Shashull

## **The story of Shashull.**

Around 4800 BCE a small group of
people build rudimentary boats and migrated to a small island later to be known as Shashull containing only some trees and a small number of animals.

However, despite the unfortunate
start they survived by farming the land and domesticating what animals they
could.

Being stuck on an island with very
few natural resources besides trees and fish it wasn’t surprising that the
people of Shashull became a trader nation, building some of the largest wooden trading boats of their era (2000 BCE). Using this they managed to create their own nation slowly catching up with the, rest of the steam world on a technical level.

And that is where they are today
providing trading services to other nations
in exchange of resources.

## **Timeline:**

* 4800 BCE: the first people migrate to Shashull.
* 3000 BCE: the people of Shashull build their first proper ships and start communicating with other nations.

* 2500 BCE: the people of Shashull start facilitating trading between nations on a small scale and the first Council Of the Sea (COS) is elected.

* 2000 BCE: the first female captain.
* 2000 BCE: the invention of the wooden dreadnought.
* 1500 BCE: the first female COS member.
* 200 BCE: coal engines are now standard on the boats of the Shashull nation, and the dreadnought is getting produced in a higher number now that they aren’t limited by sails.

* 100 BCE: a large part of the Shashull fleet out on a large-scale trading operation sinks in a storm.

## **Government and society:**

The people of Shashull is ruled by
the Council Of the Sea, placed on their home island Shashull. The COS is an
elected body of elders, and there is one rule to become a candidate:

You must be a former successful captain.

This is the backbone of the Shashull people; captains they are the highest-ranking
people in this nation as such, it is a hereditary position passed down
the oldest child. Everyone else is crew.

The
COS have a grand meeting every year where all current successful captains are
expected to meet up if they fail this more than three times. The captain and his or her family is traitors for four generations, and can only get back into
the society after those four generations if the captain devotes his or her live to the nation (more on this in another section).

The grand meeting is for discussing
the future of the nation it’s also
marriage (more on this in the marriage
section). The meeting takes place during 2 weeks. Most important of all the
meeting will also reveal what the COS has declared “worthy of the sea” as well
as proposes from current captains on future development. New captains will also be declared during the meeting, and available crew will be recruited.

During the meeting crew, can also
propose that they get promoted to captains this will however only happen when
he or she is sponsored by their current captain.

The rest of the year the COS will
discuss the suggestions from current captains placed at the grand meeting. The COS
will determine whether it’s “worthy of the sea” or not. The COS is also responsible for allocating crew and resources to build new ships as well as testing current aspiring captains.

### **The current council:**

* Virgie of Free-blood.
* Jon of Blood-sails.
* Vanessa of Sea-dragon.
* Hector of Robe.

## **Becoming a captain.**

Even though the title of captain is technically a hereditary title, the oldest child (at least 20 years of age) will still be tested at least half a year from the death of his or her captain parent. If a grand meeting takes place before the testing is done, the child must wait until the next meeting. The child will go through a lot of
trails in commanding the crew, navigation, combat and bargaining. If the child fails, he or she will be deemed unworthy of the sea, and the next in line will become aspirant, if no other children are available
and the former captain hasn’t sponsored any crew, the ship will be deconstructed, and the family line will end.

If during a grand meeting a crew member with the sponsorship of his or her captain proposes to be promoted to captain he or she will decide a family name and a ship will build to him or
her.

A captain is essentially the leader of a fleet of ships normally
around 4-5 he or she decides the course and how to respond to situations, crew
may question the captain’s decisions at any time while on deck without having
to fear any punishment. being a captain is essentially about managing the crew
and telling them what to do but not how to do it.

## social structurer:

the Shashull people is divided into four groups (in order of rank):

1. Families.
2. Familie crew.
3. sponsored crew.
4. crew.

### **Families:**

a family is essentially the owners of a ship with the captain being the head of the family a family is also granted a house on the home island where former captains injured and old family members can live.

A family is expected to put out
their children as the family crew at the age of 15 the child will hold this title until he or her marriages with a captain or the current captain retires and the child are
the next person in line.

### **Crew:**

The
crew is essentially a family who
do not own a ship this will happen most often when both parents die without any
of them being captains the child is then seen as crew and therefore without a
family and his or her children will also be destined to become crew unless sponsored by the captain who hires
them. A person will also become crew if
he or she fail the captain's test unless
the person is married to a person who has passed the captain's test (see marriage rules).

As opposed to families, crew don’t
get a nice room in a family house when they get
too old or sick to sail instead they live in a large shed with no
individual rooms at the outskirt of the town.

### **Sponsorship:**

A captain can at any point sponsor a crew member thereby making him or her electable in the captain’s family line. A sponsored crew member essentially
become the youngest member of the captain’s family and thereby get certain benefits such as the right to propose a promotion to the COS and as part of the
captain’s family he or she is guaranteed a room in their family room, however, unless the sponsored crew become either married to a family member or promoted to captain his or her children will be crew.

## **Marriage:**

Rules:

* A family member may not be marriage crew unless said crew is sponsored by a captain.
* A family member may marriage a person from another nation if the person is deemed worthy of the sea.
* A person under the age of 19 may not be marriage.
* If one among the couple become captain, the other must give up his or her claim to captain in his or her original family.
* If both persons become next in line at the same time couple will take the test at the same time, and the best among them will become captain, if both are deemed unworthy, they will both become crew along with any children.
* Children born outside of marriage has no claim to captain and is as such seen as crew unless acknowledged by a parent who became captain after the child’s birth.
* If a married person is adulterous, the marriage will be cancelled and the adulterer will be degraded to crew and the spouse will return to his or her original family and will also regain his or her claim as captain either at their former spot or if they have been passed after the current captain. Any children will stay with the innocent person and will become part of his or her original family.

* Crew may not marriage but may have children.

when a person want to marriage he
or she will go to the COS during the grand meeting and announce that he or she
wants to be married. Of the proposed partner is already a family member or a
sponsored crew the marriage is guaranteed and will take place that same night.
If, however the proposed partner come from another nation he or she must talk
to the COS in private where he or she will be asked various questions to
determine if he or she is worthy of the sea. The questions asked is only known
by the COS and they change them every time. If the person is deemed worthy of
the sea the announcement and ceremony will take place the day after. If however
the person is deemed unworthy he or she will be shipped back to her home country.

## **Geography:**

The Shashull island has only one
city placed on the shore this city
contain a house for each family as well as the crew shed. In the middle of the city, the COS building is placed this is essentially
their city hall. The City also have a couple
of dry docks as well as several storage houses.

## **Technology:**

Since all new technology must be
accepted by the COS, the integration is
slow however, they do have some of the most advanced sailing technology with extremely powerful steam engines and fast
turning circles despite the size of the ships. As well as some heavy firepower.

However, when It comes to farming,
general living standards and especially flying which the COS see as pure evil
the people of Shashull is woefully behind.

## **Religion:**

While the people of Shashull isn’t
big on religion, they do have a huge respect for the sea. Captains are said
to go to the eternal sea when dead and
their body are shipped in small boats along with a length of rope and a
spyglass.

This obsession with the sea is also
why the COS will declare things and people worthy or unworthy of the sea.