Nations/Sumava-Pelembeng

The History of Pelembeng
This contains the history of Pelembeng, later Sumava.

Early History
The Kingdom Of Pelembeng consists of a Raja, originating from the city of Pelembeng in the middle of the Pelembeng domain. The city started as a small village yet it grew out exponentially fast, with its river giving it plenty fertile and arable land leading to a population boom. The city was once led by two noble families, but in recent history, they married one another and became the Royal Family of Pelembeng. Pelembeng is not only agricultural heaven, but it was also the hub of trade for all towns and villages around it, and it bred substantial trade and market ideas that spearheaded its development into riches.

The Kingdom Of Pelembeng officially became a Kingdom when three of the largest surrounding cities, Samalak, Porupan, and Hadamo, were approached by the Royal Family of Pelembeng with the prospect of becoming something greater together. The three cities vowed allegiance to the Royal Family of Pelembeng, and their domain was absorbed into the newly formed Kingdom. But the city of Pelembeng did not get everything from negotiations, as soon after with its newfound large army, placed more and more villages and towns under its rule.

It has a rich agriculture industry, with huge swathes of fertile land made by volcanoes that allow for great farms of rice and other plants. It's numerous in its meat industry as well, with bison, cows, sheep, and chicken being bred and harvested in ranches. It also has a mining industry to the mountains to its Southwest, and its rich gold deposits made the Kingdom Of Pelembeng use gold and silver as its main currency.

Caste System And Military
The Kingdom of Pelembeng uses a simple caste system. With the Raja at the top, and beneath him are the scholars and nobles of the Kingdom. Next would be merchants and artists, next will be the commoners, and the final one would be slaves. The Kingdom Of Pelembeng has a unique governance system, which allows most of the cities to act independently, but is still responsible to the Raja. While the Raja is the supreme ruler, it has a council of advisors and managers that serve him.

The Pelembeng Army is best described to be an army of defense because at its state it employs a policy of defensive action. Officers, while most of the noble descent, must be at least educated in the formalities and disciplinaries of the military, and be taught tactics and drills. Most of the army's forces are levies, able to be called upon at any time, however hold a small permanent career force for the quick response and also for patrolling the territories against bandits.

Pelembeng does have a navy, but it's a merchant navy. Most of its ships act as merchant vessels during peacetime, however when at war they will transform into battle vessels at a moment's notice. Speaking of the sea, the Kingdom of Pelembeng has an extensive network of maritime trade routes to the islands of Kalimantan and the Malay Peninsula.

Ancient History
Records pertaining to the events before the 6th Raja of Pelembeng, Kalimata Jayakota, have been lost. It is unclear how the state of the Kingdom was before the rule of Kalimata Jayakota.

The Three Principles To An Effective State
The Three Principles To An Effective State is a book drafted and written by the 7th Raja Of Pelembeng, Hayamarna Jayakota. Its contents pertain to and specify the three principles to an effective state, that is; Centralism, Meritocratic, and Legalism. Centralism, where all powers and possessions were at the hand of the ruling monarch, with a council of advisors and government staff. Meritocratic, where positions should be given out based on merit, not status, family lineage, or bribes. Legalism, where humans were inclined to do wrong over right, and when they do wrong, they should be punished through a process of determining the crime committed, the evidence and defense, and sentence.

Centralized Kingdom
The 7th Raja Of Pelembeng, Hayamarna Jayakota, drove the Kingdom down a road of centralization. He stated in his personal diary: "The Kingdom Of Pelembeng has been under a system of feudalism, which allowed nobles and named families to hold control of land, in exchange for unbridled loyalty to the Royal Family. This system is alright, but there is a reason why it wasn't good. It's riddled with corruption and incompetence, with tight family lineages that make it impossible for actually talented people to get in the position they have experience in. It results in a rotten system, where the leadership is lazy, clueless, and absolutely useless."

Hayamarna went on a campaign of centralization by first eliminating the noble families and feudal landowners, it was crucial for him to strip these nobles away of their titles and privileges while not angering the populace. He first restructured his government, dispatching nobles who were incompetent on reasonable charges of corruption, embezzlement, wrong usage of power, and incompetence. After which he replaced them with competent, experienced, and knowledgeable people in their fields. The Raja will now be helped with a council of advisors, and those advisors run advisory departments that carry out the Raja's orders. This will also lower the popularity of the nobles that were charged and fired, and therefore their influence over the people and the Kingdom.

Second, he formed a new caste of nobles, Pajakaram. These are reserved to trusted and experienced men, essentially tax collectors for the new regime. This was the cause for the first national census to happen, listing the number of the general population, wealth, land, and the population of each caste. This caste was meritocratically chosen with a history of honesty and diligence, this took away Noble's rights to tax collection. But in order to not lose out of favor of the nobility, he did minor crackdowns that he manipulated to be large ones to appease and still maintain the trust of the nobles.

Third, a reorganization of the army and the gathering of all weapons and equipment to the capital city of Pelembeng. It prevented any uprising of the nobles since they would have no weapons, hidden behind the prospect of reforming the military. The gathered equipment was used to heavily train an army Corps loyal to the Raja, led by experienced commanders and officers, with the ranks filled with career soldiers.

Fourth, A process of replacement and reorganization, experienced and meritable nobles will be given land rights of Nobles that had fallen out of favor with the crown, not full permission to control the land. He did this in a lawful and legal manner, which would mean extensive investigations into the past, work, and the relations of the Nobles. Whether it was a scandal, corruption, or morally and socially unacceptable acts, the Raja would use them all to put the bad nobles out of power and get the good nobles in power.

Fifth, He seized noble lands into his own crownlands, which he divided into provinces with governors assigned to these new provinces. The provinces were just dividing the nation's local government, unlike the previous system, these provinces would listen and adhere to everything the crown, and the central government ordered. There was autonomy, however, if they could do something the crown told them to do differently and get better results, they will be commended. If they failed in such actions, they would be punished accordingly.

After these five processes, Hayamarna declared the new Kingdom Of Pelembeng state. A meritocratic and legalist centralized Kingdom.