Cinden

The Templedom of Cinden is a sovereign state which occupies the entirety of the Aschen Isles, bounded by the Thalasic Ocean to the west, the Dorian Sea to the southeast, and the Icewind Sea to the northeast. Cinden is made up of eight Duchies and three distinct environmental-geographic regions; the Dennlands, the Stanlands, and the Aschenlands. Cinden has a total land area of about 122,000 square miles and a total estimated population of 11.7 million people as of 3018. The capital of Cinden is Trebben in northern Riveraine, while the largest city in the realm is Sorens in southeastern Gavance.

Cinden has a mixed aristocratic-theocratic government with a balance of power between the Houses of Cinden and the Oathbound Temple. The Houses, with each House occupying the faculties of a Duchy, have control over secular military, commercial, and property affairs, while the Temple holds religious, magical, and moral authority. The Houses pay a large amount of tribute to the Temple, which in turn legitimises the rule of the Houses from a religious standpoint. In practice, the High Seer of the Temple, the lifetime leader as elected by the Convocation, is the most powerful political figure in the realm, followed after by the collective of Dukes, who, when sitting as a common legislative body, collaborate and collectively bargain with the Temple in an organ known as the Ducal Council. Each Duchy, as well as the Temple, maintain their own military forces and levies, though in times of hostile invasions all Cindane forces typically band together as a single defensive force. This arrangement of power dynamics was created by the Peace of Sunnbyrg in 2824 at the conclusion of the Second Cindane Ducal War.

Recorded Cindane history begins with the undated manuscripts of the Geseon; the first three Books of the Geseon are assumed by most scholars to have been written only several weeks to months after the creation of the world. The supposed date of the world's creation in Geseonic scripture is taken to be the first day of the Cindane calendar. It is believed that human life originated on Cinden, and that those humans who did not flee the First Long Aschen-Night and remained on the island were the ancestors of contemporary Cindane people. The early Cindane people were originally concentrated in southeastern Gavance, and that around the year 150 these peoples spread across the island of Cinden during the migrations of the Nine Tribes of Cinden. The Second Long Aschen-Night, occurring from 950 to 954, was the first accurately recorded event in Cindane history, Saint Taetha the Ardent Sword and her Six Disciples kept records of their battles during the conflict and extensive writings took place during the subsequent founding of the Oathbound Temple. The manifestation of the Temple marked the unification of the tribes of the Dennlands and Stanlands, and thus, the foundation of the First Templedom. The absolute power of the Temple endured over a long period of peace and stability in Cinden, though as time passed, political fractures between religious and secular authorities began to materialise. The Stanlander Revolt of 1214 was the first in a series of sustained conflicts between the chiefs of the Dennlands and the Stanlands, a cultural divide which unhinged the delicate political unity of the Temple-led realm. The outbreak of the Dennlander-Stanlander Wars effectively broke the realm into warring polities, with the Temple unable to affect much order during this period.

The Western Dorian Expeditions brought Cinden into contact with the greater continent of Medaina in 1467; the first contact of the two cultures saw the development of the first trade routes in the Dorian Sea. An ineffective Temple administration combined with the relative development of the city of Sorens compared to other settlements across Cinden meant that sea-based trade was largely limited to that city. Sorens, as a result, became the wealthiest and most powerful city in Cinden, and the resultant power of House Tone saw their domination of the other tribes in what would become known as the Tone hegemony. Though the hegemony would endure for nearly two centuries, after systematic acts of tyranny by successive Tone chieftains, the First War of the Oath overthrew the Tone hegemons, sacked the city of Sorens, and saw the assumption of political power by the Temple once more in 1631. The restored Temple authority presided over a period of peace which lasted more than three centuries, though this peace was brought to an end by the Third Long Aschen-Night in 1959, by far the most devastating eruption of Mount Mothersblood. Rolling conflicts against demons and widespread crop failures lead to one of the deadliest periods of Cindane history, and thus little resistance withstood the Emetrian Invasion of 2144.

Emmetrian Cinden saw the persecution of the Oathbound Temple, the creation of the Duchies, and the settlement of the southeastern coast by Emmetrian colonists. Though the Empire outlawed the Temple and razed Trebben Temple, many native Cindane people continued to practice in secret, and the hierarchy of the Temple fled to northern Byrwold, where Imperial control was at first extremely minimal. After the Gabra-Grania Revolt in 2203, the Emmetrians began to enslave native Cindane peoples and sent another wave of colonists to penetrate deeper into the fertile lands of Riveraine. Slave revolts became common, though often repressed to the degree that entire revolting towns would be razed by the Emmetrians. Though highly unstable, Emmetrian rule was enforced by its overwhelmingly superior military prowess, and the Dennlanders remained powerless despite numerous attempts at rebellion. Emmetrian domination of Cinden began to decline in 2419, when the Emmetrian homeland was threatened by the Second Emmetrian-Ponzooti War, and the eruption of Mount Mothersblood in 2425 and subsequent Fourth Long Aschen-Night saw a full withdrawl of Imperial forces from the island. Most ethnic Emmetrians left with the soldiers, but some remained and were massacred by the formerly enslaved Cindanes. The Temple managed to muster support from the Dukes to form a military coalition to end the Fourth Long Aschen-Night, and after the conclusion of the conflict Trebben Temple was rebuilt in 2431. Immediately following the conflict, the powerful House Gabra, the centre of Emmetrian colonisation, invaded both Riveraine and Gavance to establish the Gabra hegemony through the creation of the Grand Duchy of Milkwold.

The Gabra hegemons, famed for their mastery of magic, presided over a period of unprecedented growth and stability. Academies, libraries, and new Temples were built across Cinden, and the immense amount of tribute paid by House Gabra to the restored Temple insured the blessing of the Temple for their hegemony. The rule of House Gabra was remarkably stable and well received, with little to no insurrectionary activity from either commoners nor other noble Houses. The peaceful state of affairs would last for just over three centuries; in 2733, the first of the Norholmer Invasions began with their conquest of the Aschenlands and the de facto independent Anrothan Duke of Dunklewold swore allegiance to House Gabra in return for protection. Though the initial invaders were repelled, subsequent invasions in 2738 and 2741 weakened House Gabra substantially, and the successful Nolhomer conquest of Byrwold in 2743 saw the collapse of support for the hegemons. Saint Ursana successfully won the support of the commoners of Cinden, forcing the noble Houses to rally behind her, and the Second War of the Oath saw the complete expulsion of the Norholmers in the Stanlands and the Aschenlands in 2748. Following the Temple-led victory, an attempt by House Grania to establish a hegemony was promptly crushed, and the Oathbound Compact was adopted to formally acknowledge the Oathbound Temple as the true political arbiters of the realm.

Under the Compact, the entirety of Cinden was united for the first time as a single state. The optimism brought about by the success of the Compact was swiftly ended as divides once more began to chafe between the Duchies. It would take more than half a century of recovery before the prosperity of the Gabra hegemony could be recaptured, and though at first the Dukes welcomed the Temple's leadership with open arms, the Temple's lack of ability to intervene in and resolve interducal affairs gave way to the First Cindane Ducal War in 2799. The bloody conflict ended with the establishment of the Ducal Council in 2806, though even with official end, the Temple remained reluctant to involve itself in the squabbles between the Duchies. A series of minor skirmishes between the Duchies of Westerye and the Esterfangs in 2819 marked the onset of the Second Cindane Ducal War, an even more violent conflict than its previous, and with this conflict, under the leadership of Saint Olath, the Temple intervened and demanded that all combatants stand down. Though the leaders of the Duchies attempted to ignore the Temple's demands, the commoners of Cinden rose up in revolt and the Temple quickly came to the aid of those revolting peoples. The Peace of Sunnbyrg ended the conflict with a total victory for the Temple, and with its victory came its recognition as the superior force in Cindane governance. The end of the Ducal Wars brought to Cinden a long peaceful period of development, known as the Golden Age of the Renewed Oath, which lasts into the contemporary day.

Cinden has a majority rural population which is largely involved in sharecropping. The Duchies own all lands aside from those explicitly gifted to the Temple, and all who farm upon Ducal land pay rent to their respective ruling House. Crafts and trades are located throughout villages, towns, and cities, and artisan crafts are on a whole organised through the Guilds of Cinden. Most Cindane international trade occurs in two port cities, Sorens and Laitpool, located in Gavance and Milkwold respectively. Cinden is largely isolated from most foreign affairs due to its relative distance from mainland continental Medaina, and most trans-Dorian commercial exchanges occur at the prerogative of the Dorian League. Aside from its cordial trade relationship with the League, Cindane leadership typically views foreign powers with suspicion and distrust. The sole foreign nation with which a friendly intergovernmental relationship is maintained is Ponzooti, though the long distance between Cinden and Ponzooti mean that a mutually beneficial defensive alliance is infeasible.