Velhael

Velhael is ruled by the Floral Bloodline, with the current ruler being The Sunflower King. Ruling status makes no distinction between genders.   Below the monarchy there is a court known as The Garden, full of members of elite society that originally were voted in by various subsections of Velhael itself. Since its inception, however, elections have been eased into non-existence and most members either inherit the position or are invited by various Garden members. There is a lack of hierarchy within The Garden, but there is a silent agreement that tenure lends more weight to certain individuals.   Any members of the royal family not in line for the throne are generally granted some parcel of land where they act as overseers.

Before the events of the Second Mass Exodus the original denizens of Velhael consisted of Agnae, spirits of nature attuned to the essence of the world. The majority of the Agnae lived in relatively independent city-states pocketed over the woods and mountains of nature, with a few smaller settlements dotting the rest of the landscape. Much of their history and culture were inscribed on the material that they lived in (trees, caves, roots) and were either worn away by time or by human hands.   In the year XX Briarswight led an exodus across the Central Ringlet from Banallma, finding the mountains "opening up at (her) approach". Believing it to be a divine sign of luck from the Lords, Briarswight led her people to the new land. Records of this time are patchy, and it is believed that some primordial force overtook the Agnae, causing them to flee or fall ill. Left with an empty yet well fortified land, Briarswight established Belhaven, now the capital of Velhael.   The power structure of Banallma followed the fledgling nation and a prototype of The Garden was formed. This group debated among themselves to create a government, handing down laws to the people, but not far enough away for the common people to get their needs heard. As the nation expanded, the Garden warped into a more familiar structure to the current time. At some unspecified point, Briarswight rose and took leadership as the pinnacle of the organization once again, staking her claim upon the land under the notion she was the inciter of their discovery. A drawn out, bloody battle between the members resulted in her taking the throne as the first and sole ruler, the Ruby Rose Queen.   Two years after the Ruby Battle Briarswight established the first secession laws, binding Velhael itself with her blood as a final mark of domination over the land. Her son, the Orchid King ascended to the throne. Due to their natural defenses Velhael did not have to focus on military conquest, focusing more on exploration and acquisition of natural resources. In his last years of reign a split in reality occurred in the southern woodlands, due to an event dubbed The Mage-Rift. From it a new race of refugees spilled out, escaping a horrific event from their own world. They shifted appearance as they were observed, and claimed their dark goddess Nyx abandoned them to die. The Orchid King saw this as an invasion, but with a weakened military force and the refugees scattering across the land the strategy was marked as a failure. As he passed on the mantle to his children, the newly crowned Buttercup Queen took up forming a set of overarching militaristic might. Later known as the Rainbow Knights, each color denomination provided services in different fields.   In the year XX, a subsection of the Ruby Knights fought back. This new faction, the Scarlet Knights are lead by the False Lady, later on named The Scarlet Queen. The Scarlet Queen led the most successful coup in the history of the continent, slaughtering the majority of the Garden and the royal family. After taking the throne for herself she went about systematically tracking down every remaining member of Briarswight's bloodline and eliminating them as well. They stayed in power for well over a decade, building up Velhael's militaristic might and spreading rumors that the Scarlet Queen was the vessel for Briarswight's eidolon that returned to set the nation back on course. Over the years her paranoia grew, causing her to lash out more and more at the populace. This paranoia led to a final slaughter at the base of the volcano at the heart of Velhael. In XX the city of Dawntorch, a stubborn resistance hub, was burned to the ground and the citizens fed to the mountain by only the Scarlet Queen and four of her closest Knights. The tragedy stopped other resistance forces making their presence overtly known. On the anniversary of the event the following year a masked figure charmed the entire capital building in Belhaven, holding the guards, Knights, and Queen herself spellbound as they assassinated her before disappearing into the air. The blood from her wounds crystallized and scattered at her final bouts of laughter, deranged and lost, before her entire body crumbled to dust.   In the months after this event, the remains of the Garden scrambled together, reasserting itself as the leaders of the now turbulent nation. The False Lady's name was scrubbed from all records and a child was unearthed from an illicit union between one of the Garden members and the fourth Prince-in-waiting. The Lichen King and his mother, Queen of Ivy work with the Garden to try and re-balance the nation, weakened to a dangerous degree from the decade of the Scarlet Queen's rule.   The nation has since been on an upward climb, balancing military might with economic power, investigations into magic as well as technology. The current rulers are The Sunflower King and Queen, heir of the throne The Lilac Princess. In his time The Sunflower King managed to contain an outbreak of the plague, expand the arts, and crush an invasion of Scarlet Knights clinging to the edge of Velhael.   And now, the Isle moves again...

A census is conducted by the Orange Knights every ten years, one of the few times they are in action outside of their offices. The total population of the most recent census declared there were roughly two million individuals spread across the Velhael territory, not including the pockets of Agnae discovered, groups of bandits, and individuals far from civilization.   The vast majority of the population can trace their roots back to Kribella and the Second Mass Exodus, making them descendants of Banallma. There are a few family lines that have traces of Agnae, Trickster, and even Mourningstar blood as determined by scholars at the Mage-Rift. So far no individuals of Velhael have mixed blood with Starlings. Rarer still are intelligent forms of Sirelings, though a few bands are known to exist.

Velhael's capital and oldest cities lie in the Windblind Basin, while the rest of the nation lies within the Empty Hollow between the various mountains of The Ridges. These lands were arguably colonized and taken from the native Agnae population, whom quickly disappeared with the introduction of Briarswight and her followers.   The Empty Hollow itself has a few notable territories; to the north is The Oilfalls which feeds into the Oilrun, the vast plains of Agnae's Rest to the east, and the Perforated Mountains to the southeast. Each site is marked due to them hosting various battles against the Agnae that have been mostly scrubbed from history.

In Velhael the Militaristic and Judicial forces all are united under the umbrella of the Rainbow Knights. Each color is assigned a specific field of expertise;

• The Red Knights were disbanded following the coup of The Scarlet Queen.
• The Orange Knights are in charge of administrative duties, mostly paperwork and sending out changes to law dictated by The Garden to far-flung settlements across Velhael.
• The Yellow Knights police the skies, adapting to the quickly changing technological advancements of the era.
• The Green Knights specialize in foreign affairs, and are often sent to escort diplomats, gather information, and provide espionage for Velhael's goverment.
• The Cerulean Knights are the most generic group, and act as the primary enforcers of the law. Many Knights start as Cerulean Knights before climbing into other sectors, and some groups have a mandatory minimum involvement as Cerulean Knights.
• The Violet Knights protect the King and Crown, and are the royalty's last line of defense.
• The Silvered Knights are specialized Blue Knights, being called in for investigations and especially heinous crimes.
• The Black Knights take the form of judges. They are appointed to each settlement and city to make the final decisions after a crime has been committed. Their word is often law, and in rare instances can supersede that of The Garden.
• The White Knights are the generalized military force of Velhael. They exist within their own hierarchy and are trained in many skills in case war takes them across multiple fields. They are often looked down upon among other Knight groups as being "separate" from the Rainbow.

The very conception of Velhael and its main religion of Velaic are closely tied together. For decades Banallma had been the seat of power in the world, with the Floating Isle hovering above it. A very young Briarswight tended to the fields of XX, a popular trading town next to the Spring of Life. She is said to have received a vision sent from the Isle, guiding her to believe that the Master Princes were not the true gods over them. Over months she raised the funds and educated herself in the capital, drawing connections across the various faiths and distilled their essences enough to uncover the true progenitor Lords. Her work was found blasphemous, with the Elders accusing her of heresy. Briarswight was arrested, but due to the influence of the Lords she slipped away and led a large group of followers across the Central Ringlet. They approached the neutral territory between Durkab and Folstova, having no new land to settle, and Briarswight called upon the Lords to help once more. They separated The Ridges and revealed the territory that would become Velhael.   In her possession Briarswight held a tome that recounted the mythology that she shared as truth, and upon her deathbed she revealed the book itself came from the skies on the same fateful day she had her vision. The style of binding and creation were foreign to any known nation. Under her approval copies were made and sent out to each new settlement as Velhael expanded, some dedicating themselves to certain Lords over others, some others still venerating the Master Princes in the same light as these newer found gods.

With other countries in the Inner Ring relations are rather tense. Velhael, a new nation and still settling into its role and identity spent a lot of its formative years throwing its weight around with Briarswight, and later again with The Scarlet Queen. Being well isolated and defended from other nations, there is still a sense of cockiness residing in most inhabitants. This has only increased with the advancement of technology, as Velhael is close to the center of the continent and as such has the potential to be the richest nation due to commerce.   Banallma still has frayed relations with Velhael, especially after their lack of support during the Northern War. Folstova and Durkab have eased their relations over the years, with Folstova claiming alliance with Velhael.   In the Outer Ring Velhael's presence is mostly unremarkable. Some trade negotiations have recently started with Falkar now that they have opened their borders, and Riven briefly had high tension after the Great Scarring, but Ikthal has had no interaction with Velhael.