Afrene

 Pronunciation: AF-reen

Adjective: Afrennen (af-REN-en)

Capital: Thipea

Major Islands:

Afrene Island: 78, 501 sq mi (203,000 sq km) [Nebraska]

Population: ~20 million

Government: Constitutional Oligarchy/Republic

Economy:  Agricultural, for the most part. Afrene is the major producer of nearly all the luxury plant products in Litanea, and also supplies a big chunk of Chō's basic food needs. Thevia and Miln also both import food staples from them, but unlike Chō they could in theory get by without mass starvation if the food shipments stopped.

Politics: While most of the government is freely elected, the thirteen ruling Consuls are each able to choose their own successors. A complex system of checks and balances has thus far managed to keep the system from falling apart. Prior to a recent (relatively civilized) revolution, only the land owning farmer-barons actually had the vote. Government officials are elected in tiers: the peasants elect mayors, who elect county governors, who in turn elect senators. Each tier is also able to elect non-governing positions, so peasants vote in their local sheriff, mayors get together to name county judges, et cetera.

Religion: There is the typical worship of harvest deities, as can be expected, although the rest of the Iomei pantheon certainly get their share of prayers.

Culture: There is also a cultural fanaticism about giving back to the land, whereby nearly all waste products from the society are either recycled or put to some other use: night soil and refuse is collected and sent out as fertilizer, scrap metal and wood are broken down and put into new materials, and cremation is practically illegal outside of infectious diseases. All island cultures have to recycle persistently, but Afrene takes it to an almost pathological level.

They also have a distinct tendency to believe that any problem can be solved through the application of more manpower. They have gotten slightly better on that account since the peasants got legal rights, but they have been using those tactics fairly successfully in one form or another for nigh on half a millennia. By this point, even the peasants take a perverse sort of pride in the power of sheer numbers.

Social Systems: Family in Afrene is all about the kids; so long as you are raising some, the number and gender of the people involved in your marriage (and their biological relation to any kids) is considered trivial. Within that context, same-gender and opposite-gender relationships are both acceptable, but the general presumption is that a same-gender pair (or threesome, etc) will a) adopt children, b) attach themselves to a family unit with children and assist in their raising, or c) invite one or more members of the opposite gender into their relationship and "lie back and think of Afrene". Large families are the rule - especially amongst the lower classes - with multiple parents and children all living together or in closely-situated domiciles. The descendants of the Farmer-Barons and similarly middle-to-upper-class families tend to follow the more Milanese fashion of two parents and only a few children, although the Afrennen could care less about two upper-class gents (or ladies) getting together, as there will always be a surplus child floating around somewhere that can be adopted as an heir. Single parents are socially acceptable, but liable to be pressured by well-meaning friends and relations to 'settle in' with an another family unit.

As a people, the Afrennen are more or less comfortable with the idea that sex exists. They deal with enough livestock and, well, children that denying its existence would be akin to living in England and refusing to own an umbrella. They are not crass about it (although the Milanese might think so), but such things are openly discussed, and there is - in theory - no absolute rules on who you can and cannot bed. Of course, the fact that there are no hard and fast rules does not magically make jealousy, sexual or otherwise, vanish in a puff of idealism. The social dynamics of Afrennen marriages are almost always complicated, usually unstable, and sometimes violent. Still, the vast majority of marriages are unlikely to break up for good. Separation periods are not unheard of and, with time, the larger number of people involved tends to have a counter-balancing effect on any temporary bouts of shrewishness.

Climate: Moderately temperate. A warm southern current keeps both Thevia and southern Afrene from suffering from turning into solid blocks of ice in the winter. Placing them firmly in the cooler end temperate zone, regular snows are common in late autumn and winter, although only rarely do they get more than five inches built up at any given point in time, and most of that is inland and away from the temperature-regulating effects of a large body of water. Northern Afrene is generally warmer, but more unpredictable, up to and including the occasional week-long heat wave in early winter punctuated by fridgid and damp days. 

History: For the bulk of it's recorded history, Afrene was composed of sometimes bickering, but usually loosely allied petty kingdoms. It took Miln's imperial interests to forge a truly coherant nation out of the island's people. The conflict with Miln didn't end with simply stopping the burgeoning empire. Rather, it started a lengthy rivalry between the two 'historical superpowers' of Litanaea. Thevia, in particular, suffered during this war, being close enough for Afrene to wage raids and punitive attacks against the trading nation.

The Litanaean Great War eventually ended with the Treaty of Deepiron, after Miln discovered that for every Afrennen they cut down, two more were conscripted. And that while hardly the pinacle of technical sophistication, longbows were still deadly weapons, especially when used en masse.

Of course, While Afrene did fight Miln to a standstill, the 'cannon fodder' tactics of the high command were frankly the last straw for the peasant population of Afrene, and either shortly before or shortly after Deepiron, the Consuls were quietly forced to sign into law what could be considered the Litanaean version of the Magna Carta, mixed in with some influences of the American Constitution.

The 'change' in government, not to mention an all-around decrease in military tensions in Litanaea and the healing effects of time have (more-or-less) repaired Afrene's diplomatic ties with Thevia and Cho. This has allowed the metal and fuel poor Afrene to finally join the Industrial Revolution game, and they've hit the ground running and intend to do what they have always done when presented with an insurmountable technological hurdle: throw more people at the problem. They certainly aren't about to run out of them, after all.

GodTouched: The Children of Iomei have declared all GodTouched to be anathema, with the singular exception of those who have been 'cleansed' by the 'divinely blessed magi'. Even so, in the Iomei-praising Afrene, you can count the number of 'approved' godtouched on one hand and you certainly never see them flaunting themselves in public. Others are run out of town, if they're lucky, or lynched, if they're not.

     *Thipea (THIP-ee-ah or TIP-ee-ah) – X

     Aine AIN – X

     Heise (HACE) – X

     Imiara (im-ee-ARE-ah) – Some of the rarest and most beautiful flowers in the world grow in and around Imiara. To be certain, the area contained an abundance of fantastical foliage before man or kith ever set foot in its hills and valleys, but the locals have since brought in more and more diverse varieties, constructed several hothouses for growing plants out of season (or out of climate) and one of the largest botany schools in Litanaea is nestled just outside the city, sprawled atop a nearby hill. It is a beautiful and bucolic city, sprawling lazily across the land, and all the way down to the sea.

     Odi (O-dee) – X

     Oulaen (oo-LANE) – X

     Rissa (RISS-ah) – X

     Tebor (TEB-ur) – X