Ashiakin
03-26-06, 09:28 PM
Welcome to Salvar, a massive and forbidding continent north of Alerar. This is a regional guide for everyone who is interested, whether you’re a new member or you’re just looking for some information so you can flesh out a thread. If you have a question about something you don’t see covered here, please post your question in Salvar’s questions thread in the main forum (obviously this doesn't exist yet... sorry, haha) and either I or another staff member will answer it as soon as possible. However, if your question involves some plot detail for a thread that you’d rather not post publicly, please feel free to PM me or contact me on AIM.
Salvar is a grim place. It is relentlessly cold, often covered in snow, and the countryside and the wilderness are teeming with monstrous creatures. Much of the continent is ruled by a generally corrupt feudal government--a despotic king, an ineffectual legislature, a brutal judiciary, and countless nobles and knights. The large portion of Salvar’s population is a class of poor peasants and laborers who work in the fields and mines. Frigid northern Salvar and much of the west is entirely out of the control of the monarchy. Here engimatic bands of tribal nomads rule, prowling the snowy plains and forested mountains for signs of those brave or foolish enough to enter their territory. Salvar is a land of ancient and dark magic where those who are fast with a blade and quick with their wits rule, where the poor and the just must face the wrath of the wicked and the cold.
But that’s just an overview. This guide is for more in-depth information. Here’s what’s available now:
GEOGRAPHY
maps/salvar.png
STATE ORGANIZATION
Salvar, officially the Monarchic Republic of Salvar, has a political system that most outsiders do not fully comprehend. Rather than trying to give you a general overview, I'm going to break it down branch by branch. Please do not think that these are what the citzens of Salvar would call the different parts of the government. I'm just using a familiar model to make it easier to understand.
Executive Branch
Salvar's king is without a doubt the most powerful figure in the government. Despite the fact that that Salvar styles itself as a republic, the king possesses powers that suggest autocracy. The monarch has complete and unquestionable control over the military, the church, the judicial branch, and foreign policy. The legislative branch ostensibly has more control over the economy and domestic policy, but the king is generally capable of using his power to cow any renegade initiatives. Each monarch is allowed to create whatever cabinet positions he wishes and appoint whoever he wants to them without intervention from the legislature.
The monarchs of Salvar rule from Knife’s Edge, the realm's only large city by law. In addition to acting to as king or queen of Salvar, the monarch also rules as the Grand Duke/Duchess of Knife’s Edge, which puts him or her in direct control of much of the populous, prosperous river-lands around the Ahyark Mountains. The current line of monarchs is drawn from House Rathaxea, which took the throne in a bloody revolt twenty-four years ago. Iorlan Rathaxea, 46, has served as the Salvic king for the past four years after the death of his father Anrekva. House Rathaxea has been largely responsible for expanding the power of the kings.
Legislative Branch
The legislature, officially the Parliamentary Directorate of Salvar, is generally referred to only as the Directorate or Parliament. Its convoluted nature and the fact that it is decaying and ineffectual cause most people to ignore its existence entirely.
This makes Salvar's parliament a sort of democracy for the aristocracy. The legislature currently has 356 members.
The Parliamentary Directorate meets for three months every year during the summer. Under the guidance of the Authority of the Parliamentary Directorate, an officer appointed by the king, the legislature proposes laws, debates, them and votes on them. Their influence is restricted to only the economy and domestic policy. However, the legislature is enormously corrupt. Most of the laws that they do pass are in the favor of the king. When they do pass a law that he does not favor, the king is usually capable of using his other powers to circumvent it entirely. The legislature is really just a network of corrupt merchants and retired generals.
Judicial Branch
Salvar's judicial system is almost entirely theocratic, being run by the state-operated Church of the Ethereal Sway. Punishment for crime is uniform across Salvar. Districts are appointed a certain number of Magistrates--who are clergymen as well as judges--based on their population. It is the Magistrates job to hear criminal cases and decide on an appropriate punishment. Sentences usually involve maiming and torture, followed by incarceration in dangerous and poorly kept dungeons or public execution. The king is the head of the Church, which makes him the head of the judiciary. Thus the king is capable of detaining and executing anyone without any lawful reason and otherwise abusing the judicial system.
In addition to being lawmen and priests, the Magistrates also run the king's domestic intelligence-gathering operations. It is a well-known secret that they enforce the law through a system of spies, bribery, and thugs. While people have to fear them the most in urban areas, even the rural poor fear being sent to a Magistrate for a crime they were not aware of commiting. This combination of control through fear and harsh punishments is what keeps the king's power strong in all of Salvar's varying districts.
IV. RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
Salvar is a grim place. It is relentlessly cold, often covered in snow, and the countryside and the wilderness are teeming with monstrous creatures. Much of the continent is ruled by a generally corrupt feudal government--a despotic king, an ineffectual legislature, a brutal judiciary, and countless nobles and knights. The large portion of Salvar’s population is a class of poor peasants and laborers who work in the fields and mines. Frigid northern Salvar and much of the west is entirely out of the control of the monarchy. Here engimatic bands of tribal nomads rule, prowling the snowy plains and forested mountains for signs of those brave or foolish enough to enter their territory. Salvar is a land of ancient and dark magic where those who are fast with a blade and quick with their wits rule, where the poor and the just must face the wrath of the wicked and the cold.
But that’s just an overview. This guide is for more in-depth information. Here’s what’s available now:
GEOGRAPHY
maps/salvar.png
STATE ORGANIZATION
Salvar, officially the Monarchic Republic of Salvar, has a political system that most outsiders do not fully comprehend. Rather than trying to give you a general overview, I'm going to break it down branch by branch. Please do not think that these are what the citzens of Salvar would call the different parts of the government. I'm just using a familiar model to make it easier to understand.
Executive Branch
Salvar's king is without a doubt the most powerful figure in the government. Despite the fact that that Salvar styles itself as a republic, the king possesses powers that suggest autocracy. The monarch has complete and unquestionable control over the military, the church, the judicial branch, and foreign policy. The legislative branch ostensibly has more control over the economy and domestic policy, but the king is generally capable of using his power to cow any renegade initiatives. Each monarch is allowed to create whatever cabinet positions he wishes and appoint whoever he wants to them without intervention from the legislature.
The monarchs of Salvar rule from Knife’s Edge, the realm's only large city by law. In addition to acting to as king or queen of Salvar, the monarch also rules as the Grand Duke/Duchess of Knife’s Edge, which puts him or her in direct control of much of the populous, prosperous river-lands around the Ahyark Mountains. The current line of monarchs is drawn from House Rathaxea, which took the throne in a bloody revolt twenty-four years ago. Iorlan Rathaxea, 46, has served as the Salvic king for the past four years after the death of his father Anrekva. House Rathaxea has been largely responsible for expanding the power of the kings.
Legislative Branch
The legislature, officially the Parliamentary Directorate of Salvar, is generally referred to only as the Directorate or Parliament. Its convoluted nature and the fact that it is decaying and ineffectual cause most people to ignore its existence entirely.
This makes Salvar's parliament a sort of democracy for the aristocracy. The legislature currently has 356 members.
The Parliamentary Directorate meets for three months every year during the summer. Under the guidance of the Authority of the Parliamentary Directorate, an officer appointed by the king, the legislature proposes laws, debates, them and votes on them. Their influence is restricted to only the economy and domestic policy. However, the legislature is enormously corrupt. Most of the laws that they do pass are in the favor of the king. When they do pass a law that he does not favor, the king is usually capable of using his other powers to circumvent it entirely. The legislature is really just a network of corrupt merchants and retired generals.
Judicial Branch
Salvar's judicial system is almost entirely theocratic, being run by the state-operated Church of the Ethereal Sway. Punishment for crime is uniform across Salvar. Districts are appointed a certain number of Magistrates--who are clergymen as well as judges--based on their population. It is the Magistrates job to hear criminal cases and decide on an appropriate punishment. Sentences usually involve maiming and torture, followed by incarceration in dangerous and poorly kept dungeons or public execution. The king is the head of the Church, which makes him the head of the judiciary. Thus the king is capable of detaining and executing anyone without any lawful reason and otherwise abusing the judicial system.
In addition to being lawmen and priests, the Magistrates also run the king's domestic intelligence-gathering operations. It is a well-known secret that they enforce the law through a system of spies, bribery, and thugs. While people have to fear them the most in urban areas, even the rural poor fear being sent to a Magistrate for a crime they were not aware of commiting. This combination of control through fear and harsh punishments is what keeps the king's power strong in all of Salvar's varying districts.
IV. RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.