Kumaur

Kumaur (formerly known as Kumuur) is a city on the largest of the islands located in the strait that separates South-Western Sparwood and Western Cymru. The town was founded on the 12 of February 2021.

It is currently part of the Province of Silvay (though it rarely accepts the oversight or ruling of the Hanzerounen) within the Autokratoria of Sirradra. It is one of two Siradrii towns in Sparwood, the other being Kairos, which lies within the county of Kemria, and thus also under same jurisdiction. It is the first frontier into the northern continent, and falls along the border of Eisenland, Aezenfjord, and Tortuga.

The city (and surrounding county of Kemria) is ruled by Llyre es vel Volaerys, the Prime Minister of Sirradra.

Demonym: Kumaura (from Kumaur, or culturally Kumaura), or Kemrian (from Kemria County or culturally Kemrian)

Founding and Past
Founded by Breton Aerouant and Deltafox on February 12, 2021, Kumaur was originally settled (unknowingly) on land that belonged to the the VIR successor state of Aezenfjord. After negotiations with SirMisterPanda, the owner of the land, the city was granted independence to become the city state of Kumuur (a bastardisation of the Kemrian "Golden City"). Kumuur rapidly began to expand, attracting members form the wave of fourth generation new players. It proclaimed itself to be a Pirate-Republic turned mercantile city state. It is also during this period that ties with the growing Viodoxa where established and began to deepen. This would be followed by an expantion of the rest of the Crescent Islands. The political structure of the town now also began to solidify, with trusted members and a monarch coming to a decision together. It is this very system that would lead Kummur to make the most crucial choice in its short existence, joining the rising nation of Viodoxa.

This decision however, occurred at a sour time as a prior misunderstanding would lead to Azenfjord seeing the prior statement that the settlement was mistakenly placed on their land as disingenuous and revoking the land claims of Kumuur, threatening them with a mass migration to the northern Falkheim-Concord territory of Cymru. This would see representatives from all three cities, notably Valen McSpeigel, Valerie Hirshy, and SirMrPanda deliberating on the future of Kumuur. The conflict was resolved with the Kumuur Accords, setting an alliance that allowed Kumuur to join Viodoxa and had deeper ramifications in forging an alliance between the VIR successor states of Viodoxa and Aezenfjord.

Kumuur had also been undergoing a boom in population with the both the city's player count and area rapidly increasing. The trade with mainland Viodoxa would lead to the creation of the Viodoxan name, Kamarum, also being adopted as one of the region's many names. This period was also seeing a religious reawakening in the city, with it's citizens coming to the realisation that the island itself was cursed, allowing for several cults to spring up in the growing paranoia surrounding it.

After Viodoxa collapsed in Late October 2021, Silvay was recognised as independant, soon joining the Seratovian State with Kumuur as a county within the region. Many of the records of this time are lost, though it is known that Breton left the town in the hands of Augustine Salvay.

Imperial Archonal Union
By the time of the Second Purple Insurrection (also known as Loic's War, The March of the Exiles, and the Viodoxan War) at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022, Kumaur was still struggling to hang on, with only several dedicated residents as the curse and the ocean slowly consumed the town. While untouched, by the end of the war, the city had more or less died, with many citizens falling victim to the cursed land, killed in the battles, or simply leaving for other areas.

The better part of two decades passed and Augustine, the Count of Kumaur was growing old, and in his will passed the city on to Llyre es vel Volaerys, one of the young ministers of the Union who had taken office under Loic's administration. It is unclear if he made that choice genuinely or due to his mind being addled, but regardless he died shortly afterwards, and his son (and heir) William also died soon therafter, marking the end of old Kemrian culture. By this time the city was a ghost town and in more or less ruins, but Llyre (and his friend Ryan vom Dirkson) came to the city with the intent to rebuild it. Unfortunately, due to the concurrent events of the Eisenlandian Reunification, Ryan committed suicide on the island and Llyre, unable to cope with the situation, returned to mainland Cymru. It was around this time that a meteor partially destroyed the lighthouse in the southern harbour, and another impacted the southeastern end of the island.

Autorkratoria of Sirradra
Follwoing the Viesten Coup, Llyre once again returned to Kumaur, stationed along the Eisenlandian and Tortugan borders. While some pirates were permitted to enter the city, Eisenlandian citizens were barred from the island under threat of violence. During this time, Llyre and his newphew Reyan Bakura began renovations of the city, tearing down crumbling houses and rebuilding parts of the canal system in order to at least attempt to restore a sense of safety and life into the ruins.

Several years later, Ravennn von Technostatos, a former Eisenlandian politician, defected from the nation and was allowed to join Kumaur despite tensions in the region. Eisenlandian citizens are still not permitted on the island despite peace being signed, nor are Sirradrii citizens without special dispensations from the government, as well as proper protective equiptment. Visitors are frowned upon, though some Tortugan captains still brave the dangerous waters around Kumaur to resupply at their ports. Currently, the city is still undergoing massive renovations and reconstruction.

About The Island
[Under Construction]

Overview
While originally a mercantile state, Kumaur's culture has diverged rapidly from the time of the Second Archonate to the modern day Sirradra. Kemrian culture is completely extinct following the collapse of the 3rd Archonate, being replaced with Kumarura culture. Kumaura is a more melting pot of culture, with Eisenlandian, Silvish, Kartek, and Tovarishan influence, straying far from the original culture of the region.

There is no particular prevalence of any races in Kumuar, though the city is best suited for more robust species capable of surving the brutal environment. Particularly suited are infernal races like demons and devils, undead, and constructs.

People
The people of Kumaur are hardy, to say the least. They continue to survive and scrape by every day despite the extremely high mortality rate (between 20-40% by most estimates, depending on the year) of the region, mostly from accidents related to the dilapidated city, the toxic air, drowning, or by going insane. Despite this, the average resident of Kumaur, is as a general statement, fairly satisfied with their life, and few people who come to the city choose to leave.

It is a common attitude to be extremely grim and fatalistic, and the humour of the people of modern-day Kumaur is most often described as "uncomfortable" and "dry", and mostl;y seems to be gallows humour. Celebration is a rare occurance and usually only reserved for a marriage, victory, or the coming of age of a healthy child. When celebrations do happen, they are spirited affairs with plenty of alcohol, food, and occasionally, ritualised combat.

In their day to day lives, beyond the relatively gloomy attitudes, the people of Kumaur are extremely hardworking and utilitarian. The city is the heart of the Information Ministry's propaganda department, as well as one of the core centers of the Sirradrii military's equiptment depot and production centers. Almost every resource Kumaur has to offer has been stripped to the bare minimum to survive, with all excess sent to the Autokratoria.

While Kumaur provides no combat units (at most providing between 1-2 fireteams), it does front a surprisingly large amount of gear and money to the military for its small population. Kumaura soldiers also are effective engineers, quickly digging large trenches during wartime or in preparation for attacks, as well as tunnels and saps. The general attitude of Kumuara towards war is that it is necessary and it is honourable to serve, either by prodoucing weapons and gear, fighting on the frontline, fortifying defenses, or infiltrating and disrupting the enemy.

The family unit is extremely important to Kumaura. Since infant mortality is fairly high, children are rarely given names until they are around 3-5 years old and are suitably healthy, as a method of preventing unnecessary attachment in case of death. Despite this attitude, family units are quite close knit and are seen as the backbone of the city. Due to the general necessity of wearing a rebreather system, the masks have become part of Kumaura identity, and thus most people only remove them around close friends or family.

Clothing
Due to the cold (and often stormy) weather of the island, residents in Kumaur tend to wear heavier clothes, as well as hats, gloves, and boots. Common day to day wear for a Kumauran citizen would include their base layers (often linen or cotton imported from mainland Sirradra or Kairos as well as woolen socks), a second layer (often wool), a heavy woolen sweater, wool or gabardine trousers, a gaberdine or wool overcoat, heavy boots (often accompanied by leg wraps), woolen hat, and gloves. Most clothes are dark in colour, with grey, black, navy, olive, and dark brown as the most common, though occasionally sweaters will be off-white from undyed wool. Occassional detailing on clothing will be done with colours, usually green or red.

During wartime, Kumaura combat uniforms tend to be faded olive drab, but more often than not will be cobbled together from scavenged gear. Since Kumaura are rarely combat troops and tend to favour being engineers when on the field, they wear less armour compared to other units, as it is seen as preferable to ensure that forward deployed units are geared as compared to those behind the front line. Due to the cumbersome nature of the gas masks worn in Kumaur, Kumaura troops will usually forgo their rebreathing system in favour of goggles and cloth covering the lower face and mouth for periods of time while on campaign or while in battle unless chemical weapons have been deployed. Uniforms also depend on the theater of war, and adjusted accordingly. All soldiers wear armbands displaying their unit insignia.

Dress uniforms are composed of a long, asymmetrical dark blue-grey coat with brass buttons and a red lining, secured with a dark brown belt carrying a brass belt buckle embossed with the Sirradrii bull. Pants are in the same colour as the coat and tucked into tall, laced leather boots matching the belt. The uniform is accompanied by gold epulets (uncommon), an armband displaying their unit insignia or the Sirradrii flag, a peaked cap in the Eisenlandian style, leather gloves, and aiguillettes denoting campaigns participated in. Medals are not worn, and seen as unnecessary waste of materials, as bravery is expected and commonplace, therefore Kumaura troops are not recognised with special rewards.

The most distinctive part of a Kumaura appearance is the rebreather systems almost every citizen wears. Due to the toxic nature of the air in Kumaur, all residents and visitors must wear respiratory protection, most commonly gas masks, rebreathers, or full sealed suits. The only exception to this rule are inorganics such as golems or constructs, or the undead. Despite this, all residents tend to prefer to cover the face regardless.

Language
The daily language of Kumaur is the Kumaura dialect, which is a combination of Silvish and Eisendel, as well as taking loan words from Valroni, Hanzeizh, and the Ryoujing dialect of SIlvish. Most residents of the region are fluent in Traveller's Tongue, Silvish, Eisendel, and Hanzeizh. When speaking Traveller's Tongue, many people have a distinctive Eisenlandian accent.

Due to the prevalance of industrial noise as well as masks and rebreather systems that may muffle speech or prevent effective communication, many people in Kumaur are also fluent in a form of rudimentary sign language originating from military hand signals adapted to civilian life.

Food
Kumaura food is almost alwasy hot, unless travelling. Most dishes are extremely rich, heavy, and (frequently) spicy. Red meat is a luxury, but potatoes are common, as well as seafood (particularly fish and seabirds). Some of the only crops that manage to grow on the island are wheat, potatoes, and sunflowers, and all are prevalent in the foods of the region. Bread is baked in most homes, and is present in most meals, as well as rations provided by the region.

Alcohol is commonly brewed in Kumaura homes as well, most commonly lighter alcohols like beer, mead, and ale. These are often drunk with meals, as it is seen as safer than water in the region.

Entertainment
While Kumaur is a relatively serious city, the people do have leisure time and often enjoy their evenings with family, board games, gambling, music, and some sports.

Children often play games similar to those from Ryoujing, such as fede-zhi, in which players attempt to keep a weighted bundle of bells, feathers, and other small trinkets in the air without the use of their hands, as well as hafuqiu, where the bundle is replaced by a ball made of stitched and quilted fabric, filled with scraps of fabric surrounding a bell and is used to play a sort of handball-like game. Some hafu balls are so elaborately decorated they cannot be used in game and are more of a display of sewing and embroidery skill. Tag is common, but hide-and-seek is highly discouraged due to the dangerous environment of Kumaur. Children are often encouraged to play outside during times of nice weather, as it is fairly rare. Toys are often carved from whalebone or treated wood.

Most board games are 1 on 1, most popularly games such as Weigoqi, where two players attempt to surround eachothers pieces on a 19x19 board, Cine (played often on the weigoqi board) in which the players attempt to control as much of the board as possible based on dice throws and strategy, and other competitive strategy games. Chess and checkers are also popular, though not as common.

Other time-passing common hobbies are knitting, scrimshaw and woodworking, needlework and embroidery, falconry, and fishing.

Kumaura music rarely involves more than a few instruments, those usually being stringed instruments in the lute family such as pipa and oud or bowed string instruments in the huqin family. Kumaura music tends to be similar to Kartek music, and on occasion can feature Gertek horse-head fiddles, though the instruments are rare in the southern reaches of Sparwood. Other instruments found in Kumaura music include rosined-wheel instruments like the ninera and relia, the concertina, toha (particularly popular due to the ability to be played by two people), hammered dulcimers, glass armonica, yabahar, and zither-family instruments. Improvised percussion such as clapping, stomping, hand drumming, and spoons are also often present. Of particular notice is the lack of instruments such as horns, flutes, and woodwinds. Due to the presence of respiratory protection as a mainstay of Kumaura life, these, as well as singing, is rare in their music, and often seen as strange. Any music with vocal accompaniment is reserved for marching songs, shanties (from Tortugan influence) or hymns.

Architecture
Homes and buildings in Kumaur are built in a similar style to those in Ryoujing, though much less colourful. Homes are primarily constructed from deepslate, blackstone, bone, and spruce wood, though the air can slowly corrode untreated wood. All homes are able to be sealed completely from the outside in order to filter the air, allowing people to remain at home with no rebreather system. These systems are constructed by redstone mechanics and powered by the lightning rods that sit on every home to collect the energy from the frequent storms in the area. Underground construction is fairly common as well, and there are several large windmills planned for construction on the island in order to harness the high wind prevalent in certain regions of the island.