Ashkha
Ashkha
Religion
Traditions
-10% Advisor Cost
-25% Regiment Drill Loss
Thousand Fort CountrySince time immemorial, our sacred duty has been the defence of Ichiadza civilisation against the beasts on our borders, above all the ancient boundary of the river Khanat. Both the bestial Ashhana and the hag-touched trolls of the swamp have greater strength than us, and so we have learned the painful lesson of discretion, avoiding engagements which allow them to bring their bulk to bear. We pull back again and again to an innumerable series of remote and camouflaged fastnesses, avoiding direct engagement; each village knows the location of a few, and keeps them swept clean and stocked with supplies. In such a way we make every hamlet a single stone in the great wall of the Ichiadza.
-15% Fort Maintenance
VakhrunnatWe are a resourceful people, not isolated from the Emperor’s domain but connected to it - by water over the Rakshas, and by road west to Zerat. Any scion of the nobility who hopes to rule needs to understand the world outside our fortress-country, and will spend at least a few years fostered in the capital, a time we call one’s Vakhrunnat. In such a way our heirs develop ties with the cosmopolitan nobility, who lobby on our behalf with the Emperor, and we keep up with trends and political developments at court.
-10% Idea Cost
Hukhan FestivalsNo food is associated as keenly with Ashkha as the hukhan, a small grey-pink fish which shoals in abundance in our lake. Each year the little fish swim upstream to spawn, and setting out his net for an hour, a man can catch enough to eat for a week - to say nothing of the delicious roe we harvest from their spawning grounds. This is a time of plenty for us; a time for generous giving, reaffirming the bonds of community, and a true moment of respite from our constant vigil.
-15% Stability Cost Modifier
StiltwatchesWe long ago learned to deny our enemies the luxury of a safe place to rest. At least twice a year we repair and strengthen our stilted watchtowers along the shore of the Rakshas, leaving interlopers without any respite from the deepest jungle. Ours is an asymmetrical conflict in which we are always the weaker, and so we do not hesitate to call on our allies: experience, preparation, and the land itself.
+1 Attrition for Enemies
+1 Max Hostile Attrition
Legitimised BloodfeudsThe Ashhana have forgotten civilisation, but our Naga scribes do not forget. We keep keen records of the people to our east, regularly extracted by interrogation from captured Asshama raiders. As much as possible, we let our warriors know - this is the village which killed your clutch-brothers, these are the people responsible. A spearman who strikes for vengeance strikes hard and fast, and does not show mercy.
-0.03 Monthly War Exhaustion
Waterfront ScaffoldingThe same techniques we apply to our stiltwatches can be adapted for our villages and towns. It is not so rare to find a village in the mountains where the river disappears entirely, flowing fast under homesteads and councillaries. In the rainy season, the water can rise with unbelievable speed, but our stilts keep our stores and clutches safe.
-10% Construction Cost
Enervating DoctrineThe idea of taking up the tools of the swamp may seem distasteful to some, but we do not throw away any weapon that can be used to defend the innocent. An army that camps outside our walls finds disease a constant companion, the air itself leaching the strength from their bones as our mages weave mists of dysentery and work gangrene into every cut. Let philosophers in their ivory towers wax lyrical about the dishonour of the poisoner - their liberty to do so is bought with our sweat.
+15% Fort Defence
Ambition
+10% Morale of Armies
History
TBD
Strategy
TBD