Marquise — Roleplayer Guild

Reserved.

WIP Sheet below :)

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Geography:

|Geographical Location of Country:| The pretty rose-pink on the Idiean map
|Country Size:| 3,072,000 square kilometres.
|Natural Resources:|

Copper – Vershellen Principalities
Gemstones – Vershellen Principalities
Lumber – Vershellen Principalities
Gold – Home Duchies, Manticore
Oil – Settumar, Home Duchies (Unexploited)
Phosphates – Settumar
Rare Earths – Settumar
Luxury Goods – Home Duchies, Manticore
Coal – Home Duchies, Myris

The Serene Empire has its origins and seat of power on a set of sprawling islands in the balmy equatorial seas. Imperial colonies have since been established on several other landmasses, supplying the islands with these resources and acting as a market for the various foodstuffs and luxury goods the Home Duchies – the five original islands of the Empire - provide. The islands themselves – with the exception of inhospitable, mountainous Monrutaine – are generally congenial, interspersing thick jungle and cloud forests with broad, open floodplains perfect for settlement. To others, though, Sairish summers are stiflingly hot and incredibly humid, even with the frequent thunderstorms. The empire is split into several administrative and geographic units, as follows:

1.) The Home Duchies - The origin of the Empire, the five Home Duchies are its beating heart. Richly watered by regular rain and spared the extremes of the world's weather as a whole, they are lush and green. The balmy capital region comprises the five principal islands of the ancient duchies – Arcadia, Monrutaine, Vallefay, Myrantia, Salamis and its Royal Marches. The islands – with the exception of harsh, volcanic Monrutaine – are a mixture of lush, rich rainforest and broad, fertile grasslands amply watered by rivers and dotted with sparkling lakes. Such hills and mountains as exist are old and gently rolling, and the beaches slope down to the turquoise seas in long, white arcs. Most of the settlements of any note here are, unsurprisingly, seaports of one flavour or another, the greatest of which is dreaming Xantal on its thousand isles.

Thanks to its volcanic past, the Duchies are rich in gold, which has historically formed the bedrock of the Imperial Treasury and is still an important sector, filling the vaults of the great banking houses and keeping the Sairish solar a rock-solid measure of wealth. There is also oil present offshore, but exploitation has been limited owing to the difficulty in accessing it and the ready availability of Settumar crude.

The imperial capital of Joyeuse sprawls across miles of the meandering river Rheol in the Royal Marches.

2.) Manticore – A large and fertile island to the south-east of the imperial heartland, in earlier centuries Manticore was an independent maritime nation and long-term trading partner of the then-Serene Kingdom of Sairland. It was a state renowned for its commercial acumen, its music and its artistic sophistication, but in the latter days of its existence as an independent nation it was convulsed by the throes of revolution and internecine war. Sairland, in particular, watched in horror as the Manticoran people went mad – or so it seemed to them – burning down palaces and grand monuments that had stood for generations, tearing down a culture which had stood for a millennium in a few short months. The Manticoran merchant fleet and the navy together both quickly turned to piracy as the disintegration of the nation continued, fuelled by demagogues from a half-dozen different powers who had aimed Manticore like a missile at the Serene Kingdom and her shipping lanes.

Whilst the Kingdom had initially tried to stay out of the conflicts in Manticore, as soon as Manticoran ships began to prey on Sairish vessels, it became clear that something had to be done. Those few Sairish agents who happened to be in Manticore – and those that had survived the pogroms – were rapidly coordinated and the Royal Navy sailed for Manticore in quick succession. The armada sent most of the Manticoran fleet to the bottom of the sea in short order, just outside the capital Port Vannis, and, having defeated the seaborne threat, the Royal Army was the next up to bat, enormous troop transports disgorging fully a quarter of the entire army into Manticoran harbours to restore order – by any means necessary. After several of the more belligerent pirates and agitators had been summarily executed by the advancing soldiery and their strongholds reduced to rubble by naval bombardment, the islands began to calm down and the Royal Engineers came in to clean up the mess and repair some of the damage that the conflict – and the previous years of civil war – had wrought. With the agitators shot, deported or behind bars in the newly-created Empire’s special cells under the tender care of the Harlequins, the Manticoran citizens began to appreciate the return to sanity and the stability of Sairish rule. 

The King of Manticore is Alexander de Rochevalle, governing his territory from the silver-domed Grand Palais in Port Vannis.

3.) Vershellen - The principalities across the sea, Vershellen is the second-oldest overseas possession of the Empire, initially conquered for its rich deposits of gemstones to feed the voracious appetites of the merchant princes and high nobility. The land is rich and mysterious; the principalities themselves sprawl across the vast jungles that not even Imperial industrialisation has yet managed to dent, focused around river deltas, lakes and the foothills of the high mountains that fringe the principalities. Unsurprisingly for such a maritime nation, imperial power is concentrated near the coastal cities, where both the crushing might of the Imperial Navy – and Airfleet - can be brought to bear and the moderating influence of trade and travel has broadened the mind.

Copper and gems are to be found in abundance here, and the jungles provide vast reserves of exotic hardwood timbers and unusual fruits. The Trans-Principality Railway cuts right through the Vershellen jungles, from the coastal capital of Aurian to the border with Nisqhog's nation, a vital trade route that is ever more heavily trafficked by people and goods.

The current Vicereine is HRH Marianne de Sulimenne, whose family lands encompass the regional capital of Aurian.

4.) Cinnamon Isles - Exotic and engaging, a tourist destination right across the world – to quote a tourist advertisement ‘The dusky and enigmatic Cinnamon Isles, where natives the colour of rich chocolate cavort on the orange sands and wine-dark seas lap the shores under a nacarine sky.’ The Cinnamon Isles are found to the north and west of the Home Duchies. The mainstay of the Cinnamon Isles’ economy these days is tourism, unsurprisingly, given its great natural beauty and the aesthetic sense the Dominion’s rulers have preserved ever since the Isles fell under Imperial rule. 

The capital of the Cinnamon Isles is the city of Cinnabar, where Aurelia Thierrault, the Vicereine of the Isles and Countess of the Rathing Sea in her own right, rules from her sandstone palace and the sleek shapes of hotels discreetly mingle with the villas of the wealthy, jostling genteelly for position along the curving sweep of the beaches.

5.) Settumar – The largest of the empire's overseas colonies, Settumar is a treasure-trove of resources and opportunities abound for entrepreneurs as the colony grows by leaps and bounds. Colonised by hardy Tarantines and the great commercial dynasties, it has grown in a mere handful of years from a scattering of coastal towns and mining settlements under imperial charter to a mighty colonial dominion in its own right. Its capital city of Shimmerene glories in the cascading wealth pouring in, a glittering white monument to imperial power and the benefits of its rule.

The colony provides the empire with oil, phosphates, rare earth elements and silver.

The current Viceroy is Lionel Carrington, ruling from the marble colossus of Government House in the heart of Shimmerene. 

6.) Myris – The most northerly of the empire's possessions, Myris provides a vital long-range base for imperial trading fleets, providing easy access to the northern nations. It is a land of cool summers and long, chilly winters, well-watered by frequent rains. The most recent imperial colony, it is still some way behind the sophistication and industrial might of the rest of the empire, and its Viceroy hails from the Home Duchies, rather than being a suitably loyal native.

The City of Light is well-named indeed. One of the largest and certainly grandest of all cities, it sprawls in a great valley that covers most of the capital island of the Empire, filling it with a blaze of multi-coloured light that can be seen for many, many miles, an earthbound sun challenging the celestial one. Great towers spear the skies in stately array, fantastically-decorated and faced with iridescent filaments that make them glow brilliantly in the dark. The wide boulevards with their trees and fountains and ornate streetlamps are always thronged with the best and brightest of the empire, and high overhead a constant silver stream of airships goes to and from the highest docks while trains shoot back and forth and the river – insofar as is still navigable – is thronged with barges and pleasure craft.

Well is it said that all routes lead to Joyeuse.

At the highest point of the city there lies the gargantuan Whisper Palace, a colossus of engineering skill across the centuries, towering high into the sky, its fantastic weight relying on the unsung genius of the Royal Engineers to keep it from collapsing in on itself. Every scrap is carved or frescoed, jewelled or gilded, studded with statuary, mosaicked and painted and sculpted in a glorious monument to Imperial power and prestige, surrounded by sumptuous gardens that are a perfumed buffer from the hustle and bustle of the great capital. Blue alcohol fire leaps from every towering spire and dome, making the building completely unmistakeable.

It is here, amid the perfumed gardens and beautiful halls that took generations to create – every view is arresting and pleasing to the eye in some way – that the Empress holds her Most Honourable Opal Court and all the paraphernalia of executive government are to be found. It is here that petitioners are heard, important diplomats and heads of state are received in unimaginable splendour and are entertained lavishly. The Whisper Palace is a great patron of the arts, and it is rare to find a day on which no artistic endeavour is being conducted in the vast edifice. 

Salano is the most select of all the districts in Joyeuse, surrounding the Whisper Palace’s imposing sprawl. It is a district of open squares and stately buildings, winding boulevards and elegant, upscale boutiques placed a discreet stroll from the winter palaces of the Empire’s greatest nobility. 

Sereniteers in dress whites are ubiquitous here, and are scrupulously polite. This is not to say, however, that they will hesitate to drag offenders to the Imperial Judiciary which bulks in magisterial splendour at the eastern edge of the district, before a gilded statue of Madame Justice herself, a stark contrast to the gaiety that infuses the rest of the district. The magnificent frontage of the Tellurian Opera House bulks large here, a poem in gilt and marble, attended by the foremost luminaries of the Empire and producing some of the finest musical compositions known, vying with the many smaller conservatoria and opera houses, theatres and upmarket cinemas for noble patrons.

One of the most iconic buildings in the district – and indeed, the entire city – is the gilt-roofed Archades Palace, the residence of House Montclair in the imperial capital. Blazing even brighter than the Whisper Palace, it is a lighthouse right across the entire city, visible from almost anywhere. The Palace of Reason, home of the Imperial Parliament, is also to be found here.

Godsreach is another upper-class demesne; here merchantier princes and the lesser nobility keep their winter residences, mingling genteelly with the temples and places of worship that have been here since time out of mind. Incense is thick in the air, warring with the scent of hellebores and bougainvillea that grow everywhere in this district. Godsreach is famed far and wide for its cuisine, from the opulent restaurants whose names are household words to the tiny, hole-in-the-wall eateries that nevertheless promise gastronomic delights from across the world, mixed with the finest cooks the Empire can offer – and since the Sairish hold chefs and eating in high esteem, that is fine indeed.

Godsreach is also the location of the Imperial College of War, the GHQ of the Imperial Army, a large but rather anonymous complex of buildings in the standard High Imperial style, discreetly guarded and wrapped around with an enormous bleeding heartvine. It is here that the highest level of military strategy is formulated and orders are given to military units in all the far-flung provinces of the Empire.

Mazuka is a comfortably middle-class part of the capital, with avenues of plumply self-satisfied Imperial townhouses and upscale businesses gathered around leafy squares. The Sereniteers have a heavy presence here because the primary aerial docks of the city are located here, near the de Nauta Piazza with its centrepiece the golden statue of Aeres de Nauta, the very first aeronaut of the Empire, glowing in the sunlight, his sword pointing to the skies that are thronged with aerial quays and airships and aircraft from all across the Empire.

The piazza’s sides are lined with the golden arches of the Air Academy and the handsome manses of the high officials and teachers. Many a famous air-marshal and admiral has retired to a lecturing post at the academy and they have taken the caramel-coloured houses near their beloved eyries and docks for their own until this district embodies the very pinnacle of imperial aeronautical engineering.

The fanciful glass towers of the Spires – the training grounds for young aeronauts - rise to the north-west of the district, following the curve of the city roads that merge gently with the grand causeway leading up to the palace, the tiny trainer-ships buzzing about them like mechanical bees, while the more stately craft of the old aeronauts stand solemn guard over them in their glass eyrie. The very atmosphere of the district is steeped in the history of the air, from the statue of Aeres de Nauta to the names of the buildings and the old craft still standing staunch guard over the district – living history among the bustle of the aerial traffic that whirls around the docks, and far better than the dry, dusty tomes in the archives of the palace and the museums. 

Palatine Ring – this district is the principal marketplace of the entire capital city, a chain of plazas fringed by shops and beset by stalls of traders from all across the world, well is it said that in the Ring one can buy anything – from Charys jewellery to Archades pearls and exotic goods from the distant countries of the world, all brought by the great merchant marine of the Empire to Xantal and then shipped over to the Imperial Capital. 

This district is also the site of the headquarters of the Joyeuse Sereniteers, the White Keep, the ancient border fortress of the city, now long since subsumed in the urban expansion and now comprehensively repurposed, which keeps crime down to a minimum despite even the market-day crowds that throng the wide avenues.

The Imperial Bank and the Stock Exchange are also to be found here, nestling close to the Keep behind walls and their own guards to supplement the Sereniteers.

Ravenna is one of the poorer districts of the Imperial Capital, where most of the workers who support the great edifice of their betters live. Well-serviced by trains and well-lit, it nonetheless has higher crime than most other areas and is a perennial thorn in the Sereniteers’ side.

The capital of Arcadia duchy and the Empire’s greatest port city and second capital, it is also one of the more unique cities in Imperial dominions, built on the fractured southern end of Arcadia island, a city of a million canals and thousands of docks. It is a city of stark contrasts, the frenetic Docklands utterly different to the friendly gilded spires of Archades Citadel, a fairytale castle surrounded by lavish water gardens and relaxing plazas that sits at the centre of the Golden Triangle, a large portion of the city which is proverbial for the idyllic summer residences of many nobles and the unparalleled exotic diversions that can be found there and nowhere else – indeed, the headquarters of the Bliss Alliance, the Empire’s guild of those whose work is the pursuit of pleasure is to be found here. In many ways, Xantal is the holiday playground of the wealthy, a hotchpotch of styles and periods, all improbably jumbled together as citizens have built and rebuilt over the millennia and the well-heeled attempt to outdo one another in extravagance and outrageous style. 

The Archadean Bacchanalia is more spectacular than even the capital’s and people come from all over the world to take part in the three-day glut of wine, women (or men, if your tastes run that way) and song. Xantal theatre and orchestras are known far and wide and its seafood is without compare – hardly surprising when one considers its location, a veritable floating city supported by the almost-inconceivably fertile duchy, with its orchards and vegetable farms and ranks of vines producing the very finest of spirits. The University of Archades, the premier institution of learning in  the entirety of the Empire, is also to be found here, its ancient buildings and college campuses sprawling across the centre of the city.

On the flipside to this holiday idyll are the buzzing Docklands on the seaward edges of the city, a vast labyrinth of cranes, wharves and warehouses that bulge with goods along the edges of the marina, while the hundreds of piers, wharves, docks and quays bustle with burly stevedores, merchants, sailors and captains. The taverns here are raucous and friendly, a haven for students and sailors alike, a far cry from the refined restaurants of the upmarket areas of town, but fights are nevertheless dealt with quickly by the Xantal Sereniteers; little violent disorder is permitted in the Archadean jewel. Fortified warehouses and docks hold vast stores of weapons and ammunition, and granaries under the city hold prodigious stocks of food, while the forest of aerial docks to the east of town can easily supply it for months.

The Imperial Admiralty, the governing board of the Imperial Armada and the Air Navy, is also to be found here, close to Archades Palace – the Dukes of Arcadia have long been associated with first the sea and second the air, spearheading the development of related technology and the formation of the Armada and the Air Navy.

Being the largest trading city of the entire Empire, Xantal’s transport system and marinas are concomitantly enormous; the largest train hub yet constructed has just been completed to allow hundreds of trains to disburse megatons of goods all across the home provinces and to take in the enormous harvests from the bountiful island, while the shipyards work ceaselessly to produce more and more trading ships of both aerial and nautical kinds to keep the Empire together.

Xantal and the surrounding duchy of Arcadia are ruled by Peregrine Montclair, the fifteenth Duke of Arcadia.

The beating industrial heart of the Home Duchies, Coronne is the centrepiece of Monrutaine island. It is not a tourist destination in the least; Monrutaine in any case is harsh and inhospitable, with sheer cliffs of granite, volcanic mountains and jagged reefs surrounding much of it. The island is split in two by the Charys range, the source of a great deal of raw materials for Coronne’s industrial combine. Mines honeycomb the foothills and cut into the volcanic mountains themselves, bringing forth a wealth of gold, gems and metal, as well as a great deal of fine masonry stone. This mineral tribute is then barged down the river to Coronne city and the vast foundries and forges of the League of Iron then turn this into almost any sort of good imaginable. Ars Technica, the premier engineering institute in all the Empire is located on the outskirts of Coronne, close to the manufactoria for the mass-production of alloys for the Imperial Armada that have played a large part in ruining Monrutaine more or less completely. The island can be seen for leagues by the glow of the furnaces, drifting up from the enormous manufacturing plants that have killed nearly every scrap of vegetation on the island, warring with the red blazes from the mines further inland that have wrecked the rest of it.

The Dukes of Monrutaine still maintain their ancestral residence amid the smokestacks of the industrial giant, a cyclopean fortress of obdurate granite, polluted and blasted by industrial effluents. In practice, though, the family resides in Joyeuse, remaining as far from the belching chimneys as they can. While they care for their duchy and the people in it as much as they can – they spend the most per head of any duchy on public health and other works, they nevertheless don’t choose to live themselves amongst all the pollution.

Nonetheless, Monrutaine duchy is an indispensable part of the Empire and the unity and strength of the duchy are very important – it is one of the primary construction yards for the Armada and Air Navy, and as such is protected by the cyclopean fortress of Coldharbour, a fearsome citadel bulking on the cliffs over the city, sited to support the Ducal Palace and the shipyards and rain fire down on any foe attempting to enter or blockade the harbour.

The current lord is Etienne de Reyer, the seventh Duke of Monrutaine.

Reachable only by train or airship, high in the mountains of its inhospitable island, Bandahar is a relatively small city devoted almost entirely to the profession of arms and under military governance as a primary Imperial staging ground and final redoubt in the event of invasion or revolution. 

Heavily fortified with the best that Sairish ingenuity can come up with, Bandahar is designed to be as close to impregnable as it is humanly possible to be.

Her mistress is Honore de Serenne, the Marshal of the Imperial Army.

In the very heartlands of the agricultural breadbasket of the Empire, in late summer, as far as the eye can see around Vallefay there is a sea of gold as the wheat crop ripens, matching precisely the buttery stone of the city. While duchy Arcadia provides Sairland with its fruits and vegetables, its wine, spirits and game, it is Vallefay’s extraordinarily rich plains, with two or three harvests a year, that put bread on the table of every Imperial household and help to fill the granaries of the Empire against famine.

Vallefay is also famous for its flowers, and the star-lilies that blaze day and night with radiance and sprout all over the city are on the tables of all the finest households in Joyeuse. It is known, too, for its mosaic and pottery works and the fanciful displays of their art that pave the city streets, but the intricate mosaic-work that adorns many of the finest buildings of the Empire is on the wane now and the workshops receive fewer and fewer commissions each year despite concerted attempts to raise the profile of their work and make them fashionable again.

Vallefay also possesses an exceptionally-good university, rivalling that of Archades itself, with the Ducal Library there putting even the Archadean Archives to shame – a point of constant contention between the two ancient institutions, which compete hotly for students, sporting and academic attainment. The most prestigious and contended event of the University year are the Aerial Races, originally a race between two home-built aircraft around the borders of the Home Duchies, culminating in a race through the Imperial Capital itself and finishing amid the spires and domes of the Whisper Palace, but now expanded dramatically from this core event with balls and parties and other competitions.

The master of Vallefay is Alexis de Contarini, the seventh Duke of Salamis.

A large inland city on the island of Caziri, it is famed for its silk and its glass. The most sublime creations of glass come from the workshops of Gagarin, shaped and formed and worked by past masters of their craft, working to exacting precision and accepting nothing less than total perfection in form and aesthetics. Rinian glasswork is prized beyond gold in the Empire.

The dupioni silks from the mulberry orchards in the foothills outside the city also fetch high prices; Rinian tailoring is among the finest in the Empire; after all, it’s not for nothing that Gagarin is called the fashion capital of Sairland.

The mistress of Gagarin is Martine de Rochevalle, the tenth Duchess Caziri.

May add more later…

People & Culture:

|Population:| How many people live in your country? Roughly speaking, of course.
|Demographics:|

-Sairish: Traders, merchant venturers and the core of the empire, they originate from the Home Duchies – although they can be found everywhere in the empire, and frequently beyond. The stereotypical Sairish appearance is one of blonde hair, fine features and eyes like the sea itself.

-Manticoran: After century upon century of intermarriage and inclusion in the empire, Manticorans and the Sairish are more or less impossible to tell apart, save by custom and accent.

-Vershelleen: Natives of the Serene Empire’s second-oldest overseas possession, after Manticore itself, the Vershelleen are dark-skinned and fire-eyed, revelling in heat and humidity that would severely hamper others. A common myth is that their ancestors were burned black by the sun.

-Pencharnese: Hailing from the Cinnamon Isles, the dusk-skinned Pencharnese have held and cherished an economic rivalry with Sairland and the Sairish since time immemorial. Despite their cosmopolitan homeland, their trading heritage and their practices of hospitality, they still hold themselves apart from the other groups in the Empire; their own word for themselves translates simply as ‘the People’.

-Myrish: Of Monrutaine stock, hardy and well-used to harsh environments, the Myrish are known for their strength and stubbornness as well as the similarity of their flattened features – it’s often remarked that they have only three surnames across the entire colony, which, whilst a falsehood, is not too far from the mark.

|Government:| The country is ruled by the Empress and her Cabinet, drawn from the nobility who form the Opal Court and the Imperial Parliament's House of Blood, with representative advisors from the House of Commons.  

|Ruler:| Empress Liliana - Serious and devoted to her country, the young Empress tries to be balanced and listens carefully to her advisors, diligently taking soundings before committing to any action. Her still-childlike figure is a powerful tool in making others underestimate the power of the empire, while internally she is held up as a beacon of hope. The Empress always makes a point of visiting any disaster area or great new development, to either celebrate the achievements of the people or to commiserate and direct more resources into recovery procedures.

Her closest counsel is the Imperial Chancellor, Peregrine Montclair, the Duke of Arcadia.

1.) Peregrine Montclair, Imperial Chancellor and Duke of Arcadia - The affable and smiling fifteenth Duke of Arcadia, Earl of Xantal, Viscount Saere and Imperial Chancellor, Peregrine Montclair is the day-to-day de facto head of the government. As Chancellor it's Perry's job to orchestrate the often-fractious Parliament and govern, in his empress' name, the far-flung possessions of the Serene Empire. 

Even before the Chancellorship, Peregrine Montclair was one of the most powerful men in the Empire – not that he shows it much, hiding his true power and wealth behind a smiling, affable façade. His duchy provides advanced engines and devices, and further grows luxury cash crops and succulent fruits for the finer tables of the Empire. The Duke also receives vast revenues from the trading ports of his capital; indeed, he might as well own his own private navy, given he is the Chairman and owner of the Trifecta Shipping Group, one of the largest freight-and-passenger services in the Empire.

He is the leader of the Centrist Party in imperial politics.

2.) Alexander de Serenne, Viscount St. Clair and Marshal of the Imperial Army - The redoubtable Marshal of the Imperial Army and, therefore, de facto Minister of War for the Serene Empire, Alexander is a dark horse among the high nobility. The Serennes as a House are minor nobility in Arcadia duchy, but Alexander, from a cadet branch of the family, pursued a highly successful career in the military, fighting numerous battles and rising through the officer corps (his family, after all, paid to put him through officer training rather than see him slog through with the rest of the grunts). He reached the rank of Lieutenant-General in the Royal Engineers before retiring to take up politics. He commands the entire army from the Imperial College of War, alongside his counterpart in the Navy.

He is a member of the Centrist Party.

3.) Honoré de Vallière, Viscountess Vajours and First Lord of the Admiralty - Endlessly energetic, de Vallière is the dynamo that drives the Imperial Admiralty. A relentless modernizer, under her watch the Admiralty has commissioned and documented more studies, experiments and testbeds than at any other point in its history. Her drive for all things new does not only extend to new ships and weapons, though - she has ruthlessly streamlined the notoriously-complex shipbuilding process to good effect and military acclaim. Her signature practically sizzles on every important piece of Admiralty legislation or Board decision over the last few years, and it would be hard to find a more dedicated naval officer.

She is a member of the Expansionist Party in imperial politics.

4.) Gabriel de Marin, Marquis of the Reach and Foreign Secretary - Tenth Marquis of the Reach, Earl Rosemont, Earl Tavistock and Baron Tenshard, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is a powerful man indeed. A career diplomat and politician, the Gothic colossus of the Foreign Office is a home away from home. Precise and smooth, a graduate of Queen's Ring Academy and Polaris University, like most of the Cabinet, he is supremely comfortable in the clubby atmosphere of Parliament and the House of Blood, and is a past master at its many and varied backroom deals and internecine political intrigue.

As Foreign Secretary, he is well-placed to put that particular talent to use on a wider stage. As chairman of the Expansionist Party, he is a strident and well-known voice in the House, pushing for bringing civilisation to the benighted heathens of the world by any means necessary.

5.) Nathaniel Ruthven, Earl Summervale and Chancellor of the Exchequer - Precise and unflappable, Nathaniel Ruthven is the oldest and perhaps most conservative of the current Cabinet. Having engaged in the mysterious world of high finance for many years as Lord Allenby - his courtesy title, before ascending to the earldom - he has a keen understanding of what makes the Treasury tick and, crucially, how to keep it ticking. Instinctively against any great new expenditure of imperial lucre, he keeps tight control over the purse-strings of government.

A valued - but extremely irritating - member of the Cabinet, his careful fiscal policies and insistence on the slow, steady growth of the Imperial Treasury often force Peregrine Montclair and the other members of Cabinet to exhaustively justify their spending plans. Once set on an issue, he has a will of iron and is very difficult to shift. He is a member of the Centrist Party, and is known as the Father of the House of Blood, being the longest-serving aristocrat in Parliament.

6.) Olivier de Perrault, Baron Daubeny and Chairman of the Imperial Board of Trade - Head of the sprawling imperial trading bureaucracy, responsible for every port and freight railway terminus in the land, in charge of tariffs and customs, the Imperial Board of Trade is a powerful body, and its head an influential man.

Rotund and jolly, Daubeny is a renowned gourmand and epicure, enjoying the finer things in life that his position affords, either in the form of gifts and treats from the great merchantier houses looking to persuade him and his committees one way or the other, or else in the enviable access his position affords.

Perhaps naturally, he is a member of the Expansionist Party, aligning closely with their ideals of ordered imperial dominion - and with it, yet more trading destinations under the empire's banner.

7.) Solomon Holmes-Selkirk, Viscount Oriel and Secretary of State for Home Affairs -  Precise and fastidious, Holmes-Selkirk looks to the internal affairs of the empire entire. His sprawling Ministry encompasses law and order, manages the regular census and – along with Industry – spearheads the development of the Colonies through imperial grants and investment on the very grandest of scales. He is a fanatic about his work, tireless in its execution, and it has aged him prematurely; his hair is a shock of white above an aristocratic face deeply graven with the stress of his high office.

Despite the internal portfolio of his office, he is a member of the Expansionist Party.

8.) Jacques de Clifforde, Earl Fenton and Secretary of State for Health - Details! Centrist Party

9.) Aurelia Farnese-Sagari, Viscountess Thalassa and Secretary of State for Manticore - Details! Centrist Party

10.) HRH Shafqat Javid, Princess Riga and Secretary of State for the Vershellen Principalities – Details! Centrist Party

11.) Mordecai Orzhov-Morais, Baron Nazarain and Secretary of State for the Cinnamon Isles – Details! Expansionist Party

12.) Emily Sanderson-Reeves, Marquise Kandahar and Secretary of State for Myris – Details! Centrist Party

13.) Martyn Hamilton, Viscount Drax and Secretary of State for Industry - Details! Expansionist Party

14.) Charles Clare-Malet, Marquis Templecombe and Attorney-General to the Opal Court - Details! Apolitical legal advisor

Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition

1.) Sir David de Borbonne, Baron Mersenne and Leader of the Opposition - Details! Liberal Party

2.) Airey Fanshawe-Curreau, Earl Vallon and Shadow Secretary of State for Home Affairs - Details! Coextensive Party

3.) Sadi de Carnot, Viscountess Carnot and Shadow Foreign Secretary - Details! Liberal Party

|Volksgeist:| Traders and merchants, entrepreneurs and industrialists, the Sairish are the heirs to a great imperial legacy with a worldwide reach. Few are the ports that have never known a Sairish trader. Where other nations fell to infighting and civil war, to bloody revolution and dissolution, the Crown has provided stability, and with stability has come prosperity. Monarchs come and go, aristocrats flower and fade in the House of Blood, but the Crown endures. 

The aristocracy is not a closed club, either; Sairland has a long tradition of ennobling its successful luminaries, and that tradition continues to this day. In every commoner's briefcase there rests a ducal coronet – with enough hard work and inventiveness anyone in the empire may grasp it.

There are several identities within the empire – Manticoran, Pencharnese, Vershelleen, Myrish and so on, but all are imperial citizens, equal and with the same rights, duties and privileges as those fortunate enough to live in the imperial heartlands. A great deal of effort goes into securing an overarching imperial identity.

|Religion:| In the main, the Sairish do not believe in gods or divinities of any kind; this is an ancient quirk of the realm, for in antiquity they many a time faced foes preaching blood and thunder to the attacking Sairish, prophesied that the very trees and rocks and the seas themselves would come alive and slaughter them in their sleep.

None of this occurred, breeding a deep disdain for gods and god-botherers in the early Sairish, a trait which has remained to this day. Again and again, Sairland has faced zealots, witch-doctors, self-proclaimed avatars and paladins of other faiths and prevailed; the closest thing they have to religious devotion is their pride in their empire and their trust in people and steel. Any so-called 'divine' phenomena are, their mindset asserts, due to currently-unexplained natural occurrences, the province of science as yet not understood.

Religion is allowed in Sairland, however - so long as it does not threaten the safety of the citizens or the good order of the empire - but most would be looked upon as a bit wet and lacking in moral fibre for needing the spiritual comfort-blanket of a numinous god to cling to, rather than getting on in life and making their mark on the world.

The Halliel Shipping Group is one of the very largest shipping corporations in existence, with numerous subsidiary companies under its banner, either publically or not. Its main shipyards are at Coronne, with its headquarters being, unsurprisingly, located in Xantal, where it owns three marinas and is negotiating for two more.

It is wholly owned and operated by the Montclair family; by far the most common surname on the employee rolls of upper management is Montclair, with the Duke of Arcadia himself sitting as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company. 

While it deals mainly in international blue-water shipping, with a vast fleet of container ships and submersible carriers, it is currently expanding into aerial freight also, particularly for valuable perishables for which sea travel is simply too slow.

Day-to-day operations are handled by Peregrine Montclair able cousin, Sir Dolphus Montclair, the Director of Operations.

The East Empire Company was formed when imperial expansions brought the present-day Vershellen Principalities under Imperial rule. It is heavily invested in the mining industries there, as well as in the production of luxury foodstuffs – tea, chocolate, jewellery and furniture, for example – in the Home Duchies to ship to these colonies. It is a successful commercial venture, with an international reach and a near-monopoly on the chocolate trade, as well as being a significant player in the markets for sugar and coffee.

Its Chairman is Viscount Hamearis Lucina, a merchantier prince who is directly descended from the the East Empire Company’s founder. He’s also started several other corporations and built them up from nothing, and as a consequence is fantastically wealthy and well-connected, and often sits in on Shadow Council meetings. He is implacably opposed to Edward de Lichtenlade, the imperial Taxmaster-General, who frequently investigates his accounts in the firm belief that he’s getting away with murder somewhere.

One of the Empire’s premier pharmaceutical and chemical corporations, it has a highly chequered history – both past and present.

 It is rumoured – though it has never been proven – that ICI is one of the primary suppliers of weapons-grade chemicals for use in munitions to the Sairish military, forming a partnership with the Montclair-Oranis owned chemical research complex of the Mehr which actually develops the compounds before turning them over to ICI for full-scale production. 

Imperial Chemical Industries, strictly sub rosa, produces considerable quantities of the empire's chemical weapons stocks, whilst a wholly-owned subsidiary, Rogar Antidotes and Health Group, also produces the military-applicable field antidote kits and supplies the military hospitals with specialist chemicals, equipment and procedures to be followed, derived from Mehr principles.

Drexler is one of the smaller – but more successful – arms manufacturers in the Empire. In truth, their mainstay is currently advanced ship hulls and design of both civilian and military designs, but they have recently expanded into the arms scene with a range of missile delivery systems as well as a selection of small arms, from which the Drexler Mk. V T-117 rifle has become the standard for the Imperial Army given its reliability, ease of cleaning and its good performance in blank tests on the Fort Transformation urban and rural testing grounds.

Its owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors is Reinhardt de Culronin, 2nd Earl Venmouth.

An enormous conglomerate of heavy manufacturing industries, Concorrant is involved in everything from the extraction of bulk metals to the fabrication of airliners. It operates in every part of the Empire, from vast shipyards in Coronne to aircraft fabrication yards near Cinnabar, enormous subterranean mining complexes in Settumar to steelworks the size of a town in Manticore.

Concorrant is still a family-owned business, with the Concorrants maintaining a 62% majority stake in the company. The Imperial Chancellery maintains a 27% stake, the next-largest shareholder, with the remainder being distributed between various charitable trusts and wealthy members of the public.
 
Viscountess Marvelle Concorrant, 6th Viscountess Bachenburg, is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors. Under her leadership, Concorrant Industries has begun acquiring some smaller, more specialist high-technology firms, aiming to use more of Concorrant’s primary products to produce higher-value end items.

The ICBC, as it is commonly known, broadcasts to the empire and all its far-flung colonies as a matter of course, but many other nations tend to be linked into its sprawling network of stations, with even fanatically anti-Sairland states receiving a skeleton service. It is known for its standards of impartiality and fairness, and the civilised tones of a Home Duchies announcer are the foundation of many peoples’ acquaintances with the empire and its language.

The enormous corporation is not under the control of the Opal Court, the Imperial Chancellery or Parliament as a whole; Martine de Rochevalle’s family are the strongest single voice in the Board, but they can be vetoed or opposed by several other interests; a broad spectrum of families, such as the merchant Ramirez clan from the Cinnamon Isles and the de Sulimennes from Vershellen, hold significant stakes in the Service, meaning that the ICBC reports foreign and domestic news with a certain amount of impartiality, which is not always to the government's favour. It has subsidiary stations in many demesnes, and also owns several major newspapers, such as The Imperial Times, The Financial Herald and The Settumar Telegraph, as well as the Shipping and Trade Index, invaluable for any ship-captain. It also broadcasts the regular Shipping Forecast.

The current chairman of the ICBC is the Honourable Everarde de Montfalcone.

|History:|

|Armed Forces|

Four full Corps of soldiers of various shades, standing at 45,000 fully battle-ready personnel per Corps, plus their ancillary staff.

Four full Brigades of soldiers at 5,000 battle-ready personnel each, two specifically charged with blue-water operations as the Imperial Marines on secondement to the Armada, under Brigadier Daniel Tollemache-Perrin’s overall command, and two trained as aerial assault forces as the Imperial Paras, under Brigadier Adele de Lache, on secondement to the Air Navy.

The infantrymen of the Army are expected to be a highly-disciplined and effective fighting force in a wide variety of terrains and conditions – to this end, the Army maintains a network of training bases in the nastiest regions under Imperial dominion to prepare its recruits for the worst the world can throw at them.

There are also several full-size mock-ups of urban settlements of various styles arrayed around the primary training base of Fort Transformation, near Bandahar, for the forces to practice close-in civilisation and the rooting-out of insurgent forces. To this end, also, the standard infantry weapon of the Imperial troops is a Drexler T-117 Mk. V rifle, perfect for the urban warfare that is often the mainstay of the Army’s activities.

The Royal Engineers also have their base near Bandahar, and it is here that these ingenious people learn the tricks of their singular trade. Something of a summer pastime for Engineer recruits is designing and building additions to Bandaharin defences – and several of these projects have become standard, in the due progress of time, across all imperial defensive installations.

The Royal Engineers have a tendency to overdesign and overengineer their structures.

The Imperial Armada is controlled ultimately by the Admiralty in Xantal and the Lord of the Western Seas, the titular head of the entire Armada.

Presently, the composition of each Fleet in the Armada is thus, with several changes depending on the Admiral in command:

1 Flag Dreadnought – Enormous vessels of war, these vast constructions are the ruin and envy of other nations. Bristling with weaponry and armoured to the hilt, they are a visible and undeniable symbol of Imperial might and the futility of resistance in the face of overwhelming force majeure. When one of these drops into the fray, the enemy may be sure of a thorough civilising of everything within range, and they can shrug off assaults that would cripple and destroy lesser vessels. 

2-6 Battleships - The primary Imperial battleship is the Imperious class, an older design that has since been comprehensively refitted.

15-20 Cruisers – The faster and more manoeuvrable backbone of a fleet, though paling into insignificance when compared with the firepower of the flag dreadnought and the battleships, they are an indispensable – and more mobile – part of Imperial doctrine. Battleships, screened by cruiser squadrons, charge at the van of the Imperial advance, crushing all resistance before them with their heavy guns and missile batteries, weathering assaults due to their heavy armour and high speed. The primary Imperial battleship is the Imperious class, an older design that has since been comprehensively refitted – most Fleet battleships now mount missile launchers in the place of their secondary guns, but some operational concerns have led to the design being placed in for review as a matter of priority.

50-60 Frigates – The workhorses of the fleets, they are moderately armed and only lightly armoured, and quite nimble because of this. The jack of all trades, frigates are often specialised for various roles, such as assault, being loaded with heavy gunnery, fighter defence, in which case their artillery is replaced with interceptor munitions and other specialised equipment, minesweeping/minelaying, or as picket ships, with their radar and other communications apparatus enhanced. The standard base-model frigate in the Empire is the Victorious class, displacing 26,000 tons fully loaded, although this can change based on the many variants in service.

10-30 Submarines – Most Sairish submarines are fully diesel-powered fast-attack vessels of the Viceroy class, usually deployed in hunting packs of three or five, and generally possess as primary armament six 21-inch torpedo tubes – four fore and two aft.

Admiral of the Home Fleet of the Imperial Armada – The head of a cadet branch of the Montclair dukes, Heidi is a ruthless and efficient Admiral of the Home Fleet and by extension the Lady of the Western Seas, in command of the whole Armada. She rules her command from a palatial Flag Officer Command suite aboard the Imperial flagship, Castle Basileis. A superior tactician, she knows every inch of the Home Duchies intimately by sea, and will never hesitate to personally join in the fray – or rather, to direct her captain to take the dreadnought into battle.

She is a great believer in keeping the Imperial Armada trained and ready at all times; thus, some portion of the Armada is always fighting itself in wargames or undergoing exercises out in the remoter parts of the Empire. They liaise closely with the Air Navy with regards to sea and air attacks, and also with the Army in the colonies.

Heidi is a keen fencer and markswoman, and follows the competitions in Fleet and Navy Games with great care – not allowed to compete herself, as the Admiral in charge of the whole lot. The Home Fleet’s base of operations is Xantal, specifically the Imperial Admiralty and Counterpoint Fortress.

Admiral of the First Fleet of the Imperial Armada – Cutting a dashing figure by anyone’s standards, the slight and sylph-like Gabriel is decidedly not what one might expect from an Admiral. However, he is a past master of defensive tactics and strategy, relying on a fluid and ever-changing battle composition rather than a heavy line of battle to pound the enemy into submission, a tactic which works well given the vast sea dominions of Marin – they can afford to ‘lose’ a few leagues of trackless ocean to put themselves in a stronger defensive position and annihilate the invading fleet before expanding back into their old territories.

His flagship is the dreadnought Castle Cygnus, a white mountain that is a common sight in the outer reaches of the Home Duchies. Their home base is the port of Sigil Keep, on Salamis island.

Admiral of the Second Fleet of the Imperial Armada, Lilienne is the first line of defence for the Vershellen Principalities, one of the largest  and oldest of the Empire’s colonial possessions. Based out of the capital, their vessels are often found on patrol of the borders; indeed, Lilienne’s dreadnought is a key lynchpin in the sea-border defences.

The flagship of the Second Fleet is the dreadnought Castle Wrath.

Admiral of the Third Fleet of the Imperial Armada, Vespasian’s writ runs to the trading routes between the outer reaches of the Empire. This fleet’s vessels are a common – and welcome – sight to all merchantiers plying their wares along Imperial trading routes. The Third Fleet possesses fewer battleships but a far greater number of cruisers, given its need for fast, well-armed vessels to chase pirates and malefactors.

He is not a physically imposing man – even among the Sairish, who are by nature quite short, he is unusually small – but that belies the power of his mind behind his hawkish eyes and twice-broken nose. He is a Syrelle, a merchantier family relatively recently elevated to the nobility as Earls under House Reyer’s patronage. The Syrelles are known to be brilliant, but a streak of madness runs through the line. So far, Vespasian has escaped it, and the current generation of Syrelles have been relatively free of its taint.  

His flagship, usually on a roving patrol around the Home Duchies and their principal trade routes, is the dreadnought Castle Oracle.

Admiral of the Fourth Fleet of the Imperial Armada, Antiva is the protector of Settumar, the second-newest of the Empire’s overseas colonies. Her fleet is based out of Argentine, the largest city of the colony and the focus of imperial power.

She will not hesitate to do what is necessary to keep Settumar safe and under Imperial rule, being zealous with her patrols and wargame exercises; wolfpacks of her ships and even the colossus of her dreadnought are regularly seen around the borders.

Her flagship is the dreadnought Castle Serpens.

Admiral of the Fifth Fleet of the Imperial Armada, Malanth is rarely seen. The most shadowy and reclusive of all the Admirals, his dominion is intrigue and corruption. He hunts down immorality in the Fleet and keeps a track of pirates and their strength, seeking out their hidden bases with his cruisers and the aid of an extensive network of contacts in the underworld. He turns a little bit of a blind eye to some judicious smuggling – nothing extensive – in return for some influence among select members of the underworld.

While not really known to the public or the military at large, with the public sphere of operations being directed by his Vice Admiral, he is well-known in the upper echelons of the Admiralty. It is he who keeps the other Admirals abreast of current events and piracy, as well as serving as Justicar-General, rooting out corruption and vice in the Armada and Air Navy. Methodical and thorough, Malanth de Charmante’s word is rarely questioned.

His flagship is technically the dreadnought Castle Tyrenne, under the command of his Vice-Admiral. Malanth himself keeps a much smaller, unmarked light cruiser, the White Magus, in the docks at Xantal.

Admiral of the Sixth Fleet of the Imperial Armada, Maurice is the heavy backup for the rest of the Fleets. His ships are mostly found either conducting wargames out on the oceans or in dock at Coronne – a posting few envy, given the pollution of Monrutaine.

When a fleet or scouting force encounters an enemy too great to be dealt with on their own the Sixth Fleet mobilises, to, depending on the situation, either charge in to bring heavy support to bear or to be ready in case civilising is necessary after all.

The Sixth Fleet has no real home base or dominion to defend – their remit is the Empire itself, wherever they are called by the others. The Sixth Fleet is nicknamed the Jacks, due to its roving brief.
Its flagship is the dreadnought Castle Albracca, often found guarding the harbour mouth of Coronne.

The Air Navy is controlled by the Admiralty in Xantal through the Lord of the Western Skies, the titular head of the entire Air Navy. As with the Imperial Armada, the Air Navy is divided into fleets, each fleet being given a theatre of operations which forms the core of its remit. A much younger and newer aspect of Marini military, it has nevertheless become the rising star of the GHQ, and its budgets and manpower requirements look set to match those of the Armada itself in the near future.

There are currently five fleets in the Air Navy, whose commanding officers and theatres of war are below:

The Marshal Empyrean and Lord of the Western Skies, Oskar’s personal remit is the Home Duchies and the vast expanses of the ocean which surround it. He commands, personally, what is technically called the Home Airfleet but is, in common parlance and most official documentation, referred to as the Cinnabar Fleet, for their primary base of operations around the city of Cinnabar in the Cinnamon Isles.

His fleet is made up of, in approximately equal thirds, torpedo bombers, anti-submarine aircraft, and fighter planes, given that the Home Duchies are almost exclusively oceanic in nature and therefore major threats are going to come in the form of battleships, cruisers, troop transports, submarines and so forth. The Cinnabar Fleet’s main job is to maintain air superiority and up-to-the-minute information gathering activities for the Armada, allowing the heavy missile battleships and dreadnaughts to deal with the enemy while being supported by the anti-submarine aircraft of Cinnabar and the Armada Arm of the Air Navy.

The Cinnabar Fleet is the largest of the Air Navy complement.

The Air Marshal of the First Fleet, Mercedes Montclair’s remit is the Vershellen Principalities. Her aircraft and airship fleet operate out of a chain of bases strung along both the interior of the Principalities and the coastal borders, maintaining regular patrols for both reconnaissance and pre-emptive defence. Their main citadel of operations is the enormous Rathbone Fortress, a lynchpin of the Army and the Air Navy both on the border with Nisqhog's nation.

Mercedes Montclair is a driven Air Marshal and keeps her fighter and bomber wings on constant rotation and patrol across the skies of the Principalities, frequently closely coordinating her activities with those of her counterparts in Nisqhog's nation.

The main responsibility of the First Fleet is in providing up-to-the-minute surveillance footage for the Army and for various civilian utilities, as well as aiding in the elimination of inland bases of undesirables and criminal elements, where the guns of the heavy battleships cannot reach and it is more economical to deploy a bomber than a flying column.

The Second Fleet is another set of aircraft who specialise in blue-water operations, possessing an overwhelming majority of torpedo bomber and submarine interdictor aircraft. It operates from Manticore and also acts as a second layer of defense for the Home Duchies, mainly being concerned with policing and interdictor work in peacetime and working closely with the Cinnabar Airfleet.

Accordingly, Piers is more of a police officer than a wartime Air Marshal, and has excellent links with the Sereniteers.

More to come here…

Crunch

Industrialisation: 72% - The Home Duchies and the older colonies are extensively industrialised, profiting massively from the century of peace and prosperity they have enjoyed, but Settumar and Myris lag behind the Basic Arcadian Standard. The empire is engaged in a programme of industrialisation and modernisation in these areas, but it takes time.

Starting Technology:

1.) High-Strength Steel, Mn Alloys
2.) Improved Cruisers & Destroyers
3.) Portable Radio Technology
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