Adjective: Maithans.
Flag: Black with two yellow stripes (formerly white with purple shooting star flower outlines tipped with yellow).
Symbol: The Honeybee, a symbol of prosperity and agriculture, but respected for its sting (Formerly the shooting star flower).
Founded: 669 by Mor “Rel” Maith
Ruling Monarch: The Black King (Unicorn stallion).
Location: In 770, bordered the Hamish Mountains to the west and north, with Pemembras to the south and Bevenkras to the east.
Today, in 774, borders all of the Hamish Mountains with the Cenen Sea to the south. Borders the Bevenkras Mountains to the north and the Lel Sea to the east. Shares borders with Croon.
Capital: Clarion, the City of Bells.
Strength of Government: Highly organized and regulated through the high expectations of the Black King.
Strength of Army: Small, organized. Does not have any particular strong points, but wins battles through strategy rather than force. Particularly known for General Warlic, who is renown for his patience, calculations, and deadly strategy.
Government Funding: Severely limited due to war costs and debts inherited when conquering Bevenkras and Pemembras. The Black King’s peculiar iron project in the Barrier requires a considerable amount of money.
Opinions of the General Population In the nine years the Black King has been ruling, he has shown himself to be an authoritative but just ruler. His ambitions and peculiar secretive project to the north has caused some concern on how long his continued good luck will last.
Economy: Good, as the monarchy has massively expanded trade since conquering Bevenkras and Pemembras. Maithas used to have an incredibly poor economy compared to the other monarchies, as it previously did not have access to ocean ports. The increased access to trade ships has caused a boom in raw metals and lumber. The Black King also removed several trading tariffs that made it previously difficult for Maithans to trade through the Clovenhoof Pass, and with Darid and the Barrier’s few towns.
Main Exports: Raw metals, finished metalwork, pottery, lumber.
Main Imports: Foodstuffs, particularly cereal grains like wheat.
Characters From Maithas:
The Black King: The current ruling monarch who dethroned the former monarch in an unexpected revolution.
Burdell: The Black King’s cold secretary.
Pem: One of the managers of servants.
History
Rule of Mor Maith (669-704)
Mor Maith was the mule deer king of the extinct monarchy of Tariel. He overthrew and conquered the neighboring monarchy of Helimo. He combined the two monarchies and named them after himself, “Maithas.” Maith went on a brutal re-branding campaign for the new monarchy which included a new flag: shooting star wildflowers.
Maith’s new ideas were accepted slowly but without much protest. The two combined monarchies had suffered from a depression in the years before, and suffered from a bad economy with no money to fall back on. Maith was optimistic but naive, and ignored his advisers. He created welfare program after welfare program, raised taxes on the rich to an insane degree, and offered agriculture subsidies to farmers. Combined with his patriotic re-branding campaign, Maith was forced to sell Maithan land, reducing it down to its size until the Black King ruled.
Within five years, Maith went from incredibly popular to being threatened with assassination daily. He wisely stepped down, took the name of Rel, and vanished on a boat down the Sparrow Islands.
Rule of Teleay Gornish (704-721)
An osprey, Gornish was one of Maith’s former advisers. She highly disapproved of the way that he had spent the monarchy’s money, but she had admired his rare optimism and selflessness. She reversed or ended many of his policies, but kept the monarchy’s name and symbol. Under her rule, the economy stabilized, and many of the monarchy’s debts were repaid.
Rule of Hopean Gornish (721-733)
The son of Teleay Gornish, Hopean was a solemn but respectable osprey. His rule was punctuated by severe budget cuts, a reasonable raise in taxes, an increase in trade agreements, and other conservative laws. The second Gornish brought about an economic boom, severely cut most of the monarchy’s debt, and brought a number of jobs to the monarchy by opening new mines.
Unfortunately, Hopean Gornish and the former queen Teleay Gornish were killed in a fire in their home.
Rule of Surcel Ral (733-765)
After a three month power struggle, the merchant dog Surcel Ral found himself king by using his considerable political power. At the beginning, he was a competent, if boring ruler. His first wife, Loli Ral, was a powerful Queen Consort who preferred to make sure her husband didn’t rock the boat. While she liked the attention of being King and Queen Consort, she had no desire to be assassinated for a poor policy.
The Queen Consort did not die from assassination, as was her fear. Instead, she passed away in 759 from cancer. Surcel Ral found himself quite rudderless without his wife, and didn’t quite know what to do without her quiet guidance. In 760 he remarried, and made one of his political allies, Mentira, his second wife.
This was not ideal for the monarchy. Mentira was power hungry, greed, and paranoid. She quickly passed that paranoid to Surcel, and destroyed his confidence. Millions of gold aunders were spent on a new wall for the Clarion palace with the most powerful, modern charms available. Charms were smoothly integrated into all of the rooms, and the guard was tripled.
The finest of foods, rarest of wines, solid gold jewelry, and exquisite decor were all bought, needed for the small, intimate parties Mentira threw. The royal advisers were charged with conspiracy and treason and executed when they murmured that the monarchy couldn’t afford this lifestyle. Surcel spent a notable 250,000 aunders on his pet mundane rabbits.
The monarchy was becoming rebellious with their high taxes, the tanking economy, and their lack of food while the King and Queen Consort threw lavish parties. While Surcel pet his bunnies and Mentira admired her diamonds, a unicorn servant who worked at the palace as “Nobody” was quietly stirring discontent.
Rule of the Black King (765-Current)
On Aspairoon 7th, 765 “Nobody” and his secret army overthrew the Maithan government in a one night coup. Both King Surcel Ral and Queen Consort Mentira were killed in the attack. The Black King had arrived. Down came the shooting star flowers and up came the honeybee.
Despite his flashy way of coming into power, the Black King led the monarchy quietly for the first four years. Selling gaudy furniture, rabbits, jewelry, and wine, the Black King began reversing many of the laws and healing the economy and the country. The citizens, slow to trust and slower to forgive, did not easily respect the new king.
However, with the guidance of a trusted counsel, the monarchy began to rebuild. On Leemair 6th, 769 the Black King surprised Themble by announcing war on the neighboring monarchy Bevenkras. While the two monarchies weren’t on the most stable of terms, there was little reason to start a war.
Bevenkras was not unified, as its acorn woodpeckers Queen Lodel and King Consort Jut were massively fighting, threatening to get a divorce, and splitting the monarchy with it. It took a little over a year for the Black King to conquer his second monarchy. On Peaser 19th, 770, the monarchy fell, and the yellow and black flag was raised.
The Black King spent two years stabilizing his larger monarchy, having doubled its size in a year. Having access to the sea opened up many trade opportunities, but the Black King began to eye the profitable viticulture and aging monarch in Pemembras.
Aspairoon 21st, 772 the Black King waged war on his southern neighbor. Pemembras lacked the strong army of Croon, but its citizens, disloyal to their griffin King Tepen Ranco but loyal to their country, armed themselves. The Black King’s army was much smaller than the Pemembran enemy, but they were boosted with recent victory. With General Warlic’s genius strategic maneuvers, and the sudden fall of several of Pemembras’ wealthiest merchants, Maithas won on Aspairoon 3rd, 774, nearly two years after the war began.
It is now Corlen 7th, 774, six months after the war. The Black King has remained in Pemembras, attempting to squish out the last of the rebellion. Only, he’s having a larger struggle than he planned with the proud Pemembrans, thanks to the Revolutionaries.