Darkovia

Darkovia is a temperate country covering the Northern half of the continent Urvania; bordering on Lysea and Nishimori in the South.

Geography
Darkovia is a large kingdom ruled by the vampire queen Seraphina Bălaurul, The Rose, who resides in a large gothic castle on the Northwestern coast of the country. The land is mainly forested valleys and marshland between the many mountains of the area, with some flatter land near the border to the South, where most food is grown. The sheer, sometimes oddly shaped peaks, mean that many valleys are in darkness for a large part of the day. The vegetation at the bottom of the valleys is adapted for this. Trees are tall and spindly, with vines crawling up their branches to reach the light. Undergrowth is stunted. Because of the mountains' shade and the snow in the North, only around 20% of the land can be cultivated, and Darkovia survives partially on trade with Thales. On the Southern, lower sides of the mountains the vegetation is instead lush and varied. In these areas, cultivated vineyards are often seen, the source of the coveted Darkovian red wine. On the Northernmost range, there is taiga filled with the howls of werewolves. Between and atop the mountains are many castles and towns of varying architecture, commissioned by vampires of different ages. A few are ruins, but most of the castles and mansions are still lived in.

The Vampires of Darkovia
Vampires as a whole make up the ruling caste of Darkovia (they refer to themselves as "immortals" while the population calls them as “Nobles”); prominent individuals surround themselves with courts of lesser immortals and hold extravagant balls, have troupes perform, listen to beautiful music, and have sex. In their immortality, they crave entertainment; and vampires, being undead and apart from life’s wonders, lack the spark of mortality that makes great art. The undead create nothing new of any substance. Instead, they rely on humans to entertain them. The exports of Darkovia are enchanted items, exquisitely crafted puzzle boxes, fine red wines, expert performers, instruments, furniture, art, and luxurious fabrics and garments.

Creating new immortals is highly legislated, and one needs to be above a certain age and have explicit permission from Seraphina’s court to do so. It is a complicated business involving the sire ritualistically feeding on their chosen human until they are at risk of death. Then, the vampire offers some of their own blood for the human to drink. A period of great pain for the human follows that can last up to a month, but is normally over within two weeks, while the vampiric blood is integrated into their system. At the end of this period, the human’s heart stops beating, and they join the ranks of the undead. After they have drunk from the vein of their sire, they are considered to be “of their blood” and take the family name of the noble who sired them. While the new vampire integrates the foreign blood into their system, the sire is weakened from their own blood loss and needs about ten days to recover fully. The new vampire hungers for blood without control and will only obey their sire. While they learn control over their beast, it is the sire’s responsibility to feed the “newborn” (also called a “neonate”) without risking the lives of Darkovian citizens, normally with animal blood (or foreigners’).

It is a myth held in Thales, the Eastern continent, that all humans on Darkovia are slaves to the vampires. In fact, most blood is taken voluntarily, and there are strict laws against killing humans of Darkovia while feeding. The only humans at any real risk, in fact, are visitors to the country, as the laws are much more lax regarding humans without citizenship, and they have been known to disappear. Indeed, those fortunate enough to be chosen as “companions” by the upper class live lives of luxury, with the only cost being a loss of blood every now and again. The experience itself can be quite pleasurable, and many use it as an extension of sex. The addition of blood to a male vampire's system is in fact what allows them to have penetrative sex at all.

In Darkovian society, intercourse is much less of a taboo than elsewhere. The humans that live there are descendants of Phallian outcasts and convicts that travelled to Urvania, and in Phallia, as in Darkovia, sex and physically touching in general is much more common. There is no embarrassment in good friends, even two men, hugging or kissing each other in public, and sex is simply a very strong form of affection. Close friends, a teacher and an apprentice (above a certain age), even siblings often regularly have intercourse with each other and with others they are close to. As a result of the abundance of sex, contraceptive herbs are extensively used by humans, and the extent of sexually transmitted diseases is nearly non-existent, otherwise they would spread rapidly. The fact that the vampires can contract these diseases through blood drinking means that there have been concerted efforts to eradicate them in the population. On the topic of sex, a strange phenomenon can occur when a male vampire has unprotected sex with a female human. The human may give birth to a half-vampire; a dhampir. This is frowned upon in Darkovian society, though not absolutely forbidden. Normally pains are taken by humans to avoid conceiving if they are ever in the position of having intercourse with one of the Nobles, and so dhampirs are too rare to have a fixed protocol. They are bound by the same rules as vampires regarding the deaths of Darkovian citizens.

Seraphina's Court
The Immortals of Seraphina’s court act as her advisers, confidants and the official personification of her law.

They form three groups within the court itself. The first ring are The Bloodbound, or The Seven, seven experienced, deadly fighters and assassins bloodbound to Seraphina herself; a bloodbond being an extremely strong oath to serve and protect a particular vampire. It is called a bloodbond because swearing this oath involved each of the seven ritualistically drinking a little of Seraphina’s blood years after their making. Any powerful vampire can bind other vampires to their service by having them drink some of their blood using this ritual. She goes nowhere without at least four of these in attendance. They are her bodyguards, personal messengers, and executioners for vampires who commit crimes against the queen herself.

The second ring makes up the public voice of the queen, a group of experts that act as judge, jury, and executioner to all Darkovian vampires. Normally, they do not go as far as execution, but they decide guilt and punishment for disputes, feeding mistakes and unruly newborn vampire complaints. The second circle also manages Darkovia's army in tandem with the third ring. The third ring is the largest and carries out routine paperwork and controls the normal working life of Darkovia, as well as the queen’s social events. Clerics involved in the preparation of human corpses for entry into the army are overseen by the third ring. Humans have their own court of humans to take care of their disputes with each other.

The Darkovian Military and The War
Every human in Darkovia knows what happens to their loved ones after death: they become property of the queen. Once any human dies, their funeral and internment are paid for and carried out by the army. Each body is specially embalmed, and vampiric clerics perform rituals to slow decomposition, then they are buried in shallow graves in designated graveyards. Whether they were farmers or musicians, writers or smiths, from whatever walk of life; in death, every man, woman and child on Darkovia becomes a soldier. Undead raised and commanded by the Queen’s necromancers from afar make up the bulk of Darkovia’s troops in times of war. The immortals prefer not to fight directly as a whole, relying greatly upon animate corpses as infantry and summoned spirits as faster, more manoeuvrable forces.

Immortals who wish to fight, and Northern werewolves, if the need is great enough, are the elite fighters of Darkovia. Young vampires commanded by their sires are berserkers, fast and bloodthirsty. Older vampires that don't take the roles of necromancers are terrifying on the battlefield, moving with grace, precision and unholy speed. Those who have seen Seraphina herself on the battlefield say that she is without equal, and has personally slain a thousand men. Snow werewolves, after they were freed from the thrall of their creators, have only ever been enlisted to fight once in their history of cooperation with the vampires. In that battle they turned the tide, going into a rage that allowed them to shrug off blows that should have killed and rake through steel armour like it was paper. It is said by many that a single werewolf in battle is the worth of ten vampires without elder status; and that though an old vampire could best one werewolf, a pack of them is without equal.

Currently, Darkovia and the Inquisition in Lysea are in a stalemate. Each knows the other’s strength and seeks to increase their own to break the mate. The vampires fear the Inquisition’s holy weapons, which prevent their undead troops from rising after being slain by such a weapon, as well as being anathema to the immortals themselves. They hesitate to use living humans in a fight and risk their food source. They are waiting and allowing their stock of dead to replenish, meaning to attempt to overrun the Inquisition if they ever have sufficient strength. Occasionally they attempt to infiltrate the Inquisition’s fortresses and towns to assassinate key paladins or weapon makers, then the Inquisition was forced to protect against such attacks and they became too dangerous.

On their part, the Inquisition takes every opportunity to kill undead or “heretics” (ordinary Darkovian citizens), often mounting attacks on the border during the new moon or using ships to deploy paladins onto the sea borders. Disrupting trade to the mainland has proved to be a fruitful strategy, and Darkovia has had to take precautions to prevent this. They once attempted to mount a sea attack on Seraphina's castle with some of the finest paladins known at that time. The ship eventually returned to the Inquisition’s base… manned by a crew of the undead. The inquisition’s numbers can always be replenished by new recruits from the mainland, but any human that dies in Darkovia can become part of their army.

The Werewolves of Darkovia
The werewolves of Darkovia come in two distinct varieties: the Northern packs and the Southern packs. The very Northernmost mountain range of Darkovia has taiga on its slopes and snow on its peaks. The snow werewolves here hunt elk on the slopes and live in caves in the mountains in the depths of winter. They have their own society and hierarchy, and remain in their wolf forms for the entire month. They are the descendants of the very first werewolves created with alchemy during the reign of Dan II, having escaped their creators and become more like true wolves. They have a long standing agreement with Seraphina that allows them to remain on these snowy mountains, while the vampires stay away. They enjoy their life of nothing but snow and the pack.

The Southern werewolves are completely different. While the snow werewolves have been through many generations of lycanthropy and are now content with their simple existence; the Southern wolves were created on Seraphina’s command, and thus have a much more recent origin. They are as vicious as they were created to be and struggle with their beast daily. More the ravenous monsters of folklore, they regain their human forms at the new moon, but at the full moon, the howling packs hunt not to eat, but to kill. The Southern packs stalk the forests and plains at the border to the Inquisition-controlled part of the continent. They serve, unwittingly, as the first line of defence against the paladins; but are also a constant danger to the farmers just North of the border. The vampires provide several sorcerers to ward the lands and prevent the werewolves coming any further North, who also act as an early warning system for the Inquisition’s attacks.

History
For the main article on Darkovian history, see "Lore".

Darkovia was colonised by settlers from Romuny in Thales to the East, approximately 2200 years ago. The Romuns were a proud warrior people who originally invaded the Southern section of Urvania(The continent), now known as Lysea, but clashed with the elves and were forced to move North into the mountainous country they named Darkovia. The Romuns eventually made peace with the elves and learnt magic from them, which some families, used to make themselves immortal, while others placed themselves against the immortals in Southern Urvania(Now Lysea), with the elves and later the Solarians from Rogova.

After many wars between the Darkovians and Lyseans, the Lyseans took the upper hand due to the holy weapons of the Solarians. Werewolves and necromancy were used to fight back, and the legendary general Vladimir Bălaurul gained the crown after he almost single-handedly took back the country. He ruled for a thousand years as a tyrant before the current queen, Seraphina Bălaurul dethroned and executed him.