{{tag>eyressia:countries}}
====== Zemoa ======

Mountainous country on the northern coast of the [[Middle Sea]]. It's general inaccessibility gave it some independence from the Elves. It was not entirely free of their influence however, and mostly ensured that independence by sending regular slave caravans north to the Elves in payment.

Around 300 BD, the city state of [[./Zemoa/Krossia]] overthrew its slave master king, and formed an oligarchy of leaders that would eventually become a democracy of sorts. They did not stamp out slavery altogether, but formed a two-tier system of free people and slaves.

Over the next century, this new form of government began to spread to the other city states, and so the flow of slaves to the [[Elves]] was reduced. Being immortal, they were slow to respond, but began to do so towards the end of the first century BD. By this point it was too late, and the priests of [[Ix]] invoked the [[Devastation]].

It was during these centuries that the Zemoans began to study philosophy and engineering, starting to create architecture of their own styles rather than mimicking that of the Elves. Again, their general independence spared them from the worst effects of the Devastation, though their crops failed just as badly as everyone else's. After the Devastation, Zemoa and [[Asokk]] were the only two human cultures where civilisation still flourished.

Zemoan sages invented a new form of magic, based on the ritualistic magics of [[Asokk]], but with the flexibility of natural magic.