History[]
The land of Negronde has not always been the desert that it is now, home to bandits, demons, wild animals, and really any other nasty creature you can think of. Once, in a time long from our own, it was a lust fertile field, home to thousands. A rich and wonderful culture thrived there, and the people were happy, crops were able to grow, and rivers flowed freely throughout the land. It was a golden age for the entire region, as it would seem their culture was destined to overcome the entire continent.
But fate has other plans for these peoples. Just as the wind had brought them food and water, so now the wind turned against them, bringing heat, sand, and dust. Forests turned to dunes, and fertile valleys, to dead dry ravines. The people were scattered, as cities that were once home to hundred were soon only inhabited by a few dozens. Though even though who tried to flee did not meet a happy end, for they were met by large vicious hordes of beast, and were soon torn apart. Nature had torn apart an empire decades in the making, in just two years. The nation broke down into cities states, with each one barely moving beyond their own walls as they fought for the few oases of trees and water that remained.
This era of civil war for over a century until the invasion of the coast came. The cities there had far better luck, with a thin strip of land there still being fertile and allowing for the survival of a small fragment of the old empire. After they had raised a grand army together, the shore states invaded the inland area and conquered it in a brief war, with the small tribal armies of the city states standing no chance against the grand army. With the conquest of the old capital, it seemed the new empire had a chance of returning. This fate was not to be had however. While the Grand army was gone and in its conquest of the desert land, an insurrection had occurred at home, deposing of the council as one Alvin Blackthorn took power of the nation. Fearing the challenge of the Grand Army challenge commander Melvis Stormfold, he arranged for him to visit the capital. While the commander made his way back, Alvis accosted Melvis’s wife as well, leaving his son in an orphanage. It was also at this point that he declared that the gods would no longer be welcomed in the country, and that their worship would be outlawed. In secret though he had been working with a cult in the area who had helped him secure power. They believed Alvis and Serina, Melvis’s wife, to be the children of a deity of theirs. Alvis didn’t take this seriously but he went along with it to secure the throne. Meanwhile when Melvis returned to the capital, Alvis was ready for him and along with a legion of elite battlemages, wiped out most of his grand army in one fell swoop, securing him the entire old republic as an empire now.
Though Alvis would later die to an insurrection, the monarch remained, though for several years they kept a council of nobles to give the faint hint of representation, along with clinging to old customs. Though as time went on, this degraded downwards, with nobles becoming more corrupt, more finances being funneled into the army, and more lost attributes of the republic. It was during this long period that a large band of nomadic lizard people moved into the nation. They were quickly captured and forced into slavery, forced to go through the dangerous mining conditions near the mountains while others were forced to live near the ocean and were selectively breed so they could eventually go underwater and mine more there. Though there has been numerous attempts at conquest, due to the large size and the nature of the desert, most invading army tend to be bogged down in the dunes and picked off by hit and run attacks.
Culture[]
Though they were once home to one of the greater of the ancient civilization, very little remains of the old regime. The people of the land tend to be very cold hearted and calculating, mostly due to having to grow up within the harsh environment of a desert. They tend to consider humanity and other humanoids as the dominate species and have little tolerance for what they deem "Beast" people such as lizard people, cats, dogs, and other such beings. They do have a large population of lizards though they have long since been experimented with, with each generation becoming dumber and stronger so they can accomplish their job better. Many people question the ethics of this, which is why they have one or two mines set up to make the conditions look wonderful, while the rest of the mines will typically have a death rate of 34%. Another key part is the importance they place on military. After the defeat of the Grand Army, it was decided by the emperor that a new army must be raised that is loyal only to the emperor and the empire as a whole. So while the new Grand Army isn't as big as other nations military forces, they are extremely fanatic and expert in warfare, able to repel even the biggest of armies off native soil. Their biggest exports tend to be valuable metals, jewels, glassware, and spices. Due to the rough nature of the desert, instead of riding around on horses, the people of the land instead tend to travel on camel, wyvern, or scorpion. Another unfortunate result as a decaying of the old ideals is the corruption of government. Political assassination is the name of the game, with new officials being welcomed in and carried out all the time. The only time the corruption really stops is in times of war and even then, there have been cases of some military officers "accidentally" not receiving the reinforcement they need and being overruned.
Population[]
Negronde's population is made up of a majority of humans, though elves, dwarves, and shapeshifter tend to hold a high ranking minority. Due to their tendency to try and rely on themselves as much as possible, non-humanoids are heavily discriminated against, especially those with scales. The lizard people who migrated there so long ago are but a shadow of their former selves, with very few still holding cognitive thoughts and reasoning, but with most having been converted down into large brutish barbarians to work in the mines. In recent times though, more diplomatic efforts have been made to give better relations to non humans, but humans still hold the majority of power within the nation.