Table of Contents
Cordoba
“My grandfather fought. My father fought. I was born enlisted.”
Cordoba is a nation that has forgotten what peace looks like. Once the administrative and military heart of East America, it now exists as a fortress-state locked in perpetual conflict with its former kin. Where Amazonia wraps its decay in pageantry and color, Cordoba answers with discipline, ration lines, and iron resolve. Every road, factory, and harbor exists for one purpose: to sustain a war that has outlived memory.
The land Cordoba holds is scarred and exhausted. Northern coasts are lined with blackened fortresses and dry docks packed with warships. Inland fields are cratered and fallow, their harvests long ago redirected to feed armies instead of people. Cities endure under blackout regulations, rationing, and constant surveillance. Cordoba does not promise prosperity. It promises survival through endurance.
To live in Cordoba is to understand the value of Shardisite. Every fragment is counted, guarded, and rationed like blood. Where other nations flaunt shardlight, Cordoba hoards it, strips it down, and drives it into engines meant to survive one more campaign. Airship hearts are coveted beyond compare, prime targets for deep-penetration raids, sabotage teams, and suicidal boarding actions meant to cripple fleets rather than win battles. Cordoba does not waste shardisite on wonder or comfort. It burns it with brutal efficiency.
Cordoba offers work to those willing to accept danger and moral compromise. Adventurers may be hired to escort convoys, sabotage Amazonian positions, hunt deserters, or suppress unrest. Payment is reliable. Oversight is oppressive. Failure is unforgiven. Cordoba does not need heroes. It needs fuel. And it will burn anything to keep fighting its war.
A State Under Arms
Cordoba is ruled by a military dictatorship, formally led by the Chancellor-General and enforced by a permanent junta of senior officers. Civil governance collapsed centuries ago, replaced by command structures optimized for siege, attrition, and internal control.
Martial law is absolute. Civilian courts exist only to process military decisions. Travel is regulated. Communication is monitored. Entire neighborhoods are relocated if deemed tactically inconvenient. The regime frames itself not as tyrannical, but necessary. Cordoba’s leaders argue that to relax control is to invite collapse, infiltration, or defeat. Many citizens privately agree, even as resentment simmers beneath the surface.
The army is Cordoba’s spine. Its legions are scarred, disciplined, and increasingly dependent on foreign weapons and mercenary auxiliaries. Cascadian arms and Atlantean credit keep Cordoba fighting. Pride keeps it from stopping.
Cities of Endurance
| Location | Summary |
|---|---|
| Concepción | Capital of Cordoba and seat of the junta. A coastal fortress-city wrapped in gun emplacements and ration districts. Its people live under constant watch, but its walls have never fallen. |
| Lima | Southern naval hub and primary shipyard. Warships crowd its harbors even as famine grips the surrounding countryside. |
| Manticore | An interior mercenary stronghold that survives by selling allegiance. Cordoba tolerates it because it cannot afford to fight it. |
| Corado | A ruined city reborn on the shores of Lake Amazon. Its flooded streets are scavenged for salvage, much of which feeds Cordoba’s war machine. |
| Port Allegra | A rare thriving port city on the eastern coast where foreign trade still flows. |
The Foreverwar
The war between Cordoba and Amazonia has no beginning that still matters and no end anyone believes in. Trenches shift by miles and then back again. Airship duels rain wreckage, bodies, and stray shot across the countryside daily. Entire regiments vanish into wastelands reclaimed by neither side.
For Cordoba, the war is no longer about victory. It is about identity. To end the conflict would be to admit that centuries of sacrifice achieved nothing. The regime cannot survive that admission, and neither, many fear, can the nation.
Ghost Regiments are reported in the interior wastes, soldiers marching in blue or grey without banners or command. Some dismiss them as hallucinations born of trauma. Others insist the Earth itself remembers the war and refuses to let atrocity be forgotten.
Economy of Attrition
Cordoba’s economy is broken and militarized. Agriculture is minimal. Industry is focused on munitions, repairs, and logistics. Debt is constant. Smuggling is rampant but quietly tolerated so long as supplies reach the front.
Foreign mercenaries fill gaps Cordoba can no longer afford to staff with citizens. They are watched closely, paid reluctantly, and discarded quickly. Loyalty is valued. Obedience is mandatory. The people endure because they must. There is no myth of glory left, only habit and hatred.
Faith and Justification
Religious authority in Cordoba is permitted only insofar as it supports the war effort. Choir worship is allowed when framed as discipline and sacrifice. Legion doctrine is tolerated among officers who value its emphasis on obedience, strength, and ruthlessness.
Preachers who speak of peace vanish. Those who frame the war as sacred are elevated. Those who invoke divine power for advantage on the battlefield are revered and celebrated. Cordoba does not claim divine favor. It claims necessity. That claim has sustained it longer than faith ever could.