I've been thinking about the Dreaming Sea a bit while trying and failing to sleep, and I thought that I'd get some of it out of my head.
There are three main powers in the Dreaming Sea; Ysyr, Volivat, and Prasad. Each is militarily very different, despite their shared region. Prasad favors a traditional dragon-blooded style of warfare, with well-disciplined troops, less disciplined vassal levies, and a number of extremely powerful heroes, each Dragon-blooded. Volivat on the other hand has a massive core of transhuman soldiers, each ten times better than an equivalent soldier (this amounts to having an average of 4 in Attributes, ranging between six and two). Additionally, Volivati ten-fathered have a much easier time finding enlightenment in Styles* than a normal human. Admittedly, this amounts to one in one hundred rather than one in one thousand, but it's still impressive. However, despite these advantages they are only about equal with Prasad.
Ysyr on the other hand is much more interesting. The island-continent that it sits on has heavily mutative properties, due to a combination of First Age sorcery and Wyld taint. This means that in the core, each Ysyri soldier is highly unique, preventing uniformity and hampering discipline. This means that a Ysyri army often functions more similarly to a mob of rabble than a proper army. How then, do they manage to be a great power of the Dreaming Sea? It's simple; they have a lot of sorcerers. These sorcerers bind or treat with demons, dead, fae, and elementals, adding large numbers of them to their armies. A typical battle with the Ysyri begins with a large number of powerful spells, bound Behemoths, and other trump cards being played in an attempt to break the enemy formation, followed by the powerful mutants of the armies destroying the enemy. Their vassal levies on the other hand are typically used to hold the center while the horde of mutants takes the sides, as they have actual training and discipline.
Ysyr itself is ruled by Sorcerers in a thaumatocracy. In theory, every being capable of Sorcery has a single vote in the senate of Ysyr so long as they have performed a certain number of acts in support of the city within recent memory. This can be either a single large act, or a number of smaller ones. Needless to say, who gets a vote is a matter of much debate. In addition to the Sorcerers who have gained their power through the mutative properties of Ysyr, the Ysyri welcome Sorcerers, including Lunars, demons, and Dragon-blooded to their city, though their loyalty is considered to be in question until they've done quite a lot to prove it. Powerful beings that do not know sorcery are allowed to visit, and are given respect, but are never allowed to vote.
Ysyri sorcerers are split into three schools of sorcery. Though they will all gladly use the tools of each school, the debates over which method should be primary is a matter of bloody intrigue. These schools are the Citizens, who focus on using their power over the empire to work magic, the Artisans, who work magic through their wonders of craftsmanship, and the Binders, who bind and treat with spirits of all stripes for power. The Binders generally focus on the Raksha, due to their location, but are willing to work with any kind of spirit if it will give them the power that they desire.
Each sorcerer-king is exceedingly long lived, though not immortal, due to the spells that they work on themselves. They are also almost all great beauties due to their sorcery eliminating their other mutations, though some favor function over form, or have strange ideas of what form entails. They surround themselves with serfs who have been made beautiful through sorcery. Most elite among these are the Emerald Guard, human soldiers who have been given great individual power by sorcery, each a wonder of magical might and sworn to the sorcerer that raised them up. They are almost all originally human, as having a non-human on your guard is considered to be quite gauche.
Hara Bi is the Southwestern god of war, iron, and combat against fae. She is deeply enamored with Ysyr because of their constant wars with the fae, and because their use of bound fae in battle is considered to be under her domains. She will often fight alongside Ysyri forces when they raid the Fair Folk, as the normal rules on divine intervention are loosened when it comes to creatures that are Outside Fate. She has yet to face consequences for this, though the Bronze Faction was keeping close watch for any improprieties that they could use to remove her, at least until the current crisis.
*Normal mortals can gain Charms from their Styles. These charms are spirit charms, and are generally pretty weak compared to Exalted charms.
