I don't know if anyone else is interested in this topic, but I'll hazard that some folks are, since Cauldron's default setting is Greyhawk, and it's easy to get a discussion going on topics like this for Greyhawk.
Political economy = the study of the interaction of politics & economics
I think Cauldron is light on this subject, but there's tantalizing hints of deep, dark stuff underneath, that could be "interesting" background in a campaign.
History first -- The history of neighboring Sasserine mentions that, about 110 years ago, Sasserine was conquered by the Hold of Sea Princes, and recently regained independence with the collapse of the Hold (due to it being conquered by the Scarlet Brotherhood). The history of Cauldron doesn't mention this, but I think it's interesting, so I'd port it onto Cauldron too. The Hold of Sea Princes comes with a lot of "interesting" baggage -- founded by pirates, with an slave-based plantation economy. If Sasserine and Cauldron were colonies of such a place until a decade or so ago, it stands to reason that it would still resemble the Sea Princes in some ways. I think there are hints in the setting that this was intended . . . perhaps removed to make Cauldron more portable, or less controversial, as a setting.
Economics --
"Cauldron's main exports come from two sources: mines and plantations. Both industries are based in the hills surrounding the city, and are managed by the various noble families who live in the area. Obsidian and diamonds are the primary products mined in the region. Plantations usually produce sugarcane and coffee. Most of those who dwell in the city itself are either merchants, scholars, or workers in the mines and plantations in the lowlands. Water is never scarce in town, but most of the city's food must be imported from Sasserine since the local fishing and farming enterprises are meager at best."
To me, the exports have hints of Hawaii/Aztec Empire (obsidian), conflict-torn west Africa and apartheid southern Africa (diamonds), the Caribbean (sugarcane), and either the Caribbean, Hawaii, Kenya, or Indonesia (coffee, AKA "Java" after the Indonesian island).
The idea of an elite living at high altitude with clean water, above the malarial jungles of the lowlands reminds me of imperial British "hill stations" in Kenya or India.
Combined with the elaborate dancing and carriages in the Demonskar Ball, and I'm thinking antebellum US South.
The key element of all this: plantations and an spoiled elite imply strong social inequality, most likely either slavery or indentured servitude. Indenture servitude is "voluntary", isn't an inherited status, is typically temporary (e.g., 7 years) and is usually to pay off the cost of immigration to a new territory (e.g., poor Europeans moving to colonial America or Indians and Chinese moving to certain British or French colonies).
For D&D, the point is: after you've gone to the Demonskar Ball and lived it up, once you get out of the city, you see where all that wealth comes from, and it ain't pretty.
Politics:
"-15 years Cauldron's newest noble, a generous human named Vhalantru, is welcomed into the city aristocracy after he donates huge sums of money to fund the rebuilding of the Town Hall . . . In light of his generosity, no one pries into the mysterious noble's background."
In other words, being a "noble" in Cauldron doesn't mean what it means in a typical feudal setting. It's not about being made a vassal to a king or other lord, and owing him military service in exchange for land.
Nope, it's about money -- and mostly, owning plantations. In other words, it's an aristocracy like the antebellum South, not medieval England. Breeding and tradition count, but there's no final arbiter of who is noble and who is not. That's very much like the early days of the Sea Princes in the Greyhawk setting too -- being a Keoland noble helped established credibility as a noble, but so did being a successful pirate captain.
So how is the Mayor chosen? In Chapter Nine, we see how that works -- it's about a consensus of aristocrats/oligarchs. An informal arrangement, again similar to the early days of the Sea Princes.
So questions:
-- Does slavery belong in Cauldron? Or are the plantation workers indentured servants (if so, why did they give up their freedom to work here)? Or if they are free, why do they choose to sweat on someone else's plantation? Regardless of the form of labor, who are the laborers?
My answer would be most of the labor are slaves, and that (using a Greyhawk setting) they are mostly Amedi (Suel primitive tribes, as in blonde-blue eyed types from an ancient empire, now back to Stone Age culture having fled to the jungle a millennium ago) from the nearby Amedio Jungle, plus Olman (essentially Aztec tribes, from their own fallen empire) from the Amedio jungle and outlying islands. This would be similar to the Sea Prince's labor sources.
This gives a slightly different take on the kidnappings and slavery in "Life's Bizarre" -- slavery isn't unusual, it's the kidnapping that is, and the destination in the Underdark.
Your answers will, of course, vary depending on taste. (There's a reason 2nd Edition D&D mostly banned any reference to slavery. It can be a dark part of human history to explore, or something folks just aren't comfortable dealing with. Demons killing people is less heavy in a lot of ways!)
-- What's life like for the plantation workers?
Not too pleasant, I would say. Dire poverty and hard work are inherent. I'd also say one reason they don't escape more often is that the jungle is crawling with dangerous monsters, and also with Malaria, Dysentery, and other jungle infections (looking at Paizo's "Heart of the Jungle" supplement right now, and I highly recommend it if you get interested in this stuff).
Of course, up in Cauldron, the climate is too cool for the malarial mosquitoes, and the lake water is magically cleaned. Kinda makes the Stormblades that much more intolerable, eh?
And Fharlanghn is a deep opponent of slavery (because it interferes with the freedom to roam the open road), so it's adds a dimension there too.
-- Who are the ruling class in Cauldron?
I would say they are, of course, the rich owners of plantations. Some came from Keoland (like the original Sea Prince) and would mostly be Suel themselves -- which means the slavery here is more about class/nationality (like Roman slavery) than race (like the Antebellum South). I think that's somewhat less distasteful. Other rulers from other places -- Cauldron clearly isn't picky about its aristocrats, as long as they are rich.
By appearance, the Taskerhills are Touv (black, from the island continent of Hepmonaland on the other side of Azure Sea), while Premiarch Vandervoren, Lathenmires, and Aslaxins are likely Suel (northern European types, likely from Keoland or the Hold of the Sea Princes). Todd Vanderboren and his mother look more Oeridian (Mediterranean European) -- perhaps from the southern parts of the Great Kingdom.
-- Where's the money come from in Cauldron? Just obsidian, diamonds, sugarcane, and coffee, or is there more here?
Where there's sugarcane, there's historically usually been unfree labor, and also RUM. Perhaps the rum distilleries are elsewhere, but with Cauldron isolated inland, I'd say the distilleries are here (rum is a lot lighter to move than bundles of sugarcane!).
Other plantation crops to consider include opium, "halfling pipeweed", or even coca leaves in the highlands (again, not to everyone's taste) and tropical fruits. To me, the tropical fruit part takes some of the edge off of what's otherwise becoming quite a dark background.
If Cauldron is the word's secret source of pineapple, bananas, durian, mangoes, or other tasty tropical fruits, that gives the setting some serious "flavor" and creates handy exports to make Cauldron rich.
Other plantation crops to consider include rice (grow in plantations near Charleston, South Carolina in colonial times, to feed workers around the British Empire), indigo (the dye in blue jeans), cacao (for making chocolate, grown in west Africa and Indonesia), and tea (like coffee, typically a highland crop, grown in east Africa, of course India, and Indonesia).
-- OK, lots on tropical agriculture -- so what do people eat in Cauldron?
Again, up to you whether you even care. I'd be inclined to go with some eclectic mix of real world tropical cuisines -- rice and beans, peanuts, and sweet potatoes as basic staples for plantation workers. Delicacies include pork and fried bananas/plantains. Other dishes might be more Southeast Asian, like satay (meat on a stick, beloved D&D food thanks to the Conan movie) with peanut sauce. Lots of spicy peppers with all this too, naturally.
Rich folks, however, might eat more bland, temperate climate foods (e.g., "European" imported foods). Imported cheese might be a delicacy, for instance. Ice cream -- which requires magical access to ice -- would be a superb delicacy.
The point is for the cuisine, like the rest of the culture, to be real-world related, yet oddly alien, and totally different from anything in a medieval European campaign.
Anyhow, that's enough of that -- let me know if you have thoughts on this.
This was a really great read.
I salute you for your attention to this material! When I first started looking at the campaign (I'm running it now), I thought about developing all of this material, but since my main reason for running this campaign in the first place ws that I'm a busy guy who wanted most of the world-building done for me, I decided not to worry about it. And it's a rare player, I find, who worries about these things much either. If ever my players end up with a reason to explore the outlying villages of Hollowsky and Kingfisher Hollow, though, I might try using some of your ideas.
I want to add, though, that I've always thought that economics could potentially provide interesting new adventure hooks and morally compliacte the players' world. To point out just one thing, in the real world there are economic repercussions when a vast amount of wealth is suddenly pumped into an economic system. For instance, when the Macedonians who had conquered the East with Alexander the Great returned to Macedonia with loads of treasure, it led to a real economic crisis in Macedonia; prices shot up (since the newly returned wealthy soldiers could afford to pay a lot more for everything) and a lot of people were suddenly unable to afford necessities. Massive new wealth is very destabilizing. But in RPGs, players add massive amounts of new wealth earned on their adventures into the local economy, and nothing at all happens! Not realistic at all. But it takes a certain kind of DM to do something about it! (Not sure I'm that kind of DM, too!)
Nod, good point Cleanthes.
I'm not an economist (political science and history were my fields in school), but I'm thinking if you wanted to model inflation, you could keep the model simple (it's fantasy, after all!). In general, I'd say once you hit 1% of the area's total assets being recovered by adventurers - that would be 562,500 gp in Cauldron -- it should pinch. First, I'd double the costs for stuff adventurers buy -- food, armor, magic, etc. Then, if it reached 2% of assets, I'd start having general inflation -- probably just half of whatever adventurers are bringing in, but still causing disruption for locals, who expect no inflation to be the norm (with a literally hard means of exchange!) -- and probably double adventurer costs again (not that they'd care at that point). In general, these rules would mean inflation isn't much of a problem, unless you are adventuring in an isolated economy with huge treasure piles -- in which case, yeah, inflation being an issue makes total sense.
Note that Gygax talked about gold rush economics in the original PHB, and supposedly that was built into some of the pricing.
I'm thinking it'll be interesting to think some more about the noble families/big shots of Cauldron -- how does each of them fit into the society I sketched out?
Alek Tercival -- 'Heir to one of the region's noble families, Alek Tercival became a paladin after his father's death left him destitute."
-- My interpretation: Alek's father owned a major plantation, but his will freed his slaves and gave them the land they tilled -- leaving Alek destitute. A lesser man would have tried to overturn the will, but Alek chose the path of lawful good and accepted this righteous last act.
Maavu Arlintal -- Owns several warehouses. Deals in importing food, entertainment, alchemical and medical supplies, books, and magic items. Has a low-tax deal with the city for storing food supplies for the Grocer's Guild.
-- My interpretation: Primarily a wholesale dealer in food from Redgorge, the plantations, and Sasserine. The alchemical and medical supplies, books, and magic items come from dealers in Sasserine, and most likely originate from Gradsul (Keoland), the nearest great port on the mainland, with lesser amounts coming from the City of Greyhawk, Nyrond, Irongate, and Ahlissa (the southern part of the collapsed Great Kingdom).
Adrick Garthun -- Imports alcohol, tobacco, exotic sweets, and seafood. Rival of Maavu.
-- My interpretation: Distiller and dealer in rum and cane sugar. Also deals in chocolate and fruits (both 'exotic sweets'), all grown on the local plantations. "Imports" these items to the city, but more importantly, exports them through Sasserine. With deals in Sasserine, brings in seafood and imported tobacco (I guess from The Hold of the Sea Princes). His rivalry with Maavu is partial commercial, but also political. Maavu is an abolitionist by inclination, with no deep business connections to slavery, whereas Garthrun's businesses mostly trace back to the plantations in the hinterland of "the Shackled City".
Vanderborens -- Real estate tycoons, began as a message runner and serving wench at a tavern.
-- My interpretation: Wheelers and dealers primarily in urban real estate. Also negotiate rare deals to trade plantations, and the slaves that come with them. Tried to buy Alek Tercival's plantation from him (even though his father had given it away to his freed slaves in his will) for Lady Rhiavadi, who could "arrange" to overturn the will. Recently bought their own lowland plantation near Kingfisher Hollow from the Taskerhills, who have been moving out of the sugarcane business. Todd Vanderboren enjoys visiting the place (his parent's don't) and assisting the overseers in insuring discipline. As a result, it's a dismal, downtrodden place, most likely the worst in the whole region.
Lady Thifirane Rhiavadi -- "one of the city's wealthiest nobles. Common knowledge holds that much of her wealth is inherited"
-- My interpretation: Owns several large plantations in the river valley, growing sugarcane, rice (mostly for local sale), and pineapples. Her plantations are only slightly better than the disgrace that is Vanderboren Landing.
Taskerhill -- "Lord Taskerhill is the wealthiest noble in Cauldron. He owns several mines in nearby mountains, as well as a prominent workshop that shapes exquisitely crafted obsidian furniture and knick-knacks to the indolent cities of the north." Has an interest in plantations around Kingfisher Hollow.
-- My interpretation: Owns vast holdings in the highlands. His obsidian and diamond mines are near Redgorge, and his obisidian artisans are freemen from Redgorge, now mostly living in Cauldron. To be the wealthiest, he must own many plantations. Near the mines in the mountains are his highland plantations -- which grow primarily coffee, cacao (tree fruit for making chocolate), and bananas. He is the largest producer of coffee, one of the two most important cash crops in the region. His slaves are slaves, but he's not a cruel master.
Lathenmire -- "the family is as rich as many of the other nobles, having effectively corned the local arms and armor trade".
-- My interpretation: To increase their social standing, bought a riverside plantation near Kingfisher Hollow from the Taskerhills. The plantation grows sugarcane and rice.
Lady Ophellha Knowlern -- "one of the region's more benevolent nobles", "owns a multitude of businesses in the area", "owns a small brewery", an inn/tavern, a social club, and two plantations, centered on the village of Hollowsky where she lives. Hollowsky is on the edge of the jungle and the edge of a mountain.
-- My interpretation. Her lowland plantation grows some sugarcane (which Knowlern distills locally into her own excellent brand of rum), but is primarily devoted to food crops -- beans, plantains, peanuts, and sweet potatoes -- plus raises pigs and chickens. Her highland plantation grows cacao (for chocolate), bananas, and durian (the only commercial durian operation in the region). Being a benevolent and compassionate ruler who produces mostly food, she keeps her workers well fed and housed. During her long elvish lifespan, she began giving bonuses to her slaves and allowing them to buy their freedom, and generations ago she decided that everyone born on her plantations was born free. As a result, her workers are sharecroppers, not slaves. She lives at her highland plantation above Hollowsky, as she likes to be close to her plantations.
Aslaxins -- Intro mentions they are the leading family in Kingfisher Hollow, the center of the plantations, specifically described as growing coffee and sugarcane. Chapter Nine says "The bulk of the family's fortune is tied up in shipping art and furniture."
-- My interpretation: Own several plantations, with sugarcane in the lowlands and coffee in the highlands. They are the leading producer of sugarcane, which is one of Cauldron's two most cash important crops. Also deal in art and furniture, but the urban businesses aren't where their wealth comes from, and began almost as a hobby.
Village of Redgorge -- "a farming and mining village", "visibly depopulated and most of its buildings lie empty and in run. Over the decades, most of Redgorge's masons left to work in Cauldron." My interpretation: a village of freemen who are opposed to slavery, they've fallen behind economically and many people have sought greater richers in Cauldron. Small family farms here produce food for Cauldron.
Not sure whether it is necessary for the game, but I love your eye for detail and hope you can incorporate at least some of it in your actual campaign.
It's not strictly necessary, but it keeps me amused during long gaps between playing sessions (due to complicated scheduling among the players).
The one outcome so far for me is in linking the Forge of Fury (where we last hit pause IMC) to Shackled City. I'm going to have a gate between the duergar's forge in Forge of Fury to the forge room in the Malachite Fortress, with Kozmagen (sp?) now also a duergar. I'm thinking the kidnap victims and slave auction in the Malachite Fortress makes a little more sense now, as I had been puzzling over who (other than the Cagewrights) might be interested in buying slaves, which isn't spelled out too much in Life's Bazaar.
So now I'm thinking the buyers aren't necessarily just generic Underdark dwellers who want to eat people/sacrifice them, but also perhaps corrupt surface dwelling plantation owners/overseers. Either way, the goal of the duergar IMC is to raise cash, to finance their failing war against the White Kingdom (Kingdom of the Ghouls) in the nearby Underdark.
I'm thinking there are even more threats to the Shackled City than are in SCAP . . . the White Kingdom and City of the Drow are nearby underground in a Greyhawk setting. And the Scarlet Brotherhood should be messing with Sasserine at the least . . .
SCAP + Greyhawk is really quite an awesome setting. :)
One of the things I'm really liking about my version: I can openly have NPC's nickname the place "The Shackled City" without given any hint of the Cagewright conspiracy. That gives me DM evil laughs!
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I wrote up the Cauldron setting for a new player whose character will join the others (outsiders in the existing party) in Cauldron.
Perhaps this will prove useful to someone. I've also included the related write-ups for my versions of Sasserine and the Hold of Sea Princes (derived from write-ups on GHwiki, but modified here by me).
Overview:
The isolated tropical city-states of Sasserine and Cauldron were colonized by the Hold of Sea Princes from CY 480-584. The piratical leaders of the Hold of Sea Princes kept the existence of these distant, jungle-bound cities a secret, to maintain their monopoly on the export of tropical fruits not found anywhere else in the Flanaess -- specifically, bananas, cacao (used to make chocolate), and durian. When the Hold of the Sea Princes was conquered by the Scarlet Brotherhood, its colonies reasserted their independence. The Hold is now embroiled in a many sided, anarchistic civil war, leaving Sasserine and Cauldron to their own devices.
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The city of Cauldron is located in the caldera of a dormant volcano, at the eastern edge of the Hellfurnaces range of volcanoes. The Hellfurnaces separate the blasted, empty desert called the Sea of Dust (the former heartland of the Suel Imperium) to the west from the Amedio Jungle in the east. Cauldron is nicknamed the Shackled City for the source of its wealth -- tropical cash crops produced by slave labor on the surrounding plantations.
Cauldron's nearest important neighbor is the port city of Sasserine, about 20 miles away on Jeklea Bay of the Azure Sea.
Most of the founders of Cauldron and the majority of its population came from the north across Jeklea Bay, from the Kingdom of Keoland or the Hold of Sea Princes. Keoland is a large, powerful, feudal kingdom, which along with its possessions or former posessions, holds most of the Sheldomar Valley, the largest settled region of the western Flanaess continent. The Hold is -- or perhaps was would be more accurate -- a nation of pirates who broke off from Keoland ~CY 450. It is located at the southwest periphery of the Sheldomar Valley, separated from Keoland by the fetid Hool Marshes.
The largest race in Cauldron are Suel (think: Northern European). The Suel originally migrated to the Flanaess from across the Hellfurnace range of volcanoes, as refugees from the ancient (1000 years ago) magical Rain of Colorless Fire that ended a great war. Today, Suel form the bulk of the population in both Keoland and the Hold, and in a few other harsh, isolated regions where they long ago found refuge, like the Amedio Jungle, the Viking-dominated petty kingdoms of the Thillronian Peninsula of the far northeast (north of the Great Kingdom), and the totalitarian racist regime of the Scarlet Brotherhood that began on a rocky peninsula south of the Great Kingdom.
Many other Cauldron folk came from the eastern reaches of the Azure Sea. Oeridians (think: Southern Europeans) are the second largest group in Cauldron, mostly coming from the city-states of the Wild Coast (including the City of Greyhawk) or the Great Kingdom (now collapsed and divided among several successor states). Touv (think: Africans) from the tropical island continent of Hepmonaland are more common here than in other parts of the Flanaess; some were among the founding families, while others arrived later as traders or mercenaries.
When profitable diamond and obsidian deposits were discovered in the region, gnomes and dwarves from the Sheldomar Valley (Keoland and environs) flocked to Cauldron, and halflings came with them, at first mostly as cooks and washers. Later, gnomes, dwarves, and halfling became established as merchants and master artisans in the City.
Elves, half-elves, and half-orcs are relatively uncommon in Cauldron, and often are visitors from Sasserine.
The city proper has about 7500 adults, making a medium-sized city by medieval standards. The outlying areas -- mostly plantations but some smaller towns for freemen like the mining community of Redgorge and the waystation between Cauldron and Sasserine at the Lucky Monkey Inn -- have perhaps twice again that population.
The slaves who work the plantations that provide Cauldron's wealth were captured generations ago in the Amedio Jungle -- they are Amedi (Suel tribesmen who degenerated to a Stone Age culture after fleeing the fall of the Suel Imperium) and Olman (think: Aztec) tribesmen, whose jungle city-states mostly crumbled long ago. The lowland plantations around Sasserine and in the river valley in between grow sugarcane (which is processed into rum), bananas, and rice (mostly for local consumption, but also exported in bulk, mostly to the City of Greyhawk). The highland plantations around Cauldron grow coffee, cacao (for chocolate), and durian fruit.
The climate in the Cauldron region is humid and tropical, and the jungles and lowlands are plagued by malaria, dysentary, and wild animals including lions, tigers, and even dinosaurs. For this reason, few slaves attempt escape into the jungle, but those who have -- mostly Amedi -- have formed "hill folk" tribes that occassionally waylay travellers or even raid a settlement.
The city-dwellers, on their mountain top, escape the oppressive heat, disease, and other dangers of the jungles, and their water, from the caldera's lake, is magically kept free of disease. Slaves are not allowed in the city proper.
The major religions in Cauldron are Kord (Suloise god of strength), Wee Jas (Suloise goddess of magic and death, former patroness of the Suel Imperium), St. Cuthbert (Oeridian god of common sense and righteousness), and Pelor (Oeridian god of the sun and healing). The Church of Kord, arguing might makes right, loudly supports slavery, while the Church of Wee Jas quietly argues that the civilizing tradition of the "peculiar institution" is misunderstood by the outsiders who condemn it. The Churches of St. Cuthbert and Pelor discourage their members from owning slaves, but have a "gradualist" approach, calling for slaveowners to do manumission in their wills, or to declare the children of slaves to be born free. Worshippers of Fharlanghn (Oeridian god of travel and the open road), who are mostly elves or half-elves, call for immediate abolition and are rumored to be involved in helping escaped slaves make it out of the region. For that reason, the clergy of Fharlanghn has been denied permission to build a temple.
The local cuisine is primarly rice and beans plus sweet potatoes for the lower classes, with pork and chicken -- particularly satay, cooked on sticks with spicy peanut sauce -- as a treat for the poor and a staple for the middle class. The rich of Cauldron prefer seafood imported from Sasserine, the exotic sweets that Cauldron exports in bulk (chocolate, bananas, and durian), and food imported from Keoland or other overseas locales, like wine and cheese.
Cauldron is ruled by a mayor, who is chosen by consensus among the local nobles. As in the Hold of Sea Princes, nobility in Cauldron is more matter of being rich -- typically by owning plantations -- rather than inheritance and subservience to a liege lord. Feudalism does not exist here.
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Sasserine was founded in CY -124 by a group of pilgrims led by a priestess of Wee Jas named Sasserine, who was inspired to found the town after receiving a vision. After her death, the town gradually grew and expanded until it encompassed not merely the area inside the city walls, but a number of plantations lying on the outskirts. The success of the city made it a target for raids from pirates as well as attempts of subversion by the Scarlet Brotherhood, who first raided the city in CY 30.
After a time, a family named Teraknian, descended from Sasserine's lover, came to rule the city as lord mayors, taking advice from the clergy of Wee Jas and Kord. In CY 480, Orren Teraknian, the last of the lord mayors, began a reign of terror and launched a persecution of the church of Wee Jas in the city. Orren was deposed soon after after the city was conquered by the Sea Princes, who also conquered neighboring Cauldron. The Sea Princes kept the existence of Sasserine and Cauldron a secret from the rest of the Flanaess to guard their monopoly trades in chocolate and tropical fruit. The subjugation would last for a century, until the Sea Princes were forced to abandon Sasserine and Cauldron due to internal turmoil in their own lands as a result of the invasion by the Scarlet Brotherhood. The city-states are still recovering from its century-long domination and isolation.
Sasserine lays on the coast of the Amedio Jungle, close to the Hellfurnaces mountain range, and about 20 miles north of Cauldron. Its nearest neighbor across Jeklea Bay is the Hold of the Sea Princes. Sasserine is built on a series of islands which make water travel through the town a vital link for intra-city trade (like Venice).
Sasserine's economy is primarily based on sea trade, but some of the nobles own lowland plantations much like those of Cauldron, producing sugarcane and rice. The sea trade involves exporting rum, chocolate, and tropical fruits (bananas and durian) across the Azure Sea, and importing finished goods like clothing and arms & armor from more temperate lands, such as Keoland, the Wild Coast, Nyrond, and Ahlissa (the most important successor kingdom in the southern part of what was once the Great Kingdom). Piracy by ships of the Scarlet Brotherhood, their allies the Lordship of the Isles, and freebooters from the Hold, the Wild Coast, and Onnwall is a serious problem for Sasserine, but payoffs to Onnwall and the Holders, and occassional anti-piracy patrols by Keoland and to a lesser extent Nyrond and Ahlissa, keep the problem from shutting down the lucrative port.
The climate is generally tropical, with high temperatures and high humidity. Sea breezes attenuate the oppressive climate to some extent.
The city of Sasserine’s population is 15,650, with over three-quarters of the population being human. There is a small but sizable population of half-elves and halflings, with the rest of the population composed of minor amounts of dwarves, gnomes, elves, and other races.
Each districts of the city has a different patron deity: Wee Jas in the Noble District, Kord in the Champion's District, Saint Cuthbert in the Cudgel District, Fharlanghn in the Merchant's District, Olidammara (under an alias) in Shadowshore, and a syncretic religion composed of the worshippers of sea gods Procan, Xerbo, and Osprem in the Azure District. Religious toleration is prevalent throughout the city, although the churches of Wee Jas and Kord are in a state of cold war that has persisted since the persecution of the Jasadin by Orrin Teraknian.
The governance of Sasserine is a mix of oligarchy and direct democracy. The people are allowed to originate proposals and vote on them in great public meetings. Any resolutions passed by the people are sent to the seven-member Dawn Council, an oligarchy of noble aristocrats, which then decides whether or not to enact them. Law and order are for the most part relaxed in the town (partly in reaction against the somewhat harsh rule of the Sea Princes), and only the more egregious crimes such as murder and theft are actively pursued. Prostitution and the sale of exotic and potentially dangerous substances or creatures goes on more or less legally within the city limits (although the exact lassitude varies from district to district).
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The Hold of the Sea Princes is a realm south of Keoland. The region that would become the Hold of the Sea Princes was heavily settled by Suel during the Great Migrations. Eventually it came under the control of the Kingdom of Keoland. In the mid-fifth century CY, a pirate captain of noble Keoish blood led a rebellion against the Throne of the Lion. Distracted as they were by their northern wars, the Keoish could do little to prevent them from conquering the isles off the coast. In CY 453, King Tavish III of Keoland led an army through the hot, diseased Hool Marsh and to the city of Westkeep, where they lay siege. In the conflict that followed, Tavish III died, and his legendary family sword, Vilharian, was lost.
After the pirates lost (somewhat indecisively) the Battle of Jetsom Island to Keoland in CY 464, the pirate captains decided to settle down and be princes rather than brigands. The Hold of the Sea Princes began to flourish, with an economy based on vast plantations and the trade of slaves captured from the Amedio Jungle to the south.
More recently, however, Jeon II became the ruling prince of the land (in CY 577). Jeon II, along with the rulers of the Duchy of Berghof and Sybarate, began campaigning for slavery to be outlawed within the land. Perhaps their efforts would have met with some success if the Hold of the Sea Princes were not invaded by the Scarlet Brotherhood shortly thereafter.
In CY 584, an ambassador from the "Kingdom of Shar," resplendent in his red-hooded robe, arrived at the court of Jeon II, and demanded the Sea Princes submit to his government or be destroyed. When the assembled lords mocked him, he presented them with a list of 30 petty nobles, who were all (save three) assassinated before the following morning. Within a fortnight, the Hold of the Sea Princes belonged to the Great and Hidden Empire of the Scarlet Brotherhood, as red sailed galleys unloaded the cargos of Amedi, Olman, Touv, and humanoid slave-warriors up and down the coast.
However, the rule of the Scarlet Brotherhood has always been unstable, as discord among its own ranks and revolts by slaves, slave-warriors, and former freemen and nobles of the Hold sprang up everywhere. Sasserine and Cauldron took advantage of the chaos to quickly seize their own independence before the Scarlet Brotherhood even arrived as these secret colonies of the Hold.
Today the Hold of the Sea Princes is in chaos, ruled by a number of petty warlords and savage tribal leaders drawn from the ranks of escaped slaves. The Scarlet Brotherhood still controls the capital of Monmurg, as well as the islands of Flotsom, Jetsom, and Fairwind, but most of the mainland has slipped through its grasping fingers.
I'd make one correction to provide a better fit to Greyhawk canon, specifically in the late TSR-era book "The Scarlet Brotherhood", in case anyone cares. :)
I said about the Hold:
<<Within a fortnight, the Hold of the Sea Princes belonged to the Great and Hidden Empire of the Scarlet Brotherhood, as red sailed galleys unloaded the cargos of Amedi, Olman, Touv, and humanoid slave-warriors up and down the coast.>>
From a quick reading of "The Scarlet Brotherhood", I believe their invading troops would have mostly been "savage" (Stone Age) jungle-dwelling Suel, from tribes not in the Amedio, but in northern Hepmonaland. They wouldn't be slave-warriors, but instead allied/client tribes. They'd also have a few elite units of their own people from the Tilvanot peninsula (the Scarlet Brotherhood homeland, south of the Great Kingdom) and some humanoids, such as hobgoblins and orcs.
I don't think there would be Olman troops (it seems the SB takes them as farm slaves) or Touv (who have their own city-states that mostly seem stand-offish with the SB).
Thanks for your hard work. I'm sure it will help bring more life to my adventure.
Chris
GM_Chris, I'm glad to see this going to a good home. I hope you and your players get some mileage out of it. :)
I just discovered that someone wrote a treatise about agriculture in Cauldron about 2 years before I wrote this.
http://therpgenius.pbworks.com/w/page/22143336/SCAP-Agriculture
Interesting stuff, and largely compatible with mine, so if you like my version for the "macro" society view, this may help with the "micro" issues like what's to eat at the inn, what's at the market, what specifically is grown where, etc.
The main difference I see is that this write up feels a lot like Southeast Asia -- Indonesia, I'm thinking, though the element of settlement by outsiders and no indigenous population doesn't fit that.
Whereas in my version, I saw specifically trying not to be like any particular place in Earth, but more a pastiche of elements from different places that experienced tropical plantation agriculture imposed by outside settlers from a temperate climate. Specifically, I had in mind the US Antebellum South (particularly Charleston, South Carolina) and the Caribbean, plus Indonesia (volcanos + plantations = rice, durian, bananas, and chocolate) and some ideas from the British colonial empire (hill stations).
This is pure genius. My wife's about to start playing in this campaign, and she's a PhD in economy. She'll love this!
Thank you so much
Thanks Haakon1 for sharing your thoughts and ideas.
I've intergrated some of them into my campaign to help flesh some of the economics of the city for my players.
Not that it's probably useful too many people, but . . .
In my campaign, next time we play, the PCs -- currently in WOTC's "Forge of Fury" module -- will find a gate to the Malachite Fortress, the fallen dwarven level in the "Life's Bizarre".
One more fight, and they will most likely go into the Forge itself, where they will find the monsters from module (Duergar) working the Forge with the aid of 4 slaves from Cauldron -- two dwarves (the cartwright and his wife) and two halflings (the jeweler's apprenctice and the thief, Maple).
Anyhow, being me, I figured out the economic connections between the Forge of Fury and the Shackled City, from the olden days.
Redgorge is red because it has high grade iron ore that was once mined there in quantity. It's less used now, because there's only local demand now.
The Forge of Fury mined high quality coal (off the Black Pool level of the module), a seam of iron ore found higher in the mountain, had a water-powered hammermill on the stream through the Forge to crush ore, and mined ice from a glacier on the mountain top, reached by a spiral staircase up the inside of the mountain, to make cold iron.
When iron ore here played out, they turned to importing it from Cauldron, mined in Redgorge and sent via the Malachite Fotress.
The Malachite Fortress also sent food -- rice, pork, chicken, vegetables, fruits, and tea (the Iconic Dwarf Harsk drinks tea -- why not other Dwarves too!). The food kept the Forge going while it was under a long siege by an orcish army.
In exchange, Khundrukar (the Forge of Fury) sent steel weapons (and to a lesser extent armor) to Cauldron. And ice, for cooling in general and to make ice cream -- a delicacy much missed by residents of Cauldron who were alive 70 years ago (before the fall of Dzazidrune) to eat it.
Nowadays, the Duergar are looking to the slaving operation and reopening the Forge of Fury for cash, for their war against the White Kingdom (Kingdom of the True Ghouls). This means they are allied with Troglodytes (on the level above them in the Forge) who were also defeated by the White Kingdom, and more loosely allied with the two forces fighting the White Kingdom -- the Illithid and the Kuo-toans.
The "Dark One" kidnappers working for the Duergar are just mercenaries, but might work with all of the "anti-ghoul" forces to fight the True Ghouls, their Cloaker allies, and the Drow (a third side in the wars of the Underdark in my Greyhawk).
If anyone cares about the Underdark conflicts:
http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=White_Kingdom
How does all that fit with the plot of SCAP? Beh, haven't figure it out yet, but it seems a lot of the coolest of SCAP (at least to me) isn't dependent on the single big bad plot.