(This is not a sign-up or anything, just writing down ideas for later so I don't forget) Curtisia (kur-tee-zhuh) is a nation prouded on it's "civilization", seeing everyone else in the world as barbarians who need to be shown the light. Throughout our history, we have been a country of stability and immigrants. We have always accepted refugees from far and wide, so long as they adopt to our way of life. Sometimes, a wave of refugees would bring a long ideas they liked, and that has caused them to become the most diverse culture in the world. We have a King and Queen, both serving very important roles. The Curtis Dynasty is an ancient one, having ruled the land since people first arrived, and being descendants from major religious leaders. We see them as chosen by God and blessed God. The King is our military leader and fights alongside our men, while the Queen is our political leader, extremely popular and helping to keep the country together. Both share executive power in the government, including promoting/demoting people from their peerage. Dolcian (Dol-see-in) is a soft, gentle, smooth and musical language. It is a steep learning curve, though once you've figured it out, any new words you come across will be easy to understand. We have a letter for every sound, and sounds generally help. They tend to speak pretty quick. Body language is also pretty important to us, and the way you move can be almost as important as the words you are saying. We believe all Celestial (Abrahamic) religions are true, some stretching the truth more than others. We call our faith Muminism (Moo-min-ism), created by the Prophet Majdiyah in a far distant land, who ended up in Curtisia. Our government is more than just the King/Queen I mentioned earlier, there is also Parliament, which has ruled us since the Thirteenth Century. They are made up of several Houses, all representing a different class of people. There is the House of Commons, House of Gentry and House of Aristocrats. Commoners are usually specialized professionals who are all mostly workers for other people. They form Guilds, which act both as traditional Guilds and Unions. The Gentry owns small shops/companies, they also can be medium-ranking Church officials. The Aristocracy owns medium-sized companies, leads the Church and holds government positions. Unlike most Peerage/Castes, ours are pretty fluid. It is relatively easy to gain/lose your money, you could also gain/lose power thanks to the Monarchy. We have a relative propositional tax, with tariffs on goods we produce and property tax. For court, Parliament acts as Jury and the Monarchy acts as Judge. There are professional lawyers you can hire, though usually only the wealthiest of the wealthiest could afford them. Our line infantry uses revolutionary tactics, with elements from armies all over the world. They all get into lines of 10 men deep. At the back, there are pike-men, and Infront of them are 3 rows of infantry. The front row of each row quickly lays down to fire, the row behind them kneels and the row behind them stands, maximizing firepower. As soon as they shoot, the row behind all of them then races up ahead of them, doing the same thing and opening fire. This allows us to constantly fire upon the enemy and slowly advance. We hide our pikemen to encourage cavalry charges against us, then, our pikemen run up at the first sight of enemy cavalry and quickly take them by surprise. With the infantry is also cavalry and artillery for support. While infantry make up most of our army, our elite cavalry-centered units also are very important as well. They are mostly Cuirassiers, though there are also some artillery-drawn 3-pounder. They wear lighter armour and are designed to be highly mobile, avoiding enemy firing and striking them at their weakest points, breaking them and slaughtering all who refuse to lay down their arms. They use halberds, pistols and rifles. The final part of our ground forces are the Royal Dragoons. They are the most elite of our army, often being veterans. While often wearing light armour, they make up for it in sheer speed and power. They use lances, sabres, pistols and muskets. For artillery, we use 6-pounders. They are meant to protect the Royal Family and to join either infantry (Defense) or cavalry (Offense). They are devastating for offense, and can do pretty good with defensive operations, having a lot of experience, pretty heavy firepower and can easily reposition. The requirements are many victories, much experience, a lot of training and willingness to die for 'King and for Country'. The King often joins the Royal Dragoons, him often leading the charge without fear for his own life as they faithfully follow their king to hell and back.
History: It started with the first wave of immigrants to the Isles of Curtisia. They were closely related to the mainland Esatrians, being also Pagan. Legend says, when the first Curtis King arrived on the Isles, he found a nest of dragons. He gathered his warriors and launched a cavalry charge at them, attempting to kill them or scare them off. Right before they engaged, his wife, the Queen rode in and shouted at them to lay down their weapons. The dragon in front of them, who had his mouth wide open, paused and looked at her. They stared at each other and the dragon appeared to bow, and the others followed suit, before leaving and letting the humans have both the land and wealth. Things were relatively peaceful, they were a bit violent, especially our two main islands would often fight each other, with the Curtis' either not being able to stop them, or picking sides. On top of that, all the islands were divided into many Duchies which would fight as well. That was until the second wave of immigration. From Otvyria, Vinervia, and Nitricium during the Peasant Enslavements, their dragon raids, ethnic movement and the dark ages. The locals absolutely despised them and started a massive war. The immigrants, given a chance in life in this new land, fought back, arming themselves and forming Peasant Republics. The war lasted nearly a decade and completely destroyed the economy. There wasn't really a victor, the Peasants surrendered but compromised and fully united. After everything was destroyed, they only just started to breathe a sigh of relief. They rebuilt, more united than before, under a strong Curtis monarchy. They became prosperous once again, being the mediator between the neighboring kingdoms in trade, and increasing trade with the rest of the world. Dragon attacks proved to be a struggle early on, however, they had learned their lesson on violence. They decided to appease the dragons, leaving livestock and such just for them. However, when the population of dragons exploded, the government scrambled. They poisoned the next round of feedings and moved all their livestock further away. They gathered volunteers and hired foreign mercenaries to lead a war against the dragons, attacking their nests in near and far off lands to exterminate them. This was called the 'Great Revenge' periods. They attempted to locate the rumored home of the dragons, but they could not. So while the raids didn't stop entirely, the problem mostly died down. After that, defense became a top priority. Marquesses (Coastal rulers) were given more power in exchange for massive defensive build-ups. (W.I.P.)
