AMA/Feedback Thread: Kingdom of Sintar Background Information

[twowolves80]

SINTAR

Sintar is located in the northwestern corner of Corthesia, extending from Demar in the far north, along the western edge of the Karolus Mountains to Danar Lake, then westward along the northern edge of the Suci River to where it splits into the Atzi and the Cenere Rivers. From there, it encompasses the Skar and continues southward along the western edge of the Vashenwood to Lake Ineva, then eastward to Siroke and to the Mer Placida.

Originally part of the Empire of Sirakhan that broke apart in 2038 CE, Sintar formed nearly a century later in 2143 CE under the authority of Grand Admiral Balzar, who became the first Khanar. Comprised of the naval remnants of the Sirakhite armada and the privateers they employed, this pairing quickly emerged from its pirate and freebooter legacy into a proudly nationalistic kingdom with some of the most skilled navigators and sailors the world has ever known. Even elves grudgingly respect the Sintari navy's skill and capability.

This naval heritage and tradition is interwoven throughout Sintari culture, and has helped strengthen the rich merchant-families that rule the nation and filled the treasury with wealth beyond counting. Sintari are proud individualists and staunch nationalists. They are also highly secretive, especially where their guilds and families' business is concerned. Non-Sintari find them to be very welcoming and courteous, though bland and without depth; this is simply because they choose not to delve into a lot of subjects that they find invariably lead back to Sintari culture.

Much of Sintari family secrets lay in specialized knowledge of little-known tradewinds or ocean currents that give them speed over competitors. Their maps are superior even to our own here at the High Council; this is praise not lightly given, for our maps (which are copied by Wyndermere's official cartography guild) are drawn by the Magi of the Arcanum Divinitus using the most powerful magics at our disposal, including methods and techniques unknown to the public. Moreover, for the people of Sintar, family is as important as politics, and there is no difference between the two. Scheming to be at the head of the family comes as naturally as scheming to advance the family to the head of society in their city, or in the entire nation.

From this odd blending comes the government of Sintar: an oligarchy governed by a bicameral congress of the richest and most powerful familes in Sintar. The Solin Court of the Khanar is split into an Upper and Lower Assembly who represent the merchant-barons and titans of industry that undergrid the naval empire it uses to rule the seas.

The Upper Assembly consists of nine of the wealthiest and most-influential families in the nation, though membership does shift on occasion as fortunes rise and wane. Membership is not automatic upon reaching the wealth threshold; the family must be also well-established as a contributor to the Kingdom's welfare by feats of renown such as the erection of temples to Naaru or libraries, pioneering new trade routes or industries, or inventing new technologies in naval or industrial application. On top of this, the family to be voted into the Upper Assembly must first be recommended by the Lower Assembly.

Also present on the Upper Assembly is the Khanar, a neutral doghal ruler that acts as a tie-breaking vote in the Upper Assembly or Full Assembly, and represents the final authority on the Kingdom's business and diplomatic negotiations. The Khanar is elected not by the Assemblies, but by the Naaru priesthood to be their voice and advise the Upper Assembly in all matters naval and religious. It is the priesthood that controls the navy, not the Assemblies, and this is to serve as a check against the unscrupulous and corrupt.

The Lower Assembly consists of the twelve families next in line in terms of wealth and prestige who represent powerful guilds and interests in the Solin Court. They act as a check against the creep of tyranny in the Upper Council.

The current Khanar, a Luka Kovache, comes from the First Family on the Upper Council, which caused some to question the motives of the priesthood, but so far, Khanar Luka has proven as adept at navigating the inrigues of the Solin Court as he proved himself to be navigatiing treacherous waters during his time as captain of the Marinzimaj, an Akula attack ship and flagship of the Kovache family.

Coins of the Realm:

The coins of Sintar are round and have square holes in them. This is because a scale called a Kovan-scale is used to ensure accuracy of the coins against specially-struck coins called Kovan coins that are kept under lock and key. These laws are enforced by the Sintar version of money changers called Kovani, and so sacred do the Sintari hold their weights and measures that interfering with the business of Kovani or attempting to corrupt them or their weights and measures carries stiff penalties ranging from lifetime servitude on an oar ship or in a mine, to death in the most severe instances.

Khanar: A large gold coin worth 50 Solins
Solin: The standard gold coin of the realm.
Tolar: A smaller silver coin worth one-tenth of a Solin.
Talir: A copper coin worth one-one hundredth of a Solin.
Panzh: A small copper coin worth half a Talir.

Many sailors and other laborers wear the coins around their necks beneath their shirts as a safer way to carry money.

Some of the technology that has been pioneered by the Sintar are the Akula attack ship and the Illumary Sphere. The Akula ship was designed by the Kovache families who basically operated near-bankruptcy as a matter of policy for many years in order to pour vast--and there are records to indicate wealth enough to buy entire smaller kingdoms outright--sums of money into their research, resulting in a ship of unparalleled design and potency.

The Akula attack ship is a highly-modified brigantine with a beam of 32 feet and a length of 94 feet, and both fore and aft cabins. The deck rests upon a catamaran base consisting of long, narrow catamarans with a double-rudder structure in front and back of the ship to allow for dazzlingly-fast turns and unparalleled maneuverability. Nor is the Akula very high off the water, as its designers preferred to keep the center of gravity as low as possible, so the freeboard is only 10 feet (the distance between the deck and the waterline). The Akulas are being built as fast as possible as of the publication of this travelogue, but they are still exceedingly rare, and usually travel in the company of firmebrace schooners (schooners with modified hulls and fore and aft cabins). These schooners employ another form of Sintari technology: the dynamic yard arm. This invention allows lateen sails on the schooners to expand on the bottom into fully square sails so that speed may be quickly built up, then can be dialed back into the inverted triangle shape for quick maneuvers.

The other piece of Sintari technology they keep under wrap and key is the Illumary Sphere. This ingenious device consists of an extremely thin cast-iron sphere drilled with pin holes that has a magical crystal at its core to shine the light out through the holes. These lights appear on the ceiling in the exact constellation of the current latitude and longitude when the sphere's magnet is adjusted via screws and gears. This sphere sits in a bowl of mercury with a level line around the rim, built into which is a ring of 1,440 North to South bar magnets oriented with their poles to the bowl. This causes the sphere to orient to true north and "stick" to one of the quarters of degrees it aligns to. The user then uses a specially-designed sextant to adjust the latitude declination against the starfield from the Illumary Sphere by resiting it on an armillary-like device that sits over the bowl. The entire apparatus sits in a gyroscopically-stabilized base so that it is always stable no matter the condition of the seas.

All families contribute to the Solin Court of the Khanar and to the Naaru temples as a matter of national pride. This includes a small two-year service for all men in the navy so that the naval traditions continue to be instilled in their youth.

The nine families of the Upper Assembly are:

1. Kovache -- Shipbuilders and naval engineers renown for their unsual ship designs that are the envy of the sea.

2. Vukovi -- Wealthy merchants with extensive trade networks in Arkenheim and Uthengard and known for their access to exotic goods such as figs, pistachios and dates.

3. Mareli -- Experts in food preservation techniques and ship provisioning, they are known for their production of jerked meats such as beef and fish that stock most of the Sintary Navy's larders. They also operate a large fleet of privately-owned firmebrace schooners to patrol several strategic ports they control.

4. Marizic -- Masters of the magical and arcane arts that pioneered the Illumary Spheres, they also operate the Nautical Colleges that train up the Morunai--the ship-bound spell casters who wield the might of the arcane agains their foes on the high seas.

5. Radovi -- Wealthy traders who built their fortunes on importing exotic rums and spices from the Inner Sea all the way up to Sintar, they have since expanded into exotic animals and gambling.

6. Petros -- Inveterate explorers and scouts who are known for their daring exploits in the face of unknown dangers, they are the family famous for discovering the Cthonic Channel, a passage far, far to the north , past even the North Umbra Territories that can be used to allegedly travel to some inner world they call Ponore. The High Council has yet to verify the accuracy of these rumors. This family is also known for their trade with submarine cultures such as merfolk and sea elves through their interest in underwater exploration.

7. Ivanoi -- Wealthy family of patrons of the arts that have built numerous opera houses and theaters across Sintar, including their latest feat, a coliseum in the port city of Cerina.

8. Dragano -- Master negotiators and diplomats who have made statecraft a business, they are the only family officially licensed (through some very old and somewhat tenuously-worded legal documents pre-dating the fall of Sirakhan) to trade for obsidian weapons and the extraordinarily pure ores from the odd liaisons of Ille Drakos in Sheb who call themselves Dracolytes.

9. Tomic -- Skilled artisans and craftsman who provide the intricate figureheads and other naval embellishments for the Sintari Navy and other civilian engineering projects including bridges and government buildings.

The twelve families of the Lower Assembly are:

1. Krajic -- A family known for their exotic fabrics and textiles, particularly silk, they provide the sail canvas for most of the Sintari Navy.

2. Cerniko -- A family with a long tradition of serving the priesthood of Naaru, they have an extensive trade network focused on bringing to market rare and sacred incenses and herbs.

3. Jakovac -- A highly-successful family of jewelers and metal workers famous for the quality of their pieces. Their designs often grace members of the Upper Assembly.

4. Petrovic -- Experts in the trade of precious gemstones and rare minerals from the Annula Islands in the Inner Sea, they are one of the oldest families in Sintar.

5. Dragovic -- A family of scribes and sages sought for the quality of their illuminated manuscripts and connections to ancient libraries and repositories of knowledge, they are one of the few families in Sintar that work with the High Council in their preservation efforts to continue to shed light on the Age of Dreams.

6. Milnar -- A family of of millers and bakers whose culinary works of art have graced the tables of the wealthiest families in the land, they own vast spice farms hidden on islands somewhere outside of Sintar.

7. Kordic -- A family with a long history of martial tradition, their gladiatorial schools have turned out some of the finest soldiers in Sintar's Guard.

8. Brzovi -- Maritime traders who specialize in exotic spices and herbs from Eastern Corthesia and Norealis.

9. Lokeva -- Another shipmaker family that specializes in larger vessels such as carracks, frigates and caravels.

10. Blazic -- Skilled alchemists and apothecaries who have cornered the market with their highly-sought potions, elixirs, and healing remedies. They supply the Sintari Navy with medical supplies.

11. Kresic -- Known for their vast vineyards and large distilleries, they are connossieurs of both viticulture and wine making.

12. Zoril -- Experts in astrology and astronomy, it was their star charts that were used in the creation of the Illumary Sphere. Their accurate weather forecasts and celestial predictions are sought by sailors and captains throughout Sintar.

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So, what do y'all think? Feel free to ask anything. Looking for any feedback I can get on the realism of the kingdom's mechanics as well as any other feedback offered. Thank you ahead of time!