Sararas

One of the great kingdoms of the world of Maratopia. Sararas disappeared shortly after the Sundering, and is presumed to be no longer in existence

The Capital and Other Notable Cities
Rasar - Capital

Rulers
List of Rulers

Notable Historical Events

 * Played a major role in the Mage Wars.


 * Responsible for the development of Sky Steel.
 * Negotiated the peace treaty that would bring about the end of the Mage Wars

General Kingdom
During The Mage Wars Sararas occupied much of the western coast of Maras. At it's peak it was the largest kindgom on the continent. Due to technological advancements pioneered largely initially by their alchemists and blacksmiths, and then later by scientists, researchers and engineers, Sararas army has always been arguably the strongest on the continent, if not the world.

While Sararas has not always been the largest kingdom on Maras [or Maratopia] it has perhaps always been the most influential. Towards the beginning of the Second Mage War Sararas had given up large swaths of its land in response to a growing fear that they had large plans of first conquering and then ruling all other kingdoms due to it's overwhelming technological advancements.

As time passed and their technogical prowess grew, many of the remaining kingdoms on Maras feared them at least as much, if not more, than the Second Mage Council. While whether Sararas had plans of conquering the rest of the continent is unknown now, what is known is that they had long since refused to share their technology, instead choosing to pursue a path of isolationism and even perhaps xenophobia and had closed their borders to but a few people and ambassadors.

So, after The Sundering what was Sararas was ripped away from the main continent and became a new continent. Later expeditions to the continent would find a land stripped of any sign of civilization. As far as the eye could see were signs of great cities but no buildings, no roads, and certainly no people. To this day it is assumed that Sararas was destroyed during The Sundering.

Notable Exports and Trade
Due to it's location along the shore Sararas did a fair amount of trade in fishing. Later when oil became a valued commodity they would use their technolgy to delve deep into the sea and drill it out from the subcontinent. They also had a well developed shipping and trading fleet - one of the largest in the world which would allow them to import and export from all across the world.

Sararas also exported a vast amount of rare and precious gems especially diamonds. Several attempts were made by rival countries to locate Sararas' diamond mines, and due to their myriad uses many people theorize that part of the reason many other countries demanded they give up so much land - a desparate bid to gain control of the diamond mines. To this date the mines were never located, and even after the land was given up the exportation continued. Less notably, Sararas exported a fair amount of gold and silver.

During the years following the end of The Mage Wars Sararas had a roaring trade in Sky Steel as they were the only country capable of producing it. They would also become famous for their weapons and armor, due in no small part to Faras Sky Hammer.

Religion
To this day not much is known about about religious worship in Sararas. What is known, however, that they believed in a sort of dual divinity. As such duality and symmetry became important aspects of all society.

What we know about their god was that it was somehow two faced or dual aspected (perhaps both male and female?), perhaps each facet representing either good or evil. The name of god was believed to be perfect and was never written down or spoken aloud except in private religious ceremonies.

Going by what we know of names of important people from Sararas history (as well as the name of not only the country but important cities), palindromes were extremely important. However, there are very few "perfect" palindroms. Take for example Faras and Shehash. Faras is perfect except for one letter, as is Shehash (the Sh is represented by a single letter in the Sararasan alphabet). We can perhaps theorize that naming a child with a "perfect" name would be blasphemous.

Important cities were almost always perfect names. Again we can perhaps guess that they were named as such to be their Gods' cities. With no record, and the civilization gone, all we have is conjecture.

Society
By all reports Sararas was extremely tolerant to all races and sexes. With symmetry being so important, societies were rules by a dual council of a man and a woman, typically a married couple - again keeping with the symmetry.

This tolerance extended throughout all facets of society including the military. What few stories we have from the two mage wars, battles were won by both male and female commanders.

War and Expansion
While Sararas' culture may appear perfect on the surface, they would often use it as reason to invade their neighbors. Under the banner of wanting to bring balance and symmetry to the world, they would often engage in border expansion to spread their believes.

They were also extremely intolerant of those from other countries or with different believes, feeling that they did not hold to their ideals of perfection. This would eventually lead to their xenophobia and isolationism that was well known before the beginning of the Second Mage War.