Kingdom of Kantoc

85% humans 7% gnomes, 2% tengku 1% Half-human hybrids, 5% Other   The local humans are roughly 60% Kantoca, 10% Cotefeu, 25% Jórtoca, 5% Other. A majority of humans in Kantoc have mixed blood. The further north you go, the more Jórtoca cultural influence you see, the further south you go, the more Cotefeu influence you see.   About 2% of the human population and about 1% of the gnome population are of noble birth.

Kantoc's military is built on the strength of their knights.  Nearly every highborn male trains as a knight.   The local Guardians, Masks, Keepers, Stewards all sponsor some of their own knightly orders as well.   The knights are backed up by a small cadre of professional man and arms, usually armed with ranged weapons.  Kantoca can also call on militia reserves but this is often viewed as a last resort.

Hallisan is the state patron of the nation and is (at least publicly) the main deity worshiped by nearly all highborn Kantoca. Korus is very important. While the nature god wears many hats and they are all import, in Kantoc he is commonly honored as the Father of Horses. Korus is the number two deity to most nobility and the number one deity for most of the lower classes.   Mera is very important to Kantoca commoners as is generally their number two most worshipped deity.   Khemra and Phidas have modest temples here but they are generally sidelined by the Guardians of Hallisan.   Zarthus and Nami are given cursory acknowledgement on their holy days and ignored the rest of the year. The lowborn Kantoca hold these deities in slightly higher regard than the nobility.   Maylar is generally disliked. Locals differ on whether Maylar worship should be banned out right or limited to minor placation rituals.  The rapid emergence of the Herders of Men has confused what used to be a cut and dry issue.  Despite Kantoc's historically bad relationship with Maylar, the core values of the Herders are very in line with many of Kantoc's core values.   Greymoria is generally detested by nobles and commoners alike. There are some rituals and ceremonies to placate Greymoria's wrath, but some Kantoca don't even bother with that.

Kantoc's north border is mostly unclaimed frontier.  Fortunately the dominant barbarians closest to their northern borders are the Laguza who get along well with the Kantoca.  The Laguza do not exactly maintain tight borders so Kantoc has to occasionally deal with other barbarians raiders occasionally riding in from the north, especially orcs.       Kantoc's long western border brushes up against the Dwarf Kingdom of Meckelorn and the Dwarf Kingdom of Stahlheim with the Border Baronies sandwiched in between.   Relations between Kantoc and the dwarves are usually pretty good and the two nations engage in a lot of trade.  Relations between Kantoca and Borderlander humans are often quite rocky to use a bad pun, but Kantoc has never gone to war with the Borderlands.  The Borderlanders do not have the numbers to threaten Kantoc and it's not worth the effort for Kantoc to try to attack any of the Border Barons because the terrain of the Borderlands region is extremely detrimental to cavalry charges.       Kantoc has control of most of West Colassia's southwestern coast but small pockets of coastline are colonies of the Elven Empire.  Centuries ago, Kantoc went to war with the Elven Empire in the past, and a lot of their southern lands were imperial colonies centuries. ago.  Kantoc did not normally institute invasions but when the Elven Empire's human colonists began revolting Kantoc would ride in to "help liberate them."   Nowadays Kantoc and the Empire are trading partners but the tensions have not disappeared entirely, the border regions between the Kantoc and the Elven Empires last West Colassia colonies are heavily militarized, just in case.   There is a general understanding that if Kantoc and the Elven Empire went to war now, the cost to both sides would be huge.  Kantoc's army could completely overwhelm the Empire's West Colassian colonies but in retaliation the Elven Empire could easily destroy Kantoc's navy, blockade their coastline and raze all their port cities to the ground with impunity.     Kantoc also faced periodic dark elves attacking the coastline hoping to capture slaves but this was short lived.  The leaders of Kahdisteria quickly realized they were pushing Kantoc towards an alliance with the Colassian Confederacy, so they quickly backed off from raiding Kantoc's coastline and hammered out a peace treaty, even paying Kantoc reparations.  Relations between Kantoc and Kahdisteria have yet to recover.  When Kahdisterian ambassadors announced that the City of Light was now open for trade with Kantoc, the king and his entire court laughed in the ambassadors' faces.   Kantoc is not hostile with the nations of the Colassian Confederacy, but the two are not close friends.  The Confederacy's independent streak and Kantoc's rigid hierarchy cause friction between them.  Most sea trade between Kantoc and the Confederacy is done using imperial elf trading ships as intermediaries, if only because Kantoc's navy is relatively small considering how much coastline the nation has.   Kantoc has some limited contact and trade with Nation of Khemarok, the nations of Umera, and Penarchia but the geographic distance (and the Kantoca's limited navy) means their relations are fairly limited.

Kantoc grows a wide variety of crops but their primary staple crops are wheat and potatoes.  Kantoc has lots of grazing land and in addition to having lots of horses, they have lots of sheep, goats, and cattle.   Kantoc has abundant timber resources but their mineral resources are modest at best requiring a lot of metal ore and goods to be imported.

Kantoc's provinces are linked by roads, and of course lots of horses.