Once the proud possessor of a major shipping industry, Zingara is an exotic land that exists between the Pictish Wilderness, the Bossonian Marches, Aquilonia and Argos. Although often thought of merely as Argos’ maritime rival, Zingara has in the past been a land of agriculture and elegance.
Zingara is now a land torn apart and ruined by civil war. Historically a king ruled the land out of Kordava but the elegant, bejewelled and hosed princelings and nobles, who usually fought petty battles among themselves and the Poitanians, rose up and destroyed themselves and their noble kingdom in flame and blood. The refined swordsmanship of the Zingarans had unfortunately turned against itself. Now the kingdom is faltering, unable to support itself due to burnt and salted fields, destroyed armies and crushed castles.
Zingarans try to dress well. Trunk-hose and doublets of silk with puffed and slit sleeves are common for the men. Cloaks hang from their shoulders. Boots of the finest Kordavan leather adorn their feet. Soldiers dress in steel and satin. Armour and garments are always ornate and made of the best material that can be afforded, stolen or made.
Thin black moustaches are also common. Royal soldiers dress in burgundy and gold. Red and yellow are considered lucky colours. The wealthy tend to dress brightly while the commoners wear more subdued tones. Unmarried women wear their hair long; married women bundle their hair into coifs or hair bands.
The Zingaran Freebooters dress in a typically pirate fashion. They wear sashes, bare chests, silken pantaloons, great loops of gold in their ears, sabres, cutlasses and so on.
Zingara is a non-Hyborian nation — it's a mixture of Zingg Valley folk and Picts, with some Hyborian blood. They have a highly developed courtly culture and medieval feudal society with strong element of slavery and low opporunities of social mobility. Despite their mixed heritage Zingarans are very racist and are unwelcoming towards other cultures and outlanders. They are perfect marines and pirates.
Manners and pleasures in Zingara are elements of its elegance and sophistication. Ballet troupes learned the finest dances in the schools and the fine art of fencing was taught to all noblemen. Waving scented handkerchiefs, the nobility of Zingara plotted and conspired against fellow nobles even as they spoke eloquently of philosophy and civility.
Honour for the Zingarans is a very real concept, built of a individual’s reputation, moral identity and self-perception. This sense of honour is the guiding principle of Zingaran society and is never a matter of mere lip-service. Zingarans of honour are always alert for insults. Actual or suspected, insults will impugn an Zingaran’s honour. An Zingaran’s honour also extends to his wife, his family and his beloved. Impugned honour will usually result in a duel or other form of violent redress.
In Zingara’s prime, Zingaran swordsmanship was taught in both formal fencing-schools and the deadly backstreets of every city, though many Zingarans learned to use only the civilian arming sword, rather than the more militaryoriented broadsword. The Zingarans developed one of the most sophisticated forms of elite fencing ever created, a sheer art form to behold. Many of these fencing schools may still survive and those that have burned are slowly being rebuilt. Many feel that these schools, which also taught principles of chivalry, are essential to the rebuilding of Zingara, to keep it from sliding backwards into barbarism.
A Zingaran usually only leaves Zingara by force, be it force of arms or force of circumstance.
The Freebooters were once loyal Zingaran subjects that were given legal charters as privateers to prey upon Argossean shipping and stop the Barachans. Fierce Zingaran independence soon reared its savage head and the Freebooters went renegade, preying even on their own country’s ships. This backstab did not endear them to the Zingarans. The Freebooters are not welcome in Zingaran ports. Like as not, the renegade pirates will find themselves hanged if they show themselves. Likewise they are not welcome at Tortage in the Barachans. Their bases are outside of Zingara, although no one knows exactly where.
There is a time honoured tradition of baiting strangers among the Freebooters, where strangers are tested with violence. This establishes a stranger’s status among a Freebooter crew. The testing is both brutal and bloody. The brawl begins with taunts and insults, then the fight starts. It is a one-on-one fight and how the stranger comports himself establishes his ‘rank’ among the crewmembers. The stranger does not need to win but he must not prove himself a coward or a weakling.
The Freebooters are rapacious and cruel and are feared as much as the Barachans, especially by the Argosseans. They maraud ships and raid coastal towns. Fortunately for coastal nations and sea-faring trade, the Freebooters are not numerous, which makes the handful still out there all the more famous and well-known.
Zingarans have their own version of Mitra — not one true god, but head of a local pantheon with Ishtar as consort. In all other Hyborian nations, Mitra is the One True God. The melting pot of Zingara has also produced a melting pot of religions. Mitra, as the god of the last conquerors, now rules supreme over the other gods. The saints have vanished, but the legions of heaven and hell remain.
A variant of Ishtar probably serves as Mitra’s consort in a court that contains Shemitish and Pictish deities, all with portfolios of power in a complex fashion duplicating the complicated Zingaran court.