The Makeup of the Stafian League
Overview
While much of the nations that make up the Stafian League are splinters of what once existed in the dark ages of man and during the bronze ages through radical and different changes that have taken place since then, they still share the same culture that they once had. The League itself is made up of thirteen different nation states made up of the varied and many cultures that made up most of the Stafian Hegemony before it's collapse in 243 B.C. and the rise and subsequent collapse of the Stafian Empire from 421 A.D. to 890 A.D. The list of nations are made up of independent kingdoms and republics united by the want for prosperity and trade throughout the Stafian Sea and the great ocean to the west.
The Kingdom of Rheinhart
Although miles away from the Rhine itself, the Kingdom once ruled a vast domain stretching across the Germanic countryside and dominating the area in wide swathes. Renowned for military precision and solidarity, Rheinhart is one of the first kingdoms to face any threat to the League from European invasion. A series of bloody wars in the 13'th, 14'th, and 15'th century tore Rheinhart apart as well as a vicious and massive civil war that was quelled only through heavy handed retaliation throughout much of the nation before finally being broken down and destroyed. Today, Rheinhart controls the primary nexuses of trade and Ostgard, Blankersmarsch, and Werstharbor, and is the primary exporter and maker of weapons and munitions for the Stafian League and for sale abroad.
The Juteland Republic
Established seven hundred years ago, the Jutelander Republic is one of the longest lived democracies in Europa, having survived three hundred and seventy years since the last despotic ruler who overthrew the democratic nation was assassinated in a brutal power struggle known as the September Terror which left thousands of civilians and thousands of soldiers dead across the Juteland. The result, however, was the creation of the Juteland Republic, soon allied with the Stafian League to establish peace in the Stafian Sea and unite the previously warring petty kingdoms of Staffa, Sturmland, and Farrbrook under banners of unity. Leading the most powerful navy in northern Europa, the goal of the Republic is simple, and that is to preserve democracy and continue to retain their foothold on the Jutland while fighting their Ostrian rivals. Though peace has cooled over the nations in these years, war threatens to break loose again from Jutelander imperialists, eager to expand south and secure the Ostrian dominions in southern Germania, claiming it as their manifest birthright and what rightfully belongs to them.
Stahlsturm Confederacy
In what was once Prussia, the split of the Germanic kingdom in 1456 A.D. led to the decline of order in the region as seven kingdoms rose up to replace it before being slowly whittled down to four separate ones, who today are united in all but name and in treaty. The Confederacy has long held the belief that a strong and militant army is the surest path to victory at war, and to that end, huge militant programs have been organized throughout the entire nation, striving to make sure that the Confederacy's army remains the most powerful in northern Europa. More isolationist than their neighbors in Rheinhart and in the Juteland, they still trade quite heavily and have swallowed up some of the pettier Baltic Republics and parceled them out to the nations in the Confederacy that have worked together to secure them, and while seemingly divided internally and externally, they have shown a tenacious grasp on power and refuse to let go or know surrender until every man has fallen to sword or steel.
The Kingdom of Ashemarke
One of the relatively newer kingdoms formed barely seventy years ago and scraped together from a slew of petty lesser kingdoms in lower Stafia, the Kingdom of Ashemarke is a bold entity, one which has the blood of the ancient Stafian raiders behind it and with a legacy that is hard to live up to, to put it bluntly. Although the people of Ashemarke have put the brutal legacy of their ancestors to rest and taken up trade with the rest of the Stafian League countries, they are more than prepared to go back to war again and are ready to antagonize in order to do so for the promise of plunder, territory and power. First on their platter is the rogue kingdom of Iceland and of Svalbard to the north above the Rus dominions, which Ashemarke has made plans for; plans that will see fruition and the light of day, or see the nation split asunder for the want of what it must obtain to sustain a legacy of the gods.
The Kaulairn Hegemony
Occupying lower Sturmland, the Hegemony is perhaps one of the richest and most powerful of the nations that are a part of the Stafian League. Unlike their squabbling and divisive neighbors, throughout it's history the lands of the Hegemony have been led by strong authoritarian leaders, but it is only now that they have switched from a powerful monarchy to a council of merchant princes that rule the country and let the trade and wealth of a gold coveting empire flow through the Baltic and out to the rest of Europa. Cohesive and powerful, the chafing binds of unity have slowly frayed and internal turmoil is sure to break loose, with factions inside vying for power and for different governments than the one currently in power, though the Hegemony is more than happy to spend the coin required to keep the revolts down and the people sated on their practice that emulates the ancient Roman bread and circuses practice.
The Tulurian Republic:
Yet another nation pieced together from squabbling petty states, the Republic was forged out of a brutal war for power during the October Revolt which gradually spread from one kingdom to another as a powerful faction rose to power and gradually overthrew those that stood in their way. Occupying most of the coastline and the riverlands of northern Stafia, Tuluria has the mindset of industry leads to power and has been upgrading and buying machinery for it's cities and for it's towns, eager to spin the wheels of industry together with it's neighbor in Gravemount in order to make the League powerful, not just on the backs of the wealth of the Hegemony and the Farrbrook Monarchy.
More tomorrow, I am busy right now.