Loveria

Loveria

Government
Confederacy
Capital
Korint
Cities
Garios, Skiro
Major Worship
Beory, Istus, Lirr, Olidammara, Osprem

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Climate
Hot and wet
Exports
Fruit, olive oil, perfume, spices, sugar
Imports
Cloth, drugs, herbs, pottery, stone

The country is bordered by the Sormark to the west (with the the Giant's Crown Mountains in between), the Eastern Ocean to the east, Taru Lake to the south, and Fir Lanear to the southwest.

This eastern realm is run by merchants and noble families of old. Its citizens have a reputation for being strange. This might be an unkind characterization but that hasn't stopped use of the 'Loverian Man' stereotype gaining more and more traction.

Government

The three main cities are firmly in the clutches of the large merchant houses, even if the local rulers aren't directly employed by them. That's not to say the merchants haven't brought much prosperity. The rest of the country is mostly under the purview of the few remaining noble families some of which are better at looking after their subjects than others. The few mid-sized cities are mostly independent but without any real power.

National policy, in as much that there is any, is set by representatives from the three main cities and the nobles. Technically both sides have the same number of votes but the nobility has hardly any money and the cities are straw-men for the merchants, making the outcome of any vote a foregone conclusion in most cases.

Corruption is significant in Loveria, resulting in taxes being higher than they'd need to be. Loverians aren't very law-abiding, on the whole, so crime is significant, when they can get away with it.

Magic

This far west Abjura Dolana does not have much of a presence and they haven't been able to gain any official standing with the government. This has made the country popular with some of the more 'morally-ambiguous' mages in the world, as long as they can agree with the weather.

Religion

Most Loverians, have a rather flexible relationship with the deities, as with most things. They'll turn to them when it's convenient but at other times they couldn't care less about them. That's not to say there aren't any staunch god-botherers but they are the minority. One exception is folks on the Eastern Ocean; they are all true Osprem believers.

Geography

Running east from Giant's Crown Mountains Range, the elevation lowers quickly into rolling hills, bushveld and shrublands until it meets the Limnas, a blackwater river. East of the river one finds mainly grassland (used extensively for sugarcane cultivation) and small, old growth forests.

The Copis river forms the northern boundary and it is a rich fishing environment. Not so the Eastern Ocean; due to very frequent storms, dangerous marine life, many swamps, mangrove forest, and limestone cliffs, the coast is hardly settled at all.

Bottomless Lake

This beautiful, cobalt blue lake ten by nine kilometers across lays ringed by low mountains in the north of the country. No rivers flow into or out of the lake as far anyone has been able to tell. As the name indicates though it is very deep, many hundreds of meters at least, no one has ever claimed to have reached the very bottom. Local myths tell of a battle between gods from before the Collapse that resulted in the creation of the lake.

Cliffs of Tears

The true majesty of these cliffs is only seen by those few brave souls who dare venture out onto the water. Composed of grayish chalk streaked with black flint, giving it its name, the cliffs reach a height of almost a hundred meters in places. The weather is slowly eroding them away, occasionally large chunks break off and fall down.

Ecology

Rabbits are numerous and quite popular in a stew, raccoons and skunks, also numerous, less so. Minks and otters can be found around all waterways. Deer are plentiful. Unique to this part of the world is the armadillo; a small, armored mammal that has to be seen to be believed.

Boars are common and considered quite a pest by sugarcane producers. Foxes and bobcats are the bane of anyone with chickens. Black bears are mostly found in the western part of the country but are no threat unless provoked. The biggest threat to the common Loverian is the cougar; though usually only after a few drinks.

Sea gulls might be the most numerous bird in the country and they come inland as far as Skiro and even Korint. Cranes, roseate spoonbills, flamingos, and frigate-birds are the largest birds native to Loveria. Scrub jays and crows are quite commonplace, as are hummingbirds, lapwings, and sandpipers. The most seen birds of prey are falcons, kites, and ospreys.

Rattlesnakes are ever present, in a few different species, all quite bad tempered. Other snakes exist as well. Sea turtles of sizes up to nearly ten meters have been reported, though no one has ever produced a body over three meters in length.

Monsters

Large parts of the country are hardly settled, or at the very least, badly patrolled, which has led to a sizeable monster population. Goblinoids are likely the most numerous with the Restless (undead) likely being a close second. Lizardfolk can be found in all the wetland areas and ettercaps in the depths of many forests. Small tribes of ogres are thought to be scattered about, though any sighting of them usually gets an armed response.

Monstrosities such as carrion crawlers, basilisk, gricks, and the like are present but usually they and the goblinoid races keep each other in check. Stirges are typical anywhere away from population centers, griffons and hippogriffs are occasionally seen.

It is thought hydras make their home deep in a few of the swamps of Loveria but no one has been foolish enough to go find one, or at least, return alive. A local story that has many adherents is that of the black dragon Khauryrax, more commonly known as Kingwhisperer. The tale goes that this ancient dragon was the true ruler of the country, having been there even before its founding, controlling the royal house in some way. And it is claimed that the dragon died, dooming the royal house and leaving behind a hoard of riches untold.

History

People have been living in what we now consider Loveria as long as anyone can remember. It was always a hardscrabble existence, for though the eastern part of the country contained fertile fields, the humans and halflings that lived here, were beset upon by all kinds of monsters at every turn. For many centuries life here stayed virtually the same, advances in technology and magic made in the west mostly passed it by. Expanding populations on the other side of the Giant's Crown Mountains meant that settlers came east and with them new equipment and ideas.

Cities grew larger and people became more successful. This lead to more competition and a larger need for governance. As smart people were making plans, an unlikely hero came out of far left field. Brosef Duhson had never been a person to let his many limitations stop him. And filled with the stories of knights and kings his mother used to tell him, one day he decided that he should be king of this burgeoning country, why not?

We might never know if it was just incredible dumb luck, Brosef not being who he seemed to be, or something else entirely, but the fact remains that those who opposed him, fell, some to his blade, others more figuratively. Soon the man who would be king gained a following of rabid fans who would stop at nothing to see their hero on a throne, ruling them like only he could.

Before long it became inevitable and Brosef Duhson was crowned king of a new country that he named Loveria, after his mother. The house of Duhson survived much upheaval and more assassination attempts than can be counted on two hands, ruling till quite recently. King Joc passed away unexpectedly less than a year after his son and two daughters had died from eating some bad shrimps.

With no clear heir among the few extended family members left in the royal house, the other noble houses saw their chance and nearly all of them mounted a campaign for the throne. None of them were very thought through and none of them had the foresight to have resources in place already, for when an opportunity would ever present itself.

In what is now called the Weeks of Woe, the nobles all got involved in halfhearted assassination attempts, maneuvering of their personal troops, bribery of many officials, and some actual fights on the battlefield, though most of the fighting men and women tried to keep out of these skirmishes. Loveria, a country very rich in agricultural and other exports at this point, fell to the dogs, and the merchant houses who made huge profits here, watched on in disgust.

In an almost unequaled act of cooperation they marshaled their resources and marched a large number of mercenaries into the country. These 'peace keepers' soon persuaded every one else to lay down arms. The pact between the merchants could never last, so very quickly a new constitution was drawn up where power was divided between the remaining nobles and major cities (which, over time, had come to be run by the merchant houses), with none of them really getting what they wanted. And that is where we are today; the nobles got to keep most of their land and a vote in the ruling council but in reality money talks and their influence has dwindled, leaving things at a tense equilibrium.

Culture

Humans are the largest group by far but many halflings live here as well. Half-orcs and half-elves are also quite common while dwarves and gnomes are rarely encountered. Despite this, all races are usually treated pretty much equally in the country; Loverians have long believed that it doesn't matter where you are from, genetically or geographically; people are all different.

Due to its distance from what most consider the more civilized and forward thinking countries around the Sarodin Sea, customs in Loveria are seen as strange to outsiders. A good example is a simple greeting; in most countries these would be accompanied with a handshake or an arm clasp but here one pushes their chest out and rub it against the other person's chest.

To most foreigners buildings in Loveria are known for being painted white with blue wavy lines along the perimeter. While the majority of buildings in Korint and Garios are painted this way, you won't find buildings like that in any other city or village. Loverians do love to paint their dwellings though; many villages or town neighborhoods have their own color scheme and they take great pride in it.

Hallucinogenic substances are not outlawed in the country but that doesn't mean that most cities and villages don't try to police their selling and use in other ways. However, in the three largest cities use of drugs has taken on such numbers that others now flock there and congregate in neighborhoods that, to some, look like gigantic drug dens.

Games are popular in Loveria but the rules of most games seem to change at the whim of the players. One game with more or less unchanging but still hard to understand rules is Stiltorq, it has a large following.

Food

While sugarcane is the most widely grown crop, that still leaves more than enough room for (citrus) fruit and olive orchards. When it comes to staple crops, cabbages, potatoes, and corn are the most popular. Cows were never introduced to Loveria; with most fields given to profitable export crops, it made no economic sense. Traditionally people kept sheep and goats here, to supplement any hunted animals. Pigs are becoming more popular in certain parts of the country but lamb and mutton remain the most served meats.

The most characteristic element of Loverian cuisine is olive oil, which is used in most dishes. Important vegetables include tomato, aubergine, potato, green peppers, and onions. Seeds, nuts, honey, and lemon juice are used in everything from pastry to main dishes. The country is famed for the many spices and herbs used in its dishes; oregano, mint, garlic, dill, cumin, coriander, bay laurel leaves, basil, thyme, and fennel seed. Many of the smaller dishes are usually wrapped in a thin, circular unleavened flatbread made of corn or served in hollowed out, roasted peppers and aubergines.

A perennial favorite is oxatila; a grilled flatbread filled with sorrel and sheep or goat cheese, seasoned with different spices depending on the region. Sfyrokop is a casserole made of fried aubergine, potato, and spiced, slow cooked mutton. Chathvreth is a kind of spicebread with nuts, ground cloves and cinnamon, powdered with sifted sugar. The national liquor is tostjo; a hefty sugar cane based spirit flavored with fennel.

In the papers

Loverian Man Pigs Out

A farmer was quite surprised when he entered his pig sty and found a Skiro native head-first in a trough. According to reports the man was drop-down drunk and "off his gourd" on certain substances that are easily available in those parts. The man later professed that he had been looking for companionship and decided he wanted a "porker". Once in the sty the sight of their feed apparently was irresistible.

- Excerpt from an article in the Midtal Reformer