Ianian

Ianian is the largest city in Celstia and home to the University of Celstia. It was the original home of Joshua Pryce, and is the most-populous city in the country (though not its capital). It is a perfect habitat for the types that always exist at the crossroads of civilizations--middlemen, pirates, adventurers and other entrepreneurs serve to iconify Ianian's cultural contributions, and heavily influence the Ianian way of life.

History

Ianian has existed as a settlement since before Alexandria, serving as a convenient land/sea transition for goods from the Mainland to Petara (and the main Port of Custom to same), or as a stopping point for goods traveling farther South along the coast of the Heretic Sea. As the Ubrekti Empire gained power, Ianian's primary function was to mediate transactions with Petara, and by delicately maintaining a good relationship (more-or-less) with Petara in the face of general hostility to and from the Mainland, it has maintained and profited by that privileged trading position through the ages.

Despite its surface neutrality, its relationships with its neighbors are not placid. Its governance turns a blind eye to the pirates of the Heretic Sea, occasionally making an example of a few petty offenders for the sake of keeping up appearances, even as it maintains active relationships (and even idolizes) its most successful pirates, casting them as canny businessmen and swashbuckling heroes. The region's most famous denizen, Joshua Pryce, is among the most famous pirates of the Mainland, and he is revered above all in the city for his role in Celstian independence from the Odessan Empire three centuries before Alexandria's time.

Over the ages, it has accumulated the largest population of Petarans to be found outside of that country, accounting for somewhere between ten and fifteen percent of its citizens. There is some tension between the Celstian residents and these Petaran-descended people, with some Celstians casting even families who have resided in Ianian since Alexandria as interlopers. Compared to most of the rest of the Mainland (indeed, even in the rest of Celstia), Petaran treatment in Ianian is mild. Nevertheless, the town is largely segregated into "Petaran" districts in the West and South, and "non-Petaran" districts elsewhere, and the two areas tend to their own affairs whenever possible.

Recently, Ianian has seen a large influx of troops and profit-seekers making their way North to the Odessan border, seeking glory or gain in the conflict brewing there. Ianian has contributed materially to this cause, to the extent that it has to maintain relationships with the capital, but its main interest remains in profiting from supplying the adventurous.

Government

Ianian is ruled by consensus from a small group of wealthy families called the Seven. These families have all derived their wealth from trading and piracy--two even claim direct lineage from Joshua, although only one carriers the Pryce name (these claims are not without dispute). The group is well-entrenched and has maintained static membership for centuries. Family members of the Seven are easily recognized members of the aristocracy. Every four years, members of the families run against each other to be elected by the landowning class in a position called the Bursar. The Bursar serves mainly to rubber-stamp the aristocracy's policies, to act as a buffer between the city's various factions and the families' rule, and to act as the liaison to Prycedown (vis a vis its status as a Crown Charter City).

Despite their power, the families maintain their position through expert delegation rather than iron-fisted control. Policy in various aspects of governance is determined by a complicated and ever-shifting network of decisions from various power groups that have each claimed a bit of the city as their domain. Among these interests are various profession-aligned Guilds that balance precariously against each other through mutual conflicts in interest, using means both subtle and non. The leaders of these Guilds have close relationships with members of the ruling families, and macro-level decisions typically filter down through their headship.

Responsibilities for public services, on the other hand, are distributed through a complicated web of relationships of debt and obligation, a system that has persisted for centuries and has led to, among other things, powerful interests in otherwise mundane responsibilities, like refuse collection, municipal record-keeping, water rights management, and public area maintenance. The most successful power brokers in the cities are the ones who can hold these relationships in their heads--similarly, the most spectacular failures to maintain control are almost always rooted in a failure to remember some arcane aspect of those ancient power structures. The inherent complexity of these relationships has been an effective guard against any one group seizing absolute control, and while individual players constantly shift, the overall structure has proven exceptionally stable.

The Alexandrian Church exists, as it does in many places, as an exception to the rule. It largely deals with its own affairs independently of local concerns, and rarely exerts its influence overtly. When it does so, it is mostly through swellings of grassroots movements (still widely successful in a population that, despite having the only Petaran temple on the Mainland, is majority Alexandrian) and religious pressure on individual members of the ruling class. It is mainly the Alexandrian Church's influence that has been the driving force mustering troops to the Odessan border, supporting what is still largely a religious conflict.

Trade

Celstia, being largely pastoral apart from its major cities, is a net exporter of food, and much of that passes through Ianian on its way to Petara. However, the majority of the city's income comes from its position on the route to the lands across the Heretic Sea, charging a premium on goods both to and from Petara. As such, while the Ianian marketplace is among the most cosmopolitan of the Mainland, very little of it represents imports to Celstian destinations, and even less represents Celstian goods solve to other lands. While notable Celstian products exist, Celstia's reputation is as mediators and deal-makers, not producers of goods.

As a privileged gateway to Petara, it is the source for goods of that origin for Mainland inhabitants. As a consequence, many very exotic (by Mainland standards) things are in Ianian that are rarely found elsewhere.