Carandor
Carandor is the main country of the campaign, and many of the adventures of LoA revolve around it in some way. It’s a northern-feeling country of mountains, woods, lakes, and valleys. Lush farmlands mostly populated by humans can be found in the middle of the valleys, and dwarven mines dot the mountainsides.
The full name of the country is the Aristocracy of Carandor, and it’s a prosperous realm with a strong economy, supported by solid infrastructure but strange institutions. It’s a giant in trade, and its ships travel far and wide, importing and exporting from anywhere with a port. Curiously, all this trade doesn’t seem to increase the wealth and well-being of regular people, instead flowing into the ever-fattening pockets of the aristocracy. The common people in Carandor enjoy an adequate standard of living reminiscent of a medieval peasant’s or burgher’s. Certainly there are poorer realms in Adranon where the people are even worse off, and there have been poorer times for the common folk in Carandor’s past. At present however, the rich in Carandor are growing more wealthy at an increasingly alarming rate, leading to conspicuous displays of wealth. The common people of Carandor are always looking for ways to better themselves and their station, but most have little success. Those who accomplish such a feat are the exception to the rule.
Home of Fallen Kings
Centuries ago, Carandor was ruled by the Tystar kings and queens, who are remembered as both fair and just. Their reign would not last, for they were ousted by the Nine in the Magewar when the Nine Mages burst forth from the Halls. Their descendant, Leomund Tystar was at the head of the army that would ultimately push the Nine back underground a hundred years later. Though he won the war, he never became king, because after the Nine were driven underground, Leomund was betrayed and killed by his four lieutenants who founded the four Great Houses of Carandor: Vanderbilt, Médici, Borgia, and D’Este. Though Carandor’s official history portrays the events differently,telling a tearful story of how the dying king, deathly wounded by the traitorous Nine, entrusted the rule of Carandor to his four most loyal friends forever and to the end of eternity. This date is memorialized by the state holiday of Transference Day, though for some mysterious reason it’s not very popular among commoners. Ever since that day Leomund Tystar has been referred to as the Last King.
The Tystar throne has stood empty since the Magewar and his bloodline is believed lost. Instead, his four treacherous lieutenants elected the first Doge, a head of state elected every twenty years by and from the nobility. Only nobles vote in a Dogal election. This arrangement has persisted, and to this day the office of the Doge is the highest earthly authority in the land.
Shadow of a Dark Past
In ancient times, a thousand years before the Tystar kings, Carandor was part of Naldirath, ruled by the Nualdir. Nualdir are nightmarish tentacled humanoids who wield mind-controlling psychic magics and consume people as food. Though no-one remembers anymore what exactly happened in those times, the atavistic fear of their powers has been passed on, leading to Mind-affecting magic that controls the actions of others being outlawed and feared in Carandor, similar to Necromancy in traditional settings. Casting an enchantment spell that affects the reason of another is illegal, and punished with exile into the Halls of Alabaster. Mind-affecting buffs are considered controversial, and many Carandorians view them with an eye of suspicion.
The Favored
The most established inhabitants of Carandor are humans, elves, and dwarves who all fought in the Magewar against the Council of Nine, a group of hostile legendary wizards who once ruled the entire country. Heavily aided by the Church of the Pantheon who sent literal angels to fight the wizards, they were victorious, pushing the Nine Wizards back into the Halls of Alabaster from whence they came. After the war was won, humans, elves, and dwarves were declared the Favored Three,and they founded the modern incarnation of the realm. The Elves and Dwarves were granted their own districts in the capital of Golgatha, and territories within Carandor. So began the tale of the Elves of Thorn’s Rest and the Dwarves of Nerneruhm, both of which form an integral part of Carandorian society.
The Enslaved
Orcs and other monstrous races were created by the Nine instead of by the Gods, and they are widely not believed to have the same divine spark that other races have. Despite their origin, they are people like any other, not mindless drones or pure evil savage beasts.
When the Nine were defeated in the Second Magewar, the Church of Tyranus came up with a loophole in the Pantheon’s teachings to enslave the race of orcs. The Warding of Creation, the holy book of the Pantheon, says that all were created by the gods to be equal. But since the Orcs were not created by the gods, Tyranites argued that this did not apply to them. Thus the orcs were enslaved by the Church of Tyranus.Though the Tyranites clothe it in theology, many have accused them of mortal greed a sold as man itself.
Happy Ending?
Carandor is entering the Renaissance, and old teachings are being questioned.
The issue of slavery is one that seems most untenable, but Tyranites don’t want to let their orcish slaves go. There was a time, ten years ago, when Carandor was on the brink of civil war, a straw’s weight away from being engulfed in infighting between the nobles who held slaves and those who did not. To solve this tension, the noble Silas Vanderbilt led a legal effort to outlaw slavery in Carandor, but he was only able to outlaw the taking of new slaves.
The nobles, though many were sympathetic to the cause of liberation, feared a civil war and thus came up with this compromise. Slaveholders would retain their orc slaves, but could not enslave any more orcs and the children of current slaves would be born free. Thus, eventually the issue of slavery would fix itself. Most nobles consider the issue resolved, and think themselves as quite the heroes for “ending slavery”. They pretend not to hear the cries from the Olfactory District where slaves are still whipped by Tyranite lashes today. And so in practice, chattel slavery for an entire race of intelligent people persists in Carandor, and the Church of Tyranus, which holds great power in Carandor, will do anything to retain their slaves.
Stupefying Economy
Carandor is Mercantilist. This system of economy can be baffling and stupefying to those who have never heard of it before. In Mercantilism, every single good is a monopoly by law “in order to ensure quality”. The idea of Mercantilism is that when every good is a monopoly, goods would all be of high quality because they would all be made by trusted individuals, or those that they have trusted in turn. The Doge gives out licenses to produce goods for every single area in the land, and no-one else can legally produce those licensed goods in that area. There is a single pants-maker in every village, and he or she is the only one who can make pants. He/she can extend the permission for others on the condition that their work meets their standard of quality. Usually, holders of licenses demand money for the privilege of being vouched for. This arrangement is called a Guild. Producing goods is often legally troublesome, leading many Carandorians to prefer to conduct trade with other countries rather than make more within their own realm.
There exists a household exemption for basic household goods. Extracting raw materials is also not crafting, nor is food, menial repair, nor construction to an extent. Everything else is and is illegal unless you have a license. In practice, the rules of Mercantilism are often broken in secret. Only a fool would advertise such a fact, however, because authorities often act once they get wind of it. There can be repercussions ranging from fines, imprisonment, or even banishment to the Halls of Alabaster (which is widely considered a death-sentence).
Crafting in Carandor
Artificers beware, your occupation could be illegal. If you craft, unless you are working for the one person in your area with the legal right to produce the particular goods that you make, you might be in trouble. Typically such people head guilds, and vouch for the quality of the goods of those under them, taking part of their profits.Therefore, you must join a guild which could involve paying an entry fee, or doing a favor for the guild leader. Members of guilds can craft lawfully, but typically must pay a fee to the guild leader. Not to mention additional charges for selling items.
The most important goods produced by Carandor are agricultural, handcrafts, tools, weapons, and unique floating crystal balls called Chainers and Streaming Orbs, which are produced nowhere else. Both Chainers and Streaming Orbs look like small crystal balls and function as a video call in terms of a real world equivalent. Chainers cannot transmit writing directly, but Streaming Orbs with all kinds of additional features are rumored to exist.
The Censorate
Those who hold licenses have a stranglehold on the goods that they are licensed to produce. The Censorate, an organization enforced by old and senile geriatrics from the Elven District of Golgatha, acts like secret police who punish those who break the crafting rules of Mercantilism. It boasts about not admitting anyone into its ranks who is less than 70 years old.
Industry & Trade
Mercantilism
Districts
- Docks District
- Artisan District
- Doge's District
- Park District
- Forbidden District
- Olfactory District
- Merchant District
- Elven District
- Dwarven District
- Temple District
- Noble District
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