Fenize

Fenize is a country that borders both the northern and southern oceans of the Known World. It was once the premier power in the world but its empire collapsed not long before the Crown of Pridain was established. In recent times, following an invasion by joint Nofkorti and Antean armies the country has fractured into disparate city-states that are often at each others throats.

History
Fenize is an ancient civilisation with uncertain roots, said to have been founded by demigod-like beings who ruled the island for centuries during the pre-historic period of the known world. At some point these gods left and placed the responsibility for leading the nation in the hands of everyone who lived within it. Because of this the Fenizian Republic established a democractic system based on sortition early in recorded history, in which random applicants were chosen to act within the senate as the leaders of the nation.

Fenizian craft led to the first deep sea crossing ships and their monopoly on much of the Known World. The republic took advantage of the other still-developing nations during this time, colonising and capturing slaves from them when they had little power to resist. At its height the Fenizian Empire had influence over most of the known world, with their only competition being the metalocratic nation of Antea which was able to hold them off. During this time Fenizian scholars captured a powerful being from the Pridish Isles and began to study it within the academies of Fenize. From this being the scholars were able to draw the first known examples of arcane magic wielded by mortal hands.

The Empire began to crumble in 50 BA due to a growing political divide between the traditionalist republicans and a quickly growing monarchist population. The conflict lasted several years and resulted in Fenize pulling most of its occupational forces out of their colonies to fight in the war. The monarchists were assisted by the newly established mage class that had risen from the academies and the core republican leaders were chased out of the country due to their overwhelming force.

With the senate dissolved the leader of the monarchists took control of the nation and crowned herself emperor. However, during the time period it took to recover from the conflict many of the colonies abandoned by Fenize began to govern themselves and the general weakness of the army meant that Fenize struggled to take any of them back; major losses including Nofkort and Pridain. The Fenizian Empire shrank to include only the island of Fenize and the smaller, seperate islands scattered throughout the midsea around it.

Around the year 500 AA a mysterious plague swept through Fenize that specifically targetted mages, killing a large amount of the arcane population. Investigations into this revealed a great secret that had been kept by the academies for hundreds of years; mages in Fenize were not born but created. A cabalistic secret society had been imbuing the young of the country with the blood and viscera of the captured Pridish God for generations upon generations, mutating their biology to allow the use of magic. This led to a wave of anti-mage sentiments sweeping the nation and riots in towns and cities that left almost all the Fenizian mages dead. A few escaped however, and took their captured being with them into obscurity.

As the powers of the other nations of the Known World grew Fenize only continued to crumble and began to rely on slave labour more heavily than ever before. Fenizian slavers travelled the world capturing peoples from all nations in hit and run style piracy. This angered the other nations but the country had also began to put out a rare and unique material that the rich the world over were lapping up, and thus the reponse to the crime lagged. Nofkort, a nation born from Fenizian slave practices, held this is high contempt and in an resounding protest launched an invasion of the Fenizian island. This began with attack boats blockading a burning all known North Sea Fenizian ports, beginning with those in the islands colonised in the North and Mid seas. Then a land invasion swept down from their foothold in the north, destroying all military holds and slaver property on the way. Antea entered a partnership with Nofkort and began assaults on the southern side of the island, blockading and hammering the capital of Borde Merisie. The Fenizian emperor surrendered not long before the Nofkorti arrived at the northern reaches of the capital, and entered negotiations with the two invading powers. As a result of these negotiations the empire was dissolved, with the current emperor permitted to keep control of Borde Merisie and the rest of Fenize given freedom in the form of city states. This states however were to be led by Nofkorti and Antean installed puppets, leading to much unrest.

In the year 1642 AA., Fenize is an island of squabbling city states built upon the ruins of an ancient empire. In the generations since the invasion the influence of Nofkorti and Antean interests can be seen through the increasing mechanisation of the states in their own unique way.

Magic
Generally Fenizians distrust arcane magic.

Technology
In modern day Fenize mechanisation is focused on ecological and meteorological functions. Windmills, waterwheels, and other naturally powered forms of energy generation are sweeping across the land, mostly as part of the vision of one man: Alegzuz t'Agguaz.