Forgotten Realms: Darkwalker on the Moonshae II

Part of the reason that I'm going through all the Forgotten Realms novels - as well as other projects that will come up whenever I get around to them - is to learn more about the worlds and how they work. What a professional setting feels like, which is a lot more fulfilling to get to by piecing it from literature rather than reading an encyclopedia (for what else would the setting books be considered).

So, the Moonshaes, an area that I will forever confuse with the Moonsea. What did this book teach me about them?

The first is the governmental structure they have in place, which is akin to city-states, but stuck in a fuedal-type structure. I imagine that there's a central hub - a town, if you will - for each large area of outlying "province." There's trade, sure, but probably not a lot of it - most of the area that I saw seemed to be more or less self-sufficient through farming, hunting, and fishing - and any trade that does happen is likely for luxuries, which I'd say is supported by the fact that the only traders that show up are related to Calimshan, the desert empire that I'd assume are more likely to export spices and frills than anything necessary for life.

The protagonist is a prince and his father a king, and while the king himself - from what we see of him at least - gets a measure of respect, it's not enough to be a full-fledged king, at least the ones I'm familiar with. Based on his commitment to leading from the front and his disappointment in Tristan for being a failure at... well, I'll save my complaints about Tristan for another time, but I would assume that kings in this area are more akin to dukes and earned their position through force of arms and keep it the same way. In times of peace, why not keep them in power? But as soon as something needs protecting, they better step up.

But, there's the historical (though I would say more mythical or legendary in the context of the story) High King, or the hero that united all the little states together to combat a much larger force. In some way, I'd say this borders on an almost structured fuedal system, with the nobility handling their own little fiefs and the High King ruling over all, but as far as the story leads me to believe, this uniting was a one-time thing that lasted perhaps a generation at most. It's a little cloudy, though, as the inherent hero-nature of the book (as opposed to societal) shadows what actually happened in the past. Was there actually a fuedal system in place, like I would hope, that may have lasted a few generations before long-lasting peace degraded it to nothing? Did this hero just manage to unite everyone for a single battle or war and his legend was impressive enough (or made impressive enough because every region needs a legacy) that oral history has made it an even bigger deal than it was? I don't really know.

Regardless, the state of the region now is essentially a collection of city-states that have a shared history and legacy and a theoretical promise to aid each other against a common enemy, but no official ties. I'd liken it to Greece - mostly because my real-world historical knowledge is about as shaky as my Faerun historical knowledge and that's the only kind of parallel that I can make.

As far as geographical location - which I couldn't care less about, but I feel obligated to include - it's likely in the far south, around the location of Halruaa (at least as far as latitude goes). The trade with Calimshan points to this (though it's by ship, so not as strongly as I would like). Really, the main thing is that the enemies are coming from the north, so it's an educated guess.

Damn, I forgot to mention the clergy and what I can tell about that. That's the pain of not actually writing an outline, script, or even bother to edit these. But it's what I have to deal with if I actually want to keep up on this project.

C'est la vie.