Duchy of Charagma

The Duchy of Charagma is a sizable ducal state and member of the Helvandrian League, located in the north-central Taefemach. It stretches from the River Helvander in the south to the foothills of the Adhemars in the north, where its border runs up against the northeastern arm of Kuzul-Kadrin.

The largest city in Charagma is Banadyr, traditional seat of the ducal court and household. The ducal clan’s ancestral stronghold, the palatial castle of Dun Charag, stands on a high prominence just west of Banadyr proper. Charagma’s domain formerly included the great trading city of Torrune (and the Helvander cataracts it controls) on its southern edge, but the merchants of Torrune attained their independence in 1089 CV following the War of the Four Palatines, which had proved financially disastrous for Charagma despite it being on the winning side.

Like many of the principalities making up the Helvandrian League, Charagma originated in the chaotic aftermath of the Old Empire’s collapse in the mid-800s CV. The first ruler to take the title Duke of Charagma (which then referred to a much smaller part what is today the duchy’s northeastern region) was XXXXXXX of XXXXX, a former captain of cavalry in the Asgali imperial army. He was unremarkable at first; just one of the many former Asgali local officials who became, by choice or necessity, petty warlords or mercenary chieftains in the anarchy after the empire’s fall. However, he was one of the relative few to succeed in greatly enlarging his territory, and he emerged from the chaos as one of the new class of feudal magnates that would rule the fractured Taefemach in the absence of any central authority.

The high point of Charagma’s strength came in the first century after the League’s founding, when its control over the Helvander cataracts and the restored city of Torrune made it one of perhaps the three most powerful League members (along with XXXXX and Yenris). This period of great prominence culminated with Duke XXXXXX playing a lead role in Rhanamul's faction during the crisis of palatine succession in 1082, which resulted in the War of the Four Palatines (1083- 1087 CV).

The Rhanamul faction, with Charagma's support, ultimately prevailed in this conflict, but the duchy was practically bankrupted in the process. To make matters worse, the charismatic and strong-willed Duke XXXXXX died unexpectedly at the war’s conclusion (allegedly due to an act of prodigious over-eating at a drunken victory banquet; he is said to have consumed over a hundred apricots on a bet, and expired in agony early the next morning). It was his weak and easily manipulated successor, XXXXXX, who was persuaded to sell Torrune its independence two years later. This rescued the duchy from its desperate financial situation but led to a long-term decline in Charagma’s fortunes, since it was now bereft of any tax revenue raised off the flow of river trade around the cataracts.

Today, the duchy is less prosperous than it once was, and certainly less influential in the affairs of the League. Nevertheless it is not a poor state. Even without the great wealth of Torrune, Charagma controls productive lands and some lucrative trade routes. Its southern reaches, lying on the fertile black bottomland of the Helvanderûn, enjoy rich harvests of grain, olives, grapes, and other fruit; oil and wine are produced in abundance. The more northern parts of the duchy also produce wines of good reputation, as well as honey, wool, certain medicinal herbs, and cedar-wood. Distillation is a regional specialty and strong spirits of various sorts are produced in several towns. Banadyr's position as a major link on the overland trade route running from Dardurgan to Torrune, and its many workshops producing quality armor and metalwares, contribute considerably to the ducal coffers.

The internal political arrangement of Charagma is similar to that of most other major League states that originated as post-Asgali feudal domains. Whereas the dukes of old commanded the loyalty of a network of lesser nobles (and their knightly retinues) as enfeoffed tenants, granted estates of their own in exchange for military service, these subordinate noblemen have now mostly settled into the roles of sedentary landlords with administrative prerogatives in their own holdings. The direct service they once owed to the ducal house is now mostly replaced with annual remittances based on the size of their estates, the so-called “sword money”. Of the knightly households beneath them, some have slowly abandoned their old warrior ethos and likewise transformed into a local manorial gentry. Others have evolved into a semi-professional military class employed directly by the duke as the core of his personal army; their loyalty is now secured by regular pay from the ducal treasury, rather than by extension of the feudal obligations of their direct liege-lord.