Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2016 0:45:38 GMT
KINGDOM AT A GLANCE:
Fakuistan is a feudal empire of Under-cities ruled by ratmen under the command of the Great Rat-King. These Cities are for the most part sovereign, paying tithes to their Overlord in anyway they can, all while attempting to amass their own wealth. The Feudal Rat-Lords split their attention from raiding each other, raiding human villages, while others encourage trade and kind relations with travelers and caravans from Macharia. The Humans build villages and towns atop mountains and rarely dig anything but a well, trading with all who are willing.
SIZE AND LOCATION: Medium
Fakuistan sits in the South, nestled in a mountainous desert region between Elbion and Macharia. Food and water are scarce commodities, and it does travelers well to prepare for long journeys should they wish to cross through the cannons.
WEALTH: Medium
Fakuistan is home to many precious metals and jewels, gold, silver, diamonds are found in relative abundance in the tunnels and mines of the land. Many humans mine the rivers for gold flecks, while certain Rat-Lords mine deep veins of silver and diamonds on the backs of thousands of slave workers. However, not many Rat-Lords are willing to part with their money and greed is a tradition for the Ratmen. If you don't have something they want more, their hoards of wealth will remain locked in deep vaults.
Humans often trade silks, pottery, cloths, furs, and foodstuffs with travelers, other kingdoms, and with their Ratmen masters. The warriors make fine, ornate swords given the ample amount of gold, silver and precious jewels weaponsmiths are able to make use of.
STABILITY:
Fakuistan is in a constant state of upheaval. Other than the absolute dominion of the Great Rat-King, the Under-Cities change leadership often. While a single Rat-Lord might rule their dominion for decades, the council that meets with the Rat-King almost always has a new face on it. Under-Cities are giant, overpopulated slums, teeming with swarms of Ratmen all seeking enough food, water, and breeding to live a content, albeit normally tragically short life. At the center of the Under-City the Rat-Lord resides in a large Underground Fortress with his soldiers and advisers. Pits filled with slaves dot the caverns, living miserable but short lives working in the darkness of the caverns. Their only hope of seeing the sun again is to be whipped and marched to war. Rebellions and rioting isn't uncommon, and there is always a feeling of unease about the land.
On the Surface the Human towns live with the knowledge that if their currently benevolent Rat Overlord is disposed, they could be fighting against the same Ratmen that had been trading with them politely a week ago. It seems that the largest Human towns attract the most aggression since the fall of the Mapheri Empire, with the Ratmen being more willing to trade and negotiate with smaller villages.
DANGER TO TRAVELERS: High
Ratmen raiders and assassins are the most likely culprits, but the hills and canyons have been known to hide human bandits. Ogre and Giant sellswords can also be found in these parts, and not all can resist the temptation of a handful of travelers out on their lonesome.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT:
The Ratmen are governed in a Feudal society in the Kingdom of the Rats, with the Great Rat-King holding dominion over all. From his Throne in Skor-Karek he controls Fakuistan completely. He rules with absolute authority as the Lord of the largest Under-City, a very large muscular ratman towering over his subordinates, wielding supernatural power, however his rules are hardly strict. So long as his tithes in slaves, money, and goods are paid on time he cares little for how the other Under-Cities are ruled or governed. During the time of the Empire, the Great Rat-King was placated by payments of goods by the empire, earning a much more docile Kingdom of the Rats ruled a little more directly by the tyrannical overlord. Since the Empire's fall uprisings have become more and more frequent as the Great Rat-King becomes more and more lax in his rule.
Other powerful Rat-Lords hold dominion over large swaths of land and tunnels, ruling massive underground cities and claiming ownership of the surface. Thousands of Ratmen live in each of these cities comprised of a labyrinth of tunnels, warrens, and maze-like dens. To outsiders visiting, navigating the passages can be daunting, though not impossible for one who understands the Ratmen that live there. There seems to be a method to the chaos of the Under-Cities. Some of the Under-Cities allow human travelers to enter and make trade, some have surface villages for this purpose. Others are incredibly hostile to any outsider, even other Ratmen who might enter their domain. Some Rat-Lords will encourage their denizens to raid, or all out attack the human settlements or other Under-Cities in order to increase their wealth or be able to pay their tithes to the Great Rat-King.
The Ratmen rule through power and might. The weaker the individual, the lower their rank in society. Even artisans and trademen will find themselves bullied and taken advantage of by stronger individuals, often causing the weakest to pack together, form tentative agreements between each other. One bully against twenty weaklings is much better odds for the weaklings. Because of their selfish nature, these tend to break down but it ensures that a disliked Rat-Lord may quickly find themselves facing a rebellion if he is not careful.
FREEDOM AND OPPRESSION:
Fakuistan is a Dictatorship, with all its inhabitants ruled by the Great Rat-King one way or another. Human's live in a state of wariness, their towns and caravans raided and protected by the Ratmen, depending on the current Rat-Lord that claims dominion over the area and whether or not the Under-Cities are at war. Slave Trade is allowed, in fact it is a key form of currency in Fakuistan. Enough slaves has bought many a traveler their own lives.
COMMON SPECIES:
Ratmen are abundant. They travel the surface in packs freely, making small temporary villages in the crevasses and mountains. Normally the amass in massive Under-Cities with populations that can number in the thousands.
There are a few human towns on the surface, however these are fairly small. Trade with the Ratmen is a requirement for the humans of Fakuistan, or it would only encourage more frequent raids.
Ogres and Giants are rare, but not unheard of. Ogre and Giant caravans cross through Fakuistan on occasion, trading, selling their swords or clubs. They are considered friendly by the humans, as friendly as 8 and 20 foot tall beings that eat horses can be.
MILITARY FOCUS:
Most of the Ratmen soldiers are militia groups that raid and pillage as they please. Some make it their profession, honing their skills at stealth, sneaking into towns and cities, burrowing beneath walls and guerrilla tactics. Each Rat-Lord has only few trained, professional military warriors used as a bulwark in battle, holding a line while masses of slave and militia soldiers overwhelm their enemies under fire from mundane artillery.
On the occasion an Under-City marches to war, they will do so with a swarm of barely trained militia outfitted in whatever weapons and armor was available, masses of Slave soldiers beaten and whipped to the front lines, and skittering swarms of rats that join the call of their brethren. The guerrillas will often attack enemies before hand in the dead of night, weakening defenses, poisoning wells, assassinating commanders. Warbeasts consisting of over-sized ratmen bulked into hulking ogres, misshapen multi-armed ratlings, or even amalgamations of dozens of ratmen warped together into a ball of teeth, claws, and screaming barely controlled and hardly restrained. When the actual professional army arrives, they will stand back and fire artillery consisting of catapults firing stone and diseased carcasses, some rare blackpowder cannons or hand cannons, and the occasional centerpiece consisting of a weapon of arcane and mystic nature which can backfire as extraordinarily as it works properly, such as a spiked ball filled with rats pulsing with Fell magic, or a cannon that fires beams of arcane energy.
The warrens are similarly defended, with the outermost reaches consisting of slaves and poor ratmen, giant rats, ratswarms. As one delves deeper and deeper into the pits, stronger and tougher fighters can be found until they come to a massive cavern with stone fortresses carved into rock as the seat of the Rat-Lords.
TECHNOLOGY: Medieval
Most people have access to steel and other metals for weapons and tools. There is the occasional use of Blackpowder by both human and ratmen, though very rare normally in cannon form. Rich people or wealthy Rat-Lords might be able to afford a handful of primitive, often misfiring handcannons. In some rare instances a Rat-Lord may own a single construct that fuses magic and science in a destructive amalgamation of technology. Normally these are unpredictable, hardly tested, and prone to catastrophic failures, however when they do work, they are terrifying.
Farming is important, as the very little useful soil must be cared for and tended delicately to sustain life in the desert region. Cacti are a primary crop because of this and its ability to retain water. Aqueducts aren't uncommon in Fakuistan.
PLAYER CONTROLLED: NO
