Baalthaaz
The country of Baalthaaz is on the warm eastern coast of the Sea of Baal, north of Ifthaaz and south of the Antioch City-States. Once a group of separate city-states, it has long been unified into a single kingdom but some of the previous independence persists. Together they are known as the Five Cities, and are ruled by the Five Crowns. In order of founding, the cities are: Perazim, Laishah, Eshcol, Zephathel, and Zeruin. The country is hilly but fertile, when plenty of rain comes.
In fact, the fertility and productive capability of the land (and sea) are the major focus of the Baalathite religious observances. Although many new deities have been introduced to the coast of the Sea of Baal in the past few millennia — the Hyperborean deities, Mah-Barek, Anumon — the people of Baalthaaz (and Ifthaaz) hold strongly to the ancient Kehna pantheon. They attribute the continued prosperity of their lands to this constancy and continue to make worship of their gods the center of their culture.
The people of Baalthaaz tend to make bragging claims about their ancestry, many of which can neither be proven nor disproven. They say they are descended from the Sea Peoples, ancient explorers who sailed the coasts of Libynos and beyond. This may be true; no records exist that would show this, but within the region the Sea Peoples are generally thought to have originated in the eastern part of what is now the Sea of Baal.
The Baalathites also claim that in ages past, angels and demigods found their men and women so beautiful that the divine beings left the palace of Illion, King of the Gods, and instead resided for a while on Boros where they took humans as their spouses. That may be truth or legend, but it is certain that from time to time people of Baalthaaz demonstrate exceptional height, strength, beauty, or aptitudes.
Baalthaaz is primarily an agricultural country, with some other industries. Many areas have excellent vineyards, so much wine is produced, some of which is exported.
The most important exports of Baalthaaz, however, are its trees. The eastern hills and mountains have tall pines grown specifically for ship masts and great cedars that are harvested for their strong and fragrant wood. The foresters of Laishah and Zeruin are very particular about the trees for masts; these take regular cultivation and years to develop, so only a limited number are available each year. The Five Crowns of Baalthaaz always have a list of countries or shipbuilding companies that are waiting to receive masts, and can sometimes be influenced to move one up (or down) the list.
Influence is a large feature of both business and government in Baalthaaz, and bribery and extortion are common. Officially, neither is condoned but it hard for an individual to raise a large enough fuss to have a minor government bureaucrat disciplined, much less a powerful person censured. Power, achieved by any means possible, is the general goal of individuals in Baalthaaz.
When the Hyperboreans conquered the five kingdoms that later became the country of Baalthaaz, they deplored the decadent way of life and what they saw as the personal immorality of the people of the area. The bribery and buying of influence were also offensive to the majority of the Hyperboreans, although even in imperial service there were always a few people willing to enrich themselves. Attempts to transplant the Hyperborean deities were a failure; temples were built, but no one ever attended them except the few Hyperboreans in the area. The Baalathites were willing to concede that the deities of the Hyperboreans were real; those gods simply had nothing to do with the people of the Five Cities, who stayed true to their own pantheon. With the building of Tircople, the Hyperboreans levied heavy taxes on the region in the form of foodstuffs to support the city, but in general the Five Cities experienced little hardship during the hegemony of the Hyperborean Empire. As the empire declined and abandoned fortresses in the quiet central areas of its jurisdiction, the various crowns took control. Those fortresses saw a great deal of use in the struggles for supremacy among the Five Crowns, but today mostly lie in ruins.
Region
Baalthaaz, The Five Cities of
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