Krossen

Krossen
Basic Information
Official	United Domains of Krossen
Capital	Ardion
Government	Constitutional Federal Monarchy
Geography
Region	Western, Northwestern, and Northern Central Continent
Area	~1,810,000 km²
Population	~20,000,000 (AY 200)
History
Founded	IY 743
Society
Race	Human
Religion	None (freedom of religion guaranteed)
Language	English (Krossen dialect)

Overview

The United Domains of Krossen — commonly known as Krossen — is one of the three great powers of the Central Continent. A constitutional federal monarchy occupying the western, northwestern, and northern reaches of the continent, it comprises six distinct domains united under a founding constitution. Krossen possesses the largest internal market of any nation in the known world and serves as one of the continent's principal anchors of military, economic, and diplomatic order.

The name of the capital, Ardion, derives from that of the nation's first king, Ardan Krossen I. In naming their capital after the man who led them through the years of chaos and union, the founding domains expressed an enduring debt — one that mirrors the way the nation itself came to bear the name of his house.

History

Foundation

When the Mana Cataclysm destroyed the Yalta Empire in IY 722, it did not merely end a nation — it erased the centre of human civilisation. The peoples of the empire scattered. Ancient gods, moved by circumstances rarely seen, granted new lands to the displaced with unusual speed. But the loss of Yalta's unifying force plunged much of the continent into just over two decades of conflict. The western reaches bore the worst of it.

Among the factions that emerged from the chaos, the Krossen house rose to dominance in the west. Through a combination of military strength and political acumen, Krossen consolidated power over the fractured western territories, becoming the region's uncontested leading force. Yet Tilrestan to the south and Tragon to the east had taken shape as organised states far earlier, and their growing presence made clear that isolated strength would not be enough. The remaining western factions — five peoples of distinct cultures and traditions — had to be brought together under a common framework.

The result was not absorption but union. Krossen held an estimated sixty percent of the combined strength of all six factions, yet chose to offer the remaining five genuine concessions: real autonomy, equal constitutional standing, and a shared founding document negotiated by all parties together. The six founding houses ratified a constitution that established a federal structure — each domain retaining its own governance while committing to shared principles. Ardan Krossen I, who had led his house through the years of conflict, was named the first king. The United Domains of Krossen was founded in IY 743.

The six founding domains and their leaders at the time of founding are as follows:

Domain	House	Leader at Founding	Notes
Krosenia	House Krossen	Ardan Krossen I	Founding and royal domain. First King of Krossen. Home to Ardion Armoury.
Velmara	House Solanvi	Caelan Solanvi	Home to Velmora University.
Drozhenya	House Vetrislav	Radovan Vetrislav	Home to Ardgate Arsenal.
Caelmoor	House Lansmaier	Aldric Lansmaier
Kayreth	House Tugrahan	Erkan Tugrahan
Corvannia	House Korvain	Bálint Korvain

The early Assembly was smaller and less evenly composed than its present form — domain representation was unequal, and the total number of representatives modest. Through a series of constitutional revisions over the following generations, the current structure of three seats per domain was established.

Later History

In December of IY 811, over ten days, the first Central Continent Three Powers Summit convened in a city of Tragon, bringing together the representatives of Krossen, Tilrestan, and Tragon. Arben Krossen III, fourth king of Krossen, attended in person, leading Krossen's delegation through the most urgent matters left unresolved since the founding years. The summit concluded a mutual non-aggression pact and settled the legal status of the Yalta ruins. The summit's closing day also marked the final day of the old imperial calendar; the following day, the Anno Yalta calendar took effect.

A second summit convened in AY 10, again led by Arben Krossen III, addressing matters of longer-term governance: the disposition of the old empire's legacy, terms of trade, and common standards of measurement. From the third summit, held in AY 20, Arvolik Krossen — fifth king of Krossen — led Krossen's delegation. That third gathering brought the original three-power framework to its conclusion; in the years that followed, its role was carried forward by The Concord, which opened participation to nations across the known world.

By approximately AY 30, the lingering disorder that had persisted since the Cataclysm had largely subsided, and the known world entered a long era of prosperity that would last roughly a century and a half. Krossen, with its vast internal market and diversified domains, adapted well to the new era.

The Three-Year War, fought across the distant Wendigo Continent from March 14, AY 182, to May 1, AY 185, was a matter of deep strategic concern to Krossen. The kingdom had no mana stone industry to speak of — a structural vulnerability that made access to the Wendigo Continent's unrivalled production capacity a matter of strategic necessity. Krossen nonetheless declared political neutrality and committed to neither faction. When the armistice came, it found itself better placed than most nations to deal advantageously with both North and South Levantia.

Royal Lineage

The succession of Krossen's ruling house is as follows:

Generation	Name	Reign	Notes
1st	Ardan Krossen I	IY 743 – IY 744	Founder of Krossen.
2nd	Arben Krossen I	IY 744 – IY 766	Fought alongside his father through the years of chaos and union.
3rd	Arben Krossen II	IY 766 – IY 789
4th	Arben Krossen III	IY 789 – AY 13	Longest reign in Krossen's history. Led Krossen's delegation at the first and second Three Powers Summits.
5th	Arvolik Krossen	AY 13 – AY 36	Led Krossen's delegation at the third Summit.
6th	Arkan Krossen	AY 36 – AY 66	Abdicated after a long reign.
7th	Abel Krossen	AY 66 – AY 94
8th	Arvel Krossen	AY 94 – AY 116	Abdicated.
9th	Aran Krossen	AY 116 – AY 125	Fell in battle leading the Royal Army against the Kolata.
10th	Aran Krossen II	AY 125 – AY 139	Youngest monarch ever to take the throne.
11th	Aran Krossen III	AY 139 – AY 159
12th	Aron Krossen	AY 159 – AY 176
13th	Aron Krossen II	AY 176 – AY 195	Reign encompassed the Three-Year War, the Goeyu uprising, and Operation Black Mamba.
14th	Ardin Krossen	AY 195 – present	Current king. Succeeded upon his father's death.
(Crown Prince)	Ardan Krossen II	—	Born AY 188. The first heir since the founder to bear the name Ardan.

The throne passes according to the internal customs of the royal house.

Geography

Krossen occupies the western, northwestern, and northern portions of the Central Continent. Its nominal borders extend to the western and northern coastlines, though the territories under effective administration lie predominantly inland. The gap between mapped borders and inhabited land is substantial — the ancient gods who hold dominion over the land have granted human settlement only within certain bounds, and vast stretches within Krossen's nominal territory remain beyond those limits.

The nation's coastline, though long, supports only a handful of major port cities. Where they exist, however, those ports concentrate the bulk of Krossen's foreign trade and have grown into some of the busiest and most prosperous port cities in the world.

The royal domain, Krosenia, lies at the westernmost extent of Krossen's territory and is home to the capital, Ardion. The six domains vary considerably in terrain, climate, and character; detailed geography of each domain remains to be charted.

Government & Politics

The Constitution

The United Domains of Krossen is governed under a constitution ratified at its founding by representatives of all six domains. The constitution is the supreme authority of the state — no branch of government, including the crown, may act outside its bounds.

The constitution establishes two tiers of law. The first comprises absolute principles applied uniformly across all domains: the prohibition of murder, the use of a single national currency, the election of domain governors and assembly representatives by popular vote, the prohibition of any state religion, and the prohibition of religious interference in political affairs. The second tier covers subsidiary matters — sentencing standards, tax rates, the precise form of elections, and similar concerns — which each domain determines independently.

Constitutional revision is addressed through a joint summit convened every five years by the king and the Assembly. Revision requires the agreement of both parties; not every summit produces an amendment, and sessions that conclude with the existing text unchanged are as common as those that do not. A separate emergency provision allows the king and the Assembly Chairman, acting in concert, to enact temporary measures during wartime or national crisis without waiting for the regular revision cycle.

The King

The king serves as head of state and the nation's representative in all external affairs. Foreign policy, treaty negotiations, and declarations of war fall exclusively within the king's authority.

In the event of a declared national emergency — including foreign invasion, a formal declaration of war by another nation, large-scale civil insurrection, or a disaster threatening the nation's survival — the king may proclaim a state of unified wartime command, placing both the King's Army and the Assembly's Army under his sole command (with the exception of KOSMI, which retains its independent chain of command regardless of this proclamation). As a constitutional safeguard, an Assembly-designated supervisor is activated at the same moment the proclamation takes effect, receiving the same real-time operational and reporting information as the king; the supervisor holds no power to object to or halt any operation, serving as a purely informational channel to the Assembly. On the basis of this information, the Assembly may end the unified command by a two-thirds majority vote of its full membership; absent such a vote, the unified command remains in effect. The supervisor is elected in advance, during peacetime, by a two-thirds majority of the Assembly's full membership, and stands ready to be activated automatically upon any proclamation of unified command rather than being appointed after an emergency has already begun. The supervisor's term otherwise runs concurrent with that of the Assembly, except that a supervisor serving at the moment of proclamation remains in office for the duration of the unified command regardless of any intervening Assembly term expiry, resuming the ordinary term cycle once the command is dissolved. No fixed time limit is placed on the unified command itself; the king is expected to declare its end without delay once the emergency has passed, and in any case the Assembly's two-thirds vote takes immediate effect whether or not such a declaration has been made. The arrangement is widely regarded as a legacy of the founding compact, under which Ardan Krossen I — despite holding overwhelming military strength — chose to bind the crown through concessions to the other founding domains.

Within Krossen, the king governs Krosenia directly. Krosenia is the only domain without an elected governor; its administration rests with the royal house by constitutional provision. The king does not hold a seat in the Assembly, nor does the crown exercise authority over the internal affairs of the other five domains. On matters that require coordination between the executive and legislative branches, the king and the Assembly Chairman meet as needed outside the regular constitutional revision cycle.

The Assembly

The Assembly is the legislative branch of Krossen's federal government. It is composed of eighteen representatives — three elected from each of the six domains by direct popular vote. Representatives serve five-year terms with no limit on re-election.

The Assembly concerns itself with federal legislation and matters that cross domain lines. The internal affairs of each domain remain within the authority of that domain's governor; assembly representatives serve in the capital and do not exercise authority over the domains that elected them.

The Assembly is presided over by a Chairman. The Chairman is elected at the opening of each new Assembly term by the eighteen sitting representatives, drawn from among those who served in the previous term — whether as representatives or as Chairman. The Chairman holds no vote in ordinary proceedings but casts the deciding vote in the event of a tie. The term of the Chairman runs concurrently with that of the Assembly, and re-election is permitted.

The Domains

Each of Krossen's six domains retains meaningful self-governance within the limits set by the constitution. Domain governors are elected through a two-stage process: citizens elect county representatives by direct vote, and those county representatives then elect the domain governor by indirect vote among themselves. Krosenia is the sole exception — its governance rests with the royal house, and no gubernatorial election is held there.

Over the generations since founding, the cultural identities of the individual domains have gradually converged toward a shared sense of Krossen nationality. The distinct traditions of each domain — in dialect, custom, architecture, and local practice — remain visible and are regarded not as sources of division but as expressions of the nation's founding character.

The Court

The Court is the judicial branch of Krossen's government, independent of both the crown and the Assembly. It does not handle arrests or public order — those responsibilities fall to each domain's police forces. The Court concerns itself with indictment, trial, and adjudication. It comprises a Supreme Court, which handles final appeals, and a domain-level court in each of the six domains for first-instance proceedings.

The Court also oversees Kosmi, a specialised body authorised to operate across domain boundaries and within the Yalta ruins.

Kosmi

Kosmi — formally the Krossen Office of Special Magistracy and Investigation — is a body under the authority of the Court. Unlike the domain police forces, Kosmi holds no fixed territorial jurisdiction. It operates across domain lines and, crucially, within the Yalta ruins, where the Three Powers Summit's prohibition on military activity does not apply to a judicial body. Kosmi's remit covers reconnaissance, search operations, and investigation. It is also regularly deployed beyond Krossen's borders for intelligence purposes, though its mandate does not extend to covert action.

Military

Krossen maintains two distinct armed forces, each under separate command.

The Royal Army is the larger of the two and answers directly to the king. It encompasses the Capital Defence Command and the Royal Guard, among other formations.

The Assembly Army is composed of the standing forces contributed by the five non-Krosenia domains. It answers to the Assembly Chairman and includes the Assembly Defence Command, the Border Guard, and the domain garrisons stationed within each domain. In the event of a declared national emergency, the king may assume command of the Assembly Army under the executive emergency powers granted by the constitution.

Kosmi, though it operates in the field and maintains considerable practical combat experience, is not part of either military structure. It falls under the Court and is classified as a judicial body.

Economy

Krossen is the largest internal market in the known world. Its six domains each specialise in distinct sectors, and the great majority of what is produced within the nation is consumed within it as well. This structure insulates Krossen from disruptions in global trade and has contributed to its long-term stability.

Krossen is not inward-looking in every respect. Its great ports make it the second-largest maritime trading economy in the world, behind only Tilrestan.

Krossen's principal economic vulnerability lies in its dependence on imported mana stones and magic stones. Modest deposits exist within its own territory, but more than ninety percent of the mana stones and magic stones it consumes come from abroad, leaving it exposed in fields that rely heavily on mana engineering. The cause is not a lack of talent: Krossen does not make the cultivation of mages a national priority, yet it reliably produces able ones, and is home to Velmora University, counted among the three great magic universities of the world. This dependence has shaped Krossen's foreign policy on more than one occasion.

The Mana Computing Network

The mana computing network is the shared infrastructure underpinning the economies and societies of all three great powers. Its applications extend well beyond financial settlement: the network supports information exchange, data storage, remote computation, personal identification, and the administrative systems of government. National currencies, international payments, and personal identity documents all operate on the network. So too does the broader range of communication and record-keeping that modern governance and commerce require.

Currency

Krossen uses both its own national currency and the international currency that runs on the mana computing network. The constitution requires that a single national currency be used across all domains; that currency governs domestic transactions.

The international currency serves a different function — it is not issued by any single nation but exists as a common standard of value operating on the mana computing network, used primarily for transactions between states and public institutions. Its unit system derives from the gold, silver, and copper denominations of the old Yalta Empire.

The physical coins are long gone, but the units survived — recalled from the wreckage of the old world as a shared reference point that no single nation could claim as its own. The spirit behind that choice is not unlike the one that named the new calendar Anno Yalta: a recognition that even in building something new, the common inheritance of the past belongs to everyone.

Krossen's national currency has long ranked among the three strongest in the world, together with those of Tilrestan and Levantia.

Society & Culture

The six domains of Krossen carry the cultural inheritances of six distinct peoples. Differences in dialect, custom, architecture, and tradition are visible from domain to domain, and are regarded within the nation not as sources of division but as expressions of its founding character. The constitution does not seek to erase those differences — it seeks to hold them together.

Religion is a private matter in Krossen. No faith is endorsed by the state, and the constitution explicitly bars any religion from exercising political influence. All faiths are practiced freely within Krossen's borders, including Rahislabi, which counts a significant number of adherents despite originating in Tilrestan.

The English language is spoken across all six domains, though each carries its own regional accent and maintains its own stock of local terms and proper nouns that have never been translated into the common tongue.

Education

Krossen does not treat the training of mages as a matter of national policy, yet the nation reliably produces able ones. Its best-known seat of magical learning is Velmora University, located in the domain of Velmara and counted among the three great magic universities of the world.

Relations

Krossen is a signatory to the mutual non-aggression treaty concluded at the first Three Powers Summit in IY 811, binding it to Tilrestan and Tragon. The treaty, which remains in effect, prohibits armed conflict between the three powers and establishes mechanisms for collective response and economic pressure in the event of a violation.

Relations with Tilrestan are defined by the weight of the border plains. Krossen's cession of a portion of those plains is a point of historical grievance that has never been fully resolved. At sea and in commerce, Krossen stands as Tilrestan's closest rival.

Relations with Tragon are generally more equitable, grounded in the geographic separation that has kept the two nations from significant territorial dispute.