Afrometer

The Afrometers are a species of extra-terrestrial beings. Their home planet, Afrazel, is located 1.7 light years from Earth. They are currently ruled by the Teller family and have been for over 10 generations.

History
The Afrometers have resided on Afrazel for as long as anyone can remember. They were originally peaceful herdsman, with Afrazel possessing humongous fertile plains and vast oceans. They were a simple people, and they knew of no other civilisations on other planets. 15000 years ago, they were invaded by the manipulative Ynnk, who initially promised a beneficial relationship. However, they took advantage of the original Afrometers' naivety and the Ynnk simply drained the once vast oceans of Afrazel leaving behind the smooth, pink rock which covers 70% of the planet's surface today. They sold most of the planet's resources to other companies and made a rich profit, whilst very little was left to the Afrometers. Even after the massacre of Afrazel's natural resources, the Ynnk continued to occupy Afrazel and sell their crops and produce. 10,000 years ago however, a certain Afrometer called Jerome the Participator left his planet on a two year school excursion to the mystical world of Ooxocia. There he was seperated from his group and they left without him. He joined a clan of fierce warriors from a multitude of species and became a fearsome warrior himself. It was here he also learned the nature of the Ynnk invasion by scholars who had witnessed the Afrazelian occupation. Two hundred years on, now a fully grown young man, JtP returned to Afrazel with a mission; to overthrow the Ynnk and liberate Afrazel and its people. He befriended a powerful sorcerer of a similar age called Hunt-Hind the Spirit from what is presently Armoury, and together they secretly trained around a 1000 Afrometers in sorcery and fighting. They quickly overthrew the Ynnk in their city, and had barely marched onwards before the Ynnk, with their basic businessmen instincts, avoided the fight and left with their briefcases to the neighbouring world of Zhurk, where they were all devoured by large serpents.

Jerome the Participator became the first King of Afrazel (it was renamed Afrazel from the Ynnk name of Profit Planet Beta 2.71). The city in which the revolution started was named Afro City in honour of the liberated people, and immediately the Afrometer peoples across the 7 landmasses (the 8th landmass of Huto was currently uninhabited) began working to restore their civilisation. The city of Jerome's birth was renamed Jerome City and became the planetary capital for the time being. However, Jerome's desire for a unified nation were not shared by the new rulers of the other 6 inhabited landmasses, including his friend Hunt-Hind who was the ruler of Urmo. Due to cultural differences they each wished to develop independently. Jerome disagreed, as he feared vulnerability in case of another invasion, but the other rulers decreed that he would only have power over them in wartime. Enraged at what he felt was a lack of gratitude, and unwilling to be simply a ceremonial planetary figurehead Jerome resigned as King of Afrazel and passed the title to his older sister, Proker the Participator.

The monarchy of Afrazel continued to be a contentious issue, as the other landmasses refused to listen to certain commands and it seemed they held little real power. There was also a lack of a written text explaining the powers of the landmasses and of the King/Queen. There was also a growing fear of Urmonia by Wesonians as under Hunt-Hind's influence as Ruler of Urmo, sorcery began to be widely taught and practiced across all Urmonian landmasses. Wesonia however was largely non-magical, as the Participator's were a warrior family. The frustrating lack of power held by Queen Proker and Jerome City was continued by her daughter Preepa when she ascended to power. When Preepa died, the title was passed to her young son, Conkrad the Participator. 8800 years ago, fed up by the humiliation of the other nations, Conkrad issued an ultimatum to the other countries, demanding they swear fealty to him and increase his powers. Expectedly, this ultimatum was ignored, and Conkrad raised an army of 10,000 warriors to force the other landmasses into submission. He sent half his forces West into Urmonia, further dividing them to invade Urmo and Cawo, and the other half invaded Weso. However, his forces were stretched far too thinly, and he was crushed on fronts. He was killed in the city of Wesonia. This ended the Participator family's claim to the throne. Afterwards, Urmonia and Wesonia declared themselves independent of each other and each named a respective monarch. The elderly Hunt-Hind the Spirit was declared King of Urmonia, to rule from Armoury on Urmo. In Wesonia, Queen Foora the Willow, formerly ruler of just Weso, was declared Queen of Wesonia. Jerome City was abolished as the capital, with the city of Wesonia becoming the new capital of the area of the same name.

For hundreds of years Urmonia and Wesonia existed independently, with little contact between them. However, about 7600 years ago, sorcery continued its spread and soon reached Wesonia itself. The elderly Queen Thurnona the Willow became very frightened and fled east from Weso to the uninhabited, heavily forested landmass of Huto. Here she built a city officially known as the 'Sorcery Free Grand City of Queen's Locket', often shortened to Queen's Locket, a city where sorcery is strictly forbidden and punishable by death. She declared it and Huto independent of the rest of Afrazel, and declared herself free of the rest of Wesonia. This threw Wesonia into chaos, as Vomo and Weso now had no unifying monarch. Meanwhile in Urmo, the Spirit family had long since become extinct thus the monarchy had passed through various families from Armoury. The title had finally settled with the Bird family who had ruled for 3 generations. Queen Jooro the Bird peacefully invaded both Weso and Vomo and finally unified the monarchy between the two grand oceans, now to be ruled solely from Armoury. Armoury was officially declared planetary capital, but only to hold power over the other landmasses in times of war and planetary crises. She agreed to let every landmass appoint a 'ruler' as had been the case in past to govern their affairs independently, but forced them to concede the monarchy was officially the supreme leadership and that its commands must be obeyed. However, a large consitution was drafted which limited the monarchy's power, and it forbade tyrannical rule. Jooro further allowed the Willow family to remain as a pseudo-monarchy in Queen's Locket and Huto, so long as they would cooperate with the other landmasses and remain loyal to the official monarchy in Armoury. Thurnona agreed on the condition that Jooro officially outlaw sorcery in Queen's Locket and agree to uphold this, which Jooro accepted.

Since this fateful day to the present the Afrometer people have lived in relative political stability. The royal family of Afrazel is now the Tellers, a family that branched off from the Bird lineage. They are still based in Armoury on Urmo. Timbo the Teller is currently the king, the first male monarch in over 7 generations. Queen's Locket is still ruled by the Willows, with the incumbent leader Queen Flora the Willow being the current longest serving ruler, at an age of 973.

Languages
There are 2 officially recognised languages on Afrazel; Urmoni and Wesonian. The former is the language most widely spoken on the Huntic landmasses, whereas Wesonian is mostly spoken on the Jeromic landmasses. However, all Afrometers take compulsory language classes in school in which they learn the other, thus most can somewhat fluently speak both.

In recent years learning English has become a trend, and approximately 20% of Afrometers are able to speak it (mostly the younger generations).