Chromeria Cultural Orientation Office

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The Seven Satrapies

A Spoiler-Safe Regional Primer for New Students, Travelers, and People Who Should Know Better

The Seven Satrapies are not seven copies of the Jaspers with different hats. Each satrapy carries its own food, dress, pride, wounds, trade, religious habits, insults, and opinions about what the Chromeria gets wrong.

This primer is written for player characters and first-year inductees. It gives useful stereotypes, cultural notes, naming guidance, and social hazards without revealing hidden histories or campaign secrets.

At a Glance

Satrapy	Quick Identity	Common Outsider Mistake
Tyrea	Scarred, poor, stubborn, resilient	Assuming poverty means helplessness.
Atash	Philosophical, fiery, proud, disciplined	Mistaking ceremony for weakness.
Blood Forest	Green, old, matrilineal, forest-wise	Assuming rural means simple.
Ruthgar	Wealthy, polished, ambitious, status-aware	Thinking smiles are agreement.
Paria	Devout, modest, martial, formal	Treating modesty as lack of power.
Ilyta	Maritime, clever, chaotic, independent	Confusing informality with disrespect.
Abornea	Commercial, practical, road-wise, calculating	Forgetting that every delay has a price.

Travel widely. Listen first. Mock accents only if you enjoy duels.

Satrapy Profile

Tyrea

The Shattered Satrapy

First Impression

Tyrea is a land of hard sun, ruined pride, orange groves, scavenged stone, flat-roofed houses, and people who know exactly how little outsiders expect of them. Its towns may look poor beside the Jaspers, but Tyrean survival is an art form.

A Tyrean child can often spot bad water, bad credit, and bad intentions faster than a Ruthgari noble can find the correct fork.

People and Culture

Tyreans value practicality, kin loyalty, barter, memory, and the ability to endure humiliation without becoming small. Families are often large, complicated, and bound by shared loss. Hospitality may be simple: brick-bread, thin stew, pomegranate, bitter kopi, or a place on a flat roof after sundown.

Outlanders often notice mismatched clothing, patched tunics, practical trousers, improvised tools, and a habit of reusing anything not actively on fire.

Mentality

Virtue: Resilience.
Flaw: Suspicion hardened into fatalism.
Common saying: “If it still casts shade, it is not ruined.”
Social hazard: Speaking casually about old wars, reparations, or “civilizing” Tyrea.

Religion

Most Tyreans publicly honor Orholam, though local practice is often practical, sorrowful, and mixed with family customs. Prayers are said over water, harvest, travel, and children who show drafting gifts. Old statues and old stories survive in fragments, sometimes treated as art, sometimes as superstition.

Naming Conventions

Tyrean names tend to be direct, worn smooth by use, and often practical. Family names may come from trades, ruined towns, ancestors, or nicknames earned generations ago.

Given Names: Vora, Bas, Aliv, Corvan, Mara, Davos, Lira, Tavin, Sera, Kal.

Family Names: Danavis, Stonehand, Rekton, Umber, Lowroof, Oranger, Kelfing, Ashwell.

Style: “Vora of the Low Roofs,” “Bas Rekton,” “Mara Ashwell.”

Tyrean Characters

A Tyrean student at the Chromeria may feel watched, underestimated, pitied, or resented. They might be the first family member given a formal education, a hidden prodigy, a political token, or someone sent away because their gift frightened the village.

Satrapy Profile

Atash

The Land of Fire, Judgment, and Old Pride

First Impression

Atash is a land of heat, copper-bright monuments, ziggurats, philosophical schools, silver, iron, gunpowder, and ceremonial pride. Outsiders remember the beaded beards, fire dancers, scale armor, and sharp debates that somehow begin at breakfast.

Atashians respect discipline, status, argument, and visible self-command. They do not mind being disagreed with. They mind being disagreed with lazily.

People and Culture

Atashian culture prizes education, hierarchy, craft, memory, and public dignity. Beards may be braided, beaded, perfumed, or arranged to show family, office, military service, or philosophical school. Wealthy households favor jewelry, layered fabrics, and art that tells older myths in precise symbolic form.

Trade in metal, powder, and scholarship gives Atash influence beyond its borders.

Mentality

Virtue: Judgment.
Flaw: Pride sharpened into contempt.
Common saying: “The monkey laughs; the serpent measures.”
Social hazard: Touching a person’s beard ornament, interrupting a formal debate, or treating fire customs as entertainment only.

Religion

Atashians honor Orholam with solemnity, but many also preserve philosophical language about inner division, self-mastery, appetite, and reason. Fire is not merely destruction; it is testing, purification, memory, warning, and beauty.

Naming Conventions

Atashian names often have formal rhythm and may include patronymics, school affiliations, or titles. Epithets are common among scholars, soldiers, and artisans.

Given Names: Kael, Solarch, Darios, Iren, Samira, Phaed, Neru, Arik, Talasha, Zev.

Family Names: Ruvar, Idoss, Laurion, Copperstep, Ash-Vey, Garad, Emberwright.

Style: “Samira of Idoss,” “Kael Laurion,” “Darios the Measured.”

Atashian Characters

An Atashian inductee may arrive with formal training, a family expectation of excellence, a rival philosophical teacher, or a secret fear of public failure. They may be devout, ambitious, martial, scholarly, or furious that the Chromeria thinks it invented discipline.

Satrapy Profile

Blood Forest

The Green Country of Root, Oath, and Old Songs

First Impression

Blood Forest is deep green, wet earth, red hair, pale skin, carved wood, knotted patterns, whiskey, dogs, tusk-horns, and trees older than policy. Its people are often described as blunt, loyal, eerie, generous, and dangerously unimpressed by central authority.

The forest is not backdrop. It is kin, witness, resource, temple, grave, and judge.

People and Culture

Blood Forester society is strongly shaped by matrilineal traditions, clan memory, forestry, tree-shaping, hunting, and hospitality rites. A shared glass may mark trust between host and guest. Clothing often features robes, smocks, spirals, knots, animal designs, and red or earth-toned accents.

Music and story carry history: gemshorns, stringed instruments, spinning dances, and epics of saints, queens, wolves, ghosts, and fools.

Mentality

Virtue: Loyalty to living bonds.
Flaw: Distrust that becomes isolation.
Common saying: “A tree remembers the axe and the shade alike.”
Social hazard: Mocking local forest beliefs, refusing hospitality without explanation, or calling old wood “timber” too quickly.

Religion

Many Blood Foresters honor Orholam while also speaking reverently of creation, beasts, plants, and the spirit of living places. Orthodox luxiats sometimes find this uncomfortable. Blood Foresters often find orthodox luxiats extremely indoor.

Naming Conventions

Names often carry clan, maternal line, place, animal, or deed. Sound patterns may include soft consonants, old forest words, and poetic epithets.

Given Names: Maeve, Briseid, Darragh, Cerys, Rowan, Nuala, Ewan, Fia, Torin, Keir.

Family Names: Hart, Wolfwake, Redbough, Dúnbheo, Ashbraid, Greenhaven, Dawnhound.

Style: “Maeve Hart,” “Fia Redbough,” “Torin son of Nuala,” “Briseid of the Dawn Dogs.”

Blood Forester Characters

A Blood Forester student may be a dutiful envoy, a reluctant hostage to education, a gifted drafter sent to keep peace, or a curious rebel who wants the Chromeria’s books but not its leash.

Satrapy Profile

Ruthgar

The Golden Grain, the Polished Smile, and the Knife in the Napkin

First Impression

Ruthgar is wealthy, fertile, ambitious, and extremely aware of who sat where at dinner. Its plains feed cities. Its nobles wear broad-brimmed hats, cultivate bloodlines, fund games, race horses, and can turn a compliment into a debt instrument.

Ruthgari manners are not softness. They are a fencing style performed with seating charts.

People and Culture

Ruthgari culture values land, grain, salt, horses, formal education, patronage, inheritance, sport, and reputation. The wealthy are cosmopolitan and trained in polite cruelty. Commoners are often practical, proud of agricultural skill, and exhausted by noble theatrics.

Games of strategy are common among elites, who may treat politics, courtship, and trade as variations of the same board.

Mentality

Virtue: Ambition disciplined by polish.
Flaw: Class arrogance disguised as taste.
Common saying: “A poor bargain is still a confession.”
Social hazard: Insulting a hat, horse, family estate, or dinner order.

Religion

Ruthgar honors Orholam in public, civic, and aristocratic forms. Donations to temples, sponsorship of luxiats, and visible piety are common tools of both sincere devotion and political positioning.

Naming Conventions

Names often sound polished, formal, and old-family. Noble names may include estate names, inherited honorifics, or carefully preserved archaic spellings.

Given Names: Lysander, Calia, Edrin, Marcell, Helena, Jaks, Teren, Orelia, Lucan, Sesta.

Family Names: Rathborne, Guile, Saltmere, Verdant, Highfield, Jakswell, Graincourt.

Style: “Helena Saltmere,” “Lord Marcell of Highfield,” “Calia Rathborne.”

Ruthgari Characters

A Ruthgari inductee might be a noble spare child, an ambitious scholarship student, a social climber, a family disappointment, or a terrifyingly competent person who knows exactly which fork is for betrayal.

Satrapy Profile

Paria

The Devout Coast of Silk, Steel, and Sacred Formality

First Impression

Paria is coastal, devout, disciplined, and rich in formal grace. White silk, headscarves, gold-woven hair, dignified meals, ritual tattooing, strict etiquette, and military competence all shape its reputation.

Parians may speak softly because they do not need to speak loudly.

People and Culture

Parian culture places high value on modesty, reverence, family honor, scholarship, rank, and martial readiness. Dress often reflects both devotion and status: long tunics, head coverings, white garments, layered coats, and careful adornment.

Dining etiquette matters. So do greetings. So does knowing when your shoes, jokes, eyes, or questions are unwelcome.

Mentality

Virtue: Reverent discipline.
Flaw: Judgment hardened into severity.
Common saying: “Walk as though light sees the underside of your feet.”
Social hazard: Mocking modest dress, mishandling gender etiquette, or treating white mourning garments as festival wear.

Religion

Paria’s worship of Orholam is public, structured, and socially powerful. Luxiats and local religious authorities may hold immense influence. Heresy, disorder, and magical arrogance are not treated as charming eccentricities.

Naming Conventions

Parian names may include patronymics, city ties, honorifics, and religious phrases. Formal address is important until intimacy or rank says otherwise.

Given Names: Azra, Samil, Nura, Tarek, Jalia, Hafiz, Amara, Deyon, Sadiq, Leila.

Family Names: Azûlay, Aslal, White-Reef, ibn Samil, bint Nura, al-Haik, Goldwire.

Style: “Leila bint Nura,” “Tarek al-Haik,” “Azra of Azûlay.”

Parian Characters

A Parian student may be devout, formal, martial, scholarly, rebellious beneath perfect manners, or determined to prove that reverence and ambition are not enemies.

Satrapy Profile

Ilyta

The Sea-Lashed Satrapy of Sail, Shot, Bargain, and Song

First Impression

Ilyta is docks, islands, ship bells, salt, pistol-smoke, bright scarves, quick hands, sailors’ prayers, clever contracts, smuggling jokes, and the belief that a locked door is only a question asked rudely.

Illytians are often called pirates by people who lost money to them, privateers by people who profited, and “maritime entrepreneurs” by Illytians wearing legal clothes.

People and Culture

Illytian life is shaped by sea trade, fishing, shipbuilding, navigation, storms, firearms, family crews, harbor politics, and long memories of who paid fairly. Reputation matters, but not always in the polished Ruthgari sense. A scandal can become a credential if survived with style.

Music is loud, food is briny, clothing is practical and colorful, and every tavern contains at least one person who claims to know a shortcut through customs.

Mentality

Virtue: Adaptability.
Flaw: Opportunism sharpened into betrayal.
Common saying: “A calm sea teaches nothing.”
Social hazard: Calling someone a pirate without knowing whether they consider that insult, title, or invoice.

Religion

Illytians honor Orholam as light over water, guide through storm, witness of oaths, and judge of drownings. Sailors also keep small customs: coins under mast steps, prayers before pistol duels, knots tied for the dead, and songs sung badly because the dead cannot complain.

Naming Conventions

Illytian names are flexible. Many people use ship names, harbor names, nicknames, deed names, or names acquired during scandals.

Given Names: Nico, Sella, Marin, Tavro, Isla, Renzo, Vela, Cass, Doria, Pavo.

Family or Use-Names: Saltknife, Bluewake, Three-Shot, Gull, Mastfall, Vey, Corsair, Dockborn.

Style: “Sella Bluewake,” “Nico Three-Shot,” “Vela of the Gull’s Mercy.”

Illytian Characters

An Illytian inductee may be a ship child with unexpected drafting gifts, a smuggler’s heir going legitimate, a naval scholarship student, a duelist, a liar with a good heart, or a good person with a terrible alibi.

Satrapy Profile

Abornea

The Road-Minded Satrapy of Toll, Ledger, Bridge, and Bargain

First Impression

Abornea is road dust, toll posts, wayhouses, ledgers, trade seals, hill farms, warehouses, caravan bells, and people who can estimate the cost of a broken axle from the sound alone.

If Ilyta thinks in tides, Abornea thinks in routes. If Ruthgar thinks in inheritance, Abornea thinks in invoices.

People and Culture

Abornean culture values reliability, contracts, road law, shared infrastructure, market days, practical piety, and quiet calculation. Villages may revolve around bridges, caravan yards, toll houses, mills, or trade crossroads. A person’s word is important; a written copy is better; a witnessed written copy is civilization.

Aborneans are sometimes mocked as dull. They often own the road on which the mocker is standing.

Mentality

Virtue: Practical reliability.
Flaw: Reducing every human problem to cost.
Common saying: “The bridge remembers who paid.”
Social hazard: Dodging tolls, damaging road markers, insulting a host’s accounts, or assuming a quiet clerk is powerless.

Religion

Abornean worship of Orholam is often civic and practical: blessings over roads, honest weights, safe bridges, childbirth, granaries, and contracts. Temples may double as record houses, arbitration halls, or refuges for travelers.

Naming Conventions

Names often reflect towns, roads, trades, and contracts. Formal documents may preserve multiple family and location identifiers.

Given Names: Bren, Talia, Orven, Sera, Halvek, Nima, Corin, Esta, Pell, Varden.

Family Names: Tollmark, Bridgewise, Ledger, Westroad, Millson, Cartwright, Waykeeper, Stoneford.

Style: “Talia Bridgewise,” “Bren of Westroad,” “Halvek Tollmark, witnessed and sealed.”

Abornean Characters

An Abornean student may be a merchant child, roadwarden’s apprentice, contract scholar, caravan survivor, toll noble, or someone sent to the Chromeria because their family decided magical education is the highest-return investment available.

Regional Roleplay Appendix

Questions for Any Satrapy

Use These to Build a Character Who Feels From Somewhere

Character Questions

d10	Question
1	What food from home do you miss most at the Chromeria?
2	What accent, phrase, or gesture marks you as foreign?
3	What does your homeland think of drafters?
4	What does your homeland think of the Chromeria?
5	What family expectation followed you to Little Jasper?
6	Who at home is proud of you, and who is afraid?
7	What local superstition do you pretend not to believe?
8	What insult from another satrapy still bothers you?
9	What rule of etiquette do you constantly break by accident?
10	What would make you choose homeland loyalty over Chromeria orders?

Player reminder: Satrapy descriptions are useful starting points, not cages. Any region can produce saints, criminals, scholars, fools, cowards, heroes, and people who put fish sauce on the wrong food.