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"You've appeared to have been burst into flames." HOLD UP RIGHT THERE! Sorry about that, but this article, Eshmun Tanit, is the sole property of Le Fire Ren (A.K.A Huo Ren), and cannot be either mentioned, used, or even edited, without my permission to do at all times. If you wish to talk, you can just talk to me here. |
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Eshmun Tanit | |
Kanji |
エシュムーンタニト |
Rōmaji |
Eshumūntanito |
Symbol | |
Location |
Sandaron |
Eshmun Tanit (エシュムーンタニト. Eshumūntanito) is an empire that once dominated the sea trade between Ishgar, Edenurpa, and Sandaron by controlling the trade routes between the two continents and the peninsula that is Ishgar. Founded by colonist sailors, they founded the city of Eshmun Tanit, and it was once a city, ruled by a merchant family until a coup happened. Now the city is ruled under a ground council, and the merchant family lost the influence it once had. Known for their wars against the Imperium Aurora and her allies in the Moskaco Empire and the Sirona Kingdom, it took a total of about seven wars between Eshmun Tanit and Imperium Aurora only for them to be in a stalemate, with Eshmun Tanit winning the first, second, and fifth while Imperium Aurora won the third, fourth, and sixth wars. By the seventh war, both sides have suffered a lot of casualties and loss of material, so they both form a truce, thus ending what would become known as the Kushor Wars.
Despite being an merchant empire, this nation has a dark secret, that being the question if the council would be willing to do anything about the dark cults everywhere. Even if they do try to exterminate every last one of them, new ones just keep multiplying much in the same way breeding rats. No matter how they they tried to get rid of them, the dark cults won't die, just removed. Despite this, the empire has maintained a strong economy that revolves around trading with other nations, and even opening up trade with the United Columbian States and it's long time enemy Imperium Aurora.
History[]
The Founding[]
While it is not clear on when the first city of the empire was founded, it is believed at group of colonists running from a war founded the city as a way to survive. Who or where did they came from is also uncertain, but after the colonists founded the first city, they began to negotiate the neighboring tribes not to attack them, for exchange, the tribes would get the gifts of their trading with foreign nation. The tribes agreed, and so, begins an agreement where the tribes would defend in exchange for wealth. At first, some of the tribals felt as though they can't trust these outsiders, for they bring with them terrible weapons and may or may not carry hostile intentions. Eventually, the tribes would agree, and thus created an alliance between the colonists and the people.
During that time, the colonists founded their home to settle, naming it "Gaelbenish", meaning "Hundred Sandy Winds" in their tongue. Now having a home, this would began their many attempts to settle more of their people and incorporate them with the local tribes. Some of the tribes saw this as a threat to their home, and thus, they broke the agreement and began to attack the colonists. The colonists did manage to defend themselves, for it is under the leadership of Ahirom Oahdaal, that the city still lived. The son of a merchant, he prepared his family to rule the city, starting his own "Oahdaal Dynasty", one where the Oahdaal's can rule the city with power at their grasp. With this power, Ahirom's son, Zephon, took command of the armies. Skilled at military affairs and an expert at tactics, he used the new age tactics against the tribes, who were used to fighting in a ceremonial war. Zephon, however, brought the meaning of total war against the tribes, conquering and assimilating them all until the city has expanded to about six times it's territory. This in turn created opportunities for the people of Gaelbenish to started forming more settlements around the expanded territory.
Expansion[]
The city's expansion against the tribals brought forth an era that their home can be larger, and thus, they renamed their land into "Eshmun Tanit", where talking of the trade between the north and the south, they would hold on a monopoly of goods. With this, the leader, Zephon, would use this economic growth in order to expand not only the city, but also their military and infrastructure. Soon, Eshmun Tanit under Zephon grow to become more powerful than it was before, however, Zephon wouldn't see it grow to it's height as he would be killed whilst bathing in one of the high baths. Some say that he was assassinated but the sources aren't that reliable. What did happened after that is when the next successor, Ganibaal, would take over as ruler. Ganibaal, unlike his predecessor, is not a man of conquest, but a merchant by heart, and knows completely how profitable it would be if Eshmun Tanit where to control the trade routes.
With this lucrative boom in their economy, this meant that Eshmun Tanit can focus on their infrastructure, in order to accommodate their growing population. This growth in citizens also meant that with a surplus of people, this would also bring upon a large surplus in labor, and hence forth, Ganibaal would take it upon himself to build Eshmun Tanit's great cities, ones that can withstand the scorching hot sun. With this, the cities of the Eshmun Tanit started to become more wealthy due to the trade with the many tribals that are around the area. Unfortunately however, it culminated into an incident in which a jealous tribal husband killed an Eshmun Tanit man for seducing his wife. Said incident got the tribal man killed, but this proved to be one of many incidents that caused a war between the Eshmun Tanit and the tribals.
Society and Culture[]
Cities[]
Religion[]
Worshipping numerous gods and goddesses, the people believed that each deity presided over a theme or motif. Examples included a god of all technology, a goddess of fertility and harvest, and a deity with a head of a lion that presided over desert. Over them are the two main deities, the supreme divine couple Halabael (God of the sun, war, and masculinity) and Eleraima (Goddess of the moon, peace, and feminity). Halabael is the patron god of the empire and chief deity of the empire's pantheon. This is contrast with Eleraima, who is the mother goddess and often the one is most worshipped when the people needed a time of peace.
Unfortunately however, there is one thing that makes Eshmun Tanit well known, and that is the amount of dark cults around the nation. Even with the amount of effort that the country tried to get rid of these cults, these dark cults keep popping up more and more, and that leaves it to only the more dangerous mages left to decimate these cults. The activity of these cults revolve around manipulating the populous into obedience, giving them a false sense of hope that they are protected. If there's a seed of doubt planted within the cult, then the leader has to get rid of that seed before it grows. In fact, these cults are often the reason why Eshmun Tanit has a bit of a bad reputation in modern times.
Economy[]
As the nation runs on trading with others, Eshmun Tanit manages the economy where they must depend on the trade with others, while also trying to find ways to be self-sufficient if an economic collapse happened. As they are among the deserts of Sandaron, there isn't any natural resources to find, only sand and sand. It wasn't long until people tried to find a way to this land of sand into fertile land, and somehow they managed to do through impossible means. Now from their farms, they grow the standard wheat and barley, but they also grow palm trees where they harvested dates, and a type of grass known as Midenura, used by herbalists to relieve the pain of childbirth. This is furthered supplemented that during the Fifth Kushor War, agriculture became more valuable as mages that have water magic combined with the farmers started to build more irrigation systems into more fertile fields, this allowed for a surplus of food.
In addition to their lucrative exports of harvested foods, they also have a monopoly on trading minerals found in the desert. They even have a trade on their manufacture goods, that being the mining of silver, which allowed them to have skilled silversmiths. It's even shown that they are in the process of manufacturing machines made of metal for industry. In addition, their trade in the most valuable commodity, an extremely valuable dye by the name of "Wesheh purple", this allowed them to gain more for their economy. More so with their trade with the Yarhibol League, with them gaining access to trade with the Malakbel Kingdom, the Agilbol Queendom, and the Baalshamin Monarchy.
Festivals and Traditions[]
Foreign Relations[]
Imperium Aurora[]
Already well known for their wars against them, both of these factions started to have peace talk between themselves. Their relations with one another is often neutral at best and more troubling at worst. Even though both of them started trade relations with each other, neither of them still have any talks about a possible alliance.
Agilbol Queendom[]
As one of the trading partners of the nation, the Agilbol Queendom is very friendly with Eshmun Tanit. As they both have a hatred against the Imperium Aurora for their many defeats in wars, both of these nation have been allies, along with the queendoms other members.
Ilanga Isizwe[]
Both nations, being fellow countries in the same continent, are partners in trade. Their relations first start with Hammisular the Navigator, having discovered this country and setting up peaceful relations with each other.
Government[]
Grand Council[]
The Grand Council is the leading body of the empire, ruling over the head of the empire, that being the current emperor. It is characterized by a checks and balance system, a complex administration, and civil society over the people. The grand council is usually made up of political parties each scheming over control. The three parties are the Tammaz Party (They believe in a more conservative approach to the empire, more warlike in nature, made up of the elites), the Adoniah Party (Their main goals are that the empire must strengthen their relations with other factions and to make peace with their rivals, made up of the common folk), and the last one is the Hanno Party (Named after the politician Hanno Ahumn, their main ideas are that they must be neutral and to focus on the prosperity and the administrating of the empire's treasury, they are made up of merchants (no surprise given that Hanno Ahumn bribed his way into politics)). A likewise chaotic council, they have an elected representative who would then be the leader of the grand council.
Monarch[]
While the Monarch is still the leading power of the nation, the monarchs themselves can't really do anything with the council's influence, and is only there just for ceremonial practices. Although the monarch tried to exercise some form of control of their nation, the council would include more democratic elements, which included a trade union, town meetings, and a popular assembly, just to make the king doesn't try anything. The members of this monarchy are made up of the merchant family that once took over the original city until the coup d'état against the family happened. They currently have little influence over what's left the nation that they once ruled. The family that once made up this monarchy were the "Oahdaal Family", yet currently, their power and influence has gradually shifted to the Grand Council.
Geography[]
The territory of Eshmun Tanit is one in which the only thing people can see is an unforgiving desert, and because of this, the people developed a need to store water wherever they would go, because in a desert, there is no salvation in which people would die of dehydration. What also helped is that because of this faction living in a desert, it means that there's a small chance of an oasis that would become their savior.
Locations[]
Military Strength[]

An early army of the Julian Empire facing off against an Eshmun Tanit division made up of war elephants.
Given that are at war with not only the Imperium Aurora and her allies, but also from hostile tribes, sea pirates, and other factions, they formed an army that meant to survive in a war of attrition. With both the navy and the army important for the empires survival, both of them played a role in the expansion of Eshmun Tanit power and territory across Sandaron. This is also true when the empire has to deal with not outside enemies, but also the attacks of dark cults, it is where they form a special force where their main goal is to find the source of where these dark cults pop up, exterminate them, and clear the area of any influences of the dark arts.
Known for being a combined arms force, the military has composed of light and heavy infantry, siege engines, skirmishers, light and heavy cavalry, which included their infamous war elephants and their chariots. This also include many mercenaries hired from across the globe, ranging to the archers from the Alsomne Tribes, to the horse riders of the Munidurnia Kingdom, to even hoplites hired from the Déntra Pólis. But due to the small native population, the empire mainly relies on mercenaries and hired blades from across the globe for their wars, which is why the nation, even as an empire, didn't have a permanent standing army. This would come to change during the First Kushor War, when military reforms under the Tammaz Party is when the nation would have its first standing army.
Leading in command of the army was the "Military Governor" of a local province, for it known that an Eshmun man should be capable of four things; warfare, politics, administration, and economics. As these Military Governors control a province, they can also recruit people from said province, as the higher the population, the more manpower the army has. The "Second-In-Command" is usually an officer who is capable to leading armies, and the succeed the Military Governor just in case if anything harmful happened to the latter.
Residents[]
- Alissa Wayne (Formerly)
Trivia[]
- I based this nation out of Ancient Carthage.
- Their name comes from Eshmun and Tanit, both of them are deities of the Phoenician people..
- Oh, and also, Carthāgō dēlenda est!