Skadia
 |
This article is a stub. You can help Stoneshard wiki by expanding it. |
| “ | Skadia is a distant northern country surrounded by many enemies. Skadians are rugged, reserved, and well-known for their disdain toward all manner of hierarchy, preferring to settle important matters by popular assemblies. | „ |
Skadia, also known as Semigradye - "the Land of Seven Cities", is a dominantly human country consisting of allied city-states and located to the north-east of Aldor.
Geography and Economy
Skadia is bordered by Fjall to the west, Jacinth Kingdoms to the south, and to the east by the pagan nomad cultures. It lies at the northern end of the Continent, before the Icy Sea.
A land of contrasts, in Skadia mountains give way to dense taiga which in turn recedes into grasslands and steppe in the south-east. Additionally, Skadia is a maritime country, its coastline almost as expansive as that of Fjall or Nistra, a matter which is reflected by the background of some Skadians traveling Aldor.
Skadian exports to Aldor usually many shipments of timber but also amber, pelts, meat and other animal products, as well as weapons and armor, while notable imports from Aldor are agricultural products like grain and wine. The northern loop of the Azure Thread trade route passes through cities of Bela Brama and Nyzhgrad before splintering to the norther-eastern Vezhina and further west into Fjall.
Government and religion
Skadia consists of many independent cities, although only the seven largest and most prosperous ones - Vezhina, Bela Brama, Nizhgrad, Veledz, Stroma, Brazhav, and Tur - are widely documented.
Skadia is not ruled in whole nor in parts by any line of monarchs; the nobility of Skadia holds only fractional power compared to its neighbors. Skadian cities raise their own armies and mint their own coinage. Popular assemblies called veches by influential townsmen are responsible for governmental decisions, but when faced with a major threat, the cities may elect an Elder Prince to lead the nation and its armies.
Like in the nearby Aldor, Gnostic Hieronism is widespread in southern Skadia, but in the north the Path of Stoicism, or Northern Hieronism, is dominant, a Path shared in modern times only in the northern Nistra.
History and Culture
Relatively little is known of the history of Skadia. Raids from Fjall and Jarimad have shaped the character of Skadians in particular, and the country has no immediate Hieronite neighbors, the closest being Aldor – the two countries are separated by mountain ranges and lack any shared borders.
Skadian people are considered to be rugged and reserved by Aldorians. They are known to hold grudges, paying the most grievous offenses in blood and going to great lengths to see these debts extracted.
Skadia is also notable for its powerful mages, called volkhvs, although other details of their preferred magic schools and strategies are not widely known in present-day Aldor, as well as for its bardiches, which are a status symbol in the country not unlike swords in Aldor or maces and hammers in Nistra.
Skadian cuisine consists of practical dishes and additives such as incorporating vegetables with offal and fortifying herbs.
Military and Weaponries
Skadian military or citizen in general putting mace in high regard unlike Aldor or Jacinth Kingdom. This is shown on their chekans and their many maces like the Druzhyna and Voivod maces that are known across the globe and how it used as weapon of war but also as status or ranks for their military.
Beside maces, one weapon that are known from Skadia is their bardiches. It is known and used by Skadian greatest warriors on their biggest battle across the world. The effectiveness and usefulness of the bardiches impacted other country such as Aldor and Nistra to copy and adapt bardiches to their military.
For armor, there's little information or prevalent armorsmith in Skadia unlike their prowess to produce good bludgeons and bardiches. With so many Jarimad and Fjall raids, little by little they acquired knowledge and technique borrowed from them to build good armor to fend off many raids in the future. This produce mostly light metal armor for head protection or Skadian Yushman which is mail armor reinforced with metal piece to protect them from arrow shots or spear thrusts.
Because the very separate cities of Skadia and their culture that mostly about trading and seafarer, there's little to no information about their tactic or warfare. Beside their prowess wielding blunt weapons and bardiches to defend their town from raids, there's no unique warfare that is well-known from Skadia itself.
For their military troops it is known that most cities in Skadia have their own militia to defend their territories unless there is major threat or major campaign that issued by elected Elder Prince. Thus band of warriors that are companied or renowned are usually Elder Prince's troops such as:
- Elder Prince's retinues and champions, adorned with the best armor and weapon such as the Skadian Bardiches and Skadian Shield.
- Druzhyna, personal bodyguard of Elder Prince, usually wielding the famous Druzhyna Bludgeon.
- Voivod, a general, usually high-born military commander under Elder Prince.
- Skadian Horsemen, usually wielding their Skadian Sovnya, no information if the horsemen are light or heavy cavalry..
- Volkhvs, a powerful spellcaster from Skadia, famous wielding the Skadian Staff.
Trivia
- Skadia is heavily inspired from Kievan Rus civilization.
- Elder Prince is referring to Kievan Rus Grand Knyaz.
- Many weapons and naming sense are borrowed from the real life of Kievan Rus or old Slavic language.