Editing The Scarlet Sea (section)

==Other Factions==
The Scarlet Sea is home to powers other than nations. Rebellious nationalists, workers councils, religious hierarchies and more compete for power, wealth, and influence across its waters.

===The Immortal Azure Khanate===
The largest single Cycle in the Western world, unique in its monotheism. The followers of the Azure Khan can be found in the furthest islands of the west to the coldest steppes of the east, in towering forests of the New World and sweltering jungles of the Old. Within the bound of the Sapphire Sea, the cycle is strongest in the Grand Duchy of Tarchon, where it has the status of state religion.

===The Bardic Colleges===
The collective term for the hierarchies of priests, druids, shamans, and clerics of the European Cycles. The largest and oldest bardic college is the College of Ulm, the heart of Teutonic faith, but many cycles have copied its structure and organized themselves in a like manner. These faiths are invariably polytheistic, claiming descent from the most ancient traditions of their people. Though fractious and divided, on the whole they remain implacably opposed to the Immortal Azure Khanate and its exclusive claims to divinity. Formal colleges are rare outside of Europe, though reformist factions of other religions have promulgated their adoption. The Scarlet Sea is home to several prominent colleges, largely thanks to its history as the frontier of ancient empires.

<p>'''College of Ulm''': The oldest, wealthiest, and most powerful of the Colleges of Europe, the Wodanic College of Ulm governs the spiritual and cultural life of the Teutonic Empire. Ruled by the Prince-Bard of The Holy City, the college has spawned numerous subordinate colleges in nations throughout Europe to serve Teutonic migrants and local converts. Centuries of preaching, often backed by the force of the Empire's armies, has ensured it a dominant position in the field of European religion.</p>
<p>'''College of Nacria''': A relatively young college, founded only after the first flowering of Nacrian power in the mid-1400s, the Collegium Pontificum nourishes a decayed branch of the ancient Tyrnian faith. Whether rediscovered or reinvented, it is a regional rival to the Wodanic Cycle that professes faith in the gods of the Reman Empire.</p>
<p>'''College of Meteora''': Following the Iollene Revolution, the College of Meteora is now the dominant hierarchy of the Dodekan Cycle. While many of the structures of the former Katunic college have been torn down, debates over the future of the long-suppressed Dodekan faith have kept the college from establishing itself in the Vale of Meteora itself. Its faithful practice in town squares and converted basements, celebrating their renewed faith and revealing long-hidden temples that survived the persecution of their Olmec overlords of yore.</p> 
<p>'''College of Lordran''': Prominent in the region of the Caltic Alps, the Bardic College of Lordran was the first to employ the term "bards" for its various practitioners. Such was its influence across Western Europe that the term became synonymous with the Colleges as a whole, though its Bardic Cycle is largely limited to the lands and colonies of Western Europe.</p>
<p>'''College of Erikslund''': Represented by a few shrine-temples in Nacria, Silberwasche, and other coastal cities, the Bardic College of Erikslund is primarily patronized by Danish sailors working ships far from home. Worshipping a Danish offshoot of the Bardic Cycle, it is both brother and rival to the College of Lordran, a situation common in Western Europe.</p>
<p>'''College of Tzi'tzu'unun''': Situated in the prominent Olmec port of Tzi'tzu'unun, this college's branch of the Katunic Cycle is the most widely recognized in the region of the Scarlet Sea. This has made the college a target of much intrigue by more traditionalist ketzals of the Olm Empire. In the Scarlet Sea, its stronghold has always been the island of Greater Xipolia. Efforts to establish dominance over the Katunic faithful of the Iollene Peninsula have largely been rebuffed by the Iollene Katuns, who established their own college in the ancient religious heartland of the Vale of Meteora.</p>
<p>'''College of Corfu''': Founded by priests fleeing the Iollene Revolution, the Corfu college serves followers of the Katunic Cycle within the Pentinsular Republic. Once largely independent, it is at great risk of being absorbed into the College of Tzi'tzu'unun due to the overthrow of the Ioxic Ketzalate.</p>

===Banda Mali===
An organized crime syndicate reputed to have existed since the 11th Century in the lowlands and foothills of the Caltic Alps.