Andar Commonwealth

“Consider the cliffs of Sentinel Prime. See how they stand fast, though the sea batters them without surcease. Such are the Andarine people. We weather the crashing waves. We endure.”

— Grand Admiral Calla Sandrin, in a speech to a group of Cetus Corps recruits

The scattered landforms of the Andarine Sea are like minute flecks in an enormous sapphire, all but lost in blue vastness. So comparatively small are they, that they must be exaggerated to be visible on maps of the splinter—and yet, a handful of these insignificant chips of land are home to a nation powerful enough to lay almost undisputed claim to the entire western half of the Sea: the Andar Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth is a union of island thanedoms. Not surprising, then, that the nautical looms so large in its culture. Many Andarine people spend the majority of their time at sea, as fishermen or merchants or members of the Commonwealth’s navy.
Once, each of the seven main islands of the Andars was its own autonomous state. These small nations were on unfriendly terms, and would frequently go to war with each other. Even now, the peoples of the Commonwealth cling fast to their individual cultural identities. Centuries-old rivalries are still very much at play, and sometimes tempers flare and old tensions come to the fore. Still, like quarrelsome siblings, the Andar peoples always make common cause against outside threats.
This is fortunate, as there’s no shortage of such threats. To understand the Andar Commonwealth, one must understand the forces arrayed against it.

Red Sails, Black Waters

The history of the Andar Commonwealth begins with the opening of the deep-sea trench called the Grave of Fathoms. From this unnatural wound in the seafloor emerged the Lord of Black Waters, a pelagic divinity of surpassing malevolence. This being rose out of the deeps, blackening the skies and whipping the seas into a frenzy, causing storms and tidal waves that threatened to swallow all the islands of the Andarine Sea.
The peoples of the Andar Islands despaired—until a hero rose from their midst. Mannoch Redsail, a mariner and warrior of legendary skill, managed to unite the fractious Andars under a single banner, and sailed east at the head of a great fleet to meet the threat.
It’s said that the ensuing battle was so devastating that a thousand ships were lost. Redsail and the Lord of Black Waters faced each other in single combat violent enough to shatter the seafloor, birthing the Sentinels, the rocky island chain that now marks the eastern edge of the Commonwealth’s territory. In the end, the great serpent retreated into the Grave of Fathoms, from which it has never since emerged. The battle was won, but at a terrible cost.
After the battle, Redsail sailed his ship to the main island of the newly-formed Sentinels, where he urged the surviving Andars to build a great fortress, a bulwark against future attacks. Then, having made this decree, he collapsed, for he had been fatally wounded in the fight. According to the songs, in his moment of dying, the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in a week.
Redsail has become a patron saint of sailors, standing in opposition against the Lord of Black Waters even in death. Many Andarine mariners make pilgrimages to the Sentinels to pay their respect to his preserved remains.

Teeth in the Deep

The Lord of Black Waters is still down there in its trench, nursing its hatred for the surface world. Though grievously injured—with any luck, badly enough that it will never again rise to the surface—it is far from harmless. Its influence warps the bodies and minds of the sea-creatures of the Leviathan Deeps, which rise to the surface, gargantuan and twisted, with a singular purpose: to swim west and destroy the Andar Islands.
Sentinel Prime, the island where Redsail died, is now the main hub of an early-warning network of watchtowers that spans the Sentinels. Castle Redsail, the sea-fort which the dying Redsail ordered built, is a forbidding place, a stronghold of metal and gray stone. The columns of black smoke from its industrial yards are visible on the horizon. From it, the elite military force known as the Cetus Corps keeps its ceaseless vigil.
In the years since the Commonwealth’s founding, the Andars have devised a method to magically bend captured leviathans to their will, turning them into ceti—submersible beasts of burden and war. Although there are some privately-owned ceti, the grand majority belong to the Cetus Corps, which uses them to patrol the Commonwealth’s waters and hunt down rogue leviathans.

An Eye for Beauty

The Andar Islands are rocky and mountainous, and many land-living Andars make their livings as goatherds, shepherds, hunters, and foresters. Hippogriffs are endemic to the islands, and the thanes which rule the Commonwealth employ hippogriff riders as scouts and messengers, allowing for efficient communication even with remote settlements.
In stark contrast with the industrial desolation of Sentinel Prime, the Andar Islands are rugged and beautiful. The Andars take great pride in this beauty, for they are an aesthetically-minded people. Andarine ships are famous for being living works of art, painstakingly decorated, changing with time as damage is sustained and repairs are made. Andarine scrimshaw is also famous, especially the large-scale sculptures that are made from leviathan bone; the Commonwealth’s capital, Mairdrum, is known as the Ivory City for the scrimshandered leviathan skeleton within and around which it is built.

An Insular People

Though the union of the Andar peoples still holds, each individual island retains a great deal of autonomy. The rulers of these seven islands—along with the commander of Castle Redsail—make up the Council of Thanes, the Commonwealth’s ruling body. The Council meets regularly in Mairdrum in order to discuss and rule on matters of national importance.
On the world stage, the Commonwealth is important both as a trade power and a buffer state between Belhacint and Dhavashri. Beyond doing brisk trade with other countries, the Commonwealth apparently has little interest in expanding out into the Aether. In fact, many outsiders describe the Andars as a little closed-off—superficially warm and welcoming, but difficult to get close to on a deeper level.
Not everyone agrees with the way the Commonwealth is run, and some of its citizens leave it outright, to become aethernauts or pirates—piracy has been a growing concern for Andarine lawkeepers since the recent founding of a ramshackle pirate “nation” on the hidden island of Tyr. On the whole, though, the Andars are patriotic sorts; their society, which faces such great threats, tends to foster suspicion towards outsiders and unwavering loyalty to the ideals of the Commonwealth.

THE ANDAR COMMONWEALTH

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Capital city: Mairdrum
Heads of state: The Council of Thanes
Languages: Andarine
Currency: Andarine oren

Andarine is a changeable language; depending on the speaker’s mood, it may be as silken as still water, or as choppy as the sea in storm.
Example names: Anagor, Andryn, Anten, Avandera, Cyren, Edric, Hanaphas, Ina, Kellen, Lorn, Mandeoch, Marten, Nicoraine, Orla, Pharanna, Ravel, Taran, Tyr, Varin, Yllaruun.