Overview

This island lies just off the north coast of Chayle’s mainland, across the Strait of Rasvim from Krunderyx. On the south tip is the Free City of Aodar, where 95% of the population of Aodar lives. 

The Free City of Aodar thrives on trade, and trade thrives on the ability for diverse peoples to come together and coexist. Thus people of all kinds can be found in this metropolis.

The Golden Shields, the Free City’s military and law enforcement, patrols within 50 miles of the city, keeping things relatively peaceful, but beyond that the island is an untamed wilderness.

Map

Government

The government of Aodar is incomprehensible to most outsiders, and nearly incomprehensible to most insiders. The government is controlled by a Council, and seats on the council are determined by Council Shares. An annual event called the Seating allows shareholders to vote for 12 of the 13 council members, with each share owned allowing 12 votes to be cast. The 13th seat is voted upon by the heads of each Athear. Council Shares are a commodity that is traded, no different than spices or gems. As such, the merchant guilds of Aodar control the city, as they control the Council Shares. Political maneuvering cannot be differentiated from economic positioning, as they are one and the same.

Merchant Houses

Trade houses are grouped into major and minor trade houses. Major trade houses are those which control at least 10% of the Council Shares (CS). Minor houses control less than 10% (if any).

Major Houses:
  • Eilendere Trade Consortium (14% CS) – This merchant house is primarily comprised of Elvish traders. 
  • Flowers of the Island Trail (10% CS) – This merchant house is run by a mix of races. The traders primarily traffic in natural materials and goods ranging anywhere from lumber for building to exotic spell components.
  • Scales of Trade (33% CS) – This primarily Human merchant house has risen to a precarious dominance of the Council through a period of aggressive and risky trading that paid off through acquisition of the largest share block. 
  • Draconic Goods Exchange (17%) – This trade group is made up of draconic races. Profits are primarily generated through trade of goods from draconic homelands to non-Draconic humanoid lands.
  • Exotic Merchandise Combine (11%) – This merchant house deals primarily in exotic and extremely difficult trade goods. The traders that run it are a mix of races.
  • Fenland Trade Association (12%) – This merchant house is run by a group of Korthjachan traders that specialize in distributing the goods of the Korthjach swamps. 
Minor Houses:
  • Debberoth Mercantile Foundation (1% CS) – This merchant house is run by Anneus Debberoth, an Ixen Shaman who runs this small trade house run primarily by family. 
  • Arcanea (< 1% CS) – This merchant house specializes in magical artifacts, spell components and the like. It is a very small house run by a group of knowledgeable sages. 
  • Arcavictorius – (< 1% CS) – This recently-founded group specializes in providing high-end services to wealthy customers, and are particularly famous for providing skilled Tamgol chefs.
  • Numerous other minor trade houses run small operations in Aodar.
Laws

The laws that govern the city of Aodar are too numerous and fluid to document here, so the highlights have been summarized.

Harm to others is forbidden save in defense of ones self, possessions or companions.
Anything may be bought or sold as long as both parties to the transaction are willing.
Coercing unwilling sales or purchasing is illegal, and is punishable in accordance to the value of the purchase.
Signed contracts are viewed as unbreakable bonds, and failing to live up to written obligations carries harsh penalties. As a result advocates have become well-practiced in the art of the loophole.

Law Enforcement

The laws of Aodar are enforced by a number of organizations. The primary group responsible for this duty is the Golden Shields. They are theoretically an independent group, but they are paid by the Council, and thus heavily influenced by the merchant house with controlling interest of shares.

In addition to the Golden Shields each merchant house has a guard force that acts to safeguard their people and property. While not officially deputized, their ability to enforce the laws is tacitly approved by the Golden Shields, and so they are effectively a police force.

Finally, the Athereans of Lendys are a force of Clerics, Paladins and Fighters fielded by the Athear of Justice. They are unsanctioned by the city, but due to their military strength and impartiality they are unopposed. Unlike the merchant guard forces the AoL do not turn over their prisoners to the Golden Shields for adjudication. They have their own system of justice which is brutally impartial, and unlike the official system run by the Golden Shields, it is largely uninfluenced by bribery.

Aodar Locations

Generated by wpDataTables

Guilds

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Flavor

The first thing I noticed upon stepping off of the ship was that even at night the docks were well lit. It shouldn’t have surprised me, I suppose, given that Aodar’s lifeblood is trade. Surely that blood would be well protected.

The orange glow of the magelights shone down from their brass cages onto the well-orchestrated chaos which is the merchant capital of Merisyl. As I headed towards theTrade SquareI recall wondering idly whether or not the poles were raised each evening, or whether the mages lit them in their cages. Amusing how such an idle thought can receive so little attention at the time it flits from subconscious to conscious thought, and yet prove so critical to the path your life takes.

The sound of my soft leather boots was lost in the muted rumblings of a hundred busy porters. Or perhaps it was the dozens of sailors heading out to the taverns for their first fresh ale in months. Quite possibly the ladies of the night attempting to attract the interest of those same sailors may have contributed as well. Honestly, even the most well–trained ear has trouble distinguishing the idle banter of a Morphic caravan guard from the lustful bragging of a human sailor when both are verbal flotsam on a sea of noise. This, at least, is my excuse for the later events of that evening.

Emerging from the raucous waterfront into the city proper I tried (and failed) to control my impulse to stop and gawk. I’d tipped my hand as a backwater girl with no city skills. Not a good start, but as one of a hundred who’d stepped off the ship from the Archipelago of Blood I certainly wasn’t alone in my reaction. I can’t even identify just one thing that made my mouth drop open like a Dragon anticipating a succulent roasted Halfling.

Taken alone, there was nothing to inspire such a reaction. The lofty arches of an Ixen alehouse could be seen in any Ixen city, but juxtaposed with the stark practicality of a Korthjach warehouse it calls out “gaudy” to inner architect in all of us. The pair of copper Dragons bellowing at each other in the center of the trade plaza served as a focal point for all manner of street vendors and entertainers.

A medley of Kobolds hawking meat pies nimbly navigated Elvish jugglers who handled both quail eggs and quail with a facile economy of motion. The latter inspired a less momentous passing thought which to this point I have avoided mentally exploring: What orifices can an Elf fit a live quail into such that the quail can be produced by sleight of hand at a moment’s notice?

Shortly after recovering from my pregnant pause (technically it wasn’t this pause that was responsible for the pregnancy, but as I sit here in my cell I have great reason for pregnancy to be at the forefront of my thoughts) I felt a hand rest firmly on my lower back. Quite possibly it might also be defined as my upper butt. In replaying the moment I’ve frequently pondered the exact point at which a lower back becomes an upper butt. Nevertheless, I stray again from the course of my story.

Whipping around, anxious to prove that I was no helpless Human girl ripe for the piliferous attentions of the active Aodaran rogues guild, I came face to face with the most attractive man ever to have endured my hostile gaze. Several aspects of this encounter will be forever carved by embarrassment into my memory. The Morphic I have since come to know as Zevilax saw my face and burst into uncontrollable laughter. The sort of laughter that one expects from witnessing a man fall groin first onto a barbed-wire fence. Not the reaction I would expect from someone with piliferous attentions! And therein lies the cause of his hilarity.

“Piliferous,” he choked out between barely suppressed guffaws, “means ‘producing hair’.”

While I cannot define with precision the exact order of my embarrassments, I have since decided that they occurred as follows: First, how deplorable it was that I, a trained Bard, thought that Aodarn rogues might want to cause me to produce hair rather than pilfer something from me. Second, how deranged I must seem to have had my inner monologue broadcasting to the world at large for this arrogant (yet admittedly alluring in a decidedly non-fraternal way) knave to overhear. Finally, and certainly most humiliating at the time (and to this very moment)… my realization that my inner monologue had not been broadcast. This fellow was privy to my very thoughts. All of them. Including the ones filed under Embarrassment Two.

So much for passing myself off as a big city girl.

Stunned into momentary indecision I allowed him to lead me into a taphouse on the edge of the square. He motioned with familiarity to the Kobold behind the bar and I found myself with a steaming mug of Blairne’s Sweet Brown.

“Relax,” Zevilax grinned. “I’m Zevilax. I can tell you need an introduction to the Free City. If you just let it wash over you it won’t be long before you find yourself out to sea with the refuse.”

Actively attempting to compose myself I sipped at the Sweet Brown and used my Bardic training to focus my mind on observing and recording. I had every intention of thwarting this man’s ability to pick through my thoughts…