Bastinari Archipelago

Made up of five main islands, 10 lesser islands, and dozens of small islands the Bastinari Archipelago is home many kingdoms who vie for control. All the islands are highly mountainous requiring stepped farmlands on the south sides of the mountains. Since many kingdoms joined the Protectorate, open warfare has diminished, however economic, social, and political wrangling have replaced it.

Geography

Between two impacting plate boundaries the archipelago is being forced up out of the sea. Made of steep mountains and high plateaus the Bastainari Archipelago is the breadbasket of the Thousand Seas. The eastern lowlands are regularly inundated by monsoon winds. The southern face of the mountains are covered in step farms. The northern and western faces of the islands are sparsely populated with much of the islands turned over to jungle.

Politics

Primogeniture is not practiced and kingdoms will often be broken up among legitimate children of the reigning ruler when they die, regardless of gender. Marriage alliances and breakups forge larger kingdoms or shatter them. But the hierarchies of these kingdoms are fairly flat, with limited levels of nobility typically one or two levels deep who give fealty to the current rules.

The kingdoms of the main and lesser islands are members of the Protectorate, their rulers having the authority to appoint magestures to the Protectorate Council. Because many of these kingdoms are in active conflict, the Protectorate Councils in the Archipelago are fractious and lack cohesion.

Privateering and piracy are used as proxies for the various kingdoms. Ships may serve many masters as privateers, sometimes working for both sides of the same conflict. The Imperial Navy hasn't been able to squash it entirely and the Protectorate has semi-legitimized it by setting rules and regulations for what is 'acceptable' behavior. Because of the size of the Archipelago and the ongoing conflicts, three fleets of the Imperial Navy sail these waters.