Alabaster Union

The Alabaster Union is counted amongst the Material's great nations, but to consider it a unified government is a misunderstanding. The Union is a loose aliance of cities in the Alabaster Expanse. The indigenous peoples of Ghir formed trade agreements and a centralized set of laws with the disparate cities of the Golrathi immigrants. Each city has its own culture, laws, and customs. Travelling from one town to another can feel much like traveling to an entirely separate country.

Structure

The Union is made up of quasi-independent cities. Each city organizes itself according to the values and needs of the individual city. A central council residing in Freetown maintains communication between these cities to make collective decisions. These collective decisons are fairly rare though, as only ammendments to the Charter (the founding legal document of the Union) hold any obligate weight. 
Individual cities can vary greatly in their organization structure. Often these cities have elected leaders: mayors, governors, city councils, etc. Even direct democracy is common. Many cities (often those with large yormish populations) utilize more meritocratic structures, e.g. senior artisans, councils of high mages, trial by combat. Occasionally there's a radical departure with things like reagents, lottery, or using intelligent magic items.

Culture

The Ghir folk are much more culturally unified, having held their alliances for much longer without utilizing the same communication magic. After the founding of the Union, they embraced this independence ideology and allowed more cultural drift.
The rest of the Union is extremely diverse. The unifying principles of freedom allow for divergence and social experimentation. What values and customs one is raised with can be kept, modified, or abandoned in a way that's unseen in much of the rest of the World.

Technological Level

While their communication technology is not hoarded, it is rarely adopted outside of the Union. The dense rocks of the Yormir and foliage of the Nhilryf make them ineffective there. The paranoia of the Empire and Golden Kingdom have kept them far from those boarders. The Rurshurq's nomadic lifestyle is inconsistent with the fixed location and regular maintenance of the towers. The one place they are seen outside of the Union are the larger cities of the Shurhai.

Foreign Relations

The Union has a bargain with the vampires of the Veilwood. The vampires keep their hunts within their dark forest, and the Union sends them their least desirables. People who have committed high crimes are not sentenced to death like they might be in places like the Empire. Instead they are sent into the Veilwood to fend for themselves. Many believe this is worse than death, but others argue that at least those people have a fighting chance, however slim.
While the Shurhai is not a nation per se, the various cities within it have a good relationship with alabast people. Free-people often travel back and forth to study the ancient mysteries.
Trade with the Yormir is open and cordial.
The Crews of the Shattered Isles have a more antagonistic relationship. The Union is often the primary target of costal raids, and the shipping of trade goods between the Union and the rest of the world make for irresistable targets. The pirates however must offload their stolen goods though, and often make use of alabast ports to do so under disguise or deception.

Laws

The unifying law of the Alabaster Union is the Union Charter. It is comprised of the laws which must be universally obeyed throughout the entirety of the Union. They are considered almost philosophical principles for the free independence of the peoples of the Union.

1st - All beings are entitled their self sovereignty

The first law of the charter grants all people the right to autonomy. This prohibits murder, extortion, theft, and many of the "common sense" laws one might expect to safely exist within a society. This even extends to the punishment of crime. Exile is a back up punishment in all cases. If a person breaks a local law, and even many charter laws, they have the option to leave their city. The Freetown Council's network of communication shares these exiles with all of the other cities though. Rarely does a city allow exiles within their walls.
A very specific exception to the exile option is for what are laid out as "high crimes" exists. These are the unnecessary ending of life and extreme violations of bodily autonomy. The punishments for these crimes is to be sent to the Veilwood. This bargain has sustained the vampires, and kept them in their haunted forest.

2nd - All beings are entitled their free travel

The second law of the charter ensures that people are never bound to a place that hurts them. This builds and reinforces the exile option, as any form of holding or imprisonment violates this second law otherwise. It also creates the need for currency exchanges. The universal currency of the crown is something that must always be available for exchange. A person can trade whatever recognized currency of their city they might have into crowns, and back.
This also grants or reinforces property rights. Having your personal belongings taken from you creates an undue burden in allowing you to leave freely. It also creates a fundamental lack of safety in traveling from city to city. Cities cannot bar entrance to anyone but exiles. Toll roads cannot be errected to charge for passage. However a myriad of exceptions to the law of free travel exist: private residencies can bar trespassing; businesses can refuse service and entrance; even government offices can reject those that might cause disruption.

3rd - All signatories of this Charter assent to its authority and enforcement

This third law is what creates the Freetown Council and Guard. It seems redundant, but it stipulates that those who agree to these laws must obey them. Cities must connect to the communication towers that allow information to flow. They must yield the Freetown Guard's orders. This section of the charter lays out and explains the form and function of the council and guard.
The primary duties of the Freetown Council are to keep communication open between the cities of the Union. They collect reports of violations of these laws, and dispatch the guard to investigate. They pass proposals and amendments to the Charter around so that all Union signatories can debate their inclusion.Cities must connect to the communication towers that allow information to flow. They must yield the Freetown Guard's orders. This section of the charter lays out and explains the form and function of the council and guard.
The Freetown Guard investigates and enforces the Charter. They take directives from the Freetown Council to investigate the violations of the charter, and report their findings back to the council. Once the council has evaluated the evidence, they then direct the guard to act in ways that correct the violations. Most commonly these violations require fixing systems so as to prevent their occurance. However, there are numerous tales over the years of more extreme measures being taken, up to and including full blown revolutions.
Signing the charter grants a number of benefits though. The benefits of both the council for information exchange and the guard's security are not to be scoffed at. It also gives faith to anyone who would pass through their town and bring economic aid. Forgoing a signature leaves a city exposed as well. Many a would be despot has met their end under the boots of revolutionary Freetown Guards who were not beholden to the red tape of the council.

Trade & Transport

Given it's emphasis on freedom, a great many minds attracted to the Union are inspired and creative. There is a great deal of artistry in much of what is produced within the Alabaster Union. The technological, magical, and academic advancements made here are abundant.
A great deal of the Alabaster Expanse is overland with few waterways in the western side. This has lead to an extensive highway network that would rival any rynese construction. The communication towers facilitate planning of this transportation, which allows for highly efficient deliveries of goods between cities.

Education

Education varies wildly across the Union. Some cities offer extensive education in a variety of subjects to their entire populous. Others offer little more than on the job training. Most cities fall somewhere in between.
The near universal constant however is the education that the Freetown Council and Guard provides regarding the Charter. The laws do little to protect and uplift without an understanding of them. Guardspeople outposts and council communication towers provide classes and resources on learning the law, with as much depth as the student wishes to study. Base lines such as literacy may need to be instilled first, which are likewise provided.

Infrastructure

While the Charter might make the Alabaster Union seem something of a utopia, there are no provisions or expectations of making functional cities within it. What this means on the ground is that there is little standard for the infrastructure of a city. Some will have no sewage system, nothing more than dirt roads, rickety bridged, and flimsy walls. Others will be prestine monuments of innovation that rival the greatest Golrathi or Yormish cities.
Road networks between cities tend to have gradual changes in quality. The second law maintains that cities need keep these in some measure of good condition, and they are maintained mutually by the cities on either end of a given road.
What is kept in good repair though, are the communication towers of the Freetown Council. No city is complete without one of these structures. These magically treated gypsum structures are adorned with massive five foot wide crystals imported from Agartha. They resemble light houses. The interiors of these towers follow the same blueprint usually, with something of a store front on the ground floor, an office on the second floor, and a spiral staircase leading to the communication stone on top. Ropes made of silk and mythril and brass pipes etched with silk gold runes extend from the roof to the offices in the hollow inetrior. The ropes connect to desks which hold ledgers that replicate their writing in the pages of identical ledgers of other towners. The pipes end in horns like the speaking tubes of ships and affluent houses with a variety of dials and levers in a box beneath them. They carry any voice spoken into them to all other horns configured in the same ways at other towers. The ground floor is the interface between the population and the tower's services, allowing people to have messages sent and received to other cities.
The Freetown Guard maintains outposts throughout the Union as well. They aren't as common as the communication towers, but they are spread out strategically so as to provide the greatest amount of coverage with the numbers on hand. These outposts vary in size and layout. Most contain limited communication towers. Outposts located within cities will instead use the communication tower of those cities. They have libraries, armories, and training fields for guards to keep and improve the skills needed to do their duty. They have barracks, common rooms, and kitchens to tend to their mortal needs.

Founding Date

2,004 ER

Type

Geopolitical, Protectorate

Capital

Freetown

Alternative Names

Free-peoples, The Union

Demonym

Alabast

Government System

Anarchy

Power Structure

Confederation

Economic System

Traditional

Currency

Crowns: The universal currency that's found throughout the Material and beyond. Much of the wealth of the first exodus was brought in the form of crowns. Alabast coins have been minted over the centuries and mixed within the circulation. While met with suspicion in the Empire, free-people treat them as wholly interchangable. Likewise the dubloons of the Shattered Isles is mixed in circulation.
Script: Cities often mint their own enchanted paper currency. Rarely does this script work outside of the city it's printed in, but conversions to a more universal currency is freely done as a part of the Union Mandate of free travel.
Chellies: The mixed prescious stones of ghishi origin. These are far more commonly used in the south.
Mortine: The gems of life essence that are popular in the Underworld, specifically the blood rubies, are used by the Veilwood Vampires, and they easily end up in the Union.

Legislative Body

The Freetown Council creates and maintains the Union Charter.

Executive Body

The Freetown Guard

Location

Alabaster Expanse

Official Languages

• Anyandell
• Basa
• Ghishi
• Gothic
• Grimmesh
• Shattered Tongue
• Sygnian
• Yormish

Controlled Territories

• Alabaster Expanse
• Freetown

Neighboring Nations

• Crews of the Shattered Isles
• Veilwood Vampires
• Yormir Trade Federation