The World is a Supermarket AND ICHALL

One time my father and I had a fairly extensive conversation about how supermarket's in this madcap world of ours compare to civilizations and political structures of the ancient world. Because that's just something we do sometimes.
...
It runs in the family.

Anyway, of late I've kinda revamped my setting. It's basically the same except for all the ways it isn't. The only thing this really means is that the terrible map I drew is now basically defunct.

I'm taking the Supermarket/Civilizations thing and running with it and I came up with this. I will not be listing the Supermarkets themselves because it's barely relevant anyway. But these are the major world powers.

The Ichallesian Empire. They're expansionist and pseudo-Roman but not quite. They're kinda like the British Empire in that whilst they don't hold a whole lot of territory themselves they are a massive military and trading nation and a lot of nations serve them as client states, dependent on the Ichalles for protection. Much of Ichall is very decadent in a Sword and Sorcery kind of way. Gleaming towers rise up like teeth from the wine-dark sea, as the city dreams fitfully 'neath an amber moon and other such clichés.

This is the important thing to remember when I say "this made up civilization is like this actual civilization" it's not exact. The vibe I'm going for is sorta looser and anachronistic, like the pseudo-Roman bit is less like how actual Rome was and more like how a pulp fiction writer in the 30s thought Rome was, the more Arthurian/Charlemagne bits are less about what those times where actually like and more about how a 19th Romanticism thought that time was like. So the Vikings actually have horned helmets. Except they don't, because my Viking equivalents are Hobgoblins and my Hobgoblins just have actual horns.

I digress. The Empire is built around the Seven Cities of the Endless Bay Islands (Ichall - the old capitol, Icharion, Metyr, Ascia, Tarantion - the new capitol, Pelepion - formerly part of Pellix and the Lost City of Manath. Also Vothens, an independent citystate in the North founded by Ichallesian adventurers is close enough in culture it is sometimes counted as the Eighth City)  and from there they've annexed Pellix, are establishing colonies across the North (like in Pryn) where they talk about "civilizing the savage", and Agalus and Espen are dependent on their military for protection. They're less an actual military empire (though some would like to change that) and more a large trade alliance wherein the terms of contract are agreed at spear point. In terms of character the Ichalles are like the British and Roman Empires. They like to present themselves as being conservative, stoic down to earth businessmen, when actually in the background there's a lot of crime, corruption, decadence, opium smoking, industrialised whoring, rampant alcoholism in the working classes (think the Gin Craze) and general vacuous frivolity, with added sword and sorcery blood cults and orgiastic rituals to dark and blasphemous gods.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE ICHALLESIAN EMPIRE

• The ruling class is mostly made up of sorcerers and magic users, and the Collegium is a semi-criminal faction/"gentleman's club" made up of the magic using nobility to ensure they stay in power and keep magic regulated throughout the empire. 
• Ichallesian politics is fraught and incredibly dangerous, with assassination and flash in the pan civil wars common. It takes either an iron willed tyrant, a political savant or a madman of the worst sought to hold the Emperor's throne for even a year. Needless to say these power hungry individuals have often sought help from a variety of supernatural forces, making Faustian pacts to aid them in their bloody if brief ascents. The marks of these unholy bargains linger across the cities to these days in the form of assorted compacts and superstitions that bind the citizens to this day. Such as:
• In Ichall the Rite of the Lizard and the Snake is observed. If a household sits down to eat a meal in the presence of a lizard, everyone dining must forgo meat for a year and a day. If they fail to abstain from animal flesh for the allocated time, a basilisk will emerge from the household's cistern, inevitably turning the household into stone. Ichall is overrun with the things now, and it is also called the City of Statues because petrified citizens are common sites on street corners and in back alleys. Specially bread blind mongooses are used to keep the basilisk numbers down.
• In Ascia it is said the wind demons will bring misfortune on those who do not carry their symbol, and as such all citizens wear bird-feathers, typically braided into their hair, to ward off bad luck. 
• In Metyr cats are forbidden and killed on sight. As is anyone who is thought to have brought a cat into the city. No one knows why the Metyrians fear cats so. They do not speak of it. 
• In Icharion the ground breaking of any given construction project must be done in the shadow of a virgin girl, lest the building collapse. 
• Across all cities it is said that to enter a house with the left foot first is to bring doom upon it.  
• Despite the lethal political climate of the Empire the current Emperor Rathari Malicild has managed to keep power for 45 years now, having killed every man sent to murder him, often with his own hands. He rules as a tyrant and heads up a very conservative faction who believes the Empire needs to stamp out internal decadence, immorality and general personal freedom so they, as a nation, can get down to the business of militarising properly and making everything that isn't Ichallesian Ichallesian. 
• Within the Empire the church of Athros has managed to gain significant power by backing the conservative factions. For nearly a hundred years now this influence has allowed the Athrosian clergy to elevate themselves above other cults and make claims like "Athros is the greatest god", "it is wrong to hold other gods before Athros" and even "Athros is the only True God". Whether or not any of this is true is immaterial, as these ideas are now accepted by a majority of the Empire's citizens, including the Emperor himself. 
• This has lead to the Emperor levying increasing restrictions against the cults and churches of other deities, both at home and in the provinces, particularly those seem as centres of immorality and ill repute. Recently this has climaxed with the full scale outlawing of the worship of VoraMyr, effectively declaring the popular androgynous Double God false. A lot of people where unhappy, both on religious grounds and as the outright outlawing of an entire faith as a violation of personal freedom. 
• This is the reason the capitol has moved from Ichall to Tarantion in the last decade. Ichall has become a warzone of revolutionary activity, eating itself in a wave of criminality and violence. 
• The Endless Bay Islands are bad country for horses. The countryside is either thick semi-tropical forest (most grain is imported and the farmers have a nomadic, slash and burn system) and rocky scrubland. Whilst there are horses bread in Ichall (one mad Emperor was a horse-fancier, in a disturbingly accurate sense. He imported a herd of piebald horses from Ichall for his... ahem... "personal" use, and their descendants roam semi-wild in the vast Serpentine Park at the cities centre) there is no real equestrian culture, and the military typically relies on auxilaries and mercenary troops for cavalry. What they do have, however, are these: 

Called "alce" or "keythongs", because they sound more fantasy then phorusrhacos, they are used as chariot animals, and breed with as much care as racehorses. Speaking of horses, they're terrified of them keythongs, because they eat them. Though chariots are now obsolete the world over, the tactical use of war-alce have proved effective at disrupting enemy cavalry. Fortunately for the Northern nations who depend on the horse, they are flimsy birds who don't do well in cold climates and even less well at sea. The Ichallesian army uses the feathers from these creatures in their helmet plumes to determine rank.

• The Ichalles have a patronymic naming system, wherein the surname is the father's first name with the added suffix -cild. To make things simpler many families only use a few names, cycling through the generations. 
• The Ichalles also consider trousers to be barbaric and effete. Typical dress for an Ichalles is a white tunic of varying length and cut, decorated with geometric black shapes.
• The Ichalles also have a great fondness for black and white as a motif and it features heavily in their artwork, fashion and society. The national standard is a giant black and white basilisk curling around a burning tower, and the Imperial standard is a black tiger with white stripes, now extinct. The skin of one serves as the Emperor's official cloak. 
• It is thought that the Seven Cities were once Hobgoblin in origin, which would explain the Hobgoblin nations particularly fierce hatred for the Ichalles. It burns even fiercer then the hatred they have for everyone else. This would explain a lot, as many parallels can be drawn between the ways Ichallesian and Hobgoblin politics, military and society are ordered. However, neither the Ichallesians nor the Hobgoblins admit to having founded the Seven Cities, suggesting that perhaps something older is at work. 

I might stop here. This is getting pretty long and I've already accidentally deleted it all twice, so I'll get it up and carry on with the other nations later. Cool? Cool.