Our families are very important to us. Society in the Republic of Karistan is organized around family far more than class, wealth, or occupation. Led for two centuries by the Faz-ah family, our land of coastal forests and bleak tundra heights doesn't mix much in world affairs politically, but our traders carry cargos for thousands of leagues in all directions, over sea and land. This voyaging worldwide extends our influence beyond the limited impact you'd expect of a scant eleven million citizens. That population isn't evenly spread over our 1,530,000 square kilometers of land. 80% live within 140km of the sea.

Though famed for tundra-camel cheese and richly brocaded heather-fiber carpets, the greater wealth of Karistan comes from its mines, forests, and shipping companies. Fishermen help feed a population unnaturally large for what still seems a lonely land. Caribou are herded by the upland AkKrit, and their inferior (to that of camels) cheese and milk is used for domestic consumption. The AkKrit roam 7/9 of Karistan's land as nomads, grazing their small herds a few days here, a week there, before moving along. The coastal IKrai, cousins to the uplanders, are much more settled, except for the sailors among us. The IKrai do some shipbuilding for export, and own and operate most of the country's mines, mills, and lumber operations, even those in the north and east.