The Kingdom of Osraige is a nation currently under the rule of King Cerball mac Dúnlainge. The Osraige, their name means "People of the Deer", inhabit much of modern County Kilkenny and parts of neighbouring County Laois. To the west and south, Osraige is bounded by the River Suir, to the east the watershed of the River Barrow mark the boundaries, and to the north it extends into and beyond the Slieve Bloom Mountains.
The earliest records of the Kingdom was at Aghaboe, and this appears to have been the principal temple of the kingdom by the eighth century when the life of Cainnech of Aghaboe was composed. Osraige is ruled by 150 separate and autonomous 150 tuaths (clans) nationwide. The average tuath is small, perhaps 500 square kilometres in area with a population of some 300,000 to 400,000 people. The ruling tuaths are atypical, much larger than this, covering perhaps 200,000 square kilometres astride the River Barrow in the modern counties of Kilkenny, Laois, and Offaly. In principle, each tuath has its own king and court and bishop, but political power generally rested with the provincial over-kings.
A land of green fields for crop cultivation and cattle rearing limits the space available for the establishment of native wild species. Hedgerows however, traditionally used for maintaining and demarcating land boundaries, act as a refuge for native wild flora. This ecosystem stretches across the countryside and act as a network of connections to preserve remnants of the ecosystem that once covered the island. Subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy, which supported agricultural practices that preserved hedgerow environments, are undergoing reforms. The Common Agricultural Policy had in the past subsidized potentially destructive agricultural practices, for example by emphasizing production without placing limits on indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides, but recent reforms to have gradually decoupled subsidies from production levels and introduced environmental and other requirements.
Forest covers about 10% of the country, with most designated for commercial production. Forested areas typically consist of monoculture plantations of non-native species, which may result in habitats that are not suitable for supporting native species of invertebrates. Remnants of native forest can be found scattered around the island.
Politically the nation is technically neutral, but it will ally with any nation against Imperia, based on its long-standing territorial and sectarian conflicts between the two nations. Osraigean guerillas warn that their conflict stems from the Imperian policy of "territorial integrity" which has been in place since 1845, wherein the current class of tuaths were backed by Imperian "military advisors". Many also speak of the 1852 Domnach Rebellion which was crushed by Imperian forces.
