The League territories
The city is the mirror of the world. If we cannot master the city, how can we master the world?
Gidea di Sarvos, ReflectionsEach territory in the League represents the land that extends around a single great city. Surrounding lands are tightly parcelled into estates, each of which is traditionally worked hard but may also be sculpted for maximum beauty. Commonly country estates are kept for show, but a Merchant Prince will only really relax when at their townhouse in the city, surrounded by the fruits of civilization. The League is small in terms of landmass compared to some other nations, but it still manages to have a sizable population.
The land around the Bay of Catazar is lush and fertile, with low flood-plains; olive farms and prime grazing lands fed by the waters of four rivers. The lazy Couros that flows through Highguard; the flighty Gancio, whose capricious nature has drowned many an unwary river captain on its course through the Brass Coast; the broad-banked Scorrero, solid and well-defended, carrying goods from Temeschwar and Holberg; and the furious Vassa that flows down through Tassato.
The four rivers are central characters in the art and folklore of the Nation. All the classic literature and theatre includes them in one form or another, whether as central characters or “clowns” during the interludes. A popular game between playwrights and critics is to conceal the characters in some way and challenge the critic to locate them.
Tassato Mestra and Tassato Regario
Peering at each other across the fast-flowing Vassa, Tassato is called the Twin City or the Split City. Providing the only easy way to cross the wide and dangerous river, Tassato is a city divided against itself. Tassato his was originally two cities, Mestra and Regario, named for the feuding siblings who historically founded them on either bank of the Vassa. Over time, the cities spread along the coast and the river formed a natural boundary between them. Attempts to build bridges between the cities have always foundered and the people rely on boats and barges to cross the river.
The north-western part of the city is called Tassato Mestra, and the south-eastern is Tassato Regario. The people on either side of the river are historically rivals, and that historical rivallry occasionally boils up into open conflict. The two cities were unified under the control of Anabela di Regario, a merchant prince who ruled over a century before the creation of the Empire. Anabela was forced to contend with the constant rivalry between the two cities, open battles in the streets between bravos was causing widespread lawlessness and in the end the prince declared a ban on the open carrying of weapons. The ban had the desired effect, damping down the bloodshed although and the rivalry was slowly transformed to verbal banter between the two sides. The ban endured until Tessato joined the Empire and in that time the people became famous for their wordplay, launching quips and insults at each other like arrows.
Today Tassato enjoys an unrivalled reputation as a city where the spoken word is an art-form. Tassatans take a delight in layered meanings, subtexts and unspoken communication. The city has provided several senators famous for their brilliant oratory and representatives from the city are usually regarded as the finest diplomats in the Empire. Of all the people of the League, Tassatans are most likely to view life as a game and they are notorious for their love of intrigue, not just for the sake of advancement but for the sheer pleasure to be had thereby. They regard cunning diplomacy more highly than armed conflict, not because they are peace-loving, to the contrary they regard words as a more effective tool that weapons in destroying their enemies - better to set enemies against enemies than to face them yourself. Manipulation is high art here, no surprise that the first and the finest mountebanks hail from Tassato.
Tassato Mestra is famous both for its shipyards and for the boldness of its brothels. The north bank of the river is almost entirely given over to a gaudy display of brazenness, the so-called Street of Pleasures where anyone with the purse for it can buy company, narcotics and other goods of dubious virtue. The southern part of the city, Tassato Regario, is best known for its workshops and magicians. According to legend, the printing press was designed in Tassato Regario and the first presses were employed here printing religious tracts, scholarly treatises and political manifestos.
In the centre of the Vassa towers the Imperial Mint where Imperial coinage is produced. While the fortified building itself is operated by the civil service, its protection falls to the people of the League, and the Master of the Imperial Mint is an important title among its citizens.
Citizens of Tassato generally refer to Regario and Mestra as seperate places, while everyone else refers to them as wards or parts of the same city.
The Jewelled City of Sarvos
Sarvos is constructed on an island just off the coast, like a beacon of light in the water. It is the cultural centre of the League, and arguably the whole Empire. It takes its common epithet from the many mirrors found upon the roofs of the city, said to "sparkle like gems" during the day. Folk legend suggests that if the mirrors are shattered the city will surely fall, and for this reason some citizens carry a mirror about their person, an affectation that encourages unfair accusations of vanity.
Sarvos is as driven as any city in the League, but art is its true passion. They claim to have invented theatre, a ludicrous claim but believable in a city graced with so many theatre-houses. They are certainly the originators of the magician troupes that are now common place throughout the League and they are usually the centre of League performance magic. Not just theatre is popular however, there are rival opera houses whose bitter divisions are every bit as keen as those of the leading theatre troupes. Several wealthy merchant princes have endowed their collections of art on the city and there are public galleries where the most beautiful pictures and sculptures can be viewed in exchange for a ring or two.
Art in all forms is held in high regard, Sarvos is famous for its architecture, but it is also a byword for excellent food, and every bar, street vendor and hostelry prides itself on providing its own speciality snack: perhaps a particular way of spicing ham, or salting and smoking beef, or an excellent dipping sauce for vegetables. It is said that an epicure can dine out every night of his life in Sarvos and never eat the same meal twice.
Cramped streets flow between soaring towers, choked with merchants, tradesmen and students. It is the site of Diora University a prominent seat of learning that specialises in researching obscure topics for money. Here can also be found Capodomus Cathedral, one of the largest religious structures in the Empire, a towering monument encrusted with precious materials and objets d’art.
On the south side of Sarvos are the drowned streets of Caricomare – a shattered ruin, waist-deep in water at its highest points and submerged entirely in others. Thirty years ago, it was a prosperous suburb of Sarvos. One night, however, a great storm came out of nowhere and the river burst its banks. The route of the river changed overnight and a mighty wave washed away the foundations of many buildings. In a single night, Carciomare was ruined – buildings were toppled and the streets filled with saltwater. The repairs were considered too costly and the floods created a displaced populous, compounding the overcrowding in the city. Caricomare today is an abandoned, dangerous place now, a maze of flooded streets and waterlogged buildings, but it is said that riches can still be found in the depths, for those brave enough to investigate.
Temeschwar
Temeschwar was once part of wild Varushka, but it joined the Empire alongside Sarvos and Tassato when the League was formed. Citizens of Temeschwar commonly make an effort to be as flamboyant as their southern fellows, but their dress is inevitably more practical, to accommodate the harsh northern weather. They are tradtionally more brutally pragmatic than those who live on the bay. It is a foothold of trade to Varushka, Wintermark and nearby Dawn. Trading in raw materials and crafted goods, especially weapons and armour, it is seen by many as the merchant capital of the northern lands.
Despite its good relations with Varushka, Temeschwar has always suffered somewhat from being distant from Sarvos and Tassato whose close proximity made them the natural heart of the League. Temeschwar may well be the richest of all the cities of the League, but it can never quite shake the fear that it is not as good as the others. This anxiety is just part of what drives the Temeschwari to be so competitive and so ruthless. Temeschwari strive to work that bit longer and that bit harder than anyone else in the League. If a Sarvossian closes his shop at sunset, his Temeschwari neighbour will light a pair of lanterns and keep trading for another hour.
The Temeschwari are not just the most competitive people in the League, they also have a well deserved reputation as the most ruthless. In the years before the creation of the Empire, the city was plagued by gangs of thieves and assassins who operated with open impunity despite the best efforts of the boyar, Ratibor. Thousands of inhabitants were linked with the different gangs who used tattoos to mark membership and enforce loyalty.
In the end Ratibor hired a force of Varushkan mercenaries and brought them in secret into the city during the depths of winter. In the notorious night of a thousand torches (named for the torches the soldiers carried to light their way) every inhabitant of the city was turned out of their beds, stripped and searched for marks. Anyone with a tattoo on their body was given a few minutes to collect their belongings before being forced from the city into the frozen snows beyond the walls. A few managed to bribe their way past the search but most were given over to the winter and were never seen again. The act was one of monstrous brutality, but it established the power Ratibor as boyar and broke the power of the criminal gangs forever.
The Temeschwari wear their reputation for cold, hard dealing with pride. They view themselves as the strongest people in the League, combining the ambition and drive of the south with the strength and determination of the north. Physical as well as mental strength is prized here - Temeschwari bravos are as likely to favour the axe as the rapier - and her free companies have a reputation for toughness, as soldiers and as people. Most Temeschwari free companies are careful not to break the rules for they know the magistrates watch them carefully - but they will do almost anything required to win short of this. You can find many things in Temeschwar it is said, but you will not find a scruple through you search the city from sunrise to sunset.
Holberg (Lost)
Build strong city walls and the world must come to you - and it will come to you, if only to marvel at your walls.
Holberg once possessed a rich agricultural heritage, well known for its fine vineyards. Seven years ago, however, barbarians attacked the territory, sacked the vineyards, and laid siege to the walled city. The Senate remained paralyzed throughout this time, unable to secure funding and forces to raise the siege and in the end the territory was lost to the orcs and remains under Orc rule to this day.
Holberg itself, however, has not yet fallen. Famous for its engineers, builders and architects, the city is immensely fortified and defenders still hold out to this day. The only approach to the city is through a narrow pass, and the defenders of Holberg will not permit that pass to fall. Every year their situation becomes worse. Refugees from Holberg clamour for the territory to be reclaimed, and seek refuge in the other League cities. Many left family members and valuables behind when they fled their homes. Unfortunately, while the city itself is still intact, the territory of Holberg no longer exists and the refugees have lost their Senate seat until it can be reclaimed.
The League lays part of the problem in regaining Holberg at the feet of the Dawnish. They claim that Dawnish Senators use every excuse to focus attention elsewhere, and Dawnish Generals actively resist plans that would allow the recapture of the city. Even the Empress seemed unable to break the deadlock.