Parthos Wiki: The Kingdom of Western South Hold

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The Kingdom of Western South Hold

Part of the Twelve Kingdoms and South Hold

Realm: Autonomous half of South Hold
Leader(s): King Sfano of South Hold (west)
Population: 1,600,000
Military: 20,000 (west)
Economy: Strong, heavily involved in maritime trade with powerful merchant houses.
Language: Common
Adjective: Sudomin
Citizens: Sudoman/Sudomini
Heraldry: Tower of gold set against a blue field.

The Otessan half of South Hold is centered around the Bay of Storms. A number of good harbors can be found around the bay, offering protection from the namesake tempests roaring in off the Meditran Ocean. An impressive highway called the Great Road (built by the Otessans to help subjugate the area) connects all the walled and prosperous towns and cities that ring the bay. It is paved, raised slightly off the ground to prevent flooding, and protected on both sides by low walls. Watchtowers are also built along the road, looking out for sea-born marauders or raiders from the land. The Great Road is the backbone of western South Hold, tying together its greatest cities in trade and warfare.

Most of the kingdom’s population, and nobility, are based around the Great Road. Most of the country’s nobles are lords of cities, towns, or even neighborhoods rather than great rural fiefdoms. Income comes from taxes and tariffs rather than rents. The climate, too, is better along the coast, with steadier rainfall and milder temperatures.

It is little wonder, then, that the inland part of western South Hold is much more sparsely populated. Much of it is organized into Marches, which are assigned to the kingdom’s coastal nobles for defense on a rotating basis. The Otessan leaders have made efforts to construct highways like the Great Road further inland, but these efforts are inevitably abandoned when the money runs out or raids from Calants become too fierce. As such the valuable farmland that lies inland from the bay is underutilized. Horse-mounted raiders from the east (or sympathetic Porphians from the north) pass through the country’s borders easily, necessitating heavy investments from the wealthier bayside regions for defense. If not for the importance of all that farmland, many of the Otessan nobles (and citizens), their hearts tied to the coast, would just as soon let the Calants have their country’s hinterland rather than pay and die for its defense.

The capitol of Otessan South Hold is at the city of Piora, a large town of 40,000. Piora is beloved by the southern Otessans for its beauty and climate. It is a city of stone, with well-constructed sewers and running water to go along with grand towers, palaces, fountains, and public works of art. A network of covered sidewalks protects its residents from frequent storms, and most importantly cool, constant sea breezes deliver Piora from the sweltering summer heat that grips so much of southwestern Meditra. Piora is surrounded by multiple fortresses and always well defended, so that in more than five hundred years of warfare it has never yet been seriously threatened.

Society

Western South Hold is one of the rare civilized countries with widespread legalized slavery. More than fifteen percent of the population of the country is enslaved. This includes both native Sudomini sold into slavery to pay their debts or for committing a crime, as well as captured enemies (chiefly eastern Southmen Calants). The Sudomin cities of Rentoa and Delocho are home to the largest slave markets west of Ardashir; lately the markets have been flush with slaves captured by Ang'artan armies and shipped south by Tartessan pirates.

Slaves in Western South Hold are expensive, considered valued property and are treated relatively well compared to Ardashir, Ang'arta or some of the Northmen kingdoms. Slaves do the bulk of the work in the country's inland farms and on the docks at South Hold's great ports. Others are trained in domestic arts and serve as household slaves. Most nobles have large staffs of slaves, and a common aspiration of an ambitious artisan or petty merchant is to be able to afford a slave.

Slavery is condemned by all the goodly churches, and the institution's persistence in Western South Hold causes continued problems for its government in that regard. Athyria and Celestia both have small presences here and few of the legal prerogatives they possess in most of the rest of western Meditra. The church of Ahlrigh feuds constantly with King Sfano and periodically refuses support to the country's wars. The Ahlrighan justice system does not recognize slavery, resulting in strenuous efforts to prevent slaves from presenting their cases in the church courts. In the end, the Ahlrighans have remained in the country because of a devil's bargain: the church leaders have decided that the effects of their departure--possibly including the legalization of dark temples, greater injustice and evil--are worse than continuing to support a slave-holding society.

Freemen in Western South Hold have better lots than in most countries in Western Meditra due to the institution of slavery. The most menial jobs are all done by slaves, freeing more freemen to live in towns and cities in states of relative freedom. There is a small underclass for whom slavery is a curse, because they lack unique skills and so are competing against free slave labor to earn their living. These desperately poor residents are largely out of sight, in the underbellies of large cities or working on small farms in the countryside.

Parthos Wiki : WesternSouthHold

The Kingdom of Western South Hold