Huntress Nation

Endemically called Axolokh, the loosely-associated nation of villages and cities in the northern taiga have a cultural bond that has persisted thousands of years.
Named after Wrorna the Huntress, the environment is predominantly hospitable taiga, despite a regular six months of winter. The nothernmost region just south of the White Sea is tundra complete with permafrost and has little activity other than scattered settlements, the occasional antisocial archgryphon, and Wrorna Keep.
It's a beautiful landscape where few venture, partially for fear of the Huntress people and partially due to a dearth of valuable resources or strategic points in the territory. It is rich in the unusually hard Huntress Conifer, or masonwood, which the Huntress Nation regularly exports.

Structure

Nation, discrete villages, tribes, and clans which generally cooperate.

Demography and Population

Huntress is vast, and there are few large cities. Most settlements are medium-sized at most and spread fairly thinly. Unlike the walled and guarded townships of the midlands or the monolithic cities of the far south, settlements are lightly guarded and spread much more broadly. This is both because of the cultural focus of self-sufficiency and hunting and from the

Territories

The Huntress taiga and tundra are not in dispute. North Bastion Ruins to the far west has long since been abandoned due to the presence of a sleeping archdragon. Near the southern borders of its biome, the largest Huntress city Rotega has a legacy of violence and conquest. The Conclave considers Rotega an assimilated part of the nation, the Midlands consider it under hostile occupation by the Huntress, and Rotega considers itself an independent city-state.

Military

Huntress warriors resent being called soldiers. The endemic word is halxuz. There is no feminine version of the word.
They differ in a few ways from the rest of the continent's soldiery. Most notable is their reputation for highly manual combat. The trademark halxuz armor is a pair of claw-like armored gloves used for combat techniques revolving around grabbing an opponent's weapon and manipulating it. They otherwise typically utilize light armor lined with furs for warmth. Most halxuz utilize glaives and war-scythes, a proficiency left over from a long history of hunting large game against which reach is paramount. Swords are less common as primary weapons in warfare, though find use in close-quarters and duels.

Technological Level

Huntress lags behind the rest of the continent in terms of societal development, but their holistic and almost animalistic approach to combat has launched their military capabilities a century ahead of anyone else's through tactics alone.

Religion

The poetically-named Virtue of the Flesh is a principle the Huntress people have adapted from the archgryphons. It revolves around the fatalistic sanctity of natural selection.

Agriculture & Industry

Huntress is the only region with Vitium (Old Metal) mines and quarries. The element is not known to surface anywhere else. Due to the deleterious effects on the slaves who labor to mine it, it is prohibitively expensive and an extraordinarily rare and valuable export.
Additionally, Huntress Conifers, or Masonwood, are carefully managed but in high demand for use in construction and siege weaponry due to its unique tensile traits.

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Government System

Sortition

Power Structure

Semi-autonomous area

Economic System

Mixed economy

Currency

Gold chips

Legislative Body

Conclave

Judicial Body

Druidism

Official State Religion

Virtue of the Flesh