Fiction:Freeland City States

"They were people of a peculiar and rare sort: friendly, open to the world, but at the same time, separate from it, and arrogant - arrogant to the point that no man or woman could ever unite all of them, despite them living in a land that was twice smaller than Alhassal and only marginally larger than l'Ammanori. The free men would not stand to bend their knee to anyone - not to one of them, not to one of us Imperial."

- Inquisitor during the Prophet Stone expedition

The Freeland City States, known in Tenhuan as Kani'xat a'havi'x, is the term used by foreigners, and, more rarely, the inhabitants of the States themselves, to describe the human civilisation independent from the that resides in the northern Tropical Lands, in the region known as the Snakeblood Wilds. Not a single unified state like the other human nations, the Freelanders are neverthless united by common language, culture, and religion, and have refused to submit themselves to the, succesfully driving off all Imperial incursions into the Tropical Lands despite the northern humans' superior technology and numbers. These sound victories serve as a lasting testament to the Kani'xat's determination, ingenuity and pride, as well as their devotion to their enigmatic gods.

Freelander culture is focused around twelve temple cities - the aforemented city states - allegedly founded by the Freelanders' demigod ancestors - each of them devoted to one of the Simulacra whom they revere. The bloody civil wars that marred the Snakeblood Wilds many millenia ago, however, left a heavy blow on Freelander society that is felt even today, and now only six of these ancient cities remain, the other six either turned into ruins or forgotten altogether. Four of these cities - Senateca, Xibatl, Zalanque and Cama'zotz - have banded together into an uneasy pact known as the Council of Four, maintaining close trade ties between one another; defying the Empire's call for human unity, the 's commercial influence and the 's military dominance, the cities of the Council have chosen to remain neutral in the wars between the great empires from the north, preferring instead to stay in their own borders and profit from the ongoing conflict instead. The fifth temple city, the dreaded Tehuilotl, has severed all ties with other Freelanders and instead seeks to expand its domain over the seas, eager to appease its dark god, while the sixth city, the mysterious Chin-Chaac, remains unaligned - its motives, if they even exist at all, an enigma to all.

The Blood Sisters
"Ihe birth of a nation is always accompanied by an unprecendented feat of heroism, one that would propel the previously chaotic and nameless masses to greatness - and thus it requires an unprecedented hero. These heroes may be ardorous speakers, like Alhassal the Seer, who rallied the oppressed men of the Desert with his fiery rhetoric, or mighty warriors, like Mannazei, who with her sword and her rage claimed the lives of a thousand elves in forging the nation that would bear her name. Or they could be both, like the legendary Xilanque and Xalanque of the Snakeblood Wilds, who thousands of years ago founded the people who would be known later as the Freelanders through faith, courage, strength and coition with gigantic serpent demigods."

- Zurvan Whitestone, Imperial scholar

As the Freelanders are among the most ancient human nations, far older than the provinces of the, little is known about their origins or how they came to be. What little verifiable information that can be obtained comes from foreign sources, such as the or the ,and their chronicles of wars against the human tribes. According to these chronicles, while the northern and eastern tribes of humans - those that would later found the Empire's provinces of Mannazia and Alhassal - would unite and wage war against the elven empires, the southern tribes, who inhabited the sun-baked wastelands of the Eastern Plains, chose instead to flee away from the conflict, migrating further southwards. It is logical to assume that while the majority of these tribes perished, some of them survived and eventually settled down in the Tropical Lands, where they eventually founded a new sedentary civilisation.

A bit more light is shed on early Freelander history by their sacred sagas, considered by most foreign scholars to be half-legend and half-truth; among these sagas, the most ancient one is the so-called Saga of the Blood Sisters, in which the origins of the Freelander people are described in full detail. According to the Saga, the Freelanders were originally a primitive nomadic people. Wandering from north to south, having not yet learned how to read, write or cultivate the land, they eked out a pitiful existence, ignorant, starving, chased constantly by the Golden Shades. This would change, however, with the birth of the aforemented Blood Sisters: Xilanque and Xalanque. Born of a chieftain and a shaman, these two girls would grww up to become one of their tribe's greatest hunters; Xilanque, with her obsidian sword, would become renowned for her strength and courage, always eager to engage in the thrill of battle, whereas the atlatl-wielding Xalanque would be known as the most patient and agile warrior in her tribe. Claiming the leadership in the tribe after their father passed away, the two sisters would lead their people further south, until they reached a strange, magical jungle filled with all sorts of serpents and other scaled creatures. The tribesmen were fearful, wary of taking refuge in that seemingly demonic place, but food was in short supply and the golden-skinned hunters pressed in from the north, and so the chieftain sisters had no choice but to enter the jungle, going first themselves.