Vice-Kingdom of Sanari (Sah-nar-ree)

The Vice-Kingdom of Sanari is the island capital of the Zeruan empire. It is the nerve center of the bureaucracy, a densely urbanized realm known for its clerks, its teachers, and its lawyers. People from across the empire visit here to trade, to appeal to the crown, to play intrigue at court, to receive military honors, or to visit the holy cathedrals of the Kamadan religion. When a family is on probation, they send their hostages here to live under the Emperor's watchful eye. 
As a land, Sanari is marshy but arable. Cotton grows thick here, as does rice; the fish are abundant and the land is plentiful. Mosquitoes and cicadas buzz, the air lays humid over the countryside, and the lights of some town or city are almost always visible. This is the personal domain of the emperor - not corporations, not nobles, but the crown itself. It is the lair of the dragon. Beware all who walk upon its rich ash-touched soil!

Structure

Sanari is a federated kingdom of the Empire of Zerua, and is almost always the personal domain of the Zeruan Emperor themselves. While most federated kingdoms of Zerua have some autonomy, Sanari has little separation between imperial bureaucracy and local bureaucracy - this is the lair of the dragon and the throne of God. 

• At the top of the chain of command is the Emperor of Zerua, though they are often busy with the larger matters of imperial government
• The Right Hand of the Emperor is a specific court position that acts as the regional advisor for matters of Sanaran governance - basically the actual Vice-monarch, kept close by the emperor's side. The Right Hand is a position known to be haunted by perpetual intrigue, and wise emperors keep them loyal or closely monitored. The Right Hand also has no rights to even limited autonomy - it is, by rights, a bureaucratic delegation
• The Sanaran Royal Cabinet manages local bureaucracy, though it has massive overlap and cross pollination with the Imperial Cabinet
• The Dragon Priest of Zerua manages Sanaran religion - essentially acting as a religious mirror emperor for the Kamadan temple
• Provincial governors manage the local municipalities

Culture

Sanaran culture is distinctly new-money: this is a place where people often visit from across the empire, so traditional hierarchies are rarely sufficient. It is also a region where elite culture has a way of dripping down to the general public, creating a general mixture that might be called "middle class" culturally (though no quite economically). Money and court status mean an incredible amount here - no one can keep track of every Zeruan elite family, so resources and etiquette matter more than title. 
Sanari also has an extreme culture of adoption and kin-trading, making breeding even less important. It is not unusual for even poorer Sanarans to switch families officially several times over a lifetime; a courtier might do so a dozen times. Kin exchanges are common between friendly families as a show of good will, and climbing the social ladder is a matter of climbing the rankings of family names. Your loyalties are expected to be absolute to whatever family you are currently a part of, to compensate for the fragility of kinship bonds. 
Also worth mentioning are the high literacy rates of Sanari (making reading an expected part of being a functional adult), and the general xenophobia - non-Zeruans are not welcome in most places here. 
Sanaran food favors rice, lobster, pork, yams, chicken, fish, and chilis. Fried rice, grilled pork with chili power and fish sauce, peanut noodle soup, and spicy salads are all Sanaran favorites.

History

Sanari took to agriculture early, with intensive farming along the Southern coast dating back to the earliest days of recorded history. When the Architects left our world at 0 ME, Sanari was split into five kingdoms of varying power and reputation. The island had a reputation for standoffishess - they were quick to drive away strangers, but also seemed drawn to shipbuilding and trade. They mastered cotton farming before any other part of Ekraht, and were known far and wide for their luxurious cloth. Over the 100s and 200s, the island was slowly united by the most warlike of the kingdoms of Sanari, and the united island kingdom was eager to conquer outwards during the Northern wars of the 300s ME. Ultimately, Sanari failed to conquer Ibaisha, and the attempt led to civil war - which opened up Sanari to conquest by the founding emperor Makoi.

The empire of Makoi was ultimately destroyed by the volcanic eruption of 450 ME. After the eruption and collapse, Sanari was the first kingdom to reform a government based on a fusion of traditional Sanari militarism and Makoi's magocratic bureaucracy, uniting in 498 while most other vice-kingdoms would still be suffering from infighting for thirty more years. Sanari more than any other region pulled together around a shared idea of life before the 450 collapse, and Makoi's heirs were quickly married into the royal family. Ultimately, Sanari would be annexed by a different power - the rapidly growing Kingdom of Karema-Iziko to the East - in 528, but Sanari had strong enough local hierarchies that the incoming power mostly left the local government to itself. One of Sanari's former royal family, General Mariz Makoba, rose to prominence within Karema-Iziko and ultimately was able to get himself installed as the Kingdom's heir. When Mariz took power in 535, he proclaimed himself Emperor of the renewed Zeruan Empire and relocated the capital to Sanari. Mariz was able to reunify much of the imperial core over his reign, and his descendants held the throne for three more generations. After his dynasty was replaced, Sanari remained the capital by imperial tradition. From 535 to 913, Sanari and imperial bureaucracy became synonymous - and in 913, the volcano again wiped out the government and plunged the continent into chaos.
913 may have reset the world back to zero, but it was again a Sanaran, Manar the Fox, that rebuilt the empire. Manar's prominence restored Sanari's place in Zerua and conjoined the fate of the island and the fate of the empire for the next thousand years. Whatever happened to the empire, happened to Sanari - they prospered together, they fell together. Sanari's perfect positioning near the Ibaishan heartlands and the Izikan ports made the island a perfect place to rule from - and it was typically the last to be poisoned by excess volcanic smog. When the empire closed in 1530, Sanari also closed itself off in a way: it banned the Ibaishan corporations from owning land or stationing mercenaries in Sanari and banned all foreigners from the island. When the empire re-opened, Sanari was the last to re-open to foreigners and in some ways never fully did. To this day, corporations and foreigners cannot bear arms, cast magic without permission, or hold land on the island.

Demography and Population

Around 2 million humanoids live in Sanari, making it truly packed by era standards. 30% of the population are hybrids of some kind, 30% are Dryads, 30% are Humans, 9% are Prisms, and 1% are other races.

Territories

Sanari sits 29 miles off the coast, though the passage between it and mainland Zerua is filled with tiny islands. Sanari is 127 miles long and 58 miles across, and is dotted with lakes and hills. Dozens of small islands dot the coasts, and the surrounding waters are fairly shallow.

Military

Sanari is always protected by at least a small garrison of troops loyal to the emperor and the ministry of defense, including a handful of Dragonlancers and elite sorcerers. Who gets to bring retinues here is kept closely regulated, so Sanari rarely ever swells with troops - the vice-kingdom is most concerned with coups. The more robust defensive apparatus here is the Zeruan navy, which has number of major bases and shipyards in Sanari. This makes the Admirals of Sanari important figures at court - he who controls access to the island controls the empire. The other major force of destruction are the assembled elite sorcerers, given Zerua's magocratic tendencies.

Religion

Sanari is thoroughly Kamada. Even foreigners are expected to participate in Kamadan rituals, as a show of loyalty and respect for the Emperor and the court. While there are a small number of heathens in Sanari, they are few and far between - to be heathen is to be foreign, and to be foreign is to lose landed property in Sanari, so most converts move to neighboring Ibaisha instead (and are encouraged to do so by the crown). Those who remain are looked upon with suspicion and are locked out of much of society. 
The Dragon Priest of Sanari, religious counterpart to the Emperor and master of religious policy, lives across from the emperor in Argena. The Crown Priest of Sanari, in charge of local religious policy, is something of an orbiting presence and potential heir. Argena also houses one of the Palace of the Masters, a council building for the Patient and Perfect Masters (most revered figures in all of Kamada) to live and meet. The Masters move freely across the Kamadan world, but there is almost always several of them there. 
The religious court of the Dragon Priest is built to balance the different Kamadan schools and keep the priests in harmony, but this attitude de-facto privileges the Centrist school (who believe in combining and balancing the others in specific ratios). But court politics comes before the local priesthood. The current Dragon Priest of Kamada, Zokeshta Sarazir, is of the Literalist school, though she seems to have chosen a Centrist for her heir and Crown Priest. Zokeshta is a powerful sorcerer and seasoned veteran of the wars with the Kingdom of Esedeta, loyal to the Emperor and punishing to those she sees as disloyal.

Agriculture & Industry

Sanari has a strong agricultural base to support its cities: oysters farming, lobster farming, fish farming, rice farming, cotton farming. The soil may not be as rich as in Ibaisha and Karema, but it still gets that sweet sweet ash from the supervolcano to act as natural fertilizer. There are a few mines for salt and prism-food on the island, but they aren't serious economic endeavors. Lumber-milling is a limited industry that is kept in check by the bureaucracy, as there is a constant threat of deforestation. Sanaran cotton is rumored to be superior to other kinds of cotton, and is the largest cash crop on the island. 
The manufacturing sector of Sanari is significant: weaving, tailoring, and dyeing are big industries, as are artisanal crafts. The demand for clerks and entertainers is quite high here, and Sanari has an unusually large number of service and office workers: secretaries, scribes, accountants, chefs, hairdressers, greeters, clowns, musicians, actors, artists, calligraphers, salespeople, translators, analysts, couriers, assistants, bureaucrats, and teachers are all overrepresented. Among the middle class and lower upper class, lawyers and arcane supply merchants are lucrative positions.

Trade & Transport

Sanari is the least corporate of the vice-kingdoms of Zerua: corporations are still present, but they are strictly limited and are forced to operate more through large merchant families. There are some significant exceptions to this rule. The twin shipping corporations of the Aludarzir Corporation and the Aizadara Stock Company play major roles in local shipbuilding and trade, and have exemptions from corporate landowning bans. The two companies are fierce rivals, which is encouraged by the crown. 
The corporate presence waxes and wanes from emperor to emperor. In some regimes, the B&G Finance Company and Bank was allowed in Sanari, but they have scaled back and are entirely barred by the current emperor. The Iskariba Family Company, meanwhile, gained a number of privileges under the last emperor but has had most of them revoked under the current one due to being a security risk - they remain rather irritated about that. 
Since corporations are out, commercial dynasties are in - big merchant families that work together in grand alliances to run local businesses. Some of these families are tied closely to corporations and act as proxies, while others proudly serve no master but the emperor. 
Foreigners are also cut out for the most part from the trading game. However, aquatic people are in - Sanari is on great terms with the neighboring Underkingdom of Orokar, a squiddle state that sells the emperor chemical weapons.

"By Our Hand, Fire and Storm"

Founding Date

1700

Type

Geopolitical, Vicekingdom

Demonym

Sanaran

Head of State

Emperor Sophan Eramzir

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Unitary state

Official State Religion

Kamada

Parent Organization

Empire of Zerua

Location

Ekraht

Official Languages

• Zeruan language

Controlled Territories

• Argena

Neighboring Nations

• Underkingdom of Orokar
• Vice-Kingdom of Ibaisha

Related Plots

• The Prodigal Child Returns