Full name: Unified Kingdom of Lengelia
Type: Territorial state. A constitutional monarchy combined with a noble's republic (arguably almost a crowned republic).
Demonym: Lengelian, Lengel
Description: The Lengelians are ethnically and linguistically related to the Ursans much in the same way that Karantians and Lokytians
are interrelated with each other. Present day Lengelia is also very
similar to Ursania in its basic political setup, for the most part. This
is where all other similarities end though, and where you realise how
different Lengelia and Ursania can be in their details. And it's no
surprise, as the two polities have been rivals for many centuries,
sometimes even openly hostile to each other in their mutual
competitivness. The Lengelian ruler, the King of All Lengels, is
nowadays even more of a figurehead than the Ursan emperor, though he
still wields considerable power in certain areas. The real movers and
shakers now are the empowered noble classes of the kingdom. They and
their extended bureaucracy preside not only over military and
representative affairs, but run much of the day-to-day economic,
judicial and social matters of the state. The elites form the
parliament, the Zebranie, and along with the executive, lead the kingdom
in a surprisingly republican and stable, if non-democratic and rather
chaotic way. A dynastic and later political union Segalimia was
attempted several centuries ago, and lasted for a while, but it had not
been an overly succesful experiment. Despite its shortcomings, the
Kingdom of Lengelia is steeped in a great (some would say obsessive)
reverence towards its rather glorious past, and the patriotic rhetoric
and worldview espoused by many of its citizens will remind you of that
near-constantly. The traditional image of a Lengelian nobleman or
noblewoman - “clad in exquisite armour, mounted atop a swift and spry
steed, wielding elegant weaponry as befits a god of war made flesh…” -
is slowly waning, but firmly inhabits the romantic imagination of an
average Aporuean, particularly the readers of epic poems or historical
and adventure novels. After all, many such works were penned by the
kingdom's citizens themselves. Like many nations, Lengelians have had a
long and proud artistic and scientific tradition, and could give
Ursania, Karantia or Lokytia a run for their money in the number of
bright minds that had been born in their lands. Aside from the laudatory
daydreaming odes directed towards the slowly passing era of Lengelian
chivalry, a common stereotype about the country is that it's people are
hyper-literate, hyper-educated and extremely inquisitive about scholarly
pursuits and the latest research and inventions. Historically, the main
rivals of Lengelians have been neighbouring Lokytians and Ursans.
Nowadays, tension with the eastern neighbours has decreased a lot
(especially due to common scientific and economic interests and past
grudges losing relevance). This has shifted the Lengelian focus on
careful suspicion firmly towards the Ursan side. Nevertheless, for all
their deep-seated rivalry, the two countries get along rather amicably. A
much smaller rivalry of Lengelia and its neighbour that many forget
about is that with the Hetmanate. It is a much openly friendlier rivalry
when compared with the Ursan one, even though the kingdom and the
hetmanate had fought a few bitter territorial wars a few centuries ago
(the Hetmanate insists to this day that they just fought to preserve
their independence and avoid being gobbled up by an overly eagerly
courting Lengelia). The beastpeople of Lengelia include particularly
many members of the hedgefolk and martenfolk, who mostly get on well
with local humans, but otrins are often viewed with a degree of
prejudice, due to the infamous piratical history of many Lengelian
ottermen.
Real world frame of reference: Poland, of course.
Particularly late medieval and early modern Poland, with a rather weak
central ruler and the nobles carrying much of the actual political power
and political squabbles among themselves and with foreign countries.
However, in a subversion, there was never anything like a truly
succesful and long-lived “Lengelian-Segalimian Commonwealth” in this
world. Lengelian nobility has also been surprisingly egalitarian “since
time immemorial”, making female knights and high-ranking politically
active noblewomen a common sight, instead of the more patriarchal
sarmatism of the OTL PLC. That said, the broad similarities to bits and
pieces of PLC history are still rather uncanny. There are also elements
of 18th, 19th and 20th century Poland in there too, what with some of
the “Napoleonic puppet Poland” elements, the prominence of famous
romantically-inclined writers and poets, and the equal notoriety of
brilliant Lengelian men and women of science.
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