Here’s a nice illustration of the throne room of Nochet.
Now obviously this is an adaptation of the Gloranthan original to look more Minoan but the base elements are there. We have the Queen with a child, one of her husband-lovers, a sister-priestess, and another priestess. A young handsome warrior is lower on the steps, perhaps a supplicant, perhaps a representative of a fertility cult like Barntar or Thunderer, or perhaps a bodyguard. A young noblewoman offers gifts, behind her is a line of offerants. To the sides are priestesses and noblewomen. You can see the throne room is protected by Babeester Gor (see those axes), although I don’t see any of her cultists (but they might be in a different part of the room).Pretty clearly this is part of a Holy Day ceremony. The Queen spends much of her time in rituals and such ceremonies, which is why many Queens are more ceremonial figures than hands-on rulers (although the last few have been hands-on rulers).
Nochet is a city that plenty of Sartarites have been to. In fact, if the Sartarite community in Nochet was its own tribe, it would be a mid-sized tribe, bigger than the Culbrea!
There are maybe about 9000 Sartarites in total in Nochet. There are about 6500 in Boldhome. So that is true that there are more than in Boldhome, but they would be smaller than the Colymar.
Many of your player characters may have spent a year in Nochet during the wars in the Holy Country, especially if they are Sartarite warriors or nobles. They’ve seen the culture and art, enjoyed the food and drink, with its exotic spices and flavours.Many Sartarite leaders in 1625 spent years in exile in Nochet – for example, Erenava Chan could have been one of the priestesses in that picture! Now they have returned to Sartar, but the richness of Nochet no doubt remains with them.
And of course there are religious, trade, and cultural links between Nochet and Sartar. Probably more than you think.
