The island kingdom of Sankar sits in the middle of that geographic anomaly called the circle sea. Vast speculation has been made of the perfectly circular body of water and the surrounding mountains, the teeth.
The seaward teeth and the gaps between them are the reason for Sankar's immense wealth. Sankar is the most important port in the known world, with riches flowing like water through its docks and on its shipping. The teeth provide protection from the violent weather which so often destroys coastal towns, and also provide protection from the wolves which prey on innocent shipping. Sankar has pretty much made piracy anywhere near the circle sea a fatal proposition. In return the gratitude of a thousand ship's captains has made Sankar rich.
I won't say that crime is unknown on Sankar, but when most of the people on the island are at least masters of their chosen crafts, the casual robber hasn't a real chance. Of course the less casual robber may do quite well.
The only drawback to this most wonderful of arrangements is that the Sankarites have a problem with their children. The Sankarites as a culture are a bunch of fighters, seamen, mages, and traders without peer in the surrounding kingdoms. The island is pretty much manicured gardens and stately buildings. First children may be brought up to take over the business (although they usually fail, there are a lot of successful predators on the island), but subsequent children never are. The island has only so much space to hold people and food sources. Most of the children are required to leave. They are nurtured, loved, trained as well as possible, armed and equipped, and then told to go. If they are successful, they will be back to purchase one of the few estates that come available each year.
All children of tax paying Sankarites are taught to read, are tested for their abilities and offered training through the schools. The schools teach basic skills in the occupations and sciences. At the end of the training there is a graduation exercise and the students are then given a months grace. Some try to stick it out on Sankar, but the only real way to do that is to join the navy.
The rest scatter. Sankarites are known through out the world. Only a small percentage of them ever make it back to Sankar, mostly because of marriage and familys. It is considered a good catch for most familys to get a Sankarite as a bride or groom. Being from Sankar doesn't help you when you are meeting people, but it doesn't hurt either.
What this means in terms of the game.
You are allowed to view the monster manual if you are not in melee.
You are allowed to look in the players manual when not in melee.
You can read and write common and Sankarite.
You can read and write one additional language for each intellegence point past 14
You have some small knowlege of geography and own a wizardmap of Sankar.
This map was eight inches (20.3cm) by six inches (15.2cm) it's scale is forty miles to the inch (9.4km/cm). North is the top of the map.
Another map of Sankar, this one created with Campaign Cartographer
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