The Known World

Of the Known World, and How to Read What Follows

The chapters that follow concern every place with a bearing on Your Grace’s position — directly, as neighbors and trading partners, or indirectly, as the powers whose arrangements determine the conditions under which Daub operates.

A demarcation first, because language shapes perception in ways that matter politically. To a Singhapura mind, the North means Wattle, Daub, and the Great Northern Waste — the frontier, the periphery, the place that is always in the process of being managed. To a northern mind, the South means Singhapura entire: the empire, its dominions, its long shadow. Your Grace inhabits both frameworks simultaneously, answering to Wattle while presiding over a city that the empire treats as a piece on a board it considers its own. This double position is both the central difficulty of governing Daub and its central opportunity.

I had intended to include a great deal more on geography and historical development; however, upon careful review, I have discarded much of it. The arrangement of streams and hills and the lives of great men in the past do not necessarily recall the present, nor can they be counted upon to reliably augur the future. What Your Grace requires is an account of political realities — of what each place actually runs on, where its pressure points lie, and what its current trajectory means for Daub. That is what I have attempted to provide. What follows is not exhaustive. It is, I hope, sufficient.

Singhapura is the largest fact in Your Grace’s world, and I have treated it accordingly. It is the primary condition against which everything else is measured. Wattle is the immediate superior, and I have been candid about what that relationship requires Your Grace to understand about Wattle’s vulnerabilities as much as its authority.

I have not treated as remote lands the western powers. Lusian money is already inside Daub’s commercial life, as it is inside every significant economy in the known world. Rosantic free companies appear in Daub’s streets. Both powers offer Your Grace something that the empire cannot easily replace: alternatives and obliques. I have endeavoured to document both their strengths and weaknesses herein.

Ealdorfold is further and less immediately pressing, but I have included it because it is culturally foundational to the North. Culture is a hidden force, at once both weak and strong; it may flee before an army, but given time, topples kingdoms. Therefore I beseech your Grace to consider this with import.

Tangowan I have included as a lesson rather than a partner Your Grace should read that chapter with Daub in mind throughout.

Of the peoples beyond the Waste — the Gremlings, the Dvorak Elves, the Obsidian Empire and those between it and us — I have written what can be responsibly said, which is less than Your Grace might wish. The Dvorak Elves maintain the most comprehensive geographical and political record available; I have recommended obtaining a copy of the Annales Historici, and I do so again here.

For those who prefer a living source to a written one, the Lesser Theoretical University and the Merchants Guild between them can produce an expert on almost any subject covered in what follows. The Guild’s experts will know the trade dimensions of a question thoroughly and its political dimensions well enough. The LTU’s experts will know the magical and historical dimensions. Both are worth consulting, but I would caution that neither should be consulted exclusively.