Island of the Rex Mercator

[Occitania]

Marsilia, the capital of the Occitans. Is located on a vast island that is absolutely ruled by the Rex Mercator, Julius Apple.

Julius Apple is an ambitious and careful man and king of Occitania. Today he has decided to show to the world the work of the Occitans and transform the island. The Puer Cursor, a young boy named Tullus Uva is sent out across the land riding from Marsilia to the land of the poor Occitans in the North near the domain of the Serenierre. Here the poor Occitans live quietly at the feet of many mountains and the mouth of many rivers. These poor Occitans own fertile land but must travel far South to sell their extra harvest as to the rich Occitans, crossing God's mountain range is sacrilege of the highest order. This leaves the poor Occitans as they are, poor as they cannot travel to the South on foot across the white mountains of God in winter while on foot.

Horses however are sacred and only the most worthy men are allowed to take horses across the mountains. Who is worthy however often ends up as the rich Occitan's decision. Still the Puer Cursor is the Rex Mercator's messenger and no one stands in the way of the king for God has decided so that all the people of Occitania must put their quarrels aside in face of the divine nature of the Rex Mercator. So the Puer Cursor brings a column of thousands of horses for the poor Occitans of the North to ride. Then before Autumn, hordes of poor Occitans fill the passes of God's range. These poor Occitans join great columns of men on their mounts.

Together the Occitans from all over the kingdom ride to Marsilia where the Rex Mercator sits waiting for all the men of the land. The children and women of the land stay in their homes and celebrate for their husbands, fathers, sons or brothers will soon return having served loyally their king's demand. Thus the crowd gathers and gathers until Spring when the crowd has gathered to its fullest. Standing in the crowd are the rich, the poor and the middle class Occitans greeting each other and drinking eagerly together awaiting their king to appear. Only at night do they return to their hotels or if they live on the island, their families and homes.

Julius appears in mid Spring standing on a platform atop a great tower that overlooks the vast party of men. He speaks "People of Occitania this year shall be productive, for my servant lord of design has produced a plan of great significance for the prestige of the kingdom." As he speaks he is interrupted by applause and after a few minutes it is settled, he continues as follows "God has plans for the isle of Marsilia, canals are to be built to take boats straight to the shops in the middle, to take fish straight to the yards of the inhabitants of the island." The applause begins again and the king waits to speak "Along with the canals will be walls of great magnificence, they shall be coated in silver and lined with gold and they shall round the island only three times."

"The world shall marvel at our feat of ability and Occitan men who do not lift, pull or shovel will have their farms filled with Locusts, their estates set ablaze and their hands shrunk to the size of a coin all by God. Go forth this assembly of men and complete what I have tasked you to do." As the king finishes the crowd explodes in applause and agreement and the men disperse to men on smaller platforms tasked with managing the grand project.

 

[Occitania]

At each small platform atop a man stands dressed in green and wearing a cap. When the king is done speaking the platform rises up. These men then command, they make passwords "When an order comes from me it will end in Ojawee but I shall not pronounce it as Ojawee but instead Odawa. If you are suspected of being a spy you will write down the password as it is, Ojawee."

Then the men travel with their groups to the places they need to be to dig or lay bricks. In only three weeks the project is finished, canals extend across the island several times and walls extend many men high and round the whole isle three times.

Julius then recalls them back to the large tower where he speaks again "The isle is transformed, the world will marvel at our construction, go back now go to your homelands and your families. Those who have worked loyally and hard will be rewarded roads and omens. Those who have not worked loyally and hard will be subject to the most horrific storms of locusts, fire and witchcraft that God can muster."

All the men of the land return to their homes on the same horses that they traveled to Marsilia with and in August a great harvest occurs and God's range is cleared of snow for the king's promised road.

 

[Occitania]

Pejo is a community of millions of merchants, sailors, fishers and farmers that live on a peninsula covering the Amor Barathro. The city is rich and trade with many neighbors is conducted by it. Pejo is in fact, so rich that it has its own royal palace. The Dux Mercator of Pejo, Caeso Aroma rules from Pejo to Lions to Flonice. In the center of his domain is Mulmas, a grand intersection between Pejo and the two peninsulas separated by the Sinus Sirena. A tenth of the entire kingdom lives in Mulmas in fact.

Due to the power of his domain, Caeso Aroma could easily declare independence but God has placed upon the Occitans their divine nature. With this divine nature comes much dedication to each other and to prove his loyalty to Julius Apple, Caeso Aroma redirects all exports to Quale in the North where the merchants disperse through the sea to Vinedia. Thus Caeso and Julius are great friends and after building magnificent objects on the isle of Marsilia, Julius has recommended to further the prestige of the kingdom, to make a tower five hundred feet tall. Atop a great dome with a hollow reflective sphere. Under, a powerful bulb focused on the sphere. A man would come and shift the sphere in such a way that the light would enter and funnel through a complex system of mirrors.

These mirrors would focus all the light from the bulb into the sphere. Attached would be a great computer computing the quantity of heat and light and knowing at a certain point the sphere will melt, opening it after many days and shining a beam worthy of heaven across the strait between the Retalian sea and the Amor Barathro to the city of Vistoles.

Caeso Aroma assembles the population of his domain, a third of it all from Mulmas. In the same amount of time the isle of Marsilia was transformed, the tower is finished and the first display of its beauty is performed. Occitans from all over the kingdom flock to see the amazing event and when its finished the sphere is replaced with just a larger bulb to help sailors along.

 

[Occitania]

Sagola, a cliff side settlement looking over the Aurum Lacus, is an important town in Occitania. It is not only the Dux Mercator of Sagola, Aulus Persicum's administrative capital but a town with a dark past of ferocious cults and rebels, at the same time a savior of the entire kingdom. This settlement is situated between two rivers and a few feet from a large waterfall that goes straight into the lake. The narrow path to the settlement is ridden with mud and rocks. In the transitional seasons of Spring and Autumn when storms are at their maximum the path is a frightful venture to take as the rain flows off the mountain sides carrying boulders and mud onto the path. In Summer, obstacles on the path are removed but in Winter it is too cold to do anything.

So if the path is damaged severely, contact between Sagola and the rest of the kingdom is cut off until Summer. Fortunately this isn't too bad, there is another narrow path down to the Aurum Lacus where boats can dock if there is an emergency. However the path is too narrow for supplies to come and go all year, so the town has been limited to a population of a few hundred. Today the Dux Mercator has decided to rectify this. He has himself conducted a plan to turn the small town into a citadel of immense amazement.

Aulus has designed two layers of defenses for the town, the first is a wall that protects the rivers and is fifty feet tall and is twenty feet thick, the second is a wall that utilizes the rivers as moats and is seventy feet tall and thirty feet thick. On the side facing the Aurum Lacus there is no wall but instead a large overhanging platform on the cliff holding a crane for lifting supplies off boats. During the Summer, Aulus calls upon the Occitans of his domain and they assemble in Sagola and produce for the city this immense defense in only a month.

 

[Occitania]

Beles is a town far to the North of most of the kingdom as it lies on the shores of the great sea to the North of Occitania. Thus it is very different compared to the rest of the kingdom. The people of Beles eat fried eels at Christmas and bathe in the water of the Ragusto river. They put crushed snails in their soap and dry their hair with the skin of the humble white Giraffe that roams the plains. However the strangest thing about this town is that their leader is a woman. Eusebia Citrea is the Ducissa Mercator of Beles and her domain extends until the Pecia hills in the South and West until the Bralva river.

The domain of Eusebia is important as it borders the Serenierre and owns the closest route to Bourgogne via the sea. It also owns the greatest harvests in the kingdom and thus much of the kingdom's grain goes South every autumn. Eusebia lives in Beles and is very generous with her wealth and with the harvests. So generous she is that the rich have taken advantage and have created a fake group of wandering nomads, posing as poor beggars that roam the plains but in reality servants of evil rich merchants who meet with the nomads in secret and take the wealth every month. This group of nomads are known as the Empty tribe as they leave towns of generous people unexpectedly and no matter how much food, care and money is donated they always seem to have nothing.

One day however, a rogue by the name of Bruno stumbled upon the Empty tribe's hidden wealth while tracking a herd of white Giraffes. Then the nature of the Empty tribe changed completely, they began ravaging the country side and stealing from the generous folk. Eusebia Citrea had them all detained but every time they were tried the judge mysteriously had them acquitted. So it's up to the people now, to rid themselves of these thieves. Militias form and without the consent of the judges, march off into the plains in search of the vile gang. These vigilantes are appearing all over the country side and the Empty tribe will soon be hanged undoubtedly.

 

[Occitania]

Coloza is a river side city living on the banks of the Galaos river, it is huge productive settlement which trade from the North and South flows through via the river. It is on the inner edge of Aulus Persicum's domain and has no issues, thus we will focus on else places.

Megadeia is a super religious town on the isle of its own. It's name originates from the great (mega) goddess (deia) Mara of the locality who was member of the old pantheon of gods of Occitania. She was the goddess of the sea and thus very important to the isle dwellers. Megadeia is small compared to the rest of the kingdom's major places. It is unimportant to trade, farming or mining. However what makes Megadeia important is that it is home to the Occitan cathedral of Cardinals and the Arch-Bishop of Occitania Carlus de Paveza(a town on the Tote river in South Eastern Occitania).

Holy as it is, a place of gathering for the most pious men of Occitania. The Dux Mercator is the Arch-Bishop himself and Carlus de Paveza's domain ranges from the isle of Megadeia to mainland West of the Galaos river and South of Coloza. However the Cardinals of Megadeia are abusing the subjects of his domain and his lack of support for their abuse ranging from acts of fraud to vandalism, over-taxation and mob violence has led them to decide a new Arch-Bishop. This is despite Carlus' piety and huge support from the Occitans. Fortunately they can't elect a new Arch-Bishop until Carlus is dead which leads to the unfortunate side of things, they want Carlus dead.

Multiple attempts on Carlus de Paveza's life have been made by hired assassins some in ways that impede the classical society that Occitania is happy with. However Carlus cannot simply arrest the Cardinals as that would be seen as corruption. This has gone on for some months and the people are weary of the constant abuse so much that they have gone through the house of Cardinal's ancient rules to find some kind of loophole and alas no loopholes. No loopholes but one particular law...

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Simply translated to

"Law 2:5 of the House of Cardinals entails and must be obeyed, S(the following)

No Cardinal or figure of importance in the network of election of the Arch-Bishop of Occitania may impede the public business or strain society and civilization of the Occitans directly or indirectly but will not be accountable for the decision to elect an Arch-Bishop that disguises as pious until so."

Thus the people have up risen and cast the Cardinals away in place of the pious priests in support of Carlus de Paveza. Once again all is holy and well on the isle of Megadeia.