Faction overview: Sargon
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Administration and politics
Royal court
The Sargonian Royal Court (الدِّيوَان الْمَلَكِيُّ الشَرُوكِينـِيَّة) is the government body solely led by the Shah and his subordinates. The Shah gives his power to his chancellors to rule the empire from the capital onto other regions on his behalf. Because of its sheer size, Sargon has an enormous bureaucracy ranging from the king's prime ministers to imperial Messengers across the territories.[1]
There are three ways to become a government servant in the royal court of Sargon. The first method is through imperial examination to enter the bureaucracy. The second method is through honorific titles granted from the aristocats through appointment. The third method is becoming a representative or elder of a certain interest group (i.e., guild) sent to the Shah as his advisors. Those who enter the bureaucracy are usually civil servants with high status within the palace, but their working environment is tightly monitored by the aristocrats who possess military command.[1]
The Sargonian Royal Court is not only the oldest dynasty on Terra, but also its monarchical system has spread to other countries such as Victoria, Iberia, Gaul, Leithanien, and Ursus.[2]
King of Kings
The King of Kings or Shahanshah (شاهنشاه) is the head of state of Sargon. The full title of the Shahanshah is "The Great King, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the King of Far and Near, the Sovereign of all Provinces." Not only the Shahanshah is the de facto head of state, but also the unified leader of all the tribes below him. Aside from his absolute power in the legislature, the Shah is also the supreme commander-in-chief of the nation's army. As a centuries-old tradition, only the Aslan royal house could inherit the throne of the King of Kings.[1]
Padishahs and Lords Ameer
A Padishah (پادشاه) is a governor of a province granted by the Shah. Aside from governing civil affairs within his province, they are also the chief commander of an army. The title of a Padishah can be both hereditary or non-hereditary. Because they are regional governors who are responsible to maintain peace and diplomacy, the Padishahs are essential pillars in the royal court.[3]
A Lord Ameer (أمير) is a local chieftain whose rank is just beneath the Padishah. The Ameers' jobs are both to serve as representatives of their respective tribes in a province and generals of their armies. Each Ameer is different in terms of political power or governing system depending on their culture, as they all swear the same allegiance to the Shahanshah.[3]
Because Sargon remains uninterested in foreign diplomacy, foreigners must usually first make contact with the Padishahs or the Ameers who represent the Shah. Consequently, both of them have granted more power than the Shah in terms of territorial governance, resulting in utter confusion in land administration. Since the year 797 that began the era of nomadic cities, the number of Lords Ameer experienced a sudden boom from below 200 in the first year of the common era to more than 800 by the tenth century.[4]
Sargonian aristocracy
Sargon has the tradition of knighting various noble titles, be it hereditary or non-hereditary, onto various regional governors based on their political or military achievements. The practice is believed to originate from the Shah giving these titles to the governors in order to help rule the vast conquered territories. In order to maintain Sargon's sovereignty over the land, the Shah will dispatch royal officials to assist local governors.[3]
In the modern era, the Sargonian royal title has become a very complicated system. This is because even though the local governors are to rule their lands, their land is still technically the Shah's land. The Sargonian aristocracy also differs from other nations in which their titles are granted on behalf of the Shah while the latter have more solid, de jure political power.[3]
Legislature
Sargon has a very ancient legal codex. In fact, many scholars believe that the modern positive law/ius positum originated from Sargon. Nevertheless, the Sargonian imperial law is more of a framework for operation that is hard to cover all aspects of life. So, the Shah will provide the legal rights to the Ameers to establish their local law on the basis of no contradiction over the imperial law. These local laws are then carried out by soldiers or officers running the local government.[5]
Military
The Sargoian army is composed of two different groups: one are professional, full-time standing soldiers recruited under the nominal name of the Shah, and the other are private armies of the aristocrats. The Shah's standing soldiers serve as janissaries protecting both the Shah and the nobles. They receive professional training from commanders, armed with better and unified equipment, and even receive salary from the royal court. On the other hand, these janissaries are small in terms of size, and their role during wartime is to defend the city or conduct assaults.[5]
The private armies of the aristocrats, on the other hand, are larger and directly obey their local command. Despite their sheer size and immediate mobilization, their combat experience depends on the nobles who are responsible to provide training on their own. Usually, those nobles who seek to gain political power will own a private army to showcase their social status.[5]
An advantage of the Sargonian military is that the armies receive good administrative support. As a matter of fact, there are many non-combatants formed under a military doctrine who will provide their service to the Sargonian armies, many of whom being mercenaries or foreign PMCs. Many smaller communities will also form their own militia as self-defense.[5]
Zhayedans
- Main article: Zhayedans
Administrative divisions
Sargon land administration can be divided into both the imperial territory of Shar-Agade and multiple provinces or wilayat (وِلَايَة; sing. wilayah, وِلَايَة) that are directly under the rule of the Padishahs. Within a province are several regions and districts or manatiq (مَنَاطِق; sin. mintaqah, مِنْطَقَة) governed by the Lords Ameer, and below the Lords Ameer are regional clan chieftains such as lords or elders/shuyukh (شُيُوخ; sing. shaykh, شَيْخ).[3]
The royal court of Sargon is only interested in loyalty from regional governors; hence, they are not willing to interfere in local administration. Rather, the Shah imposes a satrapy system in which they will only dispatch imperial envoys when needed; otherwise, much of the Sargonian wilayat and manatiq are autonomous. Consequently, there are different names given by the locals regarding their local government, and powers between the Padishahs, Lords Ameer, and clan chieftains in a region are drastically imbalanced.[3]
Geography
The Sargonian geography can be divided into two distinctive regions: the arid tropical desert on the west, and the tropical rainforest on the east. In the desert region, there is the longest river on Terra flowing from the northeast to the deltas of the southwest. The oases dotting the river is the site where the earliest Sargonian civilization was born. The tropical rainforests of the east receive constant rainfall from the humid wind of the Sea of Clariside, and a mountain range running from the north to the south, a continuation of the Kjeragian range in the further north, blocks rainfall from entering the deserts of the west. Topography-wise, the easter jungle is in a lowland region whereas the western desert has a higher elevation.[6]
The tropical desert of the west encompasses most of Sargon's land by 37%, and the tropical rainforest of the east makes up 28% of the land. The remaining 35% of the land are lesser biomes: 14% being tropical monsoon, 11% being subtropical monsoon, and 10% being tropical savanna. Most of the centralized settlements are located in the savanna and the monsoon climate region; both the tropical desert and the tropical rainforest are sparsely populated.[6]
Moving further south is the border of the Foehn Hotlands. Due to the extreme heat waves created by the Hotlands, the temperature is much more arid than the rest of the regions, making it unsuitable for human settlement.[6]
Economy
Because Sargon heavily relies on land resources, agriculture is the main economic activity. Consequently, this is the main reason for Sargon's stagnated development. The low efficiency of the bureaucracy and the strong autonomy among the Padishahs results in a contrasting economy among provinces and districts. Even though the Shah and the royal court seek to bring economic reformations to the country, political struggles among the Padishahs and the Ameers make it extremely difficult to be implemented. In recent years, the Shah takes up the initiative in the reformation by actively introducing foreign investments into Sargon, but many of the regional governors do not respond to the campaign except some border Padishahs who welcome foreigners to trade with them.[5]
Demographics
Sargon has a total population of 100,000,000 people, and many of them live in the river valleys in the western desert and the eastern jungle. Sargon is a racially diverse country in which almost all kinds of races can be found in Sargon.[7] Some of them are even rare and can be considered endemic in Sargon such as Phidians, Archosaurians, and Anurans living in the eastern rainforests as well as the Ceratos and Reprobas in the western desert.
Because Sargon possesses very few nomadic cities, most of the population live in sedentary settlements. These sedentary dwellers are usually called "tribesmen" (رِجَال الْقَبِيلَة) by nomadic city-dwellers. Many tribesmen retain centuries-old traditions, and many are not aware of the existence of Originium technologies. City-dwellers usually do not despise them for they see these tribesmen as a citizen of Sagon, but on the other hand, many tribesmen only recognize themselves as part of a tribe rather than being part of Sargon as a whole.[3] In fact, many Sargonians traditionally view the Sargonian dynasty as the only legitimate government on Terra, and the modern concepts of nationality and citizenship have only begun to spread among the tribesmen as a way to refer to themselves living in a certain region when interacting with foreigners. Even then, in their primitive worldview, there are only two kinds of people in a society: a commoner and a nobleman.[7]
Culture
Sargon's satrapy system that grants autonomy to various regions preserve cultures of many tribes. The royal court has no interest in unifying these cultures and only insists subjugated tribes to swear allegiance to the Shahanshah. As a matter of fact, Sargonians are tolerant to different cultures surrounding them. These unique cultures include folk dances, literatures, and mysticism of the desert clans as well as tribal ceremonies in the eastern jungle that are totally separated from the desert such as those in the Acahuallan region.[7]
Nevertheless, the Sargonian society appears to be very conservative. They believe that a tradition or an environment should be well preserved as it looks like centuries ago; any destruction upon them spells the end of a culture, for the tribe needs to be reborn from the ruins. As such, they prefer to keep anything pristine, be it buildings, art, or rituals. They are also weary of foreign cultures and ideologies because they believe they are the ones that could bring destruction upon their culture.[7]
Imperial Sargon highly values education, believing that it is the only method for social mobility. Hence, the Sargonian government has been actively building schools to cultivate intellectuals, be it public or private. In recent years, many Padishahs and Ameers have introduced foreign curriculum to expand the commoners' worldview in regards to the outside world.[7]
References
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