Eralih Empire

The Eralih Empire is a nation located in central Sphaera. It is a landlocked nation surrounded by the Kingdom of Zewan-Tal in the east, the Meiyan Empire in the southeast, Dussarit in the south, the Ietsahru Tribe in west, and the Conclave of Kergen in the north.

Eralih is ruled by an emperor, a direct descendant of the empire's founder who united the Eralih Mountain tribes in a series of military conquests. Afterwards, the Eralih Empire consolidated its gains and transformed into a more agricultural society while growing financially powerful from the trade routes that passed through its borders thanks to the nation's central location on the continent.

Etymology
Eralih translates directly as "People of the Sky".

Geography
The Eralih Empire extends through most of the mountains and valleys which form the mountainous territory of the Elamos. On it there are high peaks, lush full valleys and numerous waterfalls and rapids. It is right on the center of the continent, bordering diverse environments; Desert in the south, steppes to the north, forest to the east and lower hilly lands to the west.

History
The empire is around 127 years old, made when the first emperor and his tribe, enlightened by Yamilukan, descended from the heights of the mountains in a long campaign to put all tribes under their rule and vision of one great unified Empire. Since then, the line of rulers has been unbroken and through numerous bloody campaigns the Empire has spread to the size of today.

Government
The Eralih are ruled by the Emperor or Empress, Erakali or Erakalu, in one unified Empire, who rules for life or until they decide to retire. The Emperor names his own heir from among either his family or someone that has been adopted into the royal family as a child or sibling. In case no heir is selected, the title passes to the oldest living child of the current Emperor, otherwise to their siblings. The Empire is comprised of thousands of small villages, which by are lumped together by areas. These areas are overseen by a local governor, these areas are then lumped together into regions overseen by a regional governor and then these regions are lumped into four provinces, overseen by the four provincial governors. The individual villages, which tend to be small enough for all living in them to know one another are mostly left to rule themselves as long as they don't cause trouble or disobey the direct mandate of the governor. The bigger cities tend to operate in a slightly different manner, though the various districts and neighborhoods tend to still group together due to cultural custom into extended family units.

One of the most important concepts of the empire lies within the system of Mika. The Koyo is a system which extends from the greater philosophy of the Empire which is "All as One". The Eralih are a very united, community driven people. In villages the fields, living spaces and such are believed to belong to the entire village as one big extended family. Thus, work is done by the entire community, to ensure their livelihood and to meet the needs of all within the village. When a family or member of the village requires a new living space or some other project, the whole community might come together to construct their house, while the one that the favor is done to plays as host, feeds the workers and provides gifts as thanks. Then, of course, the whole village comes together to work on projects which benefit them all. Wells, storage and other utilities are tended to in communal work by everyone living in the small villages. And finally there is the Mika in and of itself, which is an extension of the Koyo and is work for the Empire itself. Nearly every able bodied person of the Empire must serve five months of a year in communal work for the good of the Empire. This often takes place in working the massive fields that are property of the Emperor, maintaining and expanding the roads which bind the empire together, building fortifications on key points, working on the palace of the Emperor and maintaining the mayor cities and the Capital, building bridges and serving in the army of the Empire. While these are the most common forms Mika can take, there are a lot of more specialized ways to serve the alloted time as well as some exceptions and jobs that are counted against the Mika time. For example, a village physician is considered to be serving his time of service to the Empire by keeping his people healthy and such.

Trade
There is relatively little inside trading of coin within the Eralih Empire. The most common means of exchange within the realm involved the trading of labor, grain or in some other sort of service. These are used between the small villages on oral or sometimes written agreements on which a neutral third party tends to hold onto the terms of the agreement.

The Eralih are currently working to promote trade with the empires outside the mountains, working trade caravans to go through the roads of the empire to any of the five lands which surround them. While coin is very rare outside of the greater cities of the Empire, it is becoming more common on the edge of the empire as the system of labor used within the Empire would be impossible to use in order to barter with others.

Agriculture
The Eralih take full advantage of a system of agriculture unique to their people which relies on a fair amount of central planning. This is the Vertical Archipelago system, on which they take full advantage of the different temperatures, air pressure and soil conditions and humidity of the many wildly different elevations and features of their mountain Empire to cultivate nearly year round a wide variety of crops. In the low warm valleys corn, wheat and rice is cultivated. On higher elevations potatoes and other tuberculous are cultivated. On the higher elevations, there is cultivated grass suitable to feed goats and other domesticated herbivores, which are the main source of meat and hide to the empire. Aside from these, goats are prized for their milk and the cheese produced from it. Finally in the humid and forested areas more medicinal herbs as well as tobacco is cultivated, plus the relatively little amount of lumber that the empire requires.

These are cultivated on the small scale for the direct survival of the small villages of the empire, though the greatest fields and plantations are many and owned directly by the emperor. These are worked by the citizens of the Empire under Mika and by slaves. By tradition, as the fields are rotated, the first harvest goes to the needy citizens and villages of the empire, the second harvest goes to the emperor, the capital City and the Military, the third harvest goes to the Temple and the last one is stored in massive granaries in case of a great emergency. These fields are carefully guarded and treated, with great projects commissioned to build aqueducts and large fields of farming terraces made into the mountain.

Production
The Empire also gives a lot of importance to both metallurgy and fine weaving. Jewelry, accessories and works of art in metal are highly prized and respected. So are fine weaving made into intricate and colorful patterns. These tend to fetch big prizes on the markets of the biggest cities or are given for special services by someone of great status. Metal workers and weavers of great skill are highly appreciated and in cases scouted to bring into the capital to work for the nobles or even the emperor.

There are also some settlements which are handled in a particular way due to their access to key resources and the ability to process or work them. Thus, a miner village has special rules than the more common farming villages.

Military
The military of the Eralih Empire is headed by a military Elite called the Nuwah. The Nuwah vary in rank and skill, but they are the sole dedicated warriors of the Empire. Their headquarters and a good number of them reside in the Imperial city, policing it and guarding the Emperor and noble family. However, a good number of them are currently moving around in the Empire, going where it is needed to ensure the protection of the Empire. They also man and maintain various strongholds remnants of the times of war that shaped the Empire and that have been constructed as a preventive measure in key points of the Empire.

The Nuwah dedicate their entire life to perfecting their martial skill, honing their bodies, learning how to train and command the militia, strategy and combat formations, survival skills among other important subjects for maintaining the empire. Additionally, the Nuwah receive an education befitting their status and tend to pursue some less worldly interests.

Aside from the Nuwah, the main military might of the empire resides in its entire people. The Mika can also be worked in the militia and indeed, almost the entirety of the Empire works in the militia at some early point in their lives. Under the guidance of the Nuwah, the people are trained into the basic formations and are given training to fight for the empire should the need arise. In times of great need, great numbers of farmers and normal citizens can be turned into soldiers and channeled through the road chains into the brink of the battle from every corner of the empire, led and supervised by the skillful Nuwah.

The Nuwah learn to fight using a wide variety of weapons, though the center of their training goes to perfect their techniques with shield, sword and spear. The traditional Eralih shield is round or oval in form, with a sword sheathed within the shield, perpendicular to the handle of it. Bows and slings are the ranged weapons of choice for the warrior elite, though just slings are more common for the militia.

The Eralih are familiar with bronze for their weapons and arms, though they too have recently developed the skill to forge Iron, which now arms and protects most of the Nuwah.

When taking a new land, the Eralih tend to move a sizable number of their population to the new lands, to properly integrate their unique culture into the conquered people.

Language
The Eralih have their own particular language, which varies little among most of the empire. The word order is of little importance as it depends on a lot of suffixes and prefixes to determine verbs, subjects and the like. Still, standard and mostly respected word order goes Subject, Object, Indirect Object, Verb. Gender is optional and assigned with a termination. Thus, the base word for human when added the termination for female becomes woman, the termination for male makes it man. They have writing systems. One is based on knots, which is mostly used for safe keeping of numerical data. This comes from a system of knots of and strands which are commonly used as a sort of abacus equivalent. For all other data and writing, a more conventional alphabet based on symbols is used. These symbols are syllabic and the symbols themselves have very little curves. Additionally, in some regions the Eralih make use of a language based entirely on loud whistles to communicate over relatively long distances locally.

Religion
The Eralih have a polytheistic pantheon that believes in the presence of a wide variety of spirits and gods. Reigning over this is the main deity of the empire, Yamilukon, the Divine Wind which brings life. There are numerous lesser deities, most of which are subordinate to the Divine Wind. Past that, there are a wide variety of minor spirits, some monster like, some which bring calamities and some which are beneficial and bring good fortune. These tend to be more localized in the various regions, with some common kinds of spirits which are recognized through the whole empire. The clergy is the main institution dedicated to maintaining and developing the culture, technology and education through the empire. The main temples are staffed as much by priests as they are by philosophers and researchers. These great stone temples are scattered all over the empire and serve as houses of training, research centers, schools and monasteries. These also serve as a sort of headquarters for the wise men that serve the needs of each village, be it in terms of the spiritual or educational.

On another subject, the Eralih place a lot of importance into the air. They take it for granted that a new life obtains a soul the moment they take their first breath and that with the last breath before dying the soul goes away from the world, to rise up into the Heavens. The body then, remains as a small link to the departed soul until the moment of their reincarnation. Thus, the bodies are mummified and stored away, for the family to visit and honor as a way to draw upon the strength of their ancestors.

Sports
The most important point in this field is a "sport" which the Eralih practice. More of a ritual fighting style, this is enjoyed and practiced through the whole empire and sometimes even used to solve disputes at times. It is a form of unarmed fighting and grappling called the Koeno. It is fought nearly naked, when possible with ritual markings drawn into the skin. The the Eralih, the air and the voice are very important, and this fights are a way of expression for it. In it, the combatants intimidate and express their strength by the power of their ritual cries. The fight ends someone surrenders or they are unable to cry anymore, effectively having their strength and essence overpowered by their opponent. In practice, the loser most of the time is either unconscious, on a choke hold or too battered to let out a scream to rival the victor. A very popular event are the Koeno tournaments held through the whole Empire, where local legends and heroes are crowned. The biggest event are the finals in the capital, on which the Nuwah make an appearance. Still, a mere peasant if fought well enough might make it to the capital, defeat his opponents and thus rise into becoming a Nuwah.

Given the conditions of the terrain where the Eralih dwell, not many ball games have been invented, it is quite impractical to play with one when one careless kick or throw can make the ball roll down the mountain to never be retrieved again. There are some villages and provinces with access to some unused flat spaces and in these such games have been developed, but the majority of the Empire instead plays elamaka. A very simple game where the players wear long scarves in a knot that is easy to untie. Each team must at the same time reach past the opposite team and touch a marker of some sort without having their scarf united by the members of the opposite team. There are some variant in the game... in some areas once the scarf is undone the player is out of the round, while in others, the scarf is thrown on the floor and the owner must return to specific area to make his knot again and then run into the field.

Finally, there is a certain board game that has spread through the empire. It is named Eriwoka and the flat board is meant to represent a mountain. Pieces with various attributes move in a spiral pattern trying to get the slowest moving piece to the center of the board, the top of the mountain while impeding the progress and capturing pieces from the opponent

Eralih
The Eralih as a group tend to be rather tall in stature with long and slender limbs. They have wide shoulders and narrow waists. Their hair is almost uniformly black, though there are some areas where brown colored hair is common. Most common eye color is dark brown, followed by green.

The way of dressing tends to include leather footwear, long tightly knit pants held by elaborate and if possible, colorful belts of soft weaved strings. On top of this an usually simple shirt is worn beneath a short long jacket of finely weaved cloths. These jackets tend to be the more prestigious parts of a garment, usually worn in beautiful patterns and lots of colors. Aside from these, weaved caps, leather globes and scarfs are usually worn in the coldest seasons and provinces.