France was once the Primary, the leader of all Europa. Educated by Roma, emancipated by its own leaders, France grew humbly at first, earning the respect of its neighbors to become a world power. Headed by royalty, embodying justice and setting an example to all the rest of the world, France lead the way forward, after the end of Roma.

Pax Romana was a good overlord, for a bunch of sea-farers. They stressed the importance of organization and rule. They developed roads and irrigation, they empowered their people, they rewarded loyalty. The French noble houses owe their very existence to Romana influence and largesse, and Roma profited greatly from its lordship of the former province of Gaul. Eventually though, all things of man come to an end. Roma had lost its way; it was given to internecine conflict and backbiting. Gone was the clear, emphatic direction, the God-granted right of rule, and the benevolence and farsightedness that made the empire great. Fortunately, France’s own houses were strong enough and righteous enough to choose their own paths by then, and were able to bloodlessly seize the country’s destiny in their capable hands and usher in the age of France, the sovereign kingdom!

A bit of history: A very, very long time ago, there were people on the British Isles. France knew of them, and treated with them, this quiet insular people who bore no overly-ill will to anyone. They kept to their own, as did France in these early years. However, with no warning, the great rains came. The Hundred Years Storm began, and with it, the end of the British Isles. France suffered greatly as well, and this suffering was the catalyst for the parting with aged Pax Romana. The rains came, only perhaps a hundredth share of what fell on Britannia, but sufficient to destroy the entire coast of France. Rains that lasted two full generations and more. Storms that flooded old cities and palaces and castles, and washed them into the great endless Western Sea.

Thankfully the rains, just like Romana rule, did come to an end at long last. France to this day remains a southwardly-looking nation because of them though. Over the course of another generation or two, the lands dried, the bogs firming up to become solid earth again. The current coastlines of France no longer represent to coast from before, but they are firm and stable, and the French have reclaimed them for their own. Perhaps in penance for the decades of abuse, the western shores were kissed with decades of warm, fine weather, and it quickly redeveloped as a million French were eager to live in full sunshine once more. Cities sprouted on the bedrock bones of peninsulas and beaches. Including one small stretch of land where a city named Calais once stood, a place now called Deau Vere.

The French learned within 40 or so years that something on the British isles also survived. The freshly built cities on the coast were either razed by unknown sea-raiders or quickly fortified and actively defended against them. In truth, the entire western coast of France became the series of watch-towers and fortresses it is today. The entire western half of France began to change with it. The sea-raiders were ruthless and unceasing. Years would pass and only the seasons themselves could slow the innumerable ships bearing their foul cargo. Only recently rebuilt, the coasts of France were augmented and fortified to a level that no country had attempted before. Architects were replaced by engineers, and buildings were constructed for strength and resilience first, with beauty an afterthought. Cities were lost and retaken dozens of times as the British menace manifested. Calais was taken and held by a horde of brilliantly-armored fighters, supported by an armada of byzantine and bizarre warships. These were the British, finally and fully identified, and the war with France provided the world its only look into these new men of Britain.

Nowadays, France has retaken most of the land of Calais, although the city is now no more. Now Deau Vere stands as a fearsome armed camp. An arcing series of fortresses, surrounding an enemy bulwark fortress of unimaginable design and strength. This bulwark defends the landing of the Shining Bridge, the bridge somehow built between Britain and the Continent. This bloody stalemate continues on without abating.

The nobility of France has grown tremendously in the last hundred or so years. From statesmen and merchants and artists, France is the land of the knight now. France boasts perhaps over a million fighting men, given its serfs and freeholders, and the flower of French knighthood blooms strongly still. Even with the attrition of a quiet border war ongoing, the French still manage themselves with honor and dignity, and France still profits through the strength of its alliances and its position as Shield of Europa. All nations (at least publicly) consider France to be a strong friend and an ally.

This is actually true of its brother nations, Estalia and Espana. Through royal family intermingling and decades if not centuries of trade and marital support, these nations truly ARE brothers, and the people of each are welcome in any. The people bond through open trade, rigidly balanced currency exchange, and lack of secured borders, as well as the many, many tourneys and games played amongst the three regularly, even in wartime. Another binding influence is the sheer enormity of their inter-reliance. Without Spain’s steel, Portugal’s’ navy, and France’s army, the British would clearly run rampant on the Continent already.

The French are an arrogant people by and large. They are secure in their maturity, their marital strength, and even the never-ending way in which France has had its antagonists. France is eternal, in their eyes, even with the Devil itself invading, France will live on. They take such pride in splendor and how they can continue to thrive and lead the world in spite of being at war. Their peagantry and spectacle is very, very important to them. As mentioned, they are close-knit with the Spanish and Portuguese, are fairly equivocal about the Empire, and view Tilea as a weak and indulgent neighbor: all the showcasing and NONE of the strength of Old Mother France. The French harbor deep-seated resentment and distrust (even fear and rage) for Kamarg, whom they view as a dangerous rebellious bunch. Their slight resemblance to the British exacerbate this viciously.

France was once a land of vineyards, wheat fields, and olive groves. Now however, they have matured and have lost much of their manpower for such. Now France relies on its much-smaller and sought-after wines, its ruling aristocracy, and their masterful textile industries. Some economists might say that France still excels only due to the generosity if its trading partners, but he would be advised to not be on French ground when he says such. He could very be correct though, the royal coffers are rumored to be dangerously sparse.

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Click here for more on the people of note in France