Sapnirtugard - Kingdom (Sap-neer-tu-gar-d)
Government
The Monarch and Zweit-Adilge
Sapnirtugard is a elective monarchy. Its monarch is chosen by the people from a pool of Sklavadilge candidates who are taken from their parents and raised from birth to serve the public. The candidates' identities and locations are kept secret until an election for a significant public office is held. If a Sklavadilge is not elected to a public office before turning seventeen, they are made to seek their place within the kingdom on their own. Freed Sklavadilge are not considered free citizens of the kingdom, though in many ways they are allowed to behave as such. The reigning Monarch's primary duties include setting over-all goals for the Kingdom, staffing their court, making speeches to the people, declaring war, signing off on treaties presented by the Kingdom's Ambassadors, and passing judgement on escalated court cases. When an election for a monarch takes place, the top two performing candidates are declared the Monarch, and the Zweite-Adilge . In the event of the Monarch's untimely death, disappearance, or inability to rule, the Zweite-Adilge steps in and assumes authority. If for any reason the Zweite-Adilge holds this power for more than three years, a new election is held immediately and the Zweite-Adilge cannot hold any public office for the remainder of their lives. The Zweite-Adilge has additional civic duties, and frequently acts as an advisor to the reigning monarch. When a monarch needs to be elected, but the previous Zweit-Adilge still lives, they will remain on to train the new Zweit-Adilge and are officially stripped of power a year later, but many stay in the palace as unofficial mentors to the new pair. Since a Zweit-Adilge can never hold permanent power, and marrying the monarch does not grant official office, the monarchy has historically been very stable. Even in during The Red Winters (an event where four consecutive years each saw a new monarch due to assassinations) the kingdom's functions were mostly unimpeeded thanks to the guidance of the Zweit-Adilge.Noble Heirarchy
Dukes
While the monarch is elected by the people, most of the nobility are not. Beneath the monarch are three Dukes. Each of these Dukes control a small army whose numbers are carefully balanced and regulated against the primary amy under the monarch. The Dukes of Sapnirtugard act as regional powers who oversee several barronies. Their primary duites are seeing to the economic success of their dukedoms, and executing on the Monarch's overall vision and policy. The dukes usually have several barons, to each of whom they further deligate for more granular management. Perhaps the most important duty of the dukes is creating regional reports for the Monarch to use in their decision making and to guide their vision. Dukes are hereditary nobility, and if a family line ends, only Baron families who have held their title for at least three generations - and whose barony resides within the correct territory - can be considered to replace them. While typically the longest serving Baron family is chosen, the official process for selection requires the consensus of the monarch, Zweit-Adilge, and remaining Dukes.Barons
Baron is the highest title a commoner can be elevated to without becoming the Monarch. Barons oversee lands parceled to them by the Dukes. The land is considered to belong to the people, and the duty of managing it is given to the reigining monarch who then deligates to a duke, who then parcels and deligates to a Baron. Barons can further charge knights with the protection, law-keeping, and tax collection of the people on the land, but management of the land itself falls upon the Barons and cannot be further passed on. Even the grounds of a Knight's manor has the land's care and maitenance fall upon the local Baron. Many Barons choose to allocate funds and deffer decision making to their knights; but doing so is an act of trust because responsibility cannot be passed down any further. If a knight's manor is ill-cared for, and the money for its care is missing, the knight will not be punished; instead the Baron must face any consequences.Knights
Knights of Sapnirtugard are held in high regard by the people, but less so by nobility. Their official duties are to act as the adjudicators of the law, lead troops into battle, perform investigations into nobility, and on rare ocassion they also lead monster hunting parties to clear out regional threats. Knights officially answer only to the Monarch, but are frequently placed in the care of lesser nobles. Should a noble give an unjust order, or one in conflict with the interests of the kingdom, people, or monarch, its a knights duty to refuse, and report the incident to the Monarch. Because of this role and order of loyalties, many nobles see the Knights as spies as much as they see them as tools. Typically commoners are made squires after heroic deeds, or great contributions to the kingdom, with knighthood awaiting them once they have been educated and trained. Once a Squire has completed their knight training they generally cannot be given further noble titles. Only twice in Sapnirtugard's history has a knight joined the heriditary nobility, because doing so requires unanimous support of the rest of the kingdom's knights, the Monarch, and all of the kingdom's dukes.Public Relations
For the last sixty years the policies in place by the Monarchy have lead to generally positive reception among the people but the ongoing unsuccessful war with Ionwyn on the northern stretch of the continent has soured public perception. There is talk that if the war continues without significant progress for another year the public is likely to revolt.Diplomatic Relations
Elespain
Sapnirtugard's governing family has an uneasy relationship with The High Council of Scholars of Elespain. The High Council does not take lightly that Sapnirtuguard's capital of Guntirga has been the country's primary Naval contruction grounds, additionally they do not support the war on Ionwyn. Meanwhile Sapnirtguard's royal family are constantly dealing with the influx of Elespainian technology creating a regulatory headache for the capital.Economically the two countries get along swimmingly, trade between the countries is easy thanks to The Seven Ports Treaty signed forty-five years ago. The treaty includes agreements about how taxes should be collected on goods imported through the two countries primary port cities which makes imports between the countries are only taxed by the importing nation.
Thasselonada
The Theocracy of Thasselonada and the Kingdom of Sapnirtugard rarely get along. The heads of The Thaselonadan Theocracy see Sapnirtugard as a haven for sin, and heresy against their pantheon of dieties. As a result The Theocracy often sends poor and undertrained diplomats to Sapnirtugard presumably as punishment for failure elsewhere. The result is that treaties brought back to The Theocracy to sign are often extremely unfavorable for them, resulting in a failure to establish agreements between the two countries.Futher The Theocracy has failed to heed the warnings of both Elespain and Sapnirtugard regarding stopping Thasselonadan pirates from raiding trade ships betwen the two countries meaning that war is likely on the horizon for the three nations.
Umbrethorn
Due to the natural barriers between Sapnirtugard and Umbrethorn's larger cities the two nations have few dipomatic ties to each other. The few meetings that have happened have gone well for both sides and its possible that the two nations could be strong allies in the future, able to hold total control over The Central Sea between them. In the meantime though the Umbrethorn Embassy in Guntirga holds only two diplomats from the country.Makereva
Makereva and Sapnirtugard are in the middle of an active territorial dispute over The Isle of Nagul and Jondars Prison , two islands which occupy the waters between them. The disputes rarely involve more than a few skirmishes but the people who have settled these islands often tire of being dual occupied by two governing forces who agree on little. Outside of the Islands dispute relationships are still uneasy. Sapnirtugard has taken issue with Makerevian ships loaded with weapons heading for Thasselonada, especially since Makereva has recently made a scientific breakthrough which has increased the number of fire-arms that they are able to produce. It is possible that these fire-arms could be the deciding factor in any future conflicts that Sapnirtugard may have with Thasselonada.La Pasir
The Democracy of La Pasir has little relations with Sapnirtguard for similar reasons to Umbrethorn, the natural barriers between the two countries make travel between them difficult. La Pasir still makes more effort to be connected than their neighbors in Umbrethron though, and they regularly send Envoys with gifts representative of the culture of La Pasir for both the reigning Monarch as well as for the people in the cities of Guntirga, and Sleipgar. The country seems determined to establish official trade between the two nations, and Sapnirtguard is not unwelcoming to this idea. However the recent conflict with Ionwyn has tied up many of Sapnirtugard's naval resources, meaning that trade with La Pasir has been placed on the back-burner likely for the duration of the campaign.The Isle of Two Suns
Since The Isle of Two Suns does not have a centralized government they are often not included in matters of diplomacy within Sapnirtugard. The increase of refugees from The Isle has placed additional strain on Sapnirtugard's port cities though, and as the refugees flee inward it becomes more clear that Sapnirtugard will have to find a way to establish relations soon, or their current infrastructure and food output will not be enough.Legal System
Summary
The majority of the legal system in Sapnirtugard is managed and run on the local level by town Mayors. In larger cities a Knight will be the judge at all trials. For smaller towns whose disputes are not able to be resolved by their Mayors, the cases are escalated to the Knight who presides over the territory. The power of punishments for Mayors is limited and they may not declare a punishment of death, exile, or Imprisonment longer than two years. Cases which could warrent these punishments are submitted to a Knight before being adjudicated, and in the meantime both parties are held in captivity until the case is reviewed. Most cases see review by Knight within two weeks; so justice is minimally disruptive to the lives of those involved, however it is known in border towns or in certain provinces that a Knight may not see the case or come to a decision for a half-season or more. In these territories crime tends to be higher because reports are rarely filed due to the costs to those who would claim victimhood.Case Escalation
Cases which do not have a set prescident or proceedure are sometimes escallated to higher courts. Mayoral judgement is often enough; in times when it is not, cases are escalated to a presiding Knight. In cases where a Knight is unable to reach a decision or has doubt about their conclusion they may escalate the case to the next level which is a Knights Triumvirate , usually consisting of three experienced Knights, two from the local province and one from another nearby province. Nearly every case in history has been settled by a Knight's Triumvirate or lower authority. A case which has large enough consequences in prescident that the presiding Knight's Triumvirate is unable to resolve is escalated to the local Baron, from there to a Duke, and from the Duke to the reigning Monarch.Judicial Review
For each case in which a judgment is made against someone, the Scribe who documents the case sends three copies of the court records to three of the next highest adjudication authority. Two of the recipients must live, oversee land, or opperate in or arround the territory in which the dispute takes place, while the third must be from elsewhere in the kingdom. This typically means that in cases involving mayors, the Scribe will send reports to two nearby Knights, and one far away. In cases of Knights or Knights Triumvirate the documents are sent to Barons, etc, etc.Once per year, all adjudicators who recieve case reports must scrutinize all review cases they have been sent. If they disagree with any of the decisions made by the original adjudication they file an appeal with The Grand Court of Guntirga . Appeals filed this way are stripped of personally identifying details before being seen by The Grand Court. For most cases reviewed by The Grand Court, The Grand Court issues the original adjudicators a Leistungsbeurteilung; a document which details how the case could have been handled better; but the rulings are not overturned. When two or more reviews of a single case result in an appeal the original adjudicators may be called to defend their position in front of The Grand Court. Cases where the original adjudicators are unable to defend their decision are reversed (as much as possible) and the victims on both sides compensated. If The Grand Court believes that the original adjudicators acted with malice, abhorrent foolishness, or self-interest the original adjudicators may be punished. Punishments of this kind can extend beyond the original court and to their family. Punishments include the stripping of title and power, execution of the guilty, execution of those associated with the guilty, banishment, enslavement (usually to the affected party), and rarely Planar Cast Out or Cubic Archival . Who bears punishment, and the severity of punishment is often dependant on the reasons for the original mis-trial, with harsher punishments reserved for corruption and ill-intent.
Natural Resources
Sapnirtugard is most famous for its high quality iron and steel which is mostly mined in Twindirga and Gesereville . The steel and iron here are both extremely resistant to rust naturally, and some mines even produce steel which is lighter weight and less brittle. The country also has massive granite quarries which produce beautiful ink-black stone with glowing speckles of eletric blue flowing through it. The stone is most often used for the construction of temples and noble houses. The stone is sometimes exported for the construction of great buildings in foreign lands as well, but doing so is extremely expensive for the importer.
The country is also known for its flavorful local foods as a tourist attraction. Unfortunately for Sapnirtugard most of the land in the Kingdom is not usable as farmland. While the land is extremely fertile Sapnirtugard has historically struggled to claim the land from wild plants. The indiginous flora propagates extremely quickly and many of the plants which provide sustience for the sapient species living within the country are easily over-run by the far more agressive native plants. Farmers spend a significant amount of their time weeding or finding other ways to fight the local growth. The few edible plants which grow locally have thorns or other qualities which make them dangerous or difficult to harvest such as the Sword Grass Tree , the berries of the Spear Briar Bush and the heart of the Pulsing Fern . Some farmers have started to raise native herbivores just to eat back the wildgrowth but most of the animals have proven difficult and to have preference for the crop over the wildgrowth.
The forest in central Sapnirtugard south of Hamot has also proven useful for it produces trees whose heartwood is nearly as strong as metal, and requires much fewer resources to work into usable weapons. This resource has not been of much use yet however, because the native wood-elf population has been fiercely protective of the territory, and shot most envoys who have been sent for negotiations.
Outlying Territories
The Masterless Valley : Sapnirtugard is not the only country to claim ownership over this untamable land, but they are the only nation who has successfully had a town settled in the territory in the last hundred years. Pendlebridge identifies itself as mostly independant since Sapnirtugard has not sent resources or imposed meaningful governance, but they still pay taxes for now.Jondars Prison : This is an island off the east coast of the northern half of the continent. The island is currently used as a naval staging ground for Sapnirtugard, and they claim sovreignty over the island, however natives and settlers from Makereva disagree. The isle is currently contested by Makereva, but since both countries have citizens on the island, and the island sits closer to Sapnirtugard support form Makereva amounts to little more than foot-soldiers to collect taxes and prevent total Nirturian rule.
Isle of Nagul : East of Jondar's Prison is another island which is currently contested by Makereva. Makereva currently control the valuable silver mine on the island but much of the island's actual surface is under Sapnirtugard's control. Locals believe that at some point the two countries will go to war over control of the mine and rest of the island.
The Shattered Isles : North of Jondar's prison is a chain of islands known as The Shattered Isles. This island chain is of little economic value to Sapnirtugard, but they officially claim them for political reasons. The native Lizardfolk of the Shattered Isles have taken advantage of this fact by continually collecting and bringing taxes to the mainland and then demanding both representation in the capital city of Guntirga, protection, and the construction or funding of public infrastructure. Some believe this a scheme by Makereva to put economic pressure on Sapnirtugard, but its far more likley that the Lizardfolk expected to be annexed violently at some point and took control of the situation.
Traditions of Magic
Todo
Founding Date
3621 ADE
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Capital
Alternative Names
The Central Kingdom, The Kingdom of Swords, The Land of Wildgrowth
Demonym
Nirturians
Leader
Leader Title
Head of State
Location
Controlled Territories
Comments