Approved The Unified Kingdom of Alkamar and Miklar

[Dusk Rainblade]

The Unified Kingdom of Alkamar and Miklar, more commonly known as Alkamar (though referred to on most official documents with the abbreviation UKAM), is a large island kingdom located to the east of the Vulpine Imperium, some distance beyond the East Tookumberry Keys and the island chain known as Valles Mensa. While the Vulpine Imperium is historically fox-dominated, Alkamar is mustelid-dominant, largely stoats, ferrets, weasels, and pine martens. Stoats and pine martens are mostly found in the western region of Miklar, and ferrets and weasels in the eastern region of Alkamar, though many centuries of migration and intermarriage have led to an ethnically mixed population.

Historically Miklar and Alkamar were separate nations, only united through prolonged warfare and held together by various power-sharing arrangements. Miklar, swept by powerful winds and storms buffeted off the Mahsterious Sahthern Cahntinent, developed a hardy, self-reliant culture, with various thanes acting as local lords and choosing a king from among their number to rule with the advice and consent of the Court of Thanes. Alkamar, shielded from the storms by the mountain ranges and from invasion by tall ocean cliffs, developed a sophisticated agrarian culture ruled over by a hereditary king and a bicameral council of dons, wealthy landowners who bought a position on the minor council with recurring gifts of tribute to the crown. Both nations developed deeply complex cultures, with Miklarian art centered on finely detailed weapons, armor, and ships, while Alkmarian art centered mostly on architecture and painting, especially frescoes. Both even had separate dialects of what is now termed the Alkamarian language, even giving different names to the mountain range bifurcating the island; while the Miklarians call it the Oldein Mountains, the Alkamarians call it the Perutian Mountains, a distinction only rectified today by cartographers who award these titles to the western and eastern sides of the mountain range respectively.

With the unification of the two nations, power shifted variously between the office of the king (and later emperor), the Miklarian thanes, and wealthy dons from both Miklar and Alkamar as circumstances demanded changes to the structure of the government. The current government structure, crafted in 1755 following a renewed period of Miklarian separatist sentiment, has revived the bicameral structure of the old Kingdom of Alkamar, applying the model to both Miklar and Alkamar. The Miklarian thanes have been reduced to hereditary nobility, though the king (a title restored to the position in the current structure) is still chosen from among them by the Council of Dons, the upper house of the legislature made up of anyone who can afford the steep annual membership fee paid to the crown. A new lower house of the legislature, the Council of the Public, is made up of representatives chosen by the populace of various towns, cities, and boroughs across the kingdom, though most are landowners of significant-but-still-insufficient wealth to purchase a position in the Council of Dons at such a time. The rise of a private structure of mine and factory ownership has spurred the development of a new class of industrialists, some of whom seek council membership, but many of whom have found value in bankrolling the careers of others in exchange for political favors.

Following a century marked by three bruising wars against the Vulpine Imperium, Alkamar has devoted increased attention to the possibility of a fourth war, and has determined that this war must be fought in Imperial waters and territory, not on their own. To this end Alkamar has devoted significant state resources to encouraging scientific innovation in both the public and private spheres, with the contracting and outsourcing of military development to private entities a common arrangement (and most leaders in those industries, in turn, bankrolling the dons who vote to award those contracts). The explosion of the mining and refining industries has led to an uptick in new military technologies, and intelligence gathered by the Ministry of Misanthropy suggests that Alkamar may be supplying newly-developed and prototype weapons in limited numbers to third parties, such as the Red Fleet, to test on their behalf. In the meantime, build-up of the Alkamarian fleet suggests that a full-scale war with the Imperium is a matter of when, not if. While relations with the Vulpine Imperium remain ostensibly neutral, both countries understand that neither can rely upon the other's goodwill, and so remain locked on course for an inevitable conflict.

 

[Dusk Rainblade]

Alkamarian and Miklarian Culture:

The history of Alkamar and Miklar has been one of slow cultural osmosis, or, from some points of view, domination and eradication. Over the centuries the Alkamarian language, art forms, cultural norms, and musical styles have come to overtake those of Miklar, relegating much of Miklarian culture to museums or to mountain enclaves of bendofapromew, or 'the Proud', Miklarians who insist on preserving the old tongue and old ways, often paired with a burning hatred of Alkamar and an overwhelming desire to see their nation liberated from its control.

The Alkamarian language is flowing and swift, and those from Alkamar proper tend to speak it very cleanly, albeit with a hint of nasality. The accent and dialect spoken in the capital city of Saullac are typically treated as the 'pure', standard version of the language that all others should emulate, though there are many dialects and accents in the plains, rolling hills, and cities and towns throughout Alkamar proper that do not neatly conform to these expectations, and far more throughout Miklar, where remnants of the Miklarian language bleed through in local creoles, though the capital tends to treat this as slang not to be utilized in polite society. Miklarians in particular, due to the vocal patterns of the old Miklarian language, tend to speak both Vulpinsulan and Alkamarian with what is perceived as a lisp, pronouncing the s sound as sh and sh, where it would occur naturally, as ch. Additionally, Miklarians tend to roll the r sound with a bit of a fricative trill (often represented in writing with ř) while Alkamarians do not. (Note: most commonly writers on the VI tend to treat Alkamarian as sounding to the Vulpinsulan ear like French does to the English speaker, to the point of simply using French for Alkamarian dialogue.)

The cultural conceit that has come to dominate Alkamarian politics, culture, and philosophy is that Alkamar is uniquely cultured and refined among peoples and nations, especially compared to the barbaric hordes like the Vulpine Imperium or the old Miklarians. Indeed, the extend to which the Vulpinsula and Miklar has been civilized is often attributed in the Alkamarian mind to their own influence, the light of Alkamarian civilization uplifting other species, peoples, and kingdoms from the darkness of their own savagery. At several points throughout Alkamarian history, most notably in the conquests of Miklar and during the heady expansionism of the Alkamarian Empire, this viewpoint has spurred an imperialist drive to conquer and subjugate other peoples and lands on a mission to 'civilise' the rest of the world. This paternalistic colonialism has, in turn, led to atrocities being enacted against local populations that proved especially recalcitrant in an attempt to break resistance, to limited effect. Former Alkamarian colonies on the Mahsterious Sahthern Cahntinent especially tend to remember Alkamarian rule with hatred and resentment for the massacres and other abuses at the paws of Alkamarian soldiers.