Nevicia

# Overview

Nevicia today is a city in triumph. Two empires are in her immediate debt, for it was her armies and strategies that stopped and destroyed the pillaging armies of the barbarian Corvyar. And the triumph showed her citizens that, despite their many quarrels, they can pull together when needed. Small wonder that Nevicia is a city of celebration and outward fellow-feeling, though beneath the surface old rivalries run deep. The elected Tokk, Clarinna, is a mature and competent ruler.

Visitors to the city must marvel at the way it is built - some old wooden houses perched on the mire show how precarious the land is, but yet the Nevicians have managed to build a vast stone palace and many large stone temples to their Thebian gods. There are also many substantial wooden houses, colourfully painted and set on the same oaken piles that hold up the buildings of stone.

Her trade is the greatest in the Nebarian Sea, her merchants travel up every river in the continent to the north, and some even go further afield. Her merchants trade in everything possible, from the salt and fish scooped from the lagoon to silk from Anhia and cinnamon from Krilan. Despite the limitations of space and the need to create buildable land from the marsh, she was one of the first sites where a travel circle was built.

Two races dwell here in approximately equal numbers - the Herri, a feathered people who have been there since time immemorial, and the humans, descendants of refugees fleeing the waves of invasions that broke the Nemorian empire four hundred years ago. The city has never been taken, firstly because it wasn’t worth taking a handful of people in a desolate marsh in the middle of a lagoon, and then, as the city-republic grew in prosperity, because the lagoon was supremely defensible.

# Government

Nevicia is a republic, and has been since the islanders decided that some form of government was advisable. The elected leader is called the Tokk, the current one being a Herri called Clarinna. Though there have always been checks and elected officials to balance the Tokk, somehow the office keeps sliding towards becoming hereditary, and this has almost always been a disaster. Tokk Clarinna was elected, and has proved to be a highly effective ruler. The last elected Tokk was also capable, but between his rule and Clarinna’s, his daughter held power, and she was so ill-suited that she abdicated with relief.

The only position elected for life is that of the Tokk. The Upper Advisors serve for ten years each and are a small group of ten officials who dedicate themselves to government. They are elected from among the Hundred, who are elected by the population every three years. The Hundred can continue as traders and have other careers, but they must reside in the city and attend the Hundred Sessions at least twice every week. The Hundred are local officials responsible for justice and for making policy recommendations to the Upper Advisors, who will then advise the Tokk, who makes the final decision. Eight Upper Advisors can overrule the Tokk, and this has been known to happen.

The Tokk directly rules the central islands, and has close oversight over the outlying ones, though their daily administration is done by local officials. The temples have independence from any form of state responsibility, their priests specifically instructed to consider their faith before their Tokk. Perhaps because of this, they are very loyal to Nevicia.

The city of Nevicia owns the portal, and given that many of the citizens are very wealthy it is possibly the most used portal in the network, and gathers a good income for the treasury.

# Religion

Nevicians follow the congregation of Thebian gods. The patron and guardian god of their city is Kame, a powerful early god, one of the first followers of Thebe - every Nevician follows him, though they may also pray at other shrines (the Thebian faith positively encourages this). Other important gods are Roche (another old and powerful god, of stability), Ephaem (god of sailors), Giova (god of the wind), and Zacca (god of harmony). There are shrines and small temples to a vast number of gods, though, as the merchants and traders of Nevicia have between them travelled over the whole of the Thebian congregation, and well beyond. Communal worship takes place in at least some temples every day, and everybody is expected to go to a service at least weekly or the neighbours will begin to mutter. Private prayer is deeply personal, and everyone has a god they feel closer to than others.

Seventy-five years ago now, two Nevician merchants smuggled the holiest relic of the god Kame from where it was kept in the lands now occupied by the Elementalists, and brought it home with them. This strengthened the bond the Nevicians felt with the god, and he remains their guardian god. His temple on the central islands was completed four years later.

Religious festivals are celebrated extravagantly and frequently. Though the biggest is Year’s End, not a week goes by without one of the islands at least celebrating a feast day.

# Trade

Nevicians will trade practically anything. Salt, silk, nutmeg, glass, jewellery, slaves, rugs, furs, walrus tusks, and many other things can be found in the bustling markets. Beware if you travel to the market, because the silver tongues of the Herri may part you from more coin than you expect.

Although the Nevicians are often both buyers and sellers for goods produced elsewhere, there are many crafters who specialise in the small and expensive. The coloured glass of Nevicia is widely sought after, and musical instruments and delicately painted fans are also characteristic of the city-state. Fish and salt are also very important bulk goods.

The merchants group into families, not always along bloodlines. Becoming by marriage or adoption part of one of the important merchant families will give a huge advantage to anyone trying to make a name for themselves in Nevicia.

Although it is important to have a base in Nevicia, most of the members of trading families will travel widely, seeking a good deal on exotic goods, making sure the city is fully provisioned, and gathering information. Nevicians are always well-informed about the rest of the world, even more so since the portal network began to be developed.

# Magic

Religious magics are, as in all places worshipping the Thebian congregation, very highly regarded. Elementalists who can keep the sea calm when required and rough when needed are also important, and if magic will aid in selling things or making things to sell, it will be used. Illusions and display are a big part of certain festivals and air magicians enjoy a lot of popularity. Mage artisan is a moderately common profession, and magical items are more commonly found here than anywhere else.

# People

Theoretically, Nevicia is a population of equals, all descended from the refugees and outcasts in the marshes. The system of government with its regular elections seems to support this. Of course, people are people and some stratification of society has developed. Members of the Hundred are more often drawn from old, successful merchant families who can afford to delegate some of their affairs whilst they serve in politics. Even so, it is not unknown for newcomers to gain elected office.

The people dress colourfully, particularly the Herri who may choose colours to complement their feathers. The only exception to this is the Tokk, who always wears black. Robes are common for many people, not just priests, in fabrics as good as the wearer can afford. Linen is most common, but wool is often worn and if Nevicians can afford silk for special occasions, they will wear it. Short tunics and trousers with fitted calves are worn under or instead of robes. Headgear for humans is elaborate, perhaps to compete with the feathered heads of the Herri.

It is important to appear prosperous, so hospitality can be elaborate. Meals may run to several courses, including sweets and fruit courses. Fish is obviously a big part of the diet, but meat is eaten too. Salt in the soil means that many vegetables and grains do not grow well on the islands, so they must be imported.

Slaves do exist. As in most places, there are rules as to their treatment, and Nevicia is possibly the most open to slaves earning and buying their freedom. Slaves can also be used for display – generosity towards one’s slaves is seen as a positive attribute and treating them poorly will reduce an owner’s social standing.

# History

The Herri lived in wooden houses on the muddy islands in the shifting mud. They were once almost figures of legend to the humans who lived on the edge of the lagoon. Long, long ago only the heads of the villages would trade with them. But the villages grew to towns, and the Herri occasionally came to trade. Their feathers and the markings on their faces made them different, and they were not allowed to stay within the cities, but the people who lived on the edge of the lagoon had closer relations with them.

Five hundred years ago, a horde of nomadic barbarians swept down from the north. They burned and looted the cities and murdered the occupants. Some fled to the islands of the lagoon, where the Herri looked on them with suspicion but did not stop them. When the barbarians left, the people left the lagoon and returned to their mainland homes. But a new wave of barbarians followed, and the people fled to the lagoon again. This time they brought their goods, and bartered with the Herri for the use of one of the more solid islands. These were not fighters - most of the fighters had died defending the cities. These were fishers and salt-driers. From their new island, they built salt-pans, and from the salt they made money, and with the money they bought food that wasn’t largely fish and game.

The new foods were a revelation to the Herri. They traded with the humans for grain and oil, and their population began to grow. Even when the barbarians seemed to have left, some humans stayed on their island. Over two generations, the Herri and the humans began to trust each other. The humans spread from their first island, and the Herri began to live amongst them. With their silver tongues, they made friends easily, and where Herri charisma joined with human shrewdness, they could form great trading partnerships.

Four hundred and thirty years ago, the two races came together at the island called Dagro, to agree that the communities living in the lagoon would all abide by a joint government - the Empire that had ruled the human settlements seemed to have no interest in them. They began to build ships, barges that carried goods through every river in the peninsula that the lagoon sat at the neck of.

Three hundred and fifty years ago, the ruler of the remains of the Empire began to push to recover the peninsula. He took the area around the lagoon, and the Nevicians became nominally subject to Zantian. The Nevicians, by now masters of the most powerful fleet in the eastern Nebarian, aided him by transporting his troops, for which his general Nera thanked them by building two temples on one of the more solid islands.

Nera was dismissed humiliatingly as soon as she had driven the last of the barbarian forces from the peninsula. In revenge, she invited the nomadic occupants of the steppes to the northeast to settle in the north of the peninsula. They did so, travelling with their dependants over the next seventy years. More human refugees came to the lagoon, including a High Priest of the Thebian god Kame, who built a large temple on the island of Dagro. In spite of many other temples built before and since, Kame remains the most significant god to the Nevicians.

At this point, Nevicia was the collective name for a group of disparate communities on separate islands. The Herri were by now so integrated that the human Nevicians did not see them as strange, and strife and discord was between islands rather than between races.

A hundred and eighty years ago, the Zantian emperor Olare declared that Thebe was the only god to be worshipped in his empire. The results of this were ugly everywhere - in almost every Zantian-controlled town, the militia was locally-recruited and bound to local gods. There was widespread rebellion, with the Zantian governors fleeing to Zantios, the capital of the Zantian empire. The local garrisons elected their own local rulers, and in Nevecia this was a human called Sorran. The person the garrisons chose was always likely to be human - Herri might be good fighters but their light physique and lack of endurance made most of them poor candidates for the militia.

Sorran was given the old Namorian title of Dux, which the local dialect swiftly changed to Tokk (when you are a population full of bird-people, you don’t want to call your ruler a Ducks). Nevicia is still ruled by an elected Tokk.

After a year, Olare rescinded his declaration and most of the cities that had rebelled accepted Zantian oversight again - but many of them kept their new rulers and their nominal democracy. Sorran was officially made Zantian governor, and Zantian culture was held in high regard. Even in the temples, prayers to the local gods were made in the Zantian fashion. Humans and Herri crossed the sea to Chalcen in search of an education, and people from Chalcen came to Nevicia to trade and to marry advantageously.

The western empire of Graanf took most of the peninsula and the country north of it from the Zantians, but Nevicia barely noticed.

After Sorran, the next few Tokks were not a success. Two tribunes were elected, as well as the Tokk, and their function was to stop him abusing his power. The Tokk who tried to abolish them was assassinated and was followed by Gerrai as the fifth Tokk, elected a hundred and thirty-five years ago. Her rule was strong and stable, and the islands increased in population and prosperity. She looked to the central islands, where Nara had built her two temples but which remained largely empty, and saw the possibility of a fresh main settlement, free of the inter-island strife. She founded a temple dedicated to Roche, another powerful god, and decreed a new centre of worship. Then she died. Her most unwise action had been to associate her daughter Gia with her in the rulership, and the electorate had, also unwisely, not contested it.

Gia was a poor ruler. The High Priest at Drago (the most senior priest in the lagoon and indeed the surrounding region) refused to confirm her chosen candidate for the head of the temple her mother had built, so she had him flung from the roof of his temple. This horrified many, and the Highest Priest immediately replaced him with his niece, Lucia. Lucia escaped to Graanfian territory immediately, and some of the powerful of Nevicia also left the lagoon temporarily.

Led by a man named Farinio, these people engineered a popular uprising that unseated Gia. Farinio was then acclaimed Tokk, but proved to be an even worse ruler than Gia. He immediately associated his brothers with him, but they ruled so ineptly and weakly that inter-island enmity led to one of the islands being almost entirely burned down. At this point, their domain in serious disarray, Lucia returned from Graanf with an offer from the Emperor: submit completely to Graanfian rule and be protected. The three brothers took the offer.

Zantian considered this as treachery (which it was, after all), and sent a fleet to remonstrate. Somehow the Tokks persuaded the fleet to attack a Graanfian fleet down the coast, which was too much for it, and sent it limping home. Things within Nevicia continued worsening, though, and in desperation Farinio and his brothers called in their agreement: ninety years ago, they invited the Graanfian emperor’s son to occupy the lagoon.

The people of Nevicia refused to accept this. Declaring the Tokks traitors, they made preparations to resist the invasion. They removed all navigational markers, and blockaded the channels. Though the Graanfian forces took some of the inner islands, they could not make their way past the blockade of wooden spikes the Nevicians set up between the shore and the next central ones. With all non-combatants sent to the central island group where the Temple of Roche was, the Nevicians held out for months until, as summer arrived, marsh fever sapped the last of the Graanfian strength. The forces withdrew, and the Imperial general died.

Nevicia rejoiced. Though her citizens might squabble amongst themselves, they had shown that the Republic of Nevicia could hold strong and defend itself. They elected a new Tokk, a Herri called Lyric, who had proved himself during the war as a brilliant strategist. He exiled Farinio and his brothers, and turned his mind to keeping this new spirit of cooperation going. The central islands, which had been the safe haven for the non-combatants, had the twin virtues of security and impartiality, due to peaceably holding members of all factions. Lyric started an extensive plan of fortifying and building the islands, and over the next few years, the sandbanks that protected the lagoon were strengthened, the islands were extended through land reclamation, and that characteristic of Nevician building, foundations made by driving thousands of stakes closely together, was beginning. The muddy islands being so unstable, these foundations are the only way to build in stone. Two buildings were considered important enough for this treatment initially - the Tokk’s palace and the Temple and monastery of Zacca, the local god of harmony.

By seventy-five years ago, Lyric had associated his son with him on the throne, and this had yet again proved a bad move. The son was deposed only a few years after his father’s death.

The next Tokk was a human named Tiopon, who initially did well against the pirates from the east, and managed to get Nevicia declared the Protector of the Eastern Nevarian. This had unfortunate consequences. When a splinter group from the Elementalist Empire managed to take a Nevarian island, it gave them a place from which to attack Zantian by sea. Zantian called on Nevicia to help her repulse these raiders, but the result was a rout, leaving Nevicia with no naval vessels and the Elementalists in complete command of the sea. Only Nevicia’s sandbanks and shoals kept the enemies from the Republic itself. This significantly soured Nevicia’s relationship with Zantian.

From then on, Nevicia paid the Elementalist pirates to leave her shipping alone, and despite their presence became by far the biggest trading centre in the Thebian Nevarian. The unity created by the victory over the Graanf was beginning to show cracks, though, and competition between trading families was becoming increasingly cut-throat, sometimes erupting into violence. Thirty-five years ago, this led to the murder of the Tokk. After the ensuing riots had died down (for the Tokk was generally well-respected), a new Tokk was elected.

Tokk Ourso had had nothing to do with the assassination attempt, and this was potentially his only qualification. However, he turned out to be a very capable leader and a great reformer. The institution of democracy was growing rusty again, the tribunes losing power as the Tokk gained it, and the Electoral Assemblies almost never met. Ourso replaced the tribunes with a system of elected judges and officials, whose job was to prevent the Tokk from abusing their power. He reorganised the government to give the local authorities more accountability to the central government. He also built four temples on the outlying islands, which he guaranteed would bear no obligation to the state.

The High Priest of the closest temple on the mainland started attacking Nevician merchants. Ourso’s response was to blockade every river that led to his domain, until he promised to stop it. Ourso also stipulated that his personal trades should be tax-free in the area, though other Nevicians would be expected to pay modest taxes.

Ourso did, however, fall into the usual trap of associating his daughter with him in the leadership. Once again, this was a bad idea. Oursa was an ineffectual though well-liked ruler, and rather than deposing her the electors demanded she have a co-ruler. The first co-ruler died after only a month in battle with pirates. When the second was found thirteen years ago, Oursa abdicated and retired to one of the new temples.

The next Tokk was Clarinna, who still rules today. In the first few years of her rule, she renegotiated trade treaties with the Graanf, adding the clause that Nevician merchants were subject to Nevician laws throughout the Graanfian empire. In other ways, her rule domestically has been fair, and she has not attempted to associate any of her children with her rule.

Last year, a new horde of raiders swept down from the north-west. The Corvyar pillaged and sacked cities and towns from both empires, until they reached Nevicia. Her famed riches were a great attraction, and they expected to defeat such a fat prize easily. But at the same strait that had defeated the Graanfians centuries ago, they were caught. Unable to retreat, the Nevicians obliterated them.

Although this was a great victory, Clarinna seems to worry that it might not be repeatable. Work has begun on a great bulwark, to run partly around the central islands, and a massive iron chain that can block off another part.