Puppet Nation Jistav

Puppet Nation Jistav (傀儡国ジスターヴ) is the country formerly under Demon Lord Clayman's control. Jistav is a mountainous region consisting of scarce vegetation and valleys. Initially a recreation of Ultra-Sorcery Kingdom of the Elves built by Kagali, it was later divided into two separate territories for both Kagali and Clayman, but was later successfully merged under Clayman's reign, after the defeat of its founder. Clayman gradually expanded the territory since Kagali's defeat, however following his death, Jistav stopped existing as a single nation and was temporarily delegated to Rimuru Tempest before being annexed by Milim Nava as one of her new dominions due to Rimuru's refusal to take over that territory.

History
In the distant past, the Ultra-Sorcery Kingdom of the Elves was once prosperous, but by its own stupidity, called upon its destruction after angering Milim Nava, and was wiped out overnight. The elven survivors went on to spread across the land and walked down different paths. Driven away by the Chaos Dragon, they sought refuge from their elven ancestors. Those with power explored and settled in the wilderness before building new kingdoms. Some escaped in secret, became reclusive, and lived away from civilization. Kagali was one of them.

Kagali, preceding her days as a Demon Lord, managed to survive Milim's wrath and was among the few left of the elven royal family. She escaped to a distant land to build a nation in the image of her birthplace, managing to preserve its technology and recreating physical copies. Kagali's greatest accomplishment was the fortress city and capital of Amrita, which she built using all her memories of elven magic and technology to recreate a fraction of her people's glory days. The nation that was born as a result was the Puppet Nation Jistav.

A few hundred years ago, Kagali challenged the self-proclaimed Demon Lord Leon Cromwell. Amrita fell to ruin due to her defeat to him, and Clayman's castle was built atop the ruins in order to prevent thieves from looting any valuables, though Amrita's leftover automatic defenses would serve their purpose if necessary. After Kagali's defeat, her subordinates willingly submitted to Clayman, and her territory was passed on to him which he ruled until his death. The other Demon Lords didn't object to this decision, thus the merging process concluded smoothly. Nobody knew that this was just a precautionary plan of Kagali, which she devised for special times like this and was preparing Clayman in advance for the role of receiver.

As time went by, Clayman gradually expanded Jistav's territory and became a recognizable force to be reckoned with, as one of the Ten Great Demon Lords.

Clayman's Castle
Clayman's Castle (クレイマンの城) is the castle that acted as Clayman's primary base and residence, originally belonged to Kagali when she was the ruler of Jistav. Upon he death at Leon Cromwell's hands, Clayman soon took over the castle in her stead.

The castle itself acted as Clayman's primary power base where he plotted out his operations and held meetings with his associates, including the members of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance and other Demon Lords.

The interior of the castle is extravagant, decorated with many expensive arts and furniture. After Clayman's downfall, management of the castle was on Dark Elves.


 * -|Light Novel=

Wetlands
Before reaching Clayman's Castle, it is necessary to traverse the lush yet bottomless wetlands. They act as an environmental barrier and simultaneously function as the first line of defense of Clayman’s headquarters. Right here was located an automatic defense mechanism created at that time by Curse Lord Kazalim, that bounded Adalman, the Index Finger of Clayman's Five Fingers for nearly a millennium to this land. Not only this gesture from Demon Lord Kazalim's side allowed Adalman to live all this time, but also turned him into a rather powerful Majin, due to evolution from Wight into Wight King and bond with every soul present here. The Legions of Undead created and led by Adalman were also located here.

Beyond these wetlands are several murky swamps from the surface of which gas is bubbling out. They are creating the cloud of mysterious mist, making the surroundings seem even eerier. The moment you wade into these moorlands, the habitat starts to disappear in the thick fog plummeting visibility to nearly nothing making it nearly impossible to navigate and observe the suspicious surroundings without additional Skills that increase awareness and visual capabilities.

The mist located here not only decreases visual awareness and confuses the sense of direction, but it also creates a Spatial Interference to lure unlucky intruders from any direction straight into the circle of dozens and thousands of undead soldiers under Adalman's command, that were concealed by the same mist. Additionally, the fog is blocking out Magic. Without the ability to teleport out or communicate trespassers are left to their own.


 * -|Anime=

Ruins of Amrita
Underneath Clayman's castle laid the cavernous ruins of Amrita, accessible via an enchanted giant gate that was located inside the castle, which only Clayman could open previously. The Dark Elves weren't allowed there and were only able to enter the upper floor. The giant gate to the second level of the ruin was enchanted with ancient magic and could be opened by solving a coded spell. The true worth of the ancient ruins was the magical defense mechanism for the city setup by Kagali. Unlike the city on the surface protected by Adalman, Amrita was mainly guarded by Kagali’s spells and her numerous golems carrying several Unique-grade equipment.

There is a settlement for the Dark Elves that lived within the ruins.

The ruins were divided into three levels, with the deepest one serving as a crypt. The first level acted as the treasury, which was transferred during Clayman's reign, and has since been used as living quarters.

If the first floor was illuminated by linking it with the orbit of the sun, the middle floor which had magic candlesticks on the stone walls, would emit faint inextinguishable light created by magic. The middle floor greatly differed from the upper floor mostly because of the usage of stone walls with fabulous murals painted on them, replicating the life of the elven ancestors, narrow corridors and low ceiling. The second level also consisted of some more invaluable trophies, such as Unique Grade gears, treasures, jewels and other riches.

The third level was where the closely guarded crypt lied. Presumably the corpses of her fallen elven brethren were buried there, with a possibility that the crypt also contained the bodies of the royal family, given that Kagali was a former royal. The crypt was also where the Dark Elves stored many treasures, including valuable murals, weapons, gold coins and some stellas (a very rare and extremely expensive valued currency). The corridors that lead to the crypt still guarded by numerous enchanted dolls, were programmed to allow only certain biological life-form patterns, repelling any intruders who didn't match them through the golems and even going so far in order to defend the crypt to building his castle atop the ruins to prevent any graverobbers from stealing valuables.

Currently, the crypt is damaged beyond repair.

Death Valley
A path winding through jagged mountains. It is a rough, unfastened road that linked Clayman’s territory and the Eastern Empire. Despite this treacherous road being laden with monsters, traces of Clayman’s subordinates using the road had been found. Kumara's homeland — the “Cryptid County" was also located here.

Military
Clayman's troops could be divided on two separate groups of armies.

For offensive maneuvers, Clayman used an army that consisted of 30,000 various Majin and other non-human beings varying from rank B to A. By being able to use his predecessor’s legacy, knowledge and magic, Clayman was capable of improving the combat capabilities of his subordinates by utilizing spells and artifacts, as well as recruit Majin who craved power. Clayman excelled at luring Majin by using great amounts of wealth and then manipulating them. They were led by Yamza, who was the Middle Finger of the Five Fingers. By being loyal enough to his master, he was given the position of Commander-In-Chief of Clayman's army.

The second group consisted of approximately of 10,000 undead minions and soldiers created and led by Adalman. Legions mostly consisted of skeleton swordsmen and various zombies. The most prominent figures in this army, besides Adalman, were: proficient and noble warrior - Death Knight that could be ranked as a A- only by his swordsmanship skills; and immune to death, rampaging Death Dragon. The usage of magic mist allowed them to create an ambush for hostile trespassers. They primarily served as the defensive forces for Clayman's castle.

For espionage and intel gathering, Mjurran and Pirone usually acted as Clayman's spies. Apart from them, he also had a group of subordinates specifically for these purposes, who often wandered through various regions around the world, allowing him to gather information more conveniently for his own ends.


 * -|Anime=

Eastern Empire
The Eastern Empire had no particular interest towards Jistav initially, though some years after Amrita's establishment they did attack it once, and its defenses failed. Years following Kagali's demise and Clayman's ascension as one of the Ten Great Demon Lords, the Empire began a trading relationship with Jistav through Damrada with Clayman purchasing many high-grade weapons and other equipments for his army. However, the Empire's true intention was to use Clayman in conquering the Great Jura Forest by having him crush any threats to their conquest, and for this reason, Tatsuya Kondou – head of the Empire's Intelligence Bureau – placed Clayman under mind control, forcing him to focus on destroying the Jura Tempest Federation as well as defeating the Storm Dragon Veldora Tempest, who had once foiled their invasion of the Great Jura Forest in the past.

Armed Nation of Dwargon
Jistav also had a trading relationship with the Armed Nation of Dwargon and would trade many high-quality weaponry and others for Clayman's army. Despite Clayman being known to be a ghastly man, Dwargon continued trading though they were highly cautious while doing so. However, following the revelation of Clayman being the mastermind behind the allied attack on the Jura Tempest Federation, Dwargon was hostile towards the Demon Lord and supported Tempest in their plans to defeat him.

Holy Empire Ruberios
Clayman considers the Western Holy Church to be a mysterious organization and wishes to learn about it's secrets. In order to do so, he sent Laplace to investigate the Church, but his infiltration attempts failed twice. Ruberios, on the other hand, has never interacted with Jistav.

Sorcerer's Dynasty Sarion
Through ancient history, the Sorcerer’s Dynasty Sarion shares an ancestral connection with the Puppet Nation Jistav. After the catastrophe of where the original elven kingdom was annihilated by the wrath of Demon Lord Milim Nava, a portion of the elven nobility had chosen to abandon the last surviving royal of their original homeland, eventually forming their own individual kingdoms that then united into the current Sorcerer’s Dynasty Sarion. The remaining elves who chose to remain loyal to the Princess, followed her and eventually established the Puppet Nation Jistav, becoming the Dark Elves.

Economy
Puppet Nation Jistav established completely different economic distribution compared to other domains ruled under Demon Lords. Clayman is the only one of the few rulers, who knew how to exploit financial situations and even Rimuru had come to acknowledge his potential genius when he heard how Clayman treated his territory's economy. Unlike other ruling Demon Lords, Clayman was the only one who allowed free and legal commerce. Establishing the trade relationships with almost every country around the world through use of merchants. By being the one of only country with free independent trade system, Puppet Nation Jistav had decent amount of merchants placed all over the Magic Continent.

For most of Jistav's agricultural output, Clayman primarily used slave labor. However, not everything was domestically produced. Some of the items were supposed to be imported beyond Jistav's borders, such as fruits, bread, and dairy products as well as other consumable goods. These products couldn’t be teleported by magic, so they were transported physically. In order to store exported products, Clayman had bases all over the world, most of which were warehouses. He bought them personally with a goal to store goods such as wine, fruits and other stuff bought from the Eastern Empire. This could explain how he was able to feed the Orc Army consisted of 200,000 orc troops.

We cannot forget about additional and no less important source of income for Clayman's exchequer - selling the heirlooms and artifacts buried beneath the first level of Amrita's ruins. The ancient relics, artifacts, treasures, sets of Unique Grade equipment and weaponry, golden coins alone costed an entire fortune. Only by selling a small portion of them was enough for anyone to live like the nobility for centuries.

Trivia

 * Interestingly enough, Clayman never considered himself to be the ruler of Jistav. He always considered the territory to be Kagali's and stated that he was taking care of it until her return.
 * Kagali had planned to restore the ruins of Amrita back to its glory days after she handled the issues she and her allies were facing. However, following the crypt's destruction, she was discouraged from doing so.
 * In Tensura Nikki, it was revealed that Clayman's castle has a name of "Shadow Castle", where he regularly held Demon Lord conferences, which were more informal versions of Walpurgis Banquets. They also included fancy tea parties and palatable Clayman's own hand-made pastry.
 * Clayman's castle was created not just as a base of operations, but as a secondary layer of protection for the ruins of Amrita that lies beneath it. It was more specifically built to protect the crypt within the third level of the ruins from possible graverobbers or thieves.
 * Majority of Jistav's citizens are Dark Elves, with a large portion of them in the slave class. Apart from them, there were also demi-humans and some Majins as well, with most of these Majins being recruited by Kagali and a much larger number by Clayman himself.
 * Jistav is known as the Land of Puppets due to its ruler, Demon Lord Clayman largely being known as "Marionette Master" and his methods of inducting subordinates as well as his treatment towards them.
 * Jistav is actually a recreation of the Super-Magic Kingdom of the Elves that was built by Kagali, or rather the ruined city of Amrita.
 * Kagali owned another territory where she had built a castle and a research facility containing Otherworlder summoning technology. Following her defeat, Leon Cromwell took over the castle as his own until he left after the Hero Chronoa's attack.