Uldarious
29-01-2007, 04:24
Template copied from Scan.
Oh yeah, in case you haven't noticed the number four is sacred to my people, thus the sacred shape is a four-pointed diamond.
Government:
As the name suggest the Yelsa are ruled by Arch Duke Elshar ni Kaitadra. The role of the Arch Duke is to be the single will that guides the Yelsa, he makes the major decisions to go to war, change the currency, trade with other nations and all matters of Alliance.
Under him are four Dukes who each oversee a city. Each duke has a council of city officials to keep them informed and it is they who deal with the more mundane and day-to-day affairs, they make sure taxes are on time, quarries are running, farms are working, roads are clear and the populace is safe.
Under them there are four Provincial Barons. Each Provincial Baron rules from a large town and supervises the area around him, they report directly to the Dukes and keep them in touch with the going-ons in the country, they are advised by a council of Mayors from all the villages and small towns in their provicne.
The lowest level is a village or town mayor, it is their decisions to organise the militia, preside over court and other such things. They keep the government of the Yelsa running nice and smoothly.
At each level there are also advisers and clerks.
Society:
The Yelsa are a culture that values order and discipline strongly. By choice they live in houses of the hardest rock they can find and their cities are organised into ordered and squared blocks.
The Yelsa are a warlike people, those that exists now are the survivors of a catastrophe that wiped out their former empire. Which was originally in the hundreds of millions, those that live now are the refugees of that disaster.
The Yelsa started as a highland tribe, they had simple farmers lives and proud warrior ways, however one day, a thousand years ago this way was shattered when they came under attack by an imperialistic neighbour, the Yelsa took up arms to fight back and after two decades of ferocious fighting and much bloodshed they finally drove their foemen away. But they realised they could no longer depend on their territory and isolation to protect them, so as a result they took up arms and launched an offensive, they were driven back due to their lack of organised fighting methods and it was a lesson they learned dearly.
Years passed and they reorganise their military and social structures. Destiny would smile upon them for two years later they came under another assault, this time they reacted swiftly and after defeating the attack they launched a brutal campaign against their attacker, what followed was a decade of Yelsa pushing deeper into their enemy and taking city and castle before resting for the winter and renewing this campaign in the summer. This was because the Yelsa already employed professional soldiers, rather than conscripted farmers.
What follows after that is centuries of expansion and awakening of the Yelsa.
However just a short time ago, two centuries at most, the land which gave the Yelsa birth rejected them and was rent apart in fire and earth. The Yelsa fled their home and drifted on the currents for some time before they landed on solid ground once more. For a time the entire nation was in mourning, their once great nation was in ruins below the sea.
Yet one man arose and in a great voice he sang out his message, the Yelsa could rise again, here in this new land they could carve out a niche for themselves, here they could put their warrior way of life back into practice. He claimed that the disaster that followed was caused by the death of faith in the Gods and that they must be revered lest it happen again, to start he ordered a new city built and declared that temples to the gods would be many and magnificent.
The Yelsa laboured for ten years before their city was ready, they named it Amana-Dei, God's Forgive.
In the years that followed the Yelsa drove the other peoples from the lands they claimed and built more towns and cities and joined them with roads, they rediscovered the metal and stone working of their ancestors.
Now almost two centuries on, the Yelsa have regained a measure of their lost might. The man who united them lives still as their ruler, Elshar ni Kaitadra.
For the Yelsa are not as short-lived as their cousins, as a Yelsa ages he grows tougher and gains more stamina, up to age two-hundred, the life expectancy of a Yelsa is some four hundred years for the lucky. You can tell when one is old because it takes three hundred years for grey to come to the midnight of a Yelsa's hair.
The one exception to this rule is the Arch Duke himself, he was three hundred years old when the empire fell and lives still. The reasons for this are unclear, but although he is very old he is still as strong as ever.
Some have said it is related to the fact that he wields magic, other that he is the Chosen of the Gods, the truth may never be known.
Most Yelsa are around 165-180 centremetres tall, or close to six foot, but slightly less.
Yelsa almost uniformly have dark hair until they reach old age and most have green eyes, however yellow and red are also possible. The average hair style is a shoulder-length ponytail for both genders.
The lowest level in Yelsa culture is the Sosho (so-SHO), these are the farmers, miners, lumberjacks, fishermen and other such workers, despite their low station they are respected for their critical role in Yelsa society.
Next are the Herra (he-RA), these are the craftsmen and artisans, healers and inventors. These men are once more respected for the role they play.
Next come the Sanhuin (SAN-hoo-in), these are the warriors and arms men of the Yelsa. They are respected also, for their service of giving their lives for the good of all Yelsa.
Lastly come the Sylhuis (SILL-hoo-iss) Warriors of an Order and monks and mages. These are most respected for their dedication to what they believe in and for their particular abilities.
Major Cities:
Amana-Dei (aman-AH-day).
Capital of the Arch Duchy. It is the centre for all inter-kingdom diplomacy and is also where all taxes are funneled to, also the location of the national mints. Lastly this is the centre of the Yelsa religion and the location the four main temples.
Shalasha (shal-AH-sha)
This is the northern most city, it is filled with rich ores and this is where roughly half of all weapons and armour are made.
Tosuma (too-soo-MA)
The principal city for trade, this is where artworks and food, weapons and armour, ores and exotic spices, salt and silk all pass through. Tosuma is naturally rich due to its large salt deposit and it is close to the sea.
Svelhan (Swel-HAN).
This is the centre for the rare and exotic, silk is made into sheets of material here, it is also the centre for technological innovation and paper making.
Trade:
As of now most trade is internal between provinces.
Technology:
The Yelsa were once a race of high technology, they had steam cranes that could lift blocks of stone the size of buildings and had been developing cannon to wage war.
This was put to a stop by the Catastrophe but the Yelsa have recovered much of their past technology.
They are skilled at metalwork and stonework, they have invented methods of very fast weaving and horse-drawn scythes to harvest large amounts of grain. As a race they practice using gunpowder in the form of small, crude, close-rang grenades, while these do not do a lot of damage except to their immediate foemen (within a metre) they create a lot of smoke and sound They also have a rather unholy affinity with poisons. One Order, the order of the Black Skull even exclusively deal with poisons and gunpowder.
Religion:
There are four gods in the Yelsa religion.,
Saama-lel the God of Fortune.
Iptha Rehre the God of War.
Reua-La-Teldoman, the God of Nature
Nysl-Doumin, the God of Intellect.
Each order has vastly different numbers of followers and manners of worship. Few are granted powers by the Gods, but those that do are usually destined to shape the world.
Population
The population is numbered at roughly thirty-two million citizens. They are divided up between the provinces quite equally with approximately eight million citizens in each province.
Military
The military of the Yelsa is a well-designed military structure that has served for many years.
Three basic types of men are present. Yelsa infantry are some of the world's finest and this makes up for the low numbers of cavalry in their army.
Religious converts of the War God, rank-and-file.
There are around two-hundred thousand of these men in all.
These are men who have pledged their heart and soul to the God of War, in battle they are ruthless and disciplined and very adept at using the terrain to their advantage. It can take a few battles to get the experience to make full use of training but these are the basic soldiers of the Arch Duchy. They
There are three types, Spearmen, Crossbowmen and mace-men.
By the way, when my men wear plate and mail, it is a type of armour wear the chest, back, head, arms, shins and things are covered with plate, while the joints adn vulnerable areas are covered with mail. Each suit is custom made for it's wear and enables a wide degree of movement, underneith this a man will usually wear leather and an under layer of cotton.
Officers are recognised by more elaborate crests and shoulder insignia.
Spear men wear plate-and mail armour, they are organised into regiments of a hundred men and use a spear that is about seven-foot long with a blade slightly over half a foot, the blade is socketed into the wood to give it extra strength the total length of this weapon is a little over two metres.
The spear man also carries a light short-sword on his right hip and a dagger on his left. Also round wooden shields with metal plates are common.
Around eighty thousand men are of this type.
Crossbowmen are also common, they use steel-armed heavy crossbows that have an accurate range of about a hundred and fifty paces, an extra two hundred paces for massed-fire. These Crossbows can fire twice a minute, three times for a veteran soldier.
The crossbowmen wear lighter, boiled leather armour with chain mail and metal disks sewn onto it.
The also wield a dagger and short sword when they must, the average crossbowman carries a hundred and twenty bolts.
Likewise there are around seventy thousand men.
Mace men exists in less frequency, they are armed with large, heavy, metal spiked maces for killing heavily armoured foes. They are armoured like a Spearman and equipped with a shield and sword as well, but when in combat most mace-men hang their shields on their backs to make better use of their mace with two-handed strikes.
There are twenty-thousand of these men.
There are also Reconnaissance cavalry and anti-cavalry spearmen.
Anti-cavalry spearmen use longer, thicker spears with studier and heavier spikes in order to kill charging cavalry. Other than that they equipped like an average spearman.
Twenty thousand of these men, half of these men are also armed with Halberds.
Reconnaissance cavalry wear plate and leather armour and ride swift horses, these men are also used to relay messages. They are equipped with a light bow if they are trained to use such a weapon or they are given a light cavalry spear if not, they are also given a shield and shortsword, usually they ride in groups of three.
Ten thousand of these men.
Warriors of an Order.
There are twenty Orders in all, each with around two-thousand members, exceptions occur, such as the Order of Magic, which is only around a thousand and a half and the Pale Reapers which is around four-thousand men.
Each order specialises in either a weapon or a type of fighting, the Black Skulls use poison and primitive gunpowder weapons to create confusion among the enemy and can also be used as assassin's. While the Crimson Arrows are above-par longbow men who wear light leather armour, but fight from a distance using their weapon of choice.
The Black Lancers are a corps of black-armoured riders, both they and their horses are armed and armoured with cloth and metal of the darkest black, they are equipped with lances for breaking an enemy and spiked war hammers for engaging other armoured foes.
All the orders combined equal around forty-five thousand men.
Orders:
Black Lancers. Heavily armed cavalry Lancers, each man has a spiked war-hammer for anti-armour combat as well as a heavy spiked lance. Members wear black armour and their horses also wear such and are black also. Approximately two thousand in number.
Pale Reapers.
The Pale reapers are infantry that use a type of large blades spear, five feet long with a three foot blade, (150 cm, 90 cm). They wear scale-armour under pale hooded robes. They also use a heavy-bladed sword like a Falchion. Numbers, four thousand.
Crimson Arrows.
The Crimson Arrows wear red leather armour, each man uses a fine black yew longbow that is capable of firing in excess of five-hundred paces. Each man also carries a dagger, but the main strength of the Crimson Arrows is their ability to launch devastating volley after volley at a range. Around two thousand five-hundred members.
Order of Magic. The Order of Magic numbers around eight hundred men and woman. Usually they were loose robes that allow free movement. Rather than specialised the Order of Magic creates magic users who may take up a variety of roles, from emergency battlefield medic to communications to creating a distraction to weaving a shield to block a volley of arrows to dispelling an enemy spell. the Order of Magic has many skilled users, but as they say "Jack of all trades, master of none..."
Black Skulls.
The black skulls number a few hundred, in battle they uses a variety of smoke bombs and gunpowder grenades to sow confusion and inflict a variety of pains upon their enemies. Their real strength is their extreme adeptness with poisons and they are better suited to assassins than battle field fighters. They wear mainly dark colours, dark green, midnight blue etc.
Ascending Hawks.
One of the more odd choices the Ascending Hawks are gifted with superhuman reflexes, they use an odd sort of half-spear, three feet long with a blade half that length. (90 cm, 45 CM). They dress all in greys and browns and wear plate armour under their cloaks, in battle they let out ear-piercing shrieks while charging the enemy. the serve the same purpose that light cavalry do as well, they chase broken men and serve as reconnaissance. Number around two thousand.
Sun-Lances.
The Sun-lancers are elite anti-cavalry spearmen. They dress all in gold and yellow and use a sort of halberd with a curved spike at the back and a long study spike on the top, both are capably of punching through armour. they were plate-mail armour with a yellow tabard over it. They number three thousand.
Scorpion's Stings.
Much like the Sun Lances except they were segmented dark blue armour what consists of more plate and less mail. This makes them heavier but the average Scorpion is a lot stronger than a Sun Lance. They use a heavier weapon as well, a Poleaxe with a spike on top, that can use its brute force to kill an enemy if the blade doesn't cut through the armour.
Hammers of Iptha.
They're are men armed with mighty hammers, they use boiled leather sewn with steel disks, this makes them lighter and enables them to wield their two-handed war hammers to greater effect. They have uses against heavily armoured infantry, but even a conventional infanmtry man will die from a stroke from a Hammer of Iptha, provided it hits the head or chest. They wear white and red robes. Approximately two and a half thousand.
Underworld Crushers.
Similar in role to the Hammers of Iptha, but rather they used large spiked stone clubs and metal maces. They wear dark green and wear a mix of scale and leather armour covered by dark green robes. About two-thousand one hundred.
Silver Blades.
The Silver blades use two longswords rather than one and they do not carry shields or shortswords. They wear armour of overlapping metal plates that allows for swift movement but provides protection. While not very effective against armoured foes they are devastating against any armour that has weak points, such as chain-mail. There are around three thousand Silver Blades.
Starswords.
The Starswords are in many ways the apposite of Silverblades, they use great two-handed, single-bladed swords that can break through pikes, halberds and spears with ease and still prove equally effective against most foes, hacking through flesh and mail and even breaking through scale armour. Heavy plate is the only effective counter against such weapons. However these weapons lack the finesse and agility of their smaller cousins. Starswords wear silver and black clothes and wear the same overlapping plates that the Silverblades wear. There are three-thousand two-hundred Starswords.
Nightdaggers.
Nightdaggers use a variety of sneaky weapons such as throwing knives, chain-weight-blades, shuriken, bladed gauntlets, and various types of blow-darts and eye-damaging sands. Nightdaggers number about one-thousand eight-hundred, they can be used as assassins and spies and they also bear Ouroboros amulets that protect them against magic, so you could call them anti-mages. They are also famous for a type of anti-magic throwing spike that is completely unaffected by all but the most powerful of magic. They rarely use heavy armour, but wear under shirts of thick tightly woven cotton, then a layer of leather, then an over-tunic.
Phantom Arrows.
Phantom Arrows wear shades of grey, unlike the Crimson Arrows they use shortbows that have a range of about three-hundred paces. But they can fire something in the order of twenty arrows per minute. They carry three-hundred arrows on them, aside from that they use short-swords. There are two-thousand four-hundred Phantom Arrows.
Fleshhewers.
Fleshhewers are the largest of all and some would argue, the deadliest. Unlike others who specialise in one specific area the Fleshhewwers are a unique case. They represent men, and sometimes women, who have lost themselves to the bloodthirsty aspect of Iptha Rehre and the warlike nature of this God. Fleshhewers fight ruthlessly and tirelessly, they follow orders loosely but fight with unbreakable fanaticism, they wield several weapons, great two-handed axes, either single-blades and balanced with a spike or double blades, sometimes just one heavy blade, they wield falchions, either single or dual handed, they also wield a selection of hand axes, each with a cruel curved spike at one end and a blade on the other. some wield a type of war-mattock that looks vaguely like a pickaxe, others, albeit rarely, wield great metal or stone many-faced clubs. Fleshhewers wear a violent scarlet coloured robes and plate and mail underneath that, they possess strength far beyond that of any natural human and will fight until their last breaths leave their bodies. In total they number six thousand.
Dread Arms.
Dream Arms use polearms, but no single one exclusively, some use halberds, others use bladed-spears, others use spiked spears, still others use long-handled maces or axes. As a sidearm most are content will short sword. The Dread Arms are recruited from the standard rank-and-file and other Orders, which means that msot are exceptionally skilled. They wear black robes with a silver clawed hand on the back, under this they either wear scale, leather, or mail armour. Numbers are around two-thousand.
Armour Breakers.
Armour Breakers use single-handed or double-handed warhammers, flails, maces and spiked clubs. Unlike others they don't specify so long as the weapon is a sound anti-amour choice. They wear light armour of overlapping metal plates and wear dull grey cloaks with a broken shield on the back. The Armour Breakers number slightly over two thousand.
Heaven's Word.
Heaven's Word is the most agressive, unlike the others they are divided into two groups, assault-mages and mage-knights. Mage-knights are rare and are drawn from the orders, the Lord's men and the army itself. Mage-knights number only about two-hundred, each one is gifted with excellent combat abilities that are channelled through their weapons, this can range from enchanting a blade to tear through armour or to create a magical shield to deflect oncoming arrows to something like turning an enemy to stone with a blow from a gauntlet.
The remaining five-hundred are attack mages, they can break throw the wardings of lesser mages and call lighting or fire down onto their enemies. Petrification is a gift that all Yelsa mages possess.
Mages wear lavender robes and wield magical metal staffs that aid in channelling magic, usually along the lines of firing bursts of flame from one end. In close range combat these weapons can also be used to focus powers into very unpleasant abilities, such as once struck the enemies body begins to rot from the point of impact.
Blessed Hand.
The Blessed hands are magical healers, they do not take part in combat and possess only weak offensive and defensive abilities, but they posses great powers of healing and illusion. They were spring-green robes and are not armed at all. They number somewhere around twelve hundred.
Celestial Shields. The Celestial Shields are a defensive magical Order, they posses only basic offensive techniques but are very gifted with dispelling and blocking enemy magic, no matter the type. They also have extraordinary abilities at blocking physical attacks and often serve to defend the soldiers from volleys of crossbow bolts, arrows or javelins. The Celestial shields wear loose flowing robes of sky-blue to better allow their magic to flow freely and bear no weapons bar long daggers. This is because they are capable of erecting shields around their bodies that should protect from all but the most concentrated attacks. They number slightly over one thousand.
Lords' Arms men.
A Lord is a rich and powerful Yelsa, usually with ties to the military. Lords are allowed to maintain their own crack troops under the express condition that in times of war they ride to war with their men.
Each province has a council of lords and each lord is trained from birth to fight as well as manage other areas, such as running a mining town or some-such, when in office most Lords take the place of Mayors or Barons although all lords whether currently serving a position in government or not are obliged to provide men to the war effort.
Lords' arms men are better than the rank-and-file but not quite up to par with most of the equivalent men of an Order.
For example, Lord's Lancers would be better than a brigade of Lancers, as they would have more training and more expensive armour and horses, not to mention many veteran soldiers take up position in a Lord's band. But a brigade of Lord's Lancers would not be on par with a brigade of Black Lancers. However recently the Yelsa gave up massed cavalry in their rank-and-file and instead opted for cavalry only as reconnaissance and scouting roles.
In total Lords would have about thirty-thousand men per province, to a total of one-hundred and twenty thousand men. Most of these remain behind for self defence, however.
Other:
This gives the total professional army of the Yelsa a standing strength of approximately three-hundred and sixty thousand men. More men could be called up, should the situation warrant it.
The Yelsa army is also extraordinarily well supplied with a man serving in logistics for every man on the field. Logistics men are unarmed and unarmoured, save for a long dagger that they carry with them, they rely on the army for protection.
In bad times the citizens of a city will take up arms, these Citizens Militia are never sent out of a city, but in total they have numbers that are in the order of about five-thousand for a small city and perhaps twenty thousand for a large one. These militia are not high-quality men, but they fight with a ferocity to defend their homes. Each city also has a City Guard that may not leave it except if the cvity is destroyed, these take care of policing the streets as well as protectign the city in the case of siege, they are in similar number to the Citizen Militia.
Lastly the Yelsa operate a navy of some one-hundred and fifty ships, sixty of which are warships, the rest are cargo ships with Yelsa guards.
Coinage
The monetary system of the Yelsa is arranged on decimals.
The lowest and single currency is what it takes to buy a loaf of bread, or a large bottle of milk. This is the Yarom, a small silver circle about the size of a small button, it is actually mainly nickel and tin.
Ten Yarom make a Yarin, which about twice as large and contains more silver. This is the average daily wage for most paying professions.
Ten Yarin make a Yara, which is more silver and about twice as large. .
Lastly there is the Yire, which is the same size of a Yara but contains gold rather than silver.
For large amounts letters-of-rights can be used, but due to the heavy identification needed they are still rare.
Reasons for editing.
Comparability.
Exports
Cities.
Spelling, ugh.
Still up:
Trade.
Orders.
Characters.
Oh yeah, in case you haven't noticed the number four is sacred to my people, thus the sacred shape is a four-pointed diamond.
Government:
As the name suggest the Yelsa are ruled by Arch Duke Elshar ni Kaitadra. The role of the Arch Duke is to be the single will that guides the Yelsa, he makes the major decisions to go to war, change the currency, trade with other nations and all matters of Alliance.
Under him are four Dukes who each oversee a city. Each duke has a council of city officials to keep them informed and it is they who deal with the more mundane and day-to-day affairs, they make sure taxes are on time, quarries are running, farms are working, roads are clear and the populace is safe.
Under them there are four Provincial Barons. Each Provincial Baron rules from a large town and supervises the area around him, they report directly to the Dukes and keep them in touch with the going-ons in the country, they are advised by a council of Mayors from all the villages and small towns in their provicne.
The lowest level is a village or town mayor, it is their decisions to organise the militia, preside over court and other such things. They keep the government of the Yelsa running nice and smoothly.
At each level there are also advisers and clerks.
Society:
The Yelsa are a culture that values order and discipline strongly. By choice they live in houses of the hardest rock they can find and their cities are organised into ordered and squared blocks.
The Yelsa are a warlike people, those that exists now are the survivors of a catastrophe that wiped out their former empire. Which was originally in the hundreds of millions, those that live now are the refugees of that disaster.
The Yelsa started as a highland tribe, they had simple farmers lives and proud warrior ways, however one day, a thousand years ago this way was shattered when they came under attack by an imperialistic neighbour, the Yelsa took up arms to fight back and after two decades of ferocious fighting and much bloodshed they finally drove their foemen away. But they realised they could no longer depend on their territory and isolation to protect them, so as a result they took up arms and launched an offensive, they were driven back due to their lack of organised fighting methods and it was a lesson they learned dearly.
Years passed and they reorganise their military and social structures. Destiny would smile upon them for two years later they came under another assault, this time they reacted swiftly and after defeating the attack they launched a brutal campaign against their attacker, what followed was a decade of Yelsa pushing deeper into their enemy and taking city and castle before resting for the winter and renewing this campaign in the summer. This was because the Yelsa already employed professional soldiers, rather than conscripted farmers.
What follows after that is centuries of expansion and awakening of the Yelsa.
However just a short time ago, two centuries at most, the land which gave the Yelsa birth rejected them and was rent apart in fire and earth. The Yelsa fled their home and drifted on the currents for some time before they landed on solid ground once more. For a time the entire nation was in mourning, their once great nation was in ruins below the sea.
Yet one man arose and in a great voice he sang out his message, the Yelsa could rise again, here in this new land they could carve out a niche for themselves, here they could put their warrior way of life back into practice. He claimed that the disaster that followed was caused by the death of faith in the Gods and that they must be revered lest it happen again, to start he ordered a new city built and declared that temples to the gods would be many and magnificent.
The Yelsa laboured for ten years before their city was ready, they named it Amana-Dei, God's Forgive.
In the years that followed the Yelsa drove the other peoples from the lands they claimed and built more towns and cities and joined them with roads, they rediscovered the metal and stone working of their ancestors.
Now almost two centuries on, the Yelsa have regained a measure of their lost might. The man who united them lives still as their ruler, Elshar ni Kaitadra.
For the Yelsa are not as short-lived as their cousins, as a Yelsa ages he grows tougher and gains more stamina, up to age two-hundred, the life expectancy of a Yelsa is some four hundred years for the lucky. You can tell when one is old because it takes three hundred years for grey to come to the midnight of a Yelsa's hair.
The one exception to this rule is the Arch Duke himself, he was three hundred years old when the empire fell and lives still. The reasons for this are unclear, but although he is very old he is still as strong as ever.
Some have said it is related to the fact that he wields magic, other that he is the Chosen of the Gods, the truth may never be known.
Most Yelsa are around 165-180 centremetres tall, or close to six foot, but slightly less.
Yelsa almost uniformly have dark hair until they reach old age and most have green eyes, however yellow and red are also possible. The average hair style is a shoulder-length ponytail for both genders.
The lowest level in Yelsa culture is the Sosho (so-SHO), these are the farmers, miners, lumberjacks, fishermen and other such workers, despite their low station they are respected for their critical role in Yelsa society.
Next are the Herra (he-RA), these are the craftsmen and artisans, healers and inventors. These men are once more respected for the role they play.
Next come the Sanhuin (SAN-hoo-in), these are the warriors and arms men of the Yelsa. They are respected also, for their service of giving their lives for the good of all Yelsa.
Lastly come the Sylhuis (SILL-hoo-iss) Warriors of an Order and monks and mages. These are most respected for their dedication to what they believe in and for their particular abilities.
Major Cities:
Amana-Dei (aman-AH-day).
Capital of the Arch Duchy. It is the centre for all inter-kingdom diplomacy and is also where all taxes are funneled to, also the location of the national mints. Lastly this is the centre of the Yelsa religion and the location the four main temples.
Shalasha (shal-AH-sha)
This is the northern most city, it is filled with rich ores and this is where roughly half of all weapons and armour are made.
Tosuma (too-soo-MA)
The principal city for trade, this is where artworks and food, weapons and armour, ores and exotic spices, salt and silk all pass through. Tosuma is naturally rich due to its large salt deposit and it is close to the sea.
Svelhan (Swel-HAN).
This is the centre for the rare and exotic, silk is made into sheets of material here, it is also the centre for technological innovation and paper making.
Trade:
As of now most trade is internal between provinces.
Technology:
The Yelsa were once a race of high technology, they had steam cranes that could lift blocks of stone the size of buildings and had been developing cannon to wage war.
This was put to a stop by the Catastrophe but the Yelsa have recovered much of their past technology.
They are skilled at metalwork and stonework, they have invented methods of very fast weaving and horse-drawn scythes to harvest large amounts of grain. As a race they practice using gunpowder in the form of small, crude, close-rang grenades, while these do not do a lot of damage except to their immediate foemen (within a metre) they create a lot of smoke and sound They also have a rather unholy affinity with poisons. One Order, the order of the Black Skull even exclusively deal with poisons and gunpowder.
Religion:
There are four gods in the Yelsa religion.,
Saama-lel the God of Fortune.
Iptha Rehre the God of War.
Reua-La-Teldoman, the God of Nature
Nysl-Doumin, the God of Intellect.
Each order has vastly different numbers of followers and manners of worship. Few are granted powers by the Gods, but those that do are usually destined to shape the world.
Population
The population is numbered at roughly thirty-two million citizens. They are divided up between the provinces quite equally with approximately eight million citizens in each province.
Military
The military of the Yelsa is a well-designed military structure that has served for many years.
Three basic types of men are present. Yelsa infantry are some of the world's finest and this makes up for the low numbers of cavalry in their army.
Religious converts of the War God, rank-and-file.
There are around two-hundred thousand of these men in all.
These are men who have pledged their heart and soul to the God of War, in battle they are ruthless and disciplined and very adept at using the terrain to their advantage. It can take a few battles to get the experience to make full use of training but these are the basic soldiers of the Arch Duchy. They
There are three types, Spearmen, Crossbowmen and mace-men.
By the way, when my men wear plate and mail, it is a type of armour wear the chest, back, head, arms, shins and things are covered with plate, while the joints adn vulnerable areas are covered with mail. Each suit is custom made for it's wear and enables a wide degree of movement, underneith this a man will usually wear leather and an under layer of cotton.
Officers are recognised by more elaborate crests and shoulder insignia.
Spear men wear plate-and mail armour, they are organised into regiments of a hundred men and use a spear that is about seven-foot long with a blade slightly over half a foot, the blade is socketed into the wood to give it extra strength the total length of this weapon is a little over two metres.
The spear man also carries a light short-sword on his right hip and a dagger on his left. Also round wooden shields with metal plates are common.
Around eighty thousand men are of this type.
Crossbowmen are also common, they use steel-armed heavy crossbows that have an accurate range of about a hundred and fifty paces, an extra two hundred paces for massed-fire. These Crossbows can fire twice a minute, three times for a veteran soldier.
The crossbowmen wear lighter, boiled leather armour with chain mail and metal disks sewn onto it.
The also wield a dagger and short sword when they must, the average crossbowman carries a hundred and twenty bolts.
Likewise there are around seventy thousand men.
Mace men exists in less frequency, they are armed with large, heavy, metal spiked maces for killing heavily armoured foes. They are armoured like a Spearman and equipped with a shield and sword as well, but when in combat most mace-men hang their shields on their backs to make better use of their mace with two-handed strikes.
There are twenty-thousand of these men.
There are also Reconnaissance cavalry and anti-cavalry spearmen.
Anti-cavalry spearmen use longer, thicker spears with studier and heavier spikes in order to kill charging cavalry. Other than that they equipped like an average spearman.
Twenty thousand of these men, half of these men are also armed with Halberds.
Reconnaissance cavalry wear plate and leather armour and ride swift horses, these men are also used to relay messages. They are equipped with a light bow if they are trained to use such a weapon or they are given a light cavalry spear if not, they are also given a shield and shortsword, usually they ride in groups of three.
Ten thousand of these men.
Warriors of an Order.
There are twenty Orders in all, each with around two-thousand members, exceptions occur, such as the Order of Magic, which is only around a thousand and a half and the Pale Reapers which is around four-thousand men.
Each order specialises in either a weapon or a type of fighting, the Black Skulls use poison and primitive gunpowder weapons to create confusion among the enemy and can also be used as assassin's. While the Crimson Arrows are above-par longbow men who wear light leather armour, but fight from a distance using their weapon of choice.
The Black Lancers are a corps of black-armoured riders, both they and their horses are armed and armoured with cloth and metal of the darkest black, they are equipped with lances for breaking an enemy and spiked war hammers for engaging other armoured foes.
All the orders combined equal around forty-five thousand men.
Orders:
Black Lancers. Heavily armed cavalry Lancers, each man has a spiked war-hammer for anti-armour combat as well as a heavy spiked lance. Members wear black armour and their horses also wear such and are black also. Approximately two thousand in number.
Pale Reapers.
The Pale reapers are infantry that use a type of large blades spear, five feet long with a three foot blade, (150 cm, 90 cm). They wear scale-armour under pale hooded robes. They also use a heavy-bladed sword like a Falchion. Numbers, four thousand.
Crimson Arrows.
The Crimson Arrows wear red leather armour, each man uses a fine black yew longbow that is capable of firing in excess of five-hundred paces. Each man also carries a dagger, but the main strength of the Crimson Arrows is their ability to launch devastating volley after volley at a range. Around two thousand five-hundred members.
Order of Magic. The Order of Magic numbers around eight hundred men and woman. Usually they were loose robes that allow free movement. Rather than specialised the Order of Magic creates magic users who may take up a variety of roles, from emergency battlefield medic to communications to creating a distraction to weaving a shield to block a volley of arrows to dispelling an enemy spell. the Order of Magic has many skilled users, but as they say "Jack of all trades, master of none..."
Black Skulls.
The black skulls number a few hundred, in battle they uses a variety of smoke bombs and gunpowder grenades to sow confusion and inflict a variety of pains upon their enemies. Their real strength is their extreme adeptness with poisons and they are better suited to assassins than battle field fighters. They wear mainly dark colours, dark green, midnight blue etc.
Ascending Hawks.
One of the more odd choices the Ascending Hawks are gifted with superhuman reflexes, they use an odd sort of half-spear, three feet long with a blade half that length. (90 cm, 45 CM). They dress all in greys and browns and wear plate armour under their cloaks, in battle they let out ear-piercing shrieks while charging the enemy. the serve the same purpose that light cavalry do as well, they chase broken men and serve as reconnaissance. Number around two thousand.
Sun-Lances.
The Sun-lancers are elite anti-cavalry spearmen. They dress all in gold and yellow and use a sort of halberd with a curved spike at the back and a long study spike on the top, both are capably of punching through armour. they were plate-mail armour with a yellow tabard over it. They number three thousand.
Scorpion's Stings.
Much like the Sun Lances except they were segmented dark blue armour what consists of more plate and less mail. This makes them heavier but the average Scorpion is a lot stronger than a Sun Lance. They use a heavier weapon as well, a Poleaxe with a spike on top, that can use its brute force to kill an enemy if the blade doesn't cut through the armour.
Hammers of Iptha.
They're are men armed with mighty hammers, they use boiled leather sewn with steel disks, this makes them lighter and enables them to wield their two-handed war hammers to greater effect. They have uses against heavily armoured infantry, but even a conventional infanmtry man will die from a stroke from a Hammer of Iptha, provided it hits the head or chest. They wear white and red robes. Approximately two and a half thousand.
Underworld Crushers.
Similar in role to the Hammers of Iptha, but rather they used large spiked stone clubs and metal maces. They wear dark green and wear a mix of scale and leather armour covered by dark green robes. About two-thousand one hundred.
Silver Blades.
The Silver blades use two longswords rather than one and they do not carry shields or shortswords. They wear armour of overlapping metal plates that allows for swift movement but provides protection. While not very effective against armoured foes they are devastating against any armour that has weak points, such as chain-mail. There are around three thousand Silver Blades.
Starswords.
The Starswords are in many ways the apposite of Silverblades, they use great two-handed, single-bladed swords that can break through pikes, halberds and spears with ease and still prove equally effective against most foes, hacking through flesh and mail and even breaking through scale armour. Heavy plate is the only effective counter against such weapons. However these weapons lack the finesse and agility of their smaller cousins. Starswords wear silver and black clothes and wear the same overlapping plates that the Silverblades wear. There are three-thousand two-hundred Starswords.
Nightdaggers.
Nightdaggers use a variety of sneaky weapons such as throwing knives, chain-weight-blades, shuriken, bladed gauntlets, and various types of blow-darts and eye-damaging sands. Nightdaggers number about one-thousand eight-hundred, they can be used as assassins and spies and they also bear Ouroboros amulets that protect them against magic, so you could call them anti-mages. They are also famous for a type of anti-magic throwing spike that is completely unaffected by all but the most powerful of magic. They rarely use heavy armour, but wear under shirts of thick tightly woven cotton, then a layer of leather, then an over-tunic.
Phantom Arrows.
Phantom Arrows wear shades of grey, unlike the Crimson Arrows they use shortbows that have a range of about three-hundred paces. But they can fire something in the order of twenty arrows per minute. They carry three-hundred arrows on them, aside from that they use short-swords. There are two-thousand four-hundred Phantom Arrows.
Fleshhewers.
Fleshhewers are the largest of all and some would argue, the deadliest. Unlike others who specialise in one specific area the Fleshhewwers are a unique case. They represent men, and sometimes women, who have lost themselves to the bloodthirsty aspect of Iptha Rehre and the warlike nature of this God. Fleshhewers fight ruthlessly and tirelessly, they follow orders loosely but fight with unbreakable fanaticism, they wield several weapons, great two-handed axes, either single-blades and balanced with a spike or double blades, sometimes just one heavy blade, they wield falchions, either single or dual handed, they also wield a selection of hand axes, each with a cruel curved spike at one end and a blade on the other. some wield a type of war-mattock that looks vaguely like a pickaxe, others, albeit rarely, wield great metal or stone many-faced clubs. Fleshhewers wear a violent scarlet coloured robes and plate and mail underneath that, they possess strength far beyond that of any natural human and will fight until their last breaths leave their bodies. In total they number six thousand.
Dread Arms.
Dream Arms use polearms, but no single one exclusively, some use halberds, others use bladed-spears, others use spiked spears, still others use long-handled maces or axes. As a sidearm most are content will short sword. The Dread Arms are recruited from the standard rank-and-file and other Orders, which means that msot are exceptionally skilled. They wear black robes with a silver clawed hand on the back, under this they either wear scale, leather, or mail armour. Numbers are around two-thousand.
Armour Breakers.
Armour Breakers use single-handed or double-handed warhammers, flails, maces and spiked clubs. Unlike others they don't specify so long as the weapon is a sound anti-amour choice. They wear light armour of overlapping metal plates and wear dull grey cloaks with a broken shield on the back. The Armour Breakers number slightly over two thousand.
Heaven's Word.
Heaven's Word is the most agressive, unlike the others they are divided into two groups, assault-mages and mage-knights. Mage-knights are rare and are drawn from the orders, the Lord's men and the army itself. Mage-knights number only about two-hundred, each one is gifted with excellent combat abilities that are channelled through their weapons, this can range from enchanting a blade to tear through armour or to create a magical shield to deflect oncoming arrows to something like turning an enemy to stone with a blow from a gauntlet.
The remaining five-hundred are attack mages, they can break throw the wardings of lesser mages and call lighting or fire down onto their enemies. Petrification is a gift that all Yelsa mages possess.
Mages wear lavender robes and wield magical metal staffs that aid in channelling magic, usually along the lines of firing bursts of flame from one end. In close range combat these weapons can also be used to focus powers into very unpleasant abilities, such as once struck the enemies body begins to rot from the point of impact.
Blessed Hand.
The Blessed hands are magical healers, they do not take part in combat and possess only weak offensive and defensive abilities, but they posses great powers of healing and illusion. They were spring-green robes and are not armed at all. They number somewhere around twelve hundred.
Celestial Shields. The Celestial Shields are a defensive magical Order, they posses only basic offensive techniques but are very gifted with dispelling and blocking enemy magic, no matter the type. They also have extraordinary abilities at blocking physical attacks and often serve to defend the soldiers from volleys of crossbow bolts, arrows or javelins. The Celestial shields wear loose flowing robes of sky-blue to better allow their magic to flow freely and bear no weapons bar long daggers. This is because they are capable of erecting shields around their bodies that should protect from all but the most concentrated attacks. They number slightly over one thousand.
Lords' Arms men.
A Lord is a rich and powerful Yelsa, usually with ties to the military. Lords are allowed to maintain their own crack troops under the express condition that in times of war they ride to war with their men.
Each province has a council of lords and each lord is trained from birth to fight as well as manage other areas, such as running a mining town or some-such, when in office most Lords take the place of Mayors or Barons although all lords whether currently serving a position in government or not are obliged to provide men to the war effort.
Lords' arms men are better than the rank-and-file but not quite up to par with most of the equivalent men of an Order.
For example, Lord's Lancers would be better than a brigade of Lancers, as they would have more training and more expensive armour and horses, not to mention many veteran soldiers take up position in a Lord's band. But a brigade of Lord's Lancers would not be on par with a brigade of Black Lancers. However recently the Yelsa gave up massed cavalry in their rank-and-file and instead opted for cavalry only as reconnaissance and scouting roles.
In total Lords would have about thirty-thousand men per province, to a total of one-hundred and twenty thousand men. Most of these remain behind for self defence, however.
Other:
This gives the total professional army of the Yelsa a standing strength of approximately three-hundred and sixty thousand men. More men could be called up, should the situation warrant it.
The Yelsa army is also extraordinarily well supplied with a man serving in logistics for every man on the field. Logistics men are unarmed and unarmoured, save for a long dagger that they carry with them, they rely on the army for protection.
In bad times the citizens of a city will take up arms, these Citizens Militia are never sent out of a city, but in total they have numbers that are in the order of about five-thousand for a small city and perhaps twenty thousand for a large one. These militia are not high-quality men, but they fight with a ferocity to defend their homes. Each city also has a City Guard that may not leave it except if the cvity is destroyed, these take care of policing the streets as well as protectign the city in the case of siege, they are in similar number to the Citizen Militia.
Lastly the Yelsa operate a navy of some one-hundred and fifty ships, sixty of which are warships, the rest are cargo ships with Yelsa guards.
Coinage
The monetary system of the Yelsa is arranged on decimals.
The lowest and single currency is what it takes to buy a loaf of bread, or a large bottle of milk. This is the Yarom, a small silver circle about the size of a small button, it is actually mainly nickel and tin.
Ten Yarom make a Yarin, which about twice as large and contains more silver. This is the average daily wage for most paying professions.
Ten Yarin make a Yara, which is more silver and about twice as large. .
Lastly there is the Yire, which is the same size of a Yara but contains gold rather than silver.
For large amounts letters-of-rights can be used, but due to the heavy identification needed they are still rare.
Reasons for editing.
Comparability.
Exports
Cities.
Spelling, ugh.
Still up:
Trade.
Orders.
Characters.