- Pronouns
- Snek
- TNP Nation
- Territorio di Nessuno
- Discord
- Nessie
Sanguinia was once a former League of Maritime Republics and Dukedoms that had territories stretching between the Kingdom of Dürrenweil and Peregrinum. Ever since its fall, Sanguinia is a cursed, impoverish land that is plagued by constant misfortunes, disease and drawing the attention of dark powers, even though it once held the title as being one the most beautiful, richest and prospers land of the world.
This land of shady hills, devastated moors and forests covered by mists is avoided by all sensible travelers. No one in his right mind would venture to enter there at dusk and no errant knight or tired pilgrim would ever take refuge in the disturbing and putrid castles that dominate the land. At night, the inbred and horribly mutaded peasants of these sordid villages are locked in their homes and dock their doors, with bundles of garlic, talismans
and protective herbs hanging over their closed windows, in the vain hope that these protective herbs protect them from the creatures that roam at night.No one rules this accursed land, for none wish to do so otherwise.
History
The ancient Sanguinii tribes were actually nomads dedicated to hunting and exploitation of the territory, and it was only after crossing the mountains and having settled along the fertile coastal plains that the first permanent settlements were founded, from which the City-States of Sanguinia were born. Despite sharing the same origins and traditions, the settlements that grew on the coast were never united into a single realm, mostly because of the strongly-willed and indipendent minded of it's people so that any attempts at empire building within Sanguinia were bitterly opposed. Whatever the case, these settlements would eventually grow extremely wealthy and powerful, and would in time become kingdoms in their own right.
As the Sanguinii city-states grew out of trade and commerce, so too did the idea of expanding such trade routes to encompass not just their immediate territories, but to the whole of the world and beyond. Eager to set up new trade routes, the merchants of Sanguinia had always been willing to finance large expeditions of exploration. Not only this would lead to new discoveries and increased profit, but it also removed a great many Compagnie di ventura from Sanguinia itself where, in times of peace, those unemployed mercenaries would otherwise spend their time wandering the cities of Sanguinia looking for employment or trouble to stir.
Thus began a golden age for Sanguinia where they were are able to finance and equip such extravagant expeditions that other people might find impossible to undertake. Consequently, Sanguinia had become a haven of navigators, cartographers, explorers and discoverers. Big expeditions were set with whole armies of hired warriors, most of whom were destined to perish horribly in the jungles, swamps and deserts of some foreign land, if not in a shipwrecked or drowned beforehand. However, for the lucky few who meet success, the rewards were immense beyond imagination.
The most successful Condottieri returned home as heroes, their ships stuffed to the gunnels with immense treasures, their journals filled with highly imaginative accounts of new lands, exotic goods and outlandish tribes. But all of this come to an end.
No one know what caused it, whether from some new disease or from some of those fabulous treasures that many believed were cursed, but everyone knows that when the plague hit Sanguinia, everything ended. People fell ill, maritime and land trade was interrupted to prevent further contagion, crops broke down and the already turbulent relations between the various states of the confederacy exploded in an open war. Compagnie di ventura and Milizie set fire to the already-tried campaigns, and so to the plague, the war and the economic crisis were joined by famine.
Sanguinia fell into total anarchy, from which it never recovered. Those who could afford it as well as the lucky ones managed to leave, while those who remained lived in the misery of what remained, as their descendants still live today.
Former City-States of the League of Sanguinia
The Republic of Balestrino.
The Dukedom of Castro.
The Republic of Rocca San Silvestro.
The Dukedom of Curon.
The Serene Republic of Poveglia.
The Republic of Calascio.
The Republic of Luni.
The Republic of Tocco.
Geography
Once the lands near the coastal plains were naturally green and fertile and as a result, easily cultivated. This was a very rich and abundant land for both farmers and nobles to live in. The sea's were also full of fish and the foothills of the mountain were covered in open woodlands which was an excellent hunting country for the nobility.
Nowaday Sanguinia is a land surrounded in mist and darkness. The very soil itself has become highly infertile, with certain regions gradually being transformed into bogs, swamps and marshes, with the surrounding dense forests, shadowy places patrolled by packs of large, perpetually hungry wolves and often harboring all manner of grotesque and horrifying creatures of the night.
In the North and in the West the coastal areas are dominated by swamp with isolated areas of higher and firmer ground.
The line between Sanguinia and Peregrinum in the North-East range from the sea down to the edge of the mountains, across the great forest, where the canopy of trees is so tangled that a permanent night is created underneath them which is haunted by unseen monsters that takes everyone who dare to tread there.
To the South, the border with the Kingdom of Dürrenweil is made by the stinking marshes and fallow hills that make good sheep-herding country if nothing else.
The jagged shadows of the mountains in the South-East stretch over this land of night, and cold winds blow down from the peaks.
It is a land of harsh winters that paint the ground blindingly white. To go out after dark in such a winter is almost certain death, but to go out at night in a Sanguinia summer is little safer. When the air is still, thick fogs gather. Storms frequently come down off the mountains along with the winds and snows. Thunderstorms are common, as are fires started by lightning strikes. Fortunately, these fires do not spread very far thanks to the damp land with many bogs and lonely moors. Not to mention the swamps, where the firm ground of a trail often sinks an inch or so beneath the level of the water.
Demographics
The people of Sanguinia are generally human, though you would not always know it to look at them. Most peasants are horribly deformed and suffer constantly from foul diseases. With the understandably low yield of crops, starvation is a constant threat, and many accept times of hunger pains as a normal part of life. Turning to cannibalism, is considered distasteful and low but not evil. Desperate times can call for desperate measures, and the Ghouls that raid the villages often lived amongst their victims the winter before. All this has led to the Sanguinii becoming even more insular but hardy people, where the peasants live in small communities of interrelated families, from which they never venture away from fear of what awaits in the lands around them. Instead, they focus themselves on daily survival, digging for what life gives them in this unfertile land, raising goats, famishing pigs and taking care of their farms with the hope of gathering enough harvest to survive the long and cruel winter.
The division between nobles and commoners here it's more pronounced than anywhere else as the few remaining nobles rule their lands like small kingdoms with absolute power, cruelty and despotism. Since Sanguinia is without rulers, they don't have to be accountable to any higher authority and have free access to treat the peasants as they wish. Many abuse it terribly, since Sanguinia itself seems to corrupt their minds with cruelty and often with absolute madness, while some are corrupted by something even darker. And that's the reason why nobles never reveal themself. Some of them are actually undead, vampires or wights, with the same lord ruling for centuries. Others are mutants, or cultists of the Blood magic bearing the marks of their bonds. A few are simply human and need to hide that fact lest their neighbours think them weak.
Sanguinii villages and towns are considered rural backwaters by the standards of every civilized nation. There are few stone roads, rather it is roads full of furrows and half flooded which communicate to most villages and navigation is impossible, except in the relatively dry summer months. During the rest of the year, access to villages is cut except for the most desperate or foolish travelers with little knowledge of the outside world.
The villages of Sanguinia are in a continuous bad state, as it is difficult to get stone and wood, the peasant hovels are on the verge of collapsing and many buildings have been provisionally fixed for centuries, streets are little more than sewers, and there are as many dead animals to be seen as living ones. The inhabitants watch any visitors silently from their homes, cowering within and giving only occasional glimpses of their malformed bodies. All of them have their windows stuck or covered with wooden boards and heavy doors adorned with primitive amulets and religious relics to keep themselves safe from the unnatural horrors of this dreadful land. These towns support only a few burghers, as most are merely overgrown villages that happen to be built on better land. Since Sanguinia's population never truly recovered from the horrors of the Plague and the contagions that followed, overcrowding had never been a problem in these towns and villages.
Yet, despite all of this, some people do come to Sanguinia from outside. These are the most depraved and evil bandits, pirates, rebels, criminals, cultists of the Blood magic and Necromancers. They believe, rightly, that few people will bother to pursue them once they enter these cursed lands. Many such immigrants find that the monsters waiting for them are more dangerous than any bounty hunter, but a few survive to add to the peril for the next set of arrivals.
Finally, it is not uncommon for errant knights, adventurers and treasure hunters to seek fortune and glory in Sanguinia, hoping to find long lost treasures, fighting overwhelming foes, answering calling for help and trying to resolve the many mysteries of these cursed land. Many of these people have never returned from Sanguinia and some are still there, stained by the curse and doomed to become part of the evil they came out against. But there is always a gentleman, or a fool, willing to cross the borders and look for his destiny.
This land of shady hills, devastated moors and forests covered by mists is avoided by all sensible travelers. No one in his right mind would venture to enter there at dusk and no errant knight or tired pilgrim would ever take refuge in the disturbing and putrid castles that dominate the land. At night, the inbred and horribly mutaded peasants of these sordid villages are locked in their homes and dock their doors, with bundles of garlic, talismans
and protective herbs hanging over their closed windows, in the vain hope that these protective herbs protect them from the creatures that roam at night.No one rules this accursed land, for none wish to do so otherwise.
History
The ancient Sanguinii tribes were actually nomads dedicated to hunting and exploitation of the territory, and it was only after crossing the mountains and having settled along the fertile coastal plains that the first permanent settlements were founded, from which the City-States of Sanguinia were born. Despite sharing the same origins and traditions, the settlements that grew on the coast were never united into a single realm, mostly because of the strongly-willed and indipendent minded of it's people so that any attempts at empire building within Sanguinia were bitterly opposed. Whatever the case, these settlements would eventually grow extremely wealthy and powerful, and would in time become kingdoms in their own right.
As the Sanguinii city-states grew out of trade and commerce, so too did the idea of expanding such trade routes to encompass not just their immediate territories, but to the whole of the world and beyond. Eager to set up new trade routes, the merchants of Sanguinia had always been willing to finance large expeditions of exploration. Not only this would lead to new discoveries and increased profit, but it also removed a great many Compagnie di ventura from Sanguinia itself where, in times of peace, those unemployed mercenaries would otherwise spend their time wandering the cities of Sanguinia looking for employment or trouble to stir.
Thus began a golden age for Sanguinia where they were are able to finance and equip such extravagant expeditions that other people might find impossible to undertake. Consequently, Sanguinia had become a haven of navigators, cartographers, explorers and discoverers. Big expeditions were set with whole armies of hired warriors, most of whom were destined to perish horribly in the jungles, swamps and deserts of some foreign land, if not in a shipwrecked or drowned beforehand. However, for the lucky few who meet success, the rewards were immense beyond imagination.
The most successful Condottieri returned home as heroes, their ships stuffed to the gunnels with immense treasures, their journals filled with highly imaginative accounts of new lands, exotic goods and outlandish tribes. But all of this come to an end.
No one know what caused it, whether from some new disease or from some of those fabulous treasures that many believed were cursed, but everyone knows that when the plague hit Sanguinia, everything ended. People fell ill, maritime and land trade was interrupted to prevent further contagion, crops broke down and the already turbulent relations between the various states of the confederacy exploded in an open war. Compagnie di ventura and Milizie set fire to the already-tried campaigns, and so to the plague, the war and the economic crisis were joined by famine.
Sanguinia fell into total anarchy, from which it never recovered. Those who could afford it as well as the lucky ones managed to leave, while those who remained lived in the misery of what remained, as their descendants still live today.
Former City-States of the League of Sanguinia
The Republic of Balestrino.
The Dukedom of Castro.
The Republic of Rocca San Silvestro.
The Dukedom of Curon.
The Serene Republic of Poveglia.
The Republic of Calascio.
The Republic of Luni.
The Republic of Tocco.
Geography
Once the lands near the coastal plains were naturally green and fertile and as a result, easily cultivated. This was a very rich and abundant land for both farmers and nobles to live in. The sea's were also full of fish and the foothills of the mountain were covered in open woodlands which was an excellent hunting country for the nobility.
Nowaday Sanguinia is a land surrounded in mist and darkness. The very soil itself has become highly infertile, with certain regions gradually being transformed into bogs, swamps and marshes, with the surrounding dense forests, shadowy places patrolled by packs of large, perpetually hungry wolves and often harboring all manner of grotesque and horrifying creatures of the night.
In the North and in the West the coastal areas are dominated by swamp with isolated areas of higher and firmer ground.
The line between Sanguinia and Peregrinum in the North-East range from the sea down to the edge of the mountains, across the great forest, where the canopy of trees is so tangled that a permanent night is created underneath them which is haunted by unseen monsters that takes everyone who dare to tread there.
To the South, the border with the Kingdom of Dürrenweil is made by the stinking marshes and fallow hills that make good sheep-herding country if nothing else.
The jagged shadows of the mountains in the South-East stretch over this land of night, and cold winds blow down from the peaks.
It is a land of harsh winters that paint the ground blindingly white. To go out after dark in such a winter is almost certain death, but to go out at night in a Sanguinia summer is little safer. When the air is still, thick fogs gather. Storms frequently come down off the mountains along with the winds and snows. Thunderstorms are common, as are fires started by lightning strikes. Fortunately, these fires do not spread very far thanks to the damp land with many bogs and lonely moors. Not to mention the swamps, where the firm ground of a trail often sinks an inch or so beneath the level of the water.
Demographics
The people of Sanguinia are generally human, though you would not always know it to look at them. Most peasants are horribly deformed and suffer constantly from foul diseases. With the understandably low yield of crops, starvation is a constant threat, and many accept times of hunger pains as a normal part of life. Turning to cannibalism, is considered distasteful and low but not evil. Desperate times can call for desperate measures, and the Ghouls that raid the villages often lived amongst their victims the winter before. All this has led to the Sanguinii becoming even more insular but hardy people, where the peasants live in small communities of interrelated families, from which they never venture away from fear of what awaits in the lands around them. Instead, they focus themselves on daily survival, digging for what life gives them in this unfertile land, raising goats, famishing pigs and taking care of their farms with the hope of gathering enough harvest to survive the long and cruel winter.
The division between nobles and commoners here it's more pronounced than anywhere else as the few remaining nobles rule their lands like small kingdoms with absolute power, cruelty and despotism. Since Sanguinia is without rulers, they don't have to be accountable to any higher authority and have free access to treat the peasants as they wish. Many abuse it terribly, since Sanguinia itself seems to corrupt their minds with cruelty and often with absolute madness, while some are corrupted by something even darker. And that's the reason why nobles never reveal themself. Some of them are actually undead, vampires or wights, with the same lord ruling for centuries. Others are mutants, or cultists of the Blood magic bearing the marks of their bonds. A few are simply human and need to hide that fact lest their neighbours think them weak.
Sanguinii villages and towns are considered rural backwaters by the standards of every civilized nation. There are few stone roads, rather it is roads full of furrows and half flooded which communicate to most villages and navigation is impossible, except in the relatively dry summer months. During the rest of the year, access to villages is cut except for the most desperate or foolish travelers with little knowledge of the outside world.
The villages of Sanguinia are in a continuous bad state, as it is difficult to get stone and wood, the peasant hovels are on the verge of collapsing and many buildings have been provisionally fixed for centuries, streets are little more than sewers, and there are as many dead animals to be seen as living ones. The inhabitants watch any visitors silently from their homes, cowering within and giving only occasional glimpses of their malformed bodies. All of them have their windows stuck or covered with wooden boards and heavy doors adorned with primitive amulets and religious relics to keep themselves safe from the unnatural horrors of this dreadful land. These towns support only a few burghers, as most are merely overgrown villages that happen to be built on better land. Since Sanguinia's population never truly recovered from the horrors of the Plague and the contagions that followed, overcrowding had never been a problem in these towns and villages.
The castles and palaces of the nobility also appear to be decaying, but here the appearance is somewhat illusory. Ruined portions are not unusual, but the parts that are still inhabited are always well maintained but never beautiful. Decaying corpses of gibbeted criminals hang outside most castles, with fat ravens feeding on the remnants.
Yet, despite all of this, some people do come to Sanguinia from outside. These are the most depraved and evil bandits, pirates, rebels, criminals, cultists of the Blood magic and Necromancers. They believe, rightly, that few people will bother to pursue them once they enter these cursed lands. Many such immigrants find that the monsters waiting for them are more dangerous than any bounty hunter, but a few survive to add to the peril for the next set of arrivals.
Finally, it is not uncommon for errant knights, adventurers and treasure hunters to seek fortune and glory in Sanguinia, hoping to find long lost treasures, fighting overwhelming foes, answering calling for help and trying to resolve the many mysteries of these cursed land. Many of these people have never returned from Sanguinia and some are still there, stained by the curse and doomed to become part of the evil they came out against. But there is always a gentleman, or a fool, willing to cross the borders and look for his destiny.
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