Kingdom of Arabakia

The kingdom of Arabakia (アラバキア王国, lit. Arabakia ōkoku) is the last Human kingdom in Grimgar. It used to be the most powerful of the already powerful human kingdoms, but even it wasn't able to resit the Alliance of Kings led by the No-Life King over a century ago, forcing the country to be relocated South of the Tenryu mountains.

Geography
The country is divided in two parts, the mainland and the frontier. The names were originally the other way around but, out of shame for having been made to flee, the Kingdom is now claiming the lands who used to constitute most of the kingdom to be only "the frontier".

The mainland
While it was originally just the Frontier, the area south of the Tenryu now constitutes most of the Kingdom's land and is the place where it's capital, New Rhodekia, is located. However, the Arabakia is far from its former glory and according to Anthony the only settlement worthy to be called a city is the capital with a bit over ten thousand inhabitants. While there're numerous other towns, most of them are only poor farming villages.

The geography of the mainland is still mostly unknown, but from the fact that most towns are apparently farming villages, it's probable that most of the land is cover in plain and other types of cultivable lands.

The Frontier
Compare to the rest mainland the Frontier is small with undefine and regularly moving borders. It only really consist of Alterna and the forts arounds it:


 * The Lonesome Field Outpost: A small town/fort about 1 kilometer away from the Wonder Hole
 * Riverside Iron Fortress: A fortress near the QuickWind plain, it used to be under Orcish control but was conquered during Operation Twin-Headed Snake, only to later be conquered by the Southern expedition, then again by the Red Moon Volunteer Army.
 * Deadhead Watching Keep: A fortress near Alterna, it used to be under Orcish control but was conquered during Operation Twin-Headed Snake, only to later be conquered by the Southern expedition which then abandoned it for yet unknown reasons.

Other than those locations it can be said that the the frontier has a few more outposts over the world(s) in the form of Volunteer soldiers's camps, like the one establish in the Dusk Realm.

History
Arabakia was established about 360 years before the start of the story, by a man name Enad, near a lake surrounded by the Rinstorm, Dioze, and Kurogane mountains.

Enad was the face of a lakeside town in that area, said town likely being Rhodesia the future capital of Arabakia, but more importantly he was the leader of a band of ruffians. Around that time the world was more chaotic with no real countries established (at least in that area), so people with the capacity to lead and men to fight for them would regularly declare themselves kings. Enad was one of those people and using a mix of force and manipulation: declaring himself Enad George a descendant of Theodore George from the Arabankia Myth, he managed to bring the nearby towns under him, quickly expanding the kingdom.

However, that quick expansion would end up being his downfall as many of his people were only loyal to him out of obligation. One of them was Ishidua Zaemon, his right hand, and closest associate. The reason behind his betrayal is unknown and there's a multitude of theories, but what is certain is that it did happen, Ishidua sent many assassins after his king, however, Enad was no ordinary man, he killed most of them and manage to flee the country despite the constant attack.

Unable to locate him anymore, Zaemon and his co-conspirators realized that they would probably be unable to kill Enad however, they had managed to evince him. Taking advantage of that situation they declared that the king had gone mad and run away. Since the kingdom could not stay without a leader and as Enad had neither wife nor children, one of his distant relatives, a girl named Friau was made Queen, continuing the great line of Theodore George. Whether that girl was truly a relative of Enad is highly doubtful, but it ultimately didn't really matter as she was just a figurehead and the one truly ruling was Zaemon who had made himself her regent and ruled through her, starting the House of the Founder.

Similarly, Steech, another of the conspirator and a man who used to be Enad second in command during his gang days managed to establish himself in the north forming the second most important House of Arabakia: The House of the North. Eventually, using the fact that he and Enad were sworn brother, he even managed to make people believed that he too was a descendant of Theodor George despite himself of Enad not being blood-related.

That's the now erased history of how Arabakia was started, during the following centuries the kingdom would establish itself as the most powerful of the powerful human countries and while it would form alliances with other races like elves of the dwarfs they would also exploit races like the Orcs and the Goblins. The kingdom power structure stayed mostly the same, with the House of the Founder in power and the House of the North as a rival, the two Houses constantly scheming and attacking each other. Other smaller Nobles Houses would rises and fall but real changes only happened around 150 before the story with the rise of the No-Life King.

The first problems started to appear in the year 503 of the Kingdom when hordes of corps attacked the living, however as much of a choc as it was, the real incident happened 2 years later when the heir of the House of Ishidua, Ishidua Rohro, who had vanished came back livid as a corpse. To the surprised of his palace, he announced himself as the herald of the No-Life King and declared that those who accept his master offered: death, will be given eternal youth. His declaration caused chaos and Rohro ended up being skewered by 27 spears, yet he lived and left the palace declaring that he would take their attack as their answer to his master. Not long after that incident, the undead started their massive invasion attacking all humans' kingdoms, as well as the elves and the dwarfs.

However, the Alliance of Kings didn't exist at that time and only came to be 8 years later when responding to the No-Life King's call, the Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and Grey Elves joined the Undead in their war forming the Alliance of Kings. Against that Alliance, the Humans, Elves, and Dwarf were powerless and soon Arabakia was the last Human Kingdom and it had survived only because it was the farthest south. Finally, in the year 521 the southernmost city of the Kingdom: Damuro, fell and Arabakia definitely lost its presence north of the Tenryu Mountain, starting anew in the frontier which soon became the new mainland. Taking advantage of the death of their main rival: the House of the North, and of the chaos of the war, the Founding House managed to erase the true history of the kingdom, replacing it was the kingdom founding myth.

Unfortunately for the Kingdom, their new mainland wasn't completely savage and to the weakened country, the native barbarians proved to be too much of a strain severely limiting the development of most city beside the new capital because of their frequent raids and locking the kingdom in a state of near-constant and extremely harsh wars with the different tribes, Arabakia only surviving through diplomacy by managing to pit the tribes against each other.

One of the major achievement of the Kingdom during that time was also the construction of Alterna the only city north of the Tenryu, which was build thank to a secret alliance with the goblins of Damuro who allowed the city to be built in exchange for large quantities of Hi'irogane, a precious alloy manufactured by Arabakia.

Finally, the last important event happened about a year before Level. 15, when the Alliance of Kings' Southern Expedition launched an attack on both Alterna and the Shadow Forest. Setting fire to the forest and the elven capital, and taking Alterna killing a lot of its inhabitants, and taking the Margrave hostage. Arabakia now threatened by the presence of an enemy right beside the hidden passage to the mainland, decided to assemble a force to retake the city. However, save for the Black Hounds, the Expeditionary Force as it was called, barely qualified as an army and was mostly a sacrificial pawn for the kingdom to assess whether or not they should collapse the passage to the mainland. But, despite the odd, Jin Moguis the Leader of that force managed to retake the city and the abandoned forts around it, unfortunately for the Kingdom not long after that Jin Moguis declared himself King of the Frontier and is in the process of allying himself with the goblin.

From what Jessyie says, the name of the No-Life King is Enad George, as the Enad George who funded Arabakia managed to avoid assassination and fled the country it's possible the the No-Life King and Arabakia founder are one and the same.

The state of the mainland
For some reason (shame probably being one of them), the kingdom is trying to keep its citizens in the frontier in the dark about the state of the Kingdom at large. As such to most of the Frontier inhabitants, the mainland is a akin to paradise, a place where life is easy and humanity prosperous, but they've never seen. The kingdom is so dedicated to keeping the Frontier's inhabitant in the dark, that even after Alterna fell to the Southern expedition, the refugees were segregated and their contact with the rest of the kingdom limited as much as possible so that none of them can discovers the truth about the mainland.

The tale cause as such:


 * The mainland population is immense with numerous cities and village
 * The earth is bountiful, with booming agriculture, and too much livestock to be counted
 * Thanks to numerous mines producing gold, silver, and iron, everyone is rich to some extent and the kingdom can maintain immense armies.
 * Moreover, a developed industry guarantee everyone a lavish and cultured life
 * Even is someone somehow managed to lose all their wealth, there are facilities to help the poor everywhere and they would at least have food, water, and a roof
 * The land itself is blessed by Lumiaris, who is widely worshiped
 * A land ruled by merciful and loving King
 * The south of the mainland is however home to barbarians, but they're so weak compare to Arabakia that soldier call them monkeys and the war are call hunt since almost nobody is ever killed

However most of it is a lie and the kingdom is in a really bad situation on almost every aspect. The biggest lie probably being about the "monkey", as the war against the barbarians is incredibly harsh and the reason the Kingdom isn't able to developed properly.

The funding myth
Following the fall of the house of the North in Damuro, and most of Arabakia being relocated south of the Tenryu, the House of the founder decided to make use of that situation to erase the true history of the country and their betrayal of the first king, replacing it instead with the story of Arabianka. That story is an old myth, many time older than the kingdom, with many retailing, one of those versions going as follows:

Long ago there was a paradisiac land name Arabankia, it was a plentiful land, the only place still at peace when the Gods laid waste to Grimgar during their great war.

''One day a family came to Arabankia and started to live there a father George and his 3 sons: Theodor, Ishmahr, and Nahnanka. The mother had died not so long ago and when they buried her in Arabankia she became a great tree. For some time the family lived an idyllic carefree life in that paradise. That is until the youngest son Nahnanka realized that he had no idea of how long it had been since they came here, yet they hadn't aged or gained weight. So, to resolve those mysteries he decided to leave Arabanka to report on the outside, only to never come back. Sometime later worried by his absence it was Ishmahr, the second son, turn to leave in search of his brother this time, only for him to also never come back. Having lost to of his sons, the father slowly loosed hope and ended up turning into a tree, like the mother.''

''Despite being left alone with his dead parents and no information on his brothers, Theodore stayed in Arabankia for quite some time, until he one day managed to bring himself to leave. At first, he only walked leisurely, only taking care not to look behind in fear of being tempted to go back. But when, thinking himself far enough, he looked behind him, it was to see a milky haze rushing toward him.''

''Thinking himself in danger he ran away for days, finally finding himself on the bank of a majestic lake, where, in admiration before the majesty of a land rivaling even Arabankia he decided to create a kingdom, which should be named "Arabianka". Having proclaiming his attention, people from the West, East, and North came to him to be accepted as his citizens.And that's how 660 years ago the Kingdom of Arabakia was created by Theodor George also called George I.''

However that's only one (shorten) version of the story, some differences between the versions are: the 3 bothers having younger sisters, the father sometimes dying and sometimes only transforming into a tree. The nature of Arabankia can also change widely sometimes being describe as a lost continent under the sea, a greenland far in the north, a place to the west beyond the red sea, or an island floating in the center of a great lake.

That story also seems to have had a major influence on human culture in Grimgar as a whole, as three of the most important humans nation probably took their name from that story:


 * Arabakia : Arabianka, the legendary paradise-like land.
 * Ishmal : Ishmahr, the second son.
 * Nananka : Nahnanka, the third son.

That whole story, at least as a founding myth for Arabaki, is a complete lie with very little link to the true history of the kingdom.

Culture
The culture of the kingdom vary widely between commoners and nobles, as would be expected, but also between the mainland and the frontier as the two areas, despite being part of the same country, have very little contacts. Moreover, both interact with different cultures and races, and the frontier received a constant stream of volunteer soldiers with their unique circumstances.

The Mainland
People from the mainland seems to look down on other races (at least those from the alliance of Kings) and nobles in particular look down on people from the frontier seeing them as country bumpkin.

From Neal's reactions it also looks like people from the mainland are more religious and considere people from the cult of Skullhell as a vermine which should be exterminated when ever possible.

The Frontier
On the other hand, a lot of frontier-born people seem to dislike mainlanders seeing them as weak and ungrateful since from their point of view the people from the frontier are the reason the mainland is a paradise. Also while they do regularly fight them, or maybe because of that people and soldiers from the frontier tend to respect other races, at least the most powerful like the orcs.

System of Rule
As the name implies, the Kingdom of Arabakia is ruled over by a king (currently King Idelta of Arabakia), alongside about 1000 nobles. It seems like the succession is done following a Salic law of succession, where the heir gets everything. The citizens are divided at least between nobles and commoners, the nobility could be further divided by titles, however we only know of one those title: "Margrave" andas it can also be military rank it's unclear if a system of title similar to medieval europe is in place or not.That said, from Garlan Vedoy's words: "[...] not only am I a noble, but I also bear noble blood." and the fact that no title aside from Margrave is ever used, it seems like, even if such a system is in place, what's really matters is the history and power of a House.

Known Houses include:


 * The House of the Founder: That house is the current Royal houses and it's been so since almost the start of the kingdom. However despite its name, that House is most likely not made up of descendants of the Founder (be it Enad George or Theodore George) but of Ishidua Zaemon's descendants, who betrayed the first king before he was able to produce a heir.


 * The House of Water: A powerful House from the mainland, Wren Water, a Brigadier General in the Frontier army is part of that House and was likely given that position thank to his House's influence.


 * The House of Vedoy: The House which used to rule over the Frontier, possibly extinct following the murder of Garlan Vedoy Margrave of Alterna at the hand of Jin Mogis.
 * The House of Ishidua: Another house made up of Ishidua Zaemon's descendants but separated from the House of the Founder. One of the Five Princes: Ishidua Rohro, came from that House.

Extinct or fallen houses:


 * The House of the North: It used to be the most powerful House alongside the Royal House, the 2 constantly fighting and scheming against each other. However the House of the Nord fell when Giske, its last heir, died during the last days of the war, fighting the army of the No-Life King in Damuro to buy time for as many people as possible to escape. According to some theory the king at that time, King Gary, who detested him left him to die in Damuro while he fled to the other side of the Tenryu mountains.


 * The House of Mogis: A fallen house, once powerful enough to be the rivale of the House of Ishidua, they fell for yet unknown reasons. General Jin Mogis could be from that House.

Since it seems like only Noble possess family names, here is a list of possible other noble Houses:


 * Rasentra: The name of Graham Rasentra, a general in the Frontier army of which he is the symbol, recognized for his talent he was asked multiple times to become Commander-in-Chief but refused each time.
 * Ratty: The name of one of the 3 Brigadier General of the Frontier army, Ian Ratty
 * Horn: The name of one of the 3 Brigadier General of the Frontier army, Jord Horn recognised for his talent and a close associate of General Rasentra.
 * Justeen: The name of Anthony Justeen, a master warrior and Platoon Commander in the Frontier army.
 * Stone: The name of Dylan Stone a member of the Black Hounds.

Religion
From the propaganda taught in the Frontier and what Neal said in Level. 15, it seems that the church of Lumiaris is the official religion of Arabakia and that Lumiaris is indeed worshipped by most. On the other hand the cult of Skullhell is illegal and those worshiping the dark Lord are hunted down and killed. It's unknown how the worshipped of other gods beyond those two is seen.

The Frontier is an exception to that as all faith are accept in Alterna and it's common to see believers of Lumiaris and Skullhell work together.

Military
Like a lot of things in Arabakia, the army can be divided into 2 broad categories: the mainland and the frontier.

The mainland
We don't know much about the army in the mainland aside from the fact that most of the kingdom forces are constantly wedging wars with the barbarians tribes living south of the mainland. Those wars are incredibly harsh, to the point that the army needs a special unit to deal with the constant flow of deserters: The Black Hounds.

It seems that, unlike in the Frontier, in the mainland, the army is the one training the soldier rather than guilds, most of those soldiers are farmers' second son and younger who, left with no other option are forced to join the army to survive.

Notable units or corps:

 * The Black Hounds: A famous special unit, made up of seasoned soldiers tasked with hunting deserter to either send them back to the front or execute them.
 * The Expeditionary Force: A hastily assembled group of amateurs tasked with the mission to retake Alterna and led by Jin Mogis.

The frontier
The frontier army itself is also made up of 2 groups:

The regular army:
The branch of the kingdom army tasked with protecting the frontier, it seems to work like the Kingdom army with a strict hierarchy and organization. Most of its soldiers are Frontier-born men, and unlike the mainland army, its soldiers are trained by the various guild of Alterna.

At the top of the army is a general responsible for the organization of the army as a whole and containing the mainland if need be. For most of the story, that role is filled by Graham Rasentra a skilled General who has proposed promotion to Commander-in-Chef multiple times.

Under him are 3 Brigadier General, similarly, for most of the story those were Ian Ratty, Jord Horn, and Wren Water. The first 2 were respected soldiers and leaders while the last one is an incompetent coward who was promoted to his rank thank to his family's power.

Finally under them, are a number of Platoon Commanders but so far we've only seen one of them Anthony Justeen, It's also likely that there are other ranks but we've yet to learn of them.

Notable operation:


 * Operation Twin-Headed Snake

The Red Moon Volunteer Army:
A group made up of voluntary soldiers, unlike the regular army the Red moon doesn't really have a hierarchy nor an organization. volunteer soldiers are left to act as they wish most of the time and only required to help if Alterna is under attack, otherwise, their main task is a mix of exploration, sabotage, and terrorism in the Alliance of King's territory.

All volunteer soldiers are people who came out of the forbidden tower and have no memories besides their names, something the army takes advantage of, to recruit them. Since those recruits are brought to the army by Hiyomu, there was likely an accord between Leslie and Arabakia, but the detail remains unknown.

It doesn't seem like there are any measures in place to really control volunteer soldiers, nor anyone preventing them from deserting. Ultimately most Volunteer Soldiers stay as such likely because it's the only thing they know to do. However some do desert some of them even becoming a threat, for example the road between Vele and Alterna is home to rogue Volunteer Soldiers who sometimes attack merchants.