Belbac

Geography

Belbac is a rural satrapy of the Realm, located in the coastal Northeastern Threshold. It is bordered to the North by Azerban, to the West by Valis, and to the South by Miwoc.

Belbac was once home to significant forests of Cypress and Cedar, but heavy exploitation has left the landscape one of open fields dotted with farms. In some regions, flooding has produced mossy bogs and made travel difficult, though these are still too young to be mined for Peat.

Most of Belbac’s population dwells in small villages, and the land has only one settlement of any significant size, its centrally located capital of ‘’Walled Belbac’’ (commonly referred to by locals simply as ‘Walled’). In the First Age, an extensive road system connected the settlements of the land to this hub, from where further transportation routes could carry goods out to the ports of the coast, but in the present Age these have fallen into disrepair.

Aside from Walled Belbac, the most notable landmark in the country is the Pillar of the Divine.

Politics

Belbac is loosely ruled by a Council of Elders, each of whom leads their own village (or city block in the capital) and assemble in the capital of Walled Belbac to discuss and decide matters of import.

Belbac is a satrapy of the Realm, currently under care of House Cynis, and before them House Cathak. Due to the loose nature of the Council of Elders, the Realm’s Satrap and their accompanying Thousand Scales bureaucracy are often the closer to functioning as the land’s central government.

While the traditional residence of the Satrap and Imperial bureaucracy have been in the capital, the current Satrap Cynis Borok has relocated his court to an expansive estate and gardens outside of the city walls, much to the frustration of the Dragons of the Wall charged with securing him.

Military

Belbac, surrounded by other satrapies of the Realm, had little need for significant military forces, secured by the House Guard troops assigned to aid the Satrap and a token garrison from the 4th Imperial Legion, which was withdrawn at the outbreak of the Campaign against the Anathema-Voivode.

House Cynis, when it took possession of the satrapy, did not assign House Guard to replace those withdrawn by House Cathak. Instead, it recruited a company known as the Dragons of the Wall, locals from Belbac but employed directly by the House and the Foreign Office (at significant pay) and supplied with Realm steel weapons and armour as well as horses and a distinctive shield bearing the image of a dragon’s head (a matter the Immaculate Order has decried as heretical, but which was legitimized in a missive from the Scarlet Empress which commanded the Dragons ‘take up these shields to walk the road of enlightenment.’).

Well-trained and well-equipped, the Dragons of the Wall are fiercely loyal to the Realm they serve, leaving other locals in Belbac to mutter the soldiers betray their own land for Jade coins. They are not great in numbers, however, their primary duties to secure the capital, the satrap, and tax collectors making their rounds. They were redeployed to the northern border areas when the Anathema rose in Azerban, though while many of them boast that her armies shied away from attack due to their presence few outside their ranks believe such a tale.

Regardless of these troops, Belbac has always been served by local village militias, consisting of skirmishers armed with bows and axes, who provide policing and deter banditry. As woodcutting has dwindled and agriculture increased, militia service has become one of few ways lumberjack families can still make use of their axes, which has seen the number of volunteers increase even as the skill of each has lessened.

Economy

Once, Belbac was a major wood exporting nation, with extensive forests of Cedar available much closer to the Inner Sea than the deep woods of the East and in high demand for construction, shipbuilding, and (due to its resin) funerary rituals. Through the First Age and the Shogunate Era, the land was dotted with logging camps linked by roads to the central hub city, with numerous woodcutters and Magitech mechanisms harvesting and processing lumber to be transported across the Threshold and to the Blessed Isle. While constant harvesting thinned the once-deep woods over the centuries, a tradition of moving activity between camps and replanting saplings ensured their continued survival.

When House Cathak took control of the satrapy, they enacted a more aggressive policy, demanding increased lumber production. Ancient machines, already lacking spare parts, were driven until they ceased to function, and all activity at all camps was devoted to cutting without rest or replanting. This produced a significant increase in output, but in the end proved unsustainable: the forests dwindled, and even the art of replanting them was lost with changing generations. Today, while some lumber is still harvested in Belbac, the surviving woodlands are sparse and isolated, and much of the country has been given over to agriculture (Wheat and Barley). The land is not well suited for this task, for the soil is poor and prone to becoming boggy in the rain, and still riven with tough old roots beneath the surface, meaning that most families farm for subsistence and little more. With the loss of lumber, House Cathak sought to be free of the burden that was Belbac, whose tribute obligations had not been reduced. It sold off broken machinery, stripped the land of saws and other now-useless tools, but these soon ran out.

Eventually the House managed to divest itself of the impoverished holding, exploiting the annoyance of the Scarlet Empress at the acts of a House Cynis scion to have the place transferred to their control. Though few thought House Cynis had any interest in the ruined satrapy, over the decades it has been in control several changes have been implemented. Foremost amongst them was imposition of severe restrictions on woodcutting in the country, and matching contracts with Sijan for the little that was cut. The morticians had wealth enough to pay well for embalming resins, allowing House Cynis to lessen the payments from its own coffers to make up Belbac’s shortfalls in tribute.

The first satrap of the House, Cynis Rahe, established the Dragons of the Wall and investigated the possibility of slave plantations. The sparse population and poor soil showed this to be unsuitable, but a number of villages were left with fields and seed for various herbs including Crampbark and Mallow, which have allowed them to achieve greater prosperity. For those less fortunate settlements, House Cynis has been open to accepting payment of taxes in the form of children, relieving the burden of extra mouths to feed… the House has ensured that seed for fertility herbs such as Motherwort is spread by its tax collectors as they make their rounds, to aid the population in maintaining production.

Nevertheless, Belbac remains poor, and the House collects less from it than it must pay to fulfil the satrapy’s obligations to the Scarlet Throne. The current satrap, Cynis Borok, is determined to resolve this situation during his tenure, and to that end has been increasing the tax burden on the population, while lobbying for major investments in repairing the run-down road systems and enacting drainage projects to curtail bogs in favour of paddies for Rice which can be exported (while the Isle’s needs are already satisfied, Borok sees that the Cadet Dynasts of Cherak hunger for rice so their meals might closer match those of the Great Houses).

Religion

Belbac has no overarching faith, having long been in the grip of the Hundred Gods Heresy. During the period of House Cathak rule, the satraps provided significant donatives to the Immaculate Order in order to secure monks who would suppress the various forest gods objecting to the clearing of woodlands for lumber, and there remains an expansive Immaculate temple complex in Walled Belbac from which itinerant monks wander the land. However, under Cynis rule the restriction of faith has been loosened, and most villages are home to shrines for their local Field Gods where they offer prayer in exchange for aid bolstering their meagre harvests. Other faiths from neighbouring Miwoc have also taken advantage of the opening: the Cult of the Zenith has established a small Cathedral in Walled Belbac, while the Hundred Gods Pantheon lobbies Belbac’s gods to join its ranks... the Immaculates object vocally, but House Cynis seems happy to let them make efforts to spread… so long as they are timely in paying the fees for the requisite proselytization licenses...