Difference between revisions of "Harborhead"

Latest revision as of 19:57, 8 August 2014

Source: The following has been copied and slightly edited from the Harborhead article found on the official WW Exalted wiki, 
which in turn is just drawing information from CoTD South, 
which is based on information in Houses of the Bull God. 
A long chain of borrowing, and from start to finish I still don't think anyone has quite gotten it right... 

Geography

Harborhead is a large country in the Southeast of Creation. Its climate varies from temperate (on the coast) and in the mountains through sun-parched (in the interior). It is bordered in the North by the shadowland known as the Bayou of Endless Regret, and by the Varang City-States to the South. The Northwest faces the Blessed Isle itself across the Inner Sea.

The capital of Harborhead is the large port city of Kirigast.

Society

Harborhead society is divided into a number of different groups, some overlapping and some militantly divided. The first is the tribe, local close-knit groups based around a single village or herd. Most within a tribe will be blood related, and will look to the tribal leader to direct them in war and commerce. Above the tribes, Harborhead contains the Five Peoples, distinct cultural groups with their own dialects and traditions. The loyalty of any Harborheadite is first to his tribe, second to his People and finally (if at all) to his nation.

The Five Peoples

Izhalyi

The Izhalvi are both the most numerous and the most geographically scattered people in Harborhead, though most live in mountainous areas. They worship both the Unconquered Sun and Gaia, considering themselves the offspring of the two. Respect for one's elders is the most important trait for the Izhalvi.

Totikari

The Totikari are nomadic cattle herders, living mostly in the hot interior. They value generosity highly, and will cheerfully give a guest just about anything they ask for, including a daughter to marry or the clothes off their own back. While clashing cultures meant this was not widely exploited by the other Peoples, the Realm's tax collectors have determined that the Totikari are willing to give far more than the tax they owe if it is presented as a way to prove their generosity... this has resulted in extensive exploitation, but also protected the Totikari from the worst atrocities committed by Imperial forces, the Thousand Scales having a soft spot for populations who can be relied on to make their tax payments. The Totikari are the second-most numerous native people in Harborhead, but because they are nomadic, they are also the most politically disenfranchised. They worship a variety of gods including the Unconquered Sun and Ahlat.

Brakhani

The Brakhani are the smallest population and live by cattle herding and farming. They are skilled bead workers, and often wear lots of colourful jewelry. Bravery is the most important trait to a Brakhani, and they send out young adults against dangerous animals armed with nothing but a knife, so they might prove they have come of age and be considered adults. Brakhani worship the Unconquered Sun and Ahlat as well as a wealth of other deities. In times long past, they were hunters and included the god Bright Spearpoint in their pantheon, but when that deity and the Southern God of War fell out, the Brakhani chose the way of war and cattle, and found their hunts to be less fruitful than they once were... this in turn led them to settle and take up more agriculture, and they are now known for producing staples such as teff, cotton, oranges, and bananas.

Krantiri

The Krantiri are found in the coastal regions, and they mostly live as fisher-folk. They are not well organized, and are often pushed around and taken advantage of by the other peoples. This is surprising, as Krantiri value cleverness above all else, but some savants posit it is due to the advantages gained by the cattle-herding Peoples through their worship of Ahlat. The Krantiri DO worship Ahlat in times of war, but not as a cattle god, in favour of sea and fishing deities. They are fond of dance plays and make masks and huge puppets of woven grass to perform historical stories.

Shayanti

The Shayanti are clever merchants and currently the most politically powerful of the Five Peoples. Shayanti work together well and help each other out against outsiders, and many of the most wealthy individuals in Harborhead are Shayanti. They are known also for their poetry, and their wandering warrior-poets are dangerous to meet on a dark road. Shayanti believe that the bonds of family are the most important responsibility of any person. Most Shayanti worship Ahlat directly.

The tribes raid each other constantly (and the city states to the South if a war band is big enough) and take each other as slaves as well as stealing cattle. These slaves are typically sold to the Realm or to the Guild. Although they get paid only a tiny fraction of the value of the slave in other markets, this is still such a profitable trade that many of the tribes rely on it for income. The Realm encourages slaving because it guarantees a constant flow of prime slaves, from which they take their pick and then sell the balance to the Guild.

Religion

As a general rule, the Five Peoples of Harborhead recognize the Unconquered Sun as the ruling god and Ahlat as his right hand; the Unconquered Sun is the Chief and Ahlat is the War Leader. Some of the more aggressive tribes concentrate their worship on Ahlat.

The religious and economic state of Harborhead has been engineered with much effort by Ahlat, to combine his purview of cattle and his position as Southern God of War. Ahlat demands the sacrifice of many cattle; more than a tribe can normally spare without starving. It is, of course, better to take someone else's cattle for sacrifice and, since Ahlat is also the Southern God of War, the Bull God would be doubly honored by raids on his behalf. So the tribes raid each other and take each others cattle to sacrifice to Ahlat and their people to sell as slaves. Those who do so are rewarded by Ahlat, who makes their own cattle more fertile, and their warriors greater in battle. Which in turn makes them better at taking other peoples cattle and more of a target for other nearby tribes who want to take their fertile cattle.

The Immaculate Order disapproves of this improper worship, but the Empress allowed the situation to continue for the sake of keeping the natives fighting each other instead of her own Legions. With the Empress gone, the Immaculate Order is taking a stronger hand.

A particularly irksome religious assertion from the Cult of Ahlat is that the Southern God of War and Cattle is responsible for Exaltations: he claims to have hand-picked those who receive Celestial Exaltations, and to have himself empowered those who Exalt as Dragonblooded. These claims are entirely lies, but many Exalts who originate in Harborhead believe them... at least at first.

Politics

Leopard: Oshom Kurgaz

Imperial Satrap: Cathak Voper

Rulership of Harborhead rests with the Imperial Satrap, who “advises” the ruler, who is known as the Leopard. The origin of the title is unclear, likely relating to the furs of an animal rare in the region (though common further Eastward), but its most notable occupant was Blood-on-the-Horn, whose rise to power bound the Five Peoples into one state before the Realm conquered her domain and slew her in the War with the Horn. Since then, the occupant of the Leopard Seat has been picked by the Realm, and is generally seen as a worthless Realm collaborator.

The Realm has an extensive bureaucracy in Harborhead, based out of the capital city of Kirigast. It is thoroughly corrupt, with everyone on the take, even members of the All-Seeing Eye, who are the watchdogs of corruption. The tax collectors skim off what they collect from the residents, their superiors skim off that, they all bribe the officials of the Eye to look the other way, and in the end the Realm finds that the proper tribute doesn't reach the Empress from the people of Harborhead. Regretfully, they are forced to go back and recover the agreed amount from the “lazy” natives, who consistently fail to pay the Realm's due. As a result, the people of Harborhead end up paying around two or three times as much in taxes to the Realm as they are supposed to. If a village doesn't or can't pay, the Realm burns it and sells the residents into slavery to pay their debt. Nationalists amongst the Harborheadites assert the fact that most people can just manage to pay their taxes indicates how rich the land is and how successful the people could be if they were not under the boot heel of the Scarlet Empire... a claim that might get the speaker run through with a Legion spear in the interior, but more likely laughter from the Imperials in the capital. What had the Five Peoples done with their rich and fertile land before the Realm came demanding its taxes? It was certainly not 'success', the Realm brings civilization and in exchange receives its due!

Another reason for Harborhead's importance to the Realm is the Bent Creek Jade beds. There is a virtual mountain of Jade there, and Bent Creek has grown into a small city containing one of the largest mining projects in the South. Apart from the amount the corrupt bureaucracy manages to skim off, all this Jade goes straight to the Empress's personal Treasury. Now that the Empress has vanished, the Great Houses of the Realm are considering who amongst them should benefit from the riches at Bent Creek. The mines are, of course, worked by slaves; conditions are harsh and every slave very expendable since a ready source is so nearby. Individual slaves rarely last more than a couple of years at Bent Creek.

When the Empress first disappeared five years ago, the then Leopard started to make waves, suggesting it may be time for the Realm “advisers” to get out of her country and let them rule themselves. As the “cousin” of the Empress, this was politically awkward. Consequently, the Leopard and her immediate family all ate something bad one tea time and tragically died. The survivors all disappeared somewhere, also mysteriously. The Satrap “suggested” that the court pick a new Leopard from another bloodline, and that he would be happy to continue to “advise” on behalf of the Realm. The current Leopard is a fat little Shayanti nobleman named Oshom Kurgaz who originally wanted the position of power but now realizes that he is the pawn of the Realm, is hated by his own guardswomen and has no popular support.

There is a rumour that a surviving member of the Reshoom family (the last Leopard's kin) is raising an army in the remote South. There are also supposed to be other survivors locked up in the dungeons beneath the Satraps palace who've been there for the last five years. No one knows for sure who's still alive down there (except maybe the Satrap, and he sadly "knows nothing about the tragic disappearance of the Empress' remote cousins in the Reshoom family").

The history of Harborhead as a satrapy is one full of rebellion and reprisal. From the War with the Horn, notable rebellions include the Horns Rebellion (RY474), the Worship Rebellion (RY535), and the Sacrifice Rebellion (RY686]].

Harborhead's relations with its neighbours are very poor. The Varang are commonly a target for raids by Harborheadites, who take not only Varangian cattle but Varangian people as slaves. Open war would certainly have broken out if the two states had not been satrapies of the Realm, their satraps carefully coordinating to keep hostilities at a standstill. With the Scarlet Empress gone and tensions between Great Houses mounting, the ability (or will) of Harborhead's Cathak controllers and the Mnemon masters of Varang to maintain the peace may have slipped away.

Military

The military of Harborhead is a deeply-entrenched cultural tradition... each tribe is ready to war against the other tribes, and to suppress such militant feelings would have demanded ten thousand Legions and wholesale slaughter. As in other satrapies, the Realm had no issue with a satrapal military: tribes serve as auxiliaries to its Legions in battle, and as policing forces to push populations into paying their taxes.

However, Harborhead stands out for having a military force that has been allowed to persist despite active refusal to serve as auxiliaries to the Legions, and refusal to assist their own government in collecting taxes owed to the Realm. By tradition, the priests of Ahlat marry select young girls to their god in both a ceremonial and legal fashion, increasing his followers and amount of worship. These Brides of Ahlat are raised to be warriors, and protect the Leopard as an "honor guard" stemming from the politically advantageous fiction that the king of Harborhead is a distant cousin of the Empress. These 15,000 warriors are dedicated to their duty, though they still view their ruler as a worthless lackey of the Realm.

Offsetting the power of the native military is the 47th Imperial Legion, a crack unit under control of House Cathak, and the Fire Fleet of the Imperial Navy, which operates several squadrons out of fortified harbours in Harborhead.