Amasynia

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Amasynia
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Amasynia's location (dark green) within the Amasynian Peninsula (light green), relative to Regal Province of Trae Kelsa (blue).
Information
Type Territory
Description Prosperous heartland
Region Trae Kelsa
Subregion Amasynian Province
Population 240,000
Area 3,200 sq mi
Capital Ricathair
Demonym Amasynian
Government Grand Parliament
Ruler Prime Minister
Currency Trae Kelsan Shilling
Religion One True Faith

Amasynia, officially the Territory of Amasynia, is a region in the north of the Amasynian Peninsula. It is bordered to the north by the Sea of Amasynia, to the south by Xanth Grange, to the east by Myrken Wood, and to the west by Lothaine.


History

Rise and Fall of Amasyn

The coronation of the warrior-king Archenhaud the Bold in 1 A.I. is commonly regarded as the foundation for what later became the Kingdom of Amasynia; through shrewd diplomacy and peerless skill as a warrior and leader, Archenhaud united the disparate tribes of the Amasyn Valley under his rule and from there carved out a kingdom of vassal lords stretching eastwards from the Lothley Mountains to the banks of the River Col.

Archenhaud's heirs expanded on these holdings, until by the time King Ludovech was crowned in 679 A.I., the Kingdom of Amasyn covered the land from the coast of Lothaine in the west to the edges of Myrken Wood in the east, and was bounded in the south by the Palisade Mountains, covering most of what is now Xanth Grange and Heath. The Kingdom of Amasyn prospered, becoming the preeminent power in the Amasynian Peninsula for the next five hundred years.

The end of the Kingdom of Amasyn came swiftly, and without warning; some terrible catastrophe befell the neighbouring region of Lothaine, sufficient to wipe out that enlightened and prosperous civilisation at a stroke. The aftermath of the disaster impacted the entire Amasynian Peninsula, and is blamed for the crop failures and pestilences that ravaged the land in the years after. The noble lords looking to their own domains, or turned to fighting amongst themselves for the scarce resources that remained, and the once-proud Kingdom of Amasyn rapidly unravelled.

The New Kingdom of Amasynia

In 1094 A.I., seven years after the fall of Lothaine, missionaries of the One True Faith travelled north through the ravaged lands of the Amasynian Peninsula; at the court of King Vernell, later called the Pious, they found a king with his realm in tatters and his people in despair. Their argument that this misfortune was punishment for not recognising the ways of the One God held some weight, given the blight that afflicted the land; after considerable deliberation and soul-searching the King converted to the One True Faith, as did a sizeable section of his court. That year the blight that had afflicted the west of Amasynia lifted, the fields produced crops once more, and the One True Faith was adopted with fervour by those who viewed this reprieve as a sign of the One God's favour.

It took another century to reclaim the fractured lands of Amasynia and Xanth Grange, but over the course of the next two hundred the restored kingdom not only reunited the scattered Kingdom of Amasyn, but expanded their territory until by the time Heath was brought into the fold in 1296 A.I., the Kingdom of Amasynia stretched from one side of the Amasynian Peninsula to the other.

The Trae Kelsan Period

Following the assassination of the ruling Wekslo family in 1527 A.I., the region was plagued by internal division and dissent, lacking an overall leader to provide unity of purpose. The arrival of troops from Trae Kelsa, ostensibly to bring order and stability to the suddenly-fractious Kingdom of Amasynia, was thus met with much less resistance than might have otherwise been the case, and was able to effect a swift and comprehensive conquest of the region in a manner that would have been unthinkable a generation before.

Within six months of the fall of House Wekslo the capital Ricathair was in the hands of the foreign troops after a brief siege, and a year after that the majority of the Borough Towns had sworn fealty to the Crown of Trae Kelsa. Those that did not were subjected to swift and overwhelming military assaults, remarkable for the ruthless thoroughness with which the recalcitrant lords or councillors were removed from power and replaced with candidates selected from among their more cooperative peers; the same was true of the various regions of the Amasynian Peninsula as a whole, and in 1530 A.I. the Kingdom of Amasynia was redesignated as the Amasynian Province of the Kingdom of Trae Kelsa.

While some did resent and protest against the takeover, Trae Kelsa did indeed follow through on its promise of bringing order and stability to the region; within a generation of the fall of Ricathair most of the Trae Kelsan forces and administrators had either integrated into the local populations or been withdrawn, leaving Amasynia as but one more relatively peaceful province among many.


Government

On a local level the various towns and cities of Amasynia are for the most part self-governing, though the specific details vary from place to place. During the time of the Kingdom of Amasynia the reigning monarch would grant certain particularly prosperous or industrious settlements the status of Borough Town, allowing their local lord or mayor an increased degree of autonomy as a reward for their loyal service and diligent payment of taxes to the Crown.

Some Borough Towns are under the rule of a local lord whose title is hereditary; others are managed by a Civic Council of respected or influential members of the community, with a Mayor or similar leader being chosen from among them to chair meetings and oversee the day-to-day affairs of government. The smaller villages usually fall under the purview of the nearest Borough Town, and as such are entitled to have one of their village elders on the Civic Council to be sure that their interests are safeguarded.

On a regional level Amasynia is ruled by the Grand Parliament, a deliberative assembly tasked with creating, amending and ratifying the region's laws. Each Borough Town is permitted by charter to nominate a number of Civic Council members to sit as a Member of the Grand Parliament, and as a result meetings of the assembly are often raucous and confusing affairs, with each Member vying to further the agenda of his own constituency over that of his rivals.

Politics

Law and Order

Law enforcement varies from town to town across the region, though under the conditions of the Borough Charter each Civil Council or local lord is required to take steps "to ensure the safety and security of the citizenry from damage to person and property". Generally this takes the form of a Town Guard or similar militia force which patrols the streets and keeps the peace, though the governments of some of the larger Borough Towns maintain extensive and well-connected networks of secret police in addition to the more overt uniformed watchmen.

Military

Each Borough Town is responsible for maintaining a force of troops for the defence of their own lands, and in theory the Grand Parliament can call a general muster of troops in defence of Amasynia as a whole; this is not always the case in practise, as most Municipal Regiments are reluctant to fight far from their home borough, and any proposal to draw a regiment away from its base location is often met with resistance from that town's Members of Parliament.


Geography

The west of the region is dominated by the Amasyn Valley, a strip following the path of the Amas River between the Lothley Mountains which form the border with Lothaine in the west, and the Wekslo Mountains which divide the Amasyn Valley from the wide eastward plains that stretch to the Lake Mavoiir, the bank of the Posehabnak's estuary and the border with Myrken Wood in the east. The thick fae-haunted forests of Mythago Wood and the southern limits of the Lothley Mountains and Wekslo Mountains mark the border with Xanth Grange, while the broad waters of the Sea of Amasynia delineate the northern boundaries of the region, a long coast rich with fishing settlements, shipyards and sheltered harbours. The town of Colmouth is the region's secondary shipping port, where goods can be transferred to river barges for transport up the River Col.

Cities

Travel

In the west of the region the transport of goods and services takes place along the length of the Amas River, a broad and deep-flowing waterway which finds its origins in the southern Wekslo Mountains. In the east a comprehensive network of straight and well-paved roads links the prosperous market towns and cities scattered across the wide and level plains of Amasynia, a lasting legacy of the Kingdom of Amasyn. Foremost among the Old Roads of Amasynia are the two main east-west routes: the Mavoiir Road skirts the edge of Lake Mavoiir before turning southwards past Aubrey towards Crossroads in Xanth Grange; the North Amasynian Route turns north from the border with Myrken Wood until Furt, and thence follows the coast to Colmouth and Westenford.

The River Col provides a means for goods from the bustling seaport of Colmouth to reach the interior of the region via Collingford, and across Lake Mavoiir the West Mavoiir River offers a route for barges to reach as far as Myrkentown in Myrken Wood.

Climate

Economy

Amasynia's economy is predominantly founded upon agriculture and trade, with the harbour-city of Ricathair serving as the Amasynian Peninsula's main port of call for westward shipping. The east of the region is made up of rich and fertile land that provides well for those that tend it, rivalling the fields of Xanth Grange in quality.


Culture