House Specialty: The Caernavir have always fancied themselves as paragons of the middle path. Traditionally seen as caretakers of sensibility, they have used their position as one of the breadbaskets of the kingdom and a major exporter of both grain and fruit to leverage themselves into a position where their intervention and carefully constructed diplomatic web has averted dangerously volatile situations on a kingdom-wide but also on an imperial level.

Many a crisis has had the soothing input of a member of this family. Arbiters of peace, the main motivation of the Caernavir is to avert war at all costs. The reason for this is simple; in times of war, the breadbaskets of the empire become increasingly valuable targets. After all, if one side can cut off the supply of bread from the other, then the war is essentially finished. The ransacking, looting and rape involved in this sort of behaviour is something that the inhabitants of this pastoral kingdom feel is best avoided at all costs. Some see this as cowardice, the Caernavir see it as sensibility.

House Ancestral Artifact:

The Lute of the Verdant Wanderer

This instrument has been recorded as an artefact belonging to the Caernavir since time immemorial. A simple device at first sight, on closer inspection one will notice that the lute is still warm to the touch, and the wood which it is made from feels slightly moist and is unvarnished, with small veins of moss running through its somewhat soft body. All of this adds to the impression that the instrument is a living and breathing entity.

All members of the Caernavir family are taught to play the lute expertly, as this particular instrument, coupled with a particular set of notes only known to select members of the royal household, is rumoured to be capable of reversing the effects of a devastating drought, flood or other crop-ruining happenstance and allowing fresh shoots of grain to come from otherwise malnourished ground. As somewhat banal as this might seem compared to a flaming sword or a bracelet that summons a dragon, the lute has been absolutely instrumental three times in reversing the fortunes of the kingdom in times of uncertain weather.

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Important Members:

House Name:
House Winterfield

Head of House:
Sir Damien Wilkerson IV

House Specialty:

House Winterfield is known for its navy. The country of Sakera being surrounded by water for the most part lead the house to invest a lot of money into it’s Navy. The Navy prides itself in it’s training, in officials that don’t take bribes or any form of corruption among its ranks but also it’s state of the art fleet. It’s affectionately been given the name by opposing admirals as the “Armada of Death” due to its ships but also their power.

House Ancestral Artifact:

The Sword of the Last Rebellion - A cutlass but with a solid gold handle and a red ruby at the end of the hilt. Village folklore say the sword was used by the ruling house to murder the leader of the house that came before them, cementing their place in royalty. The townsfolk argue that the sword was used by an admiral who ended a promising among the navy and brought reform and pride into the navy as people say it today. The cityfolk and scholars simply say the sword was a family heirloom from Sir Damien Wilkerson the first and passed down, as a symbol of power but also a symbol of authority over the state, the people and the armed forces. Stories differ, however all people agree this sword is a state artifact and something of “Mythical” proportions (Well, not the scholars)

Important Members:

Lady Catherine Wilkerson - The Wife of Damien
Supreme Admiral Joseph Green - Head of Navy
Noblemen Tony Mangano - Head of the Trade Guild
Supreme Commander Benjamin Fields - Head of the Armed Forces
Nobleman Green - Head of Family Green
Spymaster Friedrich Randall
Governor Robert Murlock - Knoxville
Governor Glenn Benn - Old Redden
Governor Jeff Ford - Elnora

(More to be added as story goes on)

Nation Name :

Sakera

House Motto : “Power, Loyalty, Respect”

Race Name:

Sakerians

Racial Appearance :

Sakerians are often decently tall, ranging from five foot nine to six foot six for men and five foot four to six foot three for women.Both genders tend to have larger chests due to bigger lungs. Skin complexation is mostly white but entering into a light shade of brown. The average hair color for Sakerians is black, yet some ethnic groups in mountain tribal regions have blonde and even red hair.

Racial Traits :

Sakerians are known be good swimmers, fishers and can life at the sea with ease. But Sakerians on the land are no more than capable as well. Good at farming, woodworking and various other tasks they tend to be hard working at whatever trade they do. Food wise the Sakerian diet is mostly fish, meats and vegetables.

Capital: Ereden

Capital Population: 23,445 (Inner and Outer City Limits)

Other Major Settlements:

Major Cities

New Knoxville - 10,545 People
Old Redden - 12,432 People
Gemfield - 14,121 People
Elnora - 11,543 People

Towns

Hazlehurst - 1,505 People
Clear Shores - 1,664 People
Glenvar - 2,254 People
New Eagle - 4,323 People
Salix - 5,231 People
Hartland - 6,123 People
Oak Leaf - 5,321 People
Wind Lake - 4,153 People
South Point - 5,311 People
Lloydminster - 2,734 People
Weston - 4,321 People

Population: 789,121 People

Culture:

Sakerin culture is differs from the grand cities, military forts to the humble towns and villages. In the cities, science and knowledge prevails over religion for the most part. Churches do exist in the city but religion is second hand by most people. The cities taste in food his more refined in terms of dishes and meats. Spices are often used, wines are drank. Music is also mostly “refined” in the sense proper instruments are used like piano’s and lutes.

Yet in towns the culture is more religious than the cities. Sunday Morning and Monday Night are day of prayers for town people. Food is more basic, and spices aren’t often used. Booze of choice is mostly ales and beers while music tends to be of a few chords from the lute and here and there a piano is used for town pieces

But when the topic comes of military forts and villages, the culture varies. Most of the time the location has a huge effect on what beliefs people follow. Reasons like what food can be gathered or the climate around it set the standard to how people live. In the army, religion is given and practices are set aside for soldiers who are religious. Conversions often do occur in the army, but yet religion isn’t forced on and more of a “moral choice”

Type of Government:

Monarchy
Agnatic Cognatic Primogentiure

Influence and relations: None

Military -

Sakerian’s take pride in their army. Being a army men for some is considered a decent life. Women do serve in the ranks in some disciplines however some sexism does exist, especially among the cavalry divisions.

Active

1,000 Men stationed at Military Installations across the country (Mix of archers and infantrymen)
250 Cavalry Officers
1,750 Guards Active
5 Warships Patrolling
2 Carvels Patrolling Trade Routes

Inactive
9,000 Infantrymen on reserve
1,750 Town watch
4,000 Archers
2,500 Cavalry Officers
10 Trebulats with 50 officers
20 Warships Ready with 400 seamen
10 Warships decommissioned (Hulls intact)
12 Carvels with 100 Seamen
3 Carvels decommissioned (Hulls Intact)

Landscape: Fertile regions in the nothern parts, lakes and rivers play a good role in this. Yet the mountain regions often bring colder climates. Forests are a common sight in the land. A road network is being somewhat developed.

Wildlife:(Optional)

Economy: Above Average. Due to the experince of House Winterfield in trading beforehand.

Religion: People in the area worship Kammeth and the Sky pantheon however some villages tend to have local gods and goddess that they follow.

History:

The land of Sakera and House Winterfields role in it is dated to stretch back over 100 years ago to present time.

House Winterfield was at first, a noble house. A house that had decent control over the wood industry in Sakera. Yet it didn’t have power in terms of politics. They mainly were a major player economy wise. Sakera back then was dominated by King Isaac the Feeble. A weak king as his name implies but also a king that people didn’t think deserved the throne. You see, people thought that Isaac was a bastard. A mistake that his father hid from his affair with a mistress. The mistress, as you can guess was executed on the counts of “treason” but people somewhat knew the true cause of her execution: she was a loose end that needed tying.

The weak claim to the throne presented an interesting situation for the 3 houses at the time, including Winterfield. You see, the other houses (House Reddon and House Greenbelt) were involved in various other industries. Reddon controlled the lucrative fishing market while Greenbelt had a stake in the wine market. The houses in essence controlled every coin that flowed through Sakera. But also, they had stake in other industries as well. Winterfield had a stake in the ship builders union for instance. These “stakes” were mainly because the lax economic policy set by the King. So what did this bring you ask? Monopolies.

The houses devised a plan, with their iron fisted grasp on there in industries. Simply put there were gonna ask the King to step down and a king installed, based on the house's choice. Isaac, used to his life in luxury and decadence, declined and threatened to have the house’s trading licenses revoked if they dared to ever question the king or tried to remove him from power. The House’s gruntly agreed but they began to hatch a plan behind the kings back..

The plan was merely to destabilize the region or well that was House Greenebelts plan. You see the House’s after their failed attempt to force the king were more desperate for power. Each house had there own way of going at it. Greenbelt wanted to destabilize the whole region to force the king to surrender. Reddon was more into the approach of blocking off food shipments, supplies for the army and the people into forcing a inner revolt. Winterfield on the other hand wanted to control the region without both houses in the picture. So, what better way to do that than to pit both houses together?

The way Winterfield did this was by hiring a few spies. Then what they did was dig up dirt on both houses. For example, in Greenebelt incesterous relationships were going on between various high profile family members. Reddon was more juicer in the fact that affairs and mistress’s were going on also. With the evidence of this “hot gossip” in their hands, they began to leak it out to both House’s in the form of messengers from the other house, or they thought. With things getting heated Winterfield tried to intervene, but both houses denied the intervention. Instead, they took it out on each other via a house civil war. Street’s were bloody, territory was claimed and the king had to intervene to protect the general populace. To place the cherry on top, Winterfield via their spies leaked the information out to the general public. The king, was forced to exile both houses and the leaders.

House Winterfield soon after that began to take over the economic side of Sakera. Industry by Industry monopolies were formed under the King’s nose. People didn’t mind it at all, since House Winterfield was more “kind” and offered a tad more time off for people if they needed it. The goal was to have such a strong hold on the economy to the point where House Winterfield IS the economy of Sakera. Again, this was done due to the King not knowing jack shit about ruling and policy making.

With the economy in there hands House Winterfield preceded to meet with the King. The King in his usual self simply just sat at the table and nodding, speaking only where needed. He really wasn’t a fan of the economic meetings. The leader at that time, Damien the second began to talk about the king’s “personal life”. Mainly information gathered from the robust spy network they’ve devolped over the years. The King, slowly as the conversation on became enraged at the topic of dicusssion. The tipping point? Damien called the king a bastard. The king at that point snapped and charged at Damien. On-lookers and guild leaders at that time recall a brawl. The brawl was so brutal that at the end of it? The king took a knife to the neck.

Now, with the king dead in a brawl he started Damien was imprisoned and his son, Damien the Third was in charge. Damien the third placed pressure on the royal family and threatened a coup d’etat if Damian wasn’t released. The royal family, simply ignored the requests. But also, to add more heat to the fire they revoked the trade license of the Winterfield. The Winterfields took offense to this and began to hold a revolt all across the nation of Sakera

The revolt was well funded, something that the Royal Family lacked. You see, the king only charged a tax of 250 gold pieces per industry per month. The sum of the wealth that was kept by the Winterfields was massive since, like earlier said they were the economy. The Winterfields used the working class, middle class and even portion of the high class to stage revolts all across the nation. Giving as little as 5 gold pieces to as much as 500. In response to this, Damien the second was executed.

With Damien the third at the tender of 18 taking control of the house, he ordered the spy network to take control of the navy and the army. Commanders and Admirals were disposed using blackmail and one’s installed that abided by the House. Slowly the armed forces began to be converted and fueled by the Winterfields.

The Royal family during all of this didn’t like what was happening. So, they attempted to hire mercenaries to defend their last remaining assets. Yet those mercenaries were destroyed to bits by the navy. The exact same navy that the family trained to protect them. Asset by asset the army marched on by and took over. The Royal family then asked or well begged for peace talks. The Winterfield agreed, but they weren't talking. As the location was being finalized the royal family was ambushed by a unit. The family dead, and the Winterfields claimed absolute power over the island of Sakera

Now, Damien the third has handed control to his successor, Damien the Fourth. The province of Sakera remains peaceful yet as always, needs some sort of improvement.

Strengths:

Strong Navy - The navy of Sakera is one of their strong points. Disciplined, well maintained and large in scope. The people of Sakera even go as far as saying it’s the best in the whole landmass
Robust Spy Network - Years of experience and expertise have allowed House Winterfield to build a state of the art spy network with cells all over the land.. Even some on other countries.
Great Traders - The markets of Sakera are known to be some of the best for trading wares. Fair taxation and banking laws give the Sakerian people an edge
Forfeited Army - Tough, Morale is always high and the army is ready for whatever campaign that may happen

Weaknesses:

Lack of Basic Minerals - Sure the mountain ranges have gold in them but the lack of Iron and Steel are troubling, and sources of Iron and Steel are hard to mine to the point where the nation officially imports them
Scholars vs Priests - In cities and even in towns there is a lot of hot debates and often brawls between educated men and religious men. To the point where some times some cities are divided on supporters for both side
Trouble Making Noblemen! - Some Noble Families are always on the news. One day you hear about a incest scandal to the next day hearing about a rape. These noblemen in some parts decrease trading and diplomatic relationships…
Crime - Serious crime like murder and kidnapping are often easily dealt with in a good manner. But dealing homemade booze to prostitution, even rape in some instances are often easily “forgotten about”.

Export:

Strong Wood (Various Types, like Oak, Birch, Mahogany)
Fishes
Fruits
Wines
Furs

Import:
Iron
Steel
Silk
Cotton