Land of Song - Eastern Lands
Demographics
The unique barter system of the Soul Singers, allowing an exchange of song for material goods or assistance does not lend well to a marked distribution of wealth. The difference between the wealthy and the poor is not so much one of material capabilitiy, but rather the songs they know and the voting power that brings. The ability to shape the cities and laws to suit your persoanl desires os what separates those with power from those without. A man could have all the wealth in the world, but if the spiders came through and ravaged the city he'd be left with nothing. If he had many songs though, he could travel to any other location, spread those songs and regain the goods he'd lost as well as secure a place for himself. Songs are power, and should not be given out easily.
Government
The land of the Soul Singers is run by a well balanced mixture of representative and democratic rule. Any member of the race may head to a nearby amphitheater to debate and vote on the matters that they hold dear, but this is countered by the rules of Breadth and Depth that are employed to prevent a mob rule from breaking out. A singer is given higher voting power if they can demonstrate either the breadth of their knowledge, or the depth of their knowledge on a particular topic. Those with a large Breadth are given higher voting capabilities across all manners of the law, with each additional vote they gain requiring even more esoteric or uncommon knowledge. Those with a demonstration of breadth, have very few votes across a wide range of topics but vastly more on the topics they can demonstrate their depth within.
If a law were being discussed regarding an implementation of a curfew to prevent the spiders from abducting a member, those with large breadth would be able to cast a higher quantity of votes if they had information related to this law, (curfews do not work as we are a free spirited people and those willing to break the law are the ones who would have been caught regardless), while a blacksmith with a high depth in his field could cast a significant amount of votes towards using the metals pulled from the creatures to better the defenses of the city, negating a need for a curfew at all
Defences
Before the invasion city walls were a foreign concept to the Soul Singers, but with the threat of the arachnids they have begun to take serious the world they now live in. The walls of each city are manned by volunteers within the city, whose sole task is to raise a positional alarm so that the city dwellers can flee the opposite way. No creature should evere threaten the cities again, now that the Wall Upon Which our Hope Stands has been created, but they are not leaving that to chance.
Infrastructure
With a scoiety that logns for the freedom of the open road and the passing of new songs between encampments, the Soul singers developed cities slowly, and used them as permanent locations of trade and exchange of stories rather than permanent residence. Any city will have a remarkably low citizen level in comparison to the population of the city, with most simply passing through or stopping to exchange songs and learn what has happened recently. Permanent residents tend to be those who cannot make a life of constant travel, professors with their studies, blacksmiths and tanners with their workshops, doctors with their labs. As such, the cities tend to house dozens if not hundreds of rest stops to shelter the wandering travelers, and open markets where those travelers can set up shop and offload the goods they obtained along the road.
Geography
The Terrain of the eastern continent varies lightly between rolling hills, open plains, and lightly wooded forests. Small lakes dot the landscape with several large rivers marking the bulk of waterflow in the region.
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