Corsair Kingdom of Karnesh
The Kingdom of Karnesh is a small kingdom located on the Arak Coast at the mouth of the Karn River. It is called the "Corsair Kingdom" because fully 70% of everyone that lives in the capital city of Karnesh is fully dependant on the institution of piracy and slavery as a means of daily life, and as much as 30% of the rest of the small country does as well.
The Kingdom of Karnesh has a rocky and confusing history. No legitimate succession has occured here in more than 70 years, but 9 "kings" have ruled in that same span of time. Assassination, revolt and conquest are the primary means of ascending to the throne of Karnesh, as the last seven decades have shown.
The current Corsair King is Obram Marner, a 44-year-old Human with a very enigmatic past. Obram took the throne from the last Corsair King, Alin Bertaine, when he defeated him in a sea battle only a mile outside of the main city port of Karnesh just seven years earlier. Bertaine's body was hung from the mast of Marner's ship as he sailed into Karnesh after the victory, and the city proclaimed him the new King.
Structure
A small, petty kingdom based solely on the institutions of piracy and slavery. Supreme rule is determined by supreme might or sole survival through combat.
Culture
The Kingdom of Karnesh is a state without codified law or institutional justice. Might makes right, and the winner of any contest of arms or strength is usually determined to be "right" about whatever question is at hand, be it who rules the kingdom or who is due to be paid. Ruled by the Oshahni minority, the native Karni people are oppressed and subjugated as chattel with no voice in the rule or running of the society.
History
Over the course of the last eight decades, the region of the Karn River Valley has been dominated by pirates and slavers. No dynasty has ever become established, and the transition of rule has followed a violent and bloody process of battle and conquest. Nine Corsair Kings have ruled from the Citadel at Karnesh, with the most recent being the most dangerous, Obram Marner.
Demography and Population
Outside of the few functioning coastal settlements, the interior regions of the Kingdom of Karnesh are populated almost exclusively by the native Karni tribes of Human peoples. These people are, on average, short and muscular folk that exist at a purely subsistence level, counting themselves truly blessed by the gods if they manage a solid meal at the end of every day. Nowhere in the Kingdom does a Karni native hold any power or authority beyond their own immediate family unit.
All real power and authority in the kingdom is held by non-native peoples known by the Karni tribes as oshahni, or roughly translated as "those of the sea". Constituting only a fraction of the total population of the kingdom, the Oshahni are the ruling class, the wealthy landowners and merchants, and the masters of the enslaved masses toiling throughout the kingdom.
Of the 75,000 people that live within the accepted borders of the Kingdom of Karnesh, less than 19,000 are Oshahni and the rest are either slaves taken by the corsairs or native Karni. This ratio means that the Oshahni are outnumbered by the slaves and Karni by nearly 4 to 1, and because of this fact, Oshahni do not EVER tolerate insurrection or resistance to their rule by non-Oshahni. In fact, just about the only way to get all the Oshahni to cooperate in any meaningful way with each other is when they unite to fight an uprising of the native/slave populus.
Territories
The Kingdom exerts a significant level of control over the east bank of the Karn River. The greatest area of contested control is on the west bank of the river near the river's mouth. It is here that the neighboring Burna Sovereignty, which is the piratical Oshahni-controlled state immediately to the west and south of Karnesh, exerts its influence on the lands closest to the Kingdom. This stretch of the western bank of the Karn is the location of the ancient Citadel of Karnesh that is the primary residence of the Corsair King and constitutes the most obvious threat to the Kingdom from Burna.
Military
Other than the more than 20,000 pirate/sailors of the Corsair Kingdom, there isn't actually a standing army in the territory. There are probably some 150 Gray Cloaks wandering the streets of Karnesh at any given time, but other than cudgels and quarter staffs, they are not actually armed (a rather poor attempt to reduce the amount of arbitrary killing of subjects by the King's henchmen). Since, at any given time, there are as many as 8,000 to 10,000 sailors actually out to sea, the actual number of armed and able fighters in the Kingdom is never much more than 10,000. While this seems like a significant number of armed fighting men, one must consider that the neighboring states that might bring arms to bear on Karnesh are equally, or moderately better, able to field a similar force.
Laws
All rules and regulations are enacted and enforced by the authority of the Corsair King, Obram Marner. He employs a group of ruffians known amongst the Karni as Gray Cloaks for their uniform that randomly collect the exorbitant taxes assumed to be due at almost anytime they wish. If the taxes aren't paid to the Gray's satisfaction, the subject is beaten or even killed on the spot. Crime in the city of Karnesh is rampant, mostly amongst the Oshahni but there is a level of theft and abuse amongst the Karni as well... especially if some Karni is suspected of collaborating with the Oshahni at the expense of other Karni.
Some of the few laws that are rigidly enforced are those that limit the freedoms and livelihood of the native Karni people. These include (but are not liited to) a ban on all bows by male Karni. Only women can use a bow and arrow to hunt birds and small game, and any man that is caught with or using a bow is immediately hung from the nearest tree as a warning to others. Knives longer than a skinning knife and axes with heads larger than a hand are also forbidden to be owned or used by Karni. Any form of sword is an instant death sentence for a Karni.
Trade & Transport
One significant advantage that Karnesh has over its neigboring territories is that it has a high number of large warehouses which are nearly always full of a wid variety of materials and supplies. Everything from wheat to wheels, bolts of fine cloth to bolts of copper and steel, bales of cotton and wool to bushels of coal... almost anything can be found in a Karnesh warehouse. There are also three large slave pits that keep as many as 1,000 slaves coralled and ready to be sold, either individually or in lots. Prices can exceed a thousand guilders for prime healthy women, and half that for strong, able men. Rumors exist of several houses within the city where the wealth of a dozen pirate captains is kept (for a large fee) in strongboxes locked in underground vaults and guarded by strange beasts, magical charms or fierce foreign warriors.
Infrastructure
Unlike much of the other pirate states that make up the Arak Coast, Karnesh has two significant roads that lead deep into the interior of the coast. On the east bank of the Karn River there is an ancient but functional stone road that runs from the city of Karnesh northwest along the river for more than 85 miles. At its interior terminus, this road is joined by another equally ancient stone road that takes travellers east for almost exactly 100 miles to the headwaters of the Kaldee River, 30 miles inland from the coast. This road, and the two rivers that it connects, constitute the northern extent of Oshahni control of the Karnesh region.
Both of these roads are made of large stone blocks with high curbs and are designed to drain water very efficiently. They average more than 20' in width and are remarkably level and smooth. Only at a very few locations has time and nature made the road difficult to traverse (landslides, erosion, etc.). No sure date has even been determined as to when they were built, or by whom. Today, these roads are used by Karni serfs and slaves to move timber, stone and other bulk resources from the interior to the city of Karnesh.
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Leader
Location
Controlled Territories
Organization Vehicles
Notable Members
