Scyjia

Political Structure: Feudal Empire
Language: Scyjic

Scyjia is a land far removed from the rest of Haven, only visited by traders and the occasional bold explorer.
They are an old society, long isolated from the rest of the world and thus judge it as largely unimportant and none of their business. They are a proud, insular people with ancient traditions and customs that are strange to outsiders but perfectly normal to them.

Internally the country is very hierarchical and bureaucratic. Each village is overseen by an official, that swears fealty to a lord which is part of a noble dynasty, that in turn owes allegiance to the scyjian Emperor. Everything from the levies of men, documentations of the yearly harvest and permits to trade and hunt are documented and notarized, filed in triplicate and backed by severe laws, it forms a society where the country runs on paperwork and legal argumentation as much as it does on honor and loyalty.

Notable noble families

The imperial Fang Dynasty
Current Head of Family: Emperor Fang Yahui
Guardian spirit; the Winged Serpent.

Tian Dynasty
Current Head of Family: Tian Wuying
Guardian spirit; rushing white tiger

Liao Dynasty
Current Head of Family: Liao Meng
Guardian spirit; nine suns phoenix

Ancestral Spirit beasts

The noble dynasties of Scyjia all proclaim themselves as partially divine and as above the commoners that they preside over.
They justify this because they enjoy the guardianship of an ancestral spirit beast, a Primal Anzu that their ancestor has at one point or another made a pact with. Every generation the pact is renewed, as the new generations are bound to the ancestral spirit, gaining a part of its strength in exchange for regular sacrifices of grain and livestock.
The nobles can invoke the guardian spirit's power at a whim, manifesting a wide variety of powers depending on the spirit in question and the noble's compatibility. Basic abilities are enhanced strength and speed are near-universal, but more esoteric abilities like manifesting spectral claws or breathing fire are not unusual.

A guardian spirit beast is a requirement to call oneself a noble in Scyjia, and if a dynasty was to lose favor with their guardian and cause it to sever the contract they would be cast out in disgrace.
Similarly, a family of commoners that somehow forge a pact with a spirit beast would be immediately elevated into low nobility; the knowledge on how to do this is thus jealously guarded by the nobility.

Religion

The dominant religion in Scyjia, besides the veneration of the ancestral spirit beasts, is the worship of the Winged Serpent, a great Titan-beast that makes the peaks of the scyjian mountains its home.
Long ago the Winged Serpent bestowed its blessing upon the Imperial family of Scyjia, to unify the realm and bring order to the chaos. In exchange the imperial family has decreed it the only deity worthy of worship in Scyjia, and for the mountains it inhabits to be sacred and forbitten to enter for any but the imperial bloodline. The Winged Serpent has in the past retracted its favor when the imperial family had erred greatly, and has even threatened to bestow another family with its gift. Many scyjians thus see it as an arbiter of justice and order.

Magic

In addition to the manyfold expression of Spirit Magic that the noble dynasties express through their pacts with their ancestral spirit beasts, Scyjia has another long-running magical tradition; Blood magic.
Blood magic allows the extraction, transmutatation ans transferral of life energy in the form of blood, among other uses. Blood mages in Scyjia have used this art for centuries to serve as healers and occasionally battle-mages. Their services are widely available and they are well respected to such an extent that it is normal in scyjia for the poor and those so inclined donate blood once every month in exchange for payment, to be used for healing later. This would be unthinkable in any other countries.
Blood mages are educated in institutions open to the children of noble dynasties and the occasional talented commoner, where they are taught the healing arts as well as how to defend themselves. Even without their magic blood mages are great physicians, knowing how to treat many illnesses and create many medicines. A few schools throughout the country educate their aspirants as battle-mages more than physicians, but this practise is frowned upon as blood mages are seen traditionally as impartial non-combarants in any conflict.

History

Scyjia has long since been isolated. The humans that arrived here after the War of Burning Skies were cut off from the rest of humanity, and subsequently did not partake in the War of Tyrants either. As a result, a lot more knowledge from old humanity was preserved and their culture developed very differently.
Their blood magic, originally starting as a hasty measure to keep people alive, became a well-respected tradition in a very short time. Similarly the tradition of bonding with spirit beasts began as a necessity to protect humanity against the hostile inhabitants of the tropical continent, but morphed into a proof of rulership and divinity. The scyjians would deny this and have indeed largely forgotten it due to multiple purges of their archives to strengthen their central authority's claim to power, so much so that even the imperial dynasty now believes it to be true.

The Winged Serpent meanwhile is largely the reason why the continent was mostly clear of Jotnar before humanity's arrival, and gave power to the imperial family during times of civil war to stop what it saw as disorderly behavior among its neighbors. It is mostly uncaring of the scyjians claims about its own divinity and is content to stay in isolation and play along with their beliefs when absolutely necessary; it is simply easier.

The country was greatly shaken up during the Nightmare Wars, during which Nightmares tormented the populace in numbers never seen before or since. Countless villages were devestated and destroyed and even several cities were destroyed, unperpared as they were for the occasion.