Aramari Ideas

Traditions
+1 Merchants
+10% Trade Efficiency

The Imperial MintThe rolling hills of Aramar have been pocked with mineshafts since time immemorial, serving as the main point of contest in a long and colorful history of partisan squabbling and conquest. The mines have been divided between rival tribes, placed under the watchful eyes of Castanor's dwarves, split amongst squabbling patricians, siezed to bankroll Jexis' thirst for conquest, and suffered a thousand other fates in their unnumbered years. It was only under the care of the newborn Empire of Anbennar, in 1124 that Aramar's mines were for the final time placed in the care of a single entity, the Imperial Mint, under the watchful gaze of the High Fortuner of Ara.\n\nThrough the following centuries the Mint would grow in power, being handed a monopoly over the minting of all coin within the Empire in exchange for its flawless record of producing pure and undiluted coinage. Traders and banks throughout Anbennar, and even the whole of Cannor beyond are reticent to accept coinage with any stamp but that of the Imperial Mint.
-0.5 Interest Per Annum

The Everlucky ChargersEverlucky, the faithful steed of Ara was said to have earned his name upon kicking up a clod of earth, shattering it into glimmers of gold that would grow into the mines that dominate the city today. In honor of the white stallion, the guardians of the gold and the city that surrounds it carry his name. The Everlucky Chargers are the pride of Aramar, sworn to preserve the prosperity their namesake delivered.\n\nThese paladins of Ara are tasked with seeing shipments from the Imperial Mint safely across Cannor, protecting the goddess' shrines, ensuring the smooth flow of commerce in the city and her lands, and taking up arms to defend Aramar in times of war.
+15% Cavalry Combat Ability

Anti-Forsaric DecreesWhile Ara gives charity to the unfortunate, Forsara, the Archdevil of Greed and her minions offer unbalanced, exploitative contracts and deals to take advantage of people at their lowest and most desperate. Yet, these are not the only dealers of such dishonesty. Mortal merchants twist words, fudge numbers, plunge knives of usury and greed into the sacred union of seller and buyer that underpins all commerce.\n\nThe Aramari temple holds an ever-evolving codex of laws that serve to clamp down upon the greed of financiers, merchants, moneychangers, and other handlers of coin. While most punishments for these fiscal offenses are metered in fines and revocation of titles and property, none stand quite so infamous or prominent as dealings with and worship of Forsara. Those proven guilty of such dark dealings are known to meet a most terrible fate, the ill-earned coin gained from their bargains melted and poured down their throats.
-0.1 Yearly Corruption

Monopolized CoinmintingSince the long-gone milennia prior to Jorkad's fall, mages and alchemists have spent their lives chasing the ultimate secret of their craft, the transmutation of lead to gold. And, in that time where the men of Cannor were barbaric nomads, it was found. The Cannorian intelligentsia first rediscovered this ancient lore in a tome produced by one of the Sorcerer-King's Acolytes, and summarily, the secret of alchemy's great work was soon set to practice.\n\nThe bank-breaking, unending conflicts of the Wars of Rule set creditors into such a riotous state that most every side involved was employing their finest mages and alchemists in illicit minting, transforming base metals into coinage to bankroll their squabbles. With the abundance of gold flowing through the Empire, inflation shot to astronomical levels, and all sides of the conflict were threatened with the collapse of their economies, and the revolt of dissatisfied peasantry in numbers that even their most powerful mages couldn't crush.\n\nThusly, one of the few agreements found under the rule of Gracos I was the institution of the Charter of Aramar. With a new system of minting devised and implemented by the avatar Liliana Crownsguard, each Crown crafted at the Imperial Mint would be infused with a distinct magical fingerprint, a universal mark that would show the coins as the sole legitimate tender within the Empire.
+0.1 Yearly Inflation Reduction

A Fortuitous SanctuaryAra stands faithfully as the wife and companion of Adean, bonded through the love of their faithful steeds, devotion to their rigid codes of chivalry and commerce, and the love for their peoples. So, it seemed only right that, with the Adenners fleeing their shattered kingdom in the wake of the Greentide's relentless onslaught, Aramar would step in as a sanctuary. While some pursued the chivalric courts of far-flung Lencenor, Aramar plunged mountains of gold into quickly erecting sprawling tenements for Adean's folk, seeing that none would be denied a place amongst their number.\n\nNow, the city bustles and bulges with a fresh force of labor to hew her mines, and the teeming tenements brim with the sweet tunes of troubadours' tales of chivalry. Gratitude lingers among Adenners and other Escanni refugees, reclaiming her charitable image and seeing that the temple is owed many favors across the courts of Cannor.
+1 Diplomatic Reputation

Lady LuckThe adherents of Ara know well that dice rolls and the clink of coins give much the same thrill as the heat of battle in many a heart, those souls finding a friend and worthy adversary in the whims of Lady Luck. Merchants, adventurers, thieves, and every sort who has known the razor-thin edge of fate pay their due to her, for on The Lady's whim lays fortune or fatality.\n\nIt is said that Ara is one of those lucky few mortals, alongside Munas and Balgar to ascend and stand amongst the gods of the Regent Court. While no histories of the distant time of her life have stood to the present, those theologians who have studied the ancient histories of Cannor have come to believe her to have lived the life of a nomadic chieftess during her time on Halann. The most prominent hypothesis arising from the prominence of Everlucky and the Horseshoe in her symbology, along with ancient relics and texts states that her domain had shifted alongside that of her people.\n\nTales from the days of Castanor, and records of discussion from the Pantheonic council recognizing her ascension hold that Ara's folk, now grown into the Crownsmen once wandered the land in a moving city of tents, so rich with the spoils of trade and plunder that one day, they found they could move no more, lest they abandon their fortune. Forced to forsake their nomadic lifestyle, Ara and her people developed from riders to merchants. However, they never lost the keen sense of adventure and eye for coin. Even with their new home, the followers of Ara continue to thunder across Halann in their unending quest for fortune, to keep the books of their fate forever in the black.
+15% Female Advisor Chance
+1 Tolerance of the True Faith

The Paper CrownThe employment of the gold coin was inextricably linked to its identity as Ara's symbol, and the exchange and counting of coin was held as a sacred ritual to the goddess. As a result, the use of banknotes was seen as impious and even heretical, so vicariously opposed by the Fortuners of Aramar that banks across Anbennar would be reticent to issue them, lest the flow of fresh coin from the Imperial Mint dry to a trickle. The Crown was the sole tender of Anbennar, and the Fortuners refused to see it masked in some Forsaric contract of flimsy paperwork.\n\nHowever, the Great Earthquake of 1672 would result in an ironic collapse. The mines of Aramar were wholly blocked by rubble, halting production, the city crawling to a halt when it most desperately needed an inflow of fresh currency to repair the damage inflicted by the disaster. The High Fortuner stood strong against any proactive changes, bringing the city to a boiling point. She was swiftly deposed in a coup by Ravelian sympathizers, who shortly issued the Proclamation of St. Aras.\n\nThe city would officially adopt the Ravelian faith, and the fortuners would integrate themselves into the hierarchy of the Church in exchange for the Rectorate's aid in rebuilding. The freshly minted Rector of St. Aras would issue a paper currency backed by the value of the gold in its mines, replacing the Gold Crown in a temporary measure that would come to stand in perpetuity.
+10% Global Trade Power

Ambition
+2 Possible Advisors