Hokyke

I'm not a big fan of humans, never was. I will not go as far as to say that I would rater share a merchant wagon with a obuju or play cards with a lizard-folk, but I sure will choose to eat my meal next to a talking mantis or any other kind of insect folk if no empty table is available in the room. Unfortunately to me that's a place where non-humans are rare. Hokyke is a feudal domain (actually a cluster of feudal domains formed by fortresses that swore allegiance to the warlord sit on Hokyke Castle) one of many in the region called Green Cauldron. Most people in the Cauldron descends from involuntary immigrants from Earth, from Rhalpav, of a mix between both. Native Sharitarnes are about as rare in this parts as blood elves.
    Rhalpav was the parallel planet tuned by the Vortex before Earth was. Without worry about precision we can estimate the first Rhalpavlings must have arrived around the Earthling year 400. The celestial bodies are identical in all parallel Universes, fortunately, broadly speaking one can assume time to pass in the same speed. Usually it does. So use Earthling calendar do make sense even if Earth had no contact with the Vortex yet.
     The city has this aspect of medieval village that would be a touristic attraction on my home planet, for being "Historical", but on this planet Ey 400 is just a little less recent than last week. This people have commercial contracts older than that, most their state cities are at least 300 thousand years old. The important ones, with one single exception, count with millions of years of History.
     Those streets and buildings are probably build on the ruins of nations older than Earthling humanity. The stones used here probably where part of other constructions over the time, maybe they will be used by other people again one day, after this semi-barbaric nation fall. The wood, fibers, fur and bones we see in the constructions are from species of plants and animals arrived by other Universes, probably.
     The sign hanging in a chain says "Sakut!", like that, with the exclamation mark. It is French.
     Well, Green Cauldron French, Hokyke French to be precise. They replaced the "l" by a "k" in the course of centuries. This sort of thing puzzles most native Sharitarnes because their "Merchant Language" is ideographic, not phonetic. Most other idioms used by native humanity here follows the same logic, because phonetic languages are bond to change their written variant far too fast for the taste of Sharitarne natives.
     Salut! is the second of three establishments of his kind in this sorry excuse for a burgh. Oh, it is cute if you like this sort of thing.
    The place is inside the external walls of the fortress, part of the extended fortress but not the most well protected sector. Inside the place looks like a computer game tavern of some fantasy setting, smells worse than any trap for tourist you could have visited on Earth but not half as bad as Medieval pubs on Earth must have smelled.
    A lot of empty tables for me to choose. After the chaos install in Loveletter Castle the relative silence was a bless.
     I had intended to expend the rest of my live inside Erevi, the Elven City. Now I was asking for a room to rent for the night, and possibly longer. My obligations to the elven house responsible for support my claim for citizenship forced me to came to this part of world and use my Earthling background to gather information about the region. Lady Lailwitriann would like to know everything possible about Hokyke, and their special military order, the Stranger Knights.
     I am to join the order, if possible.
     May take me half a decade to end this nasty mission and have a chance to move back to my adoptive city with both my honor and my status intact. Is not really fair, but I have seemed worse fates.
    As I said, that is a cute little settlement.
    Things are about to became tense in the region, if I understand well the silences of my elven benefactors, but whatever is about to happen Loveletter is going to be the center of it. Here in Hokyke thing are likely to be affected in a less intense way. And the locals will have no reason to associate me to the strange nasty elven lady who just moved to Green Cauldron to marry the younger brother of one of their favorite warlords.
    The person behind the balcony is a young man, on Earth he would be a old child still too young to have a real job but here the fellow is an adult. A veteran warrior as well, most men who live inside walls here serve the "city" guard as supplementary swords during the winter, when wild beasts are the most constant problem and business are in standby any way. 
    In a actual city Louis would be a Merchant Caste, probably, feudal realms have the social roles less well defined. They do have the equivalent of Warrior Caste, the permanent forces in service of their warlord, but is a bit more like a profession and less like a caste. One cannot expect this system to produce masters of combat as sharp as proper civilized warriors, but the feudal realms have endured for even longer than the State Cities in existence. Even is individual feudal states have less chance to survive for as long as individual state cities, in present times. 
   Louis is a happy and self confident fellow. His grand uncle owns the Sakut! but the older man seldom visits it, expending most the time in the woods, hunting, enjoin friends, and sometimes buying products for his establishment.  
   After a bit of meaningless flirt the slave-girl who served me lunch shared some local gossip, most of it equally meaningless. Mixed in it came the information that her owner was a close friend of a high member of Stranger Knights Order. The young master didn't liked the Strangers that much, being more a sympathizer of the Horses. There is a sort of friendly animosity between the palatial guard, called "horses" by the locals, and the "dogs", that is how they call the Strangers. No creativity has gone in those names, the horses fight and patrol mounted on strong stallions as large as the most majestic English animals ever registered in film, while the Strangers mount talking dogs as heavy as the horses but longer and less tall. 
   Talking dogs are part of Rhalpav gifts to Sharitarn, most are considerably smaller than the ones mounted by the Strangers, about as large as Earthling dogs actually, but the knight order could not exist without their talking mounts. Non-intelligent animals do not step inside the Vortex Line, and takes a lot of conversation to overcome the aversion of intelligent people to enter the magical corridor.         
   I rented the room for the one day and two nights, but was convinced that I would have to look for members of the Strangers in one of the other two establishments. Military officials seldom frequent taverns as far as I can tell, and low ranks prefer to have fun in places where their eventual indiscretions are less likely to be mentioned to their superiors. 
    I left my bag in the room, knowing that there was a small risk of someone open it for curiosity but very little risk of theft. 
    Merchant Castes sometimes carry precious jewelry or other relatively expensive items in their bags, and leave this bags in rooms without concern. On purpose. When something is stolen the Merchant do not complain, he just leaves and mentions the fact to others of his Caste. In a world where magic makes possible to know with 100% of certainty if someone is lying or not in most cases, if you bother to make the test, that allegation is enough to brake the reputation of any businessman. Even if the person who lost his property isn't Merchant Caste, the occurrence will be taken under consideration once tested. Consequences would follow a thousand generations or more, if the dishonest businessman didn't decided (wisely) not to have children. 
   Slaves do not steal. Unless their masters tells them to do so. Would make no good for them to take anything, since they cannot have property; being property themselves. 
    Someone else can furtively enter a room like the one I rent and take things from it. Despite all effort of the tavern to prevent such occurrence. So naturally there is a limit of reasonableness to the value one would risk in such way. Specially when there is intense movement and all rooms are full. You can be sure that in any case the average businessman will do his very best to protect what you left in you room from being stolen, any way. 
    Not from being poked and smelled, though. 
     Slaves are constantly punished for being too curious, but I doubt anyone puts energy in those punishments. Common believe is that women are curious by nature, and that they are slaves by nature too, being nature a valuable thin to be preserved as much as possible. Even when it is a bit annoying. 
    Naturally you don't leave any secret in your room in a tavern, unless you want that secret to became gossip. 
    They close the external walls of Hokyke when sun falls, and the doors between the external and recent areas and the old better protected ones are closed around 10 o'clock. Access to main fortress is always restricted but the drawbridges that lead there only raises during serious crisis. 
    I used my time during day to walk around the peasants outside the external wall. There is a new layer of city in process of came into existence here, composed of wagons and tends, and a few small houses build by families who got the much wanted permission to establish themselves here. Not too close to the walls, because that would be a problem for security, but close enough to find refuge in Hokyke in case of necessity. 
    Things are going mostly well for this realm, the growing population is a sign of that. 
    You don't find misery as portrayed by artists and Historians on Earth, I suppose that is at least in part because this people have no notion of christian charity and therefore exposition of human suffering brings no advantage to the unfortunate. There is a strong value of "generosity" here but it is totally unrelated with guilty or sense of obligation, where exists obligation cannot exist generosity and vice-versa. Parents who find out that they can't properly provide for their children around here either kill or sell them, that is what they are supposed to do and no one looses time talking about. 
     Curiously enough a fair number of them are Christians, Islamic, or a mix of those two religious creeds heavy in local flavour. 
     I passed the doors just in time to not be left outside for the night. Found the place frequented by most knights and city guards without difficulty, and got a little more information about local History and current politic. Had no chance to make myself acquainted with the Stranger Knights because there was no dog to be seemed. 
    Until I arrive back in the Sakut!, and find the place loaded with Stranger Knights, of all ranks.

History

I easy to imagine this place being build, around the Earthling years 1730, when the Xar-Scar nearby where far larger and far closer. Sharitarn was leaving the Transitional Period of the Vortex them. The Earthlings had been of the region for about two centuries at this point but in small numbers, since Ey 1500 our planet had been one of countless parallel planets touched by the Vortex but at this point it was clearly the new tuned planet. 
    So while the Vortex activity decreased the number of Earthlings arriving every week grew. 
     No one welcomed the founders of Hokyke. They fought for every inch of ground, facing sub-species of humans artificially evolved to be living weapons by the genetic engineering of Rhalpav, and many other treats. Had to prove themselves in battle several times before they earn the reputation that made them prospective allies and neighbors to be taken seriously. Instead of slaves and lawless.     
      Even if you dislike Earthlings in general, you still have to respect this first pioneers who build fortresses and nations (using the term nation a bit loosely perhaps) on this territory. Without understand where they were, nor how they came to be here. Possibly praying to their gods to be forgiven and allowed to return to their home lands. 
     Micula City, at West Coast, was growing in power and that probably helped the Earthling warlords to survive long enough to organize themselves here in the Green Cauldron. Also, the influence of this State City must have deepened the already strong inclination of those first Earthling iis towards humanism. Among the civilized nations of Sharitarn Micula is by far the one where non-humans are more strongly despised. The Pearl of West was nothing close to what it now is, in size and power, but it was already a phenomenon among the nations on this planet. Because usually takes hundreds of thousands of years to a village reach the size of a small town, millennia to go from that to a decently large nation, and Micula achieved the position of larger human nation on the planet being about one thousand years old. 
    However, the Pearl of West is not that close. Half continent separates it from the Cauldron. Given the precarious means of transportation and dangerous paths that is a very long distance. Far too long for the humanist warriors of Micula provide a helping hand for the humanists here in their fight for the land. 
   In this circumstances the divergences between Earthling humans became secondary fast, when not completely meaningless. The newly arrived frequently mentioned their difficulty to tolerate the ways on this land in this aspect. Until a couple of winters pass, and the harsh fight for survival facing talking monsters larger and stronger than any human teach them to bend their convictions and expectations and favor practicality over feelings.  The hate for non-humans, and for undead even when those are former humans, made friends of enemies here. 
   Pretty thing! Until you consider that is not different to what made some of those people enemies in the first place: the feeling of comfort for being close to familiar faces. Discomfort for being close to strange people who may sometimes want to kill and eat you (and sometimes do succeed in doing that).  
    Perhaps racism is in the end of day only natural, inevitable even. Like language is natural in human. Who you will favor as part of you kin and who you will wish to guard them against is not natural at all, that goes without saying. That is something people learn, and can change. Like they learn to speak Greek or Spanish, English or Russian, and can learn new languages even after reach adulthood. But the inclination to learn how to speak some language, any language, is natural and perhaps unavoidable in people born whit sane human brains.   
    Being Black or White, German, Jew, Australian Aborigine, those things make no difference around here. This people do value highly Earthling heritage, of any kind. After that, they welcome human heritage that isn't from our home planet. 
    As for non-humans, those are, at very best, tolerated. With rare exceptions, such as the talking dogs.

Type

Geopolitical, Lordship