The Lookshy Commissariat

the most powerful state in the Scavenger Lands and the nerve center of the Confederation of Rivers’ military power. Coming from a rigorous military society primarily descended from the Seventh Legion, Lookshy’s armies are the most loyal, disciplined and capable forces in the region. In addition to raw might and impressive numbers, Lookshy also possesses more potent First Age weaponry than any armed force in Creation.
The warriors of Lookshy believe in a brand of freedom that comes from honor, integrity, honesty and valor. They have little time and few words for foreigners who do not share their outlook, and they commonly treat such folk with open disdain. Lookshyans are a proud, energetic people, as famous for their patriotism as for their mastery of military strategy. They also value self-control, limiting their leisure and keeping to personal dietary, exercise and training regimens.
The people of Lookshy hold a philosophical credo that is as self-serving as it is objectively unjust, while at the same time preening themselves as the guardians of justice in the Scavenger Lands. Boiled down, this credo states that only Lookshyans, who have earned their just laws through trials and fierce determination, deserve to live according to them.
Lookshy’s philosophical outlook is a creation of the General Staff’s propaganda machine, at once legitimizing its rule and glorifying its achievements—a feature hardly unique. In Lookshy, however, the propaganda is not merely believed, followed and repeated by its lower class residents.
Rather, it is a weapon, a tool, a warning to other nations that Lookshy really is united. Instead of being used by Lookshy’s elite as a blunt instrument to dominate its own populace, the propagandistic outlook unique to Lookshy is more like a flaming sword wielded by all.

Port Town

General Staff

Lookshy’s government is dominated by the Seventh Legion’s General Staff, a six-person assembly of mortal and Dragon-Blooded military officers. Most are like-minded on defense but have different non-military interests.
Lookshy’s government is non-expansionist, though not quite isolationist. They are exclusionists, favoring a tightly controlled and defended city-state that welcomes outsiders under strictly maintained conditions, with definite boundaries in place between those who belong and those who do not.

Council

The General Staff presides over the Council, which meets weekly or as needed in emergency cases. Citizens and helots are welcome to attend, though only citizens and certain elected helots may speak. Each Council is divided into two phases, the politic and the public. Most matters discussed in the politic phase concern military personnel matters and dry, policy-related minutia, though, occasionally, war proposals, moral orations and patriotic odes awaken the slumbering helots and invite prideful cheers. This phase is rigidly scheduled according to topics, with a member of the General Staff giving a short primer on the topic before it is discussed.
The Council is also the place where public opinion can be given voice: Complaints, suggestions, endorsements and castigations can all be heard here on a fairly regular basis during the public phase of the proceedings. Those who wish to speak during this phase must first present their case to a legator (a functionary of the General Staff) before the proceedings. Speakers have three minutes to speak, though anyone permitted to speak may move to permit an extension if the topic so warrants.

Government

Lookshy’s government is dominated by the Seventh Legion’s General Staff, a six-person assembly of mortal and Dragon-Blooded military officers. Most are like-minded on defense but have different non-military interests.
Lookshy’s government is non-expansionist, though not quite isolationist. They are exclusionists, favoring a tightly controlled and defended city-state that welcomes outsiders under strictly maintained conditions, with definite boundaries in place between those who belong and those who do not.

The General Staf

The General Staff presides over the Council, which meets weekly or as needed in emergency cases. Citizens and helots are welcome to attend, though only citizens and certain elected helots may speak. Each Council is divided into two phases, the politic and the public. Most matters discussed in the politic phase concern military personnel matters and dry, policy-related minutia, though, occasionally, war proposals, moral orations and patriotic odes awaken the slumbering helots and invite prideful cheers. This phase is rigidly scheduled according to topics, with a member of the General Staff giving a short primer on the topic before it is discussed.
The Council is also the place where public opinion can be given voice: Complaints, suggestions, endorsements and castigations can all be heard here on a fairly regular basis during the public phase of the proceedings. Those who wish to speak during this phase must first present their case to a legator (a functionary of the General Staff) before the proceedings. Speakers have three minutes to speak, though anyone permitted to speak may move to permit an extension if the topic so warrants.

Politics

While Lookshy’s primary outlook is one of cooperation and unity of purpose, the finitude of resources demands that difficult decisions must be made on how best to allocate them.
Each industry, military branch and civil concern has arguments supporting the primacy of its needs, and each political faction has a philosophical outlook it deems appropriate for the times. Enter politics. While Lookshy’s political struggles are rather stoic compared to other places, and none have ever led to (open) bloodshed, tempers do fl are and perhaps unfortunate words are spoken when one group’s best interests are selected over another’s. But large-scale conflicts between political factions or other large concerns are rare. For the most part, no political entity is willing to compromise Lookshy’s security by making the nation appear divided and weak.
Historically, the rate of change in Lookshy’s political arena is staggeringly slow. This is not surprising, given both that the government and the conservative military are one and the same and that well-functioning policies have been in force for centuries. For matters that do not require immediate action, the General Staff rarely enacts policy changes without years of study and contemplation.
Most organized political factions do not concern themselves with specific industries or military branches. Their outlooks are more general and concern Lookshy’s role in the wider region of the River Province. Five major factions occupy the stage, though many minor, less popular outlooks are also represented.
Imperialists: Imperialists support covert interference in foreign regimes and the wooing of powerful foreign houses so that the Seventh Legion can someday claim sovereignty over other states. This faction is the least powerful of the five major ones, as its ideals are still out of fashion. Recently, however, with the incident at Thorns and the disappearance of the Empress, the Imperialists have gained in popularity, as many feel that the best way to guarantee security in such uncertain times is to control as much of the region as possible.
Interventionists: Lookshy is quite active in River Province politics, actively defending much of the territory, training and arming foreign armies and participating in the Confederation of Rivers. Interventionists would have Lookshy participate even more, perhaps to the point of dominating the political landscape and resurrecting the Shogunate Bureaucracy.
Why not, they reason, have a single army under a Lookshy-dominated Shogunate? That would surely make the Confederation more secure.
Isolationists: The Isolationists believe that Lookshy has its fingers stretched too far and sunk into too many pies. They presume that Lookshy’s wealth and military resources should benefit Lookshy alone. They see the Confederation as irrelevant at best, potentially involving Lookshy in struggles a thousand leagues away that in no way impacts it. The most extreme of these Isolationists seek to cut all non-commercial ties to other nations, dismantling foreign redoubts and recalling all garrisons.
Mercenaries: The most powerful faction in Lookshy, the Mercenaries believe that the current state of affairs is optimum for guaranteeing the security of Lookshy. Hence, they

Confederation of Rivers

In 547, the Fair Folk invaded the Scavenger Lands once more, invoking terror throughout the region, but in Lookshy most acutely. For the average citizen, Lookshy stood a very real chance of being destroyed, and many considered Lookshy’s people and culture in danger of being lost to history. Rumors spread that the Villanua Potenci had returned with No-Lion, now an all-powerful fae ghost, at its head. Every ship that appeared on the horizon was a raksha war galley to their minds. Many helots hid in their homes for months.
This rather unusual behavior belied the fact that the Seventh Legion had faced the raksha many times over the centuries.
But this instance seemed different. As time progressed, news came of nations laid waste, great armies cut down, ancient spirit kings devoured.
While the Seventh Legion played its part for the region, its field forces could not be everywhere at once, and there were still those who would not welcome them into their lands. As the war ended, a new military alliance was proposed, and the Confederation of Rivers was born.

Recent events

The Seventh Legion was instrumental in putting down Thorns’ army during its recent Realm-assisted invasion of the western Confederation states. While the conflict continued for two years and Lookshy was briefly besieged, the Seventh Legion was methodical and exacting in its defeat of many Dragon-Blooded-led field forces. The most trying battle, the battle of Mishaka, in which Thorns was finally defeated, involved a coalition of many nations accompanied by the Seventh Legion’s First and Third Field Forces. The battle is modern legend, and is still spoken of with excitement almost 15 years later.
The rumors of the Empress’s disappearance and the news of the Mask of Winters’ invasion of Thorns have once again awakened Lookshyans to the possibilities of political instability and war. While Lookshy has always had enemies and its people have never been strangers to war, a dire electricity prevails in the city, as if everyone knows they are sitting on the cusp of a new Age

Militarized

Maximum (25% Levies)

Taxation

Normal (15% Tax)

Centralization

Centralized (Legalism V)

Population

425,000

Militia

42,500 (10%)

Reserves

42,500 (10%)

Soldiers

21,250 (5%)

Type

Geopolitical, State

Parent Organization

The Confederation of Rivers

Location

The Scavenger Lands Geography

The First Field Force

8 Dragon's, 8 Tail's

The Second Field Force

8 Dragon's, 8 Tail's

The Third Field Force

8 Dragon's, 8 Tail's

The Fourth Field Force

8 Dragon's, 8 Tail's

The Lookshy Home Guard

8 Dragon's, 8 Tail's