Asai'ka (Nation)

As a separate nation, Asai'ka lasted from the breakup of the Stone Throne in 245 AC until its takeover (following a near-collapse) 13 years later in 258 AC.

Government

• Oligarchy. Aristocracy + Plutocracy.
• Phraya Sel Ichiban is the ruler, but does not hold most of the power.
• Three main power centers
  • Phra (landed nobility). Heaviest control outside the capital.
  • Wealthy lai groups. Heaviest control in capital.
  • Priest bureaucracy. Total control of Ar Salem Dolem, influence over commoners outside of that. Hold power via threat of riots.
• Organized crime is heavy in the capital.

Peoples

• Fang-kin humans (40%)
• Fang-kin half-elves (40%)
• Ophidians (18%)
• dwarves (2%)

Religion

See Queen Ascendant. Common folk and ophidians are quite devout, upper castes pay lip service. Many of the wealthy worship Kela Loran or Aerielara. Perversions including demon (Barbed Rose, mainly) and devil worship (Mara) are rumored among the upper crust.

Culture

• Caste based, but the lines between the lai and isal castes has blurred significantly. Commoners are still lower class.
• Ophidians are not hated, but struggle to rise above the lower lai caste.
• Show of piety
• heavy corruption. Wealthy get away with almost anything.
• Plantations outside the city. Range from enlightened to brutal. Commoners aren't quite serfs or slaves, but not far off.

Capital

See Asai'ka (City).

Economy

Exports

Finished goods, especially metals. Religious and divine goods. Spices and dyes.

Imports

Wild products, fish.

International relationships

• Considered corrupt by the other two Jungle of Fangs nations.
• Moderately good by everyone else.

Leadership

The official ruler of Asai'ka is Phraya Sel Ichiban, second child of former Phraya Hvang Ssa'ka. About 40 years old, he is a vain, petty noble obsessed with popularity among the isal caste and wealth. Fortunately, his direct power, although theoretically absolute, is quite limited. Instead, power really belongs with the Board of the Benevolent Organization.

The Benevolent Organization

Main Article: Benevolent Organization

Founded before the liberation of the Queen Ascendant as a band of underworld actors looking to regularize their territories, the Organization has grown into the shadow leadership of the nation. All criminal, and much of the legitimate business passes through the hands of Organization members. They also provide the police force and lend money to priest-bureaucrats, nobles, and merchants alike. This money lending is the main way they maintain power. The Organization, despite being a loose alliance of nefarious types, is held together by the oversight of the Board.

The Board is composed of a representative from each of the major power bases in the nation, and their word is absolute. The identities of the Board Members are not officially public, but are a widely-known secret. The Members are

• Phra Phel Solkan. An older half-elf, he married Lady Kagome Ssa'ka, Phraya Ichiban's older sister. When she and their daughter died of suspected poison in the chaos surrounding her father's death, he became the power behind Phraya Ichiban. He's been on the Board since 220 AC. In most cases, he takes the leadership role.
• Lai So Lender. A hard-faced woman in her 70s, So is the owner of the largest chain of banking houses throughout the Jungle of Fangs. Immensely rich, she sees everything in mercantile terms, in terms of profit and loss. Even lives are but counters in a ledger. She represents the lai caste. The senior member of the Board, she's been there since the Liberation.
• Senior Scrivener Jashan. Officially, he's merely a mid-ranking scribe with the priest-bureaucracy. In truth, he's the leader of the dominant faction, the Scales of the Goddess. Although he is devoted to increasing the power and prestige of the Temple to the point of austerity publicly, he isn't averse to living a sybaritic life in private. It's said that he prefers men for partners...or rather boys, the younger the better. Other, hastily suppressed whispers talk of darker desires and appetites. At 35, he's the youngest member of the Board.
• Mugen the Knife. A retired assassin, he represents the criminal element. Little is known about this man due to his intense obsession with privacy. What is known is that he heads up the enforcement arm. Of all of the Board Members, he's reputed to be the most concerned with the common good and the least corrupt.

Time of Troubles

The Benevolent Organization ran into severe problems with the Red Plague. Almost every member of the Board died (of the plague or more often of "accidentally stabbing themselves in the back 47 times"). Phraya Ichiban died early on. The organization itself devolved into infighting and it basically fell apart, with local luang each doing their own thing across the nation. Banditry and small-scale wars (jumped up raids) became prevalent. All in all, the nation ceased to be a going concern.

Ar Salem Dolem broke off as its own independent nation.

Consolidation with the Serpent Dominion

In early 259 AC, Phraya Cai'Valur moved his armies north and absorbed the chaos-ridden lands, almost without bloodshed. He did not displace the local luang or phra, but did put in his own representative in the High Seat. As of 260 AC, the consolidation is, well, an ongoing thing. The capital is mostly under control, as is the main road. There is no organized rebellion, but not all the nation is doing the right thing. For most, however, it represents a return to the stability that has been so lacking for the last 20+ years.

Legal System

Asai'ka's legal system has been corrupt for generations. Each local lord (khun or above) has exercised "justice" however they wished for a long time. The only real constraints were

• High justice on anyone required at least a luang, and lai and above can appeal. Appeals generally came down to the golden rule--pay the gold, make the rule.
• Low justice was used to extort and keep the commons in line.
• Those connected to the Organization generally had insurance against legal issues--as long as they paid their (high) dues, they could expect to skate on anything but treason.
• Crimes against priests were punished very heavily.

Since the consolidation, the major shift is that the right of high justice has been moved to the Royal Representative and his hand-picked judiciary. Isal-caste still have the right to appeal to Phraya Cai'Valur, but their cases are heard by the Representative instead of the Supreme Judicial Council. Attempts to impose a capital penalty outside of this court are considered low treason.

The Representative and his Justicars are trying to impose a more ordered system, starting lower courts with sympathetic isals delegating authority, but it's slow going. Convincing the nobles to give up power is a hard road, especially when that's been one of their major sources of power in a nation dominated by (according to them) filthy money-grubbing merchants. The lai, while they appreciate not having to deal with the corrupt nobles, bemoan the loss of their "insurance" and fight any attempt to actually punish them. The priesthood also strongly dislikes the fact that the "iconoclasts" of the south don't take crimes against priests as seriously...when they really mean that they no longer simply take the word of the priests and actually do investigations. They also dislike that the Representative seems to be intent on actually punishing priests for their secular misconduct instead of simply referring them to the bureaucracy's internal affairs.

As of 260 AC, justice in the capital is in the hands of the Representative, a hard woman named Pelan Elana, and of Phra Aera Solkan (one of three surviving members of the former royal family). Phra Solkan is a bit of a wild-card. Young for her post, she's known to be charismatic and is well liked by many, but her governing style is untested.