Editing TROS in the Hammer:Setting Political (section)

==Het Handelsgezag van Niarch==
Het Handelsgezag van Niarch (The Niarch Trade Authority) is primarily a mercantile empire.  It views all human beings in one of three categories; leden (members), arbeiders(employees), or bezit (property).  Any human who does not fit into these categories is either a) not been hired yet, b) not been taken as property yet, or c) so useless as to not be worth the trouble.   

The Handelsgezag van Niarch (or the Gezag (Authority) in short form) works like this: they notice that some nearby region has a bunch of unclaimed property (in the form of people, forests, farms, etc.); unclaimed by any member, that is, but thats all that matters, right?  This region is then deemed eligible for "development".  The Voorzitter-Dictator (Chairman-Dictator) (sort of an elected emperor) then charters a Venootschap (Company or Partnership) for that region (sort of like the Hudson Bay Company, or the Dutch East India Company).  That Venootschap, along with a number of Vlaggen (Banners, named for the flags they wear on their bodies, sort of like crosses between Roman legions and Crusader military orders, the primary professional troops of the Gezag) and Soldaaten (employee soldiers; conscripted soldiers from other areas), moves into the area.  The troops pretty much kill anyone who tries to stop them, while the Venootschap hires some people who seem worth hiring, enslaves more, stakes claims on behalf of various commissions, corporations, agencies, and bureaus of the Gezag (it has an incredibly byzantine government and power structure) and sets things up so resources (wood, food, ores, slaves) will continue to be sent back to the center of things (Niarch).  Then, most of the Vlaggen go away, leaving some Vlaggen garrisons and Soldaaten under Vlaggen officers, as well as some local militia, in charge of security.  

The Gezag could literally care less what the local culture/religion/etc. is; the locals can do whatever the heck they want as long as when the tribute caravan arrives, the quota is met.  The local Beheederen (Adminstrators) of the Venootschap play one local faction off against another to keep them all at each others throats, selectively rewarding one faction and punishing another, and keep the tributes flowing.  

Lidmaatshap (Membership) in the Gezag makes a person a Lid (member) and is roughly the equivalent of citizenship in the Roman Empire; a Lid can travel fairly freely and can expect assistance from any Authority representatives he or she meets when travelling abroad.  Decadent society, highly stratified in a caste-like structure, with late medieval/early rennaissance level technology.  

Think Byzantine Empire crossed with the British Empire in India and Africa.  

One unique feature of this society is that all of the Lid wear masks (ala the Granbretanian Empire in Moorcock's Hawkmoon novels) and not wearing a mask is considered vulgar in the extreme (a person without a mask would be as obvious as a woman walking topless in a shopping mall).  Non-Lid (such as arbeiders and bezit) are also expected to wear masks when dealing with Lid.  

It is a largish empire, but currently in decline, as it begins to focus inwards on its own internal squabbles. The People are on the western periphery of Authority.  The local Venootschap in control of the area the game will start in is the Cirkelmeer Ontwikkeling Venootschap (Circle Lakes Development Company, called C.O.V for short).

Handels (Trade) Niarchic is the principle trade language of the Gezag; its a kind of pidgin language that is simple and easy to teach new employees/slaves.  Oud (Old) Niarchic is the main language of Niarch proper; a complicated language that uses euphemisms and metaphors extensively.  A person who knows Oud Niarchic will be able to understand most of what is said in Handels Niarchic, and with some difficulty can make themselves understood in Handels Niarchic.  A person who knows Handels Niarchic will understand most of the individual words spoken by a person in Oud Niarchic, but will find it nearly impossible to get their meaning.