centuries-long and obviously futile search for the heir to the Rivan
Throne.
Whatever their motives, the Grey-Cloaks are a welcome addition
to the world of commerce, and it is to be hoped that in time the
Rivans will outgrow their secretive ways and assume their proper
place in the family of nations.
COINAGE
GOLD
1. A 1 ounce gold coin called a ‘Rivan Gold Penny’ equal to a
Tolnedran ‘Noble’.
2. X ounce gold coin called a ‘Rivan Cold Half-Penny’ equal to a
Tolnedran ‘Crown’.
SILVER
1. A 2 oz. silver coin called a ‘Rivan Silver Double-Penny’. 10
Double-Pennies = a Gold Penny = a Silver ‘Imperial’.
2. A 1 oz. silver coin, a ‘Silver Penny’. 20 = 1 Cold Penny.
3. A ” oz. silver coin called a ‘Silver Half-Penny’ = a Tolnedran Silver
Crown.
BRASS OR COPPER
Called a brass’ or a ‘copper’
Theoretically equal, but in practice a brass is worth 2 coppers
100 brass = a Silver Half-Penny
200 coppers = a Silver Half-Penny
COSTUME
There are no class distinctions in Rivan costume, but the nobles and
the wealthy wear slightly finer clothing. The standard is a tunic,
long-sleeved, belted and reaching to mid-thigh. Long, fairly wide
sleeves. Also leggings (wrappings) laced around with thongs or cord.
The standard grey cloak is a heavy’ sleeveless mantle with a hood.
Rivan clothing is grey – undyed wool. Rivan sheep have a curious
grey color and extremely fine, thick wool.
On state or formal occasions a blue linen tunic with discreet silk
embroidery is worn by all ranks.
SHOES
A soft leather half-boot (felt in the winter)
ARMOR
Chain mail and pointed steel helmets
RANK
The distinction between noble and commons is generally indicated
in the weaponry The customary weapons of the Rivans are a
fourfoot broadsword and an 18 inch dagger. The sword-belts of the
nobility are gold or silver-studded. Those of the commons are plain.
WOMEN
Wear linen gowns, long sleeved and sober and decorous. Belting is a
concession to vanity and the gowns are cross-tied to accentuate the
bosom. The hair (usually blonde) is worn long and flowing with
elaborate braiding around the temples to give a coronet effect.
COMMERCE
Bread, again a standard, costs slightly more in Riva than in Tolnedra,
but the Rivans are thrifty and industrious so there is virtually no
poverty on the island. Fairs are held in the meadows along the River
of Veils behind the city of Riva and there is a great deal of barter as
opposed to cash transactions. Trade items – wool, sheep, a few cattle,
hogs, produce. Useful goods, shoes, pots, pans, etc.
RANK
THE WARDER
Selected by the nobility in conclave at Riva. Invested with the name
Brand and wears an iron circlet on state occasions.
THE-BARONS
20 only. Each represents a district in the city of Riva and is
responsible for its maintenance and defense. The residents of a district are
the Baron’s men. Some Rivans live in the outlands – a few
shepherds, some farmers, etc. This is a largely self-contained society with
a remarkably stable population.
MODES OF ADDRESS
‘My Lord Brand’ to the Warder.
‘Sir John’ to the Barons.
‘Friend John’ to the commons – not unusual for a lower class Rivan to
call a Baron ‘Friend John’ as well.
POPULATION
The population of the city of Riva is about 100,000; another half
million or so in villages and on farmsteads.
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
Temple of Belar in the city of Riva
Religious observances standard Alorn (See Cherek)
Honor is also paid to Aldur
Religion: see Cherek
MAJOR HOLIDAYS
Erastide – The world’s birthday.- a week-long celebration in
midwinter.
Riva’s Birthday – Early summer – Patriotic rededication to the
defense of the Orb.
Gorek’s Day – Or a day of national mourning over the death of Gorek
the Wise – early September.
Festival of Belar – Spring. A religious holiday. Feasting, some drinking.
Brand’s Day – Celebration of the victory at the Battle of Vo Mimbre.
Military games. Midsummer.
Cherek
Cherek is a mountainous peninsula on the northwest coast,
extending northward to the polar ice. With the exception of the valley of
the Alorn River and the fertile basin south of Val Alorn, Cherek is
too mountainous to be arable. There is some fishery in the Gulf of
Cherek, and fairly extensive mineral deposits in the mountains
iron, copper, gold, silver, tin, certain gem-stones. The capital city at
Val Alorn is a town of some 40,000, walled, stone-constructed, with
narrow streets and high-pitched roofs.
THE PEOPLE
The Chereks are, of course, the elemental, archetypal Alorns. They
are a noisy, boisterous, hard-drinking, rowdy race with little
reverence for proprieties and little patience for subtlety. They are master
ship-builders and superb seamen, but unfortunately have always
had little taste for honest commerce, preferring piracy on the high
seas to legitimate trade. It has been observed that frequently even
the most stable merchant among the Chereks will fall back upon this
predilection when the opportunity presents itself, and Tolnedran
vessels are therefore always wary when meeting’a Cherek vessel at
sea.
Perhaps because their stock is more undiluted than that of their
cousins in Drasnia and Algaria, the Chereks are a taller, somewhat
blonder people. Their social structure is clannish, but the clans all
pay homage to the Throne at Val Alorn. Such feuds and disputes as
periodically erupt are either settled by the King or decided in
ritualized single combat.
THE HISTORY OF THE CHEREKS
It is evident that the Alorns have occupied the Cherek peninsula for
at least four millennia. The great Temple of Belar, the Bear-God of
the Alorns, at Val Alorn has been reliably dated to the eleventh
century and is a truly remarkable example of prehistoric
architecture. It appears that the Alorns were a fairly extensive tribe of
northern nomads who settled in Cherek sometime early in the first
millennium, and, although artifacts of the primitive Alorn culture
have been found in northern Drasnia and in the mountains of Car og
Nadrak, it is quite evident that the Cherek peninsula is their
ancestral home.
Runes dating back into antiquity have indeed identified the
country as Aloria, but this name appears to have been changed to Cherek
in honor of Cherek Bear-shoulders, a great king who reigned over
the Alorns at the end of the second millennium. Apparently a man of
enormous power, King Cherek held sway over a vast northern
empire extending from the Vale of Aldur to the polar ice and from
the west coast to the far eastern reaches of what is now Car og
Nadrak, encompassing all of Algaria, Drasnia, Car og Nadrak and
northern Sendaria as well as the Cherek peninsula. In 4002/ apparently in accord
The exact cause is unclear, but during the later years of his reign
the empire of King Cherek was broken up into four separate
Kingdoms, and the Alorns withdrew from the east to the borders of
Drasnia.
The first contacts between Cherek and the Tolnedran Empire came
during the 25th and 26th centuries when Cherek pirates began
systematically destroying all Tolnedran vessels which strayed into
the Sea of Winds, and Cherek Berserks made landings all up and
down the west coast, sacking and burning cities in Sendaria, Arendia,
Tolnedra and Nyissa. The City of Tol Vordue at the mouth of the
River Arend was burned to the ground eight times during those two
centuries.
By the beginning of the fourth milennium, Tolnedran emissaries
had concluded a series of treaties and trade agreements with the
Chereks, and relations began to assume some semblance of normalcy
In 3097 the Accords of Val Alorn opened the sea lanes to the city of
Riva with certain provisos. (See the history of the Isle of the
Winds.)
Following the eventual opening of the Rivan commercial enclave, the
city of Val Alorn began a modest trade with the Isle of the Winds and
with Drasnia to the east. The bulk of Cherek commerce, however,
derives from the sea transport of goods from the Drasnian port of
Kotu through the Gulf of Cherek and the Cherek Bore in the Straits of
Sendaria around the hook of Arendia to the southern ports. Despite
the splendid system of highways constructed by Emperor Ran Horb II
stemmed
(see the History of Tolnedra), Cherek vessels, modeled on the long
narrow Cherek warships, move much more rapidly than the caravans
of other merchants traveling the thousand leagues from Boktor at the
western terminus of the North Caravan Route to the Sendarian port of
Camaar. Thus Cherek merchants can easily put their goods on the
docks at Tol Vordue or Tol Horb or even on the wharves of Tol Honeth
months before similar goods can arrive via the overland route. The
Chereks are also able to avoid the innumerable tolls, taxes, duties,
port fees, bribes, gratuities and gifts which are the lifeblood of
commerce, and this more than makes up for the occasional vessel lost
to weather, uncharted reefs, or bad luck in those occasional