Difference between revisions of "Calin"

Latest revision as of 17:38, 20 December 2016

For other uses of the term Calin, see Calin (disambiguation).

The Shogunate of Calin is a large state of the River Province, A former tributary to the Realm, Calin (named for its capital, Port Calin, and often referred to by that name) is now part of the Confederation of Rivers. Its present borders stretch from the Yanaze River north to Marin Bay, from the River of Tears to the Inner Sea.

History

Founded at the dawn of the present Age, the History of Calin has been fraught with conflict.

As they date their founding from the same time as does the Scarlet Empress’ Realm, the Calinti do not show Lookshy’s reluctance to use the Realm Year system, instead embracing it as their own.

Geography

Borders

Calin is a roughly triangular state of the Northwestern River Province. To the West, its coast sits on the Inner Sea, bending outward from the mouth of the Yanaze River and back to end at Marin Bay in the north, the boundary then coursing overland where it passes the city-states on the eastern bank of the River of Tears (such as Tien-Wo), reaching the riverbank itself as the Tears descends to join the Yanaze. The city of Lookshy watches Calin from the south, on the opposite bank of the Yanaze,

Port Calin

Port Calin is the capital of Calin, home of the Shogunal Court and the main residences of all the major noble families, as well as landmarks including the Steel Colossus of Calin. Port Calin is a major trade port, though not as large as Goodharbour.

Goodharbour

Goodharbour is a large port, whose significant traffic makes it the Calin Shogunate’s economic capital and its most populous city.

Tinaxin

Daimyo:

Tinaxin is a small inland city, the only major settlement in Calin which is not a port. It is at heart a market town, where agricultural goods are transported from the countryside, to be loaded onto caravans bound for the coastal cities. Tinaxin is particularly known as a center of Crampbark processing, sending the prepared bark to eager markets in Centak and Tien-Wo.

Ballico

Ballico is a small city on the western coast of Calin, home to a number of shrines and temples, including the Coenobium of the Unassailable Truth, held by the Immaculate Order. It is also home to a small school of thaumaturgy and exorcism, the School of Honourable Virtue.

Demilitarized Lands

Following the Calibration War, Calin agreed to the demand of Lookshy for a neutral area on the north bank of the Yanaze, directly across from Lookshy itself. The exact status of this region, however, is subject to some dispute: Lookshy and most other powers of the Confederation of Rivers consider the area to be outside the recognized borders of Calin, whereas the Calin Shogunate considers the Lands to be an area of its territory in which it has graciously lifted requirements to follow its laws and tariffs. Regardless, the authorities in Calin do not exercise their powers in the area, and while its military forces will conduct patrols (as do those of the Seventh Legion) they do not establish major bases or military ports.

Centak

The community of Centak is located in the Demilitarized Lands, where The Guild has taken advantage of the lack of laws to set up a Border Station and resort town. Centak is a major market for drugs (both intoxicants and analgesics) and attracts large numbers of tourists, particularly from Calin and Lookshy, with the General Staff considering it an outlet where their soldiers’ baser energies can be expended without risk to their own regimented state. While most in the River Province would consider Great Forks far and away the best destination for parties and pleasures, Centak is considered superior as a market for longevity treatments, and for its extensive web of casinos and gambling dens. It is said that nearly anything can be placed on the betting table in Centak, from mere Silver and Jade up to Manses, titles, and in at least one case, the stories say, a Warstrider.

Marin Bay

Daimyo:

Marin Bay is a large bay or gulf on the Eastern coast of the Inner Sea, which has traditionally marked the northwest border of the River Province. During the First Age, the Marin Lighthouse and many commercial harbours made the bay a hub of trade for the region between the Sea and the River of Tears, but these were devastated early in the Shogunate Era as River Province daimyo clashed with those of the Blessed Isle in the struggle to become Shogun. After its major settlement was depopulated to make way for the Marin Bay Redoubt, it has remained one of the more sparsely-populated areas of the Scavenger Lands, home mostly to small fishing and farming communities.

Marin Bay Redoubt

Marin Bay Redoubt is a Seventh Legion holding, raised around the Marin Lighthouse to hold a garrison which can defend the northwest borders of the River Province and serve as a base for rapid reaction forces deploying further afield. As with Lookshy’s other Redoubts, the one at Marin Bay was ceded by the government of Calin and exists under Lookshyan law and authority.

Politics

Government

Shogun:

The government of Calin is headed by a Shogun (from RY303, formerly using the title Daimyo), though the connection between this position and the Dragonblooded Shogunate is often more spiritual than direct. The Shogun has little direct power, for it is the daimyo who administer the cities and military, but the Shogun is the one who appoints daimyo and their families to those positions. This power of appointment means that families lobby energetically for the Shogun’s favour... or to supplant and replace an uncooperative Shogun with a member of their own family.

Each major city is overseen by a Daimyo, appointed by the Shogun, who is responsible for administering the holding, caring for the population, and passing on a share of taxes to the Shogun’s coffers, budgeted from the family’s own funds, as well as for carrying out public works projects. This latter responsibility is a source of great corruption and great wealth for the nobility, as they are funded out of the Shogun’s coffers… creative accounting and contracting labour gangs controlled by allies allowing a noble family to profit from their administrative appointment. Because of this, Calin’s cities are surrounded by ample fortifications and their harbours are well-constructed and maintained… but the hinterlands, outside the domain of Daimyo appointees, suffer from neglect and underdevelopment. An exception to this is found in the north, where the lack of a major city has seen the region itself granted a Daimyo administrator, who ensures even small villages have high stone walls and are connected by good roads… which transform to rougher dirt as they wind southward until reaching the outskirts of the large cities.

The military forces of Calin are also led by Daimyo, with the Invincible Steel Legions, Shogun’s Bailiffs, and Colossal Fleet each headed by a different Daimyo who has responsibility for their upkeep and reaps the revenues they are able to generate. The Shogun also appoints officers of taimyo rank, which often means individual military forces are under command of families who are rivals to the Daimyo ostensibly in charge.

The Great Game

Calin is known throughout the River Province, and even further across Creation, for their love and mastery of politics. The nobility of Calin constantly plot and maneuver against each other is a complex dance of culture and conspiracy that has played out since the first days after the Great Contagion. Some have spoken that it resembles the politics of the Shogunate Court, but the Calinti have become far less martial in their approach: competing factions do not muster armies, nor fight in the streets, and even the number of assassinations is lower than that of Dynastic society across the Sea. In Calin, the weapons of choice are whispered insinuation and subtle insult rather than slashing sword.

Noble Families

Competing for the Shogun’s seat are Calin’s 14 noble families, most of whom claim at least tenuous connection with Shogunate Era Gens or officials. While not the massive families of Exalts seen in the Great Houses of the Scarlet Dynasty, most also have at least some Terrestrial blood, refreshed by marriages with Lookshy’s Gentes, Outcastes, and even Dynasts (though much of this dates from the time house Iselsi stood as overseers of the Calinti). The original noble families descend from the original rulers of Port Calin in the wake of the Contagion were joined some centuries ago by the ruling nobility of cities annexed during the Calibration War. There remains a divide between old and new families, but intermarriage and necessity mean the gap has largely closed.

The Families are themselves made up of numerous Lines, who intrigue within their families just as the families compete amongst one another. Unlike the House and Household of the Scarlet Dynasty, members of a family use the name of their line as a surname, coming before their given name, with the name of the Noble Family left unmentioned… this can be confusing to foreigners and young children, but to the Calinti knowing the dozens of different lines, their holdings and positons and specialties and family affiliations, is seen as a bare minimum for anyone civilized… even the peasantry is well versed in such nuances. Calinti politics is cutthroat, but they forever note that no Noble Family has ever fallen… family lines, however, have often been extinguished, supplanted by new lines.

Each Family has a Family Daimyo, an individual who has intrigued their way into leadership over the various family lines, and who is eligible to take up official appointments from the Shogun. In addition, each family also has its own holdings…. Farmland in the countryside, mines, schools, commercial interests, merchant fleets all count amongst these, though most Families are specialized in one or two areas. The Shogun’s powers of appointment often put Daimyo in posts distant from their family interests, to lessen the threat they pose to the Shogun herself, but sometimes the skills of a Daimyo in their area make them a wise choice… assuming in both cases that the Shogun has a choice to make and the decision has not already been decided by the plots and betrayals of the Great Game.

Economy

The Calinti economy is diverse, with a number of different industries and enterpises making homes there. A great deal of production is concentrated near the coast, where smelting townships transform the Iron Sand that streaks the coastline along the Inner Sea into Steel, making Calin the Province’s major source of that key metal. Further north, the broad pebble beaches of Marin Bay provide ample room for Salt drying pools… and, while the easily accessible examples have long been hauled away, some large boulders of Marble can still be found in the waters just off the beach, and smaller pebbles of that stone can be sifted from those covering the beaches.

Inland can be found agricultural production, primarily grains such as Wheat. Calin is also a major source of the medicinal plant known as Crampbark. Calinti food is typical of the Cuisine of the River Province, with lemon cakes a popular dish, served with crampbark-berry jam, as is the Drunken Spun Wrap.

Trade is a major part of the Calinti economy, due to control of two large commercial ports at Port Calin and Goodharbour. The former is a major stop for vessels seeking to travel the Inner Sea trade routes without relying on the ports of the Blessed Isle (or Thorns), while the latter is the transshipment point between the Yanaze River and the Inner Sea, experiencing a constant flow of commerce. Goodharbour, home to a special legal concession for shipping from the Realm, serves as a ‘free port’ of sorts and as such is a point through which most of the Blessed Isle’s trade with Greyfalls, Linowa, and the Eastern Threshold must flow.

Eastern wood travels downriver to be processed at Calinti sawmills and shipyards, though Calin is also the site of a robust trade in used ships: for some cargos, it is cheaper for Realm merchants to take advantage of Greyfalls’ shipbuilding industry to produce lighter river vessels which will sail down to Goodharbour, transferring their cargos to larger vessels that will cross the Inner Sea. Some such vessels will then take up cargos and crews for sailing back up the rivers, but others which were not built with durability in mind will be sold off. Hopeful would-be-traders in the River Province often get their starts purchasing one of these vessels, keeping the ship patched long past its intended end as they trade goods between the Province’s markets.

Military

The military of Port Calin is divided into three branches: the Invincible Steel Legions, who serve as regular land forces, the Shogun’s Bailiffs who enforce law & order and collect tax revenues from peasants and city Daimyo, and the Colossal Fleet which serves as Calin’s navy. Each of these military forces is sworn to the service of the Shogun, but headed by a daimyo from one of Calin’s Noble Families. That family is responsible for much of the cost involved in equipping and maintaining the military forces they control, but is also able to reap the rewards when those forces engage in profitable ventures. Because of this, and the constant shifts of the Great Game which see Daimyo frequently replaced, Calinti military forces are inconsistent: one year, the Steel Legions might be able to field six Legion-strength armies equipped with good steel, under a daimyo who sees the value of potent military forces, only to suddenly see their numbers cut to three legions and the budget for replacing worn boots vanish as a daimyo ascends who seeks to keep the strain of the army on family coffers to a minimum.

In addition to these forces, the major families and lines also maintain some military forces of their won, the Noble Retinues, which typically include parade troops equipped in the style of the Steel Legions as well as bow-armed scouts who assist nobles on hunts and in patrolling their holdings.

Ranks

The forces of Calin make use of Shogunate Era ranks and titles, but their military organization reflects centuries of Realm influence.

Invincible Steel Legions

The land forces of Calin are the Invincible Steel Legions, a force primarily of heavy Infantry and artillery. They take their name from the heavy armour with which they are equipped, along with sword and shield for line troops, pikes for flank troops to guard against cavalry, and heavy sledges for assault troops.

The organization of the Steel Legions draws a great deal from the Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier, but it has always had a focus on siege warfare and since the Shogunate’s rejection of allegiance to the Realm it has introduced an increasing number of deviations. As dictated by the Correct Actions, a Steel Legion fang consists of five soldiers, with five fangs making a Scale, and five scales a Talon. The Steel Legions do not make use of wing-sized units, with four Talons joining to become a Dragon, the standard: these are typically two Talons of line troops, one talon of pikemen, and one talon of assault troops, plus a scale of artillerists. Typical deployment sees each line talon marching with a pike scale on either flank and an assault scale at its back to reinforce the line when combat is joined. The artillery scale is defended by the remaining pike scale as it bombards the enemy, and three scales of assault troops form a reserve, deployed to break enemy hardpoints, or to counterattack when a line talon begins to break.

A Calinti Legion consists of nine such Dragons, plus a Dragon of support staff and a Dragon of combat engineers, who are used to construct fortifications or as further artillery and siege warfare forces, allowing a Steel Legion to bring significant firepower to bear. .

Calinti forces are lacking in missile troops, and typically supplement their forces in wartime through hiring mercenaries or Noble Retinues, while employing artillery to launch initial bombardments which will disrupt enemy archers, after which the heavy armour of Calinti soldiery is trusted to keep them alive as they advance. It is typical for Calinti forces to either fortify their positions when defending (all Calinti cities are surrounded by extensive earthworks and thick walls) or surround and cut off enemy settlements when defending, wearing down the opposition by being better supplied and more skilled on either side of a siege. When a direct attack must be launched to break a siege or breach a city wall, or when Calinti forces are forced to engage in open battle, they combine extensive artillery fire with slow, methodical advances by infantry whose armour makes them exceedingly difficult to bring down.

The Steel Legions currently stand some four Legions in strength, and their patron daimyo comes from a military family which has been investing in Legion equipment after decades of neglect. While the family gains political advantage through the strength and pride evoked by ranks of soldiers marching in shining steel plate, this has also been done with an eye for profit, and the daimyo has been particularly devoted to hiring out Calinti forces as mercenaries for the various conflicts of the River Province and the Eastern Threshold, where Calinti expertise in artillery and siege warfare is much sought-after, rented out by the scale and by the month.

The Steel Legions has very little access to essence weaponry, and the sheer power of the weapons Lookshy or the Realm could bring to bear outclasses their ranked catapults. However, the sheer mass of war machines the Calinti can deploy means they can overcome more limited numbers of more advanced devices.

Colossal Fleet

The Calinti navy, known as the Colossal Fleet, is one of the most powerful naval forces on the Inner Sea… while it lacks the massive size of the Imperial Navy Wood Fleet and the concentration of Magitechnology in service with the fleets of Lookshy, it can sail squadrons of ships, including some of First Age manufacture that it has kept in working order. The Calinti flagship alone, a Swift Midday Brilliance-class vessel still mounting a single Essence Cannon, could engage and sink the whole fleets of most other River Province powers, a source of much pride for the Shogunate and prestige for the Daimyo tasked with the Fleet’s upkeep. That daimyo has not invested in expanding the fleet, but has ensured the vessels that do exist are kept in good repair.

A reason for this is the potential for profit: the family serving as patrons to the Fleet has the right to take any ships or contraband taken from pirates and smugglers, minus a share paid to the Shogun (which ends up almost entirely re-invested in the maintenance of the Fleet’s First Age vessels). Successive Daimyo have offered a portion of the value for such prizes and cargos to the crews who capture them… the crews of the Fleet are thus well-paid and well-motivated. And thank goodness, too, for who could have imagined the sheer NUMBER of pirates and smugglers sailing the waters of the River Province and Inner Sea? Fortunately, despite crude & baseless rumours that this has resulted in false accusations against ships belonging to the trade and political rivals of the patron Daimyo, the brave sailors of the Colossal Fleet have not been deterred, and every year have increased the number of dangerous criminals whose vessels and goods have been confiscated to ensure justice.

Unfortunately in recent years, the Colossal Fleet and the Imperial Navy’s Wood Fleet have been at odds… Realm captains, well known for their incessant privateering, have been criminally charging merchant shipping in the region ‘escort fees’ in exchange for the protection of Wood Fleet patrols and convoys. Noble Calinti sailors have faced the prospect of such convoys, escorted by Imperial Navy ships and no doubt filled with pirates and smugglers, able to sail through the waters near Calin without the capture and confiscation they so certainly deserve. Without delivering the honourable justice of Calin, how are crews to be paid paid and Daimyo compensated for the great sacrifice of patronizing the Fleet?

Aside from patrolling against pirates and smugglers, the Fleet is responsible for defending Calin’s shores and waters from attack, a task which requires it to patrol a lengthy area of river and sea coast. Calinti planning, however, does not seek open water engagements but instead to force enemies to attack their main ports at Goodharbour, Port Calin, and Ballico, where thick sea walls mounting heavy trebuchets can bolster the power of their squadrons significantly and potentially smash an invading fleet asunder.

Shogun’s Bailiffs

The Shogun’s Bailiffs are a paramilitary law enforcement organization, responsible for keeping order in Calin and ensuring the taxes owed to the Shogun are collected and delivered. Their ability to levy fines and seize illegal goods are legitimate sources of profit, and where the accused lack funds a source of labour to supply the public works projects of the cities, which can earn the favour of Shogun and city-patron Daimyo. The complexity of the Great Game and lack of a body for appeals mean these legitimate means laws and powers can be subject to looser interpretation, increasing profitability.

The Bailiffs are equipped in heavy steel armour, much like the Invincible Steel Legions, though their standard weapon and badge of office is the Law Baton and they also bear throwing batons for combat at range. If present in sufficient numbers, they can take to the field as a military force, though one more suited for urban combat than the siege warfare of their army peers.

The previous Daimyo serving as patron of the Bailiffs had ensured the forces in her care were trained and well-equipped, but in the past few years the twists of the Great Game have seen them replaced by a new patron who has far less respect for the Bailiffs: his first decree was an immediate end to salaries for the Bailiffs, from which point on each would be expected to support themselves entirely through fines, and required to make regular payments up to their patron, ostensibly a portion of those fines. In practice, this has meant that many Bailiffs have been forced to sell their heavy armour, or to engage in increasingly suspect interpretations of the law to gather the fines needed to cover their expenses and obligations.