The League The Archduke Buffer State Economy New World Who's Who Places People Beliefs Legal System THE LEAGUE The Duchy of Algandy (map) is part of the League (map), a collection of city-states and petty Princedoms ruled by a council. The League was formed initially for military strength but now lies bound together by economic dependence. For more information see Places page.

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THE ARCHDUKE
The Archduke of Algandy is the descendent of one of the barbarian tribes that sacked the Golden Empire. The Algundians were once a fierce tribe of herdsmen who were driven westwards into the empire by the migrations of other barbarians. Having conquered the part of the frontier that would become the Duchy, the Algundians settled back to a life of raising cattle and sheep, fighting only to defend the frontiers of their land from the Empire and later from other barbarians. Within a few hundred years the Duchy had been converted to the Faith by missionaries from the League, the Duke converted and declared that it would become the religion of his people replacing the shamans who interceded with the spirits of nature on behalf of the tribe. The old ways were outlawed; overnight the shamans either converted becoming priests of the new faith or fled deep into the woods to continue their worship. Perhaps it is the continuation of their traditions that spawn the many lycanthrope stories told of the eerie Algundian woodlands, where drums can be heard sometimes at dusk and where beast and man blur into one.

BUFFER STATES
From embracing the Faith it was a simple step to joining with the League as a buffer state against less settled and still pagan barbarians. With the end of the great barbarian migrations Algandy found itself a full member of the League, its rulers educated in the League heartland, its people grown accustomed to the luxuries of the other League states.

ECONOMY
Economically Algandy is an importer of luxury goods such as fine cloth, wine and spirits, tobacco and glassware. Many of these items are then traded onto the barbarian tribes bordering the Duchy in exchange for furs, slaves, amber, gold, exotic resins and dyes. Two items traded across the border are illegal under Duchy and League law, gunpowder and a type of narcotic fungus called Far-dreamer by the barbarians. Gunpowder, as the most recent military development, may not be traded with any enemies of the League. Any attempt to do so would be considered treason and punished as such. Unfortunately the possession of a thunder stick has become a status symbol amongst barbarian nobles, and something they are willing to pay phenomenal sums for, sums capable of tempting the greedy despite the risk of punishment. Far-dreamer is a type of toadstool that is prized by barbarian shamans for its vision giving properties. In the League it is valued by the rich and the decadent as the narcotic of choice and for its feeling that the mind floats free of the body, able to travel vast distances in an instant. The fresh toadstool is more potent, but most often traded to the empire are dried and are consumed as a tea or in alcohol.

THE NEW WORLD

A new spirit is sweeping across the League, men of education are gathering to question the essential nature of the universe. Men of science are treading new paths, the printing press was invented less than twenty years ago, black powder, child of the alchemists genius, has revolutionised the concept of war since its introduction ten years ago. Now the shape of the world is under threat, some have suggested that the world is round and not flat and that things stick to it due to some sort of attraction similar to magnetism. More astounding is the idea that the world goes around the sun, and that the stars and moon are not attached to celestial spheres that form a shell around the world but seem to rotate due to the spinning of the world.

In the cities of the League, universities are springing up, rivalling the Church run schools and colleges, catering to the growing middle classes. With the advent of the printing press it is suggested that a quarter of the population are now literate and the percentage is growing each year.

The arts are taught as well as philosophy, medicine, the natural sciences, and mathematics. Students and scholars have become a common sight on the streets of the Leagues metropolises.

Noted Universities:
The Huldmann University in Losse
The Walstein academy of artillery and logistics
The Free Thinkers college of Natural Philosophy
The University of Phoenice

WHO'S WHO

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