Vyasastan

Vyasastan, officially known as The Commonwealth of Vyasastan, is a continental boreal country located at the southern tip of Samarah covering 392,392 square kilometres. It borders the republic of Luger to the west, the republic of Recaria to the east, and the federation of Bangsalaya to the north, with its’ southern boundary held along the Silver Sea and the Southern Ocean. The nation has a notably large amount of traversable lakes, with Lake Black and Lake Pendrakhn separating the more temperate steppe parishes of the north from primarily subarctic territories in the south. Geographically, Vyasastan is largely forested, predominantly with coniferous larch and pine trees, broken up by strings of plains in the north and swamps and peat bogs in the south, rich in preserved natural mana deposits.

Vyasi culture and civilisation dates back to the migration of settler Sea Peoples from the Southern Oceans, motivated by the fish stocks in the Silver Sea and the natural and thaumaturgical resources of the continental region, mixing with notable populations of nomadic natives already inhabiting Vyasastan. Vyasi settlement was largely split between multiple duchies, princedoms and merchant kingdoms focused on the lucrative Southern Ocean Trade, centred around wood, fish, luxurious furs and bottled mana, with individual cities or guilds forming their own statelets across the largely unpopulated territory. By the late 17th century, the major states had been unified under the Plutocrate of Glashtyn. Syndicalist development in the national psyche followed unification, with the 1795 Enlightenment cemented by the adoption and later amendment of the 1810 Social Charter.

The adoption of Industrialism around 1910 propelled, through demographic boom and an established respect for scientific innovation, Vyasastan into temporary global relevancy as a minor Industrial power in the south. The combined capability in industrial and thaumaturgical prowess during this period, both in agriculture and production led this time to be known as the Vyasi Gilded Age. Political tensions and a growing permissive stagnancy through corruption left Vyasastan straggling globally and soon returning to a “siege mentality” for international politcs throughout the 20th century. However, national mobilisation policies enacted during the early 2000s have led to Vyasastan developing a resurgence in industry, with the redevelopment and reconstruction of past industrial districts of the Gilded Age. The rapid economic growth was coined the Miracle on the Sliver Sea, though not without controversy - with the government coming under criticism due to it’s subversion of political rights and environmental industrialisation practices that directly go against the Vyasi Social Charter.

Vyasastan is currently governed by a one-party Socialist Syndicate by the Vyasi Congress. Based on the uninterrupted despotic rule of Vyasi Sydnics, the elective lifelong head of state of the government, Vyasi Syndicalism is a branch of Authoritarian Socialism in service to the Syndic themselves under the counsel of the electing Syndicate Congress and influence of the Social Charter constitution. —+ +— (OOC: As a setting, Vyasastan takes its key inspirations from 3 major sources: All combined in an effort to create a 1/4th Celtic, 1/4th Chinese, 2/4th Yiddish British Industrial Kleptophilanthropic Social Paternalistic Neon-Brickpunk canal lakeside winter wonderland, with a large focus on its’ history, technology and identity being based in the 18th and 20th century (In OTL Tech-terms, from 1780 to 1900). Additionally, Vyasastan will be serving as a consolidation for many previous underdeveloped, loosely connected, abandoned or thematically similar concepts and settings, notably Instracia, Vulgaria and Woolland - alongside taking inspiration from several public IPs, such as the Vaegirs from the video game series Mount & Blade. Click here to visit a Pinterest-created Image Moodboard themed loosely around Vyasastan.)

History

980-1030

Sourced from Rosamund Bartlett’s ‘Vyasi History 980-1120’, in Dominic Lieven (ed.), A Brief History of the Kammanvelt Volume I: Nationbuilding, 980-1550 (Glashtyn, 2055), p. 94:

Like the tales of many a culture, Vyasi history begins not in recorded texts but in the chronicles of oral mythology, passed down for generations prior to the laying of the first brick of the first Library on the shores of shivering silver sea. It is in this very period - often referred to by the Vyasi as the First Age of Heroes - that we must look to for our first glimpse of the very idea of Vyasastan. As such, this first segment will rely far more on the ancient tales and legends than any sourced historical document; for while erstwhile evidence is touted from many a national historian of the Collages or Patriotic Guilds of Glashtyn, No learned men of credibility on the international stage have found their reliability concrete. And so, we begin our tale not with documentation, but with a story.

In the time before time, and the age before ages, the Silver Sea shook with envy for the land, who’s beauty of snow-clod mountains and bountiful forests outshone the dark and fog-struck depths of the sunless sea. In retaliation for this perceived slight, the sins of envy burst out from under the cover of the black main, and the sea through its bitterness in physical form towards its’ unaware rival, and thus cursed the land with creatures of no holiness, of no beauty - of none but the highest form of malice. Kelpies, twisted forms of horse and rider brought together for the common goal of murder of man, bundles of fog named Minkhs that blanket the coasts to push travelers into the deep - and eat them there, and many more. But none were as feared as the Wyverns, beasts that migrated out the silver sea in winged stride, abandoning their sea-worm identities in the freezing skies above the land. These creatures were built not only on malice, but on greed and many a more sin, and would take to this dry frontier as tyrants. There was not many who settled the carnivorous shores of the Silver - and many less who truly lived on its’ coasts. Those few, who’s misery was already paramount, found themselves a mutiny among their dread, when these tyrants took to their torment with an even greater dedication. The Wyverns took these natives as food, as slaves, as eternal servants; as priests, and some even as unwilling wives. They made themselves chiefs and kings unto their broken populace, with their reverence enshrined in Theology. The Cult of the Wyvern ensured their grim dedication, with each Sea-Beast seen as it’s own walking piece of godhood; with the top of this pantheon claimed by none other but the Lindwyrm, The Drowned God. A Wyvern born of a malice even more ancient, it’s size hidden not even by the tallest mountains, and holding the largest fragment of the Ethereal Plains.

And like this history continued, with the eternal misery cast upon the lands rotting away any beauty in what once was many a resplendent land. And for a while, That which was the Silver Sea looked on in smug satisfaction. This beauty that so carved into it’s heart this irreparable jealousy fell apart piece by piece, as a rowing boat is torn apart on jagged rocks. Yet the nagging of envy did not let up to equality, but to the gnawing realization of its’ own terror. In it’s bid to bring apart it’s own beauty it did not make itself match the sweetness of the forest berries - it did not develop beautiful schools of fish, so colored in their scales like the rainbows of the sky. It did not provide a serenity in a calming coast that could match that of the eternal tundra of the land. It did not build beauty. It had only sown destruction. Was that not it’s original goal? The land was ripped apart, and now in contrast the seas looked the most inviting, even if in truth it could not even begin to match. Yet the victory was still hollow. For the sea was not now beautiful - it was made ugly with sin. in a bout of self-reflection truly rare to the Ancients, the Silver Sea found itself enshrouded in grim realization at what it had caused. Instead of beautiful gifts it had sent that beauty to the crypts, with no chance at retribution. No chance, at least, on it’s lonesome. For so strong was the power of malice on land that no personification of grief, of redemption could even come close to freeing the land from it’s eternal grave.

Instead, it crafted not with the powers of the Ancients alone. It did not build on raw emotion to free those entombed in raw emotion. It built on hope, on glory, on redemption of course - but it built anew. It looked westward.

From the west of the Silver Sea, in the deep black main that not even its’ Silver could compare to, were storms not even the Lindwyrm could survive. Seas of ghosts, of souls, of power unimaginable - not only of the dead, but the powers of the living. And from there would it take its’ new building blocks. From the storms it grasped power, fury, dedication and determination. From the souls it ripped humanity, ability, luck, prowess. And from the mortal plain it invited vessels to host it’s power - and those who accepted were imbued with it’s very essence. Yet that would not be enough to truly repent. Each vessel, each new Child of the Silver Sea was not only imbued with these combined powers, forged ashore, but christened with one final mark. A single tear from their ocean mother, with it a section of it’s own grief - of it’s own dedication.

On the ‘Eve of liberation, of redemption, the ranks of the Children stood 1000 strong. 1000 folk, brought together willingly from the west, clad in the finest steels and captaining the finest crafts, ready to return the beauty of the land now lost, to wrest truth and reconciliation out of the hands of lashing misery. Mordehai, first of his name, great son of the Seas led the charge of his companions across the Silver Sea, across the gulf, protected from the wrath of it’s waters by the calm embrace of it’s patron, and made their way for the Solphyn coast. All across his companions would land, to bring freedom to the folk, and retribution to the rubble that was the lands’ remains. But Mordehai’s goal was different. For at the Solphyn Coast, staring into the dark embrace of the Silver Sea rose Hehlyng, a grim fortress of blackened stone, scratching bloody murder into the clouds - an affront against the ancient beauty he had come to restore, but not only; for it was the seat of power for the Wyvern Cult alongside. It was the home of the Lindywyrm. And to truly bring about redemption, it was this beast that needed slaying.

With 370 at his back was the coast of the Hehlyng stormed, man ‘gainst Wyvern, with blades of ancient silver steel piercing the hearts of timeless names manifested in the winged abominations - and forever destroyed from History. The battle would be legendary, with the Retributors casting themselves ferociously against the Hehlyng like the waves of a storm.

The battle was one of glory surrounded by terrible loss - for each Sea-Wyrm struck down, 10 would give their eternal souls. Yet so went the battle that as the moon rose above the twisted tower, Mordehai and his most loyal retainers had clambered to the very final levels of the Hehlyng - to face the Lindwyrm.

That which took place within the Hehlyng on that day is of a scale visible to those who even eclipse the ancients. A true tale of hope against destruction, the battle would form it’s very own legend. The Hehlyng itself would be brought down and swallowed by the sea during the course, as even the waves found themselves a belligerent in this epic. Sunken back towards ground, the Retributors would face the Lindwyrm in the open airs, it’s awful wings beating with the sound of death itself. The Kelpies, who had fought against the Companions, would find themselves enamored with their righteous cause, and turn coat against their enslaving sky masters, serving as steeds for the final charge against the Drowned God.

As the deed was done, the great beast - the Drowned God, would be slain. For the 370 that embarked upon the capital of terror, only 20 would remain. Amongst them would not be Mordehai, however. For his spear, named Dawnbringer, and his steed, the Kelpie named Prince, would along with him forever be lodged in the heart of the Lindwyrm, swallowed whole by its - and the seas - eternal maw.

The battle would rage on for over a decade in the calendar of the ancients, with the Wyverns brought first to heel and then to Hell with their extinction. Their slaves, driven mad by their curse, would fight for their tyrant masters, and with great grief would be driven out of the coasts. Ancient beasts of terror would either be exterminated or brought to bent knee to swear fealty to the new peace of the Silver Sea, as the beauty of the land would once again be brought back. For their conquests, the Retributors would be handed the claim over the coasts, to found their own cities and kingdoms upon the shattered remains of the ancient Wyvern Cult. On the ruins of the Hehlyng, upon the Solphyn Coast would the First monument rise, and around it the first city - yet across the entire territory, now blessed with the peace and protection of both the land and the sea, would clans of glory establish their own states. It is from here that the Vyasi originate, the heirs of the Companions, of the Retributors - the far descendants of the Children of the Silver Sea, beacons of Peace and Redemption - for better or worse. … Of course, such illustrious chronicle seeps of naught but superstition and tall tales; as does the founding myth of all the peoples of Samarah. And just as, such little evidence remains that these events cannot be separated from fiction - but they would not be made within this History if they could so easily be separated from truth, too.

While not as magnanimous, migration records do indeed suggest the original occupation of the lands that make up Vyasastan was from the north - although their racial makeup was unknown. Be they human, elf, dwarf or descendant of humanoid now left extinct, there is archaeological evidence for these “natives” - just as there is evidence for the potential of the mentioned ancient creatures, with bone records of Wyverns possibly being discovered in Pehl as early as the 1760s, and sightings of “kelpies” continuing to even to the present.

Equally so, there is record of a secondary migration from the west, across the Silver Sea; although, of course, the status of these settlers as “Children of an ancient godthing that took the shape, lived in or was the Silver Sea” is of debate. What is certain, however, is that settlers came from the north, established some basis of civilization - and were later met by settlers from the west, whom conquered, became assimilated or absorbed the natives themselves across the early Vyasi lands, and would spark the beginning of Vyasi history. What is of interesting note, however, is that while these unnamed natives - these legendary “servants of the Wyvern Cult” lacked the written word or paper, they did leave behind a small handful of structures, particularly in the north west of the country. Amongst these key archaeological sites were, during their study, found Runestones, with clear symbols of seeming relation in at least context to what would become the alphabets of the Central Samarah States. While translation of these materials is limited to say the least, with their contents still best seen as speculation if not often as complete fabrication, there is reference to “Sea Peoples”, invading without warning.

What is of most note, however, is that in the one Runestone found discussing this arrival, the term “human” is never used. While it can easily be assumed that these natives, if they were not human themselves, would simply not have this word in their vocabulary, it could just as easily point to a more exotic background in the Vyasi - for in it’s place is used the symbol, when translated into Vyasi, “Selkie” - or, more commonly - Sea-elf.

1030-15050

Woah, Nation Building!

1550-1775

Woah. Conquering!

1775-1835

Woah. Enlightenment!

1835-1925

Woah. Industrialisation!

1925-1990

Woah. Political Upheaval!

1990-2020

Woah. Not thought about this at all!

2020-2069

Woah. The Funny Sex Number!

Government

National Ideology

Vyasi Syndicalism has been the prevailing method of state government and arrangement since 1045. Influenced by the environmental requirements of the tundra and traditional monarchy from neighbouring societies, Syndicalism espouses authoritarian governance from a trusted, elected party on behalf of the reigning estates. Historically, this has manifested as a system not dissimilar to an elective monarchy; with the Syndic elected for life by the state Syndicate, a board of counsellors, petty nobles and syndicalist advisors.

Modern Syndicalism finds its direct roots from the Syndicate of the Glashtyn Plutocrate, wherein memebers of the Syndicate found alignment through an individuals taxable income; with the syndicate being made up of traders, lords of high development and the consorts of the ruling Syndic. This theoretically ensured strict governance of the state in relation to the production and wealth of its people, prioritizing the incomes of the landed estates. Election of the Syndic themselves was done by the members of the Veche, the most trusted and key advisors of the total syndicate - as syndicate referred to the entire method of governance including Syndic and personal retainers.

A major alteration to this method of rule was through the adoption of the Social Charter in 1810. Anonymously and collaboratively written in 1805, the charter called for representation in the syndicate to be extended to the average citizenry, alongside the adoption of free and anonymous elections, positions on the syndicate to be paid, and the establishment of constitutional powers in place of the complete control of the Syndic. Importantly, this was not adopted - but the second iteration of the Social Charter, penned with influence from the first by Magister Integra in 1809, was.

The reformed Syndicate espoused the will and motivations of the people; extending the election of members of the Syndicate to local career politicians of any income to represent their local area, and putting strict controls on the passage of new laws regarding agricultural import, wages and health reform. However, this did not affect the position of Syndic, who remained and remains the key head of state in the passage of laws and maintaining diplomacy.

Modern Syndicalism is orchestrated by the Grand National Consolidated Syndicate Congress, or SyndktKngrs for short. Split into the upper house, the traditional Veche Syndicate of the Congress that provides direct counsel and advice to the Syndic, and is home to the government Magisters and Ministers that form the ruling government, appointed by the Syndic through either recommendation by the lower house, the Chief Magister or the Syndics personal choice. The General Syndicate houses the people’s representatives to discuss, submit amendments and bring forth local issues of the Vyasi constituencies. Seats are assigned via population representation, with more representatives from more populated powers. Alongside this, 10 seats are reserved for the leaders of the various amalgamated workers Unions of Vyasastan, elected within the union itself, 2 seats reserved for key Eudemonists of Stoicism and one seat reserved for the Syndic themselves, in tradition forever abstaining as they take control of the government itself.

Elected officials of the General Syndicate or the politicians of the Veche must, as all other Vyasi citizens, pass the the Political National Aptitude Test, but must similarly have an approved Syndicalist education and pass the PNAT-Extended test to qualify for election and government representation. This is to ensure Syndicate officials have the socialist ideology of the people in mind when elected, and ensures representation of the true will of the people in the despotic system without chance for subversive ideologies to find voice in the Syndicate. This has been criticised by international states concerned with democracy as forcibly implementing a one party system in an already authoritarian government, however such criticism has often been rebuked in Vyasastan as such testing ensures only the most qualified to know what is best for the people can lead.

Military

Kaganovich would be proud!

Notable laws and governmental matters

There is no complete universal suffrage. Individuals of any nature may vote, but only if their character is deemed cultured to respectable Vyasi working class values, which is determined by participation and membership in their local parish Political Club and successful passing of a Political National Aptitude Test.

Squatting as an act is illegal, however due to an amendment in the description of criminal activities passed in [TIME IS NOT REAL], Criminals must be found to have a “sufficient deficiency of morality” or “The knowledgeable malice of knowing their actions may cause criminal distress” as a Mens Rea. As established in precedent through the case Natanael v Parish of Pehl (1982), as a squatter can be deemed to not be causing any moral crime and only either acting on human instincts of desiring shelter and freedom, and not causing any harm if the building is unoccupied or not in use, all charges of squatting can be dropped. This does not prevent associated crimes, like unemployment, however.

Culture

Phalansteries

The Phalanstery is one of the most common and unique pieces of architecture unique to Vyasastan. Thought to have been invented somewhere in the early 1910s, by 1930 the novel form of social housing based equally around Utopian commune and ecological principles would rapidly become commonplace throughout the nation; greatly influencing city urbanization and almost replacing the concept of rural villages in the countryside. The traditional Phalanstery took the form of a self-contained, enclosed brick building in the shape of a multi-storied rectangle with a central glass-roofed courtyard plaza for community socialization and activities, with 3 dedicated housing wings holding family-sized apartments accessible through the central courtyard. The entrance wing, holding the street access into the Phalanstery, often holds community service stations, such as a laundromat, religious accommodation, and properties for co-operative establishments.

Phalansteries have 3 main architectural objectives:

As each Phalanstery would have only one or two entrances to the outside with access to the interior shops and apartments restricted to being exclusively through the interior plaza - while still having windows to the outside - would mean any infantry force would be required to clear each Phalanstery from the inside.

The invention of the Snowburn Engine in 1920, a mana-powered centralized heating engine only further boosted the popularity of Phalanstery construction, as it further incentivized architects and contractors to simply re-use the industrial-scale Snowburn Engines used in factories to power the 56 apartments of a Phalanstery rather than investing in smaller and more expensive single-unit Engines. Coupled with the invention of the Maxmillian Brickbenter in 1939 and the following Brick Boom in architecture that saw factories, government buildings boom in brick construction - Phalansteries became increasingly commonplace across the nation, though not always to the same quality. Many Phalansteries constructed for the housing of industrial factory workers or in the impoverished parishes of cities would suffer greatly from lack of maintenance leading to mildew or fungal growths, damages to the brickwork or glasswork that would let the interior heat escape - not mentioning the inherent issues of privacy when thinly constructed and the cramped conditions for larger families. Nevertheless, Phalansteries are still seen as a national icon and more often than not thought about fondly, and to this day serve as the primary source of housing available in Vyasastan.

Khloroflesh

Khloroflesh, more commonly Chloroflesh, is s mana-induced condition in which flora and general plant material begins developing on the body of a living being, most notably affecting mammals and amphibians. Once considered a strictly negative - if not debilitating - condition that could potentially cause minor epidermal damage through the growth of thorns and hardened plant matter throughout the limbs, or in rarer and more pressing cases piercing even through internal organs- that was an identifying mark of the poor and idle. “Those whom do not work and do not provide are grown over in time as an unmoving rock is with moss” would be the christening tenant spouted at those imbued with Khloroflesh, and avoided as if a true plague.

Beginning in the industrial revolution, with the invention of easy if painful cures and the growth of a middle class, Chloroflesh began to be seen in a far more positive light being used as a form of body modification and expressionism amongst both the intellectual and working classes, with people often nurturing small rose coils around their arms, flowering crown-bracelets, or even the practice of growing thin veins down their arms becoming increasing common. Proper maintenance is of course required.

While beginning as a rare, somewhat taboo and incredibly expressionist piece of body modification, in the march of time Chloroflesh tattoos and piercing found not only more common understanding and appreciation in the public eye, but even found some degree of practical usage. Oakflesh, a symptom of Chloroflesh in which the afflicted limbs develop rash-like protrusions that, if nourished, take on the physical and chemical form of tree bark, would come to be particularly sought out by those in working class, industrial professions. Where more green-based afflictions could suffer burns, damages and death in more taxing environments like cotton mills, Oakflesh brought the benefit of not only providing a piece of bodily expression that could be kept through the work day (and even carved with intricate patterns, meaningful symbolism or even simple notes with minimal pain) but being particularly useful in such environments - where bare flesh would scar, cut, or burn, “Oakflesh Gauntlets” could push forward with minimal pain or meaningful damage, and would reportedly give the afflicted “the strength of the ancient trees” to further work.

Outside of Vyasastan, opinion to Chloroflesh remains mainly negative, often being seen mostly as a strange southern disease, or in some cases, as agricultural heresy.

Cult of Productivity

You remember that SCP that made people use their heads as hammers?

Lanpochshtel

Each Parish is legally obligated to operate a branch of the national post and telegraph union, known more commonly as the Lanpochshtel, theoretically managed and overseen by the National Board of the Lanpochshtel in Glashtyn as a total national monopoly. This was originally designed to maintain and complete and constant penny post service across the entire nation, however due to the power of the Parish postal unions upon their creations, many of these services tend to operate as their own individual units. Competition may be realistically non-existent due to the fact each branch of the Lanpochshtel has its jurisdiction limited to the parish it was created in, but individual unions can compete within the nationalized services on funding and - when parishes are redrawn - for extensions in jurisdiction.

The Lanpochshtel, rather uncharacteristically for Vyasastan, is one of the very few services across the country that works strangely well. Almost too well. When pooling resources together, such as when packages or telegrams being moved are property of the government, industry, or massive companies that cross parish lines, goods can get from one end of Vyasastan to the other with unexpected efficiency. This has, unfortunately, led to the Lanpochshtel receiving more and more international focus - and has recently began bidding on small postal services and routes in other nations. The success of these ventures, as of now, are currently unknown. Though successful on the large scale for mass industry, consumer packages and goods tend to operate at the razor-thin margin of standard service, with efficiency lowered due to inter-parish paperwork for parcels and messages. While the rise of digital media and messaging has seen the Lanpochshtel diminish in service across the nation due to the 3D Printing of messages or simple emails, the fact the Lanpochshtel is directly funded by the government and still heavily required for the travel and transport of large scale goods has largely meant it did not suffer as much as privatized post services across the continent - only further increasing its unnerving and nationalized lead in the industry of the post.

Non-Human Populations in Vyasastan

Vyasastan’s majority population could, by some (mainly supremacist) metrics, be by itself considered non-human. At the very least ab-human, Vyasi humans have greater cold acclimation adaptions, with higher skin and internal temperatures prompting greater metabolic adaptation, expanding on natural insulation and generally expanded blood vessels. Thought to have been either due to intermixing with the local races of the far south or due to predisposed characteristics of the proto-Vyasi populations that notably, rather than the standard human pathway through Bangsalaya, arrived in Vyasastan through the Silver Sea. This allows for greater settlement in the far south, unlike the neighbouring humanoid populations of Recaria and Luger forced into more continental habitats. The mutations experienced by the Vyasi are enough to warrant difference from standard southern human varieties, but is usually not enough to claim them as non-human.

Vyasastan is also home to many completely non-human populations, though all maintain some degree of humanoid characteristics. Broadly covered in various categories of “Otherfolk” in national censuses, Otherfolk represent the combined half human half non-human descendants of many of the indigenous populations of Vyasastan. By order of current population, this includes half-Estries, descendant from the long-eared Estries of the old south, Vaserni, piscine blue-hued humanoids and of course, Lyashti. Most commonly referred to on the Internet as the famed “cat people” or less affectionately as the “cat girls”, the large-bodied Lyashti inhabit much of the south and southeast of Vyasastan, and are, most unfortunately for the majority of tourists willing to trek all the way out here, far larger in stature than expected by most travellers- unless that is what is desired.

There exists also a small but incredibly notable population of Dwarfs in Vyasastan. While not “native” to the country, the history of Dwarf settlement and migration into the Silver Sea is long documented, being largely integrated into common Vyasi society. Some esoteric historians believe the majority of Vyasastan was owned by an ancient pre-historical Dwarven civilization that was greatly displaced by the coming of the Vyasi from the Silver Sea in the 800s, but this, largely, remains unfounded.

Agriculture

he Vyasi may be strangely well adapted to their umbral environment, but the rest of standard human civilization hasn’t been keen on following them into their icy, tundra-laden grave. Thus, many of their standard practices, even in this modern, industrialized age, differ greatly from their neighbouring cousins - not least of which is the field of agriculture. Little grows in the permafrost, and even less of that is edible.

Fishing

Early Vyasi societies conspired primarily in small huddles around fishing villages, living exclusively of the Silver Sea and its’ Piscine Bounty. While with sprawling cities, factories, and industrial food practices very little are left to such a meager existence, Fishing is still a primary staple of the average folk, from commercial fishing across the carved out lakes and seas of Vyasastan to industrial fish-farming to every level in-between.

Algaculture

Lacking a primary food crop does not mean Vyasastan lacks crop farming. Instead, the cultivated diet of the Vyasi consists mainly of rugged flora that, where discarded by other cultures, has been viciously selectively shifted into a nutrient source by the tenacious (or spiteful to their environment, depending on who you ask) Vyasi throughout history. One of the most prevalent of these alternate methods is a reliance on Algae and water plants. being able to live and thrive even in frozen over bodies of water, some species even experiencing heightened productivity on the underside of ice. While already a beacon of plant productivity in the relatively barren wastes of the tundra bioregion, when introduced to human cultivation, with nitrogen and phosphorous fertilization and selective breeding, Algaculture equals agriculture even in the most fertile of black soils. The Kelp Fields of Lake Pendrakhyn have even become a minor tourist attraction, to the minor annoyance of their farmers. Goes well with salted meats and fish.

Razormoss

The saying may be that the Vyasi descend from the sea, but that doesn’t mean they eschew the land they live on. While the tundra has naught but a lukewarm response to plants, with only low-lying shrubland being all that is available once one leaves the taiga forests of Vyasastan, it would be strange if there wasn’t a Vyasi crop which went against nature in spite and thrived. Most common of these, and the most important of such domesticated plants, is Razormoss.

Mezermokh in Vyasi, Razormoss is a genus of tundra mosses commonly found growing across the majority of Vyasastan, including he Kaltshetekh - the most frigid south. Taking the appearance of a large, green blanket, it is most suitable to absorbing the nutrients of the wet soil of the tundra, covering soil and stone alike. What makes Razormoss most distinct, however, is the almost anomalous nature of its’ rhizoids - the anchoring semi-roots of most moss species. While rhizoids are naturally strong in order to cling on to harsh surfaces, Razormoss rhizoids display an unparalleled strength sharpness and, most concerning, dogged determination.

What stops the majority of rooted and large plants from growing in the tundra is the thick layer of permafrost under the topsoil, unavailable for plants to dig through. Thus, plants that require large rootspace and the nutrients such roots would provide simply do not survive. This is not an issue for Razormoss. Through a process described as “natural drilling” or “a physical form of erosion” known as plant-shattering, razormoss rhizoids manage to, in time, break through the permafrost - and keep going. This not only allows for the moss to grow to an exponential size, but allows it to tap into the trapped resources and nutrients of the permafrost - and even to frozen reservoirs of mana. This plant shattering displaces the permafrost and allows for the soil to rest, allowing for larger plants to follow suit once the frost is cleared. The roots reportedly taste strangely of beef jerky.

Glensarn Herding

The tundra and taiga are home to a wild flurry of animals both small and large, ferocious and docile, fearful and stubborn. Many of them have roots in magical beasts, their status as monsters dissipated through nature. Glensarnel stand somewhere at the crossroads of all these categories. Of relation to the more common species of deer, reindeer, elk and moose from across Samarah, yet resembling more the ancient Ice-Age remnants of such a genus than any commonly alive ancestors, as if by some force the very ancestors were brought back to graze once more. Largely passive herbivores, yet highly stubborn and known to become aggressive even to predators double their strength. Growing sizable and expansive tusks rather than antlers, they are the stars of many an ancient and mystical Vyasi tale, and equally the stars of their dinnerplates.

Glensarn herding and ranching is a key component of Vyasi agriculture due to their many, many uses. With heavy, warm fur they provide the base material for many an authentic Vyasi coat - their extended and strong bones going from the building blocks of ancient Vyasi bone tools to still even now respected ornaments - and most importantly, their meat, which soothes hunger across the Commonwealth. The peacefully belligerent nature of Glensarnel prevent any meaningful efforts to fatten up a Glensarn for selective breeding, ensuring the meat retains a solid, muscly texture, but this has largely been accepted as a staple of the Vyasi diet; not to mention the cost reduction in defending such a herd when they remain fit enough to kill of their own volition, and the fact they make for excellent pack and farmhand animals - though aren’t recommended to be ridden. The fauna of Vyasastan has faced hunts galore for their meat and furs, and the Glensarnel has seen this more than any other species in these ancient frozen woods. Industrial herding and ranching practices have only made such a fate even worse in modern times. Yet they remain a well-respected beast of shared burden in the eternal tundra, and are rarely mocked - especially if their mythological explanations ring true.

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