Tharcaos
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 Vongfyell 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
Territories
Tharcaos currently rule the mountain pass of Vongfyell and the surrounding valleys and fjords, which they settled when they came over from Pugard.
Military
The military forces of Tharcaos 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.
Tharcian 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, 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 a sling.
Agriculture & Industry
Agriculture
Agriculture within Tharcaos 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 Tharcaos. Fishing also forms a large pillar of the economy of Tharcaos. 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 Tharcian 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, Tharcians 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 Tharcaos, located at the meeting point of Vongfyell 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 caravans coming through the pass from northern nations that don't have reliable access to the ports on Fustia's northern coast. 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. The majority of non-Tyorn merchants that arrive to Tharcaos from sea come from Fustia's northern coast.
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Demonym
Tharcian
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, walrus tusks (acting as middlemen to lands further south), and furs.
Major Imports
Dyes, silk, linen, books, wine, gems, precious metals, walrus tusks (from the northerners) and spices.
Legislative Body
The Alting of the Tharcians, made up of representatives of the regional tings.
Location
Related Ethnicities
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