Nations

There are five nations in Coldmaris that have territories whose formation is stable enough to be considered true nation-states, and membership in which can be considered a heritage for the purposes of character creation. In no particular order, they are:

• The Trevult Imperium, a heriditary monarchy and perhaps the pinnacle nation in terms of their use of industrialization and the working of metals, which they have in abundance;
• New Coldmaris is a lose republic of island territories that all shared a common pre-Breaking ancestor culture, and since re-establishing contact with each other have chosen to rekindle their ancestral alliances. They are seen as civilized and hardworking, and are perhaps the pre-eminent culture in terms of sheer sailing capability. Many New Coldmaris standards and institutions underpin the terminology and techniques of sailing; they are most famous, of course, for their ubiquitous Cartographers' Guild.
• The Feng Empire is a culture that has specialized in adapting to their surroundings and to the constant state of change Coldmaris imposes upon them. Their territory is largely peripheral to that of the Trevult and New Coldmaris cultures, but has an ancient history, rooted in a half-legendary and half-historical war fought fairly shortly after the Ancient Breaking. It's believed that the Feng first discovered Coldmaris Lodestone and developed the earliest post-breaking airships.
• The Sultunate of Gerb is an additional culture heavily invested in trade, and organized chiefly around their most magnificent holding, the city of Gerb. They are heavily enriched by having territories rich in the mineral Lundesite, which is a powerful alchemical reagent and power source, essential for many modern technologies. They are frequent trade partners - and equally, frequently at war with - the Trevult Empire.
• The Greatwind are an allied collection of islander communities, similar to the New Coldmaris, but with so great an emphasis on individual freedoms and involvement in the collective efforts of their people that they could almost be considered an anarchic commune. Greatwind's federated islands rarely hold their formation entirely and occasionally spring up in odd places based on the Skytides.

Additionally, there are a few factions that constitute heritages in their own right, even if they aren't seen as a proper nation-state anthropologically.

• Guild Lifers are persons deeply dedicated, in many cases even born into, the mission and lifestyle of the Cartographers Guild. While their ultimate heritage may be Trevultine, New Coldmari, Fengjin, Gerban, or Greatwindian, they see themselves as members of the guild first and members of their nation second... a phenomenon made all the more strong by the ubiquitous nature of Guild offices and the cosmopolitan vision of the Guild itself.
• The Pirate Nation is a rarely-unified, hypothetical coalition of all pirate factions, usually used as a rhetorical instrument by nation-states, but tacitly acknowledged as a common interpretation of the nature of piracy by pirates themselves. Many pirates live by personal codes of honour that make mention of the vision of the pirate nation. Some even actively seek to create it, but the nature of piracy itself seeds enough mutual distrust that so far, no Pirate King has appeared.

Additionally, there are several pre-Breaking cultures that may need to be discussed; these are rarely appropriate to use as player Heritages.