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Notes on Tarsh as of the early 1620s

A country of contradictions. Proud of its independent and warlike traditions but now also proud of being part of the empire, whose missionaries are amongst the most evangelical and whose nobles work at lunar decadence with a will. Orlanth and the more evident storm deities may have been suppressed, but this is still essentially an Orlanthi culture, albeit with heavy earth-cult overtones. Proud and martial, rich and decadent. Beneath the placid prosperous façade, though, is a country of intrigue, opportunity, discontent and...adventure!

W e are the people of Tarsh, sons of Arim and daughters of Sorana Tor, farmers and warriors, poets and kings. Once we followed the ways of Old Gusty, Orlanth, but now we have become more civilised. True, some of us still gather in secret to celebrate his holy days and others only turned from his path because of royal decree. But our crops are plentiful, our lands are peaceful and the Earthshaker is quiet. Life is good, and don’t believe those rabble-rousers who would tell you otherwise. What use have we for Hero Wars? The Countryside F ertile rolling plains and wide, gentle valleys, interspersed with low hills and mountains in sharply defined highlands. Despite the moderating influence of the Glowline, the climate is scarcely any more clement and regular than that of the rest of Dragon Pass, but overall this is a land of productive fields and bountiful harvests, of plainsmen, not hill and woodland folk. The basic settlement is not a stead but a smaller farm, generally with a longhouse for the extended family (perhaps up to two dozen adults and children) who own it, quarters for their few slaves and barns, surrounded by six or seven fields. However, even now Grazer and bandit raids are not unknown, so most farms will also have a stout wooden fence. In the villages, longhouses are generally grouped in squares around a central allotment or replaced by square extended family blocks. To the north, the countryside is marked less by farms and villages and more by the great latifundia which are the slave plantations, growing maize for sale throughout the empire. Many are state-controlled. Of course, the countryside is cut by roads, proper imperial roads, maintained by troops and labour taxes. Some may be simple dirt tracks with ruts for carts, but paved roads are not unusual, each with their milestones showing the distance to the nearest city and to Glamour. There are even strange imperial totems known as sign posts! This is land with a long history, and is rich in ruins, old earth shrines, surviving storm-rune menhirs atop windswept hills and other traces of elder ages. The Towns T arsh is relatively heavily urbanised, a product of both its prosperous agriculture (producing the surpluses to feed an urban population) and also regular Grazer raids. Villages tended to cluster within a few hours’ march, so that their fyrds could support each other. In some cases, successful villages effectively drained the populations from the others, especially when they managed to build defences. These were the beginnings of the modern cities, all of which are now over-crowded, but still show many of the features of the old villages, including the square family blocks. Furthest is a gleaming symbol of Tarsh’s allegiance to the empire. Slavewall is a grim trading town, rebuilt after the devastation of 1490 as a fortified station. Bagnot, once Tarsh’s capital, still harbours Exile sympathies. Dunstop, close to the traditional Grazer lands of Sikithi Vale, has a reputation as a rough and martial city. Goldedge, by contrast, seems to be trying to outdo even Furthest with its extravagant new projects. Talfort is now a prosperous trading city, from whence the great grain barges set off down the Oslir into the empire. Copper Town is a wild and woolly frontier settlement, seething with every kind of prospector and charlatan. History M ost Tarshites are of Alakoring stock, the descendants of the clans which followed Arim the Pauper into Tarsh and over the Danger Line around 1330. They then mingled with the Heortlings who had moved into Dragon Pass from the south, but retained a distinctive identity of their own. The Tarshites have a long and proud history, and one based on their identity as a kingdom rather than a people. They held back the empire and Grazers a century and a half, and eventually joined the empire (albeit not exactly whole-heartedly) not as conquered subjects but as favoured allies thanks to HonEel. His successors have generally been both loyal imperial allies and also the architects of an economic, political and military renaissance. This has left its mark throughout the country, from the gleaming new cities to the farms, where stockades can now be allowed to fall into disrepair, now that Grazer raids are rare and patrols frequent. The People T he best way of getting a quick idea of ordinary Tarshites is to think of Orlanthi without Orlanth, living in plains rather than amidst mountains. Much of the culture is recognisably Orlanthi. However, the emphasis is more on family and kingdom rather than clan, which is an economic rather than political unit. As befits both lunar egalitarianism and the particular respect for the Earth cults, women are more likely to be found in positions of responsibility. There are subtle distinctions across the country. The further south and east you go, the sharper the divisions, between supporters of the new order and those who cling to the ways of Orlanth or the Dark Earth Goddesses (Maran Gor, etc). To the north, there are Sairdic influences, including the raising of goats and the domestication of dogs instead of the alynx. Lunar-style slavery is increasingly supplanting Orlanthi thrall-taking, although again this is more a feature of the north than south. This is also beginning to create a whole new class, the freedman. Politics O n a clan level, there is much less of a distinction between carls and cottars. The political importance of the clan has also declined, though: families and villages are the key social building blocks. Villages are governed by a Village Ring (of the Elders), while clans are largely administrative units within the tribe. Each clan has a chief and a Ring (generally of 13 or even more members, to dilute the power of the priests – a traditional Alakoring concern). The chief has considerable local authority, but arguably more powerful is the representative of the tribal chief, known as the shrieve, who administers justice and raises taxes within the clan tula in the tribal chief’s name. The tribal chiefs are appointed by the King, an increasingly vexed issue as lunar citizens and royal favourites supplant popular local blood-lines. To a considerable degree, the King is trying to use his powers of appointment and taxation to impose a more Dara Happan model of central rule over a kingdom still with strong tribal power structures. A useful informal guideline about loyalties is whether a tribal ruler continues to use the traditional but technically illegal term ‘tribal king’, calls himself the approved title of ‘armsman’ or sticks with the neutral ‘chief’. The Provincial Overseer is officially superior to the High King, but rarely interferes directly. The nobility thus exists at two levels: the tribal chiefs and their thanes, largely based in the towns, and the Furthest-based court of the King. The latter are generally solidly imperial, which tends to manifest itself in extremes, whether the martial ardour of the Phargentites or a devotion to decadence second only to Glamourite high society. The practices of Darts Wars and gladiatorial games have even been introduced (including mythically-symbolic bull-fights against wing-clipped Skybulls). Of course, what comes naturally in Glamour really needs to be worked at in Tarsh! Gods O rlanth’s worship is proscribed, although how tightly this is enforced varies wildly. Most of his subcults survive, treated as independent deities. The attributes of kingship are now held by the (royally-sponsored) Cult of Alakoring Rex. Ernalda, though, is respected as both the sister of Maran Gor and also, since HonEel’s interpretation of the Tarshite land rites, ‘She Who Waits’ within the Lunar pantheon. All the earth deities are worshipped, with an interesting conflict existing between the ‘official’ (and rather less bloodthirsty) Maran Gor cult and the Exiles. There is a clear process of assimilation at work, with attempts being made to find acceptable roles even for the most inconvenient deities. Not only, for example, do Babeester Gor’s axe-maidens guard earth temples, they also act as executioners, with heinous criminals being sacrificed to fertilise the fields. Indeed, it is worth noting that Tarshite religion is a fairly bloody affair in general – live sacrifice is quite common. Over a century of imperial contact and missionary work has also brought new deities. The Provincial Church of the Seven Mothers is strong here, its local members burning with the fire of the newly-converted. There is also a rich pantheon of local and city gods, half-way between village wyters and hero-cults, and fulfilling something of the role of each. Conflicts B eneath the surface it is therefore clear that there are a number of serious conflicts within Tarsh, ready to erupt. These include: The north-south divide, between those happier with assimilation and those still clinging to the old Storm Ways, in some ways a conflict of Alakorings vs. Heortlings. A political struggle for authority between the central government and its imperial allies and tribal hierarchies. Rivalries between the main noble houses within the King’s circle, made fashionable by the importation of the Dart War. Traditional feuds and rivalries between tribes, exacerbated by religious and political differences and the machinations of Furthest. Disputes between the ‘official’ hierarchies of Maran Gor and her brood and their more militant, anti-lunar Exile counterparts. Enemies and Rivals E nergetic, ambitious, proud and wealthy, no wonder the Tarshites have enemies. Their main rivalries and conflicts are with: The Tarsh Exiles, who represent a challenge to both the political legitimacy and religious authority of the Crown. The Sartari, whom they regard as their backward and wayward cousins. To the Tarshites, the primary deity of Dragon Pass is Sorana Tor, not Kero Fin, and it is time this was understood. The Grazers, who have been such an influence in Tarshite history. This is a complex relationship, as many not only fear the Grazers but also respect them. There is even the suggestion that some would prefer an alliance with the Grazers to allegiance to the empire. Chaos of the unreconstructed kind that periodically vomits forth from Snakepipe Hollow, The Tusk Riders of the Stinking Forest are a perennial problem, although there are also persistent rumours that Slavewall’s markets also supply some of their sacrificial victims. The Queendom of Holay is Tarsh’s main political rival within the Empire, epitomised by the struggle over the Matrimony Tribute. Balazar is a favoured source of work-slaves, but now also the theatre for an increasingly active struggle for authority between Holay, Tarsh and, to a much lesser extent, Imther.

‘Generally Accepted Tarsh’? This is based on a document called ‘Generally Accepted Tarsh’, which was distributed to authors to provide a common overview of Tarsh and its people. Why the 1620s? We don’t want to doom ourselves to obsolescence: Greg will be working on Tarsh Liberated! within the official Hero Wars arc, which will concentrate on events in the 1630s, so we will generally only be looking for material which is either generic or stops around 1625.