Moter

Moter is an island nation, located in the south of the continent, between Arnellia and Sarnel. It's Capital is Moter City, a large city that sits at the center of the island. Moter is a constitutional monarchy, ruled over by the Dimitriou family. The current ruler is Lamont Dimitriou. Moter was originally split between Arnellian and Sarnel colonies, however over time they merged into their own nation. Due to not being founded by a single racial demographic, and it's proximity to Arnellia, Moter is a very racially diverse nation.

Pre-Formation
The island of Moter was first settled by Frostborn in the early third age. These settlements remained small colonies of Sarnel. In the mid third age, human settlers from the Arnellia region came and settled the island, searching for new lands. For a long time the colonies existed as vassal states of their respective founding nations, or small independent city states. These states were dragged into regular conflict with each other. As Sarnel and Arnellia encountered troubles, the vassal states made bids for independence, soon gaining it, and joining in the city state politics that formed.

Unification
As Arnellia and Sarnel regained stability, they made bids to reclaim their former vassals. This outside threat called for the city states to band together and repel the foreign influences. The culture of the city states had shifted with their independence, and they now resembled each other more than the outsiders. Repelling the invasions caused the realization of a distinct Moter identity, and so early in the fourth age, the city states held a grand council to decide if they would seek unity. The vote concluded that the city states would indeed unify under a central monarch.

Politics
Moter is a constitutional monarchy, renowned for it's constitution being particularly restrictive to the monarch. The current ruling family is the Dimitriou family, which has been in power for the last 300 years. Below the royal family is the nobility, comprised of petty kings of each major settlement around the island. Each petty king is guaranteed a degree of autonomy by the constitution, which results in the laws of every city in the kingdom being slightly different. Below each petty king sits a variety of nobles, ruling over the small villages. No two petty kings keep the same organisation within their lands, which lends itself to a great deal of confusion between nobility of each petty king.

Laws
The capacity for petty kings to determine their own laws makes cataloging the exact crimes and punishments within Moter a difficult task. The constitution does however, define the order of justice. Every petty king selects seven families to be justice families. Every member of a justice family serves as a judge during legal and domestic disputes. For this reason, most families aim to grow large, and have many children to enable them to cover the area. A new justice family does not take up it's duties for 20 years after being selected, and if a justice family is to be replaced, this replacement will take 20 years to take effect, unless otherwise agreed upon by all other serving families. This system is put in place to prevent petty kings from removing justice families over minor disputes, and placing more corrupt families in their place.

Population Centers
Moter's population is spread largely evenly around the island. Most of the citizens live in towns, or small villages. Beyond these villages there are five major population centers around the country. Between these five cities, 115,000 people live, of the 600,000 in the country. Along the island there is another 16 towns, each housing 1000 to 5000 individuals. Between these cities lives another 60,000 citizens. The remaining 425,000 citizens live in the villages that dot the landscape, averaging a population of around 150 per village.

Architecture
The architecture of Moter is noteable for being influenced by both Arnellian and Sarnel architecture. The cities of Moter are comparable to Arnellian cities, being densely packed, and built primarily with stone. The Sarnel influences are noticeable to outsiders however, as most dwellings are built larger than their Arnellian counterparts, and it's not unknown for houses to have interior doors to move between them, enabling houses to serve both Frostborn and Human families.

Outside of cities, Moter architecture is much more comparable to Sarnel architecture, with villages comprising of several large, wooden estates built close together and walled off. The surrounding lands typically house additional estates, each intended to house a family of between 10 and 30 individuals. Smaller buildings are often located around these estates, for the families that have not adopted a lifestyle intended for such large families.

Marriage
The Sarnel influences show in the family values of Moter. While it is globally accepted for frostborn men to take many wives, in Moter such expectations are not limited upon racial lines, and it is not uncommon to see human or galeborn men have several wives either. Such wives are commonly frostborn women, however women of other races sometimes enter into such arrangements. This openness towards marriage has become a two-way street as well, and among the other races women with multiple husbands are not uncommon either. This has lead to large marriages with multiple husbands and wives living together as a family becoming a frequent feature, both in villages and in cities. A side effect of this value shift is that frostborn men typically have less wives on average than they do in other nations, with the average frostborn man only having seven wives, instead of the more typically nine.

Religion
Religion in Moter is abnormally non-influential. The two primary races both had lost contact with their creator at the time of founding, and were actively rejecting the religious institutions of Arnellia and Sarnel. In their place, the people of Moter maintain a distinctly spiritual practice, paying respects to the spirits of the land, and celebrating the arrival of Caltali each year. Shamanistic practices are very common within Moter, with shrines to spirits littered around the nation attended by a small cabal of shamans.