The Castle Guard

Karistan Hierarchies

Sentar City is constituted of three sections or rims if you can call them that, its history goes way back to when the Kingdom was first formed. The sections are divided into three concentric circles separated by large circular divides connected by two bridges one for the outer and middle rim and the other for the middle and inner rim where the royal castle is located. It’s known as the main capital of Karistan kingdom mainly due to the presence of the king and queen as well as the presence of vibrant merchant activities which are mostly focused in the middle rim, the last rim is just as vibrant but with lesser quality material. Effectively the outer rim is where the “slums” of the city are located, the residents are consisted of poor people, lesser/ poor merchants and it is the most populated part of Sentar with its crime rate higher than the rest of the rims. Though its criminality while vigorous mostly consists of petty crimes that are barely noticeable from the nobles’ point of view so long as it didn’t interfere with their activities they couldn’t careless thus the reason for its thrive in the outer rim. Merchant activity and other big businesses are focused in the middle rim where rich merchants and some nobles live unless your wealth is at least above 10,000 gold coins settling here is nigh impossible what coupled with presence of expensive services, even renting a house is hard that is if you aren’t rich or at least work for the government under the king upon which a civil worker would be given a discount of half the price for rent. The main police force of the city is also situated in the middle rim which is quite ironic as this is where the black market is also constituted inconspicuously present under everyone’s noses except for the right people of course. Mages also live mostly in the middle rim, despite being accepted legally magic has been relatively new amongst the inhabitants. Most mages prefer to live alone without intrusion from the public and did not divulge their secrets easily, doing whatever is needed for the kingdom that is if it also benefited them what with the bloody history they had with the kingdom each one needed a trump card in case some ruler decided to wipe them out due to their “heretic practices. Each one was officially directly or indirectly associated with the kingdom’s government whether they lived in the city or not, this was devised as a way to keep them at arm’s length from the king and his council. Little did he know the mages had too formed their own secretive council to support their own interests, the king thought by having a powerful mage as the arch-duke was enough to control the faction of mages while in fact it was the council of mages who controlled the arch-duke to perpetuate their wishes to the king without him or the queen noticing. The council’s leadership wasn’t hereditary rather it was divided into three statures the lowest part  is constituted by normal mages skilled in magic most of which were better skilled in two or three elements, four at most. Followed by the arch-mages to be considered an arch-mage a person needed to be well adept in all six elements particularly darkness and light elements; the only way to learn such mastery over magic a mage needed a master to inherit  knowledge on mastery over all the elements as a part of  their master’s legacy to that mage. Last but not least at the highest part of the council the leader of all mages named magus, to become a magus one had to show great prowess and power over magic, advanced intelligence and display high skill in controlling the world of mages while keeping just enough influence and low profile in the normal world, if it occurred and it rarely did two candidates qualified for such position, they had to duel until one of them surrenders or dies. It is the magus who chooses which arch-mage would become arch-duke he or she would become a puppet for the mage council in the kingdom’s bureaucracy in favor of the mages.

The inner rim of the city considered the richest and most luxurious part is where the royal castle resides surrounded by a large forest, along with some arch-nobles who were important enough to get permission from the king and queen themselves to live there. Aside from the royal castle five other noble homes resided in the inner rim. The Erynils, Ranyrs, Verdals, Saroqs and The arch-duke Dracenstark’s cottage/lab house where he spends most of his time while he slept at the royal castle. The other four households living in the inner rim were the most esteemed among the nobles and each one held a position in king’s council. The Erynils held high positions in the army effectively controlling most of it, the Ranyrs controlled business and business-related activities within the kingdom like collection of taxes they were considered the arch-merchant noble household with ties running deep even in the underworld, the Verdals were mostly royal constables or just constables they were also very skilled in obtaining information wherever it was as long as it existed they could get it. They had spies in almost every part of the Kingdom this allowed the royals to kill any spark of revolt against them or the kingdom from within or from their neighboring states the Verdals were very connected with the Erynils as their occupations overlapped constantly. The Saroqs were one of the rising magical noble families with three mages in their midst thus were held in high regards, the King hoped that they would become the foundation of  The Mage association and thus their unwavering loyalty gave him hopes for a future where magic well interacted with the government  further increasing control over the mage faction. The royal castle along with the minor nobles’ homes were situated at strategic positions between the presence of the army, spies along with support of  the mages placing traps as magical formations called “Arrays.” That would notify the presence of an intruder the moment they came through them an external attack coming towards the castle would be expelled before unleashing any noticeable damage, if however treachery would come from within acting on the traitor would be easy. Occasionally the nobles procured services from mercenary guilds for mainly protection during or for expeditions, the guilds were allowed to preside over their activities legally only because they proved to be useful against problems like bandits as the army could not exist everywhere and nobles were not allowed to own any king of army.

Beyond the city of Sentar lay other smaller cities and regions with villages spread out throughout the Kingdom, people living there were also involved in trade as merchants, other people were mostly peasants who were mainly farmers or hunters. Mages despite being so secretive also provided services as regardless of their abilities they needed money to go about their business without a hitch also they needed ingredients for experiments that did not come cheap. They also had occupations as blacksmiths, farmers, healers, merchants as well as other activities. The only difference is that they used magic to go about their activities which made hiring them a very lucrative move, coupled with how so few existed in the kingdom their services did not come cheap hence most of them either worked for nobles or directly for the crown in the military  or casting enchantments that fortified the castle. However the most type of mages that were coveted by the crown were the healers along with a faction of mages called the tool-makers who could make enchanted objects and weapons. The former ensured the crown and nobles were healthy and not plagued with mounds of diseases, not to mention in times of war healers were invaluable. While tool-makers group promoted an endless number of possibilities their inventions had incredible capabilities of both destruction and construction hence were kept very close by the crown and had been heavily invested in, among their inventions was Dracenstark’s magical staff that Darien saw inside his room at the castle.