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Squeblish Nef?
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Warning: This text is next to an Avatar. DO NOT READ UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!
Jul 2003
time: 15:35
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OOC: To avoid 'stealing' somebody else's thread, I'll place a *brief* outline of Al Mastif here.
The Diabolical Sultanate of Al Mastif (later the Tooled-Up Sultanate of Al Mastif after the introduction of modern heavy weaponary) sprang into being in about the 13th Century, C.E., when the (supposedly) Skhetmeri-born Diabolical Sultan Ahura Al Mastif led his followers to victory over the Khaftani monarch, Omar Khamaran byar Kharaf.
Al Mastif continued to expand over the next few centuries, conquering and annexing the rest of Skhetmere: Khaftan, Ahlazan, Skhelaros and finally Fhez.
In the late 20th Century, the re-animated mummy of High Priest Aftanun re-summoned the fallen god Nae'Shakal, who manifested as Pharaoh Gunsanroses, throning himself in the Black Pyramid, which appeared in the middle of Skhetmere.
This was responsible for the creation of the Black Pit of Charr, which was destroyed several years later by the depraved god Squeblish Nef? (Don't worry about the whole occult sh!t. I promise it won't never happen again!)
The Tooled-Up Sultanate survived the rise of madness mostly unscathed, but only by doing a 'Stingray', and moving most of its vitals far underground.
While incredibly expensive, this bought it the the time it needed to move to slightly (note the slightly) less-insane climes, or rather the arid south-east of Apolyton Ori.
Al Mastif is currently ruled by Tooled-Up Sultan Ahura Al Mastif, and is governed by a corrupt elite of super-rich nobles, who divide their time between holding all of the positions of power in the Tooled-Up Sultanate and playing 'The Game of the Powerful and Devious'.
Al Mastif's main focus is its military, and a frightening amount of the nation's budget is hijacked to finance bigger and better weaponary.
If you want to live in Al Mastif, you have to be employed, and, since all private enterprise in Al Mastif is owned by members of the government, everybody works 'for the good of our glorious nation'.
The 'glorious nation' basically doesn't pay people very much actual money (or camels in certain areas), as their income is generally eaten up by a miriad of hidden costs and taxes before it reaches them, but it does give them some pocket money, clothing, shelter and food, but only enough to keep them alive.
The people survive only through theft and corruption, but mostly the latter, due to the penalties for anybody caught stealing.
Or spitting near a public building.
The 'foreign property' of Al Mastif consists of Khaftan, Ahlazan, Skhelaros and Fhez.
The Khaftanis were once the undisputed rulers of Skhetmere, their armies outnumbering all those of the other Skhetmeri states put together, yet they were defeated in less than five years by the Diabolical Sultan Ahura Al Mastif's mainly-cavalry army.
They managed to keep a few of their major cities, and Khaftani sovereignty survived till the mid-14th Century, when Al Mastifi artillery finally took down the walls of [Censored], the Khaftani capital.
Khaftan has suffered 114 major suppressions, and an unspecified number of minor suppressions since then, and it is only the amazing fertility of Khaftan's soil that keeps Al Mastif from putting it to the torch.
The Khaftani heavy manufacturing industry has long given way to the cultivation, manufacturing and vending of all kinds of narcotics, both dangerous and otherwise, and is a major revenue-raiser for the Al Mastifi government.
Khaftanis are as a whole much poorer than the rest of Al Mastif, and are the butt of a great many jokes, most of which in poor taste.
Khaftan is nominally governed by Farasi Al Mastif, but most of the real governing is done by his Acquirer of Capital, Faramas Kharaf.
Ahlazan is absolutely massive, and very sparsely populated.
It takes up most of the Skhetmeri desert, and is inhabited by a rather unique race of nomads, with an extremely mobile, centralised government.
Ahlazan was never really conquered. It joined with the Diabolical Sultanate of its own free will somewhere around the year 1500.
Since its annexation, Ahlazan has changed significantly.
Instead of being a motley collection of camel-mounted warrior tribes, Ahlazan is now a collection of mobile factories and refineries, all ruled by a governing Council of Tribes, presided over by the Al Mastifi governor.
Al Mastif is very lenient with Ahlazan, granting it freedoms that it wouldn't even let Khaftan merely contemplate. It also takes a lot of liberties with Ahlazan's resources, extracting all of the oil and uranium it can get its hands on, selling only a very small amount to the Ahlazani 'Wandering Furnaces', in which most of Ahlazan's population lives.
The Ahlazani economy consists of mining and heavy manufacturing, with the majority of Ahlazanis being relatively richer than most Khaftanis and Fhezians.
Ahlazan is very carefully ruled by Alasan Al Mastif, who is mainly concerned with the efficiency of the region's resource exploitation.
Skhelaros' glory days have been over for millenia.
The Skhelarian Empire was destroyed during the first rise of Pharaoh Gunsanroses, and again during his fall.
By the 9th Century C.E. it had recovered enough to attempt to retake its lost territories, which it started to do, but slowly, with very little real success.
It was destroyed again in the 11th Century by the Khaftanis on their rise to prominence, and again in the 13th Century by the Al Mastifis in their rise to prominence.
It was destroyed again in the late 14th Century when it was comprehensively conquered by the Al Mastifis, and yet again in the 15th Century in the wars with Fhez.
It was pretty much destroyed when the Black Pyramid initially appeared, and was just about totalled when the Black Pyramid disappeared.
Thanks to the centuries of destruction and near-totalling, it now has some very nice ruins, and boasts the famous Golden Pyramids of Skhelaros, most of which still haven't been stolen.
The Skhelarian economy is extremely strong, despite its shell-shocked history, and focuses around tourism, the extraction and shaping of precious metals and stones, and the extraction of oil and uranium.
Skhelaros is fastidiously governed by Kharavos Al Mastif, who has been the driving force behind the Skhelarian economy.
The Emirate of Fhez coagulated in the 14th Century, and very quickly carpeed the diem, tripling its borders in two years.
It achieved an uneasy truce with Al Mastif in the mid 15th Century, which was shattered when Fhezian troops marched through Skhelaros, starting the 'War of the Red Turban', which finally ended in the late 16th Century when the last Emir was personally dismembered by the Diabloical Sultanate himself.
Since then, Fhez has continued to prosper, and over the last two-hundred years has been kept on a much looser leash than before.
Fhez is ruled by an arch-capitalistic uppercrust, has a massive rich-poor divide, a regionally-renowned crime rate, no forms of welfare whatsoever, has a large Moorish under-underclass, no minimum wage, is devoutly racist and under-regulates its industry, to name a few of its main appeals.
Fhez is second only to Al Mastif and Skhelaros economically, and contains the world-renowned Al Mastifi Centre for the Invention and Augmentation of Military Hardware (AMCIAMH), in addition to some of the best (and most expensive) universities in Apolyton Ori.
It is governed by Metanaban Al Mastif, who spends most of his time there, swimming in Fhez's elite circles.
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27-04-2004 08:14
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