The continent of Sarcasca is comprised of several kingdoms. Some are ancient, while others have formed more recently. Each kingdom has different values and cultures, although many engage in trade and diplomatic relations. Introducing the Kingdoms of Sarcasca.
Waskan
The Kingdom of Waskan is a feudal society. Waskan is ruled over by a king, who delegates power to lesser nobles around the kingdom. While the other nobles generally have free reign over their respective territories, the king’s power is absolute and he can step in and overrule a local lord if necessary. Since their economy is centered around agriculture, Waskan has very few big cities. In addition to Wallton, the capital, they have only two other settlements large enough to be considered cities. The rest are towns, villages, or smaller settlements. Waskanians value honesty, honor, integrity, and valor. They place great value in heroic deeds. Real heroes are rare, but those who prove themselves are granted great honor in society. Waskanians respect true heroism so much that even a lowly peasant can be granted a title of nobility if a truly heroic deed is performed.
Bratenro
Bratenro is a wild place. Although technically a feudal society, Bratenro is still heavily barbaric. Bratenro is actually an allied merger of three separate kingdoms. The northern and southern halves of the kingdom are each ruled by a separate king, both of whom are overseen by a high king ruling the from the agreed upon capital city. Ruled by giants and titans, size and strength are the most highly valued attributes here. Anyone less than ten feet tall is considered a second class citizen or worse and treated as such. Due to the size of its ruling class inhabitants, cities are built to massive proportions, with separate districts for its smaller denizens. Bratenroans are rude and unfriendly on the best of days and openly hostile at the worst of times. The wildlife here is a large as its civilized denizens. Nothing smaller than an elephant can be seen roaming the vast plain.
Halfhill
Nestled in a valley between Bratenro and Diablos is the Kingdom of Halfhill. Halfhill is ruled by halflings and inhabited mainly by them as well as gnomes and leprechauns, although humans, elves, dwarves, and other slightly larger species can be found here as well. Halfhill is one of the smallest kingdoms. They are primarily an agricultural society and depend on trade with Diablos and Bratenro. Halfhillians value their leisure time and take breaks often. They are friendly if somewhat mischievous people. Halfhillians love to cook and regularly hold dinner parties and festivals. Since Halfhill imports spices from Diablos, famous for their spice markets, Halfhillian dishes are considered some of the most delicious foods on the continent. Halfhill may be small, but big flavors are its specialty and several denizens have become royal chefs to kings of other kingdoms. Halfhill is not a true kingdom since their government is an oligarchy and they have no real king. Instead, a council of high ranking nobles oversees the government duties, with a marquis selected as the head of the council.
Diablos
The Kingdom of Diablos has an interesting history. Once a fertile valley, it’s landscape was devastated by a great cataclysm over a five thousand years ago. Diablos is ruled by mostly benevolent demons. Descended from the True Demon founders of the kingdom, most of the Diablosian demonkin and demonfolk have developed into civilized beings. Despite their monstrous appearances, very few species are inherently evil, being just as likely as humans to be on either side of the line. Of course, some species are more bestial or closer to their ancestors in form and attitude. Diablos is an environmentally harsh country and as such its citizens, demon descended or not, are a tough and hardy people. They place great value on cooperation and teamwork as necessary to survival. The land is beginning to recover from the cataclysm. What little farmland they have is mostly in the southern part of the kingdom, along with their only swamp. However, Diablos is a spice miner’s dream and their economy is centered around the spice trade. While they get plenty of trade from Halfhill, Bratenro, the Necrotian Empire, Randwald, and Industria, they get very little trade from their northern neighbors. Mostly because of an embargo by Battallia for the past thousand years for an offense that neither kingdom remembers but that the Battallian refuse to forgive. Since Battallia has closed its borders with Diablos and banned all trade with them, it is very difficult for Diablos to get any goods from the northern kingdoms. The most prominent feature of Diablos is Malferno Canyon, which splits the kingdom in two. Only a bridge connects the northern and southern parts of the kingdom.
Battallia
The Kingdom of Battallia is a militaristic monarchy. The Battallian people value discipline, order, lawfulness, and physical fitness above all else. The people here are blunt, aggressive, and stubborn. They have some of the strictest laws and harshest punishments on the continent. A true zero tolerance policy, even a lowly pickpocket will at best spend several years in prison before being banished from the kingdom and that’s considered a lenient punishment. The government is headed by a king, currently King Bloodsworth VII, and also consists of a council of advisors, seating twenty people plus a head advisor who reports directly to the king. Battallians enjoy bloodsports and have a several coliseums around the kingdom for this purpose. In addition to pitting slaves and gladiators against each other and various beasts, members of the Advisor’s Council can increase their standing on the council by challenging another higher ranking member to gladiatorial combat and defeating them (most likely killing them as well). Battallia is highly militaristic. They have mandatory military service for all citizens and a standing peacetime army larger than some other kingdom’s wartime armies. Battallia has closed their borders with Diablos and banned any and all trade. The reason for their grievance has been long since forgotten, but due to their value of militaristic might, they refuse to lift the embargo. Battallians view diplomacy as a tactic for the weak, believing in military means as the best ways of resolving conflict. Those that have proven themselves as effective and capable leaders in battle are granted the title of Warlord. Many Warlords live in the capital, thus it was named Warlord City.
Drago
The Kingdom of Drago is a feudal and semi-theocratic monarchy. It is ruled over by a king with absolute power. However, the king rarely exerts this power fully and delegates it to other high ranking nobles around the kingdom. Only if a serious problem is brought to his attention will the king step in. Otherwise, he lets the local dukes, marquis, counts, etc. handle their own affairs. Dragosians value valor much like Waskan and strength like Bratenro, but are significantly friendlier about it. Although the worship of any non-banned deity in the pantheon is allowed, the Dragosians primarily worship Bralagon, the Dragon God. As such, dragons are considered sacred in Drago and causing harm of any sort to a dragon is illegal. Even stealing from a dragon’s hoard will land you in prison, although the authorities will be impressed that the thief survived the encounter. The government even has a semi-military, semi-secret service organization known as the Dragon Protectors, whose job is to hunt down dragonslayers and investigate any reports of harm befalling dragons.
Eosurwood
Eosurwood is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, kingdoms on the continent and has been around for tens of thousands years. Ruled by elves, kings can have reigns of several centuries. Having had so long to develop, Eosurwood has a vast and highly effective educational system. Eosurwoodans place great value on art and philosophy. Despite being an older society, Eosurwood’s dependance on magic has left little room for technological development. They’re not behind most of the other kingdoms, but rather on par with them, with the exception of Industria. Since elves, who can live 800 years or more, comprise the royal family and most of the nobility, Eosurwood looks at things from a long term perspective. It can often take decades to develop a solution to an ongoing problem, much to the frustration of the kingdom’s shorter lived denizens. Eosurwood is a peaceful society and prefers diplomacy to war. However, if left with no other choice, their military fights with a ferocity that even the Battallians do not want to face.
Rodaria
Rodaria is a theocracy and has no real king to speak of. Instead the government consists of a council of twenty-two grand priests, one for each non-banned major deity in the pantheon, serving under the Archpriest. The grand priests are the heads of their respective deity’s temples throughout the continent and, like their underlings, get their powers from their respective deities. The Archpriest gets his powers from all of the gods. While everyone on the continent worships the gods to some degree, the Rodarians are the most devout of all the followers. They value faith above all other virtues and follow the Archpriest’s word as though it were law, which it usually is. While it is the Grand Priests’ job to interpret the wills of their respective deities, the Archpriest must interpret the will of the entire pantheon. The Archpriest is also responsible for investigating reports of new deities and determining whether or not these gods are false. If he determines that the so called new deity is false, he brands the new religion a cult and outlaws it. He also does this for deities that have turned against the pantheon and sent to a prison realm for their trouble. So far he has outlawed ten known true deities and several cult deities. This includes Barbicon, the self-proclaimed god-king of Barbiconia. The cult that is considered the most dangerous is that of Orongi the Destroyer, a primordial being of destruction powerful enough to kill deities.
Barbiconia
Barbiconia is a fairly new kingdom, having only formed in the last twenty-five years. Before that, it was two separate kingdoms: Pentskek and Magea. Then Barbicon the Hobgoblin rose through the ranks of Pentskek nobility and overthrew the king. Declaring himself a God-King, he formed a religious cult around himself and then launched a crusade that resulted in the conquering and annexation of Magea. Surprisingly, Barbicon does actually seem to have god-like powers. Whether he is a powerful sorcerer or an illusionist is unknown, but he does seem invincible. Barbicon has outlawed the worship of all other deities, placing his own cult as the kingdom’s official and only legal religion. He has also elevated goblins and hobgoblins to the ranks of nobility, treating other species as second class citizen or pawns. The culture of Barbiconia is both heavily magic-dependent and highly militaristic, having combined the cultures of the two former kingdoms. Pentskek was more militaristic but both former kingdoms had magic heavily ingrained in their culture. In Magea especially, magical ability determined one’s social standing. The more magically talented you were, the higher you social status. This was shown by having even the most mundane tasks performed magically, resulting in an increasingly sedentary lifestyle the higher one was in social status. The higher one is in the nobility hierarchy, the fatter they are. Excessive weight shows that one has more access to magical abilities. Thus, a Baron, lowest rank of nobility, would be slightly overweight, whereas an Arch Duke, highest in the hierarchy and just under king, would be morbidly obese to the point of being immobile without magical means. Lower class people and soldiers, theoretically having little to no access to magical talent, actually keep in shape. Barbicon is the exception to the rule. His ego prevents him from overindulging and keeps in shape even while proving his power.
Ranwald
Ranwald is a fairly small kingdom. Similar to Waskan, it is a feudal society with an economy largely based on agriculture. Like Battallia, they are a warrior society and place great value on order and discipline. However, they value honor above all other traits. They place such significance in honor that they have an entire warrior social class based around it. These warriors, called raimasu, live by a strict code that determines how they live on a day to day basis. Ranwaldan culture places great emphasis on skill and talent, especially where crafts are concerned. As such, Ranwald has some of the best non-dwarven swordsmiths on the continent. Despite its small size, Ranwald considers itself to be an empire and is ruled over by an emperor. However, the emperor delegates his power between six goshuns, nobles of nearly equally high rank as the emperor, and these goshuns oversee the majority of the political and cultural aspects of the kingdom. The goshuns are each served by several yamidos, lesser nobles granted land to them by their respective goshun and providing military support in return. Due to this complicated governmental structure, Ranwald is in near constant political turmoil as the goshuns compete with each other to curry favor and gain more power over each other. This has led to several civil wars, some of which nearly resulted in the emperor being dethroned.
The Necrotian Empire
The Necrotian Empire, sometimes Necrotia for short, is the largest kingdom on the Sarcascan continent. What now consists of the Necrotian Empire was once several smaller kingdoms. The empire formed so long ago that the names of most have been forgotten. It is believed that Necrotia was once a smaller kingdom bordering Diablos until King Rantcarn conquered the others. The only other former kingdom in which the name is remembered is Pharaonia, which was situated in the southwest corner of what is now the empire. Pharaonia, the last and most recently (relatively speaking) conquered nation was ruled by a Pharaoh, the last of which was Pharaoh Gortran, whose body is believed to be entombed within the Black Pyramid, situated south of the town of Woodshade Dell. Necrotia is the only kingdom on the continent where necromancy is not outlawed. In fact, it is openly practiced and much of the nobility consists of intelligent undead. Mainly vampires and liches, but other lesser known types pop up as well. This includes the emperor, believed to be the original Emperor Rantcarn who founded the empire. Zombies and animated skeletons are often used as slave labor. The living people of Necrotia do not fear death or even undeath. Rather, they view both as part of life. They are stoic people for whom mourning is not a necessary part of funerary rites. Half the time, the body is claimed by the government anyway. Each settlement is visited twice a week by the local lord’s Cadaver Cart. Each Cart is run by two or three Collectors, who gather any bodies that have not been buried or cremated. Only cremation will truly prevent the body from being taken on the Cadaver Cart. On a slow week, the Collectors may dig up graves. The government is not completely callous. Zombies are only used for behind the scenes labor where former loved ones are not likely to see them. For public tasks, skeletons are more likely to be used.
Industria
Industria is the most technologically advanced kingdom on the Sarcascan continent. For a modern/real world equivalent imagine the Industrial Revolution with medieval technology and a mixture of steampunk and clockwork. Although they still have some agriculture, Industria’s economy is mainly businesses and factories. Their government is not overseen by a king. Instead, Industria is an oligarchy, with the government being controlled by a council of Guild Masters from several business guilds. These Guild Masters appoint a High Guild Master to oversee the council, although the council can overrule and replace them if they are deemed unworthy of the position. As a result, the government is also extremely bureaucratic, often taking months to resolve an issue. Industrians are less reliant on magic than members of other kingdoms, using it to supplement their technology. Industria is the continent’s only producer of firearms, although these are experimental and primitive. Industrians value creativity and intelligence. Industria is also more tolerant of madness, since it can produce as many interesting and unique products as genius. As a result, they have a higher number of mad alchemists, although the truly insane ones tend to blow themselves up in various lab accidents.