Mercenaries

While it is true that each feudal lord in Cathringia holds their own amount of soldiers directly within their service and loyal to only them, the decentralised nature of the realm lends itself to the requirement of mercenaries for internal and external disputes, with the lords of the region preferring to pay professional soldiers to fight their wars then risk the lives of their own men and leave themselves weakened against the other nations of Cathringia.

These mercenaries are typically foreign in nature, and made up of poor peasantry hoping to find glory and wealth in the service of foreign kings. The largest proportion of these mercenaries come from Orkfjarr, where second or third sons of land owners are forced to find opportunity abroad if they wish to one day own their own land. Indeed, many of these Orkfjarric go onto the become Laeguit in their own right if they can save up enough money to fund a ship and crew before they meet their death in the brutal world of mercenary work. However, there are also large proportions of dishonoured knights of Reynesse and former warriors of Scyltheld who come to the region in search of land, fame and riches.

However, the view of these peoples inside Cathringia is one of mistrust. With lords seeing them as means to an end than a long term solution to their defence. Indeed, it is common for mercenary leaders to switch sides numerous times in a conflict to the highest bidder as each side attempts to sway them to their cause and directly weaken their enemy. This lack of loyalty is what resulted in the sale of the Kasric's Square in Kasricgard to the Republic of Portigoa, as they required more and more funds to meet the demands of the mercenaries fighting in the Ogkan wars, who due to their high losses, demanded more and more money.

Guilds

In the cities of Cathringia, the guilds wield great power, often oligarchic and exclusive as the progression from apprentices to master required vast fees that most of the populace could not afford. These guilds typically form the vast majority of the cities councils they report direct to the feudal overlord of the region, and therefore the guilds are able to pursue their own agenda with the walls of the cities.

While this does create vast inequalities in the cities, with the poorest occupying the slums outside the city walls, this does not mean that the richest members of the guilds cannot be charitable, with hospitals and almshouses a frequent feature in Cathringian cities.

Industry

Industry and its place in Cathringian society is of the upmost importance, the highly skilled artisans of the cities and the natural resources of the land allow Cathringia to have a highly developed economic base that it prides itself on. It's unique position in the Intemare Sea and Midal Sea allow it to act as a middle man between trade in the South with the Azastarians and trade in the north and east with the rest of Poseia and Naplica respectively. While this trade is not as highly profitable as the trade republics in the Intemare Sea, it does afford Cathringia great wealth, and where it cannot compete with those republics directly it trade it far exceeds them in the production and extraction of goods and materials. The gold mines in the hills of Prenn/Prann are mined and sent to the cities of the nation to be refined into jewellery that is only second in nature to the works of the Elves within the mountains. And the forests of the land are extracted for their wood, with the various climates of Cathringia allowing for a wide variety of woods to be hewn.

Food

Cathringian food is most similar to that of Scyltheld, which comes as no real surprise given their shared heritage and history. Although, there are some notable differences.