Darcaos
Structure
Regiaz at the top. The Regiaz leads the military forces to war, negotiates treaties with foreign powers, ensures peace in his realm, and directs the construction of infrastructure. Under the Regiaz are the Jarls, who have similar responsibilities. Below the Jarls are the Thegns, again with scaled down responsibilities. And then under them were the clan chiefs, then the heads of households, then the other free members of each household and finally the slaves of the household.
Each level above the clan has a corresponding Ting, which serves as legislature and judicial court. Every household is represented at the local Ting by the head of the household, and each local Ting is represented at the regional Ting by the corresponding Thegn and the Fointer. And each regional Ting is represented at the Alting by the corresponding Jarl and the Fointer.
History
Humans, mainly the ancestors of the Tyorns, settle in Estgart, finding it lightly settled by the Elves. After they have established themselves, they quickly expand throughout the range, seperating themselves into different chiefdoms as they do so. One of these chiefdoms was a chiefdom centred on what is now Carbeck. This makes the chiefdom much wealtier than its neighbours due to its location at the meeting place of the Vidfjell and the coast making it a natural trading center. The chiefs ruling this chiefdom use their wealth to expand, taking territory either through bribing the leaders or using their strong military to take it by force.
Demography and Population
Most of the population are, with few exceptions, Tyorns. The largest portion of the population lives in rural homesteads located in the Vidfyell and neighbouring valleys and fjords. The next largest portion lives in fishing settlements. And the last portion lives in the capital, a town known as Carbeck.
Territories
The Darcians currently rule the mountain pass of Vidfyell and the surrounding valleys and fjords, which they settled when they came over from Pugard.
Military
The military forces of Darcaos are made up of nobles and their retainers as well as any of their supporters that are willing to take up arms, with the navy and the army being considered one and the same. This last part is because of the maritime culture of Tyorns due to the difficulty of overland travel in Estgart. A ship's crew (usually 30 to 60 warriors) would act as a unit on land.
Darcian armies are entirely made up of infantry, usually a mix of heavy and light. The nobles and their retainers acting as the core of the heavy infantry, ideally (but dependent on the wealth of the noble) armoured in helmets, mail shirts, and shields and armed with one or two throwing spears, a thrusting spear, a knife, and either a sword or axe (or even both). The supporters of the nobles would have a lot of variation in equipment, the richest ones resembling the nobles and retainers in equipment and the poorest ones equipped with only a knife and slings.
Agriculture & Industry
Agriculture
Agriculture within Darcaos is focused primarily on sheepherding with sheep providing milk (for cheese) and wool (for cloth). The shepherds take their herds up to mountain meadows during summer to graze and bring them down to the valley floors for winter. Some secondary focuses are the growing of grain, hemp, and apples, but generally only large enough to provide for local use rather than export.Industry
The weaving and dying of cloth is the primary manufacturing activity that happens in Darcaos. Fishing also forms a large pillar of the economy of Darcaos. Logging, hunting, ropemaking (from locally grown hemp), brewing (of beer, mead, and hard ciders), charcoal-burning, mining, and smelting also make up semi-significant portions of Darcian industry, with logging and hunting large enough for export and the other ones mainly for local use. Most iron used by rural smiths is bog iron. Silver and high quality iron is supplied by mines owned by jarls, thegns, and other landowners and worked by indentured convicts who couldn't pay their fines, though the number and size of these mines are generally not enough to supply local demand.Trade & Transport
Transportation
Due to the difficulty of land travel in Estgart, those living in the valleys usually have to travel to the nearest fjord and go by ship or boat to a location from where they can travel by land to their intended destination easier than from their starting point. On land, Darcians rely on dirt paths and usually travel on foot, horseback, or wagon, depending on wealth and/or need. On sea, they usually rely on ships of a shallow, single-decked, and single-masted designs.Trade
Trade is usually done via barter with silver serving as a common medium of exchange. The capital of Darcaos, located at the meeting point of Vidfyell and the coast, serves as the main trading center of the kingdom, with merchant-ships from other Tyorn lands and foreign ports docking in its harbour and nomadic tribesmen from Fustia's interior steppe coming through the pass. At each of the fjords, there's usually a settlement where regular markets are held so that merchants from the capital and locals of the fjord and surrounding valleys can meet to trade. Non-Tyorn merchants that arrive to Darcaos by sea are evenly split between the northern and southern coasts. And Darcaos receives a lesser number of such non-Tyorn merchants than the other two major Tyorn kingdoms, but also receive more Tyorn merchants, who not only carry goods from their own homelands, but act as middlemen for goods from both coasts.
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Demonym
Darcian
Leader
Head of State
Head of Government
Government System
Tribalism
Power Structure
Confederation
Economic System
Barter system
Currency
No official currency, with silver items used as a medium of exchange and silver coins are minted but only so that there's a convenient item for small to medium transactions, since they don't have an official value beyond the silver.
Major Exports
Wool cloth, sheep cheese, dried fish, timber, steppe animal parts (horns, antlers, furs, etc. acting as middlemen), and local furs.
Major Imports
Dyes, silk, linen, books, wine, gems, precious metals, walrus tusks, steppe animal parts (horns, antlers, furs, etc), and spices.
Legislative Body
The Alting of the Darcians, which is made up of the Jarzes and the Fointers of the regional Tings.
Judicial Body
The Alting of the Darcians, which is made up of the Jarzes and the Fointers of the regional Tings.
Location
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
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