The Khanate is one of the most frustrating locations in the game, but also one which offers a daring and ambitious captain great opportunities. Generally speaking, it’s a rather stereotypical Middle Eastern city with greedy merchants in one of the harbours and a decadent court with two conflicted factions in the other. The frustrating part is the constant presence of guards and agents tracking every step of the bloody kufir — which means that almost every action causes the increase of the ‘Suspicion’ attribute. Beyond a certain threshold, the natives start limiting the player’s possibilities by closing the well-provisioned market. To make it open again, it requires bribing one of the two factions, which is quite a costly affair. To make the matter even more complicated, the degenerates inhabiting the court won’t simply accept money, oh no, this wouldn’t be sophisticated enough. Instead, one clique accepts only the expensive coffee, while the other is even more demanding and requires Drowning Pearls, which are even harder to obtain. Did I mention that even with a low suspicion level, bribes are required for newcomers to obtain a certain ring in order to enter the market? It’s no wonder that after a few visits to the Khan’s Heart, I started to feel xenophobic about its inhabitants. Unfortunately, taking revenge by sinking one of their warships costs suspicion too.
All this for a chance to buy a bale of silk
However, like I mentioned in the beginning, the Khanate is a place of great opportunity, worth every effort. First, the market offers interesting goods for reasonable prices, some of them required for certain quests. Second, the possibility of establishing a spy network is a great way to obain Strategic Information and gain the Admiralty’s favour. Too bad that there are no options to interfere with its internal politics yet — it would be great to stage a palace coup or even cause a civil war — but maybe a future DLC will introduce this. At least, thanks to Mr. Sacks, I can spread a plague of auto-cannibalism among those arrogant Easterners.
