Salan Kajakan Yost

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Kajakan Yost Province (#4)
Origin of Province name: Kajakan Yost means "East Bear Land" In Zekresh. It is named after the Verronese people who in ancient times were called the "Bear People".
Provincial Capital: Verronia
Estimated Population: 250,000
Population at last census: (no census taken)
Year annexed to Empire: 3 Vergriman II (785 years ago)

Ulor (governor): Ziyan (appointed 2/4/40 Cledman VI)
Political Alignment of Ulor: Neutral
Ethnic background of Ulor: Verronese
Ulor's primary advisor: Izdanuk
Ethnic background of advisor: Zekresh
Popular Support for Empire: medium - high

Economic Development: The main economic activity in the province is farming, followed by fishing, trade, manufacturing, shipbuilding and money lending. The economy is highly developed, possibly the most highly developed in the whole known world.

Imperial Military Garrison: 5 phalanxes of infantry and large naval base at Verronia
Governor's Guards: 200 Rizado Kajak Uloresh (Governor's Bear Guards)
Civilian officials and their servants: 215

Estimated Average Annual Tax per Person: 2.5 baylo

Govt Finances: The provincial government is current on tax collections and remittances to Zekran as well as payments of its debts. Its budget is large. Taxes are higher than in the rest of the Empire.

Land and Climate:
Kajakan Yost Province is only part of the lands that were historically the territory of Bear Tribes nearly a thousand years ago. It consists of the former Bear Tribes lands that lie South and East of the Bear River (Shasa Kajak). The old Bear Tribes lands were divided into three provinces. Kajakan Yost (East Bear Land) is one of those, the other two provinces that are parts of the old Bear Tribes land lie to the Northwest and are called Kajakan Folon (West Bear Land) and Kajakan Tros (North Bear Land).

Kajakan Yost is heavily forested, but about a third of the province is now farmlands and pasturelands. The province has good rainfall, and a moderate climate. There is greater population density than in most provinces.

Description:
The provincial capital is Verronia, the first real city the Verronese ever had and now the oldest and largest Verronese city. Verronia is the center of all Verronese culture. It is also the location of one of the largest naval bases in the Empire as well as one of the largest naval shipyards. All the largest Imperial Navy ships were built here.

The Ulor's palace looks like it is fit for an Emperor. The Ulor's guards are the Rizado Kajak Uloresh (Governor's Bear Guards) an elite unit that is not part of the Imperial Army and answers only to the Governor of Salan Kajakan Yost. They are armed with traditional Verronese battle axes rather than the spears that most of the Imperial Army carries. Also, the men of the Rizado Kajak Uloresh are all very large and uncommonly strong, that being a requirement to join the unit.

Ethnic Groups:
The descendants of the ancient Bear Tribes call themselves the Verronese. This is derived from "verron" the word for bear in the Verronese language. (The work "kajak" means bear in the Zekresh language.)

The majority of the population are Verronese. The adjacent provinces of Kajakan Folon (#5), Kajakan Tros (#6) and Nass Mysktia (#3) all have majority Verronese population. The second largest ethnic group in the province are the Slythians from Slythia (#2) to the Southeast. About 20% of the population are Slythians. The Verronese tend to look down on the Slythians, but relations are reasonably good.

There is a significant ethnic Zekresh population in the province estimated at 4% of the population.

About 15% of the population is neither Zekresh, Verronese nor Slythian. Many are of mixed ancestry, some are members of small local ethnic groups and the rest are people from all over the Empire, mostly from nearby provinces.

Recent actions by the provincial government:
Opposed the dog tax. Abolished the language requirement for provincial employees.

Apparent consequences of provincial government policies:
Dog owners have renewed confidence in the Empire and much of the provincial governments affairs are conducted in the Slythian language which most people do not understand.

Situations which may or may not have resulted from government policies:
The Verronese see themselves as equal to or better than the Zekresh and much better than the Slythians or just about any other ethnic group. Consequently the Zekresh consider them "uppity" and the Slythians resent their superior attitude. Thus far, however, there has been no significant ethnic violence.

There are many traders and sailors coming in and out of the province, mostly Verronese. High taxes are levied on goods brought into the province and on sales in the public market places. Smuggling by Verronese merchants and the Slythian organized crime gangs is common to avoid these taxes.

History:
Over a thousand years ago, when the Empire was new and first brought civilization to the Bear people, the ancestors of the modern Verronese, they were primitive tribes of hunters, fishers and a few miserable subsistence farmers. In those days they were known as the Bear Tribes because the Bear was their totem animal. They've come a long way. Now they are one of the main civilized nationalities in the Empire. Verronese civil servants, soldiers and merchants are found throughout the Empire. They are also one of the most numerous nationalities in the Empire.

Kajakan Yost was the first of the lands of the Bear to come under imperial control. The Empire had contact with the Bear Tribes as far back as twelve hundred years ago, when the Empire was small and barely a century old. In those days, the Bear Tribes already had primitive agriculture, metal weapons and a vast land and population. Their size and power was comparable to or possibly even greater than that of the Zekresh Empire in those early days. For four centuries there was trade and peaceful contact between the Zekresh Empire and the people of the Bear Lands. At first, this was a relationship between equals, but as the Zekresh Empire grew stronger and larger, the Zekresh increasingly looked down upon the people of the Bear and dreamed of conquering their lands.

The conquest of the Bear Tribes began in the Vergriman Dynasty in the 3rd year of the reign of Emperor Vergriman II (eight centuries ago). That conquest, known as the "Bear Wars", took nine years to accomplish and was one of the most difficult wars ever fought by the Empire. At one point, the Bear Tribes actually invaded the Zekresh Empire, recaptured Nass Mysktia occupied Slythia and beseiged Nass Umrug. For a time, it seemed like they might even march to Zekran. The Bear Tribes actually did raid Zekran twice by sea. Naval power was essential to the conflict and the Bear Tribes had constructed hundreds of longboats which aided them greatly in the war. It was the defeat of this fleet by the Zekresh Imperial Navy at the seige of Nass Umrug which turned the tide of the Bear Wars in favor of the Zekresh Empire.

The Verronese today are proud of how well their ancestors fought and still retain an attitude that the war was an anomaly and that the proper relationship between Verronese and Zekresh is between two great nations that are essentially equal. It is also a widely held belief by the Verronese that the war could easily have gone the other way in which case Zekran would be a province of a Verronese Empire instead of the other way round.

After a rebellious period in the first century after conquest, the old Bear Tribes faded away and their descendants became prominent in the Empire as military officers, noblemen, administrators of new provinces, especially in the North, and as merchants and sailors. So much of the Empire's territory was conquered by Verronese soldiers, ruled by Verronese Ulors and patrolled by ships built and crewed at Verronia that Verronese often claim credit for having built the Empire. Verronese sailors, bankers and merchants have made so much money trading throughout the Empire that it is often said that it is really a Verronese Empire with a Zekresh Emperor, built by and for the benefit of the Verronese. It is not a joke that when the Empire needs money, it borrows from Verronese bankers.