All wear wooden shoes in muddy fields.
MERCANTILE CLASSES AND TRADESMEN
Wear clothing associated with their trade or long gowns and bag hats.
Their women wear fine gowns, if they can. Young men tend to be a bit
foppish – doublets, hose, fancy shoes and the long visored cap.
MEMBERS OF THE NOBILITY
Wear gowns trimmed with fur’ hose, surcoats, woolen or linen
shirts. On very formal occasions the chain-mail suit with surcoat,
helmet and sword.
YOUNG MEN
Are quite foppish, hose, doublets, soft shoes or boots, small-swords
less than the broadsword but more than a rapier) similar to sons of
tradesmen or merchants but richer, and the sword distinguishes them.
WOMEN
Wear the gown and the wimple. The high pointed hat. A great deal of
bosom is displayed. A great deal of fancy cloth used. Hair is generally
worn long in Sendaria. Variously coiffed. Women’s garb is more likely
to reflect the national heritage of the family than that of the men.
Except for the nobility, it is not standard practice in Sendaria to go
about armed. Not illegal, but not customary.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Status goes thus: Nobility’ Mercantile, tradesmen, farmers, laborers.
It is considered bad manners to snub those of lower rank. Sendars
are very polite to each other. The bulk of the land consists of
freeholdings – privately owned farms. The large farmers (equivalent to
an 18th century squire) have certain legal duties as well (as
magistrates). They are called free-holders, a term of respect.
Sendaria is divided into Districts. Some are almost exclusively
occupied by members of one racial grouping; others more
homogeneous. Many towns and villages. Districts administered by an
Earl (chief magistrate). Districts divided into Ridings. Ridings into
Townships. These divisions are usually each associated with a town
or village. Townsmen and villagers tend to look down on farmers.
Sendarian farmsteads are usually constructed in the central
European defensive style (all walls facing out around a courtyard).
Crofts are small, rented farms. Villagers often farm the nearby fields.
Churches are used in common by all religions – careful scheduling.
RANK
THE KING AND QUEEN
At the court in Sendar. By custom, they rule jointly.
THE EARLS
Chief administrators of Districts.
THE COUNTS
Chief administrators of Ridings.
BARONS
Chief administrators of a Township (sometimes) – not all Townships
have Barons.
ASSORTED
Lords, Marquis, Viscounts, Baronets, Margraves, Knights, Dukes,
etc. These are titles bestowed by the King for service or to honor
excellent men. Some are hereditary, some are not. No one is quite
sure which ranks higher, and Sendars are too polite to push it. These
titles are usually bestowed on court functionaries. The work loaded
on them far outweighs the honor of the title.
MODES OF ADDRESS
To the King and Queen – Your Highness, Your Majesty, Your Royal
Highness.
To all other nobles -‘My Lord’ or your Grace’.’My Lord’used am
nobles, ‘your Grace’ by commoners. The Unlettered
say “your Honor’ not knowing what else to say.
To Burgers, Merchants or Free-holders – Title ‘Merchant John’, ‘
holder Fred’ or simply ‘your honor’.
All other -‘Coodman’.
MANNERS
Sendars are extremely polite. (They are, after all, elemental
Englishmen.) They have a great deal of interest in local affairs but are
extremely provincial. They are hospitable. They treat their
employees well. Wages and prices are set on all goods and services in the
kingdom. They are watchful of strangers but are friendly.
The nobility is not haughty and, like the King, look upon their
rank as a responsibility rather than a privilege. More father figures
than masters.
They are hard-working and thrifty. The ‘Free-holding’ is a large
(usually 100 acres or more) farm, neatly kept, and the farm buildings
around the central court are extensive – a rabbit-warren of single
rooms. Huge kitchens and a vast dining hall. Many workers on such
a farm. Since room and board is part of the pay, not too much cash is
involved in hiring a worker. There is an effort to have all useful arts
represented on the free-holding – blacksmith, cobbler, cooper,
wheelwright, carpenter etc. Married couples usually rent a croft and
save up to buy their own free-holding.
Marketing is well-organized. Customary practice is for buyers to
visit the town and village market places and some of the larger
freeholdings. They bring their own wagons or rent those of independent
wagoneers – a rowdy bunch. Hauled quickly to a major market,
resold for delivery to places all up and down the west coast. Tend not
to deal in extremely perishable goods – root crops, beans and
moistland grains – because of transit-time.
HOLIDAYS
Erastide – A really big thing in Sendaria. – a two week orgy of
gifts, feasts, dancing, jollity and sentimental good fellowship.
Midwinter.
Sendaria Day – The date of the coronation of the first King. A big
midsummer ay. 0 ju
Blessing Day – A spring ritual. The blessing of the fields. Priests of
most of the Gods go about with a big procession/following and
bless the fields prior to planting.
Harvest Day – Celebration in the fall at the conclusion of the harvest
(Thanksgiving).
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
Priests of most religions in most communities (no Grolims).
Observances are civilized and engender good-feeling. Friends will wait for
each other to finish in the church before usual Sabbath frolics. (In
actuality three Gods in Sendaria – Belar, Chaldan and Nedra. Very
few Angaraks, no Marags – of course – and no Nyissans.)
POPULATION
Population about 3-4 million.
ARENdia
GEOGRAPHY
Arendia is the heavily forested area lying between Sendaria to the
north and Tolnedra to the south and stretching from the mountains,
where it borders Ulgoland, to the Great Western sea. Vast fertile
plains extend for hundreds of leagues in the southern and western
reaches of the kingdom, and those plains are largely given over to
the production of wheat. The mineral deposits in the eastern
highlands have been largely undeveloped, but there is a thriving cottage
industry in weaving and the inevitable black-smithery. There are
or rather were – three major cities in Arendia, Vo hfimbre, Vo Astur,
and Vo Wacune. The latter two cities are uninhabited ruins now as a
result of the savagery of the Civil Wars. Vo Mimbre is a grim fortress
still bearing the scars of the vast battle fought there against the
Angaraks of Kal-Torak. Of all the kingdoms of the west Arendia is
certainly the most blessed by nature. Her dark and bloody history’
however, proves that tragedy is possible even in the brightest of
settings.
THE PEOPLE
* Mandorallen and Lelldorin grew out of this segment.
The Arends are the most stiff-necked people of the twelve
kingdoms, intensely proud and with a vast sense of honor. While the
common people appear to have normal sense, the nobility (as one
Tolnedran ambassador was wont to say) have minds unviolated by
thought. The culture is the most fundamentally feudal and
conservative in the west. The Arends are shorter and darker than the rangy
blond Alorns to the north and show certain racial similarities to
Tolnedrans and Nyissans. They are a humorless people with strong
tendencies toward melancholy. Their songs are lugubrious accounts
of lost battles and hopeless last stands against overwhelming odds
‘complete with lengthy casualty lists which include the genealogy of
,,,each of the slain. If the songs are to be believed, Arendish maidens
‘are rampantly suicidal, casting themselves off towers or into rivers
or plunging
a variety of sharp instruments into themselves on the
slightest pretext. Arendish men are savage warriors, but the Knights
consider the most elemental tactics or strategy beneath their dignity.
They are masters of the frontal attack and the last stand. The charge
Of the Mimbrate Knights at the Battle of Vo Mimbre was truly
aweinspiring, although its purpose was largely diversionary.
Cautionary note
: Arends are extremely proud and sensitive. The
tiniest slight, real or imaginary’ will evoke anything from a blow to
the side of the head up to and including a formal challenge to single
combat – always fought to the death in Arendia. Only the most
skilled diplomats should ever have dealings with these people.
THE HISTORY OF ARENDIA
Like the other peoples of the western kingdoms, the Arends migrated
out of the east during the early centuries of the first millennium.
By the year 2000, the three major cities, Vo Mimbre, Vo Wacune and
Vo Astur existed in their present locations, and were the seats of
three more or less rival Duchies. The Mimbrate house controlled
the southern reaches, the Asturians the west, the Wacites the north.
(The Wacite holdings were located primarily in what is now
Sendaria.)
The institution of Knighthood among the Arends has always been
a hindrance to the development of the kingdom. By the 23rd century’
Arendia was dotted with castles, keeps, forts and strongholds. The
entire energy of the nation has been devoted to war and the
preparation for war, and Arendish Knights live in an almost perpetual state
of armed conflict. The struggles between the contending Duchies is