Principality of Sturgia

Centralizing Monarchical Principality

A Former Confederation.

Rebellious Descendants of Foreign Conquerors.

Efficient and Crafty In a Land of Fortune and Fur.

They are Simultaneously War and Business-Minded in Search of Preeminence.

Grand Prince: Raganvad Gundaroving

Backstory & History

The Culture

The Sturgians come from the northern woods, just south of the icy Byalic Sea. For centuries they lived an isolated existence in the dark forests, their numbers kept in check by the deadly winters. But as the Empire expanded to fill out the Calradian continent, traders ventured into the woods in search of honey, bog iron, and most of all fur. Great towns sprung up on the network of bays and lakes that joined the Sturgian lands to the outside world, attracting fortune-seekers from the coast, the steppes, and the Nordlands. The princes and boyars of this land have now begun to turn their eyes outward, earning themselves for a reputation for their warlike approach to business and their businesslike approach to war. [— spcultures.XML]

The Kingdom

The confederation of small kingdoms that is now the Principality of Sturgia came into being only a century ago. As boomtowns sprung up alongside the bays and lakes of the north, the local tribal leaders forged marriage pacts with Nords and other adventurers, hiring their swords to subdue their neighbors. Under pressure from the empire, they elected a prince to lead them in war, and eventually the princes became a hereditary office. But the idea of monarchy has never sat easily with the independence-minded boyars, and the potential for rebellion always lurks under the surface of Sturgian politics. [— spkingdoms.XML]

The Leader

The current Grand Prince of Sturgia is Raganvad Gundaroving. Harsh and uncompromising, he believes that it is the right of the prince to command the boyars in all things, not just in making war. For the time being they obey him, not least for his ability to call on the kinsmen of his mother, a Nordic princess with ties to the fearsome Skolderbroda mercenary company. [— heroes.XML]

Their Policies

Precarial Land Tenure

Land grants are considered to be temporary offices rather than the rightful inheritance of lords. In practice heirs tend to take over their families fiefs, but it's easier under depositions to remove them. Precarial means dependent on the will or pleasure of another; liable to be withdrawn or lost at the will of another.

Lawspeakers

Refers to the Norse practice of appointing independent elders to remind the council of the law and past precedents. This, however, tends to favor those with the education to make complex legal arguments. 

In Summary

Sturgians are the descendants of the foreign tribes of northern Calradia. As the empire expanded into their cold forests, they found that a ready market for the luxurious furs of woodland animals whom they traditionally hunted and trapped. Sturgian chieftains became princes, vying for pre-eminence with the help of Nord mercenaries who migrated into their realm. They are good hunters and wanderers, travelling far in search of opportunies both for trade and for plunder. [— (StoryMode) module_strings.XML]

 

Sturgian Companions

Sturgia Territory

The commercial ethic was strong in early Rus, with the town veche or council ensuring that merchants had a major role in state policy. Danger and opportunity went hand in hand. A Muslim chronicler recalls how the Rus father of a newborn boy would show the baby a sword and tell him this would be his only inheritance: the blade would have to win all the rest of it. The Icelandic sagas, though geographically very far removed from the Rus, have also been an inspiration for the Varangians' ideal of businesslike warfare and warlike business, the kind of society where a father could say, "Son, you've been lazing around the fire all winter. Time to get up and show you can take some responsibility for your life. Go pillage someone."

Below is an illustration of Battania in 1084 - where the game starts.

Click on the towns, castles and villages in the table below to learn more about them.

 

 

 

Dev Diaries:

About the Faction Banner

The Sturgians populate the cold and forbidding forests of North-Eastern Calradia. They are based on the federation of predominantly Slavic city states known as Kievan Rus, with influences taken from the many different peoples who travelled to and settled in this region. This gave us quite a bit of free reign when choosing the design for this faction. In the end, we decided to lean more towards the Viking style of art, which we felt would be more recognisable. The Viking shield is perhaps one of the most iconic shields we can think of, so using that in the centre of the design was an idea we had right from the start (the sword just naturally fit in with that!). We combined this with a design taken from some Viking jewellery (a torc) which helped to bring the whole piece together. The dark blue of the banner was chosen to represent the cold and harsh environment in which the Sturgians live, and also the seas which they travelled across from their homelands.

Dev Diaries:

About Sturgia

The Sturgian forests are forbidding and cold, but great wealth lies within. Wild honey can be found, and bog iron, but the real prize has always been fur. For centuries, brave traders ventured there to buy the pelts of fox, rabbit and ermine from the tribes of the woods. As the empire expanded eastward, that trickle of traders became a flood. Great towns sprung up on the rivers. Fortune-seekers came from the coast, from the steppes, and most of all from the Nordlands. Tribal elders made alliances with the newcomers, sealed by wedding vows, and with their share of the trading profits hired mercenaries to subdue other tribes. Sturgia became a collection of principalities, then a kingdom, the great powerhouse of the north.

The Sturgians are based on the federation of city-states known as Kievan Rus, Other wise know as Ukrainian Kingdom and or Ukrainian Empire. Like many boomtowns, the Rus river cities attracted people from faraway lands. Predominantly Slavic communities were forming into states at a breakneck pace and borrowing institutions, religions, and ways of trade and war from their neighbours. Greek missionaries, Finnic foresters, Turkic and Iranian steppe tribes, and most famously the Varangian Norse all left their mark on the aesthetics of the Ukrainian art, arms and armour. We think the motifs and styles of Sturgian equipment – gilded and peaked helmets, furs and gold brocade, runes and gripping beasts and folk embroidery and Arabesques -- will make it some of the most spectacular in the game.

As with other factions, we let history be our inspiration for Sturgia's politics. The chroniclers weren't shy about expressing their opinions about the different princes. Some rulers, like Vladimir the Great or Yaroslav the Wise, have come down to us as far-sighted rulers. Others, like Sviatopolk "the Accursed," accused of murdering his brothers, or Vseslav, the sorcerer-king of Pskov, were depicted as some of the more colourful tyrants in medieval Europe. Raganvad, the current Sturgian prince, is cut out of the latter mould: he knows how to punish but not how to reward, and he'll put to the test the old dictum that it is better to be feared than loved.

The commercial ethic was strong in early Rus, with the town veche or council ensuring that merchants had a major role in state policy. Danger and opportunity went hand in hand. A Muslim chronicler recalls how the Rus father of a newborn boy would show the baby a sword and tell him this would be his only inheritance: the blade would have to win all the rest of it. The Icelandic sagas, though geographically very far removed from the Rus, have also been an inspiration for the Varangians' ideal of businesslike warfare and warlike business, the kind of society where a father could say, "Son, you've been lazing around the fire all winter. Time to get up and show you can take some responsibility for your life. Go pillage someone."

The Rus employed both cavalry and archers, but the core of their forces in the early period was most likely formed infantry - also a Norse speciality. We've been working on the close-up foot-slogging side of Mount and Blade. Look out for high-tier AI opponents bashing you with their shield in the teeth, following it up with a blade going into your ribs. Disciplined infantry will be more likely to stay in formation, and will leave a space for a player in their ranks so you don't get crowded too closely by your allies.

Now, the Nords were a favourite faction in Warband, and we know a lot of people are drawn to Vikings - the blood eagles, the shipboard funeral pyres, the berserkers eager to join the feasting at Valhalla. Sturgia is Nordic-influenced but it's not really a Viking state: the Nordlands are off of the map (for the present, anyway) and they wouldn't really form the kind of proto-feudal kingdom that the Bannerlord factions represent. But, if players want to have a west Scandinavian-style play experience, the raiding, the companions, the ring-swords, two-handed axes, Valsgarde helmets, hauberks and raven banners will all be there. Among the Sturgian minor factions are the Skolderbroda, a mercenary brotherhood based on the (possibly legendary) Jomsvikings of the Baltic. The Finnic tribes meanwhile are represented by the Sons of the Forest, a semi- nomadic clan that practices swidden slash-and-burn agriculture in the depths of the woods. At any rate, there should be plenty of allies and plenty of enemies for players who want to win their inheritance with the blade, the Rus way, in this cold land of deadly opportunity.

Gallery

 

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