Northumbria
Northumbria is a vast plateau atop menacing cliffs that form a sheer drop into the cold waters that separate the Tin Isles from the mainland. The cliffs rise some 200 feet over jagged rocks or narrow strips of desolate beachfront. The inhabitants here are mostly herdsmen, as the coasts are inhospitable for landings and no ports last long. Though clusters of odd squat towers are clearly visible atop the cliffs, there are no fishing villages nor even doors or windows facing the sea.
The coast is wilderness, and even where narrow stairs have been carved to the beaches, they have been sealed within caged enclosures and guards hold stern watch behind the locked gates atop the stairs. The waters of Northumbria belong to the sea devils, vicious sahuagin raiders housed in myriad caves below the waterline. The sheer cliffs form a natural barrier and the land above is fertile enough for subsistence farming plus adequate fast-growing vegetation to sustain small herds of sheep and cattle.
The stone towers house the herds at night, with grain storage in lofts above the pens and living quarters on the floor above that. Most towers are solitary, resting in the center of the grazing range, but larger or more affluent families will build additional towers, either conjoined or connected by covered passageways, this latter often when an older child marries or acquires a herd.
Nights here are cold, so cooking is done on long, flat coal drawers designed to be slid under a bed to provide heat after used for cooking. This frugal efficiency is a hallmark of Northumbrian character, brought about by generations of eking out a living where sparse resources had to be garnered and saved for sustainable living.
Northumbria is populated by a dark folk, short but lanky, with a curvature to their spines that makes them appear hunched and long, thin limbs with powerful, large knuckled hands. The sea air and cold north winds make them wrinkled with shriveled, craggy features by adulthood. The national outfit is a hooded tunic and trousers of goat wool with sturdy curled toe boots, dyed grey for ease in maintenance. Northumbrian pockets are only accessed from the interior of the tunic and are found above the beltline, while the belt itself is lined with tool pouches. If a Northumbrian is transporting gold or currency, it will be in a case(s) with a masterwork lock. They are cunning artificers, makers of intricate locks, traps, and easily concealed weapons. Although adept smiths and metallurgists, Northumbrians prefer fineweave cloth armors to metal. They are notoriously miserly, living on the simplest and easily preserved foods while selling the finer fare of wrecked ships in distant markets, for certain unscrupulous types set false fires to guide ships to beach themselves on the treacherous coasts to become meals for the sahuagin. Mornings find these same folk descending the stairs to loot the ships, casting the leftovers into the sea bereft of anything salvageable along with any survivors complicating salvage claims.
This illicit activity has made Northumbria wealthy enough many too old to work herding retire to money lending and investing, a cottage industry where they have built a reputation for scrupulous honesty and ruthless contract provisions.
Northumbrian finance supports the Heptarchy and gives Northumbria a clear voice in Heptarchy policy.
Northumbria has a strange government, befitting the hardworking and industrious individuals who dominate the population. The stone towers are sacrosanct, and their owner king within those walls. Hospitable folk will have an adjoining wooden pavilion where they meet guests and customers to discuss business. The prominence of an individual is shown by the size and workmanship of any given pavilion, and it's maintenance indicative of the welcome one may expect.
Hospitality is unknown, though many families construct a guest tower for invited or honored guests. The courts of Alba do conduct rades here, so an empty tower left open is expecting such to arrive. While anyone is free to shelter from the elements in such a tower, the arriving rade may not be as welcoming, nor will the people of Northumbria question the condition a tower is found in.
By tradition, a man may only own his weapons, his personal animals(pets and a steed), and such gear as the animals and he may carry, with all other assets held by the oldest woman of a household, the keeper of the keys. The oldest man conducts business, but the property is his wife’s, not his. Wives may sue and even divorce on grounds of mismanagement or incompetence, so a wise man keeps his vaults lined with gold and his larder well-stocked.
Single men reside in caravans that hold their tools and supplies until they are wed, a process that involves a courtship akin to a business transaction. The prospective spouse personally inventories all possessions and then approaches both families, who oversee a second, joint inventory. It should be noted the individuals make the selection starting courtship, but the families interact to seal the marriage. If they agree, the man or his family purchase land and construct a tower the bride will inspect and approve accompanied by a senior family member. At this time, the prospective groom may move his herds into the tower and begin furnishing it, but he may not live there yet.
Once this approval is gained, a pavilion is erected-either family may do this, but it is traditional the husband performs this alone but is reimbursed for his work and materials by the bride's family. When the pavilion is complete, the family and witnesses gather as the husband presents the marriage contract before a judge. Once it is signed, he hands her the keys and they are wed.
Marriage rights include cohabitation, but not sexual favor. Spouses not only negotiate for such, but either spouse may possess as many consorts as they can retain without offense. It should be noted that marriage is typically monogamous nonetheless. Some enterprising individuals have included adultery clauses in their marriage contract, but this is the height of disrespect, so either party may refuse the contract without stigma.
Property rights can grow convoluted as a surviving husband still controls marital assets even though they are now the property of his wife’s heir, to the extent they will transfer to his new wife should he remarry without requiring his previous wife’s heir’s approval or knowledge, though such consent and approval is respectful.
Each family conducts it's own affairs and leaves others to their own devices, though the wreckers employ entire communities in their doings.
Northumbria has powerful coalitions of families lead by the wealthiest in a very egalitarian plutocracy. Though Northumbrians raise livestock, their claim to fame is their advanced traps and locks, which protect their money lending concerns. They have a reputation as misers, unwilling to pay for creature comforts and subsisting on the roughest fare, and their proclivity for ingenious traps is more due to an unwillingness to employ fallible guards for a job than cowardice or sadism.
Northumbrian craftsmanship is highly regarded throughout the West, and they are considered the most advanced people on the Tin Isles. Northumbria prefers to finance Heptarchy forces by hiring mercenaries rather than joining armies, but wrecker communities have warriors to protect the narrow stairways cut into the sheer cliffs.
These stairs are locked behind cage walls and fully roofed, laden with traps and manned by skilled weaponsmiths who are as ingenious in producing concealed weapons as traps and locks. These artificers protect the stairs from sahuagin and survivor alike, combing the beaches at dawn to remove either found before looting the wrecks. The manpower required for these operations makes the wreckers as powerful as any merchant prince and in Northumbria, wealth is the only measure of respect.
Northumbria is ruled by councils of mercantile interests who collect a flat fee(250 g.p./year) for voting rights to elect civil authorities and a 10% income tax to finance civic projects. As a project supervisor retains any excess but is financially liable for overages or catastrophic failures, Northumbrian civil projects tend to be competently done at minimal cost.
If a Northumbrian pays over 5000 g.p. income tax, he is eligible to run for public office but must maintain this income level throughout his term. Public office is unpaid save for retaining budget excess for a project, so Northumbrian officials tend to be painstakingly efficient.
Northumbrian tax assessors have a reputation for omniscience and integrity despite the low esteem in which they are held, but their regional bursars gather and report budgets for communities and the High Bursar running the Assessor’s Office serves as the voice of Northumbria to the Heptarchy Council. He controls the tax budget and allots each community 60% of taxes gathered there with 40% for the national defense budget, including Heptarchy obligations. High Bursars have pressed for a wall at the Strathclyde border from the Antonine to Mercia since the time of Idris, arguing such would ease manning the Antonine for the First Dragon, but internal opposition to the expense as well as Heptarchy debate has kept this project in the planning stage.
Government
Northumbria has councils of powerful families and plutarchs who discuss community needs and hire project managers to meet these needs. While a plutarch may desire something for personal benefit, they must establish a public need to engage a council for it or pay for it personally.
Judges are hired by the councils and effectively retire as they may possess no income beyond their salary or incur the fate of corrupt officials:sewn in a bag with an ape, a cockerel, a pig, and a serpent then tossed to the sea below.
Other offices include municipal mercenaries for law enforcement and those offices that head public works. The powerful Assessor's office hires it's own assessors to calculate tax, and these men elect a bursar who reports to the councils. The bursars elect one of their own to be High Bursar, who is dispatched to be the voice of Northumbria to the Heptarchy.
Defences
The sheer cliffs at the coast have stairs cut into them, caged and gated to prevent sea devil invasion. Mercenaries of all stripes protect their employers and band together should mutual defense be necessary. The squat two storey towers of the trow are nigh impenetrable alone, and trow fill their land with traps in times of duress.
Industry & Trade
Wrecking is the main industry, though herdsmen are more visible. Trow craftsmen are renowned for their cunning traps and hidden weapons. These industries have generated the wealth that allows the major industry of Northumbria: money lending.
Trow will deal in anything but stolen merchandise, addictive or dangerous substances, and contraband. They are scrupulous about not selling or unloading anything illegal under local law though their ships may well carry such provided there are markets where it is legal. They avoid breaking the law wherever they go.
Infrastructure
Public works tend to be user fee, with toll bridges and roads common. These works receive oversight from the councils whose area the project passes through, and are the extent of public works.
Assets
Storms and wreckers litter the Northumbrian beaches with wealth free for the taking as salvage. The plateaus are good cattle country, and the trow themselves craftsmen of great talent and skill.
Guilds and Factions
The wealthier families and individuals form banking associations, while myriad trade and professional guilds exist, most notably the Security Commission and the Outfitter Guild. The wreckers often form salvage companies that are locally powerful but unknown outside the community they dominate.
History
Trow are believed to have settled Northumbria while fleeing the catastrophe that befell the dwarfs of the Jotunzee. Common belief is they crashed on the coast and endured repeated attacks from the sea devils while they carved the terraced steps to the plateaus they now inhabit. The Divine Ivlivs makes the first mention of trow as itinerant traders and peddlers though the Republic had long valued trow goods.
Northumbria was visited by Klavdivs during his conquest, but the trow eagerly embraced the Empire and were model citizens, prompting the Empress Antonine to construct her wall largely to protect them.
The Eternal Secession was, according to the trow, "bad for business" and they joined the Heptarchy as a stopgap measure until the Empire returned. They also cemented trade deals on the Jotunzee during the secession conflict and retain trade arrangements with jotun and Empire alike.
Architecture
Trow build round stone towers for their use, uniquely trow as are the guest/business pavilions outside their towers. Pavilions may be wood or stone depending on the tastes of the owner.
Geography
The coast of Northumbria is a narrow stretch of beach at the foot of tall, sheer cliffs. The plateau atop the cliffs sweeps westward before a gradual slope marking the beginnings of the low mountains of Strathclyde.
Natural Resources
Northumbria is rich in coal and iron but mining is perilous as the surrounding rock is not stable and collapses with alarming regularity. Trow herds roam the plains, so cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, and geese are common. The poorest folk harvest dung from these herds for use as fertilizer and fuel.
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