nedeľa 10. mája 2015

Countries, states and cultures: Lokytia (Upper and Lower Lokytia)

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Full name: TBA.

Type: Territorial states and very rarely city states, various types of regimes (usually constitutional or absolutist monarchies, with some small republics and special status territories in a few locations).

Demonym: Lokytian, Lokytic, Lokyt

Description: Long a place of inner political struggle and failed attempts at unification, the Lokytian realms remain divided to this very day. But they have always been tied together by a shared language (though with many dialects and accent variations), shared cultural aspects, shared economic ties, shared bloodlines of their nobles and monarchs, and often even shared political interests - over here, alliances form, thrive and fall apart in a matter of decades. Nowadays, the ancient Lokytian region has been firmly growing apart into two dominant groupings, each distinguished as a power bloc with a somewhat different ideology and approach, though ultimately not so really different from its silent rival. The names of these power blocs - Upper and Lower Lokytia - might be misleading to a person who doesn't share the domestic understanding of traditional Lokytian geography. As the Lokytian coastline is to the north and the uplands and mountains keep rising as one goes south, Upper Lokytia is actually located in the south, while Lower Lokytia is the one closer to the coast, located in the north. Geographic and climatic differences have left a mark on Lokytian historical, cultural and economic customs, with the south seen as a birthplace of great scientists and thinkers*, but more laid back and traditionalist, in contrast to the north, with its more collective approach to research and development, more lively (some would say rabid) fixation on trade and earning money, as well as a “what's modern and progressive is good” attitude. Like Karantia, the specific regions of the two Lokytias can vary wildly in development - from industrially booming metropolises to almost fairytalish villages and towns where time seems to have stopped centuries ago. The Lokytian realms are simply one of the many places where chain mail and declining knighthood currently coexist with primitive ironclads and frantically-drilled musketmen.

(* - yes, some of them were instrumental in the co-invention of the first practical aeronavs, together with their colleagues-engineers from Karantia)

Real world frame of reference: Think of Lokytia as the lands of “Germany proper”, and period-wise, as being somewhere between the early modern era (16th/17th century) Holy Roman Empire and the Confederation of the Rhine or German Confederation of the 19th century. Upper Lokytia is basically the southern and more traditionalist/Catholic Germany of our world, while Lower Lokytia is more open to massive reforms and development (both liberal and authoritarian) and has a bit of a Protestant-style or Hansa-style work ethic. Lower Lokytia also shares some elements with the real world's early modern Netherlands/Frisia/East Frisia and the Danish Empire at its height, as well as these same countries during the early 20th century.

City NPCs of Lokytian origins: Utahurki

 

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