Kota

Flag of Kota
Flag of Kota
Flag of Kota

Kota is a country located in southwestern Lanteen. It borders Ercos to the north, Tilia to the northeast, and Ikara to the east. Its capital is Kota City (Koja: Kotako). It has been a member of IPRO since 275 and of the Pax Centralis since 287.

Kotan society is organized around kyros, membership organizations which serve as economic cooperatives and substate governments. Kyros coordinate by means of ad-hoc associations, which are called as needed to resolve disagreements or decide on shared policy.

Terrain

The terrain of Kota is varied, with a mountainous western region, a tropical forested central valley, and rich farmlands in the north around the Fox River, which defines its border with Tilia. Kota’s eastern border with Ikara is defined by the dangerous White River Forest. The forest is home to many claw beasts, and is effectively impassable by humans.

Since the 370s, vosanite, a mineral found in the western mountains, has been used to produce emerald air. Kotan refineries produce about 20% of the world’s emerald air supply, with the rest coming from Qamar.

History

Pre-Enchantment

Early settlements in Kota were scattered seaweed farming villages along the coast. Over time, Kotans expanded inland and began farming rice for export to the neighboring dry country of Ercos. After the arrival of colonists to Ikara, Kota City was founded as an easily accessible trading site.

As the trade economy grew more complex, towns began to elect groups of traders to represent the products and finances of the town as a whole. These town-level representative groups, known as kyros, effectively taxed local producers at extremely high rates and re-invested the profits into producers and social services.

In 76 BE, Sori, leader of the kyro of Takori, convened an association of kyro leaders in Kota City to standardize a shared currency and system of trade measurements. This meeting is traditionally considered the founding of Kota as a unified state.

Expansion of kyros

Kyros continued to meet periodically to establish shared infrastructure and businesses in each other’s regions. Over time, geographic identities faded as each kyro became involved in industries unrelated to its initial focus and expanded throughout Kota. This was accelerated immediately post-Enchantment, as kyros scrambled to make use of new aetheric technology. By 10 AE, it was common for the population of a given town to include members of 5-10 kyros.

Inter-kyro coordination led to strong developments in logistics technology, with Kotan ports such as Sevori pioneering the use of semantic aetherics for tracking and transporting cargo. Historically, Kota’s challenging terrain had rendered large-scale overland transport impractical. In 52, engineers from the Zalo kyro developed a tunnel bore and long-distance pressurization system that allowed for high speed underground train networks to be constructed across Kota.

Kyro diplomacy

Throughout the 100s and 200s, Arkand (via Ikara) became a significant importer of Kotan rice. This trade was done through maritime routes in the Etalameri. Despite several expeditions undertaken by the Nara kyro and independent adventurers attempting to map a safe passage through the White River Forest, the wildlife proved too dangerous for commercial overland travel.

During the Corsair Uprising, these maritime routes were disrupted. Kotan farmers turned to Ercos and Tilia to sell surplus rice, and continued to rely on overland routes through Tilia to reach export markets as the risk of piracy in Etalameri lingered after the war. To protect their struggling logistics industry, in 285.7 Tilia instituted a transit tariff on goods imported for re-export, with revenue being put towards subsidizing expansion of overland routes and port capacity.

The Takori, Hanne, and Sumi kyros, all export-dependent, saw this tariff as unacceptable and called an association in 285.9 to negotiate with Tilia for its removal. Tilia was unwilling to lift the tariff without a long-term fix for its overtaxed infrastructure, and the kyro association was wary of any deal that saw Tilia continue to hold such strong leverage over the Kotan economy.

The Hanne kyro proposed to the association that Kota join the Pax Centralis, which prohibits tariffs between member states, in exchange for a five-year expeditionary port modernization project to New Harbor. This was amenable to Tilia, but contentious among the kyros. Pax membership required a level of national coordination that Kotans had historically been opposed to, and smaller kyros balked at what they saw as a shift towards centralization. Additionally, the kyros most equipped to actually perform the modernization work, Zalo and Da-Se, were the ones least concerned with the impact of the tariff. In 286.1, Hanne and Sumi agreed to transfer the governance of several towns along the Fox River to Zalo and Da-Se in exchange for their contributions to the Tilian expedition. In 286.5, it was resolved that Kota would join the Pax Centralis.

Vosanite

In 362, vosanite was discovered in the mining town of Vosa in the western mountains. It was initially valued for its aesthetic qualities in glassmaking. In 364, Chemist Jinhai Luo of Kemen noticed that vosanite leached into aethercompressed air under certain conditions, increasing its aether density. Four years later, the Isuri and Kemen kyros opened the Vosa Research Center to pursue industrial production of emerald air.

The first emerald refinery opened in Vosa in 372, producing an air grade known as Vosa 2 which was comparable to mid-level Qamari emerald. A second refinery in nearby Qime was opened in 374. The process was licensed to the Zalo kyro in 382, who built several more refineries across the western region.

The ability to produce emerald air soon led to Isuri, Kemen, and Zalo, now known as the emerald kyros, becoming extremely rich. This largely benefitted other kyros as well, as the mutual dependencies created by centuries of enmeshed production prevented the emerald kyros from attempting to centralize their supply chains.

Refinery disasters and the Black Air Conflict

In 428, a catastrophic failure in the Qime refinery complex led to a 6-hour uncontrolled venting of black air (Koja: zaqua), a toxic by-product of industrial emerald refinement. IPRO immediately ordered a shutdown of all emerald refinement. The emerald kyros refused to comply, and IPRO called on the Pax Marshals Bureau to enforce the shutdown and on Ercosian engineers to audit the refineries. Emerald kyro militias unilaterally blockaded Pax procurate buildings across Kota, preventing the stationed marshals from leaving, and set up checkpoints on the south bank of the Fox River to stop any ingress of Pax troops.

A kyro association was called. While the emerald kyros pushed for a hardline stance against IPRO interference, smaller kyros who still depended on tariff-free access to Pax markets were hesitant to prolong or escalate the conflict. Scattered violence soon broke out between kyro militias, Pax marshals, and refinery workers. As negotiations dragged on, a three-year period of escalating civil unrest followed, known as the Black Air Conflict.

In 431, an emerald storage tank at the Vosa train station exploded, killing over 600 people. Many kyro militias in the western mountains stood down, allowing Pax to seize the Vosa refinery. An emergency association was called, and the non-emerald kyros demanded that the emerald kyros accede to IPRO’s audits. With little morale remaining among their militias and citizens, the emerald kyros complied.

In subsequent negotiations with Pax, the non-emerald kyros argued that Pax’s inability to understand and directly coordinate with the kyro system had allowed the crisis to escalate unnecessarily. As a result, the Pax Oversight Council was created in 433. This gave delegations from member states more direct representation in Pax governance, and established a permanent structure by which Pax could intervene in domestic politics. IPRO also expanded humanitarian operations across western Kota, suspending levies on supplies sent to affected regions.

Kyros

Notable kyros include: