Lusmia: A Realm of Benevolent Necromancers

Epoch 1

Overview: A nation of religious fanatics, Lusmia is located on the East coast of the continent. Their climate is cold and rainy, with a generally low population that primarily lives in subterranean settlements. They have very little immigration or emigration, which is not atypical in this era. This is in large part due to the three things that set this nation apart from its neighbors - a church and government that are one and the same and radically different from the mainstream, a heavy reliance on undead as work and military forces to help compensate for their low population which is primarily composed of dwarves with smaller human and elf minorities, and the fact that the small country
is directly on top of the largest entrance to the [Worm Domain] and they are engaged in a never-ending war with the [Worms].

Environment: Lusmia is a mountanous region; while the areas that are suitable for farming are reasonably fertile, the small size and scarcity of those regions, combined with dwarves' natural preference for subterranian living, has resulted in most of the population living underground in various strongholds. The weather has a tendency towards the rainy and cool, but not to the extent that it generally interferes with agricultural operations. Most of the wildlife is what you would find in any location with mountains; goats, bears, deer, lynxs, and the like. However, occasionally one of the beasts the [worms] keep escapes into the wild; while thankfully rare, they are deadly enough that roaming the wilderness alone and without heavy armor and weaponry may prove fatal should one be unlucky enough to encounter one. 

Origins: The region that Lusmia occupies has been populated for millennia; however, the current state came into being relatively recently, less than four centuries ago during a relative lull in the War Below. Despite the lack of active battles, the country was in a poor state, with plagues, famines, severe weather conditions, and banditry. It seemed that almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Dwarves are not, as a rule, naturally disposed towards begging the heavens for aid, but beg they did. They were met with silence. Gradually, a cult began to form in the darker corners of the strongholds that proclaimed that worshipping gods was the business of fools and lunatics. They
preached that the only way forward was for every man, woman, and child to throw away the shackles of their current society and lay claim to the divine spark within every sapient creature and force their way out of their current troubles with their own power. While initially only small groups with no power, the Order of the Inner Soul gained followers among the lower ranked citizens of Lusmian society, though eventually their words spread to some of the lower nobles, and from their even to one of the high king's nephews. Not long after, the peoples of the holds hit their breaking points. After years of devastation, nearly two thirds of the population rose in open rebellion, unable
to bear the terrible conditions any longer. While primarily composed of the peasantry, the Order of the Inner Soul openly threw its lot with the rebellion, and so did its noble adherents, and a number of the Hold nobility who saw which way the wind was blowing. While hard pressed by the superior training and equipment of the loyalist forces, the mages of the Order resorted to the forbidden art of Necromancy, justifying their actions by arguing that, without the divine spark within them, a body was merely a mass of matter with no special significance. The war continued for some time, and was only ended by the re-emergence of the [Worm] threat; realizing that they could not survive war
with both each other and the threat from below, the two factions came to a truce; the renamed Church of the Blessed Spirit would officially be declared the supreme authority of Lusmia, and the nobles who were neither dead nor fled would assume positions analogous to those they held before the war, with the king's nephew being ordained the first Exemplar of the church. Despite the heavy losses from the war, their new power of necromancy allowed them to beat back the current scourge with relatively minor losses, and begin to reestablish the decimated country.

Government: In Lusmia, the current government and the church are one and the same. The Church of the Blessed Spirit rules the country, headed by the Exemplar, advised by the Council Ascendant. The church is organized as follows: below the Exemplar are the eight High Paragons, who each head one of the major regions, typically composed of several Holds, and generally making their residence in the largest or most centrally located of the fortresses they rule. Below the High Paragons are a larger number of normal Paragons, who are responsible for a single Hold and its surroundings, or a collection of smaller settlements.  To assist them with the running of their assigned regions,
they have a number of Paters and Maters, who administrate a single borough or village. The Paters and Maters are assited by a number of Fellows the lowest invested rank of the church. Lay People who wish to join the church by becoming Fellows are called Aspirants. Generally speaking, promotions occur from a lower rank to the next highest when a position becomes available, but a higher-ranking member may directly appoint anyone they deem worthy to the rank below theirs. While it is not terribly uncommon for a Pater or Mater to promote a lay-person to a Fellow without going through a period of being an Aspirant, it becomes increasingly rare as the rank increases. The single occasion the Paragon appointed a High Exemplar, from outside the hierarchy, it resulted in a short but bloody civil war. The goal of every member of the Church is to transcend the limits of their flesh and blood and achieve divinity; while the exact mechanisms by which they plan to do this are not known outside of the uppermost echelons of the Church, it seems at least some of them have achieved partial success. These people form the Council Ascendant; while they seem to have considerable difficulties communicating with, much less directly changing the world they've left, they occasionally offer advice to the Exemplar and High Paragons, and the bodies they've abandoned form some of the Lusmian military's most powerful and well equipped undead forces.

Culture: The Church preaches that, by acting nobly, working hard to achieve one's goals, and serving one's community, sapient beings may come closer and closer to embodying the divine spirit, and eventually achieve apotheosis upon death. As such, most Lusmians tend to be quiet, hard working people, who readily help each other, and even foreign travelers who visit their small farming communities or underground strongholds. While theoretically the hierarchy of the church and thus the government is entirely based upon how well one embodies these values, the reality of course differs, with promotions being based upon politics as much as virtue. While the Church does not formally
worship any gods in the typical sense of the word, they have a deep reverence for those among their predecessors who achieved Ascension, and most Lusmian families and clans have shrines to the greatest of their ancestors, engaging in essentially a from of ancestor worship. The other major component of Lusmian culture is their endless fight to defend their home against the [Worm] menace. Due to the constant demands of the War Below, which has obvious and significant influences on the doctrine of the Church, Lusmian society tends to eschew comfort and embrace endurance and stoicism; adults are expected to work hard whether in the depths of a war or preparing for the next one, and childhoods are short.
While largely irreligious, there are small groups of those who worship the gods and other powers. Sothe is relatively popular, unsurprisingly. While people in these groups are not legally discriminated against, they cannot hold office in the the Church for obvious reasons, and rarely hold power in local, secular government such as city councils or the like. They are also generally viewed with suspicion and occasionally contempt by most Lusmians, who believe that their belief in a higher power means their true allegiance is not to their countrymen.   

Economics: Lusmia not a particularly wealthy country. While dwarves are renowned for their skills in mining and working precious metals and gems, the populace of the small country is primarily engaged in either subsistence farming,mining, or smithing, with smaller numbers of more specialized workers such as potters and textile workers. Their primary products are potatoes, parsnips, wheat, flax, hemp, and barley above ground and mushrooms, lichens, and other fungi below ground. Due to the endless demands of the War Below, their professional master smiths primarily produce armor and weapons, with less skilled journeymen or amateurs producing things like nails and other metal work. Recent advances in the Necromantic arts, mining equipment, and agricultural techniques have allowed the undead to run most of the farms and mines almost independently, with only a necromancer or two overseeing each location during times when they are not needed in an active war. This has allowed many citizens who would otherwise be occupied with the demands to produce necessary resources to produce more luxury goods, introducing many Lusmians to a higher standard of living and even allowing the historically low export country to begin trading artful metalwork and jewelry to other countries.

Magic: Unsurprisingly, Lusmia has a very high number of expert Necromancers compared to other types of magic users. In addition to the Necromancers, they have a number of other mages, many of whom focus on the colleges of Earth and Fire, though there are some generalists. While they do not have any quote unquote 'clerics', some within the Church of the Blessed Spirit have manifested powers very similar to them, bestowed by the Council Ascendent. They are fairly weak and small in number by the standards of most gods' Power Investitures, they supplement a warrior's might and strategic prowess to levels higher than they could achieve on their own.

Military: As with much of the rest of their infrastructure, much of Lusmia's military relies on undead. Instead of the zombies used for general work, however, they primarily field skeletons as general infantry due to their faster movement and capacity for wielding weapons and shields. Their inability to fear, feel pain, or otherwise behave as sapient beings behave make them excellent shock troopers. Recently, they have begun experimenting with encasing the skeletons in molten steel to massively increase their durability and the force with which they can attack. Their human forces are primarily long-ranged archers, crossbowmen or spellcasters; due to their low population and limited ability to replace casualties, they tend to stick to cover, preferring their undead to take the frontlines. While a large force of Lusmians can sell a fortified position dearly, they tend to prefer to retreat if a situation looks to become untenable, living to fight another day. The heart of their military is, of course, the necromancers; they control the undead that fill the ranks, replace them when they fall, and revive their opponents' dead to demoralize them and replenish their own forces. While they will happily employ mercenaries of almost any variety, the Under War is generally more lethal than a typical war, underground fighting requires tactics that most sellsword bands are not familiar with, and Lusmia cannot afford to pay a large group well, so relatively few outside soldiers are employed by them.