Merrhutz
From AeonRO
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Merrhutz
It's pretty fantastic to see how they make such lives for themselves on the edge of civilization... A very interesting shamanistic culture... but I wouldn't go there unless you are damn well certain you could hold your own in a fight against one of its giants.
-Ebbias Thyndrell
Translated name: “The Wheel of Conflict” or “The Fire Plains” depending on context.
Civilization- Nomadic mixed with Agriculture settlements and one major City as a trade hub.
Racial Types- Predominantly Satyr in the outlying regions. Humans and Aesopians in the capitol as a minority.
Population numbers- Nation- 200,000 Capitol- 50,000
Religion- Shamanistic with mixed cults devoted to various gods from outside the nation.
Main Exports- Ore, gems, weapons, monster part reagents for spellcasters, skins, leathers, stone, mercenary soldiers.
Imports- Food, trade tools, timber, seed, domestic animals, luxury items.
Army- Core 1500 stationed in outer wall garrison. Wartime soldiers 20,000~ regular troops and irregulars total. See Iron Quarter entry for details.
Known Clans: Veradash , Lamellae , Dusthenge
For information on the race as a whole please see Entry: Merrhutz Satyrs
The Country
Located somewhat south of the Schwartzwald empire, and sharing a small boarder, the Merrhutz Nation is roughly circular in it's boarders, with the broadest and most fertile swaths of volcanic soil being based on the outer edges of the country. Most agriculture and cultivation occurs in these outer swaths and there are constant internal clan struggles over land and food supplies. Clan supply caravans containing foodstuffs from the agricultural settlements head inward towards the main city at the center of the region:Hertzbrnfagen. This city is the capitol, fortress, and only major city to speak of in the Merrhutz nation.
The "country" of Merrhutz is, to an outsider's eyes, a rough nation of clan controlled territories stitched together by a central ruling council based in the Capital fort city of Hertzbrnfagen (Roughly translated as "The Hub"). It is located roughly South West of the Schwartzwald republic and shares a small boarder with it.
The inner sanctums of the country become more and more barren the closer and closer you get to Hertzbrnfagen. The center of the country is marked by a currently inactive (But "grumpy") volcanic mountain. The land bordering the mountain is a wide reaching ash-wasteland inhabited only by the most hostile and hardy of the nomadic tribes of Merrhutz satyrs.
The tribes claim (And fight over) land in pie slices that lead outward from the capital city and mountain. Often the clan's excess population of males, and the females either not suited for clan leadership or exiled due to internal family politics are pushed into the less hospitable inner portions of the clan territory. The toughest, fittest members of the clans patrol the inner regions of the country, scuffling with other clan-groups intruding on their land and any outsiders caught outside the established trade-roads that thread towards Hertzbrnfagen. These raiding bands of clan-members send their raided supplies and spoils to the outer regions of the country, which by comparison are a breadbasket of arable volcanic soil. The oldest and the Youngest of the clans tend crops in these regions, providing the internal raiding culture with food and basic goods until they come of age and are sent inward, or die of old age.
Death by old age is an admitted rarity as even the outer regions of Merrhutz still contain a high amount of hostile monsters and creatures such as harpies and highly aggressive local animal life. The internal regions become progressively more and more hostile in terms of the terrain and the fauna of the region. Trade caravans headed to the capitol Fort-City often hire local clan raiding groups as security during trading runs.
The clans are widespread, varied, and carry their own traditions. All speak the Merrhutz Flametounge language but clan membership can be identified by how a satyr approaches the language, adding another brand of identity to the blood ties of clan culture.
The Flame Son tradition
See Entry: Flame Sons and Entry: Merrhutz Satyrs for further information
The Merrhutz have a particular tradition where certain young members of the clans will be outcast from the nation and never allowed to return. These “Flame Sons” are stripped of their first names and only left with their clan names as a marker for any who might encounter them outside the Merrhutz lands. The Flamesons rarely talk about the reasons behind the tradition, and considering their often psychotically violent temperment, it’s reasoned that there’s something so inherently flawed or dangerous in these outcasts that the Merrhutz have decided to make them someone else’s problem.
The Flamesons follow war and conflict like carrion birds. Any major war, and conflict, and major uprising will have Flamesons in it, either as mercenaries or as dogs of war. Flamesons hear battle in their heads like a drum and are drawn to it eventually, no matter how long they hold out against it. Most either die on a battlefield or go insane during combat, becoming a terrifying “Madblood” satyr which is a liability to the life of anyone within range of their weapon. Most Flamesons consider it a point of pride, pain, and nessecity to have to put down one of their fellow outcasts in this manner.
Few Flameson satyrs return to Merrhutz. The few that do cross the boarder again are never heard from again. Most are reduced to red smears on the earth by the local clans who somehow know, either by some mystic force or by instinct, that the Flameson is not welcome in his own motherland.
Some Flamesons do return home successfully, though how or why they are allowed back onto the nation’s lands is not known, even by natives.
Ironically, due to the insular nature of the Merrhutz and the fact that many Flamesons are international mercenaries by nature, Flame Sons are the first impression most outsiders get of a Merrhutz Nation satyr.
Capitol City: Hertzbrnfagen
Translated name: “The Hub” or “The Blaze" depending on context.
This capitol city is roughly the size of Prontera in pure square footage. The city itself is a long rectangle formed in the side of a cliff in the Volcanic mountain that marks the center of the Merrhutz homeland. The outside walls are massive walls of mountain stone, carved from the surrounding rock, still rough hewn despite the obvious age of the city itself. When asked if the city has ever fallen to an outside invader, most Merrhutz Satyrs will simply point to the still standing walls and laugh. There is a single, central gate to the city with a central outer gate, a tunnel through the massive stone walls, and a secondary gate at the inner side of the city walls. The Military's core garrison is also stationed within the massive stone walls, with the veteran officers and career soldiers standing guard over the city.
Hertzbrnfagen is the heart and soul of Merrhutz, operating as a seat of power and guidance to the local clans, a supplier of arms and weapons to the outlaying raiding and defense parties, and a final fortress point for the Merrhutz nation to fallback to in times of war and mayhem. All trade comes through The Hub, all supplies not produced by the nomadic arms of the clans in the nation are produced and exported from The Hub. From this central point all blood flows into the Merrhutz nation. The Military is garrisoned there, trained there, and deployed from there.
The Hub is split into four quarters, each representing a ruling portion of the Merrhutz nation. The quarters are: The Gold, The Iron, The Brass, and The Steel quarters.
The city itself is ruled by a council of four “Lords” or “Ladys” (Each title literally translates into “The Bastard” and “The Old Bitch” respectively if taken literally in it's usage however).
The Gold Quarter
The Gold Quarter is the trade section of the city, on the eastern side of the city and against the gate. It is the quarter most outsiders deal with. All manner of trade occurs here, with finished goods and services from the outlying territories and the Iron and Brass quarters being put up for sale here. Each clan has a major strip in this section to hawk their respective goods, and almost every family within the clan has a stall run by blood relatives on these strips. From here money and goods move and flow and circulate within the city and the nation. Merrhutz specializes in exporting Ore and minerals (and processed goods processed from them) from their mines and strip-mines close to the mountain, cutting down on transportation due to the short distance to and from the clan mines in the mountain, and cutting down on Labor as most clan males serve some time in the mines as a service to the family. There is a major market for timber in the city, as there are no major forests to harvest near the city or in its outlaying regions.
The Lord or Lady of Gold is the head of whichever clan currently has the most monetary wealth in the nation, and the Gold Quarter keeps very exact records of trade and transport for this purpose. All transactions, above and below the table (Raiding inbound caravans included) are tracked for this purpose. As a rule, the Gold Lord or Lady is the seat in the inner council that changes the most due to constant trade and resource demand fluxuations within the clans, but has the most stable views and influence, as each Lord or Lady almost always focuses on expanding the Nation’s trade and monetary might no matter the current outlaying situation of the world at large.
The Iron Quarter
The Iron Quarter is the military quarter of the city and positioned on the west side of the city, also flush with the gate for easy deployment to the walls and to the outside of the city. Here the clans send children pledged to official service. Some of these are actual clan conscripts, while some are the children and outcasts of the families that are deemed too hard to control in the tight nomadic groups. The Iron Quarter also hosts most of the forges and smelting furnaces of the city, and even at night hammerfalls ring out over the quarter. The Iron quarter produces most of the weapons, armor, and ammunition used within and without of the city and the ash plains, making it a major export section. Caravans coming to and from the Iron Quarter are usually under heavy guard, and only relieved once the caravan arrives at the Clan lands it is headed towards where guards from that particular clan take over protection duties.
The standing army of Merrhutz is a core of veterans, most of who move to command positions in times of large-scale conflict and is stationed in the stone wall of the main gate. Due to the fact that most of Merrhutz is hostile to general existence, and that many males raid outsider caravans and battle other clans, most Merrhutz soldiers are already experienced in warfare before being drilled in large scale battles. When mustered the army can swell to to over 20,000 regulars, with irregulars and dogs of war adding to the strength overall.
Most encounters with the organized Merrhutz military have been described as "brutal" and "terrifying", as the Merrhutz in career military service are some of the toughest and most intelligent the nation has to offer. While the mustered regular clan-satyrs are already tempered by their own conflict driven culture and inhospitable homeland and tend to have broad experience in hit and run and supply-train destruction tactics before being pulled into drilled formation training.
The Lord or Lady of Iron is the most volatile of four quarters, as they are the commander of the Nation's standing army, and in charge of the safety and defense of the city itself. They are not nice people by trade or by nature, and the Lord or Lady of Iron is chosen by whichever satyr in the quarter is the most successful in war and battle, be it within and without. Ironically by the time a satyr has seen enough war to earn the title of Iron, they are more interested in making sure there is no conflict, clan or otherwise, which makes them all the more ruthless in quashing potential threats to the city.
The Steel Quarter
The Steel Quarter is where the leadership of the Merhutz clans is based, along with their entire beurocracy and clan entourages. Most clans have a stronghold or base in the Steel Quarter where most of their clan decisions are made and finalized and passed to the other quarters and the Clan holdings. Newly arrived members of clans in the city are herded to the steel quarter by other clan members so they can be acclimated and assigned a position within the city structure to serve the overall Clan.
Most Merrhutz clans are headed by a Baba Yaga Matriarch figure, who knows each and every one of her errant children and keeps an ongoing record of the clan lineage and marriage records. Since the Merrhutz suffer the inordinate ratio of males to females attributed to satyrs, blood ties are traced only from the female side of the family.
The Lord of the Steel quarter is elected by the clans themselves and as such takes the longest to replace when a new Lord or Lady is required (either by death or the current Lord or Lady resigning their position).
Out of the four Lords, the Steel has the most influence over the other three as the Steel Quarter represent the entire population of the Merrhutz nation, not just the holdings of the capitol city. If there is any disagreement in the council, the Lord of Steel has final say.
The Brass Quarter
The Brass quarter is the smallest quarter of the city, and also the most secretive. The Brass, as they are called, are any and all members of the Merrhutz nation that have any sort of arcane or divine casting capability, or any trade skill that would be associated with such a practice (such as Alchemy, fortune telling, medicine, medical knowledge, astrology, ect ect ect). Due to this, members of the Brass distinguish themselves with red leathers and brass jewelry to mark them to their own clan members and other city goers. Understandably members of the Brass invoke respect in those they have contact with, as the Merrhutz are amazingly superstitious people with traditions about true names, the evil eye, and other ‘tribal’ beliefs being ingrained into even the most civilized member of their society.
Many Brass casters are fire-based. Most are not powerful casters, and can perform basic cantrips and ritual. Very few are powerful casters, but many are very competent in using their power in strange and surprisingly potent manners, favoring quality of use over quantity of power. This means most Brass casters with skill can cause a lot of chaos without exerting much magical energy.
Most clans have a Brass Enclave for their magic users in this quarter, though some Clans are completely devoid of magic users (either by some fluke of the blood or by internal purges due to superstitious fear).
Most Merrhutz magic is shamanistic in its approach, giving a level of ritual and spirituality to even the most basic of Merrhutz magic. Brass casters are typically energetic, charismatic, and passionate about what they do, both in magic and in their trades. Almost all but the most powerful and competent Brass magic users have a secondary trade they practice alongside their magical arts. The most powerful caster from each Clan is put onto the Brass Seer council, which advises the Lord or Lady of Brass.
The Brass is the hidden blade compared to the brandished sword of the Iron Quarter. Many members of the Brass are sent out of the city as diplomats and emissaries to surrounding nations and to trade guilds, meaning that they have heavy ties to the Gold and Steel Quarters to know how to ply Merrhutz’s face and goods and power to the neighboring countries. Many outsiders who see a Brass diplomat assume that Merrhutz satyrs are intelligent, cunning, and charming in addition to dressing in flourishes of red and brass.
The Brass, being the diplomats of the nation, also control the spy and assassination networks, giving them a shadow of fear in regards to their place on the city’s council. While they have the least ‘influence’ on the nation, they know more and have their fingers, magical or otherwise, in almost everything.
The Lord or Lady of Brass is the most powerful caster in the entire nation, and is the spiritual leader of Clans. The Merrhutz have some ancestor worship and beseech the Lord or Lady of Brass and the Brass Seers (A council of the most powerful caster from each clan) to keep them in favor with their ancestors and the spirits of the land.
