The nation of Paixão comprises of a single large island who's northern half straddles Lerodas' Equator. Known for lax laws on drugs, petty crime and well... just about everything, it is also a leader in the realms of AI, Neuro Science and all things Cyber.
Economically, tourism and the export of narcotics - who's growth, distribution and consumption is legal throughout the nation - are its main sources of income. The country operates a Socialist-inspired economic system, where currency is non-existent within its borders, and much of its population has little concept of the monetary value of the commodoties they consume on a daily basis.
Paixão holds a staunch anti imperialistic ideology that is the predominant feature of its largely non-interventionalist foreign policy. The military, accordingly, is geared largely towards self defence and pin-point strikes rather than drawn out wars of attrition.
History[]
Early History
The Age of Kingdoms
The Age of Trade; (3.1. The Age of Gunpowder)
The Rise of Industry
The Oppression of Trukmien
"The Revolution"
The Evolution of Neu-Socialism
Early History[]
Archeological records indicate the island that is modern-day Paixão has been inhabited since early in the dawn of mankind on Lerodas. Several colonial settlements have been located on the shores of Paixão, concentrated particularly in the tropical Northern area, and the colder South. It has been hypothesized by several leading archeologists that the distance between these two "colonizing sites" may explain the two main genetic strains ("races") present on Paixão. According to this hypothesis, the two sites represent landings by two seperate cultures that colonized Paixão at roughly the same time. The Southern culture, from colder temperatures, eventually migrated towards the central mountains ranges of Paixão, where they became part of a complex (and largely nomadic) tribal system. Meanwhile, the northern culture, sporting adaptations for warmer temperatures (darker skin, more effective cooling of core body temperature, etc), continued their spread around Paixão's coast and developed large static settlements, supported by large agricultural and fishing communities.
Evidence of animal sacrifices and megalithic structures appear to indicate that a two seperate forms of Paganism began to be practiced by the different colonies at the time. This correlates with later sources from the Age of Kingdoms and Age of Trade.
The Age of Kingdoms[]
The beginning of the Age of Kingdoms is generally agreed to be marked by the construction of Paixão's first large stone structure. Now in ruins, the "Kashtel Morroka" - a large fort-like structure - was the result of a two-pronged assault on the realtive peace of the colonization period of amoung the static coastal communities of Paixão. Raids from the 'Barbarian Tribes' of the mountains, combined with increased inter-kingdom tensions created a need to fortify the static settlements. The "Kashtel Morroka" is once such example of these fortifications. It's stone construction marked it out from it's wood and clay peers, allowing the town it protected - Portucalis - to develop from a small city-state into a fully fledged Kingdom.
However, the success of the "Kashtel Morroka" was rapidly copied by many other city-states. Paixão entered a period of false alliances, betrayal and brutality, all set to the background of constant war. City states competed with each other vehemently, and even those small enough or poor enough to not bother the major kingdoms were targeted by the nomadic tribes of the mountains for endless harassment.
From the endless murky brawl between half a dozen kingdoms and inumerable nomadic tribes, emerged a trio of powers that would dominate Paixân history for the next 500 years. In the South East, Portucalis held its position as a powerful Kingdom, yet an unambitious, ageing Monarch had limited its resolve and it had lost swathes of land to the new upstart; the Kingdom of Lusitânia. However, now that Portucalis was hiding behind the natural boundaries of a major river to the North and a central mountain ridge, any further attacks by its neighbours would be an extremely costly gamble.
In the North and North West, Lusitânia had risen to power off of several gambles by an ambitious monarch. Lusitânia itself had been a prosperous but relatively unassuming Kingdom when said monarch took power. The city straddled the biggest river in Paixão, and this gave it enough fertile land to generate vast amounts of grain and other agricultural produce. It had been using this for years to trade with its neighbours. The new King however, decided to use it to feed an army instead. Lusitânia was successful, taking further land from its neighbours, expanding in a Northerly direction until it became a moderate sized Kingdom. However, to expand further would be almost impossible - the difficult terrain of the jungle kingdoms of the North was almost impassible to those who did not know it. Lusitânia began to form alliances amoung these jungle kingdoms, manipulating them and turning them against each other. Eventually, the assassination of rivals and the collapse of several of the stronger Jungle Kingdoms enabled Lusitânia to, conveniently, fill the void of power and gain total domination over the Northern quarter of Paixão.
The final element in the trio of Kingdoms that would pass into the next Age was the Barbarian Kingdom of Osca. The warlady (the tribes always passed the title to the first born, independant of gender) of one of the more powerful nomadic mountain tribes, Vesa Ohe'Sk had at one stage hatched a plan to become vastly more wealthy than any of her Barbarian rivals. Instead of limiting incursions into enemy territory to pillaging resources, her tribe began to extract resources from their mountain home. High quality timber was a commodity amoung the coastal kingdoms, and Vesa's tribe soon began to diversify, producing high quality weapons and armour from the rich iron ore deposits in their home mountains. Through trade, her tribe became auspiciously wealthy by comparison to her peers and began to make use of the wealth to forge alliances, unifying many of the nomadic tribes under her banner. The effect snowballed until a family feud led her son to launch a counter movement. There was war and bitter rivalry for a time amoung the nomadic tribes - many historians giving this handy 'break' from Barbarian raids as one of the primary reason for Lusitânia's major successes during this period. Finally, an impromtu assassination of Vesa's son by a disgruntled (yet trusted) childhood friend of his led to the ultimate unification of the 'Barbarian Tribes'. The settlement of Osca, established as a permanent, fortified castle-village from which Vesa goverened her tribes during the family feud, quickly evolved into a city and major hub of commerce for 'Barbarian' goods; namely furs, timber, iron and precious metals.
The Age of Trade[]
Peace was the defining factor of the Age of Trade. Although the land that is modern day Paixão was divided in three, there was little reason for any of the factions to engage in war. War between two factions would only have given the third an advantage, and all sides had strongly fortified borders - either due to natural geography, or due to artificial forts and watchtowers. Still standing today is the 'Bleeding Wall of Osca'. Blocking off one of the most important mountain passes into the (then) Queendom of Osca, the wall stood 80m tall at the centre of the valley it inhabited. It's name came about as, over the years, the high iron content of the stone it was built from began to rust, painting the rainwater that fell upon it bright red. Even after the rains had stopped, the stone of the wall was always left stained a dark brown colour, reminiscent of dried blood.
The Age of Trade was defined by a gradual yet consistent development of technology as the various Kingdoms of Paixão began to make contact with nations from overseas. Flourishing inter-kingdom trade meant that the technology was proliferated rapidly, and soon each Kingdom naturally began to specialize in producing certain items of worth. The Kingdom of Lusitânia continued to focus primarily on agriculture, but untapped deposits of precious metals that had been discovered during the conquest of the northern Jungle Kingdoms began to become viable sources of income, as forest clearing and road building technology allowed paths to be created from the mineral deposits to major trading hubs on the coast.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Portucalis expanded its shipbuilding and overseas' trade capabilities, accessing the vast quantitiy of high quality timber available to it from both it's southern neighbour. The Kingdom of Portucalis quickly became a centre for arts and philosophy, and the first university on Paixân territory was created there. This gave it a key advantage against the other two kingdoms, that made up for its relative lack of raw materials compared to its peers. Great thinkers from both Paixão and the rest of Lerodas came to Portucalis, and the then-current King (Justar V) quickly adapated many of the economic ideas proposed by these thinkers. He developed Portucalis' ports and harbours so as to encoarage trade from overseas, introducing a duty tax on imports from overseas, while maintaining relatively low taxation on items such as Oscan raw materials for shipbuilding (namely timber and iron). It was through Portucalis that gunpowder was first introduced to Paixão, yet it would take years for it to become weaponized. Having intially been introduced as a 'healing powder' that would 'dispel bad spirits' through the loud noises it created when burnt, black powder remained largely in the domain of bogus-healers and academics (the latter of which studied the powder for its interesting properties, rather than it's supposed 'healing powers') until it arrived in the Kingdom of Osca.
During the Age of Trade, the Oscan faction continued to develop its ironworking speciality even further. It made great efforts to purchase new, foreign military technology, eventually becoming known for its bizarre (yet often viciously effective) weapons of war. Still, a prevailing love of peace - and monarchs more fond of Portucalatian philosophy and Lusitânian wine than greatness or ambition - meant that these were rarely put to any actual use against the other two factions. Rather, the weapons of war were put to great effect against foreign aggressors. On several occassions throughout the Age of Trade, pirates, bandites and even foreign Kingdoms tried to land forces on Oscan shores. Lacking a powerful navy like that of Portucalis, or the population to maintain extensive coastal defenses like those of Lusitânia, Osca was forced instead to fight these incursions on land. The result was the first full-time professional army on Paixân land. Superbly well armed and with more than adequate training, it would be decades before either of the other two Paixân Kingdoms could create an army as efficient as the Oscan army.
(The Age of Gunpowder)[]
The Age of Trade, although predominately peaceful, is bordered on either side with war. There is still much debate amoung historians as to whether final 140 or so years of Paixân history currently designated as "The Age of Trade" should really be given the denonym "The Age of Gunpowder".
Towards the end of the "Age of Trade", and shortly after the introduction of gunpowder to Portucalis, two events occured that would drastically change the political landscape of Paixão. The first was the a visit to Portucalis by a young, ambitious and highly patriotic Oscan princess. The second, was the result of the gradual increasing of cooperation and interdependence between Portucalis and Lusitânia that had lead to inter-marrying between the two respective royal families.
Vesa III, named after the great Queen of Osca that had united the Barbarian tribes so many years ago, was the princess (and heir to the throne) of an increasingly long line of monarchs that had repeatedly refused to make use of Osca's advantageous military position on quests for national glory. The monarchy had become increasingly detached from the population, and had begun to practise a form of monotheism popular in Portucalis. The populance, although still largely respectful of the monarch (thankful for the strong leadership it had provided during the foreign raids on Oscan lands), was getting increasingly sick of what many began to see as nothing more than Portucalatian aristocrats that dared to wear the furs of Oscan royalty. Vesa III however, was a much loved exception. Contrary to many of her predecessors, Vesa III had refused to be educated in Portucalis, instead undergoing her tutourage in Osca itself. She regularly spent her free time exploring the city, interacting with ordinary members of the public - whom she claimed to find a 'refreshing break' from the royal court. This was complemented by hobbies of a more 'traditional' nature - hunting and folk music - as opposed to the hated wine drinking and socializing that was characterisitic of Portucalatian-Educated Oscan Royalty.
However, much as she had resisted being sent to school in Portucalis, she was unable to avoid visiting on occasion by demand of her father. It was on one such visit that she first understood the potential of gunpowder. Having witnessed a demonstration of its properties by one of the philosopher-chemists of Portucalis, she realized that it's explosive properties could probably be weaponized, and immediately resolved to bring back a large quantity back to her home town for study by a weapons' master. Her father, deciding to humour her, agreed to purchase the quantity she had requested.
