Anaxas
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The Kingdom of Anaxas is located southwest of Mugroba and the northeast of Hesse. Anaxas enjoys a prosperous role as middleman in the trade system between the Headlands and the Vales. The prime goddess of the country is Alioe, Goddess of Time.
The adjectival and demonymic form of "Anaxas" is "Anaxi". For example, "he/she/it is Anaxi", "the Anaxi flag," and "several Anaxi".
A significant percent of the population of Anaxas is of immigrant origin, because many nations send their children to Brunnhold to study magic. Human traders from Mugroba and Hesse often settle in Anaxas. There are representatives from nine kingdoms living and working in Anaxas. Old Rose Harbor is perhaps the most diverse city in the country, with more immigrants than indigenous people.
Topography & Locations
A primarily deciduous region, with a temperate climate and heavy rainfall, Anaxas' fertile land is dotted with farms, fields and rice paddies. It is home to many rolling hills and a few low-lying mountains. To the west, there is an area shrouded in mist; this mist is produced by the hatchers, who roam the land in small bands. There is a valley hidden within this mist, said to be the home of the wick fortress of Anhau.
The cultural center for galdori is undoubtedly Brunnhold, which includes a small College Town (called the Stacks) for lodging, spirits and entertainment. The school is a city in its own right, with churches, businesses and homes as well as its academic buildings.
The commercial and political capitol is the city of Vienda, which, while ruled over by galdori, is populated mainly by humans.
Old Rose Harbor is an unchecked hive of criminal activity and black market trading. The galdori allow it to remain standing because it is vital to the trade between the Muluku Islands and the rest of Anaxas.
Central Anaxas
- Vienda - the capital city of Anaxas and the seat of the government
- Bad Aisling (pronounced "Badashlen") - small farming village five miles south of Vienda
- Fenneckey - a small rural farming village southeast of Vienda
- Surwood Isle - an island in the Arova River, location of the yearly Wick Festival
- Wraithwine Wood - a large forest wilderness
- Dorhaven - a small town near Wraithwine Woods
Eastern Anaxas
- Old Rose Harbor - the primary trade port, responsible for a good deal of the nation's wealth
- Brayde County - a wide stretch of farmland
- Fen Kierden - a forbidding swamp that blurs the border between Anaxas and Mugroba, often a land of contention and illegal border crossing
- Mimsbury-in-the-Marsh - a small wick and human village in northern Anaxas, near Fen Kierden
- Fentail Isle - an island off the eastern coast of Anaxas
- Catchwater - small farming community in southeast Anaxas near Fentail Isle
- Dutaim - a tiny island village on Fentail Isle
Northern Anaxas
- Cellas Isle - a large island with a large wildlife population, popular hunting destination
- Nomadic Land - Anaxi plains, traveling ground for some wicks
- Ballast - horse-breeding and training village; exports beasts of burden
- Blacke Henge - a large stone ruin, unexplored and supposedly haunted
- Northern Tors - the hilly area in Northern Anaxas, known for its ancient temples, harsh winds, and phosphor mines
- Berowyn - a phosphor mine known for blue phosphor
- Cerolyn - a phosphor mine known for red and orange phosphor, nestled up next to an abandoned temple
- Reedlyn - a phosphor mine known for the very rare and sought-after golden phosphor
- Scarmoge - a phosphor processing town in the Tors near the edge of Fen Kierden
Southern Anaxas
- Arnum - a mining town on the one of the origin points that lead to the Arova River
- Brunnhold - the most prestigious university of sorcery in the world
- The Stacks - Brunnhold's college town, located inside the university grounds
- Ghost Town - a phasmonia dedicated to the dead, near Brunnhold
- Muffey - a fashionable little village located near Brunnhold
- Coombe-dale - a small mining village in a shallow valley
- Derne - a village known throughout all of Anaxas for its blacksmithing
- Harbrooke - a town with a suffering economy due to irresponsible government spending
- Numbrey - a large town, home to the Seventen Training Facility
- Shier Mountains - a wide mountain range that forms most of the border with Hesse
Western Anaxas
- Anhau - the lost city of the wicks located in the Anhai Valley
- Hatcher Territory - a forbidding place where many covens of hatchers roam
Kingdom Information
Climate
The Kingdom of Anaxas is best described as a humid continental climate, sitting at a latitude that allows for an extreme variation of temperature and very distinct seasons. Winters in central and southern Anaxas can reach into the negative teens in Fahrenheit and summers can just reach triple digits, especially along the coast in places such as Old Rose Harbor.
The kingdom has five very differentiated seasons: cold winters, chilly springs, a warming rainy season, a humid summer, a hot dry season, and a cool, wet autumn. These seasons define how produce is grown, the migratory patterns of animals and nomadic wicks, and give all races a very reliable calendar to follow with celebrations and observances.
Because of the climate, forests are common, vegetation is varied, and animals are plentiful. Farming is a huge part of the Anaxi economy, supplying not only the kingdom but its neighbors with a variety of produce and livestock.
Notably, Western Anaxas is shrouded in a dense, unexplainable fog. Plants there have shriveled and died and the only wildlife to be found there are Hatchers, mysterious mythic beasts who are known to attack and devour anyone who sets foot into their territory.
Culture
Anaxi culture is very rigid and defined, very full of contrast between each of the races and quite solidified. Timekeeping is sacred to the Anaxi people, given that their main Circle God of worship is Alioe, the goddess of time.
Manners are important in Anaxi society, especially among the galdori but also among humans. In Anaxas, men and women who don't know each other very well refer to each other as sir or madam; casual acquaintances often refer to each other by Mr./Ms. and their last name. Marriage is never assumed; for women, "Ms" is used in place of "Mrs." or "Miss," unless the person's marital status is common knowledge in the social group.
Bowing is common when approaching a friend, colleague, or even a stranger. Curtsying is something that "common" women do; galdori women bow. The deeper the bow, the more respect it shows, but galdori never get on their hands and knees to bow. Handshakes are only common among close friends (mostly men) and the Seventen, or anyone in the armed forces. (For humans, handshakes are more acceptable, but still uncommon.) It is common to remove dark glasses, reading spectacles and hats when speaking to another person.
For information about Gender Relations as well as Courtship in Anaxas among the three races, please see the Culture section of the Compendium.
Economy
Given its comfortable and fortuitous location between the Headlands of Mugroba and Hox and the Vales of Hesse and Gior, Anaxas (and, by virtue of being next to the kingdom, Bastia), have the unique position of middleman when it comes to the economies of its neighbors. Anaxas is mostly a kingdom of trade: importing spices from Mugroba, silks from Hox, mined materials from Hesse, and all sorts of other goods and finery from every Kingdom, those same goods are shipped from Old Rose Harbor by boat and aeroship to reach the farthest edges of the Six Kingdoms.
While Anaxas most likely possesses the land and resources to be entirely self sufficient, it lacks both the infrastructure and the political stability to do so.
Currently, the Bad Brothers under the sly grip of Silas Hawke have a stranglehold on the economy of Anaxas, for Hawke controls almost all of Old Rose Harbor, deciding what ships where and when. The Anaxi government has largely not dealt with this problem, instead turning a blind eye to who is in charge of their economy so much as money and food and supplies are still flowing out of and into the Kingdom.
Politics
The Kingdom of Anaxas is a meritocracy led by an elected King and Queen who share equal roles in making laws and are chosen to serve by the Headmaster of Brunnhold. The pair are chosen from an elite flock of politicians called Incumbents who are groomed specifically for leadership positions.
A King or Queen serves for life, barring extenuating circumstances such as a severe indiscretion. They are typically elected past the age of 40, but in rare cases younger individuals have been chosen for the position. The powers held by a King and Queen are few but important: they have the final say in new laws and have unquestionable veto power, and they alone can declare war against another country. This decision must be unanimous between them.
The Headmaster of Brunnhold has a great deal of political power (some would say even more than the King and Queen), but is in charge of different aspects of running the country.
Anaxas also possesses a Congress made up of powerful politicians, and their jobs include the handling of day-to-day civil lawmaking, advising the King and Queen, and other minor legislative roles, overseen by the Headmaster.
The court system consists of both the High and Low Courts, each led by a High and Low Judge, respectively, and the organization responsible for jurisprudence throughout the entire Kingdom, though the lower races do not have much representation of their own.
Only galdori may serve in the government of Anaxas: passives, humans, and wicks have no political power whatsoever nor do they have the ability to vote or express their opinions through lobbying at this time.
Race Relations
In the Kingdom of Anaxas, galdori superiority is perhaps exemplified to the extreme. While there are many facets to how Anaxi galdori feel about the so-called lower races, it's not simply a matter of such superiority, but also an intrinsic feeling of responsibility. The galdori of Anaxas feel burdened by the task of looking over humans, wicks and passives. In the mind of a galdor, anyone with a lesser magical ability is inherently less intelligent, less capable of making decisions, and less reliable. This is why, when making laws, galdori set themselves up to be the owners and operators of all important affairs in life (rather than merely the benefactors).
Humans make up the majority of the labor force. As such, galdori have a vested interest in keeping them happy, ignorant and working. Though most of galdori society does not consider this, the government invests a lot of time in quelling the fears of the human population. They push them, but not too far. They work them hard, they tax them hard, but not too hard. In fact, in the event of overzealous politicians who try to enforce a stricter reign of oppression than the one currently in place, the majority government often steps in to intervene on the public's behalf. This leads to galdori popular society judging these governments "going soft", but it in fact this strategy managed to keep the peace until now.
As a whole they see wicks as evidence of a dilution of their race, something which makes them uncomfortable (and, in some cases, terrifies them). The bastardized magic used by the wicks is a subject of scorn for most galdori, who hold magic in the highest esteem, as it forms the backbone of their culture. The stereotypical wick represents many things galdori society opposes: a disregard for the law and tradition, a tribal-structured society with no strong government, disrespectful and diluted magic, deception, poverty and a lack of ambition. (Note that the physical appearance of wicks usually ranks low on the list of grievances, though many galdori find it appalling.) However, with a few exceptions, most galdori do not view wicks as an outright threat to their way of life.
Nomadic wicks are an anathema to Anaxi galdori, who consider all wicks to be little more than dirty half breeds. They are given a wide berth of sovereignty, and writs are required for any wick to live and work within any city ini Anaxas. Anaxi galdori view tribalism as unnecessarily violent and worthless, finding no merit in such a social structure in comparison to their own supposedly well-developed meritocracy government.
Passives in Anaxas are an emotional and social issue, though one awkwardly handled and subject to much international controversy among the Six Kingdoms. There is a long history of various 'solutions' to the problem of galdori children being born without magic throughout all of Vita. The most lasting method in the Kingdom of Anaxas (and elsewhere) has been to confine them in a place where they can do as little harm as possible, and, theoretically, where little harm could come to them : namely, as live-in servants in galdori institutions. The galdori tend to see this as a great mercy. Allowing passives to work at universities and in the houses of galdori is allowing them in-name-only access to galdori culture, whereby they might soak up the good graces of the master race and become better themselves. As servants, they serve the galdori while leading lives devoid of complexity, personal responsibility or choice—lives most galdori assume to be carefree and without worry.
As stated before, passives are thought of as universally childlike and innocent. Being without magic leaves them in a state of permanent pre-adolescence, in the minds of the galdori, and they are kept as innocent as possible through the social conventions around them. Passives are not legally allowed to marry or bear children, take on paying jobs, or experience an education. Galdori take their role as the caretakers of passives very seriously, and there is a strict taboo against any kind of sexual relationship with a passive; such an act would be monumentally immoral, on par with child abuse, and guilty parties are labeled "pathephiles". And while physical abuse of passives is rampant and becoming a larger problem in general in the politically troubled Kingdom of Anaxas, it is not seen as a socially polite thing to discuss, nor is it something most galdori could stomach (not being a violent people by nature). The galdori prefer to enable systems that encourage passives to punish each other for misdemeanors in exchange for the favor of their masters. Corporal punishment is seen as a way of keeping passives in line, in the same vein as smacking a misbehaving dog.
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