In the Caliphate of Azithan, known to its neighbors as the Necromancer Kingdom ...
Let's talk political geography.
And I'll preface this with: My sense of geography is absolute garbage. I've gotten lost going to the grocery store, and am pretty sure SimCity warped my view of cities. Also, I can't do fucking puzzles.
So, planning out what a society may look like and be governable is really hard for me.
My first thought was something like Russia, the US, or Canada: a large landmass with few neighbors and secure borders along most of it.
But, that's a really modern notion of a country. Instead, imagine a flowing river. Maybe like the Mississippi, flowing from the mountains to the Ocean. Or the Hudson. Or the Ankh.
The Capital sits at the mouth of the river, like New Orleans or NYC. Less like London or Ankh-Morpork. A lot like Rome. A natural port and harbor, like Sydney. Thanks to the great river, the natural end point of a supply line stretching into the mountains.
The Capital was the beginning of the Caliphate. This is the Holy City as well as the capital of the Kingdom. As the Faith spread, cities were built for The Faithful. The Caliph established the Faithful's Distribution, the flour to every faithful. He decreed this would be based not on gender or age or education, but simply on whether you came to church.
The Capital is a large metropolitan city, chaotic like all natural cities. Less so with time, as the Ancient Caliph has continued insight into how to build the city. Urban Renewal is a thing. The nearby cities are nearly as chaotic -- but each newer city shows more purpose.
The newer cities are the furthest from the capital. Each shows a different design aesthetic, as different architects are used. These cities create something in particular, be in glass or leather. The population of these is each roughly 10,000 souls.
Farm land extends for miles from the cities, and is largely the purview of the Lifeless, the priests, and what farmers are still needed -- a number reduced nearly every year! The Lifeless double as protectors, helping to secure the borders from hostiles. Also, from any faithless individuals who view the land as their own and would take it from the Faithful.
And, of course, the Missionaries are sent by land, sea, and river to bring the Faith to those who do not have it.
There are some obvious places for player characters in this mess. Political Intrigue, missionaries, fighting the extension of the Caliphate, fighting on behalf of the caliphate, the day-to-day enjoyment of living within such a Kingdom. Sailors, either along the river or along the ocean going from one civilization to another.
Does this geography make sense? Does something like the Mississippi river make sense as a kingdom? Do you know of examples of planned cities that worked?
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The geography makes sense to me; think of ancient Egypt, which was a civilisation along the banks of the Nile.
ReplyDeleteAs for planned cities in history, most Roman cities in the conquered lands were planned (with the same set of base structures, and a grid layout of streets). The all time king of planned cities is possibly Alexandria. So yes, they can thrive.
William Nichols: That seems (to me) to make sense as a starting point.
ReplyDeleteHow does the geography of the state change when it becomes an Empire, incorporating other pre-existing states into itself, first as vassals and then within its own formal borders?
My sense is that people don't (very much) make war along the length of rivers ... they war down coastlines and across easy terrain.
Paul Mitchener Egypt was one inspiration, heck yeah! I'm less familiar with the geography than, say, the american midwest, so i didn't want to claim it. But yeah, a river civilization makes sense to me, too!
ReplyDeleteI've got some designs for cities, but I think I need to throw them out as the base unit is way too big. I had thought of large roads as 50 feet across, and it turns out 5 to 10 is pretty much it before cars ruined everything.
Tony Lower-Basch
ReplyDeleteYeah! What I think is uncommon is something like westward expansion that we saw in the US. That was a weird combination of factors. Much more common is one civilization (Macedonia, maybe) that owns a water way running up against another (Egypt, maybe), and the two of them going to war. Athens and Sparta, France and England.
Heck, the Faith tries not to make war. It is bad for the Faithful. Ideally, you send in missionaries who start to convert people. Then, the new Faithful in that country start organizing. They raise their own lifeless, grow their own crops. They start separating themselves from the supply chain of their country, unintentionally becoming culty separatists.
The Caliphate sends in more people to help them establish churches and spread. As they do, the other country either celebrates diversity or -- much more likely, I think -- reacts with violence. They are then fighting a war on two fronts -- fighting the Faithful inside and the Caliphate outside.
If those territories are brought into the Caliphate, then the geography looks all weird. You get things like the Principality of Ash, the frozen reaches brought in where there was never enough surplus to build real cities and civilization. As this expansion continues, maybe it looks more like a modern country -- an England or an Australia -- expanding to the obvious limits of geography.
Or, perhaps political speed is the delimiter of how much territory can be under one rulership and there's a limit that has more to do with politics than geography.
William Nichols, the emperor Augustus had specific recommendations for road widths in new Roman cities: 40 feet for the decumanus maximus (the main east/west road through the centre), 20 feet for the cardo maximus (the main north/south road), with 12 feet or 8 feet for the other roads.
ReplyDeleteSo that could give you some guidance. In unplanned cities, you probably wouldn't get any of the big wide major roads, as you say.
In terms of the bigger geography, a fantasy kingdom modelled on the physical geography of the Mississippi is a neat idea.
Paul Mitchener Thanks! Its been super hard to find the width of roads!
ReplyDeleteOnce I moved from thinking about roads between cities (at least partially filled with the River) and started thinking about roads within cities, everything got wobbly.
The road outside our place could be a highway; its 50 feet across and 4 lanes plus a median.
I could see a Maximus Roadus (or whatever) that goes from the port of each city to the terminal point of the designed portion of the city. That is, from the docks and along an industrial/commercial zone.
that might work!
So, thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. Your big river is unlikely to be straight. The bends make things interesting. Is any bend extreme enough that overland travel is cheaper/easier? Does the caliphate control some forks but not others?
2. Putting centralized political power and centralized religious power (and centralized economic power) in the same city seems like missing an opportunity. Sure, the Faith may radiate out of that port city now, but was it always that way? Or did some backwoods religious revolutionaries trickle into the ancient seat of power with their Lifeless servants and upset the original balance of power? Did that upset produce the first caliph?
3. Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Ceremonial_Complex
Josh Roby
ReplyDelete1. Absolutely, to both! The Engineers of the Caliphate assuredly try to straighten the river, but doing that consistently is hard. Other cultures defending components the Caliphate finds difficult makes sense, too. You get cultural and economic exchanges, which is cool, tool. Also gives more position for PCs.
2. Ohhhhh. Rome versus Jerusalem versus Byzantium. That could be fun.
3. Reading!