The Daggerland Country / Jingzhou Prefecture

In Daggerland and underground, there are 10 prominent factions:

The Home Daggerland Collection. A ruling collection of Counts and Barons bound only by faith, this faction consists only of Borderfolk Humans descended from the first Polemians and Geans to come to the Daggerland,. They are the dominate people of the country and are responsible for the common time system, language, and way of life of the land.

The Gean Duchy of Westmen’s Reach. An Aethel Ealdormann, or Holy Duke, rules the duchy, with counts, barons, and earls under him. This faction believes that Geans are the superior race, and enslave or kill any other race found in their borders, within reason. The Geans here are not stupid, and will be happy to make alliances with other races, but does not permit any of them to make home in their territory. They are a largely military-focused society, with both men and women participating in any given profession.

The Surface Colony of Greywinter. Ruled by no one, this small colony of the great underground empire of the Dwarves maintains the two surface Gates of Fordheim and Greywinter. The Dwarves here are a single machine, believing each individual is useless alone but wondrous together with each other. They have a caste system of Workers, Soldiers, and Managers, where the Workers take up menial jobs, the Soldiers conduct defense of the colony (and offense if in war), and the Managers work the logistics of the colony and interact with the other political powers of Daggerland. Workers are male and female, Soldiers are male, and Managers are female. They worship the Earth Mother, as most Dwarves do, and she is depicted on their banner; as a result of their religion, they do retain a sort of matriarchy when looking at outsiders, and respect women more than men, though among themselves they stay wholly neutral because they do not depict their people as men or women, only a single family unit with not individuality. The Dwarves mostly bring their wares from underground to the surface to trade for exotic shipments of pipeweed, coral, and other things not found in the damp underground for their brothers and sisters below them. Whenever involved in a war, which has yet to happen on large scale, the Dwarves would almost always emerge victorious. They have made a point that no non-Dwarf is allowed in their underground empire, and tension has started to boil as the Eternal Darkness falls upon the land.

The Regentry of the Frontier. A Regents’ Council, elected by the votes of commoners, votes on external affairs, while all Frontier landowners vote on internal affairs. The Frontier is a crude republic consisting of every race, including Ushi-Oni, or Trolls. So long as the law is followed, the Frontier does not care who or what someone is, even Elves, who are persecuted all throughout Daggerland. The Frontier has its morals largely thanks to the Black Wolves’ presence, but it still remain as a different faction to the Black Wolves completely.

The Black Wolves. Not a nation, not a government, the Black Wolves take no orders and follow no man, woman, or god. Instead, the Black Wolves follow and enforce the Wolf Law, a set of ethic codes that were followed by their first predecessors. The first Polemian settlers were an assassin clan, and from their intrigue and the Jingzhou Yokai’s honor, the Black Wolves were born. They have no judgement against anything but actions, so everyone, including Elves, are allowed to join and be protected by the Wolf Law.

Jingzhou Province of the Jingzhou Prefecture. Ruled by an unseen Shogun and his or her regent Daimyo, elected by the Shogun every time the last Daimyo dies. The Shogun is known to have incredible power, but does not use it to have other factions bend the knee. Instead, they use it to bring fertility to farms and prosperity to economies within their domain in the Jingzhou Province. But however giving the Shogun is, they also punish anyone within their domain that does not follow the chivalry set by the ancient laws of Lao Diguo, the Old Empire. The Shogun does not affect anyone outside of the Province, but when war comes, they grant glances of the power they possess to the most noble of samurai of the realm to ruthlessly destroy the enemies of Jingzhou, as, again, they are not entirely merciful. Known to be friendly and honorable by nature because of the iron fist of their immortal and omnipotent overlord, the Jingzhou Yokai can also be merciless and unforgiving in battle when war comes, which seems to make the largest impression on Humans, as Humans generally believe the Jingzhou Yokai to be evil Monsters.

The Elf Woods, known as the Clear Woods to the Elves. Ruled by no one, the Elves here live in a communal society, intent on reaching enlightenment by studying anything they can get their hands on, including risking the dangers of Human society as they try to learn about Humans. Many of the Elf Woods’ members can be found hiding in Human society. They have developed a language of signs to indicate fellow Elves within Human societies. The Elf Woods borders the Home Daggerland, and the Elves are weary as their trees are cut down, and pray that they will not have to defend their homes by bloodshed, for that would only support the Humans’ claims that Elves are evil Monsters. However, many Elves live in the Frontier and work for the Black Wolves, and are working to secure the Elf Woods as a protected land by the law. Until then, the Elves of the Woods inch closer and closer to using warfare to solve their troubles. The Autumn Lion Fortress and Cities. Though there is an Autumnal church, the so-called ‘goddess’ that is Autumn does not indulge in surface politics.. Instead, she rules 20 cities, tiered with one below the other into a cake-like underground heaven, and uses her immense magic to contain ecosystems and maintain the artificial suns and daytime cycles that run below the surface of the world. She closed her gates two years ago for a reason many speculate is because of the Black Wolves, but the immortals atop the fortress state that the cities are full and no more citizens will be allowed in. Still, people still worship her in these desperate times as the Eternal Darkness encroaches from the east, and anyone on the surface will die along with the flora and fauna. No one truly knows who or what Autumn is, especially with the last witnesses on the surface, the late Black Wolf High Councilors, killed by the very people who worship her.

The Bai-Dongtu Clan of the Jingzhou Prefecture. Still loyal to the Jingzhou Shogun that has ruled the Prefecture since Lao Diguo’s downfall, the clan of Bai-Dongtu is on the other side of the Heiga Forest (Black Forest) and does not often come into contact with their overlord’s realm, so they result in ruling themselves with the eldest clan member becoming Daimyo. They live in a primitive tribal society and have lost all technologies of the Old Empire, but they still maintain a subtle semblance of the Empire’s honorable ways. They are what keeps the Kaiju (demons) of the Heiga Forest under control, which in turn keeps them from overrunning the Frontier on the border of Daggerland. Sometimes, Bai-Dongtu and Frontier people come into contact and exchange pleasantries and trade goods, but that is only when Bai-Dongtu tribespeople reach the other side of the forest, as the Frontier citizens dare not venture when demons roam. Only a few times since the fall of Lao Diguo has the Jingzhou Shogun called upon the Bai-Dongtu Daimyo with a telepathic message, and each time the Daimyo of that time responded to the call and aided Jingzhou in whatever way possible.

The Debauched Underdark. Not known to any surface civilizations because Saint Doggand the White Wolf, deceased member of the Black Wolves, sealed the Dwarven Gate that led to the Undercity, the Underdark is a terrifying force of evil, hell-bent Kaiju and corrupted Humans, greater Yokai, Fiends, and even cursed Elves that seek the destruction of the world, just for destruction’s sake. Often even fighting amongst themselves, the Underlings are at constant war underground with the Dwarves’ great empire, but so far, again thanks to Doggand’s actions, the Dwarves are able to hold the demons at bay. The Dwarves refer to the Underdark as the Dark Brother’s (one of their deities) Abyss, though most Human legends speak of it as the Underdark. Dwarves believe that law and chaos must balance with each other, and so long as they keep to their lawful ways, so too shall the demons of the Abyss seek chaos. As such, it is necessary for the Dwarves to constantly battle those demons. Otherwise, the Underdark is a mere legend of old, mostly surrounding the hero that is Saint Doggand.

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