Kaze no Kuni, or “the Land of Wind”, is one of the five great countries in the Sagaverse. The Land of Wind is governed largely by a Daimyō, while the vastness of the Land of Wind lends itself to smaller governments ruling over their respective lands. The Land of Wind used to host one of the great shinobi villages of the world, Sunagakure no Sato, also known as the “Hidden Sand Village”, prior to its destruction. The residents of the Land of Wind are generally oriented toward the element of wind.

The Land of Wind is known to be a massive desert that seems to go on forever. Large dunes roll throughout the vast landscape, and also hosts large stretches of tall mountains. The people of the Land of Wind are generally known to be a largely nomadic, mercantile sort of people. Following the destruction of Sunagakure, the population has dwindled greatly, resulting in many residents fleeing to other countries as refugees while some stayed within the Land of Wind and merely relocated to other nearby settlements and towns.

The land area of the entirety of Kaze no Kuni is approximately 4,068,801 km². In terms of contiguous land area, the Land of Wind is the largest, ahead of the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire.

The Land of Wind shares a eastern border with the Lands of Rivers and Rain. It shares a northern border with the Lands of Rain, Claw, Fang, and Caves. To the south, the Land of Wind shares an oceanic border with the Land of Tea.

The Land of Wind consists of three main biomes; arid desert, semi-arid desert, and dry steppe. Over 80% of the country is covered in arid and semi-arid desert, with only their borders offering consistent greenery. Seldom few rivers run through the deserts, as most have long since dried up. Northern Land of Wind has dry steppes dotted around that become more common the further north one goes.

The majority of the Land of Wind’s climate is hot desert and hot semi-arid desert, with some coastal portions receiving a more warm to hot-arid desert climate. Most of the taller mountains have a cold desert climate, while some of the flatter steppes to the northwest merely experience a hot semi-arid climate.

Sunagakure no Sato, also known as the “Hidden Sand Village”, was a shinobi village located just west of the Kaze no Kuni eastern central border. Sunagakure used to rest at the base of a small canyon, deep within the vast deserts of the Land of Wind. Following its destruction, the entirety of the village has been reduced to glass-like ruin. Massive shards of glass litter the sands where the village once stood.

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Shinobi Demographic Breakdown

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Prior to the fall, Sunagakure’s economy was on the decline due to a lack of steady and active leadership. After the destruction, the economy has fallen to shambles, with little flow of money both into and out of the rebuilt slums.

Personal transportation was dominated by foot traffic that traverse a vast network of public roads, however following the destruction of Sunagakure, many of these roads are littered with shards of glass.

Kaze no Kuni is a very diverse cultural melting pot because of their frequency of trade, and thus their exposure to a multitude of different cultures. Sunagakure, at the time before its destruction, was no different. They primarily shared culture with Konohagakure, whom they engaged in trade with regularly, which lead to Sunagakure beginning to celebrate the Rinne festival despite not experiencing a winter themselves.

Sunagakure was founded after the Warring States Period by the First Kazekage, who gathered the desert-dwelling shinobi under his control with his overwhelming power. Shortly after the formation of their villages, Konoha's First Hokage offered to sell tailed beasts to Suna as a sign of friendship and to ensure a balance of power amongst their new villages. Because Sunagakure already had the One-Tail, the First Kazekage attempted to negotiate for a percentage of the tailed beast sales instead, as well as a portion of the Land of Fire's territory. Despite the First Hokage's wishes for peace, the world eventually fell into war. Suna's close proximity with Iwagakure has led to numerous conflicts over the years, enough that enmity between its shinobi has become deep-seated.

Following the Third Shinobi World War, the Land of Wind's daimyō started outsourcing missions previously given to Suna to Konoha instead. The Fourth Kazekage began selling gold dust to try to make up for the loss of funding, but it was ultimately decided that Suna shinobi would need to rely on individual strength rather than strength of numbers. To help in this goal, the Fourth had the One-Tail sealed into his newborn son, Gaara, hoping he would become a valuable weapon. For the early years of his life Gaara struggled to keep the One-Tail in check, and would unintentionally attack the village and/or its citizens when he lost control. The Fourth eventually decided that Gaara was a failed experiment and tried many times to have him assassinated, each of which failed. The attempts on his life, however, taught Gaara how to control the One-Tail, making him into the weapon his father wanted him to be and convincing the Fourth to call off the assassinations.

Twelve years after the Third Shinobi World War, Suna is approached by Orochimaru of Otogakure with an offer to join forces in an invasion of Konoha. Scheduled to occur during the Chūnin Exams taking place in Konoha, a small force is to attack the village from within while Sunagakure and Otogakure forces invade. At some point before the invasion takes place, however, Orochimaru kills and impersonates the Fourth Kazekage and leads them into a devastating defeat against Konoha's forces. When the village discovers Orochimaru's deceit, Sunagakure re-allies itself with Konoha and gains much from the peace, leading to new prosperity for the village. Two-and-a-half years later Gaara, now Fifth Kazekage, is captured while defending Suna from Akatsuki. Remembering their earlier mistakes when the Third Kazekage disappeared, Suna's leadership is reluctant to go after him. Konoha sends a team to help and succeeds in rescuing Gaara, though Akatsuki is able to take the One-Tail. Chiyo and Ebizō noted that the village has weakened as they had to rely on retired veterans and even allied villages.

After the other villages experience their own attacks by Akatsuki, they decide to form the Allied Shinobi Forces to oppose Akatsuki in the Fourth Shinobi World War. Being so much younger than his fellow Kage, Gaara is able to persuade the other Kage of how outdated their methodologies are and also proves inspirational in convincing the diverse Allied Forces set aside their differences and work together. Suna's forces prove valuable during the war, particularly with the Cloth Binding Technique to neutralise the Impure World Reincarnation. Although the villagers were amongst the mass of the world to be trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and God: Nativity of a World of Trees, the war is eventually won and the villages are all left on good terms.

Following the Fourth Shinobi World War and the peace that ensued, the seventh Kazekage returned to Sunagakure’s old ways of warring with Iwagakure. While disputing border differences, the Kazekage was unwilling to relent part of their claim on a northern territory. The Tsuchikage refused to negotiate without this territory, and caused a battle that resulted in the death of two Iwagakure diplomats. The war that raged between Sunagakure and Iwagakure lasted for over a decade, until the Ninth Kazekage and the Tenth Tsuchikage agreed on an indefinite truce following the death of the Eighth Kazekage in a large battle.

Since then, Sunagakure has had a myriad of Kazekages. Their place in world politics has been largely negligible since the war, and have instead looked inward to interpersonal politics. For the better portion of a century, from the sixth Kazekage’s reign to the tenth, Sunagakure invested heavily into the trade of slavery. They exported large amounts of slaves taken from their own people to foreign lands, which allowed their economies to flourish, however their people suffered and grew angry. A coup was staged and Inuzuka Shiro was killed as a result, allowing the next Kazekage to abolish the slave trade. Doing so caused a quick recession to plague the Hidden Sand Village.

Sunagakure had continued to stay out of world politics after the abolishment of their slave trade, although Kuroka Gin attended the Gokage summit after the accusation aimed at Iwagakure regarding the alleged assassination of the Hokage at the time.

Although Sunagakure had kept themselves out of the political game for a long period of time, they were still targeted by rogue shinobi, who destroyed the village and reduced it to a field of glass.

1. Shinobu, Reto (First Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
2. Shamon (Second Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
3. Seiji, Masaru (Third Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
4. Rasa (Fourth Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
5. Gaara (Fifth Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
6. Sabaku, Hiroaki (Sixth Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
7. Hattori, Kichiro (Seventh Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
8. z (Eighth Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
9. z (Ninth Kazekage, deceased) {NPC}
10. Inuzuka, Shiro (Tenth Kazekage, location unknown)
11. Inuzuka, Yui (Eleventh Kazekage, retired)
12. Kuroka, Gin (Twelfth Kazekage, defected)
13. Koga, Suzume (Thirteenth Kazekage, location unknown)
14. Imada, Seiryu (Fourteenth Kazekage, location unknown)
15. Ningyou, Midori (Fifth Kazekage, location unknown)

The Land of Wind is made up of countless settlements that dot the vastness of the desert. These towns are almost entirely dependent on one another, and engage heavily in trade with nearby towns and settlements.

Sasanin-Togata, conversationally known simply as Togata, is home to the Wind Daimyō, and has become Kaze no Kuni’s official Capital in place of Sunagakure following the latter’s destruction. Togata was once the central hub of human trafficking within Kaze no Kuni during the height of the Wind Country’s slave trade, and was the last to abolish it after the eleventh Kazekage’s reign debarred the trade.

Togata is split into two main districts; the inner wall and the outer wall. The inner wall is where the wealthy reside, usually merchants of varying trade or politicians and diplomats. The actual craftsmen and tradesmen, as well as the vast majority of the population reside between the inner and outer wall. Buildings are typically constructed of adobe blocks-- a mixture of clay, sand, straw and water, while the roofs themselves are either flat and made of the same blocks or sloped for style and tiled with clay.

Demographics
Population: 330,000
Population Density: 1,479/km²
Land Area: 223/km²

Economy: Poor, stagnated
Relationship with Sunagakure: n/a

Kuroyama is one of the larger settlements within the Wind Country. Although it is relatively undeveloped architecturally, Kuroyama has a powerful economy that thrives on their trade of precious metal, namely gold dust. The residents of Kuroyama are almost entirely miners, and they rely entirely on trade to supplement their community with resources such as food and medicine.

The buildings of Kuroyama are either carved into the face of the mountain they mine in, or made from wood, hide, and adobe blocks. The streets are almost always busy, even at night, where the numerous taverns will be packed with the weary miners.


Demographics
Population: 15,000
Population Density: 272/km²
Land Area: 55/km²

Economy: Excellent, on the incline
Relationship with Sunagakure: n/a
Relationship with Sasinn-Togata: Fair

The Ruins of Sāra are the buried remnants of an ancient settlement within the Wind Country. There are few entrances into the expansive ruins, which boast several hundred kilometers worth of roads, buildings, and tunnels that can be traversed at the risk of a brave explorer. Rumours claim that this sunken city is home to large, horrific beasts and masses of untold wealth.

Demographics
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Relationship with Sunagakure: n/a
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