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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 767960" data-attributes="member: 6533">I agree on Cressia with Ta'jinn and Stempan units and communities as the protagonist in the next example.  Let's say that the whole area, with the exception of Auselen views itself as a single cultural unit centered around Cressia, something analogous to the Greek sphere in the Eastern Mediterranean or the Sumerian States and City States.  The Khanate is still out there, but considers Cressia a solid ally and allows the Cressians to pretty much run things in that area of the world though they keep in contact and still do a lot to maintain their Tamarch.Lower Cressia consists of Cressia proper, the Jongan isles, and some other territories that the Cressians have been able to expand their true culture into over time.Upper Cressia consists of the territories of the Cressian Stempan allies and the Concord.  This area maintains a distinctly Stempan feel, but the Oracles have been brought into the Cressian hierarchy with very little problems.  They maintain a strong sense of their own borders but also feel free fully participatory in the culture and soveriegnty of Cressia as a whole.  There are a lot of ancient analogies for this sort of relationship, but I like to think of them as a more culturally divergent and independent version of Quebec.  The Concord now dominates the majority of Stempa. The many independent cities very much realize that if they want to get business done they must go through the concord and eventually Cressia.  Actually, a better example would be pre-Bruce Scotland only without all the bitter sort of William Wallace types around.Lesser Cressia, or the Empty Quarter, consists of the empty quarter and a signficant portion of what had been the sparesly populated near border of the Khanate.  Now populated by the resident Tamarch and a bizarre melange of the three other cultures.  The inhabitants refer to themselves as the new people and to the communities as the colonies.  They have strong ties to both the Khanate and Cressia, but feel that in most things the Cressians and the Hierarchy are perfectly able to act with the Khan's authority.   The local Tamarch has actually become a more or less permanent fixture and well the practice of transferring units into and out of the Tamarch is not unknown and certain portions of the command structure are still very Ta'jinn in nature the majority of the officers and the rank and file are chosen by the locals and the Cressians and then approved by the Khanate.  All requests for transfers out and in must be similarly approved.   As a result of the permanent presence of the Tamarch the local culture has become very militant.  Those who serve in the Tamarch are granted special privileges and have greater wealth resulting in a true aristocracy of military merit.   The Tamarch itself has absorbed fighting elements and tactics from all three cultures and then adjusted them to the unusual land of the region creating one of the most innovative and various permanent fighting units in the world.Portions of the Tamarch are always in action in both Cressia and the Khanate.The Games, hailed and seen as a great meeting of the cultures, occur in the empty quarter outside of the memorial city of (someone come up with a name here, some combination of the names of the ravaged Stempan and Cressian cities).  The memorial stands as a monument to the war, the subsequent treaties, and the expulsion of the Auselen from the Empty quarter.  The hierarch, chief oracle, and Khan meet here from time to time and all maintain a premanent diplomatic force and beauracracy headed by a council of a bishop, seer, and uncle authorized to interpret treaties, call meetings, act as the political lords of the Tamarch, and organize the games.</blockquote>

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