Wakunan: The Golden Savannah

Wakunan

The Healing Savannah

Capital Jaesorih
Capital Building The Doun
Government Zikaeziism, a democratic equitianism. All positions are elected by a direct voting system.
Head of State Premier
Head of Government Prime Minister
Executive and Legislative The Greater Pack Council

Military New Wakunansi Army

Wakunan is an equitianist state and major trade nation home to a sprawling savannah. It is inhabited by a majority of large bipedal hyena bestials known as gnolls. It was the second nation to change itself to having an equitianist government and it holds close ties to the equilibratist Uhlionic Republic. It is known for its wealth built from trade, its monasteries, its foundation of kah use in Velas, and its strange syncretic faith. It has a long and jaded history that has led to the nation's current state.

Ancient Wakunan

Wakunan was once a very fertile land where green trees and fields covered the land. A variety of different kinds lived in the area in simple tribes. The hyena bestials of the area took too much from the land and when their land was ravaged and ran dry they encroached on other tribe's lands and raided and conquered them. The conquered tribes were destroyed or expelled from the lands, many to the south where the Wynde and Tarkaria laid. This was continued until the land was ransacked and pillaged of life or worth. The great green fertile realm became a dry desert and the gnolls warred upon each other and feasted upon the flesh of fellow hyena bestials. The hunger was never sated and they would have been assuredly destroyed by their own greed and gluttony if it were not for their ancient prophet's intercession.

Kunan

Kunan was a weak and sickly gnoll cub that had been abandoned to die of exposure by her sire. She learned to survive from wandering unknown figures that may have been elves of Cymrie. Over time, she noticed a natural absence the land had and traveled beyond the desert to learn what that was. She asked a great many people what could be gone and meditated for many nights, depriving herself and forcing down her intensive hunger to find enlightenment on what she sought. From this, she was able to discern the life energies that living things integrally held, which she named kah. She trained and learned how to wield this energy and sought wisdom of its nature. She learned how to properly respect ones surroundings and how to practice temperance through self-control. Through what she learned, she realized what had to be returned to the desert and how to save her people. With her abilities, she performed great feats that made strength-respecting gnolls pay attention to her words. She convinced pack after pack the ways to heal their hunger and heal their environment in the reconciliation of their and their ancestors' abominable acts. She gathered a large following and was able to reach the whole of the tribes. She was named high queen of the gnolls and the land that had to be gradually healed was named in honor of her, essentially meaning Kunan's Bounty in old Wakunansi.

The Matriarchy

The gnolls were not healed of their gluttony or greed overnight and it was determined that the packs needed further guidance and shepherding to follow Kunan's words. At this time, the gnolls only knew respect of arms and force and so those largest and most powerful of Kunan's worshippers took control of the hyena bestials and built them into proper packs and societies that would facilitate Kunan's vision of a healed savannah. The most physically intimidating tended to be gnollish females and they created a matriarchical hierarchy from these original creations. However, the assumption of this as a natural way for gnolls to be ignored the male apostles of Kunan and their presence and influence was ignored and outright deleted from the ancient histories in the strengthening of the matriarchy and the place of matriarchs at the top of gnollish society. So for millennia the females hyena bestials would be at the top of the ladder and the males would serve them at the feet. This form of society also came without reparations paid to the descendants of those that were killed and expelled in the gnoll's ruination of the land.

Healing the Savannah and its Dangers

The desert was a long way of becoming the ancient fertile lands of ancient Wakunan. It was healed by a mixture of the cultivation and rehabilitation of the land through magic, clerical work, and mundane practices that took generations to have the lands gain fruit in the form of healing. By the time of the first epoch of flame, Wakunan has greatly healed from that scoured land and is now the home of many natural species. However, it is also invaded regularly by monsters. A class of male warrior braves, m'wana, formed during this time as disposable monster hunters to send against abominations that preyed upon the gnolls. From this class came the husbands that would be chosen to join the matriarchs' harems as her bodyguards. M'wanas would persist pass the end of the matriarch system as elite bodyguards and mercenaries for hire.

The Monasteries

Kunan's mastery of kah inspired other gnolls and her first apostles learned from her how to use the power. This would lead to the formation of multiple monasteries built in and outside of the settlements of Wakunan that would be open to any student that they approved of. Wakunan was also the place where kah use spread from to the rest of Velas by those that learned its mastery straight from the masters of the monasteries or were inspired to make their own forms of use. 

Kunan's Ascension

Kunan is an anathema and her domain is self-control. This has led to a conflict of faith between the Wakunansi and the Five where the gnolls utterly refuse any form of faith that does not include their messiah. Kunan's power investiture includes powers that cross over with Liestra's domain including the enrichment of land and plants but also include defensive and offensive powers based upon the feats she had to perform to win the respect of the gnolls. Her role is somewhat distant and the more lively and friendly living Kunan's soul seems to have been transformed into a more stoic and quieter anathema in her ascension.

Wakunan as the Golden Gate

Wakunan served as the ultimate middle vector between western Velas and the lands to the east. Even with the adoption of aeroships, it was often profitable to send western and eastern goods across Wakunan which the Wakunansis taxed. They would be able to amass wealth through the goods and gold that crossed their borders. They invested this wealth into their cities and the development and rehabilitation of the land. One large symbol of this wealth is the capital Jaesorih, a truly cosmopolitan metropolis where kinds most all types can be found from various nations and lands. Along with this, Wakunan grows their own crops and goods. 

Fall of the Matriarchy

The matriarchy would not fall with the aplomb of warcries and clashing blades but with a peaceful transition. The stability of the nation was secured, the coffers filled with foreign gold, and the land was healing. However, males were still treated as second class citizens and many transgressions visited upon males were seen as the normal way of things. Along with this, the promised reparations to non-gnoll diaspora had not been paid and the gnolls grew prosperous with an undercurrent of selfish greed that resembled a subtle form of their old gluttonous ways. This was brought to a head when Zikaezi Arh'Kae, a striped gnoll and disciple of the elvish philosopher Sylvaras Zeliei, produced and printed a pamphlet to spread to the gnolls named "To Suffer Surrounded by Decadence". Within the pamphlet came an argument informed by her equitianist teachings against the matriarchical system and the need to change the queendom into a form all would prosper from. She also opened up debate with those defenders of the old system and grew a large gathering much like Kunan of old. She and her followers would spend decades trying to convince the nation about the virtues of equitianism and the need to change into a land of true justice and equity. The matriarchs against her had not the callous manner of the Scale Princes and did not want to murder her follows into submission. They resisted through their own propagandistic campaigns. The Zikaezians protested and spread far and wide across the nation to convince those on the fence to join their cause. In the end, the matriarchs and even the high matriarch of the gnollish royal family had to concede defeat. Rather than a dolorous age of terrible war, the Zikaezians were able to build a nation from within and transitioned it with near-unanimous agreement among the different packs of Wakunan. Along with this, they were militarily secured by their alliance with Skalovia and the Republic. Any fears of encroachment were laid to rest knowing the great guns and aeroships of the Uhlionic Republic would come to their aid. So the nation became equitianist.

Equitianist Wakunan

One of the first things done was to replace the old royal council to the queen with a representative and democratic mixture of a parliament system. A set of premiers would be chosen with at least one male and one female chosen for the titles via direct electoral vote. This reflected a growing trend to equalize Wakunansi society by making sure most every profession and job had at least one male and one female working it to normalize equality and break away from the social matriarchy that existed before. Under the premiers would be the Greater Pack Council which comprised of pairs of gnolls from different regions that would represent the interests of their different regions. These representatives would be chosen by a direct vote electoral process by the members of those regions. Initiatives and policies would be put forward by the representatives in the Council and a direct vote would be held to decide whether to enact them or not. The monasteries of Kunan, known as the Ess'Wunn monasteries after their founder, fell in line with the new Equitianist government quickly. They were some of the first to criticize the matriarchical system. They were also some of the first ambassadors sent to Skalovia to deal with the Scale Prince remnant problems, especially the Cult of Gor and their similarly kah-powered monks. Hierarchical harems with a female gnoll at the top treating her male members as submissive and lower were outlawed entirely. Polyamorous marriage flourished with the combinations being varied and each partner being treated as equal by the government and eventually by the people. The guns of Skalovia were shipped en masse to arm the new NWA, the New Wakunansi Army. The separate levied pack armies were united into a national force that would patrol the roads and defend the borders along with giving aid to their greatest allies in their time of need. The wealth of Jaesorih and the other rich port cities was spread among the width of Wakunan and roads were rebuilt or newly made instead of just the rich trade routes being maintained and policed. Along with this, reparations would be paid to bestials and the other kinds that had been expelled or victimized. They would be welcomed freely into the new regime and over time those returning minorities had a voice in government.

Wakunan still held a neutral position in much of the world. Trade through it would be too profitable to lose for those that took a poor disposition to the upstart ideology. Tensions between it and Thrale increased from the natural enmity built due to the enslavement of gnolls that wandered south into Thrake's Vale and Tarkaria. It would be forced to make difficult decisions when its greatest ally committed terrible acts in the coming decades. At the end of it all, it would remain loyal to the equilibratist nation, even if they disagreed on key points of equitianism from government to how it should be spread.