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The Confederation of Herater is the evolution of a military alliance created by the nations that exist around the Heratereh, the zone commonly associated with the river of which name it is derived. Said alliance emerged from the need to protect from the outside threats that loomed over the area, coveting for the riches of the cities which prospered in the plains of the river system.
During a long period of time, almost since their founding, the cities squabbled for small and fickle disputes in search of primacy, primacy they soon lost in other small-scale wars. However, in spite of this cycle of almost constant warfare somewhere in the area, most of the cities never resulted severely damaged thanks to the use of primarily mercenary armies which thanks to their monumental wealth, they could afford and send into this seemingly endless cycle; mercenaries judging that their chance of dying and the chance of winning enormous sums of money was worth it. In this manner the population of the cities, even when sometimes under siege, never dwindled too much and never more than the rate of growth of the population.
On the other hand, war brought innovation and technology to the Heratereh, and made many of the city-states into patrons of great projects of art, from literature to architecture. Their mentality geared towards innovation and progress in spite of tradition or social privilege made them ideal for adopting Commonwealth technology, and developing their own variations of it, even before they made direct diplomatic contact with said power. Because of the same, investigation of natural sciences was never far behind, with many taboos in other nations about unravelling the mysteries of the world being non-existent in the soon-to-be Confederation. And of course, the bridge between the two of said areas of knowledge is also deeply explored in the city-states, that bridge of course being philosophy.
Another area that was greatly benefited from the cities wishing to get the upper hand on each other was magical theory, both in its more mundane branch of alchemy to their more esoteric and powerful branches. Nonetheless, the great majority of the magic in the Confederation is dedicated towards study and what large-scale magic exists is mostly for peaceful, background processes such as purifying water. That isn’t to say there are no magics in the army or in defences of the cities, but those are mostly last resort tactics and meaningless in open battle. In general could be said that, apart from academically, the Confederation is very weak magically.
The economic sector of the members of the Confederation is the dominant aspect of the countries, their government mostly being merchant republics and thus their social mobility is limited by wealth and not by birth in most places, either de jure or at least de facto. Furthermore, in many of the countries there isn’t a real nobility to speak of beyond the mercantile aristocracy. This economic dominance is expressed in concrete terms mostly through a tremendous naval power both in trade vessels and, formerly, war vessels. In a more subtle manner, it is easy to see the economic reach of the Confederation in their dominance of the trade routes by the pure volume of products transported by their carracks and galleys in opposition to the other powers and, descending from there, their trade concessions in many cities and important economic points around the most frequent commercial routes. Many of these outposts have Confederate sovereignty, but most of them do not.
Other important fact that must be considered is the predominance of the Confederate coin is most of the surrounding markets, especially the Lellail Concentric, named in that manner for having a hole in the middle and several rings around it, mimicking the shape of the city of Lellail. The use of the Confederate coin has allowed the already deep mercantile penetration that is also found in banks, to go and involve itself further into the core of the most important business of the surrounding nations. The United Banks of the Herater is the single most powerful economic institution in Albion.
The constant state of conflict, though rarely beyond low-intensity, was a definite wall for the development of the soon-to-be Confederation, nonetheless, that changed the instant the colonies of the Great Republic of Lellail were attacked by the Commonwealth. The nations of the Heratereh knew that if Lellail lost the control of the seas she had maintained for more than a millennium through both her commercial and military fleets, it would be no grand effort for the Commonwealth to push her commercial outposts out of their cities and launch an invasion of the Heratereh itself. Thus they united and joined their fleets; dozens of Merchant Republics pushed everything that floated, in total more than three thousand galleys and carracks, into the largest naval battle in recorded history, sinking most of their adversary and scattering the remaining forces.
Dux Hraf, often called The Crow, was the responsible for this and from that moment onwards the nations would strengthen their links into what is now the Confederation of the Herater. The alliance was forged almost a hundred years ago and now the question remains, can it hold itself together in the face of danger and new opportunities? The states that were once part of it are now regions in a single nation and they are fiercely independent, wishing for their interests to be considered above all else, even to common good of the entire country and thus of their future prospects.
Lellail is the largest city and commercial centre of the former state of the same name, by far the most important urbanization in its region and how can it be not when the city is a monster, one of the, if not the, largest in Albion. Thus Lellail is its city and the city is splendour made stone, brick, metal and wood.
Lellail was constructed upon a series of interconnected lakes and lagoons and given the shape of several concentric circles of alternating water and land with a great artificial lagoon in the middle that serves as an inner sanctum for the most important buildings, such as the headquarters of the United Banks of the Herater. To build it, many of these lagoons had to be drained and land taken from the sea, rivers and creeks had their paths changed and even some parts require a continuous pumping of water or pumping in case of an emergency; due to this the landscape surrounding the city is filled with both windmills, watermills and canals to and from the city. The occasional aqueduct is also present.
The city possesses several other inner lakes as the circumferences get more and more deformed as they approach the edges of the city. They are used for inner ports, from the Great Harbour of the city to commercial concessions of other nations. The blocks of the city are connected by canals and bridges, many of which can be elevated, magically or mechanically, cutting access to parts of the city and protecting it. Other, more extreme measures to protect the city in case of siege rely in breaking the dams that surround the city and therefore flooding some parts of the countryside.
One important place to highlight is the Grand Arsenal, a complex that builds ships in serial production, granting the ability to lay down several ships a day and repair them in even less time thanks to them using standard, interchangeable parts. There are several arsenals that copy this model distributed throughout the city, the region and many copies of it on the main ports of the state.
Lellail is the birthplace of Hraf the Crow, which at several points was their ruler as Dux, and so their inhabitants often consider that such fact grants them primacy over the other components of the Confederation, something that is disputed as Gañau is the state that pushed the most for confederating in the first place. Nevertheless, they possess some weight to their claims as Lellail is the richest, largest, and the one that possesses the largest commercial fleet of the entire country, totalling around the 60% of the Confederation’s fleet.
The city of Gañau was once the seat of a great empire, now the empire is gone and all that remains are the fertile plains where the tributaries of the Herater flow. Gañau is known as the Man-made Mountain as throughout their history, the city has never had their outer walls breached… And they have six sets of similar walls inside of those with moats separating them. The city is ancient; the prime example being that each set of walls is centuries older than the last, but has been renovated with time and thus brought to modernity through the ages. The city lies at the top of an extremely large hill with mountains on the back of the city, at the very centre of the Confederation. While its region lacks access to the sea, that is compensated with the largest population thanks to their rich fields and Gañau being just about two thirds of Lellail. The landscape is also filled with wind and watermills to take advantage of the rivers and water the fields. Gañau in general is considered the only one of the regions that depends on agricultural products more than those extracted from the sea.
While the region of Gañau supports a rather large population, that doesn’t mean that there are any urban centres apart from the great city itself, just small to medium-sized villages, and due to this, in case of an invasion the inhabitants of the countryside must take refuge inside the walls. However, it must also be considered that the city of Gañau has decayed significantly since the days of their great empire and a great part of the constructions have been cleared for the use of agriculture, with only the largest monuments that once formed the core of the city, now forming the whole of the modern Gañau. Currently, the city is mostly agricultural fields in area. To put this into perspective though, in case of war, would be the last sliver of hope as it can supposedly hold indefinitely. Should the city be besieged that is likely the end of the Confederation, because, to reach it, an army must have pushed through all the territory of the majority of the other regions.
The region of Gañau is unique in that is the only one who possesses and maintains a standing army, well trained and equipped. Nevertheless, in comparison with the size and population of the whole Confederation, said force isn’t really much in spite of their nature that tends more towards elite. This is due to the fact that the region has been coveted many times and invaded even more than that in the past. This is the reason while the Duxes of the city have been much more cautious than the ones of the other cities and pressed for confederating almost a hundred years ago. It is also perhaps due to the fact that there is enough fertile land that the state of Gañau still has hereditary nobility, even though it is mostly overshadowed by the merchant aristocracy.
Khaz had been the historical rival of Lellail for centuries before the creation of the Confederation and although the city is currently weaker in all aspects compared to the aforementioned, in its time of splendour and in the age of Lellail’s largest decay close to four centuries in the past, both cities were around the same level of power.
Khaz is located in and around an almost closed sound, making the whole city a giant port but leaving it defenceless on one side if it wasn’t for its fleet and the two great towers on the sides of the sound’s rockeries. It is often called the Yellow City thanks to the rocks that compose its rather modest double walls that run over the softly sloping hills that bleed small rivulets into the city.
The city has been regularly invaded by both forces from Gañau and Yasharn, has most often than not fought to take the dominion of the seas from Lellail and has been almost successful several times. While this hasn’t been profitable for either nation, it has spurred onwards the development of new technology regarding navigation.
The city retains its current importance through being both a trade hub and an important partner in most deals that require the interceding of the United Banks of Herater, as Khaz is the primary owner and moneylender of the bank in spite of being smaller than Lellail. Also it is important to highlight that the UBH is a creation of the past Duxes of Khaz as well as many of the modern concepts regarding money.
Schwah is the city of the arts, being blessed by the presence of some of the greatest artists of all time and most of the modern ones. The patrons of the arts of the city are always ready to disburse money for a new project of art in the same manner that Lellail is ready to pay for new scientists and mathematicians. Schwah is luxury made ivory and marble and prosperity made gold and platinum. The streets of the city are lined with marble statues of diverse nature, ranging from great feats of the past both mythical and historical to anthropomorphic representations of abstract concepts and everything in between. Canals and fountains adorn the city and every new building is constructed with the endeavour of surpassing all of the ones that surround it in beauty, grace and opulence. While most of the centre of the city is akin to an art gallery, the outskirts are made of tall houses of three stories and above, mashed together without losing a feeling of uniqueness, creating a strange continuum of styles and structures.
Other main cities include: Yasharn, Zharashawar, Unim, T’zah and Fili’í. Though they are large, together they only represent just above a third of the total population.
The government of the Confederation of Herater is made out of several Duxes, with each ruling their own region. Those were their former Republics with them being elected in them according to an indirect popular vote (or in the case of Gañau, through a vote tilted by the nobility). To coordinate all of the Duxes there are three parliaments which have representatives from each of the nations:
This is the General Parliament that governs the entire Confederation. With the Confederation being created mostly out of trade deals and mutual defence agreements, the Parliament of the Lands tends to act also as an economic ministry, a central bank and a stock exchange as much as it dedicates itself to dictate more wider-scope policies in the state. Though there are organisms that fulfil the responsibilities of an economic ministry, the Central Combined Council of the Economy and a stock exchange, one for each city in particular, these are subordinate to the Parliament and in general can be overruled by it even if in practice they have not been for many years.
The number of members per region which integrate the Parliament of the Lands is determined by the size of the population of the component states. They are in total 360 delegates and they are called the Solemn Ones. The Solemn Ones of each region are headed by their Dux which also acts as one of them but possesses increased privileges, such as the ability to veto laws that are posed from the Solemn Ones of their state. There is no one on the entire Parliament of the Lands that can directly veto laws though, even when in practice most of the larger states, such as Lellail and Gañau can block laws should they desire to.
The one who heads the Parliament of the Lands is known as the Exalted First Speaker and is elected through the vote of the Solemn Ones. His or her function is to guide the debates and serve as a leader in times of crisis that can make more direct choices when given emergency powers. Should a deadlock happen, it is also the function of the Exalted First Speaker to break it.
This is the parliament which governs the maritime affairs of the Confederation and the policies of the dependent colonies. It is integrated in the same manner as the Parliament of the lands, only though this time there are a 36 Grand Admirals in charge instead of 360 delegates and depend not on the military power of the regions involved but on the size of their commercial fleets in tonnage. The Parliament of the Seas thus is a source of great resentment due to Lellail having the absolute majority of the admirals, close to two thirds more than to a half actually. The parliament is headed by the Arch-Grand Admiral, whose functions, as his title, have become more pompous and ceremonial than anything else.
The Parliament of the Seas currently mostly dedicates itself to deal with the occurrences of the dependent colonies, outposts and the merchant navies in spite of being the only Parliament which serves both civilian and military functions. The military functions of the parliament have decayed as together with the decay of the Confederate Military Navy, currently only being a shell of its former self. It would be more accurate to say that in this aspect the regions which have navies, being all but Gañau and Schwah, use them instead of deferring to the Parliament of the Seas as, for the moment, there is no cause for concern beyond patrolling, escorting and pirates.
The Parliament of the Fires forms and enters session only in case of a major crisis or war that involves the whole Confederation and can put its existence at risk. It is formed by the Silent Ones, a title granted to several people which were already authorities before the crisis and are named this way because they don’t answer to the people, as the Duxes which are at least elected indirectly, but instead answer to the nation in general.
Its functions are defined by the degree in which the Confederation is in danger and is divided into seven levels designated by colours: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet with Violet being the highest alert colour and Red the Parliament inactive.
Should the alert level ever reach Violet, imminent destruction of the Confederation, the Parliament of the Fire assumes all the responsibilities of governing the Confederation, instantly declaring martial law and state of total war if they have not been declared beforehand, which is almost assured. There has been no instance in which the Parliament of the Fires has reached above Green and hopefully it will never have to be that way, however, should it happen, in the aftermath the Silent Ones are forced to resign by law and can no longer perform any direct function in the government, civil or military. This is to avoid them abusing their emergency powers, though there is a way to circumvent the fact and that is by being advisors to the government, the highest echelon they now can reach.
The Parliament of the skies started as a religious institution that judged as a supreme tribunal, however, a long time has passed since it had s significant amount of religious influence and currently it acts as a laic judicial body with some de jure religious formalities which neither are important to its resolutions nor are practiced often.
In general the government is very divided with intentional deadlocks and movements under the table being the rule more than the exception. The Confederation of Herater is rotting from the inside very slowly, as slow as it assuredly and may fall apart with precise strokes to certain members.
The Confederation of Herater has had a notably strong economy for a long time, nonetheless, corruption and complacency, mainly the last one, have made it decay into just a better than average economy.
The country as a whole obtains most of its revenues from trade and services while also possessing a strong manufacturing sector. That isn’t to say the country has modern factories and assembly lines, but neither has it meant that the small industries haven’t copied the serial production of the Arsenal in some measure. Adding to that are the economic operations conducted by guilds, moneylender houses, banks, stock exchanges and other commercial institutions. It is said that every prime material in Albion passes through one of the ports of the Confederation at least once. The nation in itself has only fish and pearls to export in significant quantities though.
Meanwhile, the government obtains most of its wealth from taxing economic operations, without relying so much on the taxes on the common people, which of course exist but wouldn’t be nearly enough to support the spending of the nation’s government, small as it is in a laissez faire.
The nation obtains most of its bare sustenance from the sea instead of the fields, except for Gañau and, in part, Schwah; lacking the amount of land needed to sustain its population, especially due to it being concentrated in a few great cities. This means a long blockade should be lethal to the economy and could cause massive starvation depending on how much fish can the cities catch, how close the blockade is and how long it lasts.
The Confederation of Herater can’t agree on many things, some would say most things, with one of them being religion. Most of the population belongs to one of the diverse confessions of Elementism and tends to respect one another and to tolerate other faiths. After the failure of instituting a religious tax that almost caused one of the many threats of several members leaving the Confederation, the idea was left shelved, probably forever. This is also the reason of the secularization of the Parliament of the Skies.
There aren’t many temples of other religions inland, but in the main ports one can find the many religions of the world represented in some way or another.
The plains of the Heratereh is dominated by the river system of the lower Herater and the land is mostly featureless fields that sometimes transition into softly rolling hills the closer the landscape gets to the mountains. The exception to this geography is the coasts and the lakes that surround one of sides of the Herater where the city of Lellail is located. Said city isn’t on the delta of the river though, being instead in a series of lagoons, lakes and wetlands that resulted from the river pushing the land downwards with time and then changing course millions of years ago.
The city of Gañau is on the side of a solitary hill, large enough to be a flattened small mountain thanks to its circumference, thus the entire city has a privileged position above the rest of the surrounding landscape. The people in Gañau have also hollowed out part of the hill for provisions and as a last resort refuge.
Schwah lies on a low plateau in the only large risen geographical zone of the Heratereh and for it only a small stream can flow through the city thanks to little difference in elevation.
Ninety two percent of the population of three and a quarter million are human with the rest being a mishmash of all the other races. With social standing being determined by wealth and many of the foreigner species coming to the city as important merchants, the prejudice against non-human occupying government positions isn’t as strong as it could be.
Xhore Javor: Current Dux of Lellail, an old man often called senile for his slow responses to the facts concerning the wider world, however, he has a firm grip on politics and has the support a of supermajority on the advisory council of Lellail.
Jya Alexeria: Female Kitsune of fiery temper and genius intellect, she is a government advisor, an important merchant and a strong candidate for the position of Dux in Lellail once the current one loses an election or dies.
Morm Bluesun-Muth: Dux of Gañau and the only one of them being partially a noble by blood. He detests separatist but these days it seems that he also detests everyone else. A bitter man whose ambitions aren’t clear and don’t seem to augur nothing good.
Crerom Dutte: Current Dux of Khaz, a schemer and somewhat greedy separatist. He was a rising star just the day before and thus he won’t easily forget how to reach and cling to power, and most important of all, how fickle it is.
Kiv Eadrath: Dux of Schwah, a young man, considered almost a boy. He has good intentions and a brilliant mind but may lack the experience in politics necessary for his position… Or he is hiding something as his meteoric ascent with four fifths of the majority in Schwah is anything to go by.
Rag Sau-Sau: A half-elf, Dux of T’zah and famously chronically paranoid. He has the largest and most well-connected spy network in the Confederation. He is more often than not practically preaching about a likely impending invasion from the Commonwealth to mostly deaf ears.
The United Banks of Herater: This is the official bank of the Confederation as it names implies, it is the most important and powerful bank in the world, with their loans sometimes surpassing the economies of small nation even though the Confederation is decaying. It is managed from the High Directorate which includes the largest investors and the government of the Confederation, with the last one having always a majority by at least one participant by law. In reality those government officials are their own investors and conduct their own agendas that just happened to align with the governments in those periods of time.
An absolute commercial denial by the bank can easily break an economy of a normal nation.
The Great Guild of Lellaili Traders: The largest, most economically powerful and most prestigious guild in all of the confederacy and perhaps Albion, it unites great and small merchants for profit and could even be its own nation should it propose itself to do it. It certainly has the economic strength and goods to do it. While it began in Lellail as its name implies, it bears no loyalty to it or to no one, not even to itself. These are treasonous waters and the Great Guild’s members only work for themselves and will only push an agenda that benefits the most of them.
A benefit of this enormous extra-governmental organization is that it has greatly helped to expand the practice of serial production among the entirety of the Heratereh. In spite of its power, it isn’t a monopoly thanks to its voluble nature.
The Arsenals’ Unitary Central Command: This semi-governmental organization was responsible for the great war fleets of the past in the nations of the Confederation when it was the arsenals of the diverse states. Now it is corrupted and in decay, given to unnecessarily pompous displays of wealth and grand egos. Even then, it is responsible for the creation of the serial production in Albion and its initial expansion though the city-states. It sets standards, oversees and maintains the fleets that aren’t private and, while corrupted, is flourishing in the construction and maintenance of non-war vessels.
Recently there is a conflict of interests that has shaken the Arsenals to their very core as reformists, who seek to recuperate the glory of old, have strengthened their positions and made certain they will no longer seek compromise.
The Old Guard: The Old Guard is the union of all the separatists in the Confederation, a mishmash of ideologies and a headache for everyone, even those involved on it. No one agrees but on to try and disband the confederacy and return to the supposed glory days of independent states. They have been banned in diverse states and courts in diverse periods of time but their base of popularity, while always changing, has always made them bounce back either by force or by diplomacy, more often by a mix of the two.
This is perhaps the largest roadblock for a truly functioning Confederation.
The White Crows: The White Crows are the opposite of the Old Guard, they seek new progress, end with the decay by uniting the components of the Confederation closer. They follow the supposed steps of the original Dux Hraf. Some seek to return to the more authoritarian original Confederation and some even wish for an elective monarchy, however, the general consensus is that the corruption needs to go, the army must be restored but most important of all, the confederate military navy must be back to its former glory.
Organization: The general organization of the military is currently non-existent and is designed to operate under the command of each of the regions and cities. It relies primarily on the use of mercenaries with a core of some career troops for especially for Gañau and somewhat for Lellail, but for the others, just mercenaries, a prototype of police and the city-guard.
In times of severe crisis though, there are mechanisms established to recruit from the peasantry and then going up the social ladder. Nevertheless, this changes when one considers the city guards of the two largest cities, Gañau and Lellial. See “Advantages”.
Another important fact is that the Confederation has mastered the art of warfare involving fire. The army often uses from primitive hand-grenades filled with liquid that catches fire by a mix of movement and contact with the oxygen in the air, passing through Heratereh Hellfire (an equivalent to Greek Fire that work like Termite, meaning it can’t be put out as it self-oxidating), to volleys of cannonballs that split into dozens of exploding projectiles filled with flammable and explosive liquid.
Troop total:
Regular career troops:
If there is any need for an invasion army, mercenaries are called to supplement the regular soldiers and, for defence, peasants are drafted.
Regular warships:
To put this into perspective, to repel the Commonwealth, the original Confederation of the Herater managed to summon 900 warships and in total more than 3.000 ships (but also consider that said number included down to river barges with archers on top and counted hired privateers too).
Strong economy: Economically, the Confederation of the Herater can withstand any kind of blockade provided it doesn’t cut the flow of food into the cities. The economy is good and integrated enough that an embargo would most likely hurt more the attacker than the Confederation. The reserves of any kind of material would likely last years with no problem.
Commercial foreign investment: The Confederation is deeply involved in international trade and thus can make or break foreign economies through embargoes. A normal-sized nation most likely would have most of its trade deals, currency value and fiat money in reserve that isn’t in the shape of commodities destroyed through an embargo.
A Tale of Two Cities: Gañau and Lellail are almost impossible to siege. To surround them a massive army is needed with the support of a navy, both of which are guaranteed to take extremely heavy casualties; should this not be done properly, the cities can hold almost indefinitely; Gañau with being large enough to sustain its own agriculture within its walls and Lellail due to being able to take products from the sea.
Gañau has its massive walls filled with siege equipment, ballistae, trebuchets, scorpions, onagers, hwachas, cannons and ducts to spill Heratereh Hellfire, none of which has ever been breached. Lellail can hide behind the fleet and, in the worst case scenario, become an island by flooding the whole area around it, plus, the city is divided into dozens of concentric rings, each one which has to fall to access the inner one.
Internal disunion: The Confederation is kept together mostly by inertia and the right push in the wrong direction can break it apart, or the wrong person coming into power. All of the regions have significant minorities which desire to be completely self-governed again, most of which at some point in every decade or two make a majority. Also the Old Guard has a great possibility of breaking the state into its regions should it agree on its path and means towards archiving such end.
Military decay: The military of the Confederation, while not in a sorry state, is indeed in sorry numbers and lacks a permanent central command. Thus the state can’t wage offensive wars in land and there is the ever-present danger of at least some of the mercenaries turning on the Confederation even when there is likely no one in Albion which can pay them more generous sums.
∼Confederation of the Herater∽
∼About the nation in general∽
Demonym:
Heratereh, Herateresh for the general population. Lellaili, Gañauan, Khazari, Schwahan, Yasharner, Zharashawarsih, Unimi, T’zahi and Fili’íno for the specific cities.The Confederation of Herater is the evolution of a military alliance created by the nations that exist around the Heratereh, the zone commonly associated with the river of which name it is derived. Said alliance emerged from the need to protect from the outside threats that loomed over the area, coveting for the riches of the cities which prospered in the plains of the river system.
During a long period of time, almost since their founding, the cities squabbled for small and fickle disputes in search of primacy, primacy they soon lost in other small-scale wars. However, in spite of this cycle of almost constant warfare somewhere in the area, most of the cities never resulted severely damaged thanks to the use of primarily mercenary armies which thanks to their monumental wealth, they could afford and send into this seemingly endless cycle; mercenaries judging that their chance of dying and the chance of winning enormous sums of money was worth it. In this manner the population of the cities, even when sometimes under siege, never dwindled too much and never more than the rate of growth of the population.
On the other hand, war brought innovation and technology to the Heratereh, and made many of the city-states into patrons of great projects of art, from literature to architecture. Their mentality geared towards innovation and progress in spite of tradition or social privilege made them ideal for adopting Commonwealth technology, and developing their own variations of it, even before they made direct diplomatic contact with said power. Because of the same, investigation of natural sciences was never far behind, with many taboos in other nations about unravelling the mysteries of the world being non-existent in the soon-to-be Confederation. And of course, the bridge between the two of said areas of knowledge is also deeply explored in the city-states, that bridge of course being philosophy.
Another area that was greatly benefited from the cities wishing to get the upper hand on each other was magical theory, both in its more mundane branch of alchemy to their more esoteric and powerful branches. Nonetheless, the great majority of the magic in the Confederation is dedicated towards study and what large-scale magic exists is mostly for peaceful, background processes such as purifying water. That isn’t to say there are no magics in the army or in defences of the cities, but those are mostly last resort tactics and meaningless in open battle. In general could be said that, apart from academically, the Confederation is very weak magically.
The economic sector of the members of the Confederation is the dominant aspect of the countries, their government mostly being merchant republics and thus their social mobility is limited by wealth and not by birth in most places, either de jure or at least de facto. Furthermore, in many of the countries there isn’t a real nobility to speak of beyond the mercantile aristocracy. This economic dominance is expressed in concrete terms mostly through a tremendous naval power both in trade vessels and, formerly, war vessels. In a more subtle manner, it is easy to see the economic reach of the Confederation in their dominance of the trade routes by the pure volume of products transported by their carracks and galleys in opposition to the other powers and, descending from there, their trade concessions in many cities and important economic points around the most frequent commercial routes. Many of these outposts have Confederate sovereignty, but most of them do not.
Other important fact that must be considered is the predominance of the Confederate coin is most of the surrounding markets, especially the Lellail Concentric, named in that manner for having a hole in the middle and several rings around it, mimicking the shape of the city of Lellail. The use of the Confederate coin has allowed the already deep mercantile penetration that is also found in banks, to go and involve itself further into the core of the most important business of the surrounding nations. The United Banks of the Herater is the single most powerful economic institution in Albion.
The constant state of conflict, though rarely beyond low-intensity, was a definite wall for the development of the soon-to-be Confederation, nonetheless, that changed the instant the colonies of the Great Republic of Lellail were attacked by the Commonwealth. The nations of the Heratereh knew that if Lellail lost the control of the seas she had maintained for more than a millennium through both her commercial and military fleets, it would be no grand effort for the Commonwealth to push her commercial outposts out of their cities and launch an invasion of the Heratereh itself. Thus they united and joined their fleets; dozens of Merchant Republics pushed everything that floated, in total more than three thousand galleys and carracks, into the largest naval battle in recorded history, sinking most of their adversary and scattering the remaining forces.
Dux Hraf, often called The Crow, was the responsible for this and from that moment onwards the nations would strengthen their links into what is now the Confederation of the Herater. The alliance was forged almost a hundred years ago and now the question remains, can it hold itself together in the face of danger and new opportunities? The states that were once part of it are now regions in a single nation and they are fiercely independent, wishing for their interests to be considered above all else, even to common good of the entire country and thus of their future prospects.
∼About the main regions/former states:∽
Lellail:
Lellail is the largest city and commercial centre of the former state of the same name, by far the most important urbanization in its region and how can it be not when the city is a monster, one of the, if not the, largest in Albion. Thus Lellail is its city and the city is splendour made stone, brick, metal and wood.
Lellail was constructed upon a series of interconnected lakes and lagoons and given the shape of several concentric circles of alternating water and land with a great artificial lagoon in the middle that serves as an inner sanctum for the most important buildings, such as the headquarters of the United Banks of the Herater. To build it, many of these lagoons had to be drained and land taken from the sea, rivers and creeks had their paths changed and even some parts require a continuous pumping of water or pumping in case of an emergency; due to this the landscape surrounding the city is filled with both windmills, watermills and canals to and from the city. The occasional aqueduct is also present.
The city possesses several other inner lakes as the circumferences get more and more deformed as they approach the edges of the city. They are used for inner ports, from the Great Harbour of the city to commercial concessions of other nations. The blocks of the city are connected by canals and bridges, many of which can be elevated, magically or mechanically, cutting access to parts of the city and protecting it. Other, more extreme measures to protect the city in case of siege rely in breaking the dams that surround the city and therefore flooding some parts of the countryside.
One important place to highlight is the Grand Arsenal, a complex that builds ships in serial production, granting the ability to lay down several ships a day and repair them in even less time thanks to them using standard, interchangeable parts. There are several arsenals that copy this model distributed throughout the city, the region and many copies of it on the main ports of the state.
Lellail is the birthplace of Hraf the Crow, which at several points was their ruler as Dux, and so their inhabitants often consider that such fact grants them primacy over the other components of the Confederation, something that is disputed as Gañau is the state that pushed the most for confederating in the first place. Nevertheless, they possess some weight to their claims as Lellail is the richest, largest, and the one that possesses the largest commercial fleet of the entire country, totalling around the 60% of the Confederation’s fleet.
Gañau:
The city of Gañau was once the seat of a great empire, now the empire is gone and all that remains are the fertile plains where the tributaries of the Herater flow. Gañau is known as the Man-made Mountain as throughout their history, the city has never had their outer walls breached… And they have six sets of similar walls inside of those with moats separating them. The city is ancient; the prime example being that each set of walls is centuries older than the last, but has been renovated with time and thus brought to modernity through the ages. The city lies at the top of an extremely large hill with mountains on the back of the city, at the very centre of the Confederation. While its region lacks access to the sea, that is compensated with the largest population thanks to their rich fields and Gañau being just about two thirds of Lellail. The landscape is also filled with wind and watermills to take advantage of the rivers and water the fields. Gañau in general is considered the only one of the regions that depends on agricultural products more than those extracted from the sea.
While the region of Gañau supports a rather large population, that doesn’t mean that there are any urban centres apart from the great city itself, just small to medium-sized villages, and due to this, in case of an invasion the inhabitants of the countryside must take refuge inside the walls. However, it must also be considered that the city of Gañau has decayed significantly since the days of their great empire and a great part of the constructions have been cleared for the use of agriculture, with only the largest monuments that once formed the core of the city, now forming the whole of the modern Gañau. Currently, the city is mostly agricultural fields in area. To put this into perspective though, in case of war, would be the last sliver of hope as it can supposedly hold indefinitely. Should the city be besieged that is likely the end of the Confederation, because, to reach it, an army must have pushed through all the territory of the majority of the other regions.
The region of Gañau is unique in that is the only one who possesses and maintains a standing army, well trained and equipped. Nevertheless, in comparison with the size and population of the whole Confederation, said force isn’t really much in spite of their nature that tends more towards elite. This is due to the fact that the region has been coveted many times and invaded even more than that in the past. This is the reason while the Duxes of the city have been much more cautious than the ones of the other cities and pressed for confederating almost a hundred years ago. It is also perhaps due to the fact that there is enough fertile land that the state of Gañau still has hereditary nobility, even though it is mostly overshadowed by the merchant aristocracy.
Khaz:
Khaz had been the historical rival of Lellail for centuries before the creation of the Confederation and although the city is currently weaker in all aspects compared to the aforementioned, in its time of splendour and in the age of Lellail’s largest decay close to four centuries in the past, both cities were around the same level of power.
Khaz is located in and around an almost closed sound, making the whole city a giant port but leaving it defenceless on one side if it wasn’t for its fleet and the two great towers on the sides of the sound’s rockeries. It is often called the Yellow City thanks to the rocks that compose its rather modest double walls that run over the softly sloping hills that bleed small rivulets into the city.
The city has been regularly invaded by both forces from Gañau and Yasharn, has most often than not fought to take the dominion of the seas from Lellail and has been almost successful several times. While this hasn’t been profitable for either nation, it has spurred onwards the development of new technology regarding navigation.
The city retains its current importance through being both a trade hub and an important partner in most deals that require the interceding of the United Banks of Herater, as Khaz is the primary owner and moneylender of the bank in spite of being smaller than Lellail. Also it is important to highlight that the UBH is a creation of the past Duxes of Khaz as well as many of the modern concepts regarding money.
Schwah:
Schwah is the city of the arts, being blessed by the presence of some of the greatest artists of all time and most of the modern ones. The patrons of the arts of the city are always ready to disburse money for a new project of art in the same manner that Lellail is ready to pay for new scientists and mathematicians. Schwah is luxury made ivory and marble and prosperity made gold and platinum. The streets of the city are lined with marble statues of diverse nature, ranging from great feats of the past both mythical and historical to anthropomorphic representations of abstract concepts and everything in between. Canals and fountains adorn the city and every new building is constructed with the endeavour of surpassing all of the ones that surround it in beauty, grace and opulence. While most of the centre of the city is akin to an art gallery, the outskirts are made of tall houses of three stories and above, mashed together without losing a feeling of uniqueness, creating a strange continuum of styles and structures.
Other main cities include: Yasharn, Zharashawar, Unim, T’zah and Fili’í. Though they are large, together they only represent just above a third of the total population.
∼About the government:∽
The government of the Confederation of Herater is made out of several Duxes, with each ruling their own region. Those were their former Republics with them being elected in them according to an indirect popular vote (or in the case of Gañau, through a vote tilted by the nobility). To coordinate all of the Duxes there are three parliaments which have representatives from each of the nations:
The Parliament of the Lands:
This is the General Parliament that governs the entire Confederation. With the Confederation being created mostly out of trade deals and mutual defence agreements, the Parliament of the Lands tends to act also as an economic ministry, a central bank and a stock exchange as much as it dedicates itself to dictate more wider-scope policies in the state. Though there are organisms that fulfil the responsibilities of an economic ministry, the Central Combined Council of the Economy and a stock exchange, one for each city in particular, these are subordinate to the Parliament and in general can be overruled by it even if in practice they have not been for many years.
The number of members per region which integrate the Parliament of the Lands is determined by the size of the population of the component states. They are in total 360 delegates and they are called the Solemn Ones. The Solemn Ones of each region are headed by their Dux which also acts as one of them but possesses increased privileges, such as the ability to veto laws that are posed from the Solemn Ones of their state. There is no one on the entire Parliament of the Lands that can directly veto laws though, even when in practice most of the larger states, such as Lellail and Gañau can block laws should they desire to.
The one who heads the Parliament of the Lands is known as the Exalted First Speaker and is elected through the vote of the Solemn Ones. His or her function is to guide the debates and serve as a leader in times of crisis that can make more direct choices when given emergency powers. Should a deadlock happen, it is also the function of the Exalted First Speaker to break it.
The Parliament of the Seas:
This is the parliament which governs the maritime affairs of the Confederation and the policies of the dependent colonies. It is integrated in the same manner as the Parliament of the lands, only though this time there are a 36 Grand Admirals in charge instead of 360 delegates and depend not on the military power of the regions involved but on the size of their commercial fleets in tonnage. The Parliament of the Seas thus is a source of great resentment due to Lellail having the absolute majority of the admirals, close to two thirds more than to a half actually. The parliament is headed by the Arch-Grand Admiral, whose functions, as his title, have become more pompous and ceremonial than anything else.
The Parliament of the Seas currently mostly dedicates itself to deal with the occurrences of the dependent colonies, outposts and the merchant navies in spite of being the only Parliament which serves both civilian and military functions. The military functions of the parliament have decayed as together with the decay of the Confederate Military Navy, currently only being a shell of its former self. It would be more accurate to say that in this aspect the regions which have navies, being all but Gañau and Schwah, use them instead of deferring to the Parliament of the Seas as, for the moment, there is no cause for concern beyond patrolling, escorting and pirates.
The Parliament of the Fires:
The Parliament of the Fires forms and enters session only in case of a major crisis or war that involves the whole Confederation and can put its existence at risk. It is formed by the Silent Ones, a title granted to several people which were already authorities before the crisis and are named this way because they don’t answer to the people, as the Duxes which are at least elected indirectly, but instead answer to the nation in general.
Its functions are defined by the degree in which the Confederation is in danger and is divided into seven levels designated by colours: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet with Violet being the highest alert colour and Red the Parliament inactive.
Should the alert level ever reach Violet, imminent destruction of the Confederation, the Parliament of the Fire assumes all the responsibilities of governing the Confederation, instantly declaring martial law and state of total war if they have not been declared beforehand, which is almost assured. There has been no instance in which the Parliament of the Fires has reached above Green and hopefully it will never have to be that way, however, should it happen, in the aftermath the Silent Ones are forced to resign by law and can no longer perform any direct function in the government, civil or military. This is to avoid them abusing their emergency powers, though there is a way to circumvent the fact and that is by being advisors to the government, the highest echelon they now can reach.
The Parliament of the Skies:
The Parliament of the skies started as a religious institution that judged as a supreme tribunal, however, a long time has passed since it had s significant amount of religious influence and currently it acts as a laic judicial body with some de jure religious formalities which neither are important to its resolutions nor are practiced often.
In general the government is very divided with intentional deadlocks and movements under the table being the rule more than the exception. The Confederation of Herater is rotting from the inside very slowly, as slow as it assuredly and may fall apart with precise strokes to certain members.
∼About the economy:∽
The Confederation of Herater has had a notably strong economy for a long time, nonetheless, corruption and complacency, mainly the last one, have made it decay into just a better than average economy.
The country as a whole obtains most of its revenues from trade and services while also possessing a strong manufacturing sector. That isn’t to say the country has modern factories and assembly lines, but neither has it meant that the small industries haven’t copied the serial production of the Arsenal in some measure. Adding to that are the economic operations conducted by guilds, moneylender houses, banks, stock exchanges and other commercial institutions. It is said that every prime material in Albion passes through one of the ports of the Confederation at least once. The nation in itself has only fish and pearls to export in significant quantities though.
Meanwhile, the government obtains most of its wealth from taxing economic operations, without relying so much on the taxes on the common people, which of course exist but wouldn’t be nearly enough to support the spending of the nation’s government, small as it is in a laissez faire.
The nation obtains most of its bare sustenance from the sea instead of the fields, except for Gañau and, in part, Schwah; lacking the amount of land needed to sustain its population, especially due to it being concentrated in a few great cities. This means a long blockade should be lethal to the economy and could cause massive starvation depending on how much fish can the cities catch, how close the blockade is and how long it lasts.
∼About the religions:∽
The Confederation of Herater can’t agree on many things, some would say most things, with one of them being religion. Most of the population belongs to one of the diverse confessions of Elementism and tends to respect one another and to tolerate other faiths. After the failure of instituting a religious tax that almost caused one of the many threats of several members leaving the Confederation, the idea was left shelved, probably forever. This is also the reason of the secularization of the Parliament of the Skies.
There aren’t many temples of other religions inland, but in the main ports one can find the many religions of the world represented in some way or another.
∼About the geography:∽
The plains of the Heratereh is dominated by the river system of the lower Herater and the land is mostly featureless fields that sometimes transition into softly rolling hills the closer the landscape gets to the mountains. The exception to this geography is the coasts and the lakes that surround one of sides of the Herater where the city of Lellail is located. Said city isn’t on the delta of the river though, being instead in a series of lagoons, lakes and wetlands that resulted from the river pushing the land downwards with time and then changing course millions of years ago.
The city of Gañau is on the side of a solitary hill, large enough to be a flattened small mountain thanks to its circumference, thus the entire city has a privileged position above the rest of the surrounding landscape. The people in Gañau have also hollowed out part of the hill for provisions and as a last resort refuge.
Schwah lies on a low plateau in the only large risen geographical zone of the Heratereh and for it only a small stream can flow through the city thanks to little difference in elevation.
∼About the demographics:∽
Ninety two percent of the population of three and a quarter million are human with the rest being a mishmash of all the other races. With social standing being determined by wealth and many of the foreigner species coming to the city as important merchants, the prejudice against non-human occupying government positions isn’t as strong as it could be.
∼About the prominent individuals:∽
Xhore Javor: Current Dux of Lellail, an old man often called senile for his slow responses to the facts concerning the wider world, however, he has a firm grip on politics and has the support a of supermajority on the advisory council of Lellail.
Jya Alexeria: Female Kitsune of fiery temper and genius intellect, she is a government advisor, an important merchant and a strong candidate for the position of Dux in Lellail once the current one loses an election or dies.
Morm Bluesun-Muth: Dux of Gañau and the only one of them being partially a noble by blood. He detests separatist but these days it seems that he also detests everyone else. A bitter man whose ambitions aren’t clear and don’t seem to augur nothing good.
Crerom Dutte: Current Dux of Khaz, a schemer and somewhat greedy separatist. He was a rising star just the day before and thus he won’t easily forget how to reach and cling to power, and most important of all, how fickle it is.
Kiv Eadrath: Dux of Schwah, a young man, considered almost a boy. He has good intentions and a brilliant mind but may lack the experience in politics necessary for his position… Or he is hiding something as his meteoric ascent with four fifths of the majority in Schwah is anything to go by.
Rag Sau-Sau: A half-elf, Dux of T’zah and famously chronically paranoid. He has the largest and most well-connected spy network in the Confederation. He is more often than not practically preaching about a likely impending invasion from the Commonwealth to mostly deaf ears.
∼About the prominent institutions and factions:∽
The United Banks of Herater: This is the official bank of the Confederation as it names implies, it is the most important and powerful bank in the world, with their loans sometimes surpassing the economies of small nation even though the Confederation is decaying. It is managed from the High Directorate which includes the largest investors and the government of the Confederation, with the last one having always a majority by at least one participant by law. In reality those government officials are their own investors and conduct their own agendas that just happened to align with the governments in those periods of time.
An absolute commercial denial by the bank can easily break an economy of a normal nation.
The Great Guild of Lellaili Traders: The largest, most economically powerful and most prestigious guild in all of the confederacy and perhaps Albion, it unites great and small merchants for profit and could even be its own nation should it propose itself to do it. It certainly has the economic strength and goods to do it. While it began in Lellail as its name implies, it bears no loyalty to it or to no one, not even to itself. These are treasonous waters and the Great Guild’s members only work for themselves and will only push an agenda that benefits the most of them.
A benefit of this enormous extra-governmental organization is that it has greatly helped to expand the practice of serial production among the entirety of the Heratereh. In spite of its power, it isn’t a monopoly thanks to its voluble nature.
The Arsenals’ Unitary Central Command: This semi-governmental organization was responsible for the great war fleets of the past in the nations of the Confederation when it was the arsenals of the diverse states. Now it is corrupted and in decay, given to unnecessarily pompous displays of wealth and grand egos. Even then, it is responsible for the creation of the serial production in Albion and its initial expansion though the city-states. It sets standards, oversees and maintains the fleets that aren’t private and, while corrupted, is flourishing in the construction and maintenance of non-war vessels.
Recently there is a conflict of interests that has shaken the Arsenals to their very core as reformists, who seek to recuperate the glory of old, have strengthened their positions and made certain they will no longer seek compromise.
The Old Guard: The Old Guard is the union of all the separatists in the Confederation, a mishmash of ideologies and a headache for everyone, even those involved on it. No one agrees but on to try and disband the confederacy and return to the supposed glory days of independent states. They have been banned in diverse states and courts in diverse periods of time but their base of popularity, while always changing, has always made them bounce back either by force or by diplomacy, more often by a mix of the two.
This is perhaps the largest roadblock for a truly functioning Confederation.
The White Crows: The White Crows are the opposite of the Old Guard, they seek new progress, end with the decay by uniting the components of the Confederation closer. They follow the supposed steps of the original Dux Hraf. Some seek to return to the more authoritarian original Confederation and some even wish for an elective monarchy, however, the general consensus is that the corruption needs to go, the army must be restored but most important of all, the confederate military navy must be back to its former glory.
∼About the military:∽
Organization: The general organization of the military is currently non-existent and is designed to operate under the command of each of the regions and cities. It relies primarily on the use of mercenaries with a core of some career troops for especially for Gañau and somewhat for Lellail, but for the others, just mercenaries, a prototype of police and the city-guard.
In times of severe crisis though, there are mechanisms established to recruit from the peasantry and then going up the social ladder. Nevertheless, this changes when one considers the city guards of the two largest cities, Gañau and Lellial. See “Advantages”.
Another important fact is that the Confederation has mastered the art of warfare involving fire. The army often uses from primitive hand-grenades filled with liquid that catches fire by a mix of movement and contact with the oxygen in the air, passing through Heratereh Hellfire (an equivalent to Greek Fire that work like Termite, meaning it can’t be put out as it self-oxidating), to volleys of cannonballs that split into dozens of exploding projectiles filled with flammable and explosive liquid.
Troop total:
Regular career troops:
- ∼13.000 for Gañau.
- ∼5.000 for Lellial.
- ∼7.000 for the other cities combined
If there is any need for an invasion army, mercenaries are called to supplement the regular soldiers and, for defence, peasants are drafted.
Regular warships:
- Under the banner of the Confederation: ∼60
- Under the banner of Lellail: ∼100
- Under the banner of Kahz: ∼70
- Under the banner of the remaining cities: ∼80
To put this into perspective, to repel the Commonwealth, the original Confederation of the Herater managed to summon 900 warships and in total more than 3.000 ships (but also consider that said number included down to river barges with archers on top and counted hired privateers too).
∼Summarizing:∽
∼Advantages:∽
Strong economy: Economically, the Confederation of the Herater can withstand any kind of blockade provided it doesn’t cut the flow of food into the cities. The economy is good and integrated enough that an embargo would most likely hurt more the attacker than the Confederation. The reserves of any kind of material would likely last years with no problem.
Commercial foreign investment: The Confederation is deeply involved in international trade and thus can make or break foreign economies through embargoes. A normal-sized nation most likely would have most of its trade deals, currency value and fiat money in reserve that isn’t in the shape of commodities destroyed through an embargo.
A Tale of Two Cities: Gañau and Lellail are almost impossible to siege. To surround them a massive army is needed with the support of a navy, both of which are guaranteed to take extremely heavy casualties; should this not be done properly, the cities can hold almost indefinitely; Gañau with being large enough to sustain its own agriculture within its walls and Lellail due to being able to take products from the sea.
Gañau has its massive walls filled with siege equipment, ballistae, trebuchets, scorpions, onagers, hwachas, cannons and ducts to spill Heratereh Hellfire, none of which has ever been breached. Lellail can hide behind the fleet and, in the worst case scenario, become an island by flooding the whole area around it, plus, the city is divided into dozens of concentric rings, each one which has to fall to access the inner one.
∼Disadvantages:∽
Internal disunion: The Confederation is kept together mostly by inertia and the right push in the wrong direction can break it apart, or the wrong person coming into power. All of the regions have significant minorities which desire to be completely self-governed again, most of which at some point in every decade or two make a majority. Also the Old Guard has a great possibility of breaking the state into its regions should it agree on its path and means towards archiving such end.
Military decay: The military of the Confederation, while not in a sorry state, is indeed in sorry numbers and lacks a permanent central command. Thus the state can’t wage offensive wars in land and there is the ever-present danger of at least some of the mercenaries turning on the Confederation even when there is likely no one in Albion which can pay them more generous sums.