Izo

The country lying in the northern tip of Lucrucia, with the most northern tip belonging to the sinking jungle. The country is filled with forests of trees and bamboo and flatlands where rice can harvested and people may travel. This country is inspired by the east Asian cultures of our world and have similar customs as well.   In the early days of this country instead of gold, people used rice as a currency. Following the introduction of gold, rice then became a commodity of the people, at first the rich had the majority, but soon all people had the ability to afford and consume it. Rice is one of the main exports of the country and makes for good trading as well.   At some point, smiths within the country leaned more toward making swords less bulky and more agile and swift, bringing the advent of the katana to replace longswords and broadswords for sometime. Despite different types of swords being made and used in the country, katanas are still held in high regard and cultural significance in most circles.   The country has been mostly simple and isolated, like most of the continent, but due to a few historical factors, that has become muddled. The main factor to this is after the Arcane Upheaval foreigners came to explore the land, passing through rigorous processing and inspection first. During this exploration when coming to Izo, one of the travelers, a member of highly influential household, met and fell in love with princess of Izo. They truly loved one another, but the princess' family did not approve. The princess' foreign lover began to import gifts for not only his love, but the entire royal family of Izo: food, entertainment, weapons, etc. After months of this, the family and the princess' father agreed to the marriage of them under certain circumstances.   The first condition being that he lived in Izo for 3 years to learn the country's traditions and culture to better understand the woman he loved and the life he would be entering. The second was to establish would be to establish trading with Vinovo, as the family had seen the advantages of trading with other lands, and despite protests from the isolationist elves, saw that at least their country would need it for future days to come. The third condition was to always teach future generations of both lands' traditions and culture by living in each land and learning from each. This was because he was marrying into royalty and future generations needed to continue to have good connections like this in order to create a peaceful and fruitful future.   The foreigner agreed to these terms and stayed in Izo to be with his love and learned the ways of her people. After three years, they married and had children and these children became rulers as their grandfather was. generation after generation, more rulers came and went from this bloodline, but with this time came drastic changes to Izo itself. The title of emperor was replaced with king and queen, the holy capital, which has been a pillar of worship to the natural land and the Nevena, the god of bounty and harvest, now had stone walls built around it and houses built outside of it where many people lived. Some criticized the royal family for losing its connection to its culture, but were soon silenced by the royal family as more from Vinovo came and became the majority voice in the ears of the rulers. Despite how the rest of the country looks and feels, there are leaks of the corruption of this influence throughout the land, but especially in the holy capital. In today's world, the walls stand tall as monument to this separation of not just the ruling class from the poor, but showing the distance between the past from the current day.   Despite all this, the rest of the country stays strong through their the own endeavors and balancing it with keeping nature as safe as they can, making the country the second most lush on Lacrucia. Both cultures are still seen in the land and it is always a delicate balancing act to not lose yourself in the ideas and culture of the other too much for the residents of the land.