Introduction:
Controlling almost half of the geographic area of the Great Convergence are the squabbling city states of the Snallygaster Snake People. These snake people have developed a unique culture based on refusing to live in secret among the humans like many other groups of snake people, and instead using their natural shape-shifting abilities to express themselves and show off among the other snake people of the cities. With snake people as the rulers and majority populations of the city states, the Snallygaster Culture has been able to thrive and grow without the usual fears of persecution from a human majority. Because of this, it is fairly common for snake people from other parts of the world to come to the city states and adopt the practices of the Snallygaster Culture. The culture is very welcoming to these immigrants and there are several orders of Snallygastrus worshipers devoted to helping these newcomers get starters and adjust to life in the open. The city states, each ruled by a different line of archons and their families, have never gotten along well, with minor border skirmishes in the hinterlands of the cities being an almost annual occurrence. Each archon seems to believe they have the right and duty to conquer the rest of the city states, unifying the Snallygaster Snake People and allowing them to expand outward like the great snake person empires of old. At this point, no city state seems to have anywhere close to the ability to do this, and it is unclear if any of them will gain that ability in the future.
Magic and Technology:
All snake people have the inherent magical ability to alter their appearance however they want, provided they stick to a humanoid shape and maintain the same mass as before. With these being the only true limitations on their abilities, however, snake people are able to get incredibly abstract and outlandish with their appearances. Control over this ability is a skill that needs to be practiced to achieve truly outlandish forms, so there are several schools in each city devoted to the practice of magic, usually geared towards training students for the professional body pageant circuits. Talented individuals who win many pageants are often celebrities in Snallygaster society. This fame and fortune is known to be quite fleeting, however, as novelty fades quickly and the public’s focus can shift in an instant. The few snake people who have managed to ride these waves and stay popular for a long time are absolute masters of their shape-shifting abilities, their public image, and what they need to change to stay fresh and relevant. For everyone else, however, learning to control their shape-shifting is about gaining the ability to express themselves in any way they want to regardless of what other people think, and much of the other magic practiced by Snallygaster snake people stems from this desire to express oneself and honestly show who they are to the world.
While the city states have taken advantage of their positions along important rivers and trade routes to import whatever enchanted items and magical practitioners that they need, their homegrown magics are often harmonious with their goals of openness and honesty. Spells to see true forms and undo illusions are very common, almost seen as essential in a society where true forms are often hidden. Those who specialize in illusion magic frequently have a bad time in the city states. Another field of magic which has received a lot of study in the city states is magic to compel others to tell the truth, although the morality around this is a little gray. While Snallygaster culture values honesty and truth, they also value free will and willing expression, so any magic that infringes on free will tends to make Snallygaster snake people uncomfortable. Related to this, and as an extension of their natural abilities, Snallygaster snake people have also developed many spells for transforming others into different forms and for extending the limits of their own transformations into larger and smaller forms, or even forms that are completely without humanoid shapes.
On the other hand, followers of Snallygastrus who are particularly pious and follow the tenets of their religion perfectly gain the ability to channel several powers from their god. These devotees, referred to as Paladins of Snallygastrus, are able to grow feathered wings capable of flight out of their backs, turn their teeth and claws into razor-sharp, steel blades of death, and produce an aura in which it is impossible for anyone to knowingly tell a lie. To gain these incredible powers, a snake person must always be completely open and honest with themselves and others. They must always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Furthermore, the paladins may only use violence against those who have directly attacked the paladin or some other innocent person. Finally, there are several religious rituals and holidays that must be observed in the correct manner throughout the year. If all of these conditions are met, a snake person gains the abilities of a Paladin of Snallygastrus and is thus expected to act as a paragon of honesty, goodness, and protection within their community. Given the difficulty of maintaining this lifestyle, there are rarely more than a handful of paladins in each city. Regardless, their magical powers are often useful in defending city states from external threats and maintaining peace when defense is not necessary.
Society:
Snallygaster culture is centered on the city state as the main political unit. Each city state controls a hinterland in which farming, hunting, and gathering can be done to find raw materials to trade and feed the cities. Those who work in the hinterlands usually live within the closest city and commute to their place of work each morning. Most snake people of the city states, however, work in the city they call home, usually either directly in or related to trading goods and materials with those who travel along the rivers and coasts of the Great Convergence. In the 800 years the Snallygaster City States have been around, some individuals have been more successful than others, allowing them to leave considerable wealth behind for their descendants to use, benefit from, and grow. These wealthy families have built their fortunes on commerce and have gained influence, even with the archons of their respective cities. The archons themselves usually claim to be direct descendants of their city’s founder, with the oldest living member of each line taking the office. In the last 800 years, several of these dynasties have been overthrown and replaced by usurpers, but these events always seem to result in a new archon being declared with a usually tenuous connection to the city founder’s line. The immediate and extended families of the archons tend to fill the other offices and executive roles in each city. There are frequently several levels of bureaucracy made up entirely of the archon’s relatives before other families are seen in government positions, but some of the archons prefer to appoint people to positions based on merit rather than relation.
In general, the archons try to make a show of being kind and generous to the people of their city states. Most of the city states have some kind of system in place to help poorer residents get the things they need, and many archons see public charity as a good way to stay popular with their citizens. This, along with several religious groups that try to help the poor, has led to a generally good quality of life for the majority of Snallygaster snake people, at least compared to places with less of a social safety net. On the flip side of this, many wealthy snake people seem to believe that they deserve their wealth for one reason or another and do everything they can to justify the existence of a wealthy class. In turn, they seem to think that the poor are poor because of character flaws or a natural hierarchy. City archons are frequently sympathetic to these beliefs, mostly because wealthy snake people have greater ability to meet with and influence their archons.
To help justify their wealth, the rich and powerful of the Snallygaster City States frequently sponsor lavish parties, spectacles of public art, and most popular of all, they sponsor body pageants. Body pageantry is one of the most important and popular aspects of Snallygaster society, as it allows snake people to show off their skill and mastery over their innate shape-shifting magic. Pageants are held frequently, at all levels of skill and formality, with several subcultures and associated styles of pageant being present in pretty much every city state. Large, public pageants sponsored by wealthy snake people often feature the highest caliber of contestants, referred to as artists, who wow the general populace with the most intricate and beautiful shapes they can imagine. Smaller events are much more common, with neighborhoods, families, and even religious groups organizing events that anyone can join and compete in. The winners of body pageants are traditionally given a bouquet of white roses with pink polka dots and a cash prize in an amount proportional to the scale of the event and the wealth of the organizers. The cash prizes can be enough for an individual to live off of if they participate in and win many pageants. The roses, with their unique color pattern, are native to the Great Convergence and are known as pageant roses due to their close association with Snallygaster body pageants. The importance of these pageants in Snallygaster culture cannot be overstated, as they seem to support and reinforce the values that many snake people think of as defining their culture.
Religion:
Snallygaster snake people are a surprisingly religious group, with most of them worshiping the god Snallygastrus to some degree. There has never been one single organization, but rather there have always been a multitude of competing orders with different focuses and goals. For the most part, snake people will attend the weekly sermons from the closest temple to where they live, but they do not usually consider themselves a member of that order and will go to different ones for different things depending on their specific beliefs and needs. For example, there are several competing funeral traditions based on varying interpretations of what an open and honest funeral ought to look like. While there have been religious conflicts in the past, the various orders and traditions of Snallygastrus worship have come to an uneasy peace in the modern day.
The thing that unites the various sects of Snallygaster religion is a belief, apparently based on communication with their god, that all goodness and morality is the result of being honest, open, and kind. All Snallygaster religious orders have this as their central commandment and conceit, although the priorities and executions differ between groups. Of note is that the worshipers of Snallygastrus do not see their god as a creator figure, but rather as the source of their morality, culture, and way of life. Most sects teach that all of Snallygaster snake person culture and society is born from the revelation of the three virtues to the first Snallygaster snake people, who then chose to leave their homes and find a new homeland. The story goes that they wandered for several years before finding the Great Convergence and settling in the upstream region and the western deltas, areas that the gnomes had always left unsettled as part of an early treaty with the Convergent Wanderers. Conflicts between the Convergent Wanderers and these early settlers have led to a lasting religious taboo against interacting with the Convergent Wanderers. Because of this taboo, Convergent Wanderers are banned from entering most cities. The Convergent Wanderers don’t seem to be too bothered by this, although they certainly recognize the injustice of being forced from their ancestral homes and then barred from entering the settlements set up by the invaders.
City States:
Each Snallygaster city state is independent, with the archon of each city usually seeing the other cities and their leaders as direct rivals. Many of the archons have the goal of building up enough power to take over the rest of the cities, unifying the Snallygaster City States into a single state which can then move on to conquering other parts of the world. The large number of archons with this goal, however, means that each city is constantly watching all of its neighbors and covertly preventing them from gaining enough power to threaten other cities. This is done through a sea of constantly shifting alliances and ententes between the cities along with the occasional war. This situation has made it almost impossible for any one city to gain enough power to actually unify the city states or to even conquer their closest neighbors. Many of the diplomats and traders from afar have described the archons as having a bucket of crabs mindset, working together to tear down anyone who starts to be too successful.
Each city state maintains its own diplomatic and trade relations with the rest of the world. Additionally, each city also maintains its own taxes, tariffs, and import laws, a state of affairs which has maddened many merchants through the years. If not for the importance of the Great Convergence for global trade routes, the city states would probably see much less trade due to the expense involved in trading with more than one or two Snallygaster city states on a single route. Many outsiders have attempted to conquer the city states and put an end to the fractious state of affairs, but it seems as if the only thing that is able to unite the Snallygaster archons is an outside threat. When the city states unify, they seem to field an unbeatable army, supported in their defensive wars by the Paladins of Snallygastrus, considered the most powerful warriors in the Great Convergence. These alliances tend to immediately fall apart when the threat is dealt with, however, and things tend to continue in much the same way they had been going before the attempted invasion.
Showing posts with label Independent Snallygaster City States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Independent Snallygaster City States. Show all posts
Sunday, September 10, 2023
Sunday, September 3, 2023
The Great Convergence: Setting Details
Introduction:
The Great Convergence is the largest region of Tero with an average elevation below sea level, making it the ultimate destination for several of the most important rivers in the southern half of the continent. This convergence of rivers allows traders and merchants to easily get to and from many of the wealthiest nations of Tero. With the addition of access to maritime trade routes through several natural ports, the people of the Great Convergence are some of the wealthiest in the world, with access to goods from almost anywhere on Tero.
Geographic History:
The Great Convergence is but the lowest portion of a massive rift valley being slowly formed as the continent rips itself apart. Earthquakes are a common occurrence in the region, as are sinkholes and the formation of deep crevasses in the bedrock of the area. Being generally low in elevation, much of the water that falls on the southern half of the continent finds itself heading towards the Great Convergence. Because of this, many large rivers with high discharges flow to the region before meeting the ocean. Being generally flat and getting a lot of water flowing through the area means that the Great Convergence is highly prone to flooding. Almost every spring during the annual snowmelt, the banks of all of the rivers overflow at the same time and the entire region seems to become one massive river. Although it is very wet for part of the year and there is a fair amount of rainfall year-round, most of the Great Convergence is made up of scrublands and meadows. These plants are well-adapted to the thin soils and wild differences in water availability through the year, although the rivers of the region are surrounded by trees. Swamps and other wetlands are fairly common as well, particularly on the insides of bends in the rivers where water can pool up and stay after the annual floods. Native wildlife includes jousting crocodiles, armored water buffalo, and many subspecies of ducks. At the top of this food chain, however, is the apex predator, the pack hunting raccoon-wolves.
The Gnomes:
The inhabitants of Gnome Country have inhabited their lands for thousands of years. While they were originally normal humans with a hedonistic and mischievous streak, the event known as the Shrinking of the Gnomes resulted in all the residents of Gnome Country at the time being shrunk down to half the size of normal humans. Since then they have embraced their smaller sizes and developed a culture which venerates the traits that gave the gnomes their small size. A large portion of the downstream and delta regions of the Great Convergence is considered part of Gnome Country, with several important ports being controlled by the gnomes. The gnomes have used this, as well as easy access to trade with the First Empire through the Tradestream river, to gain tremendous wealth, which mostly gets divvied up between the nobles in exchange for a stable government. Gnome culture values theft and non-violent crime as a source of chaos, so gnomish locks and protective magics are highly valued as being some of the hardest to get past in the world. Any property that someone wants to hold on to needs to be well-protected in Gnome Country. Recently, Gnome Country has become something of a tourist destination as people realize that many things which are illegal in the rest of the world, such as glitter and rabbit pageants, are legal in Gnome Country.
Convergent Wanderers:
The humans who became the ancestors of the gnomes were themselves the descendants of a nomadic hunter-gatherer society which still exists in the Great Convergence. They call themselves the Convergent Wanderers. They get this name because they travel the landscapes of the Great Convergence in small tribes for most of the year, gathering wild fruits and vegetables and hunting armored water buffalo. The Wanderers call themselves convergent because once every year, on the Winter Solstice, all of the tribes meet for a massive festival at the southernmost point of the Great Convergence. Generally, the tribes follow a shamanistic religion, making sacrifices to the local spirits in every place they camp, hunt, or gather. The Convergent Wanderers do not usually interact with the more settled peoples of the Great Convergence, preferring to keep to themselves and only rarely coming into settlements to trade for metal tools and the few manufactured goods they tend to use. For the most part, the tribes live off of the land.
Independent City States of the Snallygaster Snake People:
Hundreds of years ago, the snake people of the Snallygaster Culture came into the Great Convergence and set up several city states along the various rivers. Not wanting to start wars while in a vulnerable position, they kept their new settlements away from Gnome Country. Snallygaster Snake People live openly as snake people in these cities, a somewhat abnormal state of affairs made possible by the fact that the city states have majority snake person populations. Like all snake people, they have an innate ability to change their appearance to that of almost any other humanoid species, but the Snallygaster Culture tends to see this as a form of self-expression and artistic beauty. Public displays of imaginative and aesthetically pleasing transformations are seen as an important part of Snallygaster culture. Pageants are regularly held all over the cities to give individuals plenty of opportunities to show off their best disguises. The city states are not unified, each one being led by a different family. The leader of each city, usually the oldest living member of the leading family, is known as the archon of the city and has absolute rule of their domain. Each city state maintains its own trade relationships and produces different goods, making some wealthier than others. Snallygaster religion values free expression and artistry, with worship centered on the good god Snallygastrus. The church encourages its followers to be open and honest in all things, especially guests to the cities. Despite this religious mandate, some of the city state leaders seem to think they have enough power to conquer and unify the other city states, and maybe even some of the neighboring nations as well.
Rough Timeline
The Great Convergence is the largest region of Tero with an average elevation below sea level, making it the ultimate destination for several of the most important rivers in the southern half of the continent. This convergence of rivers allows traders and merchants to easily get to and from many of the wealthiest nations of Tero. With the addition of access to maritime trade routes through several natural ports, the people of the Great Convergence are some of the wealthiest in the world, with access to goods from almost anywhere on Tero.
Geographic History:
The Great Convergence is but the lowest portion of a massive rift valley being slowly formed as the continent rips itself apart. Earthquakes are a common occurrence in the region, as are sinkholes and the formation of deep crevasses in the bedrock of the area. Being generally low in elevation, much of the water that falls on the southern half of the continent finds itself heading towards the Great Convergence. Because of this, many large rivers with high discharges flow to the region before meeting the ocean. Being generally flat and getting a lot of water flowing through the area means that the Great Convergence is highly prone to flooding. Almost every spring during the annual snowmelt, the banks of all of the rivers overflow at the same time and the entire region seems to become one massive river. Although it is very wet for part of the year and there is a fair amount of rainfall year-round, most of the Great Convergence is made up of scrublands and meadows. These plants are well-adapted to the thin soils and wild differences in water availability through the year, although the rivers of the region are surrounded by trees. Swamps and other wetlands are fairly common as well, particularly on the insides of bends in the rivers where water can pool up and stay after the annual floods. Native wildlife includes jousting crocodiles, armored water buffalo, and many subspecies of ducks. At the top of this food chain, however, is the apex predator, the pack hunting raccoon-wolves.
The Gnomes:
The inhabitants of Gnome Country have inhabited their lands for thousands of years. While they were originally normal humans with a hedonistic and mischievous streak, the event known as the Shrinking of the Gnomes resulted in all the residents of Gnome Country at the time being shrunk down to half the size of normal humans. Since then they have embraced their smaller sizes and developed a culture which venerates the traits that gave the gnomes their small size. A large portion of the downstream and delta regions of the Great Convergence is considered part of Gnome Country, with several important ports being controlled by the gnomes. The gnomes have used this, as well as easy access to trade with the First Empire through the Tradestream river, to gain tremendous wealth, which mostly gets divvied up between the nobles in exchange for a stable government. Gnome culture values theft and non-violent crime as a source of chaos, so gnomish locks and protective magics are highly valued as being some of the hardest to get past in the world. Any property that someone wants to hold on to needs to be well-protected in Gnome Country. Recently, Gnome Country has become something of a tourist destination as people realize that many things which are illegal in the rest of the world, such as glitter and rabbit pageants, are legal in Gnome Country.
Convergent Wanderers:
The humans who became the ancestors of the gnomes were themselves the descendants of a nomadic hunter-gatherer society which still exists in the Great Convergence. They call themselves the Convergent Wanderers. They get this name because they travel the landscapes of the Great Convergence in small tribes for most of the year, gathering wild fruits and vegetables and hunting armored water buffalo. The Wanderers call themselves convergent because once every year, on the Winter Solstice, all of the tribes meet for a massive festival at the southernmost point of the Great Convergence. Generally, the tribes follow a shamanistic religion, making sacrifices to the local spirits in every place they camp, hunt, or gather. The Convergent Wanderers do not usually interact with the more settled peoples of the Great Convergence, preferring to keep to themselves and only rarely coming into settlements to trade for metal tools and the few manufactured goods they tend to use. For the most part, the tribes live off of the land.
Independent City States of the Snallygaster Snake People:
Hundreds of years ago, the snake people of the Snallygaster Culture came into the Great Convergence and set up several city states along the various rivers. Not wanting to start wars while in a vulnerable position, they kept their new settlements away from Gnome Country. Snallygaster Snake People live openly as snake people in these cities, a somewhat abnormal state of affairs made possible by the fact that the city states have majority snake person populations. Like all snake people, they have an innate ability to change their appearance to that of almost any other humanoid species, but the Snallygaster Culture tends to see this as a form of self-expression and artistic beauty. Public displays of imaginative and aesthetically pleasing transformations are seen as an important part of Snallygaster culture. Pageants are regularly held all over the cities to give individuals plenty of opportunities to show off their best disguises. The city states are not unified, each one being led by a different family. The leader of each city, usually the oldest living member of the leading family, is known as the archon of the city and has absolute rule of their domain. Each city state maintains its own trade relationships and produces different goods, making some wealthier than others. Snallygaster religion values free expression and artistry, with worship centered on the good god Snallygastrus. The church encourages its followers to be open and honest in all things, especially guests to the cities. Despite this religious mandate, some of the city state leaders seem to think they have enough power to conquer and unify the other city states, and maybe even some of the neighboring nations as well.
Rough Timeline
- 6,000 year ago- The Convergent Wanderers first enter the area
- 2,500 years ago- Gnome City is Founded
- 2,000 years ago- The Shrinking of the Gnomes happens
- 800 years ago- The Snallygaster Snake People enter the area and establish their city states
- 700 years ago- The First Empire establishes trade and diplomatic ties with the region
- 500 years ago- Feeling restricted by the settled folk and concepts of private land, the Convergent Wanderers begin to occasionally trade with settlements
- 20 years ago- The Convergent Wanderers are attacked during their winter solstice convergence by a group of gnome religious extremists, resulting in the deaths of hundreds
Major Factions
There are several factions associated with each of the groups in the region, each with their own goals and needs. Most of them are somewhat limited in their geographic influence, but each of these major players in the area holds some influence that people may have to contend with at times. Most of these groups have something that they can offer to people for the right price, but dealing with them is not always a requirement for those willing to do things themselves.
Gnome Nobility
The nobility of Gnome Country is heavily entrenched in the wealth of the country, maintaining collective ownership of almost all businesses and industries. The monarchs and other nobles are primarily interested in maintaining the status quo and continuing to make obscene amounts of money off the labor of the peasants. Shaken by an increase in the rate of peasant uprisings in the past decades, the nobles are even more focused on stability and power than ever before.
Reformed Church of Gnomishness
The Reformed Church of Gnomishness is the newer, more progressive branch of the gnomish faith. They believe that the peasants of Gnome Country are oppressed by the nobility and do everything they can to bring about change short of open rebellion. The members of this church can frequently be found in conflict with devotees of the Orthodox Gnomish Temple, either verbal or physical. Often seen as the aggressors in these conflicts, the church can sometimes struggle to maintain a positive image with more stability-minded gnomes.
Orthodox Gnomish Temple
The Orthodox Gnomish Temple is the original gnome religious organization. They believe that the monarchy and greater nobility are a natural consequence of a society which follows gnomish values. Despite the blatant support of the oppressive monarchy, much of the peasantry sees the charity work done by the Gnomish Temple as a show of good faith that they truly care for the poor as well. How much truth this view has is up for debate, but enough gnomes consider themselves Orthodox to result in great brawls in the streets of cities when members of the Reformed Church of Gnomishness refuse to take back something they’ve said which is heretical to the orthodox gnomes only. For the most part, however, followers of orthodoxy value stability and fear any change to the status quo in case it ends up being a change for the worse.
Gnome Mafia
Gnomish culture values certain activities which would be considered crimes in other cultures. In general, gnomes only consider something to be a crime or morally wrong if it results in physical harm to someone else. Under this moral philosophy, theft, vandalism, and various other things are perfectly legal in gnome society. What sets the Gnome Mafia apart from the rest of gnome society is that they are perfectly happy to use physical violence to achieve their goals. While able to operate somewhat in the open in Gnome Country, their glitter factories and pageant rabbit farms being perfectly legal in their homeland, the assassination, intimidation, and blackmail side of the operation is still off the books. The mafia have gotten around this to some degree by earning enough money to pay off anyone who might be trouble, and so the Gnome Mafia has corrupted their home government just as much as it does in any place it sets up.
Gnome Peasantry
Gnome peasants, lacking noble titles or noble relatives to support them, have no access to the vast sums of money their labor becomes. In the towns, this is usually acceptable because towns are supplied on a regular basis with everything they need. This is contingent on profitability, but that is not frequently an issue. In the cities, however, where trade is much more common and heavily taxed, gnomes do not have a town industry to fall back on and must do whatever they can to earn enough money to survive. While a meager middle class has formed under this system, most gnomes live in poverty. This has resulted in several uprisings over the centuries, but they rarely seem to end well for the peasants.
First Empire Diplomats
The First Empire, which maintains an embassy in Gnome City and several of the Snallygaster City States. Generally, their orders from the First Emperor are to try to maintain stability in the region, since the gnomes and snake people are valuable trading partners for the empire and they control access to important shipping lanes and trade routes. As a secondary goal, the diplomatic corps is also expected to try to maintain a positive image of the First Empire in foreign lands to hopefully make conquest easier in the distant future. The second goal is a secret outside of the First Empire Diplomatic Corps, for obvious reasons.
First Empire Merchants
Many traders have come down the Tradestream and through the maritime trade routes from the First Empire to buy, sell, and trade exotic goods. Offering all sorts of products from all over the empire, the merchants tend to buy up gnomish locks and snallygaster preserved meats to sell back home. These traders, unlike gnomes, are not taxed on nearly all their profits like the native gnomes, so they are able to make quite a bit of money with a few shrewd trades. It is also fairly common for these merchants to hire out crews and teams of gnomes to run their trade ships and caravans since a low wage for merchants is often better than any pay the gnomes could find at home without joining the clergy or mafia. The merchants are more than happy to take advantage of gnomish desperation since it helps them make obscene amounts of money.
Convergent Wanderers
The Convergent Wanderers are generally just interested in minding their own business and continuing their way of life. These hunter-gatherers are masters of the swamps and scrubs of the Great Convergence, so they are generally able to achieve their goals without dealing with the settled folk. The snake people and gnomes have historically oppressed the wanderers and restricted their ability to travel, so Convergent Wanderers are rightfully wary of outsiders, especially on the rare occasions they enter settlements to trade for a few essentials. Today, there are a few wild places that have never interested the settled folk, and the Convergent Wanderers thrive in those places. Currently, the monarchy of Gnome Country grants the southern portion of the Wanderer’s Peninsula as a reserve for Convergent Wanderers to continue their way of life and allows free passage to the southernmost point for all Convergent Wanderers for their annual convergence on the winter solstice.
Snallygaster Snake People Archons and Upper Classes
The leaders of the Snallygaster Snake People, their families, and their wealthy supporters rule their city states however they wish. Although their society values honesty and openness, there is an understanding among the rulers that some things must be kept from the public for the greater good. As such, there is often a drastic difference between the public personas that leaders and members of the upper classes display and how they are in private. Maintaining this facade is often a source of great stress and even intrigue in the courts of the archons as they try to publicly show the virtues and values of their culture while secretly preparing for the conquest of their neighboring cities and eventually the rest of the Great Convergence. All of the archons seem to think they will be successful if they attack, but no one seems to think they will be ready to make their move for some time.
Priests of Snallygastrus
The priests of the god Snallygastrus see themselves as the keepers of snallygaster snake person culture and good morals. They maintain elegantly-carved stone temples in each of the city states as well as in the hinterlands where they perform rituals and preach the message of their god. They believe that honesty and openness are the root of all virtue and that those who are honest in all things will find that being kind, generous, and so on will naturally follow. Short sermons are held every day at sunset in their temples and followers are encouraged to come at least twice each week. The priesthood also performs large amounts of charity to support the poor and frequently find themselves imprisoned for being openly critical of the ruling class. Overall, the priests and their religion are fairly popular with the peasantry of the Snallygaster City States.
Snallygaster Snake People Peasantry
The peasants of the Snallygaster Culture have a better life than their gnome counterparts in Gnome County, but they still experience a great deal of inequality with the rulers and upper classes of the city states. The archons do not generally tax trade as much as the gnome monarchs and they do not maintain state monopolies on farming and industry, so it is much easier for the average Snallygaster citizen to earn money and buy the things they need. An uprising has never occurred, although the peasantry generally wishes for more equity and equality in their societies.
Shiverstrewn Islander Merchants
Merchants from the Shiverstrewn Islands, directly south of the Great Convergence, are a common sight in the coastal ports of the region. These brash, independent merchants are less interested in luxury goods and are more interested in buying the necessities they cannot always get on their relatively small islands. Despite an independent nature and goals of self-sufficiency, most of the islands are short on several important resources. In exchange for these necessary supplies, the merchants bring unique pieces of art, strange magical ingredients, and the odd enchanted item. These goods usually sell for a high price, allowing the merchants to get everything they need, but there are some concerns that if it ever comes to it, these merchants will become pirates and steal whatever supplies they can’t afford to buy. Given how common piracy is in the Shiverstrewn Islands, this may not be an unfounded fear.
Shiverstrewn Island Confederation Diplomats
The Shiverstrewn Island Confederation, the somewhat unified government which represents all of the inhabited islands of the eponymous archipelago, maintains a single foreign embassy in Gnome City. The diplomats here are mostly tasked with trying to convince the monarchy to do something about the large amounts of pageant rabbits being shipped to the islands. Due to the geographic proximity of the two countries, many rabbits from Gnome Country make their way to the Shiverstrewn Islands for pageants, and many escape these pageants to then lay waste to the natural environments of the islands. Rabbits are not native to any of the Shiverstrewn Islands and most of them lack predators of any kind that will go after rabbits. Now, several islands are overrun with rabbits which are eating all of the vegetation in sight and outcompeting native birds and reptiles. These requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
There are several factions associated with each of the groups in the region, each with their own goals and needs. Most of them are somewhat limited in their geographic influence, but each of these major players in the area holds some influence that people may have to contend with at times. Most of these groups have something that they can offer to people for the right price, but dealing with them is not always a requirement for those willing to do things themselves.
Gnome Nobility
The nobility of Gnome Country is heavily entrenched in the wealth of the country, maintaining collective ownership of almost all businesses and industries. The monarchs and other nobles are primarily interested in maintaining the status quo and continuing to make obscene amounts of money off the labor of the peasants. Shaken by an increase in the rate of peasant uprisings in the past decades, the nobles are even more focused on stability and power than ever before.
Reformed Church of Gnomishness
The Reformed Church of Gnomishness is the newer, more progressive branch of the gnomish faith. They believe that the peasants of Gnome Country are oppressed by the nobility and do everything they can to bring about change short of open rebellion. The members of this church can frequently be found in conflict with devotees of the Orthodox Gnomish Temple, either verbal or physical. Often seen as the aggressors in these conflicts, the church can sometimes struggle to maintain a positive image with more stability-minded gnomes.
Orthodox Gnomish Temple
The Orthodox Gnomish Temple is the original gnome religious organization. They believe that the monarchy and greater nobility are a natural consequence of a society which follows gnomish values. Despite the blatant support of the oppressive monarchy, much of the peasantry sees the charity work done by the Gnomish Temple as a show of good faith that they truly care for the poor as well. How much truth this view has is up for debate, but enough gnomes consider themselves Orthodox to result in great brawls in the streets of cities when members of the Reformed Church of Gnomishness refuse to take back something they’ve said which is heretical to the orthodox gnomes only. For the most part, however, followers of orthodoxy value stability and fear any change to the status quo in case it ends up being a change for the worse.
Gnome Mafia
Gnomish culture values certain activities which would be considered crimes in other cultures. In general, gnomes only consider something to be a crime or morally wrong if it results in physical harm to someone else. Under this moral philosophy, theft, vandalism, and various other things are perfectly legal in gnome society. What sets the Gnome Mafia apart from the rest of gnome society is that they are perfectly happy to use physical violence to achieve their goals. While able to operate somewhat in the open in Gnome Country, their glitter factories and pageant rabbit farms being perfectly legal in their homeland, the assassination, intimidation, and blackmail side of the operation is still off the books. The mafia have gotten around this to some degree by earning enough money to pay off anyone who might be trouble, and so the Gnome Mafia has corrupted their home government just as much as it does in any place it sets up.
Gnome Peasantry
Gnome peasants, lacking noble titles or noble relatives to support them, have no access to the vast sums of money their labor becomes. In the towns, this is usually acceptable because towns are supplied on a regular basis with everything they need. This is contingent on profitability, but that is not frequently an issue. In the cities, however, where trade is much more common and heavily taxed, gnomes do not have a town industry to fall back on and must do whatever they can to earn enough money to survive. While a meager middle class has formed under this system, most gnomes live in poverty. This has resulted in several uprisings over the centuries, but they rarely seem to end well for the peasants.
First Empire Diplomats
The First Empire, which maintains an embassy in Gnome City and several of the Snallygaster City States. Generally, their orders from the First Emperor are to try to maintain stability in the region, since the gnomes and snake people are valuable trading partners for the empire and they control access to important shipping lanes and trade routes. As a secondary goal, the diplomatic corps is also expected to try to maintain a positive image of the First Empire in foreign lands to hopefully make conquest easier in the distant future. The second goal is a secret outside of the First Empire Diplomatic Corps, for obvious reasons.
First Empire Merchants
Many traders have come down the Tradestream and through the maritime trade routes from the First Empire to buy, sell, and trade exotic goods. Offering all sorts of products from all over the empire, the merchants tend to buy up gnomish locks and snallygaster preserved meats to sell back home. These traders, unlike gnomes, are not taxed on nearly all their profits like the native gnomes, so they are able to make quite a bit of money with a few shrewd trades. It is also fairly common for these merchants to hire out crews and teams of gnomes to run their trade ships and caravans since a low wage for merchants is often better than any pay the gnomes could find at home without joining the clergy or mafia. The merchants are more than happy to take advantage of gnomish desperation since it helps them make obscene amounts of money.
Convergent Wanderers
The Convergent Wanderers are generally just interested in minding their own business and continuing their way of life. These hunter-gatherers are masters of the swamps and scrubs of the Great Convergence, so they are generally able to achieve their goals without dealing with the settled folk. The snake people and gnomes have historically oppressed the wanderers and restricted their ability to travel, so Convergent Wanderers are rightfully wary of outsiders, especially on the rare occasions they enter settlements to trade for a few essentials. Today, there are a few wild places that have never interested the settled folk, and the Convergent Wanderers thrive in those places. Currently, the monarchy of Gnome Country grants the southern portion of the Wanderer’s Peninsula as a reserve for Convergent Wanderers to continue their way of life and allows free passage to the southernmost point for all Convergent Wanderers for their annual convergence on the winter solstice.
Snallygaster Snake People Archons and Upper Classes
The leaders of the Snallygaster Snake People, their families, and their wealthy supporters rule their city states however they wish. Although their society values honesty and openness, there is an understanding among the rulers that some things must be kept from the public for the greater good. As such, there is often a drastic difference between the public personas that leaders and members of the upper classes display and how they are in private. Maintaining this facade is often a source of great stress and even intrigue in the courts of the archons as they try to publicly show the virtues and values of their culture while secretly preparing for the conquest of their neighboring cities and eventually the rest of the Great Convergence. All of the archons seem to think they will be successful if they attack, but no one seems to think they will be ready to make their move for some time.
Priests of Snallygastrus
The priests of the god Snallygastrus see themselves as the keepers of snallygaster snake person culture and good morals. They maintain elegantly-carved stone temples in each of the city states as well as in the hinterlands where they perform rituals and preach the message of their god. They believe that honesty and openness are the root of all virtue and that those who are honest in all things will find that being kind, generous, and so on will naturally follow. Short sermons are held every day at sunset in their temples and followers are encouraged to come at least twice each week. The priesthood also performs large amounts of charity to support the poor and frequently find themselves imprisoned for being openly critical of the ruling class. Overall, the priests and their religion are fairly popular with the peasantry of the Snallygaster City States.
Snallygaster Snake People Peasantry
The peasants of the Snallygaster Culture have a better life than their gnome counterparts in Gnome County, but they still experience a great deal of inequality with the rulers and upper classes of the city states. The archons do not generally tax trade as much as the gnome monarchs and they do not maintain state monopolies on farming and industry, so it is much easier for the average Snallygaster citizen to earn money and buy the things they need. An uprising has never occurred, although the peasantry generally wishes for more equity and equality in their societies.
Shiverstrewn Islander Merchants
Merchants from the Shiverstrewn Islands, directly south of the Great Convergence, are a common sight in the coastal ports of the region. These brash, independent merchants are less interested in luxury goods and are more interested in buying the necessities they cannot always get on their relatively small islands. Despite an independent nature and goals of self-sufficiency, most of the islands are short on several important resources. In exchange for these necessary supplies, the merchants bring unique pieces of art, strange magical ingredients, and the odd enchanted item. These goods usually sell for a high price, allowing the merchants to get everything they need, but there are some concerns that if it ever comes to it, these merchants will become pirates and steal whatever supplies they can’t afford to buy. Given how common piracy is in the Shiverstrewn Islands, this may not be an unfounded fear.
Shiverstrewn Island Confederation Diplomats
The Shiverstrewn Island Confederation, the somewhat unified government which represents all of the inhabited islands of the eponymous archipelago, maintains a single foreign embassy in Gnome City. The diplomats here are mostly tasked with trying to convince the monarchy to do something about the large amounts of pageant rabbits being shipped to the islands. Due to the geographic proximity of the two countries, many rabbits from Gnome Country make their way to the Shiverstrewn Islands for pageants, and many escape these pageants to then lay waste to the natural environments of the islands. Rabbits are not native to any of the Shiverstrewn Islands and most of them lack predators of any kind that will go after rabbits. Now, several islands are overrun with rabbits which are eating all of the vegetation in sight and outcompeting native birds and reptiles. These requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
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