Tharshesh

Tharshesh, south of Galecea, is one of Mediterranea's most advanced and worldly lands. Galecea and a thin strip of Aragana border it to the north, the River Oceanus to the west and the Mediterranean to the east, with the Straits of Tartessos between the two waters to the south. It began as a great First Age Atlantean colony, now called Tartessos, founded as a base for Mediterranean trade and a port for the silver mines of the southern highlands. After the Great Cataclysm the colony shrank and the Tharshi, olive-skinned, black-haired nomads from the interior, overran it, absorbed the survivors and moved into the empty city. Reopening the silver mines, they grew rich, built ships and revived some of the old Atlantean trade routes.

The realm is small but has a long coast. Tartessos, the oldest city and capital, is also the best known and the most packed, depraved and crooked; Cadaza is about half its size, and Garanada, Sagura, Ebro and Albaran are little more than towns, all coastal trading posts. Country folk are mostly poor fishermen and goatherds, many of whom drift to the cities as mercenaries, guards or sailors. Inland lies wilderness: forests full of game, including a rare Mediterranean ape, barbarian Tharshi kin who never took to city life, goblins, nethermen and even some Gondwanan andamen. Roads are few and bad, and travel is hard and risky.

Up to two-thirds of the population is foreign, mostly in the cities, and Tharshesh is called the melting pot of nations. Tartessos and Cadaza have ghettos where Turanians, Shebans, Nubians, Roms, Kushites, Ophirites and many others live, and the streets swarm with every costume and a hundred tongues. With few laws and no interest in other lands' justice, it draws fugitives and outcasts of all kinds; crime is everywhere, and a proverb says Tartessos' pickpockets can strip a careless man bare between the docks and the Palace, so rich visitors hire guards. The Tharshi hold no firm beliefs (another saying names their highest god the God of Currency), and foreigners may worship as they like.

There are no real social classes: native Tharshi look down on foreigners, but only money counts, and with enough of it one can do almost anything. Government is utterly corrupt. Even minor officials and freedman clerks can retire richer than many Atlantean nobles on bribes and kickbacks, and the state itself skims from licensed brothels, taverns and gambling dens, perhaps earning more that way than from its steep port and trade tariffs. A Prefect, elected every ten years by the great merchant houses, rules Tartessos directly, aided by six Regents, one in Cadaza over all other home towns and one in each of five overseas colonies. The Prefect and each Regent have seven Vice-regents who collect taxes, tariffs and duties and act as judges, and each Vice-regent has seven Vicegerants; all are said to be for sale.

Its fair-sized army and large, strong navy are almost wholly foreign mercenaries. Barracks in Tartessos and Cadaza house troops as varied as Kushite archers, Nubian war elephants, Turanian light horse and Scythian horse archers, and the fleet mixes Cymbrian and Ska corsairs with Shebans, Ophirians, Nubians and others. The state and many private houses regularly hire Free Companies and captains with their own ships and crews, paying two to five times normal rates, though corruption keeps morale low. Hitches run one to four years or a single voyage or mission, and ships may be hired as escorts or join a standing squadron.

Tharshesh nearly monopolizes Mediterranean trade and has overtaken Atlantis as the region's leading commercial power, sending ships to Qaddan, Ophir, Marhashi, Ys, Avalon and even Hyperborea. It buys off hostile powers such as the Gorgons and the Cymbri to spare its shipping; some believe it pays them to harass rivals, especially Sheba and Atlantis, and that Tharshi silver fills the Gorgons' war chests to keep Hesperia in check. It has trade pacts with many nations, though whether any are true allies is doubtful. Its five overseas colonies, Taranta, Tarxian, Tartuk, Targrim and Tara, answer to it and send large amounts of goods home as taxes.