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.
Geography, flora, and fauna
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
Early history
Compared to later Amshani history, the earlier eras of the region are less well-known and well-recorded, but not for a lack of effort on the part of Amshani historians. What is certain is that by Y3000* the communities of settled and nomadic peoples alike had begun to be unified under the banners of various clans, many of which eventually become entrenched dynasties. Instead of the centralized and fortified city-states across the Taizzan Expanse and around the Chaska Sea, in Amshan the courts of rulers wandered around their domains, regularly visiting and observing their subjects.
Age of Tyrants
By Y3600* the clan-kings had been swept aside by new rulers, known today in Amshan as the Tyrants or sometimes as the Shatterers. After their sudden arrival they quickly set about a unification of what is now Marhasi, central Amshan, bringing all existing settlements and clans into their domain. From their palaces, the ruins of which now lie buried under Vaumena, they governed with cruelty and force, scattering the tribes and wholly demolishing the towns of any who dissented as well as destroying any records and monuments they could find of the past.
The identify of the Tyrants is difficult to determine. They may have been a group of humans or other mortals of Kishar from outside Amshan, yet the few surviving written works from the time sometimes indicate otherwise. The Tyrants are often ascribed immortality, the ability to see the future, and the power to shapeshift into monstrous forms, but the degree of literalness with which to interpret these descriptions have long frustrated Amshani scholars.
Upheaval
Ultimately the Tyrants were removed from power almost as suddenly as they came to it. An invasion of dragons from the west swept into Amshan around Y4100*, descending upon the fortresses of the Tyrants and razing them to the ground, erasing them from history nearly as completely as had the prior era of Amshan's history. Just as quickly as they came, however, the dragons continued east across the Kirnashal Sea for lands unknown.
While they arrived and departed within only a few years, the influence of these dragons has proven enduring in Amshan even thousands of years later. Particularly notably, evidence of the worship of the gods of the Kirnashal pantheon is first seen shortly after the dragons appeared - while still debated, many theologians believe the deities of the dragons and those of modern Amshan to be the same, or at least closely related.
Consolidation and unification
It took centuries to recover from the cataclysms of the last half millennia, yet the dispersed clans and tribes of Amshan once again began to assert themselves. Many of the great fortified cities of the region were established in the mid to late fifth millennium out of a desire for protection against future invaders, which brought forth a massive growth in urbanization as well. Centralized state formation began as well for much the same reason.
While it took hundreds more years to solidify, by Y5500* Amshan bore a strong resemblance to its current form, with hereditary monarchs overseeing a domain that stretched from Teredon in the north to Me-Turnat in the south. Grand palaces and other monuments were built in Hashkaman, which then as now was the central capital where the dynasts resided. Once again fully in charge of their own destiny and with no major outside threats, the first of many Amshani golden ages began.
Expansion and the tilting of the Scales
Since consolidating into a unified state, Amshan has undergone multiple era of stability and uncertainty, each of which brings with it new challenges and opportunities. These are widely believed to be the result of the tilting of the Scales, a core belief of the Kirnashal faith, and are therefore taken in stride even as they bring alternately strife and peace.
Amshan has undergone cyclical changes in the millennia since unification, both social and political, yet one near constant has been a slow territorial expansion both northwards and southwards. The migration of orcish tribes from eastern Thadria in the late eighth millennium first brought conflict with the new arrivals, yet the dynasts were quick to see possibility in it too, and by Y8020* treaties with the orcs had led to their settlement in Kudurru and their status as beholden to none but the Amshani monarchs and themselves. Shortly after, Amshan began encouraging migration south of the Khalhu River as well, into what is now Ramashal.
Even as the lands along the western Kirnashal Sea were being consolidated, Amshan started looking farther north, and by Y9100* had established the first colonies in southern Abanir, starting with Karzinu and the Eastern Stronghold.
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
Religion
The vast majority of those living in Amshan follow the gods of the Kirnashal pantheon - that is, Sraosheh, Mihr, and the One Hundred Forty Four Hands. In fact these gods form the state religion of the nation, their clergy appointed by and closely affiliated with the Amshani dynasts. The state provides ample funding and support for temples across Amshan, both those in major cities as well as those in small outlying villages in the desert hinterlands. Most Amshani frequently pray to both Sraosheh and Mihr in their joint temples, depending on what troubles or concerns them at the moment.
Other faiths in Amshan are less common but not completely unknown. Some worship the gods of the Chaskan or Khapeshan pantheons, particularly those living along the route of the Golden Path, while others pray to Abanir deities or hold some other faith entirely.
Society
Traditions
Languages
Asharan is by far the most spoken language in Amshan, though Common and Orcish are also widely known. Telan, Targai, and other regional and ancestral languages are all spoken in Amshan as well to varying degrees.
Architecture and urbanization
Migration
While most Amshani have lived in cities and villages for centuries if not millennia, some continue to life nomadic lives instead. These groups include both the ancient confederations of clans who have long called the eastern deserts home and comparatively more recent arrivals like the Duravi.
Military
Food and cuisine
Arts
Education
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.