Corn Court

The hanging valley where rests the Corn Court is called Mais. In the Mais, is the city of Soonous: the courtiers' city. And completely entombed and buttressed at the tops between two hills, is the fabled corn court. Itself covered in the bright offices and private chambers of Soonous' rulers, thus masking the tallest human construct in the known world with even more great constructions hanging like kernels on a corn.
The names of Mais, Soonous and Corn Court are often used interchangeably by other political entries and laymen. But they mean very specific locations to the Courtmen.

Structure

Corn Queen

The central figure head of the courtiers who doubly serves as a goddess on earth in the Cintēteo religion.

Corn Stalks

Fives branches of government which represent the various avenues and things of import to the queen and state.
They primarily communicate with their queen though the girl(s) offered and chosen to become the queen's close confident.

Highwatch

A policing entity in the border territory whose commanders liaison across the stalks and also serve as judges to towns and hamlets in the rows.

Public Agenda

The function of the fabled court is to house

1. the governance of the state
2. the facilitation of international peace
3. the attendance to the corn queen's prerogatives

Assets

Light of the Corn

Details of the interior of the corn court is largely unknown to the larger populace. Soonounites love to fantasize of a living golden throne, that is also the God of the Corn. Where the Corn Queen sits and holds court. But what they also know for a certainty (because the queen says so) is the gold salt precipitating from the corn light through the air and collecting in huge clumps along the court's walls.

Territories

As a matter of administration, the courtiers have not historically confined themselves to their small hanging valley. They have more than any other founded more colonies, that later grew into independent cities and states, than any other state. These ancient claims stretch into the plains of Dragonsgrave, the hills of the Floodlands, the slopes of the Bad Step and the rocky grounds of Mist.

Catkills

Currently, Highwatch has expanded its territorial contention into Catkills so as to create a buffer zone against military Sang operations.

Painted Beaches

Similarly, the court greatly reaffirmed relations with the painted tribes which granted almost defacto oversight on the painted beaches.

Mais Basin

The hourglass shaped valley floor made of folded plains and tipping downwards in the direction of the Floodlands.

Military

Court Roots

Sons of many high officials are given fine dress and bejeweled spears to stand vigil at entrance points and along many columns and pillars.
Their presence is largely ceremonial and convey the level of importance of the respective noble's family. They are not expected to actually fight and appointments are more political, but those of higher ranks must pass various written exams on warfare.

Court Leaves

Specially selected daughters of the nobility; chosen at the Corn Queen's desecration, serve as her personal attendants and are the petitioner's main point of contact between them and the queen.
Not as well known, is that these women also act as decoys for whenever the queen moves; conditioned to throw their bodies in front of any threat and are trained to combine their natural wiles with oratory skills to discreetly further the queen's agenda.

Technological Level

Queen's Construction

A method of building tall buildings by utilizing gold salt that fuses and lifts the normally heavy materials for easier carrying, turning upright or levitating to highers positions without excessive scaffolding.

Gold Balloons

Taking advantage of the levitating properties of gold salt, many experts and careers in logistics are able pile them into sheets of rubber and tied closed into spheres capable of carrying heavily loads for long distances and high altitude.

Religion

The city's Corn Queen is seen not merely as the Soonounites' leader, but also as a goddess on earth. Her position affords the first and last word in political, financial and moral decisions of her realm. During her coronation, the new queen-to-be chooses one of four incarnations which highlights the intents and temperaments of herself, to her court, her people and foreigners.

The White Corn
Focus on cultural expansion

The Red Corn
Focus on military necessity

The Yellow Corn
Focus on domestic concerns

The Black Corn
Focus on international trade

For the three other corn siblings not chosen; they're represented by the preserved bodies of prior queens who chose that incarnation, and are given a voice by the queen's Court Leaves. Arranging a system like this leaves open the option for the living queen to change tactics and strategies to ones that would likely hurt the mandate of her coronation without seeming to appear less-than all knowing.

Foreign Relations

Given its cultural preeminence within the valley, Soonous enjoys such a highly respected and revered status that their neighbors see it as a crime against history and time to attack it. Thus, when the Triple Alignment began its war, it did so with a fraction of it's strength.

Hostile

Sangsalgu

At War
Even with threats, the Sang Emperor could only marshal token forces from the other members of the alliance. Their subsequent disastrous and irregularly comic defeats have disenchanted many cavern cities from dedicating any further troops. As a consequence, Sangsalgu has mostly been fighting Soonous on their own.

Gaioor

Proxy War
Through no fault of its own, Gaioor and the tribes entered into a war of attrition which put Soonous in a difficult political spot during a time when the city was a battlefield and the borders continue to be violated.

Agriculture & Industry

Collectivization and Distribution

Various court administrators oversee the consolidation of individual households' crop yieldings and measure out which citizens were in need of subsistence. Yearly surpluses are also given away to allies and fast friends of the state; many of whom are highly dependent on these deliveries to survive.

Gold Salt Collecting

Flakes of gold salt materialized around the Corn God's Light and drift around in the enclosed air. They are collected and transported in half-filled rubber nets by nest castors and scrappers who work exclusivly in the Sheien for this purpose.

Trade & Transport

Open

Dye Waves

While it is harrowing and ill-advised to be on or near the shores during a flood event; once the Floodlands have been flooded, is then when it is most optimal to trade the farthest per economic output.
It is named for the slugs, snails and painted tribes who live along the painted shores.

Hunters' Haul

This is the shortest route Soonous' traders have towards markets on the slopes of the Bad Step. It runs over the forested Jaguar Hills and merges with the hunting lands of three inter-rivalrous settlements.
Haul is a dangerous option for courtiers, in no small part for the predators, bandits and poisonous things that live there.

Close

Golden Bridge

A high rise bridge that crosses over the Rows Route to connect the center of the courtiers' city with Salt Place through several way stations and check points.
With the ongoing war, however, contention over possession of the Ket Fort has all but ended free movement over the bridge.

Rows Route

An ancient path that cut through the Mais Rows and shadows the Golden Bridge until its natural end into Catkills.
Although, there are several forts and small attached villages serving as markers; the path has a reputation of being haunted with a great many disappearing randomly in places between the forts.

Infrastructure

@she

Sheien is the name given to the interior of the court's super structure. It is commonly associated as the entry point of the bridge directly into the corn court. Unusual among the temples and other building in the valley; a significant amount of high blend iron went into reinforcing Sheien's massive walls and roof courtesy of the gold salt floating everywhere.

Collection Chamber

However magical it may be to imagine the Corn Queen atop a towing throne made of light surrounded by members of the high families in attendance. "The gold corn" standing at the iris at the corn court, with flakes of its salt drifting in the enclosed air. One cannot help but think that this scene, if true, would be an uncomfortable place for the daily administrative work that would be going on.
The main purpose in constructing Sheien at all, was to maximized the amount of salt that can be trapped and put to market. A frustrating property of gold salt is its tendency to amalgamate with any substance under the sun, other than itself. As a result, the cavernous chamber that makes up majority of the interior appears as a vault of solid gold. In reality, the walls are covered in by the butts of salt saturated wall unable to dissolve any further.

Curtain Rooms

There are many fanciful tales on the secret chambers and legends. Even so, the more skeptical of the city suggest actual court is held in the rooms projected onto the towering flats of the walls and the corn court itself is a just collection room for the gold salt.
These are rooms quartered away from the central chamber via layers of spider silk curtains. They house offices, private chambers and meeting halls where most affairs of state are conducted. However more reasonable; this view tends to sap the mystery and splendor out of the storytellings, so finds itself pushed to the back of the collective mind in the populace.

Mythology & Lore

Corn King

After the establishment of Soonous; its founder, the Corn King, inadvertently vanished and the leadership role was forever since taken up by his wife, the Corn Queen.

It is difficult to decipher just what the Corn King is to the Children of the Corn. Historically, the Corn King was the official title to their first leader; and ever after referred to as such since his actual name has been forgotten. This, at first, would appear to be the usual results of difficulty in record-keeping.
Except that within the Maze that surrounds the city, inhabits a mysterious creature also labelled as "The Corn King". The origins of the name of this King is somewhat mysterious. Some believe the corn beast is the first ruler of Soonous, reincarnated to continue protecting his people.

Said to be a protector to the people and a monster to outsiders. Those who claim to have glimpsed it describe a humanoid figure with multiple roots for legs, skin with the color and texture of a corn husk and a turned-over basket for a head.

Type

Government, Leadership

Capital

Soonous

Alternative Names

• Soonous
• Mais

Demonym

• Courtiers
• Courtmen
• Children of the Corn
• Corn Children
• Soonounites

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Autonomous area

Economic System

Gift economy

Currency

• Internally, there is no officially recognized currency.
• Externally, they court accepts precious metals and gems.

Major Exports

• Specialized Labour
• Maize

• Gold Salt
• Top Soil

Major Imports

• Obsidian
• Spices
• Metals

• Precious Stones
• Phantom Gum

Legislative Body

• Corn Queen
• Corn Stalks

Judicial Body

• Seed Seats
• High Watch

Subsidiary Organizations

• Conch Cult
• Oztomecintli

Location

Mais

Related Traditions

• Mist Mountain Pilgrimage

Related Ranks & Titles

• Corn Queen

Controlled Territories

• Golden Bridge
• Mais
• Painted Beaches
• Sheien
• Soonous

Neighboring Nations

• Long Step
• Oztomecintli
• Triple Alignment

Related Items

• Cinteotl

Organization Vehicles

• Queen of Leaves

Notable Members

• Tuxmen

Related Ethnicities

• Courtiers
• Painted Tribes

Related Myths

• Star Alignment

Past Colonies