Shiralai

Name - Shiralai

Government Style - Feudalism under the ten families.

Flag - No design, simply a blue flag.

Currency - Tinpin, a small square coin with a circular hole cut in the middle. Around the hole are the engravings of the Lunaris and the Solaru.

Capital - Shiralai Grana

Geography - A series of islands connected by one of the wonders of the world, the Shiralai bridges, in the southwest of Eurysal. The western edges are primarily ranged with small mountainous areas, while the east has more desert like conditions. Wood is scarce, and is often imported form the mainland despite the travel distance, in exchange for the spices and iron mines found throughout Shiralai.

History - The ancestors of the ten families and the fifteen dead families founded Shiralai, and they brought with them workers and the rest of their houses. After many attempted revolts whilst being a democracy, the families had their Oukai, their assassins, kill the ringleaders. After this they began to alter the history books and began to offer their lands to lesser nobles, who became the Shogi, the vassals. The fiefs they were given came with a ceremony of fealty, which each accepted. They swore to offer aid to the Lords in return for the revenues made from the Lord's lands. This led to the fifteen now dead families collaborating to gain more power through having their Shogi attack the remaining ten. This led to what the Shiralain call Hemota Maja, the "Night of Bloodloss".

The ten founding families banded together, and whilst the fifteen families called themselves the Solaru, the "Sunkissed", the ten were called the Lunaris, the "Moonblessed". This was because while the Solaru nobles had many warrior mages, the Lunaris had both an excess of silver and the aid of the Fae. The war lasted for a few hundred years, before the Solaru were completely destroyed. Shiralai legends state that Kai Monosuke, the ringleader of the Solaru, had his iron sword cleaved in two by the silver blade of the Faeblessed Lunaris leader, Oigami Denpha. It is due to this legend that each person is given a sword when born, to mark their status. Shiralai law states that "an iron sword will never rule higher than a fief".

The swords are symbolic as well as physical, as the sword is considered the soul of the person; event he women are given swords. To have no sword is to be considered dead by the Shiralain due to their warrior society, making them seem overtly aggressive to most other countries.

The swords, in order, are: Silver, only given to the ten leading families. Gold, Mithril, Iron, Brass, Copper, and Wood. To be given a wooden sword is to be exiled from the Shiralai books, and has only occurred five times in their short history.

Today - The Shiralains are much the same as they have been for the past hundred years. They trade with many other nations, their primary exports being Saffron, Iron and mercenaries. Their primary imports are wood, silks and furs. They have very little int he way of magic, and those that do must blend it in with the required education on swordsmanship. They nobility have began to build both seafaring plantations to grow food and raise meat, as well as airborne manor's for some of the nobility. This is because Shiralai is overpopulated, even with the limit of two children per family. This is due to a low death rate in infants and a high age expectancy, the oldest Shiralain's living to around 100 years old or more.