Quick Facts!:
Ruler: Qatar Dynasty - Currently King al'Najran
Location: Immediately North East of Gnard, on the Ulutain Penninsula
Captial: Malphas
Climate: Dry, arid though not complete desert
Known For: Aahna Refining
Eystra is immediately northeast of Gnard on the Ulutain Peninsula. Their capital city, Malphas, is nestled comfortably on the Eystrian coast that over looks the Naida Ocean on the eastern side of the country. Malphas is important to the rest of the known world because it is there that Aahna is distributed. Aahna is a plant that grows only in the Gnardian desert and once shipped to Eystra is refined into oils or incense to be used in Light worship but is also used for many other religions throughout the world. Because of its pleasing scent religious leaders say that it pleases the gods, it pleases the light. Without Eystrian peasants to refine it, it would remain a desert plant that the Gnardians believe is all that is left of the long distance “green world” that the desert once was.
The people of Eystra are dark skinned and generally dark haired though their eye colors are across the rainbow due to the constant proximity to raw Aahna. They have a quiet manner, though known as a bit “rough around the edges” and very hard traders. Their country is largely undeveloped, mostly small modest villages centered on refining the Aahna brought from Gnard. Their walled and wealthy capital city is the only place open to non citizens giving the appearance of far more exotic wealth than prevails throughout the rest of the country. The wealthy traders who live within the city never refine the sacred plant themselves; rather, they leave the work to the lower class and sell it for profit in the end. The lower class is largely ignored and looked down upon.
The Eystra landscape is mainly flat land, in the city there are lush palm trees, and vegetation along with the beautiful view of the ocean and a few inlets on the coast, but the rest of the country is arid, with some vegetation closer to the coasts. Most of the peasant villages are mud huts, built close together around a water source, because of the closeness to the Gnardian desert and lack of water in the south. Eystra has complete control over their boarders because of their importance to the world they are left alone and are neutral in most wars, lest they be civil wars. To threaten them is to threaten the world.
Eystrian history dates back to the “breaking” of the world. It is in their libraries that such tales of those times are found and no where else in the known lands has such records, because of this great treasure, the Malphas Library is a busy place for scholars, students and site seers. But recently under the Qatar regime the Library has been censored and the books have been placed under lock and key with guards watching the entrance into the room where the books are held. Al’ Najran, the current ruler and King of Eystra has deemed their contents ‘radical’.
Eystra started out as a country that sold knowledge and kept knowledge for the world around them. Many if not all of the upper class in Eystra are learned in several languages and taught the histories of all the countries. Their libraries outmatch even those of Kalimshere in Carthan. It was in Eystra that the chronicles were kept, because Eystra has the oldest living language text to date and while the rest of the countries were developing and trying to speak, Eystra was ahead reading and writing. Because of this ability they were explorers in the early times, wandering their way south in to the desert lands to make alliances with the Gnardian peoples and to eventually pay the Gnardians for the Aahna they found their. After the conquest South the ruler at the time, Jariem Al’ Ameer, first ruler of the Ameer dynasty, put to law that the peasantry would refine the herb and they would sell it for its religious purposes. It was Ameer that began to use it as incense in his daily blessings. So by example so did the people of Eystra and so eventually did the world.
Aahna is respected in Eystra more so than in any other place in the world. They have a great love for it because it is through Aahna that everyone makes their money and for the wealthy it is because of the plant that they live in their comfort. But not only did it become their lives, but their culture and religion as well.
Muja An’ Farraj a minister under Hamal Al’ Ameer, last of the Ameer rulers, was the first to create the Dakal, the holy book of the people of Eystra. He was inspired by the brilliance of the rising sun, as he lit his Aahna burner. He enjoyed the day but the next day he did not light the Aahna and the day was not as brilliant, was not as joyous and it was then that he realized that Aahna was a gift from Jaleel, the main deity in Eystra, who’s name literally translates to “great” or “revered”. Jaleel was a man, now considered a profit of the Heavens, who brought the Eystrian people from their darkness and gave them language. Over the years his name has become that which the Eystrian people refer to when they speak of their higher power. Muja An’ Farraj through his inspiration gave the country their religion and made sure to make it detailed, there is nothing as complicated as Eystrian worship. Every morning they light Aahna and bow to the sun and pray to Jaleel. Every afternoon they say their prayers three times and take time out of that day to bow to the sun, light Aahna and praise Jaleel. And every evening the same prayers, but only once for the beauty of the setting sun, it is said that to whisper the name of the Holy One, once as the sun sets and the Aahna burns, will secure the sun below the horizon and make sure that it rises again. To a foreigner, in Eystra, the day is filled with the sweet sent of Aahna and throughout the city the chants are heard, in reverence to their god. It is mystical; it is magical, because foreigners are never allowed outside of the walls to actually see the working class.
The working class, the lower class, the peasants are the true Aahna refiners, they also follow the demands of the Dakal but not as rigidly because their day is spent refining. Theirs is a life of hard labor with little reward. Their class can never more above the status of peasant, once born into their lot they are stuck refining until their death. It is a sad life that is only lightened by the many trips into Gnard to harvest the Aahna with the Gnardian people. Gnardians are thought, among the Eystrian peasantry, to be a magical, beautiful race and to marry into a Gnardian family and leave the Aahna refinery to actually grow the herb is a great honor. Many lower class families marry their children to Gnardians so that the next generation will not have to labor at refining like the fist did.
It is a harsh culture to outside view, but Eystra has been working long before the other countries. They do believe in freedom for both sexes, but women are encouraged to cover themselves from head to foot so that they are modest before men. Though many women are liberal and refuse the general population do cover themselves completely. The Eystrian women are exotic to foreigners and it is not uncommon for foreign men, even Kings to entertain Eystrian women during their stays. Their colorful eyes, their dark complexion and dark hair and provocative covering make them more exotic than any women in the known worlds. In Gao, especially, they are known as ‘wind flowers’ because of the way their clothing catches in the air of the day. Men are left alone, as far as dress is concerned. They are given the head of the family, but it is a well known fact that behind every strong Eystrian man there is an even stronger wife. Like their northern Kostroman neighbors, women are generally placed in a subordinate role, but unlike the Kostroman’s women are precious and never harmed or looked down upon, they are merely expected to known their place and only to speak out angrily against their husband’s, father’s or King’s when expressly needed. There is a saying is Eystra “Believe her, for she is wise and gave you the mind you think with.”
Politically, men have ruled Eystra, starting with the Mu’Tasim Dynasty that lasted, according to the books, up until the ‘breaking’. The first Dynasty to rule Eystra and establish it under the Jaleel religion was the Ameer dynasty which lasted a thousand years and is thought by the inhabitants to be the golden age of their society. Under the Ameer regime, thought, religion, reading, writing, refining and selling were all introduced and indulged. There have been fourteen dynasties throughout history including the current Al’ Najran regime which is among five in Eystrian history that has been harsher and more orthodox.
Ruler: Qatar Dynasty - Currently King al'Najran
Location: Immediately North East of Gnard, on the Ulutain Penninsula
Captial: Malphas
Climate: Dry, arid though not complete desert
Known For: Aahna Refining
Eystra is immediately northeast of Gnard on the Ulutain Peninsula. Their capital city, Malphas, is nestled comfortably on the Eystrian coast that over looks the Naida Ocean on the eastern side of the country. Malphas is important to the rest of the known world because it is there that Aahna is distributed. Aahna is a plant that grows only in the Gnardian desert and once shipped to Eystra is refined into oils or incense to be used in Light worship but is also used for many other religions throughout the world. Because of its pleasing scent religious leaders say that it pleases the gods, it pleases the light. Without Eystrian peasants to refine it, it would remain a desert plant that the Gnardians believe is all that is left of the long distance “green world” that the desert once was.
The people of Eystra are dark skinned and generally dark haired though their eye colors are across the rainbow due to the constant proximity to raw Aahna. They have a quiet manner, though known as a bit “rough around the edges” and very hard traders. Their country is largely undeveloped, mostly small modest villages centered on refining the Aahna brought from Gnard. Their walled and wealthy capital city is the only place open to non citizens giving the appearance of far more exotic wealth than prevails throughout the rest of the country. The wealthy traders who live within the city never refine the sacred plant themselves; rather, they leave the work to the lower class and sell it for profit in the end. The lower class is largely ignored and looked down upon.
The Eystra landscape is mainly flat land, in the city there are lush palm trees, and vegetation along with the beautiful view of the ocean and a few inlets on the coast, but the rest of the country is arid, with some vegetation closer to the coasts. Most of the peasant villages are mud huts, built close together around a water source, because of the closeness to the Gnardian desert and lack of water in the south. Eystra has complete control over their boarders because of their importance to the world they are left alone and are neutral in most wars, lest they be civil wars. To threaten them is to threaten the world.
Eystrian history dates back to the “breaking” of the world. It is in their libraries that such tales of those times are found and no where else in the known lands has such records, because of this great treasure, the Malphas Library is a busy place for scholars, students and site seers. But recently under the Qatar regime the Library has been censored and the books have been placed under lock and key with guards watching the entrance into the room where the books are held. Al’ Najran, the current ruler and King of Eystra has deemed their contents ‘radical’.
Eystra started out as a country that sold knowledge and kept knowledge for the world around them. Many if not all of the upper class in Eystra are learned in several languages and taught the histories of all the countries. Their libraries outmatch even those of Kalimshere in Carthan. It was in Eystra that the chronicles were kept, because Eystra has the oldest living language text to date and while the rest of the countries were developing and trying to speak, Eystra was ahead reading and writing. Because of this ability they were explorers in the early times, wandering their way south in to the desert lands to make alliances with the Gnardian peoples and to eventually pay the Gnardians for the Aahna they found their. After the conquest South the ruler at the time, Jariem Al’ Ameer, first ruler of the Ameer dynasty, put to law that the peasantry would refine the herb and they would sell it for its religious purposes. It was Ameer that began to use it as incense in his daily blessings. So by example so did the people of Eystra and so eventually did the world.
Aahna is respected in Eystra more so than in any other place in the world. They have a great love for it because it is through Aahna that everyone makes their money and for the wealthy it is because of the plant that they live in their comfort. But not only did it become their lives, but their culture and religion as well.
Muja An’ Farraj a minister under Hamal Al’ Ameer, last of the Ameer rulers, was the first to create the Dakal, the holy book of the people of Eystra. He was inspired by the brilliance of the rising sun, as he lit his Aahna burner. He enjoyed the day but the next day he did not light the Aahna and the day was not as brilliant, was not as joyous and it was then that he realized that Aahna was a gift from Jaleel, the main deity in Eystra, who’s name literally translates to “great” or “revered”. Jaleel was a man, now considered a profit of the Heavens, who brought the Eystrian people from their darkness and gave them language. Over the years his name has become that which the Eystrian people refer to when they speak of their higher power. Muja An’ Farraj through his inspiration gave the country their religion and made sure to make it detailed, there is nothing as complicated as Eystrian worship. Every morning they light Aahna and bow to the sun and pray to Jaleel. Every afternoon they say their prayers three times and take time out of that day to bow to the sun, light Aahna and praise Jaleel. And every evening the same prayers, but only once for the beauty of the setting sun, it is said that to whisper the name of the Holy One, once as the sun sets and the Aahna burns, will secure the sun below the horizon and make sure that it rises again. To a foreigner, in Eystra, the day is filled with the sweet sent of Aahna and throughout the city the chants are heard, in reverence to their god. It is mystical; it is magical, because foreigners are never allowed outside of the walls to actually see the working class.
The working class, the lower class, the peasants are the true Aahna refiners, they also follow the demands of the Dakal but not as rigidly because their day is spent refining. Theirs is a life of hard labor with little reward. Their class can never more above the status of peasant, once born into their lot they are stuck refining until their death. It is a sad life that is only lightened by the many trips into Gnard to harvest the Aahna with the Gnardian people. Gnardians are thought, among the Eystrian peasantry, to be a magical, beautiful race and to marry into a Gnardian family and leave the Aahna refinery to actually grow the herb is a great honor. Many lower class families marry their children to Gnardians so that the next generation will not have to labor at refining like the fist did.
It is a harsh culture to outside view, but Eystra has been working long before the other countries. They do believe in freedom for both sexes, but women are encouraged to cover themselves from head to foot so that they are modest before men. Though many women are liberal and refuse the general population do cover themselves completely. The Eystrian women are exotic to foreigners and it is not uncommon for foreign men, even Kings to entertain Eystrian women during their stays. Their colorful eyes, their dark complexion and dark hair and provocative covering make them more exotic than any women in the known worlds. In Gao, especially, they are known as ‘wind flowers’ because of the way their clothing catches in the air of the day. Men are left alone, as far as dress is concerned. They are given the head of the family, but it is a well known fact that behind every strong Eystrian man there is an even stronger wife. Like their northern Kostroman neighbors, women are generally placed in a subordinate role, but unlike the Kostroman’s women are precious and never harmed or looked down upon, they are merely expected to known their place and only to speak out angrily against their husband’s, father’s or King’s when expressly needed. There is a saying is Eystra “Believe her, for she is wise and gave you the mind you think with.”
Politically, men have ruled Eystra, starting with the Mu’Tasim Dynasty that lasted, according to the books, up until the ‘breaking’. The first Dynasty to rule Eystra and establish it under the Jaleel religion was the Ameer dynasty which lasted a thousand years and is thought by the inhabitants to be the golden age of their society. Under the Ameer regime, thought, religion, reading, writing, refining and selling were all introduced and indulged. There have been fourteen dynasties throughout history including the current Al’ Najran regime which is among five in Eystrian history that has been harsher and more orthodox.
7:29 AM Nov 26
