Editing TROS in the Hammer:Setting Political

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[[Category:The_Riddle_of_Steel]]

==A NOTE ON LANGUAGES AND NAMING==
I have chosen to use particular current Earth languages to represent the languages spoken in the World.  For Speech, the language of the People, it is English.  For Niarchic, it is Dutch.  For the Valongo it is Portuguese.  I've chosen these not because they actually speak those languages, but because those languages have roughly the same relationship with English that their game equivalents have with Speech, and also have roughly the same feel of "exoticness" compared to English.  

Therefore, when naming, the People's names should be English words or phrases, but NOT English names, and not pseudo-fantasy names like Gandalf or Elric or Kipsarnicach or something.  This is because when the People say their names, they would hear its literal meaning, and I want the PLAYERS to have the same feeling that their CHARACTERS would have.  Things named and spoken in Speech should be familiar immediately, without translation.  Things named and spoken in Niarchic or Valongon should feel foreign and require translation.  Example: for historical accuracy, the Native American that beat up Custer's troops at Little Big Horn is Tatanka Iyotanka.  But whenever Tatanka Iyotanka's wife called out for him to come in to dinner, the other Sioux in hearing range would have "heard" Sitting Bull, the literal meaning of his name.  So please keep things like Night Hawk, Thunder's Rumble, etc.

==The People==
Agricultural/Hunter gatherer society, loosely based on Native American culture but with elements of other cultures (Maori, Medieval Japan, and probably some others).  This society has strong matriarchal and patriarchal threads; there is woman's society and men's society, with their own traditions and even languages.  Women's knowledge has to do with shamanism, cooking, herbalism, etc.  Men's knowledge has to do with hunting, technology, building, warfare, etc.  The People do not differentiate shamanic
practices from other mundane skills (although the game mechanics do).    The People are divided at the highest level by tribes; large groups that have their
own dialect, specific traditions, and geographical home area.  Within tribes there are clans; groups of families that are related to some ancestral figure. 
Oaths are very important to the People, and are the glue that keeps society running properly. Oath-breaking is just about the worst crime imaginable.  The People once were much better organized, with a tribal federation/league/union and a joint tribal council (like a Jerga in Afghanistan) as a decision making body.  But the Gezag's conquest about 400 years ago destroyed this organization, as some tribes allied with the Gezag and others opposed it. One note; the People's lands are very rich in metals, and mining has been one of their occupations for a long time.

The native language of the People is just called Speech.  The People also have two other languages; Men's Hunting Code and Women's Spirit Tongue.  Men's Hunting Code is a kind of high level sign language/animal noise language/body language that the Men of the People use when hunting/fighting/speaking among themselves when the women aren't around.  Women's Spirit Tongue is a strange language that spirits find very easy to understand (a Shaman using Women's Spirit Tongue is at +1 to any Shamanic Pool) but is VERY difficult to learn.  I'll say no more about this until someone plays a female character of the people or has a chance to hear it.  These two languages are closely guarded secrets among the People and almost no one outside of the People (or even within the People if the wrong gender) will know them.

==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.  

==O Legion do Mercúrio==
O Legion do Mercurio (the Quicksilver Legion) is portion of a much larger entity, A Associação de Valongo (the Valongo Association).  In turn, the Associação de Valongo is part of a large pseudo-empire called the Pastorate.  

Until about 300 years ago, the steppes, grasslands and deserts to the south and west of the People were controlled by relatively unorganized nomadic tribesmen, all culturally related to each other by a common language and ancestry but independent.  This hodgepodge of people were known collectively as the Valongo.
   
About 300 years ago one of these tribes converted almost en masse to a new religion that was moving in from the west.  This religion was known as the Informatio, and its ancient prophet was a figure called the Pastor, living far off on the edge of the Lacuna Niger (Black Pool).  The Pastor's disciples had converted many, and the nations that came to follow the Informatio began to be known as the Pastorate.

With newly found purpose (and the assistance of other nations of the Pastorate), this tribe began organizing and integrating the Valongo into a larger entity, the Associação, a process that took about 150 years to complete.  

Being nomadic by nature, the Valongo do not have a government organized by geographical boundaries.  Instead, the Valongo tribes have all been incorporated into several Legions, named after the metals associated with the cardinal directions in Valongo folklore; the Legion do Ferro (Iron, North), the Legion do Cobre (Copper, West), the Legion do Lata (Tin, South), and the Legion do Mercurio (Quicksilver, East).  Additionally, the Legion do Ouro (Gold) occupies the central portion of Valongo lands, and is directly commanded by the supreme leader of the Associação de Valongo, the Geral-Sabio (General-Sage).

Think Mongol Hordes crossed with Teutonic Knights, with some other cultures thrown in (Berber tribes, Australian Aborigines, etc.).  They
have strong religious motivations.  The Legion do Mercúrio is directly opposed to the Handelsgezag van Niarch, and it is likely that a major war will be fought soon.

Valongon is the principle language of the Valongo, but they also commonly speak Lingua, which is the language the scriptures of the Pastorate, and is the trade language of that religious psuedo-empire, and many of the other cultures who live to the south or west of the People.

==Political questions==
There will probably be more factions, but that is enough for now.  The People seem to have three options:
* Stay tributary to the Gezag, and keep your culture pretty much intact, at the cost of being subservient.
* Side with the Pastorate/Associação de Valongo, probably gaining free status as a partner, at the cost of major changes to their culture due to nearly forced conversion to the Informatio.
* Try to go it alone, with the biggest payoff (complete freedom) and the biggest risk (complete extinction at the hands of one or both Empires).

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