Prox

The Dominion of Prox (Also known as Prox) is an autocracy consisting of the five remaining major houses of the Proxian people. It comprises the eastern and southeastern parts of the continent of Marinda, bordered to the east by New Crewmandy, and to the northwest by Diceland. The people of Prox settled this land recently, claiming it as a homeland, having left the continent of Larac nearly three decades prior for religious reasons. Prior to settling on Marinda and the formation of the Dominion, the people of Prox were nomadic, with each house serving a role in the travelling horde.

Origins
All people of Prox trace their original ancestry back to a small group of people living on the continent of Marinda, no more than 200 people large. A tribal culture, they survived through hunting and gathering. They found their way to the port of Stalingourd, a major trade hub for the continent of Marinda. It was there that the tribe's leader, known only by his surname of Prox, received what came to be known as the great vision. In it, a pantheon appeared to him, and instructed him to purchase a ship and sail to the east. He gathered the tribe's funds, and three-fourths of the tribe followed him on the journey. By the time they reached Larac, only half of the original tribe remained alive.

They continued along the path of the great vision, and eventually the mountain of Siick. Carved out of the rock was a temple, already filled with elaborate carvings of the pantheon seen in the great vision. Deeper within the temple was a massive lake, almost three miles across, and near a boiling temperature, due to being so close to the mantle of the planet. The great vision said that this lake was the portal to the afterlife. All bodies were to be laid to rest there in order to move on to paradise with the pantheon. Thus, the continent of Larac became the new home of the people of Prox.

Larac
While on Larac, the people of Prox continued their nomadic lifestyle. They never ventured very far from their temple, but did not settle. They brought herds of cattle with them, and scavenged and bought technology from the surrounding civilizations, although they were not very prevalent in the first few centuries of life on Larac.

Eventually, the Four Kingdoms period began, resulting in a great period of prosperity for Prox. Being nomadic, they became great traders. not only that, but they always had access to the best of the goods being traded among the kingdoms. They became the technologically superior nation on Larac, and through their ever growing numbers, began to cause military tension. They were allied with Jericho and Marinanchi, the latter being closest to the mountain of Siick. Those two allowed free reign for the Proxian caravan to travel within their borders. Joi was incredibly hostile to Prox, and occasionally made incursions into the borders of Jericho to raid the caravan. While Purin was allied with Joi, it relied too much on the trade from the caravan to engage in hostilities against Prox. It forced Prox to only travel on specific roads, but was not hostile. All of the nations except for Joi recognized Siick as Proxian territory (Joi was too geographically disparate from the mountain to contest ownership).

The War of Collapse sounded low point in Proxian history. A Jericho-Marinanchi alliance pressed into sovereign Joi territory, usurping the coastal towns into Marinanchi and much of the breadlands into Jericho. However, both nations had been counting on the neutrality of Purin. They stormed into Jericho, taking most of the Jericho homeland before Proxian support brought them to a standstill at the battle of Jericho. Jericho ceded their gains back to Joi, including their former territory on the breadlands in exchange for peace, and they withdrew to fight with Prox against Purin. They were only able to retake the Jericho coast and riverlands, leaving the mountains and mines still in Purin hands. Marinanchi, faced with a one on one fight against Joi, pressed on, continuing their advance, but eventually, at the siege of Tainholm, they were caught and surrounded by a Joi army, forcing a surrender of the main fighting force. The surrender came a few days later, with Marinanchi being forced to expel Prox from their territory, halt trade with both Jericho and Prox, and close off Prox's access to Siick.

Prox was now confined to the limited Jericho territory, and quickly became a burden to the natives. Beginning to carry their dead with the caravan, hoping one day to lay them to rest in the temple of Siick, Prox became swept by a number of plagues. Eventually, Geht Dueon, the warden of house Dueon, came to a position of influence among the caravan. He led Prox in an alliance with Marinanchi against their overlords in Joi in the War of the Graves. The attack was swift, and Joi was unprepared. Joi fell, and Marinanchi expanded. They reopened Siick, and began trade with Jericho and Prox again.

Exodus
Purin was able to support itself, leading to it becoming isolationist, and Prox began acting as a direct go between for Jericho and Marinanchi. The three nations formed a powerful empire that prospered under peace, with no incentive or motivation to attack Purin. The peace was held for a hundred years, and populations exploded.

Ninety-eight years after the end of the War of the Graves, the High Priest of Siick, Loah Gallin, made an announcement to the people of Prox. He had received a message from the gods, similar to the great vision, that the people of Prox were to return west to Marinda. The gateway to the afterlife was to be closed, and a paradise on earth was now in Marinda. As a test of faith, he ordered Prox to drain the lake inside Siick, and dump the water into the ocean, so that it could never. This was done, bucket by bucket, until the lake was completely dry. At that point, Prox said its official farewells to Jericho and Marinanchi, and set sail for Marinda.

Upon reaching Marinda, the people of Prox did not find the paradise they had been promised. Instead, they came upon a land of war and famine. The eastern city-states were overcome by a drought, stunting crop growth. Loah Gallin admitted his treachery, having lost his faith, and wishing to ruin what he thought was the blind foolishness of the Proxian people. He was summarily executed. The people of Prox's holy place had been desecrated with no hope of consecration. That act would become known as the Shame.

Proxian Civil War
Following the execution on Loah Gallin, the seven houses of Prox fell into disunion. While a return trip to Larac was essentially out of the question, the houses did not know what the future of their nation would be. Some advocated unification, and settlement. Others wanted separation, and nomadic life. On the side of settlement was house Tullius, led by warden Achilles Tullius, house Gallin, led by warden Rigar Gallin, and house Deuon, led by warden Orep Deuon. On the side of separation was house Morimora, led by warden Adamus Morimora, house Abbiana, led by warden Scipio Abbiana, house Naero, led by warden Graven Naero, and house Pini, led by Aloysius Pini.

The discussions were heated, but never violent. The Proxian civil war began on accident, during an honor feud between house Tullius and house Morimora. The nephew of warden Adamus Morimora, Rhaegar Cargyll, raped the daughter of Achilles Tullius, Dulcia Tullius, who was betrothed, but not wed to Edrus Sparr. Achilles personally led the attack on Rhaegar, killing him and his brothers. That night, Adamus brought his army against Achilles, who asked for help from his bannermen and his allies in houses Gallin and Deuon, and Adamus called for help from his bannermen and allies in houses Abbiana, Naero, and Pini. That night marked the beginning of the Battle of the Rape. It lasted for six days, and occurred in the confines of the camp that had sprung up around the stationary caravan.

The battle was not very bloody, all things considered. There was enough violence to spark a war, but it was mainly posturing and positioning, with neither side wishing to deal too many casualties for what noone considered a war yet. In the end, the Settlers were forced out of the camp, and they made their way to the fort of Harren, seat of power for the Kingdom of Harren. It was taken with ease, and the army come to reclaim it (As King Egid Harren and the army had been absent during the attack) was crushed as well. Egid was killed in the fighting, and his son Crispan Harren was made Lord of Harren, bannerman to house Tullius. From there, the Settlers began to plan and prepare for a full scale war.

The Independents began to maneuver around the continent. They sook support and supplies from the natives, but did not recieve the help they wanted. Undeterred, they realized they still had greater numbers and supplies than the Settlers, and prepared for an attack on Harren.

The force was split into two halves. One halve, containing houses Morimora and Abbiana was to attack Harren, where the army of Rigar Gallin was stationed, and then move on to the fort of Ertu (Another Harren fortification), the camp of the Deuon army, led by warden Pitt Lutio of house Lutio, bannerman to Orep Deuon, and brilliant field commander. The Naero and Pini forces were to assault the fortresses of house Tullius, who had just finished conquering neighboring Kingdom of Zoape, placing Saxt Midan, King of Zoape, as Lord and bannerman to house Tullius.

Houses Naero and Pini prepared for a marriage that would unite the two houses permanently as house Naero. The son of Graven Naero, Julius Naero, and daughter of Aloysius Pini, Leanna Pini, were to be wed. After a victory against a marginal force at Lora, the wedding was to be held the next night. During the victory feast, Lora was laid to siege by a waiting army led by Achilles Tullius, consisting of Tullius forces, the remainder of the forces of houses Harren and Zoape, and the bannermen to house Tullius. Lora had been a trap, and given that the bannermen of Naero and Pini had been fighting in the eastern provinces of Zoape, the Independent army was outmatched. They fell almost completely, with only a hundred soldiers surviving. In a brilliant political move, Achilles married Leanna on the spot, and married his brother Patrus Tullius to Onoria Naero, daughter of Graven. Both Graven and Aloysius had been killed in the fighting, as well as many of their sons. The weddings were done to secure the lives of the remaining family men, and to ensure the end of both houses, as they, along with their bannermen, who quickly surrendered upon hearing the news, became absorbed into house Tullius. This event became known as the Black Wedding, for the mourning of the death of two of Prox's major houses.

The other front stonewalled as the siege of Harren. Rigar held his ground well, and once the reinforcements from the bolstered house Tullius arrived, the last of the Independents surrendered, leaving Prox whole, with Achilles Tullius being named Grand Marshall.

The Establishment of the Dominion
With the victory in the civil war, Prox became a true unified state for the first time in its history. House Tullius was raised from major nobility to what was essentially royalty, albeit in a different name. Achilles set out to conquer the remaining city states of the east in what would become known as the Dominionist Wars. The remaining conquered peoples were given to the other major houses as bannermen to placate them, although most went to Gallin and Deuon. Prox stopped just short of Mariall. During their construction of the Grand Arena, their workers were stationed out of Mariall. In return, Prox engaged in a massive public works project, fixing roads, irrigating land, building new roads, and walling the city in. As a result, Mariall began to prosper more than ever before. They joined Prox willfully only days before the Proxian-Crewman War.

The First Age
Prox had planned for an invasion of New Crewmandy ever since the end of the Dominionist wars. Given that New Crewmandy had no diplomatic presence in the the Broken Kingdoms, and almost no trade presence there, they were still very unawares of the rise of the new nation. They began to recieve words about this growing power with the beginnings of reports from Mariall, a key trade partner, about infrastructure improvements in the town, facilitated by a foreign power. It was assumed this power was in fact Blueland, though, keeping New Crewmandy in the dark. Prox wanted to estabilish itself as a major power with a major military victory, and had planned to engage in a major offensive against New Crewmandy as soon as their industry had begun mass production.

Their plans were sidetracked however. With the peacekeeping missions keeping New Crewmandy troops occupied, and a major terrorist attack striking at the heart of the New Crewmandian government, Prox believed that their opportunity was too great to pass up. The long term plans were scrapped, and quick invasion plans were instituted. Prox landed troops across the Bay of Pearls, and launched a direct attack towards Stadtholm and Kleinholf, the former being the New Crewmandian capital and jewel of the empire, the latter being a former Blueland province recently captured by New Crewmandian forces. Given the poorly created plans, Prox forces took sizable casualties, but quickly took Kleinholf, and laid siege to Stadtholm. Commanding ground officer Pitt Lutio offered terms of surrender in hopes of ending the bloodshed quickly, with the alternative of anihilation of Stadtholm. The terms were returned with silence, but Lutio still did not want a near genocide on his hands, and maintained the siege.

During this time, Proxian forces began to repair the damage done to Kleinholf, trying to win goodwill with the town. They were successful, building strong relationships with town leadership. Their efforts were set back when a group of Bluelandian special forces began to attack the town with artillery. The special forces were taken off guard, and dispatched with few Proxian losses. Those artillery pieces were taken undamaged, and used against Stadtholm in the siege.

The tipping point in the siege came when the Proxian third army, acting as a resere force that could also retreat back in the case of a counterattack to defend the homeland, was destroyed by the New Crewmandian air force. Their fire cannons left the 3rd army and the fleet in ruins. This forced Lutio's hand, and in a swift attack, he stormed Stadtholm. The Spire was raised to the ground, the Black Banner was raised above it, and high level members of government were captured. Stadtholm at large was then invaded. Monuments such as the graves of past leaders of New Crewmandy were left untouched, both out of the fervent respect of the dead held by nearly all Proxians, and not wanting to anger New Crewmandy even further. Military forces in the region were wiped out, and the dockyards of New Crewmandy were reduced to rubble. There were very few civilian casualties, making it clear that Prox's war was not against civillians, but against a military threat. Lutio dispersed his forces throughout the wilds and forests surrounding Stadtholm, and began a guerrilla campaign. The purpose was to disrupt all Crewmandian efforts to marshall a strong force in the region, and to draw troops in to try and fight them. This would lessen the pressure on the home front.

On the home front, New Crewmandian air and ground forces, as well as naval support threatened to take Mariall. However, the Home Garrison was able to stave off the attack while reinforcements came in. Using improvised anti-air, they were able to down one of the dirigibles laying siege to the town, forcing the Crewmandian air force to fall back.

It was at this time that the Duke of New Crewmandy called for peace talks between the nations. They were held in the Grand Arena, and ended with the Treaty of the Superpowers (Called the One-Third's Treaty in New Crewmandy). Prox viewed the treaty as generally favorable, bringing in lots of new land for Prox, and forcing a number of concessions from New Crewmandy. That said, high military officials were less than pleased, given that it gained considerably less than what they had wanted, and demanded in their earlier surrender terms. The war ended, and Prox began the long process of nation building now that its status as one of the top two nations had been secured.

Tullius
League of 14 + 4 from Naero + 4 from Pini + 2 from conquest

Morimora
11

Abbiana
9

Gallin
7

Deuon
4

Extinct
Naero

Pini

Prox

Religion
Simply known as "The Faith" in Prox, the chief Proxian religion is at the heart of all Proxian culture. The faith was started by the leader of the original tribe that all in prox can trace their ancestry to, known only by his surname of Prox. He recieved a vision of a pantheon, telling him to sail east with the tribe. This would become to be known as the great vision. They arrived in Larac, where a massive temple carved into the mountain of Siick awaited them. Deep within was a massive lake, boiling because it was so close to the planet's mantle. This was the supposed entrance to the afterlife. If the temple was kept by the Proxians, they could lay their dead to rest in it, sending them to the afterlife with the gods.

The Proxian horde would eventually resume their nomadic ways, and would send an escort with the corpse every time a person died so that the proper death rites could take place. If the corpse was unable to be delivered, then a burial must take place beneath the earth, with the corpse intact. The person's body would enter into a lesser afterlife apart from the gods in the state that their corpse was when it was laid to rest. If the grave was disturbed, the person would be at risk of being stricken from this secondary afterlife, and have their soul being obliterated. Thus, graves outside of the temple were considered sacred.

Eventually, the events of the great shame occured, and the people of Prox unwittingly desecrated and abandoned their temple, led astray by the High Priest of Siick, Loah Gallin. As such, they were no longer capable of sending their dead to rest with the pantheon. The faith has now become one where the secondary method of burial is the only way to reach the afterlife. Time at the temple now involves death rites such as baptism of the dead in consecrated pools, similar to how bodies would be sent into the lake at Siick, as well as reconstruction of corpses that have been broken in death, hoping to send them into the afterlife in a superior state. Disturbing graves is now considered a capital offense, and the victim will be burned to death, denying any possibility of reaching the afterlife. Because of the consequences of being burned to death, opinion against New Crewmandy turned to fever pitch when their immolation cannons wreaked havoc during the Proxian-Crewmandy War. Diplomats from Prox are currently working very hard to sway opinion of other nations towards getting New Crewmandy to disarm of these weapons.

Instead of worship or praise towards the pantheon being the focus of religious services, it is now centered around pleading for forgiveness for the great shame.

There are very, very few people in Prox who do not accept the faith. Upon their death, their corpses are considered unclean. They will not recieve death rites from priests, but will be buried by them, instead of by family members to whom the task traditionally falls. They are left in mass catacombs far away from the graveyards of believers.

The Faith does do mission work, believing that any person who does not recieve the death rites of the Faith will never reach the afterlife.