Mandate of Heaven Campaign: Suggestions Requested

[Persell]

I'm an experienced ST running a solo game for a friend of mine, and due to some of his requests as well as ideas of my own, I've settled on a Mandate of Heaven-style campaign.  I'll be the first to tell you, political games are not my forte, which is why I'm here requesting a bit of help.  


The PC is a Tya ship's captain, Eclipse-Caste, a true swashbuckling sort.


Background


Parrius in the First Age was a wealthy island nation ruled over by an Eclipse-Caste trader and his courtesan Lunar wife. Wealthy due to their chief exports of pearl dust and seastone and home base to several mortal and Exalt trading emporiums, Parrius was taken over by Dragon-Blood when the two Exalt rulers were killed in the Usurpation.  A Solar Half-Caste daughter escaped the purge and spent the next fifty years of her life building up a pirate fleet and harrassing the trade ships that had once belonged to her parents.  Unable to keep the population from fleeing the island to escape the raids and unable to completely destroy the raiders, the Dragon-Blood packed up and left for warmer climes.  The daughter reclaimed the island in the name of her parents and the Unconquered Sun, but her line lasted only six generations before plague completely decimated Parrius, leaving a kingdom of ghosts in its wake.


More than a thousand years would pass before any notable society would once again call the island home.  Left largely to their own devices, the island's spirits and elementals ran wild, chasing off or killing any who dared set foot on dry land, and even sometimes ships that moored in the harbors to wait out squalls.  Due to this activity on the parts of spirits and elementals, Parrius joined the ranks of the legendary haunted islands in the south seas.


The first foot that stepped from ship to land belonged to the Outcaste Water-Aspect sorceress Reckless Seas sometime in the first century of the Scarlet Empress' reign.  Using the spells at her disposal, Reckless Seas banished most of the island's wild spirits, and bound a large portion of the air and water elementals to do her bidding.  With their help, she shrouded the island from mortal eyes in a cloak of mist and magic, and created several artifacts to aid favored ships to find the island.  When these acts were completed, Reckless Seas began to build a raider society, and for six hundred years, the Black Jade Raiders have preyed on ships in the south waters of the Great Western Ocean.


The Lintha have...not so much treaties as agreements, with the Black Jade Raiders.  The two pirate nations have a tendency to stay out of each other's way, though skirmishes have happened in the past and will likely happen again.  Neither side wishes to risk all out war, as the outcome is still uncertain and would likely not favor either side.


This society is almost completely parasitic: they produce very little to support their own populace, instead choosing to subsist on the produce of other societies.  The Imperial trade fleets supply them well, as do the odd trade ship of the Guild and southern emporiums (Chiaruscro, Paragon, An-Teng).  Membership in this society is much sought-after, and once every fifty years or so, a contest is held, open to all ship's captains. A scavenger hunt of sorts, with the first five captains returning the items required given one of the commonly produced artifacts that allow a ship to sail to the island.  While ascension in the ranks of the Black Jade Raiders is based solely on merit and talent, this contest is the Raiders' way of bringing new blood into the fold, a sort of foot-in-the-door start.


Game Time


When the game starts, one of these legendary contests is rumored to begin six months hence.  This early in the season, details are sketchy as to what the items required will be and when exactly the contest will officially begin.  These sorts of contests are open-ended, and there are several epic tales of competitions that have gone on for years before winners were declared and the contest closed.  This gives a very nice opening into the mysteries of the island that my player's PC ruled in the First Age, as well as making the PC work to gain dominion control. (Not to mention giving me a fair chunk of time to map out the intricacies of BJR culture and government, and retaliations from the Realm, the Guild, the southern Navies, the Lintha, the CotI, the Bronze Faction, and independant trade emporiums.)


What I'm Looking For


As the Solar climbs the social cutthroat ladder, she'll be garnering more and more power.  The island is currently under the control of an Outcaste named Reckless Seas, the great-granddaughter of the original sorceress, but as time goes on, Reckless Seas is fated to be replaced, either by one of her own children, or by the PC.  It's entirely possible that the nation's time could end if the Maiden deems it so, or the centuries-old enchantments are broken. Not likely, but possible. Eventually, control of the nation will come into the hands of the PC for however length a time she can hold it together.


Because this game has such a staggeringly ambitious scope, I'm imagining a host of butterfly-effect consequences of my player gaining access to the island.  As such, I'd like some help narrowing the field down a bit: suggestions for consideration from other STs as to some possible reactions from various societies and other dominions.  I realize I haven't given all the tiny necessary details to truly narrow the possibilities down, so I don't expect lengthy responses. Just some generalized suggestions.


Thanks in advance.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Badass little setting, let me get some coffee in my system and I'll wrap my brain around this.  

 

[wordman]

As such, I'd like some help narrowing the field down a bit: suggestions for consideration from other STs as to some possible reactions from various societies and other dominions.

Historically, it seems to me that governments have used only three strategies successfully against pirates:

1. Extermination (hunting them down like dogs)
   
2. Assimilation (granting them land, etc. basically making them nobles)
   
3. Cooperation (granting them safe waters or cash in exchange for them directing their efforts against enemy governments)

The Guild would probably choose the third one, if they could figure out a way to do so. More efficient.


The Emipre would probably do the first, while trying very hard to manipulate a war between them and the Lintha. The more pirates fight each other, the better for the Empire. If the the extermination option started to get too expensive (or too distracting), they might try the assimilation, offering governorship someplace that needs a bit of a smackdown. With the empress missing, though, this would be tricky.


I'd also think real hard about what Fakharu would do. I'd think he most likely try to use Parrius covertly in maneuverings in Celestial court somehow, but dragons are inscrutible.