TROS in the Hammer:Setting Political

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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

The People are a society descended from hunter gatherers, and still very close to those older traditions, even though they are now at an early medieval level of technology and development. From a current Earth perspective, the People's culture is like a combination of Northeast Native American tribal culture and the South Asian caste system.

At the highest level, the People are divided into tribes. Tribes can be considered a cross between an actual Native American tribe, a Indian caste, and a craft guild or trade union. Tribes are of various sizes, with the largest numbering in the thousands and the smallest with maybe 70 or fewer members. Tribes can be differentiated by the following features, in rough order of importance:

• Niche - Each tribe usually has one or more areas in which its members excel, called its niche. For example, the Soft Black Earth tribe is a large tribe whose focus is primarily agricultural, with large land holdings devoted to growing maize. Another example is the Sweet but Painful tribe, a very small tribe whose sole focus is the collecting of wild honey from the massive bee nests that can be found in the forsest of the lands of the People.
• Geography - Each tribe usually has a particular region that it is concentrated in. The size of the region varies with the occupation that the tribes members are involved in. For example, the Dancing Salmon in the Sun tribe is a tribe of sailors and fisherman who roam the eastern half of the Big Circle Lake, although its members can be found on larger vessels anywhere in the region. The Grinning Blue Moon tribe, on the other hand, is a tribe of entertainers, actors, and storytellers who can be found just about anywhere in the lands of the People, competeing with other similar tribes, such as the Did You Hear The One About tribe.

The culture of the People is matrilineal; one's family name comes through one's mother. Women and men have different but complementary roles in society. The men are expected to get the job done right now; the women are expected to look out for the long term interests of the tribe. Men are considered the primary laborers/workers of the tribe, and generally perform the lion's share of whatever occupation the tribe is known for. Women are the ones that safeguard the intellectual property of the tribe. Each tribe will have its own types of allied spirits which its women will know the ways of summoning. Also, the women will be the keepers of any secret techniques, legends, or other that the tribe has collected over the years. For example, the women of the Deep Shadows Pierced With Light tribe, a mining tribe of the Big Circle Lake area, not only know the ways to summon deep earth spirits to protect miners or seek out new veins of ore, but they also are the keepers of the various techniques used by the tribe to get at ore, move it around, how to properly brace a tunnel, etc. This means that while the women are not the primary laborers, they are actively involved in the occupation, if for no other reason than to maintain the knowledge and skills and to improve upon them.

The People have several important practicies and traditions regarding marriage and child-rearing. Marriage among the People happens at both the tribal and personal level. Certain tribes have are considered "husbands" of each other. This relationship means that those tribes have a relationship in which men of the one tribe interact with the women of the other tribe. For some tribes, these are very tightly governed arranged interactions, for others its more of a preference. For two tribes to be husbands means that those tribes will have a strong alliance with each other, as many of the children in one tribe will be sired by men in the other. Some tribes, especially the very small, the very large, or the most geographically spread out, may have multiple "husband" relationships with other tribes, representing a web of kin-ship alliances.

At the personal level, the People are essentially polygamous. Both women and men may have a number of husbands or wives at any one time. This is because the husbands and wives do not, in general, live together; they stay with their own tribes. Therefore a woman may have several husbands from different tribes with whom she maintains a relationship, with the husbands visiting her at different times to renew the acquaintance. Men may have wives in several tribes in several locations; for the sailing tribes this may literally be a wife in every port.

The basis for these marriages is usally mutual fondness developed during courtship. Courtship among the People usually takes place during semi-formal meetings (dances, entertainments, dinners, etc.), arranged by the tribal matriarchs of two or more husband tribes. In some tribes, however, these marriages are completely arranged, with little choice for either the man or the woman. An example of this would be a debt marriage. In a debt marriage, a tribe essentially "pays" another tribe for a debt occurred, usually from an oath-breaking (see below) by providing a husband to a woman in that tribe who has not been able to find one of her own (perhaps due to disfigurement, personality, whatever).

Except in the largest tribes, marriage never takes place within the tribe. In some large tribes, marriage between clans is allowed, but not within the clan; this is one way new tribes come into being, as clans slowly become more and more autonomous. Sexual relations between members of the same tribe is viewed with varying levels of approbation; in some tribes it is considered a minor transgression, a kind of kissing cousins that is never allowed to blossom into full romance. In other tribes (especially the smaller ones) it is a full taboo, with extreme, sometimes fatal punishments involved.

Children are reared in the tribe to which their mother's belong. They will usually know who their fathers are, or at least who the short list of possibilities are, but are actually reared by their uncles; usually their mother's brothers, but also her male cousins and other relations. Some tribes centralize child rearing in communal creches, while others maintain a strong mother-child relationship.

An important custom regarding child-rearing among the people is the trade or exchange of sons between tribes. Sometimes, either as payment of a debt, as part of an ongoing alliance, or to cement a newly established alliance, a tribe will either give one or more of its male children to another tribe, or exchange male children with another tribe. In an exchange, it is typical for two mothers to swap newborn children. This is often referred to as swapping seeds.

Relationships between the tribes are governed by a system of relationships primarily driven by oaths. 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. Commerce is conducted using both barter and coinage; there are several tribes whose sole niche is the minting of trusted coins and function essentially as banks for other tribes. Many oaths consist of agreements between two tribes to regularly exchange commodities at some fixed rate of exchange.

The People once were much better organized, with a tribal federation/league/union and a joint tribal council 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.

One vestige of this federation, though are the Right and Left Hands of Justice. The Left Hands are universally female, and are roughly the equivalent of hired judges/justices of the peace. They are brought in by tribes when oath-breaking or other crimes have occurred, and asked to render a verdict and specify punishments. The People, as a general rule, don't go in for imprisonment as punishment; punishments are almost always exacted immediately and involve fines, corporal punishment, public shaming, and sometimes death. The Left Hands come from all the different tribes and are to some extent tribeless; they maintain their ties with their former tribe but are held to a standard of impartiality. The Right Hands are universally male, and are the executioners of the justice of the Left Hands. This involves both the tracking and apprehension of fugitives as well as the administering of the punishments handed down. As with the Left Hands, the Right Hands swear oaths of impartiality and fidelity to their commissions.

The native language of the People is just called Speech. The People also have two other languages; Hunting Code and Spirit Tongue. Hunting Code is a kind of high level sign language/noise language/body language that the People use when hunting/fighting/speaking among themselves. Even tribes that no longer have anything to do with hunting or outdoor activities still maintain their knowledge of Hunting Code, although they are liable to have their own dialect that involves signs and codes appropriate to their own niche. For example, the miners of the Deep Shadows Pierced By Light tribe could communicate with the entertainers of the Grinning Blue Moon tribe in Hunting Code, but the miners dialect will also include light and sound based codes for communicating information deep in a mine, while the entertainers will have their own set of body cues and signs to communicate key information in plain sight of an audience without the audience knowing. Spirit Tongue is a strange language that spirits find very easy to understand (a Shaman using Spirit Tongue is at +1 to any Shamanic Pool) but is VERY difficult to learn. These two languages are closely guarded secrets among the People and almost no one outside of the People 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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