Steel and Gunstones: The Sealands

SEALANDS OF SOUTHERN THURON

Steel and Gunstones in based in (but not limited to) a region known as the Sealands or Southern Thuron. The Sealands are similar in many aspects to Europe in our own Renaissance period but also unique to the world of Efirvia. It is here that the odyssey of Efirvia will begin. Later, other campaign supplements may detail other exotic locations but for now their are plenty of adventures to be had in the spire crowned city-states, beast infested swamps, and age old ruins of the Sealands.

Southern Thuron is the crossroads of Efirvia. Commerce and trade from the distant exotic places pass through the regions border’s on a daily basis. Twinkling nobility, hard working peasants, brutal mercenaries, foreign wayfarers, and outcast races of humanoids all live out their lives in the Sealands. The fertile plain is dotted with cities and villages and swept by the Tundell, Nurr and Dyv rivers. The land rests between the hills of Boria, the foliage of Thornwood, the green plains of Rydar and shores the Cythian Sea.

Two centuries ago Southern Thuron was torn by an immense civil war and broke free of the crumbling Thuron Empire. Southern Thuron did not survive as a single political entity. The land shattered into separate fiefs and factions all vying for power. Today the region remains in political fragments.

The City States:
There are five basic groups which hold power in the Sealands. First are the vast city-states themselves, which run from monarchies, as in Krognos, to Republics, like Nar Thimdol . The city governments control the largest standing armies and strategic fortresses of the area and also levy tariffs and make laws within their city-state regions. The present major city-states are Krognos, Nar-Thimdol, Tossus, Persus, as well as Roath who has unified villages and towns around her into a League of Inland States.

By Efirvian terms these city-states are metropolises, filled with the large markets, well stocked libraries, rich nobles, as well as crime, inflation, and waste disposal problems. Behind the gates of these vast cities are settings for intrigue and crime, as well as a place where characters can find goods, training and employment unavailable elsewhere.

The Merchants Guild:
The second power is the Merchants guild, which is a unified conglomeration of very rich independent traders and bankers. The Guild mints the primary coins of the Sealands as well as setting the standard for weights and measures. The Merchant’s Guild also holds massive tracks of lands and colonies abroad, making the Sealands the major colonial and shipping power in Efirvia. This mercantile authority co-exists with the other powers in Southern Thuron, lending money and trying to tie the Sealands into one controlled cohesive power. Because of its colonies in the southern continent, the Guild is the primary supplier of gunpowder and other exotic goods to the rest of the world. With effective and elite legions of her own, the Merchants Guild has become one of the foremost power in the Sealands and a major player in the world politics of Efirvia.

It is impossible for characters to exist in the Sealands without some contact with the Merchants. Their influence is everywhere from rural tax collectors and turnpikes, to the Guild bureaucracy, spies, and agents in the city states.

Sombrian Guild:
The third faction in Southern Thuron is the Sombrian Guild. Although it does not hold a monopoly on magic in the Sealands, the Sombrian society is still more advanced than any other power in their particular trade and has extensive libraries on the arcane as well as the mundane subjects. As a rule the Sombrians try to maintain neutrality but have become very friendly with, and have begun to outwardly aid the Merchants Guild.

The Sombrians are an important source of information for adventurers. Magical training, as well as many sorts of strange knowledge characters may be interested in can be found in their libraries. Most Sombrian Guild halls and libraries are found within the walls of the city-states.

Grainlords:
Finally, the Inland lords have their place in the politics of the Sealands. These are the landed nobles, mayors, sheriffs, and grainlords who run the provinces, counties, and shires outside the city states. Most of these rural barons are allied to a particular city state, but are independent none-the-less. They produce the vast amounts of grain that are necessary to support the sprawling cities. As of any time period, the country men and boys make the best soldiers and much of the city states armies come from their allied lord's estates.

Mercenary Companies
Small bands and companies of mercenaries and adventurers have risen up everywhere lending their battle prowess and other skills in return for gold. These free bands of adventurers usually remain small but some of the company strength units number as many as a thousand fighting men. The captains of these troops have become somewhat dangerous to the region, and a political power in their own right. Most powerful mercenary warlords eventually become grainlords themselves through conquest or intrigue.



Although the Sealands contain the height of civilization on Efirvia, the green plains are all but safe. Off the major highways and away from the city-states and strongholds of the grainlords the land becomes quite wild and lawless. Lesser grainlords are seldom supported by their peers and often resort to violence. Roving groups of bandits and highwaymen wander by the side of seldom used roads. All sorts of non-human meanies lurk in caves and corners waiting for purse-heavy prey. Some grainlords even pay those below the law to molest their political enemies. The land is patrolled by rangers and Knights Lucern, but until the land in united in some political cohesion, this task is overwhelming.

Southern Thuron is riddled with mistrust and intrigue, and skirmishes break out occasionally over borderlands and trading rights. Other world powers also have their agents in the Sealands to make alliances and contracts with individual city-states and grainlords. There is talk of a united Sealand but too many people are involved in the power struggle and cohesion is a long distance away.

The Common Man:
It may seem that the Sealands are only populated by adventurers, combatants, nobility and the like, but in order to eat and live well, any society needs a working class. Behind the scenes are the faceless craftsmen, farmers, and peasants hitherto unmentioned. In a high adventure world the masses are typically overlooked. Often it is the mundane that will magnify the occurrence of horrors and glories of a fantasy world.

The greater population of Southern Thuron is made up of farmers, fisherman, craftsmen and traders. Of these four the most common are those that till the soil. The number of large cities in Southern Thuron require vast amounts of grain, livestock and other foodstuff. Each city has farms called demeses directly outside the walls, but these produce too little to support the growing populations of many city-states. Small villages called freefarms are set up under the protection of individual states. The freefarmers grow crops and sell them to the states in turn for protection. Protection is supplied in the form of rangers who travel from farm to farm running off bandits, monsters and the like. Some of the larger free farms have a ranger in permanent residence called a sheriff who oversees the operation.

Beyond the freefarms dwell the lands of the Grainlords. Grainlords usually have a number of villages under their protection as well as their own personal demese. The peasants under the grainlords run from the status of free-farmers to out and out slaves. Grainlords protect their demeses and peasants with their men-at-arms or mercenaries. Most Grainlords have Patron city-states that they sell all their surplus grain to. Grainlords and city- states are constantly making and breaking alliances to get the most advantageous prices.

Life for free-farmers and peasants is a hard lot. They are generally beset by monsters and bandits from the outside and often get trod upon by their patrons. Peasants are usually a wary lot. Living in a brutal world has made them cautious and untrusting, particularly of weapon brandishing mercenaries. Villagers usually know more than what they let on. The secrets of the land are theirs and they can be dangerous when united and enraged as a group. They can also be valuable allies to trustworthy characters.
The cities are filled with merchants and craftsmen of all sorts. Most of the city states have a number of bazaars and markets were a potpourri of goods can be bought and sold. Merchants, artists and craftsmen of all sorts abound making their daily living in shops among the wild streets. In some cities the markets are regulated by the authorities or the Merchants Guild, but in other cities free trade is the word.

Most of the new rich are part of the Merchants Guild and have made their fortunes in trading or money lending. A number of ex-adventures and mercenaries have also carved out land and title with their swords. Many of the very rich have bought titles for themselves and own townhouses as well as plantations abroad or in the countryside. Others dwell in large apartments in the cities.

The true nobility are sometimes less wealthy than the new rich. They own lands that have been passed down from generation to generation. Most of the grainlords are in this class. They disdain as well as fear the new rich. In return, most of the new rich look to the nobility as stuffy and hopelessly outdated.