Amshan

Amshan
Capital	Hashkaman
Ruler	Dynast Rtaxshira rel Sakan
Government	Monarchy
Demonym	Amshani
Adjective	Amshani
Languages	Asharan, Common, Telan, others
Religions	Kirnashal pantheon; other pantheons and faiths

Amshan (pronounced AHM-shahn) is the largest nation on the western coast of the Kirnashal Sea. Its philosopher-monarchs are well-known for their patronage of intellectuals of all kinds, and the empire is a haven for artists, theologians, historians, and mages. Between its control of the eastern terminus of the Golden Path and the skill of its professional military, Amshan has long been the dominant power around the Kirnashal.

Western Kirnashal: old Amshan

Encompassing almost the entire inhabited length of the western Kirnashal Sea, Amshan is an empire encompassing a variety of biomes and climates. While much of the south and east, the lands closest to the sea, are covered in verdant grasslands and deciduous forests, the west and north are considerably drier. Amshan only controls parts of the very eastern-most edges of the Taizzan Expanse, but even then the landscape of dry shrublands with sparse, hardy trees can still be a difficult place to eke out a living. Yet the people of Amshan have lived in this rough terrain for centuries, particularly in communities nestled in small valleys amongst the rocky hills, where vegetation can thrive in almost oasis-like conditions.

Farther to the north, Amshan controls up to the Asvan Mountains and the surrounding montane woodlands and steppe-like foothills. Rivers flow throughout Amshan, but with a particular concentration in the wetter south, where they originate in the nearby Shields before wandering their way to the coast.

Several sparsely-populated archipelagoes lie off the coast of Amshan. While they are refuges for innumerable varieties of migratory birds and other creatures, the treacherous nature of travel across the Kirnashal Sea means the towns on the islands are largely isolated from the rest of the nation.

Amshan is warm year-round, though with some seasonal variation. The western deserts especially are overwhelmingly sunny - these regions receive over 320 days of sun per year, on average.

Northern Kirnashal: Amshani colonies

The Amshani colonies on the northern coast of the Kirnashal are markedly different than the old lands to the south. Though somewhat more lush than the Aban Steppe to the north, the rocky beaches, prairies of tall grasses with knotted roots, and dense thickets of shrub-like trees that are common in the region are quite unlike anywhere else in Amshan and have posed continual problems for Amshani settlers. The landscape up the Titan's River has been considerably more favorable, and most of the population has been drawn in that direction as a result.

Snow regularly falls in the winters here, uncommon elsewhere in Amshan aside from near the Asvan Mountains.

History

Demographics

The population of Amshan is largely human, though many orcs, half-orcs, gnolls, catfolk, and plane-touched individuals live in the region as well. The cities of Amshan, especially those along the Golden Path and in the central province of Marhasi, are quite cosmopolitan, home to all manner of ancestries.

Culture

Travel and trade

See also: Golden Path

The Golden Path, a trade route that crosses the Taizzan Expanse, carries a great deal of trade between Amshan and the eastern coast of the Chaska Sea. Most merchants begin or end their travels along the Path at Hashkaman, while others use cities to the south as their terminus instead.

Vast amounts of precious metals once crossed the Taizzan regularly, giving the trade route its name, but today the Golden Path is better known for other trade goods. Lightning glass, and worked items of this material, are commonly carried by those traveling west, as are the fine arts of expert Amshani calligraphers, painters, and other artisans. Teas from Amshan are sought by many in the eastern Chaska Sea and therefore are transported along the Golden Path as well. Those traveling east carry goods from around the Chaska that are otherwise difficult to acquire across the desert. Other, more ordinary goods are regularly brought with to trade as well, but owing to the dangers and duration of the journey, and the lower profits to be had in selling them, they are rarely the sole reason to set off along the Golden Path.

Thousands of years old, the Golden Path has long been an important connection between the peoples living around the Chaska Sea and those around in Amshan, a way for culture, language, religion, and more to spread between these two disparate lands.

Burial practices

The Amshani primarily bury their dead in family plots, or otherwise under their houses, but this practice is now largely considered archaic and only followed by the most traditionalist or those in the rural regions of the north. Some particularly renowned individuals are interred in a manner that can cause them to inadvertently rise as Esteemed.

Names

The majority of Amshani have names following the pattern of a given name followed by a surname, yet this is not the case for all. Some individuals, primarily members of noble clans, use the "rel" nobiliary particle between their names to signal their status.

Government

Rather more centralized compared to many of its neighbors and other nearby states, Amshan is a hereditary monarchy where most power ultimately rests with the dynast, as Amshani kings and queens are called. The majority of positions amongst the ministers of the Amshani state, as well as within the clergy of the empire, are appointed by the dynast. Ultimately, however, the dynast is also beholden to the various houses, or clans, that govern the provinces of Amshan.

Each province is ruled by a triumvirate consisting of the leader of a clan with historical ties to the region, usually referred to as a dynast-prince, as well as two priests, one of Sraosheh and one of Mihr, who are nominated to the role by the monarch. Each of these figures is responsible for a different part in the administration of those who live within the territory. All clans in a province possess the right to the title of dynast-prince, though as only one can hold it at a given time they are typically forced to negotiate concessions and alliances to support their nomination before the dynast. Historically this arrangement has allowed for the effective administration of territories far away from the Amshani capital of Hashkaman while still preventing clans from threatening central rule.

Amshani cities and settlements are ruled either jointly by a local clan and the clergy, for cities and large towns, or simply a clan, if small enough.

Yet some clans remain outside the provincial governance. As Amshan united into one state, a few chose not to settle and instead kept their nomadic ways. These clans eventually formed three confederations, the Ishparaba, the Kishesu, and the Saparda, who rule themselves in their traditional hereditary, and largely matriarchal, ways, heeding no one's commands but the dynast's.

The Amshani military is entirely under the control of the dynast - no clan, nomadic or otherwise, is allowed to maintain a standing army of their own, though guards and militias in times of crisis are permitted.

As of Y9976^*, the current dynast of Amshan is Rtaxshira of the Sakan clan.

Relations

Amshan has two vassal states, Kudurru and Ramashal. Both were established as ways to control the chaotic and wild southern frontier against the Shields, yet in the stability and relative safety of recent years they have begun to engage in minor clashes with each other.