Kingdom of Etrand

The Kingdom of Etrand is a state located primarily on the North-Eastern part of the continent of Artograch,, having existed ever since 0 BEKE/AEKE, when Corlagon finalized the unification of Etrand.

Initially little more than an agricultural backwater technologically and economically behind the rest of Artograch (even it's isolated neighbour Hulra), Etrand started rising to prominance in the 2nd sectury AEKE, slowly reached up to it's neighbours in terms of being advanced.

After the Demonic Invasions, Etrand's expansion began, annexing the Kingdom of Hulra what is now Northern Etrand. With those deeds, Etrand became the number one military power on Artograch, the world's largest economy and most populous state. Etrand is also a founding member of the Alliance for the Light.

Etrand is neither a monoracial nor a monolingual society, but the dominant race is the Humans, who make up both the majority of the state's population as well have a de facto monopoly on positions of leadership within the state's domestic and military matters. Even so, Etrand has the largest number of racial minorities out of all states other than Neressa, being home to the native Dwarves, Gnomes, and Lizardmen, as well as increasingly large Elven and Orcish immigrant communities.

Form of government
Etrand is a monarchy, which means that rulers are not usually voted for (unless a ruler dies without heirs and eligible relatives). On a local level however, elections do happen - every city has different rules and laws on who has the right to vote, and all cities and towns - except Steelhelm elect their mayors. The tendency is that the bigger the town/city is, the smaller portion of its population is allowed to vote: for example, in Copperport, only a select number of rich patricians, merchants living in the city, ship-owners and guildmasters have the right to vote, while in the small town of Talon, every adult male inhabitant has a voice in local "politics".

Etrand is a neither an absolute monarchy, not a constitutional monarchy - it is an Feudal Monarchy, which means that the power of the monarch compared to the rest of the governing bodies is neither consistent, nor set in stone.

Traditionally, power is divided between the king and the three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and last but not least the citizenry, also known as the burghers, or the urban bourgeoisie. The power of the king depends on the charisma, wealth and network of alliances the king has - all the power vacuum is filled in by the estates. A strong, handsome, rich and charismatic king with a wide rooster of allies can easily get away with ruling like an absolute monarch or even a despot, squashing the estates; while an uncharismatic, indebted king without a large number of strong allies is bound to be powerless, essentially letting the estates run the kingdom almost like a republic.

Off course, things are not as simply as that: very often, the kings themselves allied with one of the three estates in order to weaken the other two, with the obvious ulterior motive of increasing their own power at the expense of those two unfavoured estates. King Bryant I was known for favouring the burghers, his son King Cairbré I is remembered as a staunch ally of the church, while his son King Calhoun I is best known for being forced to increase the privileges of the nobility after infamous Carolus Conspiracy. The current King of Etrand however, Orlónius is said to be supporting a fourth group: the peasantry.

Needless to say, the everlasting (mostly) bloodless struggle for power that we call "Etrandish politics in nutshell" cannot be described simply as an endless competition for power by the various factions (the royalty, the clergy, the nobility, the burghers, the peasantry) - it gets much more complex than that: relatives of the kings are often caught backstabbing their King and scheming for their own interests, the nobility is divided between low gentry and high aristocracy (not to mention conflicting regional interests: a southern nobleman will most likely favor different policies than a northern nobleman), the burghers have similar conflicting regional interests as the nobility, and even the clergy is not always united.

Geography
The Kingdom of Etrand covers a diverse range of land, Western Etrand and Inner Etrand being plains with a moderate continental climate, Northern being a mountainous land with a near-arctic climate and Southern Etrand being a forested-swampy land with a Mediterranean climate.

Demographics
. The dominant racial group is the Humans, who make up % of the country's population (or % if we also count Etrancoast). The dominant religious group is the Church of Titanius, who make up % of the country's population (or % if we also count Etrancoast).