Karameikos - Vaults of Pandius

The Demography of Karameikosfor the whole country is about 15.7 peopleper square mile.Table 1 shows data about the land eachpopulation group controls directly, their totalpopulation, and the average population inthe lands they control. Note that, while racialpopulation includes all the members of onegroup who dwell in Karameikos, averagedensity takes into account only members ofthat group who live in lands directlycontrolled by their group. For example,average human population density shown inthe table doesn’t take into account thehumans living in the wilderness, which are infact uncontrolled by the government of theGrand Duchy. The same is true for demihumans,whose population density in thetable doesn’t take into account the dwarvenand halfling population, who controls noland of their own but lives scattered amongthe lands of other humans and demi-humans.LAND CONTROL ANDGOVERNMENTKarameikos is a typical feudal monarchy,where the Grand Duke’s absolute rule iseffectively balanced by a number of localpowers which hold sway over one part oranother of the country’s population orresources. These powers are: the Thyatianaristocracy (ranging from great feudal nobilitylike the Kelvins or the von Hendrikses, to thelesser nobility of lords and knights, toimportant titled landowners); the Traladaranfamilies and clans (among which are the mostpowerful mercantile patrician families likethe Torenescu and the Radu, but also oldTraladaran landowning nobility like theMarilenev or the Dromilov, as well a numberof lesser noble clans like the Sulescu); thetrade guilds (Traladaran- or Thyatiancontrolledand based mostly in Specularum,but whose influence stretches far beyondthe city walls); and the churches (foremostamong which are the Church of Traladaraand the Church of Karameikos, each with itsown clerical and military orders, like theOrder of the Griffon).At present, thirty years since the presentGrand Duke’s rise to the throne, integrationbetween the two main human ethnic groups– Traladarans and Thyatians – still goes onslowly. Resentment and hatred against theThyatian nobility for events like the Thyatianconquest of one century ago or the crushingof the Marilenev Rebellion thirty years agostill runs high among the Traladaran clanswho were defeated. This – fear of anotherTraladaran uprising shall the governmentweaken itself - is one of the reasons thatmostly keeps the Thyatian aristocracy quitetightly allied with the Grand Duke, andwhich doesn’t allow the formation of aunited aristocratic front – regardless ofethnic group – to keep the central power incheck, like what happens in most feudalcountries of the Known World, like theEmpire of Thyatis. On the other hand, theGrand Duke needs the support of theThyatian aristocracy: Karameikos is still anew land in many aspects, mostlywilderness, a place difficult to control fromthe capital because of the lack of propercommunication routes and of a structuredbureaucracy, a country which still needs tobe settled and where in the borderlands thecivilization still struggles daily againstnonhuman creatures and a hostile nature.In fact, one of the limiting factors of theGrand Duke’s power is indeed his lack ofcontrol over most of the Grand Duchy’slands. Large regions of Karameikos are10THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #1