AEGOS (Kingdom of)
Location: Island in the Alatian Islands chain, south of the Isle of Dawn, east of Ochalea. SD
Area: 65,846 sq. mi. (170,540 sq. km.).
Population: 10,000, including 5,000 in the Thyatian Quarter (Aegopoli), 1,000 in Aegopoli, 500 in Pittston, 360 in Akethepsur, 280 in Apimonsur, 260 in Ptotephtah, 250 in Ptabistah, 200 in Selenion.
Languages: Alphatian (Alatian dialect), Thyatian (Thyatian dialect).
Coinage: Alphatian Standard: crown (gp), mirror (sp), judge (cp). Thyatian Standard also very common: emperor (5 gp), lucin (gp), justiciar (ep), asterius (sp), denarius (cp).
Taxes: 20% income tax on everyone of servant status or higher, and an import/export tax of 2% on magical items and components, and 1% on all other goods (Naycese kingdoms, Karameikos and Thyatis excluded). 10% of tax revenue goes to the Naycese treasury, and an additional 10% is spent on military forces in the name of the confederation. Thyatian taxes are paid in the Thyatian Quarter, with 20% going to the Thyatian treasury.
Government Type: Monarchy, member of the Nayce.
Industries: Agriculture, fishing, trade.
Important Figures: No king or queen at present. Francesca Egidio (Thyatian Consulate), Delsel Oaktree (Assistant Consulate).
Flora and Fauna: The island has normal animals and plants found for lands of tropical plains, hills and forest (which are too numerous to all list here). Most of Aegos is wilderness, and almost any type of monster can be found here due to the failure of Aegos's zoo long ago and the more recent escape of monsters from Gaity.
Further Reading: Dawn of the Emperors boxed set, previous almanacs.
Description by Teldremon.
The Land
The island of Aegos is a large and fertile one, but ravaged, with a mixed Alphatian and Thothian population [mostly Alphatian. Ed.], and a few remaining Thyatians outside the so-called "Thyatian Quarter." The land is good for both grazing herds and growing crops. Our location is convenient for trade, but also for invasion and war. We never quite recovered either our population or our prosperity after the emperor uprooted everyone in the 1730s [AC 730s. Ed.], and more recently the empress sent our best soldiers down the shaft at Pittston, from which they never returned. This happened just in time to leave us at the mercy of Thyatian corsairs, which ravaged our coasts during the Great War, and also left us with only ill-trained levies in the face of the later invasion and conquest by Thyatian fleets. Thus, "getting shafted" has become slang among us for being unexpectedly and undeservedly cheated. We were then visited by the attack of a huge, hideous creature out from the bowels of the earth, which disrupted much of the island and further caved in the shaft, preventing further efforts at finding out what happened to our lost warriors. Our heroic king, Dromedon, was slain while battling-and defeating-this vile creature. But as distressing as this was, it was outdone by the swarms of rapacious tax agents sent by our masters, the Council of Nayce, when they recovered the island from the Thyatians. Alas, these men claimed that we owed the government for their liberation of Aegos and needed to pay for the cost of protecting it from future attacks by the Thyatians. Thus they imposed exactions and defence levies above and beyond the normal taxes [beyond what is listed in Taxes above. Ed.]. They have sent out troops to garrison the island, billeting them in our homes, and we are expected to provision them out of our crops without remuneration, it being considered owed to them by us, and thereby they eat us out of house and home. If Dromedon had lived, perhaps he would have been able to protect us from this fate, but alas the fates left us at the mercy of the whims of these officials.
The People
Most of the settlers sent out by the Thyatian Emperor after they occupied our fair island left in the wake of their withdrawal, going to the Thyatian territories of the Isle of Dawn or to the Pearl Islands or concentrated themselves in their "Thyatian Quarter" of Aegopoli, which remained under the jurisdiction of the Thyatian Empire and is roughly four square miles in area. [The Thyatian Quarter also includes several hundred Minrothaddans. Ed.] Those few Thyatians who considered staying were most onerously beset by the tax agents, and thus they too soon decided to leave. So at least there was a silver lining in the dark cloud of tax collectors and indolent soldiers. With the closing of the pit at Pittston, many jobs dried up and craft shops that used to serve the mining facilities closed, and we have become an island of sleepy farms and herds again.
However, the Thyatians were ceded docking facilities in Aegopoli,
which were considered run-down, but which they quickly and efficiently have
developed into a superb port and constructed numerous warehouses and the like,
and walled off their compound. Even
some Alphatian businessmen have moved their shops into this area, which is
considered sovereign Thyatian territory, and thus isn't disturbed by the tax
agents or soldiers that bedevil the more honest Alphatians of Aegos. Cunning and devious Thyatians thus prosper
while decent Alphatians are denied the opportunities that are by rights
ours. This was probably the Thyatian
scheme all along, a treacherous plot to grow wealthy at our expense, while we
are impoverished. They must have bribed
many Naycese officials so that we would be despoiled by corrupt tax agents and
greedy soldiers but they would avoid the blame for it all.