Cad'Lear

Cad'Lear is to the south of the Endless Expanse on the continent of Zanfear, the land used to be inhabited by demons from the abyss until The Awakening that happened in 4013 SU, where 11 Spires of Creation opened and poured forth thousands of various humanoid's. Those that became known as Aasimar came from three of the spires in the central area of the country known as Zilcan, after 640 years so slavery these Aasimar rose up in the Cad'Lear Rebellion and formed the nation of Cad'Lear.

Cad'Lear is a proud country that consider their principles to be not only of the highest quality but also of highest importance, and they look down on those who don't hold the same standards. The strictest of these principles is that slavery and forced labour is wrong, those who serve in the armed forces deserve respect admiration and favour for what they sacrifice for the country. One of the strangest of which is their dedication to their flag, while in most countries to disrespect the countries flag or to mistreat/misuse the flag is considered unpatriotic and can be punished if its done at the wrong place or time, but within Cad'Lear the flag is of such importance that you be punished more severely for doing something to a flag than you would it were done to a person.

Considering the young age of the country and the fact that they have been at war, even if not active war, since they day they were founded they have a surprising level of technology, the most impressive of which is their fleet of airships kept aloft by, float disks that are only created here. There are also a number of weapons, armour, medical equipment, entertainment devices and food production methods that were invented and crafted in Cad'Lear using an advanced method of runic enchanting, that allows none arcane users to carve runes that are then able to be infused with magic, cutting down the time it takes to craft arcane items.

Leadership
Cad'Lear is ruled by the General Elect, a title given to the a leader chosen from the party which receives the most votes during the countries election period, the current leader is General Elect Kezef Amriel. Once a person has been declared the General Elect they rule over the country for 6 years and then acts as the Lieutenant General Elect underneath the next General Elect but can never become the General Elect again.

Anyone who is from Cad'Lear is allowed to form a party that can run to be elected as long as they can pay the entry deposit of 800gp. The parties must then make a manifesto that is then sent to The Spire of Civilisation in Cad'Lear City where it is assessed an condensed into its main points which are then advertised in the three Spire Cities and then if the party pay for it their advertising can be extended to other settlements.

The Election takes place during the month of Dendra when the bad weather slows down any conflict on their eastern border, using the zone of truth spell to ensure that people are both legally allowed to vote and haven't voted before this season. The vote is made by dropping a ball into a large barrel with the with the poster of the parties main promises and positions on major points. Once the votes have been counted the party with the most votes choses one of their members (you can only be a member of one party during each election year), and this member then becomes the General Elect and then chooses their council except for the second in charge known as the Lieutenant General Elect who is the previous General Elect, they are there to pass on his experience and knowledge to and advise the new General Elect.

Demography and Population
Most of the population lives in or near to one of the three Spire Cities, Cad'Lear, Gen'Lear and Zar'Lear which are the three cities that were captured from the Zilconians that had Spires of Creation at the centre of them, they are now the main cities of Cad'Lear. The other place that has a high number of Cad'Lean's our the forts and bastions along the Cad'Lear Scar on the border between Cad'Lear and Zilcan.

Most of the people from Cad’lear are Aasimar of the three sub-races with a smattering of other races, those who are of other races are mainly either ex slaves or descendants of them, that have/had been freed by agents of Cad’lear or the Qasoinae from Carthorka or Zilcan and allowed to live here. If you ask Aasimar from one of the Spier Cities you will probably be told that living in Cad'Lear is amazing and that it is the most blessed place in Trayst and that these ex slaves are lucky to be here and they should be more thankful. If you ask the freed slaves while they are incredibly thankful to no longer be slaves (more so if they were rescued from Zilcan) but they still feel like they are second class citizens who find it hard to find work, are often paid less when they do and are treated inferiorly in the courts.

Those who serve in the Cad'Lean military forces are well respected within society, with beneficial treatment when it comes to services, or discounts on many products. The moto is that they have sacrificed much so to keep the demons and giants at bay so that the rest of those in Cad'Lear may continue to be free, which is the greatest and most important boon of being a Cad'Lean. Most people of Cad'Lear when they come of age and even before are strongly encouraged to join the military forces in some area, weather that be as a combatant or in a support role.

Foreign relations
Cad’Lear’s boarder with Rexthen to the west are rather undefined with the understanding being that the hills and mountains are where the Rexthen giants live but the land at the foothills that makes for great farm land but the giants have a tendency to take what they want. Various treaties have been struck with various tribes of giants but without a centralised government and even having a treaty with a tribe doesn't always stop all of the tribe members coming down into Cad'Lear.

To the east is Zilcan which officially has been at war with Cad'Lear since their rebellion the reason for this is that Cad'Lear always demands that Zilcan abolishes slavery which they won't. The war wax's and wanes and both countries don't spend all of their time and resources to the war effort as it is wasteful, Cad'lear has the better technology but Zilcan has superior numbers and greater strength in each individual member of their forces.

Although tensions are high between Cad'Lear and Carthorka the Endless Expanse between them keeps the treat of war to a minimum, trade between the two countries continues even though the connection between goods brought to Cad'Lear and Carthorka are often hidden or at least not advertised to the people of Cad'Lear as it comes with a very bad stigma. Caravans with good making the dangerous long journey through the Expanse caused trade to be very expensive until the invention of airships and suddenly trade was far safer but more controlled by Cad'Lear, that Carthorka would have liked and eventually they acquired a number of Airships to trade themselves but they still have very limited numbers of these. Carthorka is very keen to acquire any and all advanced weaponry that they can from Cad'Lear, via theft, espionage or trade, but Cad'Lear is reluctant for them to get these as they are likely to use them to attack, plunder and enslave those of Tanalier.

Although the distance between the two countries there is a reasonably good relationship between The Mithril Isles and Cad'Lear due to the high demand for mithril in Cad'Lear and the acceptance that the isolated nature of the Isles means that dangerous technologies given to them are unlikely to spread to more dangerous hands.

Economics and Trade
Much of the economy is based around two areas, that of warfare or leisure, the nation is heavily capitalist, with each person owning their own wealth and free to try and make profit however they choose with a few limitations, on what is legal and not, though there are people who bend these laws where they can get away with it.

For those who have the money life within the country is mainly one of pleasure, floating disks can be used to transport either goods or themselves, major image lights are used to watch plays that have been recorded, and food can be brought from skilled chefs and kept warm right up until it arrives at your house. Those who don't have this sort of wealth strive for it believing that if you work hard enough and maybe get lucky you can live this Cad'lerian dream. But in comparison to many of those who don't have much in other countries they still live very privileged lives, with a verity of food and drink's from sweet Amrosia and Naeg-o Mel Pie to Penghou or Oppilon, the freedom to spend time on leisure activities like swimming pools and sports arenas or the fact that simple tasks like cleaning dishes and cutlery or cloths can be carried out by magical means.

The other main industry is that of warfare, both the development of new weapons and the craft of weapons, this can be simple forging of base materials or instilling the arcane power into the weapons and armour or equipment. There are also a number of people who risk their lives in order to gather extracts from dangerous creatures that are then used as part of arcane crafting materials, or deep underground mining raw ores and coal.

When it comes to trade outside of the country Cad'Lear doesn't have a lot of choices, trade with Rexthen is common but often consists of little more than food simple medicines being traded to the giants in exchange for ore's and minerals.

There is no official trade with Zilcan more just raiding missions where they steal recourses from each other, the demons of Zilcan also tend to look down on the technology that the Cad'Leans have and use and tend to destroy any of it when they can, as it appears weak to use them but they do see the power of them.

Carthorka is the complete opposite when it comes to their technology as they are very keen on getting their hands on the advanced magical items especially that which can be used for war knowing what Carthorka was like however, Cad'Lear is incredibly reluctant to give them any of this technology. The Aasimar decided that they could trust the Orcs with a system for quickly building houses using a light material that starts as a liquid but when exposed to air solidifies as a white foam, they then realised that the Carthorkians were testing this material as a way of instantly creating a ramp or climbable point on the out side of a fort wall, this was a major diplomatic incident and was the closest these two counties came to war the information on how to create this liquid was taken back but Cad'Lear agreed to continue supplying the liquid to Carthorka but only a limited amount per year. Cad'Lear has no known deposits of Gold while Carthorka has rich deposits this is the main thing that they trade with Cad'Lear while they send mainly food, ice and armaments which are considered to be of equal power to that which the Carthorians can already produce.

Trade with the countries on Tanalier is difficult due to the distance but it still does happen but it is hinddered by Carthirka where possible, saying that trading through them would be easier which it would be but would benefit Carthorkas economy

History
If you ask those who live in Cad'Lear they will say the start of Cad'lear dates from 4013 at The Awakening but officially the country became a nation in 4657 after the Cad'Lear Rebellion these first 600 years of Cad'leans were not pleasant as they lived enslaved by the demonic forces of Zilcan suffering through enforced labour and frequent torture.

In 6107 a tribe from the Qasoinae came in contact with a group of Cad'Lear researchers who were exploring The Expanse this was the first evidense that had been found of life on the other side of The Expanse, and effort was then made to try and encounter those from the other side and in 6118 the first successful crossing was made. though the reports of who lived to the north were not very positive when the return journey had been made. This meant that further trips across the desert didn't happen again until 6442 after float disks had started to be used as a method for faster travel making it less costly to visit Carthorcka and diplomatic relations began to develop though they were strained right from the start due to Carthorkas practice of slave ownership.

In 6502 the float disk technology developed from systems that reduced the weight of loads to the systems used in 6442 where a boat like vehicle is able to hover at least partially and then skim across the sand or water propelled using sails or wind magic to the point of actual flight. These airships then allowed for long distance travel away from Cad'Lear as they were able to be large enough for increased supplies needed for extended journeys. By 6507 they had discovered and decided that Ice Cap was a deserted slab of Ice to the south and Torlund was the first country from Tanalier to be discovered by Cad'Lear and from there Mer-Rein and Duthgar quickly followed, in 6513, and in 6514 a diplomatic delegation from these three as well as one from Drazia Dynasty were taken from Tanalier to Cad'Lear City where they were amazed by their experience.

Geography & Areas
To the south western coast of Cad'Lear is a collection of white sand beaches but as you travel east these give way to cliffs that then stretch the way around the southern coast of Zanfear.

The northern boarder of Cad'Lear is dry brushland that gives way to the sand of The Endless Expanse some trees have been planted to try and hinder the Expanses encroachment but this is a rather low priority for most within the country. The are some farms to the north west that struggle to have good harvests due to the sand, but many people move their farms south rather than try to reclaim the land.

A lot of land to the east of Cad'Lear is covered in a dense forest, filled with wild beasts and near to the Desecrated Fortress where there is a blight across the land spreading out from the fortress. This blight causes black rot to grow on and change the fauna and flora making them poisonous and often violent.

The western territories produce nearly all of the food in the country, the forest and corruption of the south west give way to rolling planes that are quite fertile, and mostly safe, other than the giants of Rexthen.

Points of Interest
Cad'Lear City is the capital city of Cad'Lear and is one of the three Spire Cities, which are all cities that started out as Demon settlements that were captured and converted into thriving metropolis's centered around the Spires of Creation which had birthed one of the sub-races of Aasimar. Gen'Lear is the second largest city and lies to the south of Cad'Lear just west of the centre point Zar'Lear lies to the north east has to contest with the expanse to the north and fighting Zilcan to the east.

Lightwater Harbour a port town at the point where Rexthen and Endless Expanse are the closest on the western coast of Zanfear.

Desecrated Fortress a fortress that used to contain a permanent portal to the Abyss but now just a ruin at the centre of a sphere of blight and corruption that spreads for miles.