Cicex

Great Ascended Cicex sCicex qoT'è Sex sCiqCexQoqTejzTefx
Flag
Anthem: sThoa qò ti Que' (sNgenguai) "Calling of Quei"
Capital	Qì (summer) Sè-K'io (winter)
Official languages	sNgenguai
Demonym(s)	Cicigean
Government	Absolute monarchy (de jure) Military junta (de facto)
• sòThaicè	Texzè
• Chancellor	Mimx Mà Nyi
Population
• Estimate	330,000,000

Cicex (/ˈsɪseɪ/ SI-say; /ˈsɪsɛks/ SI-sex; sNgenguai: sCiqCex sCicex [scícḛ]), officially Great Ascended Cicex (sNgenguai: sCiqCexQoqTejzTefx sCicex qoT'è Sex [scícḛ ʔə́tʼè sḛ) is a country located in Ashnan. It is divided into 17 provinces. It has an estimated 330 million inhabitants.

Though legally an absolute monarchy under a sòThaicè, Cicex is in practice ruled by a loose and unstable network of temple councils, clan armies, and competing warlord factions.

Cicex is among the oldest continuous civilizations in Ashnan. Its written traditions claim descent from the first Cicegeans, who were banished into Jotunnheim by the godlike entity Quei from a painless realm beyond mortal understanding. This founding myth has profoundly shaped Cicegean culture, law, architecture, politics, and warfare. Since antiquity, the state has more or less existed chiefly to appease Quei and to prevent another divine punishment. In modern times, this fear has hardened into an elaborate system of surveillance, military rule, and mass sacrifice of civilians.

The country is noted for its combination of ancient ritual institutions intertwined with modern technology. Railways, rifles, airships, armored trains, and industrial weapons are used alongside older systems of monarchy, shamanic authority, and human sacrifice. This combination has often been described by foreign observers as a technologically modernized ritual monarchy rather than a fully modern state.

Since the decline of central authority, Cicex has experienced prolonged warlordism, political fragmentation, famine, forced conscription, and factional conflict. Sacrificial practices, historically part of Cicegean religion since the bronze age, have continued under the various factions, particularly through the use of captured prisoners of war and political enemies. The scale and frequency of these practices have contributed to widespread social trauma and instability.

Demographics

Religion

Cicegeans worship Quei, a being which, according to the Cicegean founding legend, banished the Cicegeans to this world from its realm free of pain and suffering to atone for an unknown crime. Quei is known for being neither benevolent nor malevolent; its true motivations are ineffable to mortals. Cicegeans spend a great amount of effort to appease it, and pledge absolute loyalty out of fear and reverence.

Since the first bronze age cultures in Cicex, human and non-human sacrifice has been practiced, as a means to appease Quei. Today, this continues to be practiced by each faction within Cicex, as to gain favour to their cause. Tens of thousands of eligible captured POWs have been sacrificed every year since Cicex fell to warlordism.