Sea Princes Hold of the Sea Princes
His Royal Highness, Prince Jeon II of Monmurg;
Ruler of the Azure Sea; Captain of all Fleets; etc.
Capital: Monmurg (pop. 14,200)
Population: 100,000
Demi-humans: Few
Humanoids: Probable
Resources: foodstuffs
The buccaneers of the Azure Sea and Jeklea Bay grew strong and wealthy when Keoland was at the height of its power, for the eyes of its leaders were turned northward toward empire, and the sea raiders were ignored. These privateers took to calling themselves Sea Princes, after a particularly successful captain who was in fact of noble birth. Sailing unchecked from their island and mainland strongholds, these raiders were the scourge of the coasts from Gradsul to Scant, on the Pomarj, and even beyond into the Sea of Gearnat and the Tilva Strait. When Keoland turned back from imperial expansion, her navy began to rebuild in order to check the threat of the Sea Princes, as they were now commonly known. Their numbers and strength had become so great, however, that the Keoish fleet, even with the aid of a squadron of Ulek warships, could at best deliver a sharp check to them (Battle of Jetsom Island). This lesson caused their leaders to rethink their policies, however, and several of the wiser captains retired to mainland estates, appointing lieutenants to command their ships, not in piratical or raiding activities in the Flanaess, but on expeditions to the Amedio coast and thence to trade northward with the rare woods, spices, ivory, and gold which they wrested from the jungle savages. Eventually the mainland possessions of the Sea Princes amounted to more territory than their island homes, and they practiced little formal raiding. Today they probably are still the strongest sea power, but they also have a small and efficient army and are relatively peaceful traders. If those people have a fault, it is that they allow the use of slaves in their nation, despite strong protests from the Yeomanry. It is reported that the Prince of Monmurg would abolish this practice, but his fellow nobles (the Prince of Toli, the Plar of Hool, and the Grandee of Westkeep, along with the Commodores of Jetsom, Fairwind, and Flotsom) prevent it.
The Living Greyhawk Gazetter (LGG) is a sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Setting is 591CYProper Name: Hold of the Sea Princes
Ruler: Contested: (eastern isles and cities) Elder Brother Hammandaturian, Shepherd of the Sea Princes (LE male human Mnk12 various local warlords, tribal clerics, and foreign armies hold the remainder of the region
Government: see "Ruler"; region in civil chaos
Capital: Monmurg
Major Towns: Hokar (pop. 21,000; controlled by local folk), Monmurg (pop. 15,000; Scarlet Brotherhood controlled), Port Toli (pop. 11,000; Scarlet Brotherhood controlled), Westkeep (pop, 9,500; Keoland controlled)
Provinces: (preconquest) 30 separate noble domains; (post-conquest) unknown number of warring military/religious domains
Resources: (preconquest) Foodstuffs, slaves; (post-conquest) the same, though no exports of note Coinage: Old coinage used but greatly devalued: highlord (pp), gold admiral (gp), bright ship (ep), silver (sp), common (cp)Population: 420,000—Human 79% (Sofz), Halfling 8%, Elf 4%, Dwarf 3%, Gnome 2%, Half-elf 1%, Half-orc 1%, Other 2%
Languages: Common, Olman, Amedi, Keolandish, HalflingAlignments: CN*, CE, N, NE, LE
Religions: Osprem, Xerbo, Procan, Norebo, Kelanen (native Holders Syrul, Bralm, Tharizdun? (SB Olman pantheon, esp. Chitza-Atlan (Olman)
Allies: None
Enemies: Native peoples of the Amedio Jungle, Keoland, Yeomanry (minor)
The Sea Princes come from old piratical stock based on Jetsom, Flotsom, and Fairwind Isles. They preyed on Keoland's southern borders and extended their pillage as far as the Pomarj and beyond at the height of their power. Keolandish naval strength subdued them at the Battle of Jetsom Island, and the wiser Sea Princes turned to an easier target—the Amedio Jungle—and trade of the ivory, spices, and woods found there. Eventually, the lands south of the Hool Marshes became settled, and the Princes practiced less and less raiding outside of Amedio.
Before the war, the Sea Princes had superb vessels and well-trained sailors, and were peace able if unscrupulous merchants. The most objectionable aspect of their country was the institution of slavery, to which many Amedians were wretchedly subjected.
The Sea Princes were forced to surrender to the Scarlet Brotherhood without a battle being fought. Of the 30 leading nobles, 27 were dead at the hands of assassins within a week of initially laughing away the demand for their surrender. The handful left to sign did so readily. Now these lands are ruled with an iron grip by the Brotherhood, who has imported more "savages" into the land. And since this land is so much farther from their own land than their other conquests, a handful of powerful mages, together with well trained and vicious monsters, were also imported. Trained tyrgs and high-morale norkers are used for patrols by the invaders. Few of the local people were able to flee to the Yeomanry or Keoland, so swift was the fall of the Sea Princes. Virtually none of the ships in its superb fleets were kept from the hands of the Brotherhood.
The seamen of these lands now sail as ordered by the Brothers; no ship is allowed to set sail without a significant number of Brothers on board. Inland, there is a slow trickle of people into the southern Yeomanry, but the Hool Marsh es are the death of most of these would-be exiles. Those who escape speak of tyrannical rule, exemplary public executions for misdemeanors, and a climate of terror in the land.
Overview:The Hold of the Sea Princes is a land bordered on all sides by the protection of natural terrain. To the north, its reaches extend to the Hool River at the heart of the marshland of the same name. To the west and south, the lands of the Sea Princes are walled in by the Hellfurnaces. The Hold's eastern border, along the Jeklea Bay, accounts for the nation's former prosperity.
That prosperity, however, is now gone, perhaps forever. Now, the Hold is wracked by violent political upheavals, invasion, and bitter ethnic conflict—a beautiful, tropical land marred by the sins of the past and the conflicts of the present.
Despite the political climate, the Hold is renowned for its beautiful weather and pleasant beaches. Before the Greyhawk Wars, nobles from as far as Nyrond flocked to Monmurg every winter, hoping to escape the dreary north for a few months of relative paradise.
The land here is fertile and suitable for farming all manner of crop. Fruit production is perhaps the Hold's most famous industry, though a traffic in slavery brought it the most prewar enemies (and whole ships filled with coin, thanks to the greedy lords of Ahlissa and elsewhere). In fact, the slave trade of the Sea Princes was so lucrative that captains called their captured Amedio slaves "two-legged admirals," referring to the platinum coinage of the realm. The Sea Princes once commanded the grandest navy in all the Flanaess. Now, most of these ships are sunk or used by the Scarlet Brotherhood. Regardless, few still dock along the coast. The Hold's small but effective army fell early to the armies of Amedio and Hepmonaland savages, imported by the Brotherhood during the Greyhawk Wars.
History:In the mid-fourth century CY, as Keoland made war in the north, the buccaneers of the Azure Sea and Jeklea Bay grew courageous, correctly assuming that the king's wartime ambition would leave much of his southern holdings for the taking. Operating from hidden island and mainland bases, these pirates harried the coastline as far as the Sea of Gearnat, from Monmurg to Gradsul, from Blue to Scant. By 444 CY, the pirates had formed a loose confederation, naming themselves for the Sea Prince, the ship of a successful pirate captain of noble Keoish blood.
The Sea Princes raided the mainland coast, conquering even Port Toli and finally Monmurg in 446, breaking Keoish control of the southlands in a flurry of naval actions. As Tavish III's northern holdings crumbled, however, he ordered the eradication of the Sea Princes, charging his military commanders to regain all of the land lost to the seafaring opportunists. The Sea Princes' operations had expanded even to the mainland, a fact that infuriated the king. The pirates openly scoffed at his decrees and challenged the monarch to a battle by sea. Tavish III would not oblige.
Instead, in the spring chill of 453 CY, the king himself led a large army of men through the tangles of the Hool Marsh, intending to lay siege to the fort city of Westkeep. The trek through the swamp proved disastrous, however, and many of the soldiers were forced to cast away their armor in the quagmire. The army's wagon train suffered tremendous difficulty, and many soldiers took sick within the first two days of the march. Tavish seemed indignant. Westkeep would fall, and he himself would hoist the Lion Rampant upon its highest tower.
When finally the army arrived at the outskirts of the fort city, the Sea Princes forces had been well prepared. Those Keolandish soldiers who did not mutiny were cut down by an unrelenting barrage of arrow fire and magic. The Siege of Westkeep, as it would soon be known, lasted a pathetic 70 minutes. Tavish himself was slain in battle, and the forces of the Sea Princes celebrated that night under the standard of the crowned caravel. The Battle of Jetsom Island, in 464 CY, saw the Keoish navy sink the Sea Prince, with all hands lost. Though not a decisive military victory for Keoland, the action marked a turning point for the holders.
Thereafter, many of the old captains retired from piracy, settling the mainland and forming a more stabilized government. The younger captains turned from piracy to relatively legitimate pursuits, including exploration of the Amedio coast and, eventually, the sale of slaves captured within the fecund southern jungles. Thus a chaotic nation of pirates and scalawags turned their attention to mercantilism, and the coffers of the Sea Princes swelled to bursting.
With this newfound industrial power, the Sea Princes expanded their borders to the Hellfurnaces. Vast plantations, worked by imported Amedio slaves, provided shiploads of tropical fruits and sugar, goods that could be exported to foreign ports for unheard of low prices. Though the sale of human beings drew the ire of upstart radical nations such as the Yeomanry, the Sea Princes' slave trade was seen by most of the Flanaess as a necessary evil on the road to fantastic wealth. As the years progressed, however, the practice of slavery was less supported by the gentry of client nations. When the moderate Prince Jeon II of Monmurg assumed the throne in 573 CY, most expected the issue to come to a head. In 577, Jeon assembled a grand council of his peers and demanded an end to slave-taking. The prince of Toli, the plar of Hool, the grandee of Westkeep, and the commodores of the Isles shouted down his plan. Only the ineffectual governor of Sybarate Isle and the duke of Berghof supported him. In disgust, he withdrew his proposal.
He need not have bothered in the first place. Within the next few years, the Hold of the Sea Princes became a nation of slaves. Like many nations during the Greyhawk Wars, the Sea Princes fell victim to the Scarlet Brotherhood. Within a single night in 584 CY, twenty-seven of the thirty nobles making up the nation's nobility and government were assassinated by killers loyal to the Scarlet Sign.
The remaining three nobles signed a notice of surrender, ceding all land to the Brotherhood. Thereafter, ships, bearing red sails unloaded armies of Amedio and Hepmonaland natives in Monmurg and Port Toli.
The lands of the Sea Princes were forever changed. Many non-Suel slave owners were imprisoned in chains by the brotherhood, often in the same pens as their former thralls, a situation that usually ended in bloodshed. Among the most sadistic members of the brotherhood "Herdsmen," creating power struggles between slaves and their former owners became something of a contest, with the creator of the most violent clashes winning accolades among the invaders. Such games fermented dissent, however. Slave revolts became common occurrences. Unless one wore robes of scarlet, the Hold became dangerous ground to tread. The intense heat of summer, 589 CY, instilled a great fervor in the land among the slaves, the few remaining nobles, and even the ranks of the Herdsmen. Details remain clouded, but in that year, a great and ancient temple was discovered in the Hellfurnaces, near the Sea of Dust. For reasons known only among the principals, and surely the Brotherhood's leadership on the Tilvanot Peninsula, this discovery triggered a bitter schism between the western Herdsmen and their kin in Monmurg, which in turn triggered a brief war of assassination among the nation's Brotherhood leaders.
Several junior members, allied with the westerners, revealed themselves as the so-called Black Brotherhood. In the name of entropy, they triggered an armed revolt in the capital, leading brutish Hepmonaland soldiers through the streets of Monmurg. The action was crushed within a single day, but telling damage was done to the hierarchy of the Scarlet Brotherhood Herdsmen. The cry of revolution spread throughout the nation, and all descended into total chaos.
In early 590 CY, King Skotti himself led the Keoish army to Westkeep, taking advantage of the chaos. It was a move many criticized, hearkening back to the sad fate of Tavish III. As if to fulfill this historical prophesy, Westkeep is a squalid, ill-supplied locale. Disease runs rampant, morale is low, and agents of the Brotherhood are thought to be everywhere. The Brotherhood still controls key settlements in Monmurg, as well as Jetsom, Flotsom and Fairwind Isles. Olman ex-slaves control the western half of the hold. Among these folk, newly appeared Olman clerics stir up long-lost tales of ancient gods of the jungle, allegedly inciting their converts to acts of grim butchery and human sacrifice. The city of Hokar is the center of a new government formed by an alliance of commoners, middle-class folk, and emancipated slaves. This alliance is governed (badly) by a coalition of minor nobles who, through their intrigues and assassinations, seem set to complete the job of complete civil destruction started by the Brotherhood some seven years ago.
Conflicts and Intrigues:Minor nobles of the old regime are currently united in the Fraternity of the Brazen Blade, ostensibly a religious order dedicated to Kelanen but in fact a vicious revenge society. Disease is rampant throughout the northwestern lands, Violent, organized attacks on Brotherhood shipping by merfolk and tritons are increasing across the Azure Sea.
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