Ifthaaz
The country of Ifthaaz lies on the eastern shore of the Sea of Baal, north of Numeda and south of Baalthaaz. It claims all of the Nerodim Hills to the north, and to the south, the portion of the Taanach Hills north of the Erto River.
Ifthaaz enjoys some of the best climate in the area, with sea breezes warming and watering its fertile fields. This is essential to the country, because most of the inhabitants prefer to live in cities, and the fertility of the land makes it possible to support the population with fewer farmers than might be necessary in other places. Inland are the open lands where the cork oaks grow; the country of Ifthaaz produces the cork to stop the wine bottles of fully half the world. In the hills are vineyards where the Ifthazites produce the country’s own wine and lay claim to a good share of those corks. To the east, the land rises to the high Scythirian Mountains, which provide mineral resources.
Ifthaaz is not necessarily a powerful country, but it is subtly supported by Baalthaaz, which sees it as a buffer against Numeda. The country's patron deity is a god of thieves and treachery, and most outsiders view the entirety of its people as liars and cheats. They don’t cheat everyone, though; they are very reliable to their own groups. Family over others, countrymen over strangers; contracts are rare but inviolable.
All business here depends on the payment of gratuities. While it is considered rude to ask for one, it is very rude (or insulting, depending on the circumstances) not to offer. Only the crudest, lowest boors would demand a consideration, and if they did, a knowledgeable businessperson would probably turn them down. A slightly less rude person might hint. A powerful boss never even mentions it, but very likely refuses to treat with anyone not offering. A brash assistant might point out that gifting the boss is a good idea. A really suave assistant would get the message across without saying it. Ifthazites give foreigners a chance to learn the expectations, but they are expected to learn quickly.
Though Ifthaaz was certainly a part of the Hyperborean Empire while it lasted, the empire never managed to truly incorporate these lands into its hegemony. In Khemit, the Hyperboreans found people after their own hearts — lawful, organized, and bureaucratic. In Baalthaaz, they found people they despised — immoral, personally violent, and pirates. In Ifthaaz, the Hyperborean authority died the death of a thousand cuts as they were distracted, lied to, worked around, and organized against by a people with a strong code of honor that embraced almost everything the Hyperboreans opposed. The Hyperboreans never even bothered to recruit Ifthazites as troops; they considered them too underhanded to use.
The Ifthazites, for their part, despised the Hyperboreans for their hypocrisy. They told shining stories of heroes but their deeds were petty. Ifthazites are usually petty and they know it, but they do have stories of heroes who rise above being petty to have their shining moments. (These usually involve someone who risks life and limb to fulfill a contract, or who gets the better of an opponent after having made an unwise agreement; a smuggler who cleverly gets a needed or extravagant item past a watchful guard; or a person who goes to the utmost to obey a command of the family or clan leader.) Having rejected the Hyperboreans, the Ifthazites were no better pleased by their successors of Foere. Fortunately, being away from the land route from Curgantium to Tircople, and not a large power at sea, Ifthaaz was largely ignored by both empires, which allowed it to quietly prosper.
The populace in Ifthaaz is organized into various clans, some large and some small, a custom their cousins in Baalthaaz abandoned millennia ago. Ties of family are highly valued here, and form the basis of the code of honor (such as it is) that defines Ifthazite society.
Ifthaaz is governed by a ruling council that consists of representatives of its clans. Each great clan has a member on the council at all times. The lesser and minor clans have rotating representation according to a schedule that has been laid out for more than 400 years. In total, the ruling council has 15 members, from whom they elect their own leader, who is known as the great matriarch (or patriarch) of Ifthaaz.
Each clan — even the minor ones — has a clan fortress, a traditional stronghold. However, since the large clan wars are far in the past, most are now just the core of a town or area, rather than a fortress actually able to shelter the entire clan. (One exception is the immense fortress-city of the Noascai at Ephron, which guards the border with Baalthaaz.) A clan’s area usually includes a town with a rural area around it, but even the farmers tend to cluster in villages rather than on isolated homesteads; most Ifthazites just seem to like being able to interact with people whenever they choose. The people of Baalthaaz look down on their cousins in Ifthaaz as being stiff, provincial, and generally boring because their lives are centered much more around time spent with clan and family rather than in the self-indulgent, licentious pursuits common among Baalathites.
Ifthazites primarily worship Ift, god of deception. They also actively worship other deities of the Kehna pantheon, with temples to Baal and Athera in the major cities, although those tend to be less busy than comparable locations in Baalathite cities. The coastal cities have appropriate temples to Dagon. (Agamid is worshipped only in secret in Ifthaaz, if at all.) Shrines to members of the Seventy seem to be everywhere, however; as their patron deity is Last of the Seventy (youngest and most favored of his divine parents), the people of Ifthaaz tend to look more to those than to the great gods.
Region
Ifthaaz
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