Palidae

Palidae is by far the most diverse locale. A series of merchant guilds control all of the business and government. Members of the guilds elect the guild leaders. The guild leaders, together, form a council which elect a leader from amongst themselves. This council governs the city.

The city is the heart of trade around the whole world. It is the only place outside of their own nations, where the Eldarani have an official presence. The technology of Palidae nearly rivals that of Eldracor.

Government Type: Bureaucracy

Currency: Palidaean Lyr

Economic Model: Planned Economy

Politics

Governance

The city council is composed of representatives from each of the Major Guilds. Amongst themselves, they elect new Chairman and a Secretary every three years. How often the individual representatives rotate is determined independently by each guild.

The Council is responsible for lawmaking, and law enforcement in Palidae. Each guild, however, has their own internal laws, and generally speaking, it is a major faux pas to overrule the laws of a guild, especially a Major Guild, when only members of the guild are involved. Because of this, with few exceptions, even when a guild's internal laws conflict with the city's laws, the guild's own laws are generally left to apply.

The City Council also appoints judges to oversee trials when laws are broken, both internal guild laws, and city laws. Whenever a trial is held, the judge overseeing the trial must be from a guild which is not involved in the proceedings. There are also nine High Judges. These judges are almost always entirely composed of members of the Barrister's Guild. They oversee high profile trials, or trials which involve members from many different guilds. These judges are experts in not only Palidaean law, but also the internal laws of every Major Guild, and generally many of the Minor Guilds as well. These judges are considered beyond reproach. After the High Judges are appointed, they have a mandatory retirement at age 60. They can, however be granted an extension beyond that, one year at a time, by a two thirds majority vote of the City Council.

The City Council also oversees the City Guard. In addition to electing a Chairman and a Secretary every three years, the Head of The Guard is elected annually. It is not uncommon for the same person to be re-elected multiple years in a row if people believe they are doing a good job.

International Policy

Palidae acts as the heart of trade in Kamirell. Almost all of their political relations with other nations serves to facilitate further trade, resource acquisition, or tender services.

Despite remaining eminently peaceful, Palidae also maintains a healthy military force, which is nearly unrivaled in terms of technology and magical technique. However, this force has only ever needed to be deployed a handful of times.

No foreign powers hold a permanent military presence within the city itself. However there are a few which permanent based within Palidaean borders.

Multiple small forts are also actively maintained to house visiting military delegations outside of the city.

Daily Life

The vast majority of adults are members of a guild. Those who are not, fall into one of four categories. They work for either the guard, or in city administration. They are a licenced Free Contractor, meaning that they are able to perform the work of one or more guilds, without being a member. Or they are employed at a business owned by a guild member; you do not need to be a member of a guild to work at a particular business, although without joining the guild, there are strict limitations on exactly how far up you can move in the business. The most common non-guild workers are on the farms outside the city.

City administration organizes many activities, clubs, social events and celebrations which keep the cities residents happy and in good spirits.

International Relations

Draedunn

Palidae is a city state on Draedunn's western coast.

Arynaya

Palidae utilizes Arynaya for almost all of its off-continent shipping of goods. As a result, the two share an extremely mutually beneficial arrangement where both profit.

The economic link between Palidae and Arynaya is so strong that they share a currency in the Palidaean Lyr.

Eldracor

Palidae is the only other location on Kamirell which Eldracor holds an official and permanent presence.

Kann Delhar

Kann Delhar is the primary provider of wheat and barley in the Palidae Trading Halls.

Prettorrann

Prettorrann is the primary provider of carrots and turnips in the Palidae Trading Halls. Prettorrann also holds a permanent military base within the Palidaean borders, near their own boarder with the city state.

Trading Halls

The Palidaean Trading Halls are where the majority of the global trade occurs. These halls are split across multiple buildings, however they are largely clustered together in a single district.

In the Lower Halls, goods and services are exchanged and rendered. These markets are often chaotic and are comprised of stalls which can be rented by any member of a Guild for a period of time, determined by their contract with the city.

The Upper Halls are where the real work is done. In the upper halls, no goods or services are exchanged or rendered. Instead, this is the place where guild officials and foreign dignitaries meet and make deals, sign contracts, and meet for any number of other purposes. This Upper Halls appear not too dissimilar to modern day cigar lounge. There is an open bar, food service and restricted access.

Lower Halls

The Lower Halls are chaotic and messy. This is where people go to get supplies for their shops, place orders for foreign shipments, arrange trade work and buy pretty much anything in bulk.

The Lower Halls, are not necessarily physically lower that the upper halls. While many of the the Lower Halls are on the first floor, with an Upper Halls meeting place on a floor above, this is not always the case.

There are many buildings which house the Lower Halls which do not contain an Upper Halls component, and many which span multiple level.

Upper Halls

The Upper Halls are primarily composed of classy, but casual, meeting spaces largely consisting of large arm chairs and couches, formed around a series of short tables.

Many of the Upper Halls also provide more private meeting spaces with enclosed rooms where more delicate conversations can take place.

While most of the Upper Halls to reside above the Lower Halls, there are a few of the Upper Halls which are in independent constructions. These are generally considered to the the most prestigious halls and are typically reserved for international dealings with world leaders.

Guilds

Palidae is governed by it guilds, via a city council.

There are two types of guilds. Minor and Major. Major Guilds are those which have representation on the city council. The leader of each Major Guild appoints a representative on the council. This representative operates as a proxy for the guild leader. Leaders can attend meetings in their representative's place should they so choose.

The second type of guild, the Minor Guilds, have no representation on the city council. They still operate as guilds, and govern themselves internally, but have no say in the workings of the city itself.

Minor Guilds can be promoted to Major Guilds via a four fifths majority vote by the council.

The Explorer's Guild, while technically a Minor Guild, does hold an elevated status. Due to the fact they they know far more about the ongoings of the rest of the world, they are often consulted by the city council, and hold a seat, however they do not have any voting rights.

All guilds are payed dues by their members, and themselves pay dues to the city, in lieu of taxes. There are two exceptions. The Healer's Guild provides service to the people of Palidae at no cost, and is therefore instead payed by the city, rather than paying it. Additionally, the Barrister's Guild pays reduced dues, as they are only payed by clients for civil litigation. All criminal representation charges no fees to the client.

List of Major Guilds

List of Minor Guilds

Winemaker's Guild
Brewer's Guild
Locksmith's Guild
Candlemaker's Guild
Explorer's Guild (sorta almost major guild?)
Executioner's Guild
Jailer's Guild