OHJAVIA

City of Gold

Tone: Arrogant and haughty haves, humble and oppressed have-nots.
Timeframe: -4000 to present
Artifice: High
Region: Tears of Vrylakos
Capital: Ohjavia (~1,800,000)
Notable Settlements: None (city-state)
Government: Forum of Syndics (a ruling body composed of the representatives of merchant houses and guilds buy votes), Tribunal of Potentates
Ruler: the Quorum of Gold, the Tribunal of Potentates
Races: Human (98%), Merren (2%)
Languages: Vrylakian
Religions: Tearic Pantheon
Coinage: Ohjavia once minted a slew of standard gold and silver currencies, but as their mines have tapered out they stopped minting their own coins and currently use selected foreign currencies according to a standardized unit of conversion.

Synopsis

Many an epic saga has been spun of this glittering metropolis, with it’s onion-domed gilded spires and richly appointed homes. One of the Nine, its wealth was originally based on once-lush gold mines, but has long since transmuted into general mercantile pursuits and investments.

Wealth runs like a river thru the city, broad and deep in some areas, fast and dangerous in others. Indolent merchants and their silk-shrouded concubines, rakish adventurers, and near-omnipotent potentates share the city with the filthy poor and the downtrodden. Called a City of Dreams, it is well known that dreams sometimes turn to nightmares.

The city has a very unusual form of government with no real clear ruler or leader. The governing body is composed of a forum of representatives from merchants, merchant houses, consortiums, guilds and so forth. When a session is called, an agenda of items under consideration is first published and those who wish to participate literally buy their way in, purchasing a vote or (more commonly) a block of votes via a bidding system. Those who get involved early can effectively corner the market, drive up demand, monopolize a vote, and various other scenarios. Votes are themselves a commodity and can be bought or sold in an after-market fashion. It's quite complicated, and effectively a social status game within a money game within a political game...or something like that. The market movement around Quorums is so tumultuous in fact that the actual governing that eventually results is usually entirely anticlimactic and relegated to an effective sideshow. The proceeds from the initial offering of votes goes into the city's coffers.

Secondary to this system, there are five (theoretically) elected positions responsible for forming the convening body of Quorums as well as handling the day to day governance of the city, the members of which are called Potentates. There is a list of things that the Potentates can do without calling a Quorum with some combination of individual executive power or a majority vote among themselves. Typically at any given point in time, there is one or two incumbent Potentates that manage to grab and retain power for a long stretch, while the other three or four slots experience some degree of turnover.

Even if the Potentates don't call a Quorum themselves, there is an automatic Grand Quorum every three years with the single agenda of voting on who will be the Potentates for the next three years. The Potentates themselves have a bid option on this Quorum's offering of votes at a fixed price before they are made publicly available to the market, so they can buy enough votes to ensure their own incumbency if they wish to and have deep enough pockets.

This form of government is certainly quirky and has inspired some very unusual occurrences historically, but Ohjavia is not as volatile as it has been in times past. However danger can rear it’s head with each shift in power among the wealthy as political positions are jockeyed for. Coups are not unknown, and merchants keep private armies of guards whom are sometimes used to enforce their employer's will.

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Magic

Winding: There is a respectable but very small tradition of Winding in Ohjavia, with a handful of native masters at any given time.
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Details

Style of the Crescent Moon: There are many sword schools in the ancient city, but the most well known was popularized long ago by the Order of the Crescent Moon, the personal guard of a reigning potentate of the day. After the potentate's fall his guard was scattered and it’s teachings became available to the public for the right price. Lacking a single founder and taught by various former guards, the style isn’t as uniform as many others, having many different minor variations; the core of the school is consistent however. The school focuses on dancing footwork, catlike & graceful, and measured, powerful blows. A student of the school imagines his feet as lightning bolts and his blows as the thunder that follows.

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Adventure Seeds

Alternative Investments: Potentate Gareare wants to secretly hire a crack team of stealthy operators to sabotage the business interests of Potentate Uzaria in an attempt to deplete Uzaria's net worth before the upcoming Grand Quorum in an indirect bid to prevent a vote lock.

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