Vicus, officially the Kingdom of Vicus, is a country located in western Zavoia. Situated primarily on the Vicusian penninsula, the Kingdom of Vicus comprises nearly its entire whole, with its capital and largest city - Mogharbura - in the north. Vicus’s relatively unique and isolative geographic position has allowed it to enjoy global power since at least the 1650s, with Mogharbura being hailed as among the world’s leading financial, commercial, cultural, and industrial hubs. Other major cities include Mackarshen, Avabura, Norgard and Leogard in the north; Slavarbura, Bazalagard, Nalkhate, Maurice, and Zathgabura in the center; and Zarlin, Diamada, Shannon, and Bellave in the south.
The origins of Vicus can be traced back to Brezholic tribes who settled the penninsula thousands of years Artian calendar. The Artian emperor Slavari conquered Vicus in the early 8th century, bringing the Artian language, culture, and religion to the penninsula. During this time, the Shazis settled in the south and established Eskandergret, while northern Vicus fostered early Avabism, submitting to the Zascaic Temple thanks to early Zascaic prophets like Zathgit and Moghar. Following the collapse of the Artian Empire, the Vicusian penninsula was settled by Zarnic peoples and partitioned by the Zarnic-speaking Zascaic Moshabs to the north, and the Kzakian-speaking Shazi Kzakid Empire to the south.
By the 1200s and 1300s, the Avabist frontier settlements of the north matured into Zascaic princedoms: namely Magavick, Sagavick, and Basavick. These princedoms gradually expanded toward Shazi lands further down south thanks to the Shazi Wars, bringing with them fierce Zascaic conversion. Securing the allegiance of all these Zascaic princedoms via both marriage and military action in 1514, the Grand Prince of Magavick Sagismar III became the first King of Vicus. Though a civil war between his eight wives and sixteen sons nearly shattered the Kingdom, Yavon I reunified the Kingdom and consolidated the lands under a unified law code and a tanistry elective system, making Vicus an electoral monarchy.
Through subsequent conquest over the following centuries, Vicusian domination came to the entire penninsula, with the last of the Shazi lands falling to Vicus in 1611, formally united with Vicus in 1615. The Republic of Kzak gained its independence in 1821, albeit with far less land as several counties stayed loyal to Mogharbura. The crown of Mogharbura ruled as far north as Ranafia in the mid-to-late 1500s, as far south as Chinau coming under Vicusian rule in the 1600s, and as far west as Vicusian colonies in today’s Bukharia, Desuprina, Izmrod, and the United Prophets. The Vicusian Time of Troubles, a period of plague and the largest and last major civil war in Vicusian history, occured from 1618 to 1635 and had catastrophic consequences for Vicus, with one third of its population wiped out as a result. Avab I under House Nalkhate reunified Vicus, starting a trend of centralizing power in the Crown. The result was a de facto absolute monarchy.
Over the next century, an era of global empire ushered for Vicus. While Ranafia successfully broke away in 1641 as Yesse, elsewhere overseas in Sanctoria colonists and traders rapidly expanded Vicusian power. After the fall of Morev in 1594 to the Grondist Fashi Reech, Vicus asserted itself as the protector of the Zascaic temple and became the sworn rival of the Fashis. As the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, the reign of Yavon the Great beginning in 1695 saw further expansion of the crown. its assumed guardianship over the temple, and its authority over all aspects of the lives of its subjects. Under King Yavon V, Vicus fought massive wars - namely the First Cyarik War (1710-1721) and the War of the Grand Alliance (1722-1726) - against Koltara, Kivany, Baseloria, and the Fashi Reech. These wars also created demands that hastened the industrial development of Vicus, leaving nobles to either embrace the new status quo as governors, generals, and businessmen or be left behind. Massive slums grew also, resulting in the birth of more radical ideologies like adobeanism. King Tyerri II continued much of the jingoist policy of his grandfather in the Second Cyarik War and the Partitions of Koltara, but he also made reforms decentralizing the crown both intentionally and unintentionally.
The Vicusian participation in the Great War against Kivany and Baseloria saw this centralized military-industrial complex go into overdrive. Under the leadership of King Yavon VII and ultraconservative Chancellor Yavon Preed, Vicus fought the war as a crusade for survival, eventually landing on the victorious side alongside Selath and Wellenesia. However, the war took a massive economic toll on the citizenry and the military. This plus scandals among the Zascaic royalist establishment resulted in the 1819 Revolution, which overthrew the King and much of parliament. Under the radical adobeanist ideas of Toivan Tallabold, the current constitutional system was installed, while a cadet branch of House Nalkhate known as House Nalkhate-Corwine came to power under Avab II and the current king, Yavon Avab I. Mari o-Khamary, a prominent businessman and general from the Great War, serves as Chancellor today.
Today, while Vicus remains a global power, they are no longer at their peak. Vicus struggles to fully recover from the Great War, and conservatives and reformers remain deadlocked in an unfamiliar system, also wary of the growing power of allies-turned-rivals such Selath and Wellenesia. Yet many Vicusians however hold to the remarks of a great Vicusian author named Zomas o-Neel:
“Even when the lions come and try to mawl Vicusia, she surely will yet stand, guided only by Sealtiel to her throne of nations.”