Zhavekal
Zhavekal
Religion
Traditions
-25% Regiment Drill Loss
-10% Cost of Advisors with Ruler's Culture
Crowned by the Mountain AkalBavar I, first king of Šad Sur, learned from both his father's triumphs and failures. While Barseen used force to seize the city of Zanšap, Bavar used leverage and fear. Reversing his father’s orders to expel the Suncrowns of Zanšap to the desert, Bavar instead rounded up his gnoll subjects, ordering them to conquer and rule the Sandfangs as their overlords.\n\nUkraz, a small-time Suncrown pack matriarch, quietly rode out the chaos. While others vied for control, she funded their schemes. Instead of dying at the front, she sent scouts and catspaws. Once her rivals fell to knives or ruin, Ukraz alone was left to swear fealty to Bavar, rising as Ukraz Grasper-of-Mountains, queen of The Ever-Stalwart Sunscorched Mušahar of Zhavekal. She raised her capital in the valley most distant from Ekluzagnu’s reach, naming it Garpix-Ukraz after herself.\n\nWhen Ekluzagnu fell to Jix the Goldseeker, the heirs of Ukraz rushed to act. When Jix arrived, she marched into Garpix-Ukraz with no resistance, and the gnolls of Zhavekal offered her the same copper crown that Bavar bestowed on Ukraz.
+10% Morale of Armies
Ekluzagnu Flesh MerchantsSituated between two empires, the Akalate of Šad Sur profited greatly from its bustling underground trade. The Suncrown gnolls, key players in Ekluzagnu's slave market, worked with the unspoken approval of the Akal. Many gnolls got their start working the flesh market of Ekluzagnu for the nobles of Šad Sur, who saw it as a disgusting business.\n\nWith the rise of the Mušahar of Zhavekal, the Suncrown gnolls not only expanded their slaving operations but also moved into riskier markets like gambling and drugs, while also taking care to stamp down more heinous crimes such as murder or kidnapping. This positioned them as cogs within the Akalate's underworld, operating in a semi-legal capacity. This created an unexpected benefit to Šad Sur: the ability to tax crime. The balance allowed the Suncrowns to maintain control over the underground while contributing to the Akalate's coffers.
+10% Goods Produced Modifier
Foreign Sun on the SandsThe Suncrown gnolls, aware of their fragile grip on Zhavekal, were constantly vigilant against their subjects. This dynamic showed in the Kerxhur Rakad, or sunrise rite. Every summer solstice, Zhavekal’s elites would gather at the highest peak in Invazax. The Zhavekal chieftess would be adorned by retainers in ceremonial armor, and bow to the sun.\n\nAt the sun’s apex, priestesses crowned the chieftess with a majestic headdress and gold paint. As one, the Suncrowns lifted their arms and recelebrated their victory over the Sandfang pests. The ritual both affirmed their leadership and underscored the ongoing threat of the Sandfangs.\n\nWhen Jixobix conquered the Sad Uras mountains, the ceremony was hastily adapted to honor Jix instead. A Suncrown representative, symbolically crowned, would kneel before the Goldseeker, presenting a scroll symbolizing the Suncrowns' expertise in trade and diplomacy. As Suncrown influence gradually diminished, the rite eventually faded from memory
+2% Missionary Strength
-25% Harsh Treatment Cost
Xhurkult WeavingCenturies ago during the rule of the Suncrown Mušahar, prospectors found a copper vein in a Sandfang den that could not be tapped even if mined for a century. Immediately, a Suncrown noble seized it on a false pretext, which enraged the already furious homesteaders. After crushing the ensuing revolt, the new Sandfang owner expanded the mine with slaves from Ekluzagnu. Soon copper became a famed export for Zhavekal, its copper trinkets sold all over North Sarhal and Bulwar.\n\nMany mine owners and traders profited off this market, so much so that copper became essential to Zhavekali culture. The most famous expression of this was in copper weaving, a practice in which gossamer thin copper wire was entwined with bands of wool and attached to thin plates of embossed bronze. Designs praised Xhurael with stylistic depictions of the sun, included stories about the creation of Zhavekal, or boasted of great wealth. Rich Sandfangs would quietly include designs of flames or beings of fire, indirectly glorifying the Xhazobs.
-15% Stability Cost Modifier
Raid the KhetAs raiding was deeply rooted in the culture of gnollkind, especially for Zhavekal’s Xhazobkultists, Ikse Grasper-of-Mountains quietly organized raids into North Sarhal, where the light of Surakel did not reach. Firstly, the raids were a release for the Sandfangs; a way to direct their frustrations and maintain internal stability. With this, the Suncrowns ensured the preservation of societal order and created a core of veterans to conscript in times of conflict.\n\nSecondly, the raids served a religious and strategic purpose. Instead of raiding indiscriminately and spreading violent chaos, the raiders specifically focused their attacks on villages following the Khet, to instill dread of Surakel among the Sarhaly. By doing so, they simultaneously amassed wealth and diminished the strength of the Suncrowns' religious rivals.
+15% Available Loot
+50% Looting Speed
Dance of InvazaxIn Zhavekal, when two gnolls argued, it was not settled with steel or lead but with fists. Hidden in the dens of Invazax, slowly bubbling pits hosted ritual fights. The cave mouths, all agape towards the eastern sunrise, were sacred—a hallowed ground for savagery and brute strength.\n\nOn ritual days, gnolls with grievances would step into the mud, followed by an eager crowd, the light of violence glimmering in their eyes. At twilight, when the light of Surakel was dimmest, fighters approached each other with snarls and fists. With each blow, watchers would strike drums and gongs, singing an ominous chorus between chanting and the sharp, discordant cries of a horde whipped into fervor. Mud-cloaked fighters struck each other without mercy - each strike paid a debt, like two mouths eating each other until nothing was left. The fight only ended when one fighter was unconscious or dead.\n\nAs the gnolls engaged in visceral combat, the mud cloaked them, erasing all signs of race or status. The mud pits were the great equalizer among the Zhavekali; once covered, distinctions between the Suncrown and Sandfang clans became irrelevant.
-2 National Unrest
Izer BuuzSeething under the nepotistic rule of the Suncrowns, the Sandfangs expressed their frustration in two-faced songs and stories. This genre was known as Izer Buuz, or smoke song - the words that cannot be caught. Amateur troupes in Zhavekal performed street plays that subtly mocked the ruling Suncrown and Sun Cult through coded humor. These plays were either ‘high grade copper’, light and sarcastic, or ‘low grade rust’, exaggeratedly flattering of the Suncrowns to the point of discomfort.\n\nThe most popular play was Trouk and Jawlicker, a slapstick comedy about a rich wool merchant (Trouk) chasing a low class thief (Jawlicker) all over the Ekluzagnu market, for only a few stolen pennies. Jawlicker's cunning tricks led to hilarious setbacks for Trouk, who only ended up more humiliated and hurt in her attempts to capture the thief. The play was so popular that copies and variations sprung up all over Zhavekal. Ironically, the most famous version was played by a Suncrown merchant princess, the daughter of a sweatshop owner employing hundreds of Sandfangs. Suncrown audiences laughed themselves to tears, not realizing that they were the butt of the joke.
-10% Spy Action Cost Modifier
Ambition
+10% Trade Steering
History
TBD
Strategy
TBD