Southern Ascetics
In ancient times, the Protectorate was the Defender of the Age, but most texts of the time have been lost, so WHY the Protectorate earned this name is unknown. Regardless, what was once a powerful nation is today a quiet, reclusive land of devoted peoples.
Dominated by red scrublands, small fertile valleys, and hilly deserts, Cavers are generally a rough and resolute people to outsiders. Magic appears more common place here than elsewhere in Sai, perhaps due to the regular need to refill the ranks of defenders in the caves far to the south where the undead and yei continuously try to sneak in. Can the Protectorate rise again to prominence in Sai? Can its people maintain their culture as the rest of the world integrates? Or will the greedy desert finally swallow up the last vestiges of civilization in the South?
POLITICAL ECONOMY
The P.C. is ruled and managed by the Blue-Fur Regiment, one of the main monastic orders of Spiderwoman's Way that provides the majority of the country's military and dominates their officer corp. Within the regiment there is an extremely exclusive and reclusive set of monks and nuns who make all strategic decisions on the P.S.'s economic, social, and military policy: The Chair Keepers. Followers of other religions are mostly tolerated and left alone, with some exceptions. A collection of Woirong peoples who settled the Shadiaah mountains, and Tecuani refugees who settled in the foothills of the Heitepetl mountains, are collectively referred to as Hillens (or derisively as "The Ashen," as a common rumor in the P.C. is these peoples are actually monsters made to look like people sent from the Ashwomb to undermine the P.C.'s defences from the inside). These peoples regularly have their movement, economic, social, and religious rights adjusted and revoked according to the whim of the Chair Keepers. The eastern cities along Spiderbite Bay are the youngest, and tend to be the most zealous - those farther to the west and closer to the desert tend to be more permissive (though unwelcoming to outsiders). The Spiderbite Bay cities are also where the country's Silk Guilds dominate. Each guild is usually run by a merchant family, specializing in one particular type of silk export vs another, and whose profit taxes fund much of the urbanization found along the coast. |
GENERAL INFORMATION Full Name Protectorate of the Caves and the Twin Chairs Capital Zine Official Languages Common, Muotki, Mannegishi, Orang SOCIETY
FACTIONS
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History
Last 50 years
881 6E
Hillens Autonomous zone officially declared in a small valley of the Shadiaah Mountains. |
860 6E
The first invite for an Omaha Powow is sent out to peoples in the Union, Chadersaerd City-States, and Tepicatl. It now stands as a traditional meet every 5 years, though smaller Powow are held within the Protectorate more regularly. |
838 6E
Brief period where the Blue-Fur Regiment relocated from Zine to Chair of Naayee Neighani, despite the country not being at war. Rumors whisper of a coup, or a particularly nasty undead swell, or a plague... |
Older History
Formed: Unclear - near the start of the sixth era (6E)
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