Rennidan

Rennidan is home to some of the longest, flattest expanses of grass, hence why the region it is settled in is known as the 'Rennidonian Plains'. Although the island in which it is set is large, the population of Rennidan is relativly mediocre, gracing only just the 18 million mark, and incredibly grouped together (over half the population live in Rennidan City, the rest live in towns and such around the capital). The second largest city is Troan, one of the nations only ports of a large scale.

Rennidan

Flag of Rennidan
Motto: "As one, we march onwards."
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Region	The Rennidonian Plains
Capital	Rennidan City
Official Language(s)	English, Rennida
Leader	Lord Tri Rennida
Population	18 million
Currency	The Rennidan Note
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Overview

Rennidan is very much a forgotten nation. With no neighbours, and blocked off from the rest of the world by a ring of mountains encompassing the plains (which gives the area a rather bowl like appearance from above), there was hardly a single mention in the news of Rennidan's Civil War when it broke out in 1715. Speculation on this is that, because of the date and the lack of technology, it isn't due to Rennidan being cut off, but because of a lack of messenger equipment and ability to monitor Rennidan.

In the Civil War, a lot of Rennidan’s old history was lost in ‘Rainor’s Fire’. All that has been proven is that, sometime in the Bronze Age, the centre of the Rennidonian Plains was settled on by simple cavemen, having found a narrow gap (presumed to be ‘Rean’s Gate’ of modern times), they found the now dried up Rifft Lake. Unfortunately, this is all we know at the present time.

The Civil War of Rainor

In 1713, there was a large row that Rennidan deserved to be a dictatorship, as the democracy in place had not done anything to help the people, and it was because of the democracy that Rennidan had no allies, as a strict law was in place that no civilian should leave the Plains.

By 1714, a revolutionist named Tri Rainor had amassed a small army of those who wished to overthrow the democracy. Although it was against their religious beliefs to start war against their fellow countrymen, Rainor believed he must do so for the good of their nation. He travelled the small nation, with guards, to try and convince several people to join him. Many peasants liked the idea of being able to leave the Plains, so that they may search for work outside of their small nation.

As word spread throughout Rennidan City that a revolutionary was preparing an army, the Elected Governing Body of Rennidan proposed that they should build a wall around the capital city, to prevent Rainor’s army from ever entering. Using almost all their money, workforce and slaves, the EGBoR managed to build the first wall around the capital in less than eleven months, proving both how small the city was, and how hard the people worked to defend their democracy.

With an army of 20 thousand on October 2nd, 1715, Rainor began the siege of Rennidan City. The first attack was a failure though, leading to five thousand dead and ten thousand injured. The wall was nearly impenetrable to their swords, and the archers atop had done nothing but rain arrows down upon them until they retreated.

For weeks, Rainor and his army were not heard from. Eventually, on October 30th, out came Rainor and his army, now down to only 11 thousand, but with devices capable of scaling the walls. Large ladders and ropes connected to arrows allowed the army to make it up the first wall, where they slaughtered the archers who had killed their comrades. With their first victory, Rainor’s army celebrated atop the walls, a party which went on for days, and supposedly lead to the start of Rainor’s family line.

Eventually, Rainor set into the city proper, his army at just 10 thousand, half of what it started as. For months, bloody street warfare occurred within half a mile of the government’s main building. It was during this period of fighting that Rainor set alight many of Rennidan City’s buildings, causing an amount of death yet to be estimated. What we do know is that the fire spread to Rennidan’s Great Library, burning almost all the historical texts the city held.

On 1st January, Rainor entered the Government building with 416 men (each of them carved their names into the wall near the entrance of the building after the war), and killed each and every person within the building, before appointing himself the new Lord of Rennidan.

Religion

The Rennidonian mainstream religion is know as Ria. It's main belief is in the equality of others, and as such tries to deter violence as much as possible, unless for a holy cause (such as Rainor believed it to be when he conquered Rennidan City). They worship the objects around them, such as nature, and believe in trying to keep as in touch with it as they possibly can.

Ria was established in 1715, but is believed to have unorganised roots leading back as far as 175 B.C. Both the leader of Rennidan and the leader of Ria are titles held by the same person, and often are fought to the death to claim by the ritual way of swords. As this is seen as a holy cause, it is openly allowed within the religion, and some duals have been known to last for days.

Holy Men

The holy men of Ria are usually doned in a rich green, their heads shaven and tatooed upon in a tribal manner. They often carry spears or staffs, and are trained in Ria's martial arts, a form called Reebao [pronounced Ree-bay-oh]. The initiation process into Ria is often a gruelling process, often full of danger and has sometimes lead to death, but again this is seen as a religious reason for death, claiming they were too ‘weak in spirit, but will be cared for above’.

After Life

Ria believes in life after death where the spirit is put in front of three trials. To start with, the spirit must answer a single question, based upon the decisions of their life. Secondly, the spirit must solve their sins in a ritual of pain which, once finished, will rid their spirit of the ability to feel pain. Finally, they must fight against a spirit, often portrayed as being Rainor. Once all three trials are complete, the spirit will be accepted into Ri, a version of heaven which is surrounded by mountains, much like Rennidan itself.

Rituals

Many rituals exist in Ria, but they mostly extend from three main ones.

• Rass: A test of strength: The participant must carry a ritual rock, roughly 80lbs, in one hand all the way up Longpass mountain. As evidence the person has completed this task, they are usually given a silver ring, with the Ria symbol carved into it.

• Reem: A test of knowledge: Using a set of symbols upon a wall, the participant must crack a 2000 character long code, in which they must then tell to the Ritual Leader to gain the evidence to show other people they have completed the task. The piece of evidence in this is often a headband with the Ria symbol carved into it.

• Ruua: A test of endurance: The participant must stand on top of a pillar for several days and nights, standing on their hands. Once completed, the participant will be given the Ria symbol in the form of a tattoo on their back.

Importance of Rituals within Ria

Only once all three of the main rituals are completed, and the participant has gained some ground within the Rennidan populace, may the participant challenge the current Lord of Rennidan for his place of power. Due to the difficulty of Ruua and Rass though, it is often a long time before the Lord is challenged (the longest being Lord Terra Aron, who was Lord for 12 years, the shortest being Lord Reva Labemba, who was Lord for 11 minutes).

Once the challenge is out, the current Lord may not turn it down, and at the next sunrise the two will dual to the death with swords.

Modern Rennidan

Rennidan still remains rooted firmly in its religious rules, but it has begun to branch out into the modern world, buying and selling technologies.

Buisness

One of the country’s main exports though, is its herbal remedies. Supposedly made and blessed by Ria monks in their temples, the remedies are usually somewhere between 70%-95% able to help with illness, depending on the severity.

While Rennidan and Ria do their best to ensure a peaceful nation, recently it has been exposed that the nation is beginning to manufacture weapons for their army. Not only do they make the weaponry for themselves, but they have begun selling it outside of the bowl, to nations such as Salchell, a neighbour within the plains.

They also, like the Swedish, have a good amount of furniture exportation, and are known for making finely crafted furniture of the most comfortable levels.

Military

Rennidan’s military has only just come to light. They make sure each male, and some females, have at least a years worth of training before they go out into the real world for jobs. They also make sure they have all the population who have undergone training on alert when a war crisis is breaking out. Currently, their military stands at 960 thousand, a rather healthy proportion of their population.

Rennidan’s military are somewhat trained in both modern and archaic weaponry. Those of a higher rank than Corporal often carry swords with them, a weapon which they are incredibly deadly with. Their military importances rank their infantry first, seconded by their airforce and in last place is their navy.

The air force itself is rather small compared to the army, with only 10 thousand within it, roughly an eight of which are pilots, the rest are engineers, gunners, air traffic control and other, out of sight ranks.

A small portion, roughly 1.5 thousand of the population makes up the ‘special forces’ of the armed forces. Most of these are monks, trained to be silent and deadly, much like Japanese ninja. They often use staffs and blades to either render their opposition unconscious, or kill them swiftly.

Education and Health

Education and health seem to fall hand in hand within Rennidan. They teach human biology extensively in schools and colleges, often starting when the pupil is in their early teens. It is speculated from outside sources that this is so that the pupils may quickly figure out how to incapacitate their enemy if caught in hand to hand combat when in battle.

On average, a third of Rennidan’s annual budget is spent on education and health (an sixth each), resulting in rather well kept hospitals and intelligent students.

Drugs

Rennidan is known for its legal and blatant use of marijuana. It is used in many herbal remedies of the monks and for medication from hospitals. It is often sold in special stores marked with a large golden ‘M’ to signify that the store sells marijuana.