The Republic of Echnabalalil

Reign of Dragons
In an aeon long past dragons ruled the mountain range of Echnabalalil. These magnificent beasts lived in large flights, preying upon the crude civilizations that existed nearby for wealth. Primary amongst these peoples were the mountain orcs living nearby. They worshiped the dragons as gods and would bring them offerings of slaves and treasure from their conquests. The orcs under the orders of the elder dragons warred continuously for centuries with the early dwarven kingdoms, plundering their underground sanctuaries and stealing their wealth to bring to their masters. This state of affairs lasted for an unknown amount of time, as few records exist from that time. What is known is that the early humans populations would often side with the dwarves in their wars of survival against the orcs.

Hierarchy in dragon society was usually determined by age, with the older dragons ruling over the highest peaks and largest hoards. Occasionally a younger dragon could take over the mountain of an older dragon in a contest, although the price of failure, death, was a deterrent to all but the most eager of dragons.

The highest peak in the Echnabalalil Mountains was and still is Diabel Dom (Dragon's Helm in old Echnabalalilean). For many millennia this peak and by extension all of Echnabalalil and surrounding regions were ruled over by a Great Red Wyrm, considered to be the most powerful of all dragons to have lived, at least to recorded history. The cause of his death is not known, though scholars have many theories surrounding it. What is known is that around the time of his disappearance, the lower races (dwarves and humans) began developing technology and magic that allowed them to begin to compete with the dragons. Theories of the cause of this advancement abound from random luck to a change in culture valuing magical ability and technological expertise to angelic forces bringing help to the much set-upon races. Humans and dwarven kingdoms forged a great alliance between them, swearing to purge all dragonkin and orcs from the earth, sharing technology and magic. The likes of this alliance has never been seen since the time, many doubt it will ever be seen again. The leader of this grand army was a human called Mikhail. Hailed as one of the greatest military geniuses of all time, he is one of the greatest military leaders of all time. Under his leadership the orcish armies were annihilated and their populations slaughtered. Human and dwarven magic fought with dragon magic for control of the skies and dwarven axes with human swords beat the orcs back before them, until, finally there was no enemy left to fight. Without a common foe to unite them, the alliance fell apart, each kingdom and state returning to ordinary life. And so began the Dominion of Man.

Dominion of Man
Without dragons to control them, the Orcish tribes fell into disarray, never to recover their ancient strength. The newly expanded industrial might of the newly dubbed Free Races (humans and dwarves) allowed them to expand rapidly. Bronze-working evolved into iron-working and eventually became steel-working (which was first discovered by the dwarves). Humankind benefited most from this freedom, their adaptability, fast breeding and learning abilities allowing them to quickly expand and take advantage of new technologies. Part of this expansion was the establishment of the Echnabalalilean Republic. Initially a conglomeration of three individual city states, a joint republic was formed between them after the discovery of the sky-metals, which changed the face of the region forever. Initially incredibly expensive and complicated to manipulate, a great sorcerer and engineer discovered how to combine the metals with various alloys and magics into a form usable to create large floating cities and sky-ships. This combination of magic and engineering was dubbed Arcineering. Now able to overcome most of the limitations of the mountainous region, the metals proved to be incredibly valuable and rare. The new united kingdom has since prospered greatly, moving from strength to strength. With its new-found power, the enslavement of orcs accelerated rapidly, allowing citizens of cities to live easy lives. The arts, culture and philosophy entered into a new golden age, the College of Arcineering was founded and literacy began to expand. With this new life of luxury and prosperity a new movement began, the Humanitarian Movement. These people, formed mostly from the upper classes and upper-middle classes of Balalilean society created the movement on principles of kindness, benevolence, and sympathy to all beings. Whilst a relatively new movement, most popular in the relatively liberal societies of Luksus and Wrost, it is gaining popularity at an incredible rate.

Rebellion
The Humanitarian Movement forms an incredible threat to the current ruling structure of the Republic, who are doing their best to remove the movement from existence. This movement has led to rebellion in all quarters, most noticeably in the city of Moc, where to even mention equality between humans and orcs will land someone with a visit with the local jail. Nonetheless, the movement has inspired a renewal of ever indomitable orcish spirit. Combined rebellions of orcs and humans have been occurring in small scale across the land, although small in scale to date. Perhaps more worryingly to the rulers of the Republic are the rumours of orcish tribes banding together to create a Federation of tribes whose aim it is to free themselves from human rule. Nothing could be more terrifying to the inhabitants of Echnabalalil, since the last tiem a united orcish horde existed, they plundered and murdered the lower races, who were powerless to stop them at the time.The Republic will do everything it can to keep that from happening again.

Geography
The Republic of Echnabalalil covers a small extent of the greater mountain range of Echnabalalil, its namesake. The state is almost entirely mountainous, with small valleys and a few flatter regions (although flatter in Echnabalalil would be considered as useless, hilly land anywhere else). The horse-breeding town of Ivanstead is found near one of these regions, one of the few places where fields large even to breed livestock on exist. Most of the flatter land however exists near the lakes of the Northern Echnabalil, whereupon the vast majority of agriculture occurs. The northern region is also known as the bread basket of Echnabalalil as somewhere up to 90% of all grain, fruit and vegetables of the nation comes from here. There are also some rivers and lakes existent, the biggest and most important being the Trudna River, which passes West-East through the mountains, divides Echnabalalil into two and is where most trade passes through the mountain region. This river and important mountain pass it creates is what gives Echnabalil the political power it requires to maintain its independence.

To the South of the Trudna River lies the region of Ech’ Opes, dominated by the large industrial town of Moc. This region is dominated by large mountains and great mineral wealth. The industrial might of the Republic comes from this region, along with the unique sky-metals (ruch and hoch) that allow the floating cities and skyships to exist.

Council of Heaven
The Republic of Echnabalalil is a representative republic lead by the Council of Heaven which consists of three members known as Skylords. A Skylord is elected into power by one of the major cities of Echnabalalil (Wrost, Moc and Luksus) for a four-year period. The Council meets four times a year to preside over the laws and issues confronting the Republic at the time, at both the Summer and Winter Solstices also to preside over the festivals in Luksus that occur then and then once each in the cities of Moc and Wrost. Each member is afforded an equal amount of power under the law and any disagreement between two members is to be reconciled by the third. Changes to the constitution of the republic requires agreement between all three members, however changes to common law require only two to agree.

Major legal and policy change decisions are typically made during the Solstice meetings which can last anywhere from three days to an entire month, after which the council opens up to requests to the public for a period of five days. Upon these days any citizen of the Republic can bring their grievances to the council for their judgement and any decision made is final and carried out as quickly as possible. Numerous clerks preside over these meeting to record the decisions.

Law
The Republic of Echnabalalil is a secular nation, with religion and state separated by law. The foundation of the legal code of the republic is the constitution, which enshrines the basic rights of the citizens of Echnabalalil. Following the constitution are statutes laid down by the Skylords over time, which regulate the ever-changing circumstances of the republic. Legal precedent follows these statues in order of legal importance. The death penalty and corporal punishment are used by the law in prosecution, although only for the most severe of crimes.

Court
Depending on the crime committed, an accused will be sent to of a different court.

Minor acts of criminality are seen by the Small Crimes Court, presided over by a single judge. Judgements are usually announced within a single day of the court appearance and delivered by hand-courier to the accused by a warden. If the defendant cannot read the judgement will be read out to them in a language they can understand.

Acts deemed moderate of impact to society (thievery, fraud, minor assault) are judged by the Felony Court. Three judges preside over these cases, two junior and a senior. These cases can take anywhere from a few days to several months to reach a resolution, sometimes requiring multiple court dates. A judgement requires a consensus from all three judges and the sentence delivered in court.

Severe crimes (murder, rape, treason, banditry) are judge by the Superior Court. Presiding are held by a senior judge and the outcome of the case determined by a jury of citizens. These cases can take anywhere up to several years to reach resolution, especially in the case of indecisive juries. A judgement is delivered in court and the sentence if any carried out with immediate effect.

Appeals can be made against sentence in the Appeals Court, who will decide either to repeal the delivered sentence, leave it changed or announce a different more appropriate sentence. These trials are deliberated over by three senior judges.

If a crime is deemed serious beyond all typical measure or an incredibly tough and impact decision is to be made it will be presided over by the Supreme Court. A council of seven senior judges, usually those seen as the wisest in the nation, decisions made by them are irrevocable by all but the Skylords themselves.

Military
Echnabalalil has no single professional army, instead the major cities and ruling noble class maintain their own private military forces. Should a major war occur the vast economy of the republic will be utilized to hire mercenary armies, no shortage of which exist in the Republic, most of whom keep busy as private security for powerful nobles or slave-hunters and rebellion quashers and the nobles and towns of the Republic will be required to bring a certain number of men to arms under the command of a single General chosen by the Council of Heaven.

Of particular note is the army kept by the city of Moc. They are widely regarded for their discipline and martial expertise and are thought to be some of the best troops in the world as a whole. See Military (Moc).

Foreign Relations
The Republic of Echnabalalil retains good relations with most surroundings nations as trade, the lifeblood of the Balalilean economy. In particular it maintains active diplomatic relations with the Imperium to the west and the dwarven kingdoms in the nearby mountains.

The Republic has not been involved in any active wars with significant powers in the last 150 years, although the occasional border conflict occurs, usually over mineral and territorial rights. It also has no known mutual defense or alliance pacts, but it is commonly believed that should anyone threaten the stability of the kingdom the Imperium would become involved.

Economy
The Republic of Echnabalalil is a semi-regulated market economy.

Wrost
See primary article for information

Luksus
See primary article for information

Moc
See primary article for information