Iniki States

 

Despite being the third smallest continent, Inik is home to the largest contiguous continental nation state on Tear - slightly larger than continental Oberesch, though not as large as the Queendom of Obersch when its overseas holdings are accounted for.

Lizari Empire

The Lizari Empire, also referred to as the Iniki Empire, was formed as a response to the orcish conquests. The first orcish invasions into Inik began in 385, but the climate of Inik proved problematic even for the orcs, who never made significant headway into the interior of the continent with the exception of the high plateau surrounding the city of Grove in the south.

Lizari resistance movements led by the chieftain Dugasa Zul recaptured Tzeb and Addisc in 391, and then recaptured Grove in 392 and expelled the orcish forces from the contintent forever. After the continent was liberated, Inik was declared to be the domain of the Lizari Empire, with the minor city of Gul established as a capital. Dugasa Zul was named to serve as absolute ruler, and Zul became the hereditary title of all future rulers of the Empire.

During the Imperial Era, the Lizari Empire would side with the city states of Ayodesh in their effort to repel invaders from the Kingdom of Tulosz. This was a transactional arrangement, and the Zuls only backed the Ayodeshi city states based on promises of payment. When the payments became unreliable and difficult to collect the lizari forces withdrew their support, and have otherwise generally remained isolationist.

Despite the official installation of central rule, lizari persons tend not to be that interested in politics, and the Zuls have always maintained a fairly laissez-faire approach to governance. The inland cities of Liana, Gosa, Tangleroot, Meander, Gul and Grove are granted as fiefs to powerful chieftains who answer directly to the Zuls, and pay tribute to them. These cities and their domains are heavily focused on the extraction and trade of valuable resources from the Green Diamond Jungle including diamonds and other precious stones and precious and rare metals, as well as rare and exotic plant and animal species and ingredients. Lizari populations in these cities approach 40%, while in their surrounding areas, the population can be 75% lizari.

The larger coastal cities of Tzeb, Blue Harbour and Addisc are the so-called 'Exchange Cities'. These cities are given special charter by the Zuls to function more like autonomous city states. Here, foreign Great Houses and large factions control the import and export operations that keep wealth flowing in and resources flowing out to destinations surrounding the Great Spiral Sea, and all around Tear. The Exchange Cities are similar to large international ports anywhere on Tear, and lizari populations in these cities are perhaps only slightly higher than in similar cities around the world.

Unlike most of the other large nation states that formed during and following the orcish conquests, the Lizari Empire did not collapse or fragment at the end of the Imperial Era, and remains a contiguous nation state well into the 15th century. The Zuls maintain neutral relations with city neighbouring city states in Sekhu, Ayodesh and across the Sea of Tears to the Senecian Isle. Their relations with the Principality of Marqash and by extension, the Domain of Tulosz have remained in a state of detente for centuries, ever since their direct conflicts in the 8th century.

Unlike regions or autonomous city states there is technically no wilderness in Inik in the legal sense: every square centimeter of the Iniki Continent is considered covered by the laws of the Zuls, however, in a practical sense, most of Inik is an trecherous wilderness populated by scattered tribes who are perhaps 75% lizari. This uncharted, ungoverned and probably ungovernable pseudo-wilderness that ultimately ensures the national integrity of the Lizari Empire which is not preserved by centralized governance as much as by the inability of anyone to actively dismantle a state enshrouded in such an inhospitable terrain.