The Hrothi historian sat in the corner of the tavern, running his stubby fingers through his thick red beard. A small smirk crossed his face as he did so. It was his own little ‘fuck you’ to the society that exiled him. An exasperated sigh escaped his beard-buried lips as he pondered the events that transpired. Shaking his head, the historian picked up his quill and began to record what had been passed to him by the few local seers and families willing to share information. If he was to pick up a contract with the reigning counselor and be her resident historian, it was imperative to first understand the history of her house and the domain she ruled over.
“Mydranos Shoal--also named for its founding family and city--was once a region of powerful city-states, individually ruled by a sacerdotal family of seers who proved to be more militaristic and mercantile than pious. Furthermore, the cities were centered around a cult dedicated to a patron qin, from which the ruling family claimed direct descent and to be mortal incarnations of. It is unclear what ultimately became of such cities—but only remnants of what once was remain further inland, while the Strait of Mydranos is littered with sunken ruins from past ages. Claims from incessant infighting to an ancient natural disaster are believed to be responsible for their disappearance by modern day scholars.
Although if you ask House Mydranos—they claim an ancestress called upon their patron qin Mydra and swept away the cities in a great deluge as her family fell victim to a mass regicide orchestrated by the other city-states. It is claimed that even the original City of Mydranos did not survive the disaster and an inexplicable decades long drought followed; scorching the region and rendering it uninhabitable. When the rains returned, a surviving cadet branch of the house resettled the area but have never been able to restore the territory to its mythical past glory. Prouder members of House Mydranos attribute the successful invasion from the Janoa in the south--which would eventually see them absorbed into the Kingdom of Riftwood--to this degradation. Well-read scholars repudiate such claims by the family and equate them to primitive superstitions and shameless exaggerations.
Whatever the truth, the only claim historically acknowledged is that the land now known as Mydranos Shoal hails from an ancient era of theocratic city-states.
This can still be seen today in the way the sacerdotal Mydranos family continues to rule its domains. Its own city serves as the primary seat of power and religion while loosely governing other settlements through a system of tributes. Settlements are given great autonomy, with each governing family having tremendous liberties in their local laws. But beyond a shared history and promise of protection to their freedoms, the settlements are largely in charge of funding their own infrastructure and left to their own civil security.
In the present day, Mydranos Shoal is known for its grandiose temples and flourishing culture--as many of the contemporary ruling families are patrons of the arts. Its major exports come from the agricultural and fishing industry, while heavily importing silk and other luxuries from their Kypiq allies in the north. Mydranos Shoal is also a notoriously homogeneous region--comprised almost solely of To’resk--but in recent years the newly ascended Counselor Ashiriel has filled her court with Kypiq scholars from the Suntree of Citrullus and Drasean advisors from the neighboring Queendom of Blackheart. This has led to whispers that the adolescent counselor has been strongly influenced (or corrupted) by foreign cultures and intends to charter a university in addition to relaxing citizenship laws for foreign-born residents. With discontent growing from the counselor’s avant-garde ways, rumors have been spread by reactionary dissidents that she has been using her connections to seek allies from Blackheart in an attempt to break away from the Janoa’s sphere of influence. While this has never been publicly acknowledged, a growing Drasean ‘touch’ can indeed be felt in the region’s new policies. This has led to an increasing distrust and ire from the prime and royal house of Riftwood, but the counselor has appeared to tentatively placate tensions.”
Finishing the entry, the historian would catch sight of the gregarious tavern keeper engaged in multiple conversations. Closing his journal, he would make his way over to the bar to glean more information from the womann and grab a drink or two to boot!
