HandofOmega/Zanxima
ZANXIMA
History: The history of Zanxima begins before the Primordial War with a large group of humans who managed to escape their Southern Dragon King keepers. Possibly, they were let go as part of an experiment to see how mortals might adapt to the wilderness, but in either case, the Primordial War soon erupted, and with it, the Dragon Kings lost most of their importance and power and never recaptured their lost humans, who carved out a survivable, albeit primitive, niche for themselves deep in the South-Southeast.
In this state they stayed, well into the 1st Age, when they were discovered by a Solar of the Twilight Caste named Axuma, who discovered them living at the foot of a mountain miracously filled with rich deposites of the Magical Materials, especially Moonsilver. Impressed by the hardy mortals, he nonetheless felt that their potential was unfulfilled, and decided to enact certain theories he'd been mulling over. It was a simple matter with powerful social Charms and Sorcery to convince the people that he was their divine lord, for were the Solars not given dominion of Creation by the highest of the gods? It took a few generations to completely reengineer their society and culture to test his ideas, which was that by fostering the virtues he believed the Unconquered Sun valued most, he could dramatically increase the number of Solar exaltations among the population. While there were some positive results, they were ultimately disappointing, and in the end he merely managed to increase the percentage of Heroic Mortals produced by his people, along with a healthy number of Half-Castes thanks to his own efforts.
By this point, however, Axuma had truly fallen in love with these, his people, and spared no expense to see them civilized to the point of the rest of Creation, importing the latest in 1st Age technology as well as Dragon King tutors to instruct his people in their use and to improve their grasp of the arts and sciences of Thaumaturgy. The few Solars he'd managed to produce, he made his lieutenants and brought into the Solar Deliberative. And so, the new nation-state of Zanxima prospered until it became a rival for any other city of the Age...
Then the Usurpation hit. Axuma had already died, and few were surprised when the successor to his might was one of the very folk he'd fostered. Sadly, his inheritor hardly had time to master his newfound power before being cut down by the Dragonblooded along with most of the rest of the Solars. Some of the fleeing Lunars, who regarded Mount Moon as something of a holy site, gathered in Zanxima, informed the populace of the Terrestrial's treachery and planned their next move. Unfortunately, the Sidereals had foreseen this, and managed to have a sizable force of Dragonbloods ready to invade the land. The Lunars were faced with a desperate choice: Either continue running further South, make a stand here, or go to meet the gathering army. Sickened with fleeing, and unwilling to destroy the city and its people and ruin holy ground, they choose the latter. To help avenge the fallen Chosen of their god, the Dragon Kings went to aid them.
No Zanximan veiwed that epic conflict, though they could hear and feel the tumultous clash miles away; days later, it was done. As far as could be determined, every single warrior on both sides died to the last. Even the best services the Zanximans could provide could not lay the devastated ground to rest, and the land to the North became a unusually furious Shadowland. Over the centuries, this would both protect and alienate Zanxima from its neighbors, many of whom came to believe that it actually resided *within* the Shadowland...Seeing that their neighbors had little to offer them anyway, in their pride they closed their borders and lived in strict isolation.
For the most part, Zanxima lived in peace for generations, save for the occasional probing attack by the Shogunate (which they always handily repulsed). Bereft of divine and supernatural lords for the first time, the people lived up to the potential that Axuma had foreseen in them so long ago, refusing to bow the knee to any powerful, greedy and increasingly demanding spirits and elementals that crossed their land. Indeed, with their mastery of Thaumaturgy and the 1st Age gear they still possessed, they succeeded in intimidating or binding the worst of these to serve Zanxima.
And then the Great Contagion came. Some say their isolation ironically lessened its impact, while others say it did no such thing. Regardless, they held on as best they could, and proved one of the more stable bastions of Reality when the Fair Folk invaded. Although many argued against it, Zanxima still chose to accept many refugees from the decimated tribes and nations of the South. While many among them feared this would contaminate them with more plague or (even worse) other cultural ways, this probably saved the nation by shoring up its numbers after the Fair Folk were fought off and the Contagion faded.
Unfortunately, the Realm's Defenses weren't used to the best of their potential. Not all of the encrouching Wyld was pushed back, and Zanxima found itself in the middle of a reality-warping Wyld Zone. Zanximan Savants acted fast, and were able to attune certain 1st Age engines to the enormous Moonsilver deposites within Mount Moon, and were able to generate a safe zone of stability around their nation. The refugees eventually became as one with the people, and all settled in for a long nightmare of fighting off constant attacks from Wyld mutations and Fair Folk raiders...
Eventually, change came, in the form of a Pack of Lunars, questing through the Wyld. They were shocked to discover an entire civilization thriving within the heart of the Wyld itself, and most impressed by the people's dedication to survival as well as the tale of the nation's founding, and of course, an entire mountain of Moonsilver. Although they could not free the people from the Wyld, they decided to aid them as best they could, which was by emulating the original Solar founder of the nation. Using their divine Lunar influence to engineer the culture they'd found, they hoped to give the people the true strength that would allow them to become not just survivors, but *lords* of their domain. Knowingly or not, they followed a pattern similar to that of the Lunars who founded the Haltan Republic, in balancing the virtues of civilization and barbarism. Zanxima as it stands today is a product of that evolution.
Long afterwards, the Wyld surrounding Zanxima receded, joining the lost nation to Creation once more. Those in the know suggest this may have something to do with the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, while others maintain it is the doing of newly reborn Solar heroes, or just some whim of Luna's. But few in Creation are aware of the existence of this lost kingdom, tho many would act quickly to attempt to plunder it if they were. As for the Zanximans themselves, while some few argue caution, most are eager to aggressively explore the new world that they have been cut off from for so long. There future place in the South depends on the reactions of their neighbors: if met with friendliness, their ambassadors will ally them with other nations. It met with fear and violence, then their warriors will teach the attackers the error of their ways...
