Langkha (pronounced LAHNG-khah), once the breadbasket of the Sangiran Empire, continues to feed Kea Racha and lands even farther afield. The vast and incredibly productive Gardens of the Suzerain continue to be worked by large migrant communities who regularly travel the nation even after the Eternal Suzerain's last death in Y9606*.
Geography, flora, and fauna
Encompassing almost the entirety of northern Kea Racha, Langkha is a large and diverse land. Tropical forests and grasslands cover much of the landscape. Aside from the foothills of the Suzerain's Scales in the south and the Kaaniral Hills in the west, Langkha is remarkably flat, with broad floodplains that surround its many rivers. These ideal conditions led the Sangiran Empire to transform Langkha, physically and culturally, to best serve imperial interests. The lands around each major river have been converted into seemingly endless fields, with complicated systems of irrigation, levees, dikes, dams, running for miles throughout. These Gardens of the Suzerain are integral to life in Langkha, for people as well as for animals.
Despite the extensive modification of the landscape, much wildlife, mundane and magical alike, still thrives in Langkha. The forests and hills remain broadly without settlements, at least in the modern day, and are therefore refuges for all creatures seeking to find a home away from the Gardens.
Located just south of the equator, Langkha is hot year-round. There is very little seasonal variation in temperature, though the rains of the summer monsoon season often bring with them cooler winds.
History
Pre-Suzerain Langkha
Prior to joining the Sangiran Empire, Langkha was a patchwork of city-states spread across the landscape. Disunited, they often squabbled amongst each other, waging minor wars within complex webs of alliances and rivalries. Even in this time the region was well-known for its agricultural productivity, which resulted in Langkha being home to a significantly larger population than anywhere else in Kea Racha.
Imperial accession and the establishment of the Gardens
After integrating the dragons of Vua Ran and the aquatic peoples of Lelwani into the empire by Y5156*, the Eternal Suzerain set their eyes north past the mountains. Through a combination of shrewd diplomacy, playing the rulers of the city-states against each other, and strategic conquests by imperial forces, the peoples of Langkha slowly found themselves under imperial rule. By Y6190* all of Langkha was within the control of the Suzerain.
While at first the inhabitants of Langkha were allowed to maintain their own traditions and own governance as they saw fit, like other peoples of the empire were permitted to, it did not take long for the Suzerain and his priests to see the value of the land they now held. The opportunities presented by the bountiful land were obvious - with Langkha they could feed the entire empire and more, providing it a source of growth that would expand the reach of the Suzerain ever farther and further his millennia-long goals.
The first Gardens of the Suzerain were established around the year Y6260* near modern-day Prosperity along the Wuhaya River, but as with all the grand efforts of the Suzerain, these were not half-hearted endeavors. To support the Gardens on the scale required, Langkha would need to be shaped around them, and so shaped it was. Expansive systems of irrigation, dams, and more were built, stretching for miles upon miles along the rivers. For the labor required to work the Gardens, the Suzerain and his priests set about restructuring Langkhan society. Cities across the region were intentionally abandoned, save for those at the mouths of major rivers, as the population was directed towards new, planned cities centered around the Gardens. Though this process took hundreds of years, for hundreds more its success bore fruit, as Langkha become the agricultural core of the empire, fueling its growth around the Gulf of Timakal and enabling similar monumental projects elsewhere in Kea Racha.
Post-Suzerain Langkha
After the Suzerain suddenly and unexpectedly died in Y9606*, the Divine Inheritors in New Era were able to hold the imperial heartlands in Kea Racha together for a time, but after several decades of their rule it was clear the situation was untenable, especially as the military forces once under their control returned to their home nations and administrators gradually ceased to act within the centralization of the empire. Pela Huban and the cities of Langkha declared their independence in Y9631*, finally fracturing the empire in the process.
Yet even without imperial oversight, the Gardens largely continued to function as they had before. The people of Langkha had prospered through the reliance the rest of the empire had on them, and they saw little reason to stop their harvests or their export of foodstuffs - that they now sold their goods directly to other provinces or to independent merchants instead of bureaucrats appointed by the Suzerain mattered little. Independent once more, the city-states of Langkha have not returned to their once-feuding ways, as the plenty their cooperation brings provides more than enough incentive to maintain their new loose alliance.
Demographics
Humans account for the majority of the population of Langkha, but they are joined by many half-elves, nagaji, kogolds, vishkanya, and others. The port cities of Langkha especially have become especially diverse in recent centuries, after the collapse of the Empire allowed outsiders access to Kea Racha outside of Pela Huban for the first time, but these changes have slowly begun to trickle into the interior of the region as well.
Culture
Religion
As with Kea Racha as a whole, Langkha was thrown into religious disarray with the death of the Eternal Suzerain. With the loss of the god who had been their spiritual leads for millennia, many sought out new faiths, whether local or foreign. Post-Suzerain, or in some cases pre-Suzerain, Kea Rachan religions have found strong followings in Langkha, especially that of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads, whose faith is extremely popular with those who work the Gardens.
Others in Langkha have turned to foreign pantheons and gods. Priests of the Chaskan pantheon have made some inroads in proselytizing within the nation, but it is the Elven and Aserdian pantheons that have attracted the greatest attention and number of converts in Langkha.
Regardless of other beliefs, it is common in Langkha to worship ancestral spirits as well.
Society
Traditions
Sangiran and Common are by far the most-spoken languages in Langkha yet they are far from alone. Timakal can be heard somewhat widely, as can a host of ancestral languages like Elven and Draconic.
Languages
Architecture and urbanization
Arts
Fashion
Government
Modern-day Langkha is a loose alliance of autocratic city-states alongside the more democratic rule of the migrant communities. The cities have fused the methods of rule of their old, pre-Sangiran days with those of imperial administrators, effectively operating as structured bureaucracies supported by local temples and prestigious individuals. Though most in the cities would consider themselves Langkhan first and foremost, they have nearly as strong an identification with their cities - while the alliance between them holds, they continue to jockey for prestige and wealth in methods that fall considerably short of their old ways.
In the communities of those who wander Langkha working in the Gardens, it is most typical for leadership to be rather informal in nature. Individuals are elected effectively as spokespeople for their people, expected to consult those who they represent before making any decision, especially those that involve interactions with the cities or other fixed settlements. In practice religious leaders, especially those of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads, often hold great sway in the decisions of their communities.
Economy
Langkha is economically almost totally centered around the Gardens of the Suzerain and the agricultural surplus they produce. This vast amount of food is preserved and sold across Kea Racha and even farther afield, including to Vothan and other nations around the Gulf of Timakal as well as to various cities in the Kilche Sea. In the days of the Sangiran Empire imperial administrators handled the transportation of these goods, and the compensation given to those that grew them, but in the modern day various merchants and middlemen have stepped into this role instead, buying as much as their ships or caravans can carry in Langkha's ports then carrying it far and wide.