Sahai
Sahai is one of the greatest Marobunta queendoms in the world, claiming territories that stretch beneath large swathes of Mavorenia, Tarhusia, and the Silver Coast. Of course, since the underdark is not a single plane and is composed of countless winding tunnels, their dominion is more scattered pockets of influence than a single set of borders. Still, though, God-Queen Ksoba is amongst the most powerful women in the world.
Sahai's capital is the central colony cluster of Massha, built in an enormous cavern that has been widened and expanded several-fold by its industrious inhabitants. The city is fed with water from a central lake around which are clustered the fungus, aphid, and Kwala farms that sustain its immense population. The water is spread throughout the city using an innovative, three-dimensional irrigation system that relies on relative water pressure to force liquid to the higher levels of the city.
Structure
Sahai is structured around the various clans that were assimilated during its initial expansion. These clans are a standard feature of marobunta society, and the bedrock of most marobunta dominions. A clan draws its lineage from a single ancestral queen, often worshiped as a goddess by her descendants. Clans rarely mix except through the negotiated trade of males between them, but strife and outright genocide are common between these groups. Queens and matriarchs are protective of their lineages and their divine birthright, and rarely tolerate females of other lines to have a permanent place in their society as anything more than slaves. Most Marobunta dominions are thus inseparable from a clan.
Sahai is relatively unique in that its founder, also named Sahai, was willing to accept other clans into her own, taking their matriarchs and queens as wives and thus symbolically making their children hers. Those that would not accept were mercilessly exterminated as an example. Through this method, clan Sahai effectively assimilated many of the more powerful clans into their own, which now function as semi-autonomous units in a manner somewhat similar to the feudal system of the surface world. Of course, there are countless differences; most feudal lords cannot claim to have given birth to all of their peasants and knights, nor are they worshiped by their subjects as living gods. But, in broad strokes, the analogy serves well enough.
The ruler of Sahai is its God-Queen, the direct descendant of Sahai herself. She is thus also the matriarch of the Sahai clan. She is worshiped as a living manifestation of the Queen of Queens, the deity of the Marobunta, and for this she is considered blasphemous by independent matriarchs and queens. To claim divinity is standard practice for them, but to claim to be the highest divinity is another matter. The current God-Queen is Ksoba.
Beneath Ksoba is the council of matriarchs, composed of the matriarchs of the subject clans. They do not personally reside in Massha, but rather in their own temple-palaces. They send the most trusted of their princesses to represent them, who live permanently in the capital city in opulent luxury, communicating with their mothers through magic rituals. The equivalent body within the Clan Sahai is the Chotan, where the princesses of the various queens within the clan make their desires known to the Queen. In both the Chotan and the Council of Matriarchs, to be appointed to that body is also to be appointed successor, and in mimicry of Sahai's actions the princesses within the council of matriarchs are wed to the God-Queen.
The temple is also
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Demonym
Sahaian
Government System
Despotism
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Palace economy
Related Ranks & Titles
Neighboring Nations
Related Species
Comments