When Simierlan led their campaign against the government of Cathia, it was actually a rebellion against an occupying government from across the sea. The capital city that Simierlan sieged and took was the occupying force's regional seat of Qadia's government. In the time since, Simierlan's followers have been able to take back most of the center country of Cathia, but some of the occupying force remains at the borders.
Free Cathia has no port access, which has limited the country's ability to trade, seek help, or expand their conflict against Qadia controlled Cathia. The border with Odess is still mostly controlled by the occupying force, but that control thins in the north, near the Everglade. Some intrepid adventurers have set out to cross in the Everglade and seek help from Odess and other kingdoms.
The stalemate between Cathia and Qadia holds because Qadia struggles to reinforce quickly across the ocean but Cathia cannot protect all of its territory while pushing onto new fronts. It will take the intervention of another power or a significant build up of Qadian forces to settle the dispute.
A special title has been given to Cathian soldiers who have taken up the task of breaking the Qadian blockade to reach other nations. They are known as Dawnbringers, and generally operate alone or in small groups in order to slip past Qadian forces. The vast majority of these Dawnbringers are set to approach Odess, though few have made it that far at the current time.
The average citizen of Cathia is a farmer and lives a rural life. Qadian forces eliminated a number of roving bands of Goblins, Gnolls, and Orcs, so animals and creatures from the Everglade are more feared than any one race.
There is a sightly higher concentration of Aasimar in Cathia, due to the country's association with Simierlan, Jaryae, and Vayr. Aasimar are not common, by any means, but a number occupy positions of importance within the Cathian government and military.
The Cathian military leans towards infantry, though they do maintain a small horse cavalry force. In general, they organize their units into 10, 100, and 1000 person units. However, they employ a number of smaller guerrilla units which operate in disputed areas and do not tend towards any organized unit size.
The government of Free Cathia is a theocratic democracy. Elected officials are expected to serve as spiritual guides for their fellow Cathians, reflecting the ideals of Simierlan. Any citizen of Free Cathia is eligible to vote and towns vote for local councils, local councils vote for district councils, and district councils vote for national councils. No one ruler leads the council, both so that no single figure could be captured or ransomed and so that council actions are as egalitarian as possible.
