Bakshevas

The literal translation of the t’skrang word bakshevas is “taking the tenth part.” The word is as old as the Serpent is long, and it refers to the toll system still enforced on many isolated stretches of the river, particularly along the tributaries.
In the old days, when a riverboat submitted to a pirate vessel, the pirate captain would board and demand a tenth of the ship’s cargo in return for the lives of the ship’s crew. On receiving his payment, the pirate would then pledge free passage along the river to his victim.
As cargo vessels and river traffic grew, privateers began taking only the most compact and valuable portions of the cargoes they seized. Gifts of gold, silver, and gems replaced jars and barrels full of goods. Rather than threatening an opposing crew with death, the t’skrang borrowed a page from the trollmoots and forced defeated crews into indentured servitude, typically for a year and a day.
With the advent of the aropagoi, these captured ships would often be outfitted and supplied with aropagoi cargo. When the crew had performed the services required to lift the burden of bakshevas, the aropagoi would give the crew a tenth part of the profits they had earned for the aropagoi and send them back home to their foundations. Soon bakshevas became a ritual of honor, and participants came to rely on little more than the captain’s good word to seal their deals.
Today the practice is more about ensuring you have the gold or gems on hand to pay the toll lest your ship and crew end up having to work off your dept to the aropagoi.

The Ritual

Usually, these privateers draw up to passing vessels in friendly fashion and ask for a toll using the traditional phrase, "Shivoam v’nokamai daureis", which translates as “the spirit of the river requests a gift.” A round of haggling over the toll ensues, with a typical toll ranging between 50 and 200 gold pieces. If a toll cannot be agreed on or the target simply refuses to pay, the privateer draws back a respectable distance and both vessels prepare for battle.
Typically, both captains employ tactics designed to preserve their riverboats and crews. The gunners aim the fire cannons to frighten, rather than kill their opponents. Crew members who are wounded in the melee lay down their weapons and refrain from combat, and in return their opponents pass over them during boarding actions. Whenever one side begins to gain the upper hand, it offers its opponent numerous opportunities to surrender, long before either side takes considerable damage. And almost all t’skrang crews consider harming passengers, or using them as shields or obstacles, as the greatest dishonor.
Once one side or the other raises the white flag, the victor sets a price for his opponent’s freedom. Traditionally, the price is double the original toll, regardless of the actual damage inflicted by the battle. If the defeated boat cannot or will not produce this fee, its captor may either take the loser’s cargo or demand a service from the losing vessel and its crew. The service demanded may be returning whence the ship came, transporting goods from one port to another, attacking another ship on the river, or even raiding an abandoned kaer or ruin. Such services may be sealed with blood magic by the two captains or simply with the defeated captain’s word of honor.