GOVERNMENT

Nalvi (NULL-vee) is a Sultanate. The people are called Nalvis (NULL-vee-z). The coast is on the Sea of Death.

The people are highly civilized (up to 60% of the population lives in cities), patient, subtle and cruel. Assassination is an art-form: they taught Ackaria everything it knows. There have always been professional assassins in Nalvi, though they have now all been absorbed into that sect which follows the Prophet.

Eldest sons are not automatically considered the heir, and disputes over inheritance may only be settled when all but one claimant is dead. Family feuds are a way of life.

Up to 40% of the population in cities are slaves. They are divided into believers and non-believers: the former have more rights. They are usually people seized by the Nalvi pirates: either from ships or by raids on land. They are taken to the slave market, branded on the forehead and fattened up, then assessed; those suitable only for manual labor are consigned to the rock quarries or similar, the rest are auctioned. These auctions can be lascivious affairs.

Foreigners are regarded as dirty and unreliable. Even those from civilized lands, who bath daily, do not have the steam bath, pumice and massage with which rich Nalvis always start the day. The public baths are free, maintained by each Emir, to keep even the poor clean. The privies (those which are not linked to the sewers) and streets are cleaned daily by night-soil men, the lowest of government employees.

Women in the Sultan’s seraglio can be influential in politics, depending on personalities: the woman’s and the Sultan’s. There is an acknowledged order of importance in the seraglio: Sultan’s mother, first wife, second wife, and so on down to the most recent. Last come the concubines, with the Sultan’s current favorite heading the list. The Sultan’s mother is the most respected woman in Nalvi: this reflects the influence women have on the education of their sons.

Since the top third of society effectively monopolizes all the available women, the poorer men must work hard to find a wife. Some become rowers on pirate ships until they have a suitable captive; some make do with other men. There are also the older concubines, rejected by their keepers, who gradually move down the social ladder. And there are peasant women too ugly to attract a wealthier suitor.

But the reputation the Nalvi have with other nations (and there is a little truth in it, at least for the poorest) is that the men marry their own mothers.

Adolescents from poor families who show promise are often castrated (if the parents agree: most parents are eager to open such a good career-path to their sons).

There are no official guards to enforce the law, except when the Sultan is in residence, when his guards patrol the streets around his palace to ensure that he is not disturbed by unseemly noise. People are expected to administer their own justice. Merchants in each district band together and hire their own guards to catch thieves. A man caught with stolen goods can have his hand cut off by the owner of those goods; no trial is necessary.

The death penalty is administered as a public show, and consists of being flayed alive, followed by being impaled, sewed in a sack and dropped in the sea. Mages ensure that the criminal lives through all but the last.

The economy is slave-based. It is forbidden to enslave a Nalvi, but it is frequently done.

The peasants are taxed lightly, most of the Sultan’s wealth comes from trade and piracy, and he distributes this to the aristocracy, as well as funding the government.

25% of all goods sold in a Nalvi port are taken for the Sultan. Merchants still sell goods there because the prices are high, even allowing for the tax. The Sultan exports goods into the Kheman Empire, a rich market.

Most Nalvi ships are pirates: the Sultan is constantly squabbling with the Poeni Hundred about who stole what from whom, and whether reparation should be paid.

There are strongly enforced rules about which nations’ ships and lands can be attacked. Careless Poeni are fair game, but most of the piracy is directed against Vindrus, Vailand and (by those bold enough to round the Cape of Lost Souls) Hsou.

The Kheman Empire and Promethia both react violently against attacks on their ships, and the Sultan usually has no wish to offend either. The Kheman navy is weak, but the Queen has close ties with Promethia, should she need naval help, and also a land border with Nalvi. The Kheman army is not weak.

Assassins usually work in pairs, seeking out the weak spots in the defenses of their target, then using disguise, cunning, stealth and speed to commit the murder. They can also work in large groups, launching a frontal attack, and advancing until they are killed. For the latter, they are usually intoxicated with bhang. (Hence the name Assassin: hashishim, hashish eaters.)

They maintain fortresses in the mountains, built over a spring, stocked with stores to last for months, and many women. This is where they train, and retreat when they are not on a mission. Anyone wishing to hire them must go to a fortress.

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