M'Chek
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| Map of M'Chek | |
| M'Chek | |
|---|---|
| Geography: | |
| Capital: | Mikona |
| Region: | Southern Negaria |
| Society: | |
| Population: | 37,214,000 |
| Races: | |
| M'Chekian Humans 70%, Romini Humans 10%, Other 20% | |
| Languages: | Imperial Common, Romini |
| Deities Worshipped: | Mikon (primary), Dagath, Valok, Toran |
| Politics: | |
| Head of State: | Lord Kendrick Jay Walsington |
| Government: | Feudal Democracy |
| Military: | M'Chekian National Army |
| Commerce: | |
| Imports: | Grain, livestock, lumber, manufactured goods |
| Exports: | Iron, weapons |
| Trading Partners/Alliances: | The Seven Cities (major trading partner), T'Nanshi (recipient of food shipments as per Treaty of Blandenberg), The Kurathene Empire (major trading partner) |
Geography
M'Chek is a large, arid nation. Even today with the population stabilized, it is still heavily inhabited, with few unsettled areas. Farming is the primary use of land on M'Chek's plains, though there is also some herding of livestock. A few scattered forests remain, but little compared to what existed several centuries ago. There are several ranges of rolling hills (including Mikona's infamous Hills of Tumult), but nothing large enough to be called mountains.
Despite the arid climate and use of water for agriculture, there are several significant rivers in M'Chek, including the Lost River.
Inhabitants
The majority of M'Chek's inhabitants are human. These are mostly the civilized humans of the cities, and the wandering tribal Romini. The rural lands also house small tribes of brownies, bugbears, fire giants, frost giants, goblins, mountain giants and ogres. In the cities, an even more diverse collection of races can be found. Mikona is also home to a sizeable dwarf population.
Settlements
The mainland area of M'Chek is dotted with hundreds of farming villages. What follows is a list of the major settlements.
- Bachwood
- Derrington Keep
- Eastshore
- Equaloria Keep and Dunster Commons
- Finmaegen Keep
- The Hills of Tumult (shown on map here, but located on Mikona Server)
- The Lost River Caverns
- Nelthrope Keep
- The Order of the Way
- Southill
- The Warrens
- Westshore
Religion
Aside from Mikon's widespread worship, Dagath, Kelvos, Ingoren, Maleki, Pelar, Ptah, Wilsash and Xenon each have significant bodies of followers in rural M'Chek. The city of Mikona proper likely contains worshippers of every deity known to Avlis.
Politics
Government
- Government: Noble Democracy.
There are two Houses of Government in M'Chek: The Noble House and the Common House. The Common House picks its representatives from among the commoners of the nation, although rarely do any of these commoners come from outside the city. Thus most of the concerns of the Common House deal with city matters. Rarely do they interfere in matters of national action or policy, although they do have the power to do so.
The Noble House is made up of representatives from two places: the Noble families of M'Chek, and the various large Temples represented in Mikona, namely the temples of Mikon, Dagath, Ptah, and Valok.
This house deals mainly with foreign policy issues and affairs. Although each individual Noble family has total control over their own estate, they are expected to represent a portion of their nation's interest. For instance, all of the major Noble families have personal armies and troops, but there is also a standing national army of M'Chek to which each noble is expected to contribute a certain percentage of its force.
The two houses of government are presided over by a Minister who executes decisions and carries out the task of administration, although they are liimited in their actions by the legislators. In addition to the Minister there is a War Commissioner who is the commander and chief of the standing army. This is a hotly contested position, that has been filled by either Nobles or reputable warrior generals.
Here is a representation of the playable area of M'Chek, including political borders for many of the Noble Houses as they stood prior to the Drotid invasion. Note the disputed area in Lord Bostwick's estate... many argue that this village belongs to the Blandenberg Protectorate. One can easily see from this map the land lost to northern M'Chekian nobles such as Nelthrope and Bostwick as a result of the treaty ending the border conflict with T'Nanshi.
You can see a larger map here.
Law Enforcement
Military
Armed Forces
- M'Chekian Army
- M'Chekian Navy
- Equalizers of Mikon
Fortifications
Alliances and Enemies
T'Nanshi and M'Chek still view each other with extreme distrust, but the alliances of the war were abandoned before its end. Today, M'Chek has no formal military partners, though in recent years some information sharing has begin between the M'Chekian Army and foreign military units fighting the Drotid invasion in their home nations.
Commerce and Relations
M'Chek has trade relations with nearly every other nation of Negaria. Overland trade comes through the Blandenberg Protectorate, and follows the Mikona-Blandenberg Highway south to the capitol. But most commerce is conducted by sea, using one of M'Chek's three ports.
History
Legends claim that M'Chek is the site where Mikon was imprisoned during the Age of the Gods. Following the gods' defeat of the Negerai, Mikon is said to have created the human race here during the Time of the Dawning. At some point in antiquity, the local tribes coalesced into the nation of M'Chek.
Early Period - 500 to 100 P.O.D.
The creation of the human race by Mikon supposedly happened soon after 500 P.O.D. somewhere within the borders of what would become M'Chek. Like the case with other races, creation of the humans was a massive event where the first bodies rose up out of the dust and formed themselves like clay guided by the hand of Mikon. There were perhaps thousands of them made in the originating event, consisting of all colors, shapes, and sizes that humans of Negaria are known to possess. In the holy writings of Mikon's priests, it is theorized that this was a conscious decision on the Creator's part, to stress his ideals for diversity and choice. Moreover, the next thing Mikon did for his race soon after creating it was to solidify his great regard for choice and freedom by leaving them to their own devices and retreating to his hidden abode.
Alone and newly born as full adults, the first humans had hard lives in their first attempts to hunt the land for food and gather resources. There were numerous obstacles to overcome, such as the stray demons left over from the war between the Negerai and the gods that ended not long beforehand. The need for strength in numbers against the Demons caused the humans to band together locally and ultimately formed them into tribes with the original purpose of fighting these demons, in addition to pooling resources for hunting and gathering. For the first 200 years of this period, the lands of M'Chek teamed with roving nomadic tribes who would war with one another when they were not repelling demon attacks, and soon, as the demons became much less numerous around 350 P.O.D., a group of tribes decided to leave the area and venture north. These humans were the ancestors of the Romini and the Adomkuro.
The stirrings of M'Chek as a nation did not begin until about 300 P.O.D. when the remaining human tribes of the south were suddenly overrun by a large number of demons coming up from below. This was the Demonspawn War, when the Demon Lords of the Underdark attempted to take over the surface world. Many died during this period, and many of the original tribes were wiped out in their attempts to drive the demons back underground. It was a human by the name of Nelan Nal-thropa who earned his reputation in battles against the demons that made the first attempt to unite the tribes for survival. In a historic gathering in 291 P.O.D., Nelan Nal-thropa assembled the leaders of the remaining tribes in his tent made from the hide of the now-extinct Mantu-chek beast. At that assembly, the tribal leaders agreed to cease all hostilities between human and all other surface races for the purpose of repelling the demons. They agreed that all who came from the surrounding lands, and all other lands, to fight the demons would be welcomed and given food and shelter during their stay.
The Kuranas and Cralluth tribes were given a special mission as part of this plan. They were charged to go north and contact the other races to tell them they must come south at once to help fight the demons, and that any who came would receive weapons, food, shelter, and safety of passage for as long as they stayed. The plan worked. Soon the dwarves of Galdos, the elves of T'Nanshi and the orcs of Dobrekan answered the call, and together the four races managed to repel the demons back below ground once and for all.
The Great War - 100. P.O.D. to The Year of Orcish Destruction (Y.O.D.)
While the First Fairy War raged elsewhere, the humans busied themselves with fighting the demons back underground, and soon after they succeeded, Great War began as all the races north of their newly forming nation attacked the orcs and drove them out of Dobrekan. Though by this period, tribal unity was in rapid decline throughout the newly named land called "M'Chek" which was a bastardized word for the tent where it was born centuries before, the humans felt somewhat sympathetic for the orcs. Tribal memories were long, and they all recounted the times when the orcs came down from Dobrekan to help the humans repel the demons from their land. The northernmost human tribes especially did not want to see their friends go extinct, but nor did they wish to enter the war against the elves and other races whom they also felt thankful towards. So, in the fashion of their god, Mikon, Nemer Till, a member of the northern tribe of Wel'sangt'ingon invoked the charter of Nelan Nal-thropa to call the tribes together once more to figure out a way to help their friends without arousing anger.
The tribes decided that they would begin a series of clandestine rescue missions, slipping into fleeing orc refugee camps and offering solace to several families at a time to come and settle in M'Chek. They tried to keep the matter quiet and discreet, which did not make it too effective. The number of orcs in M'Chek did not rise above several thousand in that period. However, their own god soon intervened in the process when he stopped Great War personally by spawning the evil dragons from the stones. Because of the actions of the humans of M'Chek and the god Mikon which saved the orcs in their most dire moment, it is whispered among the priests and the philosophers of M'Chek that the god Valok who created the orcs secretly feels a debt of gratitude toward the human nation and generally refrains from hostilities toward it.
The Age of Peace - Y.O.D to 1,000 A.O.D.
Nearly a century after the end of the Great War, the foundations of Mikona were laid on the M'Chek coast. The nation prospered over the centuries, and the capitol grew into a densely populated metropolis. Tribal unity reached its summit and a monarchy was born, with several royal families rising out of the tribes: Walsington, Nelthrope, Chasworth, Bostwick, and Finmaegen. At certain points along this time period, all of them held the monarchy, and all of them intermarried.
The Age of Darkness – 1000 O.D. – 1825 O.D.
During this period, war and debt from the royal families caused the nation to fall apart and once again plunged the country into turmoil. Ultimately, out of the ashes, it arose again as a Republic, with the royal families and an expanded list of other noble families taking a lead role in running the country with common representation as a partner.
The Age of Strife – 1825 O.D. – 2250 O.D.
By the late 1800's A.O.D., the population explosion had outpaced the capacity of the nation to produce food. Starvation, poverty, disease and death became widespread among the lower social classes. In desperation, the humans beseeched the elves to let some of their families move north into T'Nanshi, but the elves refused, citing the M'Chekians' mistreatment of whatever land they live on. The elves did not want hoards of men and women coming to live on their land and potentially destroy it, or at least grow to outnumber the elves and destroy their nation through attrition alone. This argument got uglier and uglier over time, and eventually M'Chek began to take land from the forests of T'Nanshi along the northern border. When the elven nation responded with military force, the M'Chek-T'Nanshi War ensued. What began as periodic border incidents escalated over centuries into a "world war" involving many nations. The extended fighting, exacerbated by a terrible plague, took its toll on both sides, and the war finally ended with the creation of a neutral zone between the two nations.
This neutral zone is named the Blandenberg Protectorate. It extends east to west across the breadth of the land, from sea to sea. The control of the Protectorate is in the hands of the churches of Dru'El and Mikon. Their holy warriors, the Avengers and the Equalizers, protect the land and her people.
The large number of casualties to the plague have eased the overpopulation problem for a time, along with the exodus of over one hundred thirty-four thousand people to help found the city-state of Visimontium. But forward-thinking leaders of M'Chek recognized that it was a temporary respite. A variety of solutions to M'Chek's food shortage are being tested to this day, including healing the ravaged land, farming mushrooms in the Underdark using Deglosian agricultural practices, and continuing emigration to new homes, particularly Visimontium.
Drotid War
Following a civil war inside the shaahesk nation of Drotid, the new leader embarked upon a widespread assault of the southern nations. M'Chek, caught off guard by the unexpected assault, had lost much territory in the east as well as control of the eastern waters. Currently engaged in a draining war, M'Chek struggles to drive the aggressors off its territory before simple attrition forces them to accept shaahesk occupation of the eastern coastline...
After a long and bloody war, the M’chek armed forces,spearheaded by the BlackHawks, were able to drive the Shaahesk from M’chek soil. And the nation went about restoring it self from the wounds sustained in the war.
For a list recent history, see Mikona server in-game developments.
Technical aspects
Needed Files Server: M'Chek - world.avlis.org:5131