Azaan

Azaan
File:Azaan.jpg
Country Information
Capital:	Azaan
Ethnic Group:	Humans
Government:	High Foremanship

Azaan is a nation of artificers from a distant island. They have only recently begun to make their presence known in this part of the world, so much of the information presented here has been gained second hand. It may contain exaggerations, misinterpretations, mistakes, or outright fabrications.

History

It would seem that at some, long ago point the island was dominated by a magical empire, which was overthrown by the beginnings of the City-State.

It started quickly once the principles of natural and unnatural law, as the Azaan term it, were discovered. Magic was found to be, at its raw roots, a stark alteration of base physical laws. In short, fireballs do not spontaneously form, nor do the dead return to life.

With this discovery, craftsmen of the day were able to slowly begin to utilize the idea that the natural laws could, through sufficient methods, be made to reinforce themselves over and above that of the 'unnatural' laws.

The 'distillation' of light through lenses and the use of mirrors was an important part of this, as were the properties of lodestones and the heat generated by metals placed under strain. Of the legions of men stirred to battle the magi, there were others who now watched and learned. Some used gearworks that proved to 'naturally' assert the natural laws around themselves, perhaps for one in every five men preventing magical fire from burning them to death, merely leaving them as living burnt husks of meat.

The revolution ultimately swung to the craftsman, as they shielded their homes from magical observances through complex machinery, leaving them able to plan in secrecy.

And so the City-State developed. The natural laws were deemed the only true path, those practicing their own religions and beliefs were stamped out in the beginnings of a brutal dictatorship. The island as a whole prospered with no outside influence, leaving the Craftsmen to do as they would.

Today Azaan is dotted with complex tower-like machineries that flicker in the sunlight, masses of whirling mirrors and gems powered by the labour of animals pressed into surface, no scrying-glass able to resolve an image from within.

The uneducated population of the island remain in practical slave-labour, ships straying too near to shore flying unfamiliar colours have rocks flung out at them from the coastline and few outside nations have contact with the Azaan. The only sustained evidence of their existance to date could be found in the occasional trinket of intense mechanical complexity, some still working after generations.

Unfortunately, the mountains of Azaan begin to lose their metals, the forests of the island are all but gone, and still the City-State expands, and still it requires fuels and materials.

Geographical Features

The City-State of Azaan is administered beneath a 'High-Foremanship', a title bestowed to a man who is considered to be the engineer of the state itself. The city-state itself exists at the center of the Island of Azaan, being a good 50 kilometers wide, and 140 long. The apparent location of the Island is within the ocean, relatively far to the South-West of Arangoth. (This has proven difficult to confirm through magical scrying, a traditional method, for reasons outlined below.) Other political entities exist on the island, although all are under the dominion of the City-State.

Government and Politics

Azaan is ruled over by the High-Foreman, who is advised by the 'Council of Peers', all positions in which are only filled with the most accomplished Craftsmen, which are voted for based on seniority and opinions. Laws are made and acted on by the Council of Peers and the High-Foreman, and internal rivalries along with an overall closed system has resulted in a stagnant point of view as a whole. Any ambassadors dispatched to other nations, a singularly rare occurance, will tend to be younger craftsmen of repute, destined for the Council of Peers itself.

Military

The weapons in use by the Azaan are widespread amongst their Craftsmen, and at times exotic. Siege weaponry they are known to use are massively complicated, often making use of ox or slaves in treadwheels to power them. The Azaan think nothing of flattening entire armies through the use of such weapons to distribute munitions equally strange - From flaming pots that shatter and flood the air with rains above battlefields, to crossbow bolts that release ear-piercing shrieks as they fly through the air.

The most common melee weapon they are seen to use are staffs roughly the thickness of a man's arm, with a variety of mechanical devices built into them.

On Azaan Airships

The Airships of Azaan are generally speaking refined hot-air balloons, the baskets of which are generally boat-shaped decks, from which there are yard-arms and the like with sails hung from them to gain speed and allow navigation, and occasionally large fans powered by treadwheel. While expensive to produce and maintain, they are not uncommon in Azaan itself, being the preferred method of moving large stores of goods, as well as intercepting ocean vessels straying too close to their shores.

On Azaan Staffs

There's a symbolic relationship between a Staff and a Lever, and this seems to have started with the revolution that formed the City-State. Men working for the Craftsmen as assistants and apprentices would take as much as they could with them to build and repair siege weapons, and couldn't carry much weaponry or armour with them. Instead, the levers used to wind machinery became servicable clubs. As the machinery developed during the revolution, more force had to be applied, and longer levers were used. Often even if the crew had to abandon their siege weapon, they would take the levers with them - believing, a little erroneously, that they would act as symbols of natural law against magic. Regardless, this has evolved into the modern Azaan use of the weapons.

Typically arm thickness, the staffs they use are packed with machinery. While often encased in far lighter wood, the staff itself will contain all manner of blade and spring. A twist of a metal ring set in the staff may force spearheads in all directions from its tip, or release a series of cogs and springs that sends a bolt from its end with the same rough effect as a crossbow. Weapons that sprout folding blades to become a scythe one moment, a spear the next, and perhaps a halberd before flinging bolts or darts at foe were of great appeal to the post-revolution Azaan. Needless to say, these tend to be mechanically complex enough to assert the natural laws with relative ease.

Most Azaan Craftsmen, the only ones who would be allowed to carry such weaponry, tend to build their own, however many dedicated to other sciences will purchase theirs from workshops dedicated to the creation of the staffs. One employed as a bodyguard and assistant, not an uncommon position, might build his entirely out of metal for durability.

Few Azaan would forego the carrying of such a weapon, primarily due to the relatively high danger in tempting the 'uneducated masses' to think they'd have any real chance in attacking their masters.

Principle of Natural Law versus Unnatural Law

The principle decrees that the application of 'natural laws' in sufficient complexity, such as the distillation of light into its various colours, has an affect in stabalizing the natural laws against any 'magical' acts, which are based around the 'unnatural laws', or considered disruption of the natural laws. A sufficiently complex pocket-watch, for example, would have the capacity to disturb low-powered illusions in the hands that hold them, and would be better equipped to survive the incineration of its owner in the event of fireballs raining from the sky.

The more or less absolute nullification of unnatural power would require far more. The distillation of light, alignment to the stars, careful usage of minerals and alloys, exquisite demonstrations of balance and gearwork - in short, suitable only for use in buildings.

Ultimately, the Azaan are able to produce devices of a sufficient quality and complexity, possibly the upper limit, that in the size and complexity of a smallish building or tower-sized device no higher than 5-6 stories could absolutely nullify magical activity within the building, and around it for perhaps ten to twenty meters. Beyond that magical activity would be mildly disturbed for another ten, and beyond that there can be no effect whatsoever. Far larger constructions would, obviously, have further-reaching ranges.

A man could, at best, carry enough such machinery to prevent one to scry his location, invade his mind or otherwise weakly tamper with him, though could do nothing to prevent a determined magical attack.

Society and Peoples

In short, if one is not a craftsman or other person of education, you are dirt. Employment has more in common with slavery, and slavery itself is a relatively popular and common phenomenon in Azaan. The rights of the average citizen in Azaan generally have as their high point the right to own their own shoes. The particular low points include an inability to choose career paths, or enter any major school of education without sponsorship. Those who are craftsmen, and have completed an apprenticeship or stint as a student in regards to any major science, on the other hand, are a practical nobility. On a slight positive point, there's very little distinction between gender in terms of practical rights, and in terms of the number of 'educated' versus 'uneducated'. As it always has, however, the educated elite in Azaan are often less than one in ten people, at some points in their history dropping as low as one in twenty.

Technical Competence

The Azaan's craftsmen are, in general, educated and skilled enough to be considered amongst the most achieved engineers in the world. (OOC Note - It should be noted: efforts in regards to the utilization of Steam-power or 'gunpowder' style weaponry are not only fruitless, but potentially impossible.) Chemistry is sufficiently advanced for the production of acids, unstable explosives only really usable for mining, or any other application where it can remain relatively immobile - the sort of thing that picking up or breathing on tends to detonate. The major technological advancements that the Azaan can be noted for are primarily in the use of Hot-Air balloon style airships, (More on this later) and notably 'Clockwork Golems', which are capable of far more than the wind-up walking animals and toys the Azaan make. There is rumour that these 'Golems' are capable of speech, and perhaps even coherant thought.

There is some debate by those learned in the ways of machines in other nations, however, to the possibility of anything like this with machine alone, meaning there is likely far more behind this than is being made general knowledge. When pressed, the Azaan artificers responsible have only ever responded that it involves 'Trade Secrets'.