Mercenary State Zem

The Mercenary State Zem is a nation of Landia known for its mercenaries and declares itself as a neutral country.

Location
Zem is a landlocked nation that is surrounded on all sides by the other countries. The Gran Chaos Empire is on its western border, while the former Principality of Amidonia, now part of the Kingdom of Friedonia, occupies its eastern border. On its southern border lies the Republic of Turgis, while the northern border has the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria.

History
During the chaotic period the region consisted of rulers of many cities who warred with each other for hegemony in the region. This led to many that were unemployed or war refugees to become mercenaries but they were mistreated and were considered expendable by rulers. Zem was founded by Mercenary Commander Zem who using his cunning led a rebellion of oppressed mercenaries that conquered all the cities and created a nation of mercenaries. The state declared "eternal neutrality" and would dispatch mercenaries to any nation that requested them

Governance
Zem has developed a culture that prioritizes strength and as a result it is a military state ruled by a monarch. As Zem respects strength it holds a Zemish Great Martial Arts Tournament where the winner can ask for any wish that can be realistically granted by the state and if the winner requests the throne the contestant can fight the current monarch and claim the title of King or Queen and is given the name of "Zem". The current King Gimbal de Zem also rose to the position this way. The capital of the state is Zem City.

While the monarch controls the military and external affairs to avoid the instability due to its unique method of succession internal affairs are mostly managed by a bureaucracy. However bureaucrats are ranked low in the social order and work like slaves and hold no real power.

Military
The mercenary forces of Zem act as their national army but a elite standing army under the king is also present. The standing army under the king are not sent as mercenaries and include the state's small wyvern cavalry. Zem is known for its "riding beast-hunters" that are skilled in pole arms and anti-cavalry tactics as due to Zem's limited size and resources limiting its ability to train mounts it expects the enemy to deploy more mounted units that them. This also increases the chance of Zemish mercenaries taking high-status enemies such as knights prisoner for ransom. When facing wyverns Zem deploys long-ranged magic users, archers armed with powerful bows and war carts carrying anti-air repeating bolt throwers. If the wyvern survives it is then attacked by riding beast-hunters who train fighting captured earth dragons, a type of larger untamable wyvern without wings.

Economy
As its name implies, Zem's main source of revenue is the hiring of its mercenaries. Zem is situated in a region with very few fertile land and is even more mountainous than Amidonia.

Foreign Relations
The Mercenary State Zem has declared itself as a neutral nation and is not a signatory of the Mankind Declaration Treaty. However, that does not mean that it doesn't get involved in the affairs of other nations, as it quite frequently hires out mercenaries to any nation, regardless of race, religion or politics.

Kingdom of Friedonia
The former Elfrieden Kingdom did have a contract with the Mercenary State until Kazuya Souma terminated that contract prior to the One Week War due to mercenaries lacking loyalty to the nation hiring them and being unreliable when a conflict begins to turn against them. Zem allowed the corrupt nobles to hire Zemish mercenaries during the One Week War to get back at Souma but the nobles could not afford the best and they performed poorly resulting in many dying and others captured in Randel. Amidonia also had a contract with Zem, but that did not prevent the Principality from losing its capital city of Van, and was forced to pay war reparations. Furthermore, Zem also had to pay ransoms for any of their mercenaries that were taken as POWs.

After the founding of Friedonia, King Gimbal invited Souma to visit Zem as a guest to see the Zemish Great Martial Arts Tournament as an attempt to convince him to sign a new contract or at least discouraging Friedonia from taking hostile action against Zem and also offered to organise a meeting with Empress Maria of Gran Chaos Empire in Zem with the goal of observing the relations between its neighbors. Gimbal failed to convince Souma to sign a new contract but managed to come a to a agreement that Friedonia will not engage in hostilities with Zem as long as Zem maintains "true" neutrality.