Corezo
orezo is a small province at the southwestern peninsula of Eyropa's main landmass. It shares a single border with Hasele, and is surrounded on the other three sides by water.
Geography
Corezo is known also as the Iberian Peninsula, as named by the Romans prior to the first Eyropan Civil Wars. It should be noted that this designation is purely a geographical distinction; its general use name is Corezo.
Corezo is split into three large counties. They are Morua in the east, Belleza in the west, and Quijas in the south.
The land near the coasts of Corezo is pocked with salt plains: traces of old lowland valleys obliterated by the great tidal wave during the Changer's War. The central portion of Corezo is notably highland plains. The coasts of Corezo have been settled by many coastal villages and ports, made habitable by the combined magics of Darleone and Corezo.
Belleza is marked largely by mountain ranges and forest. The northwestern forests are largely unharvested and unsettled by the Corezans.
The northern part of Corezo is mostly mountainous. There is an artificial valley in the northwest caused by a power fluctuation in the Changer's War that has since become verdant farmland.
There are two major rivers through Corezo: one that empties in the southwest, and another that meanders from the east to the south.
Economy
Corezo has the eighth largest economy among the Eyropan Empire's provinces by nominal GDP. They are widely regarded as the second most magically developed province within the Empire, though this is largely assumed to be due to the Quijas friendship and partial partnership with Darleone. The economy has seen only marginal fluctuations for the last few years, with a small decrease in exports during 123PW.
Corezo is recognized as being a major exporter of textiles, salt, ore, grain, fruit, livestock, fish, wine, and magically saturated raw materials (these vary widely, but the most valued are plants, ore, and quarried stone). The great trees of the western forests in Belleza are considered by some to be the greatest in the world for building ships.
They are particularly renowned for their contributions towards horse breeding, medicine and fashion. They have also revolutionized mining technology through magical extraction. As well, their shipbuilding capacities are well known throughout the world; the Bellezan docks along the western coast are considered to be the best in Eyropa.
There are four multi-national trading companies that operate out of Corezo.
Culture
THIS SECTION IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND WILL BE EXPERIENCING CHANGES. Magic and enchanted items have a strong and rich tradition in Corezo due to the influence of the elves, and it is often expected that notable families have at least one court magician on hand. Magic is openly accepted in the majority of Corezo cities, and the province has become a haven for those persecuted for magical ability or belief.
The people of Corezo tend to be dark haired and dark eyed, with swarthy skin. Corezo citizenry are often very conservative, slow to open to strangers but not above lending a hand where most needed. Corezans tend to be stingy pinchpurses, but on festival days will often celebrate to excess. Corezans are wily and crafty rather than honest and open, and it has been said that a Corezans can outwit a fae in terms of twisting the truth.
Women are viewed as the genteel portion of Corezo, and are expected to keep to domestic tasks. Noblewomen are expected to know some form of militaristic occupation, though it must be genteel. Things such as horsemanship, archery, fencing, or military strategy might be studied by noblewomen, though they are considered outside pursuits and not careers. Men, on the other hand, are taught to be subtly aggressive, to wrestle and sport. Noblemen are expected to know how to lead from a ship's deck, or second to that how to lead a cavalry.
Naval occupations are looked more highly upon than armies. As such, Corezo's militia is very small, though it's said they have an army of spies at each head family's beck and call. Their navy, however, is the pride of Eyropa.
Names
Corezans tend to have two first names, followed by their father's paternal surname, and their mother's paternal surname.
Maria Gonzalez Rodriguez and Philippe Rio Colon would have a child with the last name of Rio Gonzalez. Old or noteworthy families might keep grandparents' last names. If Maria's grandfather's name was de Morua, and Philippe's grandfather's name was Terceiros, a resulting name might appear thus: Antony Tono Terceiros de Morua Rio Gonzalez.
The three head families in Corezo maintain the prefix 'de' in front of the family name (Morua, Belleza, Quijas) to indicate that they are the province. Delegates of Corezo are allowed to add de Corezo as a form of respectful title to their names.
Politics
Corezo is governed by a single proconsul appointed by the emperor, and represented in the Senate by three consuls. The province is further split into three duchies (imperially referred to as counties) named for three powerful Corezan families: Morua, Belleza, and Quijas. Each Duchy is overseen by a duque or duquesa, and since the implementation of the duchies in 423 BCE each duchy has remained under the control of the family of the same name. The duchies are considered to be financial and administrative regions under the proconsul, but with the influence of power and wealth, it has become corrupted. As it presently stands, the position of proconsul and consul is under considerable influence from the three families, therefore giving each duque or duquesa unprecedented amounts of control.
As a result, the three duchies have become competitive with each other for dominance over provincial politics and representation. Overt violence having been forbidden by the emperor, the Corezans instead became adroit at using subterfuge and direct strikes to undermine each other. In present day, Corezo's people are perhaps the most accomplished in all of Eyropa when it comes to the art of physical and magical assassination. These skills are most often used inwardly, however; while there have been some suspected instances of Corezan assassins being deployed on other provinces, for the most part it is believed that this underhanded war is conducted almost exclusively between and within each individual duchy.
Control within each duchy is maintained via identical systems. Duchies are further divided into geographical sections, known as regions. Regions are divided into provincial taxation districts, known as comarcas. Comarcas in turn are divided into municipalities. The municipalities are administrative divisions typically under control of separate noble families. While they are subject to province and empiric laws, they maintain their own jurisdiction over land and people within their borders.
Any noble with oversight over a comarca must be at the rank of either a marqués/marquesa (implying favoritism from the duque or duquesa) or a conde or condesa. It should be noted that a noble can be any of these titles without owning or being appointed to a comarca.
Any noble with oversight over a municipality must be at or above the rank of vizconde or vizcondesa. It should be noted that a noble can hold this title without owning or being appointed to a municipality.
The current proconsul is Osvaldo Tono de Corezo de Belleza Viduarre.
The current consuls are:
- Fermen Abelardus de Corezo Fanego y Colio.
- [unnamed]
- [unnamed]
History
The Iberian Peninsula has long been a hub of human activity long before other species first made their presence known. While the study of archeology within Eyropa is still a young discipline, use of magic has lead to some surprising discoveries. Human activity in the peninsula has been traced back as far -- and in some cases, farther -- as 3000BCE, though not much is known about the peoples who did populate the peninsula at that time.
The Iberian Bronze Age occurred around 1500BCE. While there were many numerous tribes who occupied the peninsula, the three whose presence and culture lasted throughout history and into present day were the Tartesian in the south, the Iberian in the north and southeast, and the Celtiberians in the west and north. It is believed, though not agreed upon by scholars, that the elves originally came out of Tartessos. There is some unconfirmed studies done that indicate elves first appeared in Tartessos along the Iberian Peninsula's southern coast around 900BCE as a magical mutation of the human species. It is a hotly contested topic between academics, though the fact remains that modern day Quijas is very friendly with the elves of Darleone.
The appearance of Changers in 770BCE did not drastically affect the Iberian Peninsula until 636BCE when the war began. There had been heavy trade in the Mediterraneus, of which the various peoples in the peninsula took part -- especially the Tartesians -- and the war disrupted that trade. It is believed that it was only due to the magical skill of the Tartesian peoples that the southern coast of the peninsula was able to weather the war as well as it did. Ships leaving out of the Tartesian docks could purchase magical protection; this allowed trade to continue in a still profitable capacity, though it was greatly lessened.
The peninsula survived for the next two-hundred years, though there is evidence to suggest that they were fighting a losing battle. Without a unified military presence in the peninsula, the various peoples soon found themselves declining. Tartessos was the strongest of these groups, being a unified kingdom with a small navy to call its own. However, the power of Farahu's alliance severely choked the trade in the Mediterraneus and tied the hands of the powers along the northern coast. The only hope for the majority of them was to join with Theogios to stand united against Farahu's militaristic presence. 560BCE saw King Arganthonios of Tartessos joining with Theogios' alliance, as surviving records indicate. There is indication of King Arganthonios' reluctance to join with Theogios, though there is also strong evidence that indicates the pressure from Farahu left him no choice.
Once the Tartesians had given in to Theogios it was not long before the major tribes within the Iberian Peninsula followed suit. The Iberians, in particular, were a primitive set of tribes who were heavily rooted in magical mysiticism. Fiercely independent and canny traders, they were less prominant than the Tartesians, though they had strong contacts with the Greeks and could even have been considered friendly. It is likely due to this contact that they entered into talks with Theogios' representatives in 558BCE. Many years passed, during which the various sub-groups of the Iberian peoples were unified together. It was under this united front that they joined with Theogios in 542 BCE.
The Celtiberians were perhaps the most remote of groups within the Iberian Peninsula. It is thought that this is why they avoided contact with Theogios' representatives for so long. It is generally agreed upon that these peoples were a collection of tribes who engaged in cattle pastorialism. They had an elite warrior caste -- it was these that Theogios was most interested in -- and they were governed by family hierarchies. They were more fractious than either the Iberians or Tartessians, and tended to trade north rather than south. Farahu's rise to power had affected them least of all. Between 498 to 488BCE, there was some contact with the Belli peoples by Theogios' representatives. An alliance formed between the Belli and three other tribes eventually made a pact with Theogios: if his forces helped them to conquer the northern territory within the Iberian Peninsula then they would fight for Theogios.
486BCE saw the Celtiberian Confederacy join Theogios. It was at this time that the matter of territorial lines was settled between the Celtiberians and Iberians.
The Iberian Peninsula, through its three distinct political and social groups, continued to fight for Theogios for the next hundred or so years. Records from the time indicate that Theogios was primarily focused on keeping his united Eyropa safe and out of the fighting, though given Farahu's militaristic nature the Eyropan coast was constantly under attack as Farahu probed Theogios' defenses. Finally, some time between 350-320 BCE Theogios used his power to move the African continent far south.
The event was devastating to the Tartessian territory. The majority of their peoples evacuated south before Theogios made his move, but even so they were drastically affected. A tidal wave sank the majority of their cities, including the fabled Tartessos. Though Theogios' act had brought them immeasurable breathing room from Farahu's warlike tendencies, the coast to the southern coast was measured in decades -- if not centuries -- of rebuilding. Modern theory is that it was because of this act that lead to the schism of the Tartessos elves, and why the later Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula was such a culturally impacting event for the modern Quijas culture.
After this event, the climax of the Changer's War in 310 BCE had some strong effects on the Iberian Peninsula. It is generally accepted by all modern scholars that the circumstances surrounding that year are what lead to the magically enriched climate of the Iberian Peninsula, including both magical material and some of the mutations that have occurred to both animals and peoples.
Though it was a devastating blow, the Iberian Peninsula under the Eyropan Empire survived and even thrived as the Changer's War gradually began to wind down. The Empire assisted with the rebuilding necessary in the peninsula as well as along the southern coast. By the time the War ended in 250BCE those peoples who were part of the Eyropan Empire were quite possibly the strongest moving forward.
The start of the first of Eyropa's civil wars did not directly affect the Iberian Peninsula. They sent men and ships to participate, but there was no actual war upon their own territory until the start of Rome's rise to power in 142BCE. By 20BCE the Iberian Peninsula had been fully conquered, with the Celtiberians being the last group to fall.
Corezo remained under Rome's influence until 1647PW, when the Empire reclaimed most of the peninsula. The southern tip remained problematic until 1627PW, when Corezo was fully liberated from Rome's grasp. At that time the Iberian Peninsula was formed into a single province named Corezo. Things stabilized and remained thus for two hundred or so years, until the Second Civil War in 1327PW.
Corezo was once more invaded. Occupation by the descendants of the Cartheginians lasted until around 858PW, when the presence of the invaders was overpowered. It was at this time that the Empire drove south -- with the help of Corezan warriors -- to take over the northern half of the split African continent.
The next several hundred years saw a period of growth and rebuilding for the empire and, in turn, Corezo. It was in this period that Corezo's trade and exports really grew, leading to prosperity for the province as a whole. However, within the province itself was some unrest and violence between the various descendant cultures. While it was not enough to start civil war within the province, the amount of banditry and raiding provoked the Emperor to maintain order via his own troops, leading to a military occupation between 509-439PW.
It was during this time that the de Morua family rose to power in the south-east of Corezo. The Belleza and Quijas families were also established and had been in the previous few decades, leading the de Morua family to send envoys. After several discussions about the state of their province, they approached the Corezan consul to demand the previous three territories within Corezo are re-established. The Consul refused.
438PW saw the main three culturally distinct peoples who followed the elite families of these areas rise and declare action against their Consul. While they were careful to declare the enmity on the Consul's person and not the Emperor, the fact that they were fighting against one of the Emperor's appointed men lead it to later be known as the Corezo Uprising. The Consul was killed by poison in 428PW. There are some Corezan scholars who claim this event was the beginning of the Corezan love for poison and subterfuge.
The Emperor restored order to Corezo in 423PW. The leaders of the revolt were executed, though members of the families lead an impassioned debate within the Empire's council. It is claimed that the proceedings there took one moonspan and a fortnight, though no records indicate the length of the proceedings. What is shown, however, is that at the end of these debates there were three counties named within the borders of the Corezo province: Morua, Belleza and Quijas after the three prominant families. The Emperor then named single members of the families Quaestors over the counties (though locally these positions are known as Ducques), second to the Consul and Proconsul. Unofficially, however, the rank itself became subject to corruption by something of a plutocratic subjugation. However, in time with the Proconsul's appointment being influenced by these three families, the system was able to remain in existence up and until present day.
These families shared power between each other for a few decades, though by 400PW there began to be discord between the counties or, as they are locally called, duchies.
By 200PW the three counties had become significantly hostile towards each other. They disagreed on policy dictated by the Consul and each lobbied the Proconsul for favor within the Empiric Council. All three counties have a hand in the elections of the Proconsul and Consul, as all three struggle to gain power over the others. While outright militaristic aggressiveness is made impossible by the Emperor's decree, the Corezans have since perfected the art of spying and assassination.
