Vrepolis

Structure

The main body that governs the city-state of Vrepolis is the Circle of Sages, a council of the nations seventeen most respected academics and mages, who meet on a monthly basis to make decisions regarding the direction of the nation as well as any pressing issues that must be addressed and resolved. Outside of their regular meetings, an emergency meeting can be called at any time so long as three members of the Circle agree to it. The meetings are not open to the public of Vrepolis, and those allowed to spectate the meetings are often only those directly involved in the motions being leveled and addressed.
The process by which the Circle of Sages votes is rather simple. Each member sits at their assigned seat with a lamp, a candle, and a small pot of oil. When a meeting begins, each sage lights the oil in their lamp with their provided candle and listens to the resolutions at hand. When a vote is called, those who vote in favor of a resolution leave the flame in their lamp burning, while those opposed extinguish it. Each Sage normally gets one vote, however, there is one way that a small group of determined Sages can stop the passage of a resolution with majority support. When a vote is called, a Sage may choose to extinguish their lamp and leave their seat, stepping out of the meeting but allowing their vote to weigh as three. This would allow only five Sages to block a resolution supported by the other twelve, but would also prevent them from weighing in on the other remaining resolutions in the meeting.
The actual process by which one becomes a member of the Circle of Sages is unknown, though it is believed that each Sage simply appoints a successor should they die, and their successor does the same upon stepping up to their seat. If this is the true process for appointing new Sages is purely speculation, though many have simply accepted the fact that it is the most logical solution and the truth of the selection process may never be known.

Culture

The Vrepoli culture is one that reflects the purpose of the city, and the people of the city-state hold a great love for knowledge and erudition. The understanding for the people of Worldspire Mountains is that the accumulation of knowledge and information ensures a more prosperous life for themselves and future generations. This belief is what has allowed Vrepolis to develop such a scholarly society, and it is why they welcome in outsiders to learn their ideals and share their information with the world.
Despite this noble belief, another notable aspect of the Vrepoli people is their xenophobia. Though they are welcoming of outsiders, it is only with the expectation that they will be blinded by the brilliant superiority of Vrepolis, and wholly come to embrace their ways. It is for this reason that those who venture away from Vrepolis after learning in their scholarly academy are permitted only a single year outside of the city. Should they linger in the outside world, they will be barred from returning to the city, for fear of bringing back the lesser ideas and tainted perspectives of the outside world.

Assets

Though Vrepolis is located on a highly defensible position high in the Worldspire Mountains, the city-states territory gives the nation very little in terms of luxury and strategic resources as well as a limits the ease of access to trade. The resources the nation does have access to, it has in vast abundance, and where it lacks resources to trade is compensates with the exchange of knowledge.
Where it's resources are concerned, Vrepolis is able to maintain its food supply due to diligent efforts to keep its food supply independent. Ranches of mountain goats kept as livestock supply meat for the people, while step farms carved into the mountainside provide the staple crops of rice and squash. Meanwhile, due to their position high in the mountains, Vrepolis has a vast array of quarries harvesting several tons of marble from the Worldspire Mountain. Many of the city-states buildings are made of the carved stone from those quarries, and much more is exported to other nations for use in their own construction.
Militarily, the nation is highly secure. With only two mountain passes leading into the city proper, border security is quite easy. The city itself is defended by the Principes, a volunteer army of those who seek to defend the city. They double as a military and city guard, and while smaller in number than most other city guard regiments across Eyria, they are more well equipped and trained to compensate.

History

The nation of Vrepolis has not always been as it is now. Originally a smaller town under the control if it's sister-city Kalpolis, the great city in the Plains to the south was destroyed by the 4th Ravaging, and the survivors of the destruction fled into the mountains to join their kin in Vrepolis. As the Ravaging came to an end, the people of Vrepolis and the refugees who joined them worked together to revive their lost nation in the mountain town they called home. In the years that followed, Vrepolis blossomed into a massive city hidden away in the mountains.
Since it's establishment as a proper city-state, Vrepolis has since become a more important player in the politics of the world. Allowing outsiders to come to their Academy to learn from the nations vast wealth of knowledge, the city-state has cemented itself as a vital part of the world as a place where people can come and learn beyond what their nations of origin have the capacity to teach them. While many in the city are less than comfortable with this arrival of so many outsiders in their nation, their new policy of allowing foreigners has slowly let the population become accustom to their new place in a wider world.

Type

Geopolitical, City-state

Government System

Magocracy

Power Structure

Unitary state

Economic System

Traditional