Umhlaba (Origo Mundi Map Game)

The Confederacy of Umhlaba, also known simply as just Umhlaba, is a nation south of Mesallas that roughly corresponds to the trade networks in and around the Asamdah Desert and its connecting areas. The confederacy has been described as an alliance rather than a nation, in the sense that it directly administers little to no direct territory, with its “borders” corresponding to a vast area that the nation operates within, rather than inhabits in many cases. The nation’s government is best viewed as a “corpocracy”, or a government controlled by a corporation, as the nation serves as the political arm of the influential Water Merchants organization; the Water Merchants’ network of oases, outposts, trading posts, and even tribal kingdoms, many of which with their own forms of government and quasi-independent status, all form the backbone of the confederacy. Each of these polities within the alliance elect a “High Tyrant” of the nation, who serves as the nominal highest executive within the nation.

The Water Merchants first derived from the town of Cania in the center of the Melopenes peninsula in Mesallas, where they originated as a religious organization specializing in the sale of holy water. According to legend they made their fortune selling water and dominating trade, monopolizing the resources of the region by specifically sabotaging the supplies of cities around them. They were ultimately driven from the region in a war with Karissa, but continued to dominate trade routes in the far south. Throughout this period the Water Merchants’ primary adversary became the Cult of Lementer, who rivaled their control over politics and economics in Mesallas, and drove them further south than before. During the Yanno-Mesallian Wars the Lementarians leveraged the armies of Yannis to further isolate the Water Merchants, and by the 170s their highest concentration of strongholds remained in the far south.

Under the leadership of Water Tyrant Igajethus the Trans-Asamdah Route became a profitable trade network dominated by the Water Merchants. In 176, prompted by the aggressive expansion of Usinilago toward the south, a kingdom that had traditionally spurned the influence of the Water Merchants, the organization sought to create an overarching confederacy from the organization’s possessions, its tribal allies, and the trade routes it had influence in. The confederacy selected Isono as its nominal capital, as this was one of the few higher population, centrally located urbanized areas, in a nation with few direct settlements. The first High Tyrant selected in 176 was Umasiqela.