ZALFIR

Nation Description

Player: Denys van den Berg
Leaders: Izem Green (male) and Ilena Mantis (female), aka 'The Eternal Twins'

Capital: Zephyras

Currency: Stories, a beautifully played game of any kind may also be accepted as it tells a story of its own. Some coins made from metals are also used, but only for dealing with those who value them (i.e. non-Zalfirians). Material wealth holds little value for those who live long lives.

Race of Inhabitants: Elves

Trade Routes

Khemri (+2)
Lienzo (+1)

Recent History

Year 11: In response to the cyprium coil anomaly, most of the devices have been shut down.
Year 10: The recently excavated artefacts and ancient texts of a sinister part of elven history are censored, and some of it is sold to other nations.
Year 9: Children are taught to be altruistic.
Year 8: In a response to the sudden appearance of the cancer curse, people are advised to stay away from the afflicted, lest it spread to them. 
Year 7: The locust plague is burned away with focussed light and giant crystal spiders are bred in farms. Zalfir's champion Vimes Sunglow won the tournament of the silver sword.
Year 6: Parents are allowed to abort pregnancy, though many don't out of respect for life.
Year 5: New copyright law punishes imperfection by forcing offenders into the spying business.
Year 4: The thousand star project receives more funding, aiming to provide illumination and beautification around Zalfir. Funding for operation and maintenance is provided by wealthy Zalfirians.
Year 3: Private construction enterprises are not regulated. Zalfir's architects and alchemists are working on a cultural project that aims to recreate something from a popular fairy tale.
Year 2: The Eternal twins find that the cultural value of their national currency is too important too change it to a more practical system.
Year 1: The twins hold national agricultural contests with big prizes to stimulate food production.

Location and Currency

At the end of the First Age the amount of novel stories was running low in the floating city of Zephyras. It was even harder to think of new ways to play their limited store of games. To solve this problem the Eternal Twins decided to let Zephyras settle down onto the central plains of Jotnjordh and seek communion with other nations for they might posses stories they had not yet heard. To obtain those stories they would trade using the heaps of (to them worthless) metal and gemstones found in the ancient vaults. These had been forcefully opened in the faint hope of finding untold riches (literally) but were soon discovered to be filled with junk. Apparently the previous ruler had put just as much store in material wealth as the surface-dwellers. The Eternal Twins chose the central plains (as opposed to another region) as this would shorten the distance to other nations, reducing the time it would take for travellers, and their stories, to reach them.

Rulers

Originally the rulers of the Zalfirians had been decided using an (almost) annual games-tournament and would then rule for a year and a day and only age on the final day. During the final day the tournament to decide the next king would also be held. All of that changed forever after Izem Green and Ilena Mantis joined the fray. They started in opposite brackets and both defeated all of their opponents in the most exquisite manners, all the while playing the most beautiful games in generations. In the final game, which would only end when one player would win two times in a row, this reached a crescendo. Brother and sister both played to their best and it quickly became clear the game would last several days. However as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months the people became nervous, for neither had needed food nor water. After an entire year had passed the twins had an equal number of victories and had decided to let the final game be the tiebreaker, regardless of the previous string of victories. At the end of the final day the game ended in a tie. Since that day both Ilena and Izem have not aged and in time have become known as the Eternal Twins.

Army

Those who think the Zalfirians easy prey because of their fondness for games and fairytales are in for a nasty surprise as they face the Prismatic Guard. The minds of these warriors have been honed by hundreds of strategy-games and made them masters of reading their opponent. A general tactic of them is to blind or dazzle opponents with their brilliant armor, which reflects light throughout the spectrum, after which they end them with one strike of their hardened glass weaponry. When facing the Prismatic Guard the only truly safe place to be is “not anywhere near the Prismatic Guard”. By night the material of their armor changes in function and reflects no light at all. This makes them impossible to miss by day and impossible to find by night. In addition to this there are rumors of a small but elite group of Prismatic Guards called the Broken Eye whose armaments reflect no light even by day, but these are rather difficult to find as they are invisible while in function.