lacks in population. The cold weather offers a stable climate, which is however not suited for the large scale agriculture needed to sustain a large populace. This in turn has resulted in a extreme focus on quality of troops over quantity; Druthenian soldiers are among the most well trained and most well-equipped in the world. But no-one knows for sure if it will be enough to weather the oncoming storm.

While primarily inhabited by Druthenians, the kingdom also hosts a large population of indigenous Satí in the north. Their native homeland, Satímaa, is divided between the east - controlled by Druthenia - and the west, which is controlled by Radovia.

General information
See also: Druthenian Military

History
Druthenia has a long and complex history which spans several millennia.

Pre-history
Due to a lack of written sources in this period, not a lot is known about pre-collapse Druthenia. Ancient Krichoians write that the Druthann peninsula was inhabited by a "strange folk, following barbarian druidic practices [sic]." Later sources seems to alude to the coming of the proto-Druthenians, who appears to have migrated to Druthann and supplanted whatever people lived there before. If this was a peaceful process of integration, or a violent invasion, is unknown. The true origin point for the proto-Druthenians is not entirely known either.

The Collapse
The Druthenians, being far away from the great empires of Krichoia and Astaria, seemingly made it through the Collapse without issue. Written Druthenian sources from the period does show that they were much aware of the turmoil going on in the rest of the continent, and it appears that a similar plague of the kind that ravaged the great empires spread to Druthenia aswell, causing some deaths.

The Long Age (0 - 1300's)
The Druthenians during and after the Great Collapse were organized into many decentralised tribes, spread across the coastal areas and up certain rivers (mainly the Ipe). This made them easy pickings for any outside force, and they experienced several invasions by southerners. By 900, a lot of south-eastern Druthenia was occupied by southern powers, who settled the area and made it their own.

The hero king Travander would be the great warrior and unifier of the Druthenian people. After assuming leadership of his tribe, he rallied the other chiefs to fight off the southern invaders. The "reclamation war" would only last two years, in which the southerners were defeated and the area once again falling under the control of Druthenians. For his feat, Travander was crowned king of all Druthenians in 1018; this event is regarded as the formation of the modern Druthenian state. Travander then laid the foundations for a great city by the mouth of the Ipe river - Travandersborg - which soon became the true capital of the kingdom, being made official by Travanders descendants in 1055.

Even though the southerners had been defeated, a sizeable minority still lived within the formerly subjugated area, and southern nobles still held power in Druthenian politics. Tensions between these nobles and the monarchy boiled over into a short civil war in 1132, where the nobles were decisively defeated. Fearing them once again becoming a powerful enemy, the king had all the nobles executed and their holdings given out to Druthenians. Many southern commonfolk fled back south, and those who remained were treated poorly.