The Beylik

"Blinding sunlight and a sea of golden dunes ripple inthe shimmering heat of the east. The stifling humidity of the Bat’yan is oppressive, but dry heat is still scorching. A cluster of rooftops surround an inn with a magnificent courtyard over the last dune. The caravanserai’s crystal waters await, along with its city’s glittering treasures. Welcome to the Beylik."

Measure Twice, Dig Once
The ordeal of cultivating sandy Beylik soil requires ingenuity and hard work. The desert is filled with grand projects designed to move precious water to their farms. Bison pull nourishing minerals out of the northern mountains to transform dust into healthy farmland. Stalwart refusal to die in the desert is the bedrock of Beylik society.

The beasts of the Beylik value dependability and rigor. In a harsh climate where building materials are hard to come by, construction plans must be viable. The Oric approach of practical, “let’s see what works” experimentation is seen a wasteful ethos here. Desert beasts imagine a mountain of failures trailing behind every minor Oric success. If the world would just do the mathematics, the Beylik knows the world could leap forward.

Looking Past the Edge
Beylik culture values backbreaking effort for the good of the homeland, but it views intellectual labor as even more vital. No amount of digging would have discovered soil nitration or designed the aqueducts of the Causeway. Every Allemagnian does some creative writing, every Bat’yan beast picks up a musical instrument, but trigonometry is the discipline of the east.

Broadgate University is the first arcane college ever established. Thesis spells published from Broadgate are in every beginner’s spellbook—magic missile emerged from the mind of a Beylik student. Its enduring influence is thanks to its embrace of nonmagical studies as well. Broadgate is the center of mathematics and science in the Beylik. The study of the Arcana’s unexplainable quirks aids research in more comprehensible things. For instance, affordable, crystal-clear glass is only common because of Beylik research into glassblowing using superheated arcane fire.

Broadgate is an academic institution with campuses across the Beast World. The main college resembles a walled city in the desert. Rising from its center is the Heaven’s Eye, an immense observatory that studies the night sky. It also looks out at the distant eastern horizon at the edge of the known world.

Gem Trade
Arnerian optics are so advanced because they have such beautiful things to look at. The northern Beylik is where the Bey’s Head mountains and the source of the Attamek river lie. Water is necessary for survival everywhere, but most would tell you that gems are the most precious gift from the Bey’s Head. Every variety of precious stone is rich within the mountains, and the Beylik gem trade is the keystone of eastern mercantilism.

Gems are common enough in the Beylik that most working people own some precious jewelry. Glittering fineries adorn everyone in the east, which their ruler boasts of as a sign of his homeland’s prosperity. What makes the rubies of the Beylik expensive is their arduous journey to other homelands. The Causeway wasn’t built all the way to the Bey’s Head partially because making the journey too easy would have ruined the Beylik economy.

Caravanserai Cities
The gems mined from the Bey’s Head are transported south along a route known as the Küzmek. Centuries ago, enterprising desert vulpines used their preternatural sense for detecting underground water to scout out construction sites along the Küzmek. They built the caravanserai, roadside inns that became crucial centers of commerce for gem caravans venturing to southern ports. Settlers expanded the caravanserai, until entire cities surrounded their accommodations. Today, most of the Beylik lives along the Küzmek.

Caravanserai cities come in every size. Still small and quaint, most along the Küzmek’s sideroads haven’t expanded much past the walls of their central business. The farmland that surrounds these inn towns is a generational treasure that the towns’ residents maintain with immense pride.

Fast Friends
Friendship is fast-earned and held tight in the Beylik. A mutual friend is assumed to be trustworthy and welcomed with the same warmth. Arnerians are known for bright attitudes and generosity, and on the Bey’s side of the river people give of themselves with immediacy and intensity.

Folks from the Beylik have big laughs, loud voices, and ask a lot of personal questions. The latter is perhaps a side effect of their good-natured trust in strangers. It’s not unusual for the first conversation with an acquaintance to go something like, “What’s your name? Are you married? Are you looking for a wife? You should meet my daughter! A husband? I have a son, too!”

Home and Family
Hospitality is the ethos of the east. People in the Beylik are eager to open their homes and get out the good dinnerware for a new friend. Even homes without much money always keep desserts and fine coffee around the house for entertaining guests. They have them often enough that these treats rarely spoil; to show another person comfort and luxury makes life better for everyone.

The head of a Beylik household works for their family’s reputation and to give them a life of ease. Parents work themselves ragged so their sons and daughters can be comfortable. The passion to provide for one’s children never diminishes--a family’s adult offspring are always welcome in their parents’ home if the need arises. Children are precious, and a fine life for them is the greatest pride of a Beylik parent.

Bey Vartan
The Beylik is ruled by the bey, who sits on the Throne of Sapphires in Far’soro. The loose local government in the Bat’yan shares little in common with the bey’s rule. He commands the lands east of the river absolutely, sharing power over the larger homeland with the Bat’yan’s raja. Other positions in Beylik government are titles directly appointed by the bey. An agha oversees regional affairs, but all authority is subordinate to the bey.

Rulership of the beylik is hereditary. The bey keeps a harem of wives within the Sapphire Palace as a symbol of his allure and virility. The princes and princesses of Arneria wield political power and have the bey’s ear, but they’re also under his direct control.

Now in his early fifties, the bison Bey Vartan has sat on the throne since before the Invader War. He is a more moderate ruler than many of his predecessors, but few would describe him as gentle, on the throne or in personal affairs. His rule is respected throughout the Beylik for repealing his hated father’s harsh laws and seeing the homeland through the war.

The Three Viziers
The bey’s direct advisors are three viziers, each chosen for genius in their field. The title is the most coveted in all Arneria, granting one the power to affect change throughout the Beylik. Even in the Bat’yan, the viziers are figures of immense esteem.

The Eye of the Bey is the vizier responsible for military tactics, intelligence, and espionage. Only the most gifted spies and commanders in Arneria are considered for the position. Preparation for their single, simple duty consumes every moment of their time: they must be able to answer any question the bey asks on command. The current Eye of the Bey is the eccentric ligonine armadillo Mehmed.

The Star of the Bey is his court magician and keeper of knowledge. They are masters of wizardry and experienced with at least one other magical discipline. Moreover, they must be familiar with the cosmology and supernatural events of the Beast World. The former Star was executed in front of the court by Vartan for bringing him humiliation by not foreseeing the Invaders’ arrival. The position is currently held by the brethren Katherine, who is also a high-ranking member of the Shamans.

The Hand of the Bey is the vizier who oversees the civic affairs of government. They are shrewd and discerning financial minds, but must also be in touch with the people’s needs. Vartan’s Hand is the desert vulpine Raziye. She is the most beloved person in Arneria for her wisdom, beauty, and mercy.

The Harem
Bey Vartan has seventeen wives in his harem. It grows with each new bride, taken for love or political gain. The harem’s single formal responsibility is also crucial to the function of the state: when the bey dies, his widows vote on whichone of his children replaces him. When this happens, they gather in private within their shared quarters in the Sapphire Palace, and don’t emerge until they’ve named the next ruler of the Beylik.

Bey Menli, the previous leader of the homeland, was a ruthless and hard-headed ruler. To prevent Arneria from falling into disarray and famine, his harem often traveled the desert in secret to spend his money. The practice was observed by then-prince Vartan and he saw its popularity with the commoners. When he took the throne, he allowed it to continue, and now the harem enjoys diplomatic and economic power in Arneria.

Every bey has been male. It’s a tradition assumed to be universally understood and unbreakable. Bey Vartan has 53 children, 39 of whom are sons. However, the tradition of the Throne of Sapphires being a man’s seat has never been enshrined into law. There’s whispering in the halls of the Sapphire Palace about this Unwritten Law of Men.

After all, everyone knows it. By a wide margin, Vartan’s most popular child is Princess Kosem.