So you want to know more about the planet you're on and the bastards you have to share it with?
Welcome to the wonderful world of
RELIQUARY. The Reliquary system consists of seven planets orbiting a G-type star located on the outskirts of the Cygnus arm of the Milky Way; Reliquary itself being the second planet from the sun. But this is not a colony of some grand star empire, human civilization grew and prospered on Reliquary completely independent of whatever was happening on planet Earth, thousands of lightyears away. In fact, nobody currently alive is even aware of the existence of Earth. All they know is that mankind did not evolve on this planet, and was placed here by something else. The leading theory is that humanity was brought here on a massive generation ship, which has lain crashed in the deserts of Mercana for millenia, though other beliefs contest that mankind was created on this world one day by a god/gods or other higher powers.
The name "Reliquary" comes from an ancient word from a now-dead language describing a container for holy relics. Its name comes from the existence of caches of advanced technology scattered across the planet, left in escape pod-like containers likely jettisoned by the Ship before it crashed. More than one empire in history has gone on a short-lived rampage due to uncovering ancient and powerful weapons in a pod, or benefited from miracle farming or construction equipment. Entire religions have been founded based on the Ship and its artifacts, and whether or not you buy into the spiritual aspect of what they preach, these items certainly do live up to their hype.
One of, if not
the longest-standing civilizations on all of Reliquary. Throughout most of recorded history, the Zentragoths have had considerable stakes in all corners of the globe, though the Imperium of the present day "merely" stretches over the entire Austerran Peninsula. A proud martial tradition has made the Zentragoths a haughty bunch, and they see the rest of the world as weak-willed, undisciplined, and selfish; particularly nations like Mercana and the Huitzitlaotani. However, rather than looking down on them as one may expect, the Zentragoths take it upon themselves to lend assistance to these "unfortunates" as much as possible during peacetime disasters, following a phrase that loosely translates to "Helping the weak is the burden of the strong". In fact, the Imperium consistently spends more money on foreign aid than any other country, and their impressive navy is ironically one of the biggest reliefs a stricken city can see sailing into port.
Day to day life in the Imperium could be best described as "restrictive". Most Zentragoths spend their free time outside, watching sporting events or participating in shooting competitions. This is mainly because the government has to approve almost all forms of video and radio entertainment, and even has to provide its own (very censored) online network, as access to the rest of the world's internet is strictly not allowed for the average citizen. That being said, many will agree that said controlled media doesn't necessarily equate to
bad media, and in fact a handful of officially-sanctioned power ballads about historic events and heroic final stands have found a niche international audience among foreign youths and young adults.
Imperial cities on the mainland are entire fortresses unto themselves. Everything, from architecture to street layout is designed to make every inch as costly as possible for an invading force to take. On top of that, every citizen, male and female, goes through basic training at age sixteen, and are given a rifle to take home at its conclusion (though ammunition, like many other things in Imperial life, is strictly controlled). When hostile forces trespass on Zentragothic soil, there is no such thing as a noncombatant. But a militia alone won't win wars, so of course the Imperium has its own standing army; and a long-standing trade agreement with Helios has ensured that theirs is one of the best equipped in the world. Fielding legions of powered exoskeletons bolstered by their legendary heavy armor brigades, the Imperial Army is more than capable of rolling over any nation who would seek to do them harm.
The North Aesthian Unified Coalition, or NAUC, is one of the youngest political entities currently on the world stage, at only 50 years old. After experiencing firsthand what it feels like to be on the wrong end of the Zentragothic war machine during the Great War (from years 4828-4835) and witnessing the emergence of nuclear weapons as a major threat, twenty separate states on the continent of North Aesthia signed the Kollavik Accords, uniting them all as a single entity for political and military purposes. Almost overnight, this unification transformed the continent from an assortment of surly pseudo-scandanavians into a global superpower, with a military almost the size of the Imperium's.
NAUC's military is as diverse as the dozens of states that make it up. Unlike many of the other nations on Reliquary, NAUC does not excel in any one particular area of warfare. Instead, their strength comes from the diversity provided by being able to draw from so many states with their own unique terrains, climates, and histories of battle. Though their armies are not as fast as Mercana's, invincible as the Imperium's, sophisticated as Kintharia's, or ferocious as the Huitzitlaotani, they are capable of fighting effectively anywhere in the world. In recent years, NAUC has recieved criticism for their tendency to unnecessarily involve themselves in foreign conflicts. Excessive force employed during Operation Frost Eagle in the Nogovan War of 4889 led to obscene amounts of civilian casualties, strengthening the rebels' cause and leading to further destabilization in the region after Coalition troops were recalled home.
Aesthians themselves are a boisterous, and tetchy bunch, prone to brawling and resorting to violence over percieved slights. Despite the political unification, Aesthians still bicker and fight over whos got the purest/noblest/most glorious heritage. One of the only things all the groups have in common is their pantheon of gods, a band of bickering elemental brutes who are prophesized to one day destroy the world in a climactic war to end all wars. A large portion of people in Aesthia harbor a deep-seated hatred towards the Zentragoths, due to their homelands once being a territory of the Imperium. Ever since the signing of the Accords, the Aesthian people have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to avenge the stain left on their past so long ago, and the current outbreak of hostilities seems to have been more than enough of an excuse.
Named "The Land of Opportunity" by its proponents and "Armpit of the Infernal One" by its critics, the Mercanan Commonwealths are a theocratic representative democracy, taking up the lion's share of the continent of Kiraza. Stretching from sea to sea, and covering all the resource-rich but inhospitable desert inbetween, Mercana is a major trade hub and economic power, with a chokehold on the world's supply of oil and precious metals and gemstones. Many a lucky person has struck it big prospecting for gold in the Mercanan deserts, and some even bigger by finding caches of technology left behind by the advanced starship which crashed in the desert several millenia ago.
In fact, the obsession Mercanans have with the Ship is so great, the state religion is based entirely around it. Their religion states that human life originated somewhere else, and was brought to Reliquary by the Ship for one reason or another. Towering cathedrals are built in Its image, and all the tech found in its escape pods are worshipped as holy artifacts, often with ludicrously huge bounties posted for working samples. Many people have been tempted by the promises of wealth and ventured illegally into the dead zone around the Ship, hoping to retrieve an artifact straight from the source. Predictably, every group that made any headway into the zone was never heard from again. Some say that those lost adventurers found things so wonderful that they never wanted to leave, while cynics believe that either the radiation killed them, or something far worse.
Due to the vast desert located in the middle of the continent, the majority of Mercana's population lives on the fringes of their territory. Dozens of bustling port towns dot the Mercanan coasts, processing and shipping tens of thousands of tons of goods every day; while the more temperate plains region to the north produces all the food a nation of its size would need, and then some. Settlements in the desert are few and far between, consisting mostly of small river towns and farming villages, and numerous ghost towns located near dried-up mines. No development whatsoever lies in the radioactive wasteland emanating from the Ship, as the government has cordoned off the entire area and forbidden anyone from setting foot in the wastes without a proper permit.
The Commonwealths' history of rabid mercantalism and the logistics required to pull off trade at such a large scale has made them quite familiar with how to coordinate large numbers of ships, and they currently rival the Zentragoths for possession of the largest tonnage blue-water navy on the planet.
Kintharia was once a mighty empire with a rich history of rabid expansionism and ethnic subjugation. Being the first nation on the entire eastern hemisphere to embrace the Industrial Revolution propelled them into a golden age of conquest that ended with them ruling over almost every inch of land north of the Mercanan desert. Though their grip eventually loosened as the rest of the world caught up with them, they remained a major world power until they ran afoul of the Mercanan Commonwealths in the Great War. Following their defeat in 4835, massive civil unrest broke out all across the Empire among downtrodden ethnic groups clamoring for independence. Weakened by the war and their soldiers unwilling to follow one disastrous defeat with an even more ruinous civil war, the imperial government was easily overthrown and the territories were left to self-determinate. Approximately half of their lost territory seceded to join Yukataan, Xaria, or the Commonwealths; and the other half broke up into smaller independent states. Mercanan assistance in rebuilding and retaining order after the war is probably the single greatest contributing factor to ending the rivalry the two states had shared through most of recorded history, and is credited as the reason the two are so close today.
Militarily, Kintharia is nowhere near where it was at the height of its power, although what they lack in numbers they make up for in quality of equipment. Though nowhere as advanced or widespread as Helios, Kintharia possesses an impressive amount of military automation, backing up their limited forces with combat UAVs, quadrotors, and other drones. Also something of note is that Kintharia currently possesses a large number of women in the military, and unlike Mercana, does not limit them to support roles; instead organizing the army into monogender regiments. Combat with all-female regiments has led to some of their opponents spreading rumors that Kintharia is an amazonian, matriarchal society. Said rumors become especially laughable when considered that such an arrangement would certainly cause a divide between them and their closest ally.
Kintharia's unparalleled economic and technological growth since the end of their imperial age ensured a quick recovery from the savage assreaming they recieved after the Great War. In fact, Kintharia currently possesses the highest ranked quality of life in the world, based on a number of factors including job satisfaction, education, and healthcare. Amusingly, despite the massive secessions from the empire decades ago, Kintharia now faces a major problem with illegal immigration from its former subjects. Said issues have resulted in the average Kintharian citizen taking a rather xenophobic viewpoint towards the rest of the world.
Around half a millenia ago, five relatively unknown city-states on the Deltan continent put aside their petty grievances to destroy an aggressively expansionist kingdom that had been harassing them for decades. United under one banner, they were able to lay siege to the enemy capital and destroy them, enslaving everyone they didn't kill outright. When the dust settled and it came time to divide up the lands, the city-states decided instead to consolidate all their territory into a strong, unified empire, with the captured capital as its new seat of power. Fast forward to present times, and the entire continent has fallen under their banner. Miles upon miles of raw mountainous jungle make the Huitzitlaotani's homeland difficult to invade, to say the least, as Coryza learned during a long and bitter campaign between the years 4868-4873.
Well over half the Huitzitlaotani population is acknowledged to be slaves, with countless others not accounted for in the official censuses. Slavery in the Empire is a hereditary status. If you are a slave, your children will be slaves, and their children's children, and so on. However, slavery is not a hopeless situation. While unable to own property, slaves are able to own possessions and money. There are several laws in place to protect domestic and government slaves; and it is even possible for one to earn one's freedom, be it through buying (or having bought for them) their freedom, serving in the armed forces, or distinguishing one's self in the gladiatorial pits.
But to be a free man or woman in the Empire is to revel in the sort of debauchery that the rest of the world scorns. Almost everything under the sun is legal, so long as it doesn't harm others or your ability to contribute to society. The Huits' lax restrictions on entertainment and their beautiful landscapes attract thrillseekers and tourists from all around the world, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars yearly to fund ever more extravagant festivals and celebrations. Unfortunately for their tourism industry, the Huitzitlaotani are widely regarded as the instigators of the current conflict, after a human trafficking operation in Gervesia was traced back to their government.
Despite its small size, the city-state of Helios is far and away the most technologically advanced sovereign body on Reliquary, sitting atop a wealth of sophisticated leftovers from both the Ship and, if the conspiracy theories are to be believed, xenological artifacts from a "precursor race". Notable Helian innovations include the Orbital Aetheric Harvesting Unit, a space-based power station of massive output; the Magskimmer propulsion system, used in their tremendous heavier-than-air cargo airships; the world's first human-level artificial intelligences; and the first refined and mass-produced energy weapons. Being a nation consisting mostly of scientists and other intellectuals, Helios often stays clear of the petty wars of other nations, preferring to share technological secrets in return for being left alone to study their trinkets. However, their passiveness should not be confused for pacifism, as one of their dimmer neighbors has repeatedly forgotten and been reminded of.
As of their defeat in the Great War, the Democratic Republic of Socialist People's Glorious Homeland of Porlaq has been reduced to a shadow of its former glory, and the Porlaq of today is a starving, diseased carcass of a once-great military and economic power. After decades of Porlaq's "Imperious Leader" threatening its neighbors while neglecting the miserable conditions Porlaqi citizens were suffering at home, the country suffered a devastating but brief civil war which saw the majority of the civilian population and over half the military turning on the rest, culminating in the razing of the Imperious Leader's private residence and his subsequent lynching. The provisional government is currently doing their best to restore diplomatic contact with other nations, but with a globe-spanning war underway it is unknown how long it will take before relations will begin to thaw with the rest of the world.
Credits/sources:
Help with Kintharian lore - xxxxkill
Talksprites/Character Design - xxxxkill
Help with NAUC lore - Gojira
Dice rolling program - carolcat
and a MAJOR shoutout to NoZoner for the map and the "ABS FIESTA" header.