The Canate Princedom

The Grim March of Progress

  Canate is a paradox of a nation: ruled by the dead, yet loved by the living. Selfish in ends, but selfless in execution. Structured around evil principles and yet responsible for good outcomes. Canate is the only nation on Iocrade that is ruled by the undead, with the eponymous Princes and Princesses being vampires, each and every one of them. They are aware of their precarious positions of being maligned in almost every good and many neutral religions. Thus, they carefully walk the line of feeding their wants, needs, and egos while ensuring that the people beneath them believe that they are better off, or at least as good, under them compared to anyone else. Their economy is thriving, their people are happy, and their infinite supply of undead labour makes them deceptively productive for their size and population. The future could hold fortune or ruin for Canate - only time will tell.    

Geography

  Canate is cold-temperate in climate and is primarily composed of taiga and boreal forest. It does, however, have a southern swampy belt, which was used to great effect during the Canate Secession by having zombies wait in the waters, grab the ankles of passing soldiers, and pull them to their death. As a part of the Greater Stormakt geographical region, they have very similar animal populations, with reindeer, wolves, mooses, beavers, bears, lynxes, wild boars, and wolverines, and so on. Canate has a particularly high concentration of bats, including strange and dangerous variations, as well as Taiga Giants, Mute Hags, and Boreal Wolves. Stray undead are also a common issue, wandering aimlessly and attacking whoever they see.  

Government and Geopolitics

  The Canate Princedom is an elective oligarchic monarchy centred around a series of Princes and Princesses, who are the overlords of certain locales. They retain a pseudo-feudal structure, with Prince-Barons, Prince-Counts, and Prince-Dukes. Female variations of these titles simply substitute Princess and keep the male feudal title, with the rendering accomplished by the former - IE: Princess-Count, Princess-Duke, etc. However, this is a system of organization, and Princes do not 'own' the land they administer - rather, it is an assigned hereditary task from which they reap rewards as if they were a feudal lord. The 12 Duchies of Canate elect one of their own to represent them on the Council of Princes, and the Council selects one of their own to be the Grand Prince/Princess, the head of state and the executive branch of the nation. All Canate Princes are equal; their assignments represent different responsibilities among equals with matching rewards to the level of responsibility.   The Council of Princes make decisions through and internal democracy, taking on suggestions from their subordinate Princes, or making their own, and tabling those propositions to be voted on by their peers. All Princes on the council must vote - they will lose their position if they postpone too long. The Grand Prince has a vote worth 2 and may veto resolutions that do not receive at least 9 votes. Assignments are handed out or reaffirmed every 50 years, on the 14th day of the 6th month, right in the middle of the year, on the dot. This includes the elections for the Council of Princes. If a Prince dies during his tenure, his designated heir will finish said tenure. A Grand Prince who has held the position for 2 consecutive terms must wait 4 terms before being eligible for reelection.   The system of taxation in Canate is lenient and gentle on the commoners. As a general rule, Canate Princes know the value of forward-thinking. They are willing to wait a bit longer for something they want and save up for that which they might need. Taxes are raised during times of crisis or when rapid action is needed on something, but these hikes are temporary and levied primarily on more prosperous regions. However, in return for these privileges above the common peasantry of neighbouring Stormakt and Tel Iskarra, the people of Canate have no right to their own dead. Funeral ceremonies are held in absentia, as the body has likely already been claimed by the local Undertaker for reanimation.   The Canate Princes are primarily opposed by the Kingdom of Stormakt and Tel Iskarra to the south. Both of these nations have a religious opposition to undeath and the undead. Canate seceded from Stormakt a century before the present day, and yet that wound is still fresh in the national pride of the Stormaki people. Canate, for its part, is generally content to remain its own nation and develop internally - however, it is prepared to strike first in the event that the enemies on their home island decide to make a move. The elves and drow of the Moonlight and Starflame Kingdoms, respectively, have their own respective grievances against Canate - the former disapprove of their use of undead labour and the latter have no markets among their fellow Lawful Evil nations due to the lack of interest in living slaves. The Starflame also capture a small number of Canate peasants from time to time.   The strangest aspect of Canate is its strange alliance with the Halfing Communes of Callang. The invasion of Callang by the Karaz Taruhm Shogunate could have been a decisive invasion of an unprepared people, were it not for the tenacity of the Halfling militias and the threats of intervention by the Canate Princes. The ceasefires that followed in an attempt to find a settlement gave Canate time to erect the Bonewight Wall, a megafortification that guards the entire border between the southern peninsula and the rest of the island, preventing large-scale aggression across these borders without significant military effort. This has antagonized the Shogunate, and in return has created an uneasy de facto alliance between the Princes and the Communes. It remains unclear what Canate wanted to do with this intervention, but many believe that they were simply attempting to contain the expansion of the Shogunate.  

Economy

  Canate, much like Stormakt, still has a primarily agrarian economy. They cultivate mostly the same crops, barley, wheat, and millet, flax, and fodder crops. Sugar beets are also a common crop, particularly for farmers close to their Prince's castle, and apples for cider. Southern farmers also cultivate using the swamps, raising cranberries, wild rice, and cattails. Commoners also catch fish and raise livestock, primarily cows, pigs, and chickens, with meat preserved over the winter via smoking and salting, normally only done with cows and chickens when they cease to be productive in other ways. Hunting is a common food source for peasants with a bow, and women will sometimes partake in local economic ventures including making and repairing clothes, midwifery, and minor magic.   Canate has fewer cities than Stormakt, and they tend to be slightly smaller than their Stormaki counterparts. Most people in these cities practice a skilled trade of some sort, with a large population of unskilled labour supporting their work. There is also money coming into the cities from military work, but unconventionally - many people will offer themselves as Warrior Adepts, training their bodies and minds to become capable warriors and raise the quality of their body for eventual reanimation. This requires a weekend commitment to training, and they live until death by natural causes. However, a Warrior Adept can accept a painless and peaceful euthanization once they reach a certain point in the training - and any point thereafter - in return for giving their family a large lump sum of money and a modest pension.   The Kingdom of Stormakt controls most of the region's mineral resources, though Canate retains control of some lesser iron, copper, lead, silver mines. Silver mines are closely regulated by the Princes, and every silver coin minted in Canate is covered in a resinous coating that prevents the silver from directly touching someone's skin. This resin will also ruin the silver if it is melted down unless stripped first, and it will be very difficult to remove the resin from the liquid silver, and harder still to do so with it once it's hardened. The main mineral resource in Canate, and the only one they control more of than Stormakt, is coal. They produce enough coal that the Yalenva Emirates, despite their own anti-undead sentiments, buy coal from the Princes.   Magical Items in Canate are strictly regulated. While minor talismans and trinkets are overlooked, anything more complex or powerful is produced by and distributed according to the local Prince's policies on the matter, which are subject to national regulations. Magic items are sold only to citizens known to be in good standing and are associated with Scrying Runes kept in a ledger, allowing these items to be tracked and seen. Magic items are a common fixture of the Princes' lives, particularly their Black Amulets which protect them from the sun.   The Canate Princes themselves are known to practice various crafts as hobbies. The most common is winemaking. Canate Princes produce many varieties of wine, but the most common is Ichor Vintage, a wine made from blood with sugar mixed in from sugar beets. This wine is popular abroad for its unique flavour and high price - it is seen as a status symbol in many places. These export bottles are made with animal blood. Whoever supplies the blood, whether through their own body or through their animals, is generously compensated. The Princes do not typically drink someone to death or drain too much of their blood for Ichor Vintage.   Canate primarily exports coal to Yalenva and sells Black Amulets to black markets everywhere to get them in the hands of foreign vampires. They import metal from Hanxi and Renepalia, and small amounts of food from the Halfling Communes.  

Military

  The undead form almost the entire formal military of the Canate Princes. Everyone who dies in Canate is taken by the Undertaker Order, a decentralized group of all necromancers in service of the princes. The Undertakers are the only living members of the Canate Military, responsible for acquiring and raising the dead, including on the battlefield. The Undertakers are Clerics who embrace the Domain of Death, and the Subdomain of Undeath, typically. While they tend to be adept combatants, this is to preserve their lives if caught alone, not to put them on the frontlines. They create and command the undead as field commanders, and their deaths tend to orphan entire units of undead.   The core of the Canate military is swarms of mindless undead, primarily skeletons and zombies. The majority of the dead used in this transformation are of not particularly high quality, but their numbers make up for this difference. The reanimated Warrior Adepts tend to be much stronger, however, and are often made into Bloody Skeletons to ensure that they remain intact long after other undead have collapsed for the last time. Their general order of battle involves an initial wave attack, using raw numbers to pin down and encircle the enemy, flanking them with their strongest undead. Mindless undead are fearless and will fight to the last, giving them a major advantage over mortal armies.   The Vampire Princes are typically in positions of leadership, as generals and other high-ranking leaders of the armies as a whole, above the Undertakers. They are also deadly combatants, and will often take the strategic initiative to hunt down, isolate, and duel enemy leaders. However, the main combat role that vampires play is that of the Blood Knights. While not required, very few Princes who didn't spend time in the Blood Knights are ever assigned positions or elected. The Blood Knights are a chivalric order of vampire cavaliers, responsible for flanking and destroying the enemies of Canate with devastating charges from the back of their undead steeds. The most senior of these knights have centuries of combat experience, and many Princes remain members well into their tenure.   There exist provisions for a mortal militia to be raised in times of crisis. The Princes retain suits of high-quality weapons and armour from their private smiths, and the Warrior Adepts will be raised as the primary core of this militia wearing this excellent equipment. Raising any mortals but the Warrior Adepts is seen as a sign that things are very, very bad.   Canate has a very similar navy to Stormakt, albeit with undead crews, and smaller overall fleet size.  

Demographics

  The Canate population is almost entirely human. Very few foreigners are interested in living under an undead lord, and those that do must contend with the fact that most nations make emigration to Canate a crime in and of itself, meaning that those that go can never return. The only prominent exception to these factors are the Halfling Communes, who have no laws against going to the Princedom. Many halflings reside there as trade intermediaries or diplomats. Nevertheless, it is still socially frowned upon to live there besides in these roles. The humans in Canate are divided ethnically between roughly 90% Stormaki and 10% Ancient Stormaki   Canate did have a substantial non-human population before the Secession - however, most of them migrated south or overseas during the war. The refugee wave slowed the Stormaki military as they used the same road, and the evacuations were confused and chaotic. There still exist populations of dwarves, elves, and a very small number of snakefolk.   Religiously, Canate has widespread worship of a large number of Gods. The ban on worshipping Stormakstiden and other undead-hating Gods opened the door for people to embrace the Gods that represent their life. Millers may follow Wuul, the God of the Wind, while the smith next door worships Naau Naz, God of Artifice. The Princes tend to worship either Phestoph, the Chief God of Hell, leader of the Hellknights and a patron of tyrants and similar Evil rulers; or Toncaewl, the Craven King and God of Fear, patron of the undead.   The majority of the rural population is uneducated, and the same is true of urban populations to a lesser extent. However, there has been an effort to establish urban schools to both raise the productivity of the population and to find those with aptitudes for necromancy. Most of the educated upper class directly serve the Princes, meaning that there is not much of a bourgeois upper-class like in Stormakt.  

Culture

  By and large, Canate culture is centred around Stormaki culture. Many aspects are similar, though sexism and misogyny have diminished massively thanks to extended, prosperous, and successful reigns by various Princesses across the country. Canate Stormaki people also tend to have more relaxed views on hard work and masculinity, content to have the dead doing work for them at this point after centuries of being around such labour. Culturally, Canate Stormaki culture also has very little reverence for the dead - to them, it is perfectly natural that the Undertaker comes to take their dead, and that one day they might see the same dead person in the streets, holding a club and shambling as they patrol for crime.   Canate, due to its ability to draw on near-infinite supplies of tireless labour, has lagged behind slightly in technological innovation. They do not have a gunsmithing infrastructure, and they have very few cannons. They instead rely on undead giants they've hunted from the woods, having them throw rocks to devastating effect, or batter down the gates with hand weapons. They do, however, seem poised for a technological leap to best use this labour, surrounding the plans to expand the system of education.   The Princes and Undertakers have their own culture - they've taken strongly to ornate and dark-coloured clothing. Most Princes wear a diadem or tiara, whether one associated with the region they govern or one that is the historical property of their family. Armour is also considered current fashion among the Princes, and they will wear ornate and intimidating breastplates into meetings and as guests to other Princes' estates, or when hosting another Prince. Tattoos remain part of the typical style of the Princes, though they tend to prefer a handful of smaller tattoos.   The Canate Princes, and every vampire for that matter, retain groups of young, strong, healthy people, known as Blood Consorts, who supply blood to their Prince and their immediate family. Blood Consorts are drunk from responsibly, to preserve their lives and wellbeing, and most vampires keep enough to be able to drink weekly to their satisfaction, though younger vampires may drink more frequently as they come into their own. Most Blood Consorts are regularly magically healed of their draining by clerics on the Princes' payrolls, and receive a top-of-the-line education - during or after their tenure as a Blood Consort, they may very well be inducted into the Undertakers, or receive a cushy administration job.   Canate Princes prefer a highly dramatic, fast-paced style of instrumental music with a particular penchant for violins and woodwind instruments. Observers have described the pace as 'frantic' and 'anxious' but overall have had positive things to say. Dueling with steel weapons is a common form of entertainment between vampires, as their rapid regeneration and ability to resist damage from mundane weapons allows them to fight as if they were trying to kill one another safely. These are considered all in good fun - honour duels where final death is at stake involve mithral duelling swords. These rarely happen, and rarely result in final death, but it is not unheard of if the offence was grave enough, or the accusation scandalous enough. Both parties must agree to a duel to the death if one is to be had, or the killer will be executed via sun exposure.