Rothilimion

Elvish City-state

Overview

A steep mountain range drops to the sea, sheltering a deep bay. The foothills near the range are rich with timber, game and some arable land in the valleys. The mountains have extensive veins of metal ore, predominantly silver, but also copper, gold, and lead. The Rothilimion Elves came to this place more than 1,000 years ago, and made it their home. The city, country, and people of Rothilimion are old, well educated, and prosperous.

The People

Citizens by Birth

People of all races live in Rothilimion, though the population is predominantly of Elvish descent. High Elves and Wood Elves both call the city-state home, with the occasional group of Ice Elves spotted in the halls of the Ambassadorial Service building or having dinner in the streets near the city center. None are still alive that remember the founding of the city, but there are still some whose parents or grandparents were involved.

Citizens by Choice

Rothilimion is prosperous and attracts many immigrants. The Rothilimion don't forbid it, but they do want to know that newcomers are a good fit. Residency in the city-state is required for 65 years before an immigrant (or for shorter-lived races, their descendants) can apply for citizenship, which means that it will be the second or third generation for most non-Elf immigrant families before they can become full citizens.

The Country

Local Produce

The land around the central city is called 'The Woods' by custom. The oldest residents might even remember when it was wild forest. Many people live in the countryside. These days, there are still woods, but they are working forests, managed for timber and game the same way farms are managed for crops, not truly wild places. There are also farms for crops and domestic animals. The mines continue to provide wealth for the country and grow deeper and more complicated with each passing year.

Imported Goods

The Rothilimion prize quality of work over many other virtues - homes and shops are well-kept, restaurants have good food, and you can trust that items purchased in Rothilimion will all be made to a high standard. That also means that merchants bringing goods into Rothilimion from the outside will not only have their cargo inspected for tariff values, but for quality.

The City

Topside

The city is primarily built of stone, for there is much of it to build with. The city crawls up the mountainside from the harbor to the Quarter of the Sages, with ever more elaborate buildings as one walks higher up. Fashions change slowly in Elvish architecture, but Rothilimion nevertheless allows a stonework enthusiast to admire several different styles of building.

Underneath

The city is also growing slowly into the mountain. The upper reaches of the original mines have been expanded and turned into shops and residences below the surface, including wide openings to bring sunshine deeper into the ground than a visitor would expect. The under-city includes deep storerooms, broad galleries for growing edible mushrooms, and some sages are even experimenting with growing surface food crops under magically created lighting.

Government

Rothilimion is run by discussion. Nobody is elected to the Rothilimion High Council. But experts in various fields will find themselves consulted more and more often by members, slowly becoming regular attendees at the Council meetings. The process can be quick, or it can take decades, depending on the needs of the time. Rothilimion is a small domain and Elves live a long time. In some cases, relationships between members of the High Council have lasted centuries.The High Council has no building of its own, no staff, no direct authority over anything, but it has influence over every part of the country. It often borrows the hall of the Council of Sages for meetings, but could formally meet anywhere.
In High Council meetings, senior guild members, military officers, city administrators, and Sages will debate issues until they feel like they have broad agreement. In these debates, more weight is given to the arguments from those with more experience, and direct evidence is the most convincing. The High Council is deliberate, often waiting until the last possible moment to make a decision, but also decisive - once a decision is made, Rothilimion moves forward with that goal in mind.

Military

The Rothilimion have well equipped, well trained, well regarded military services. Both the Army and the Navy are considered respectable careers. The ambitious or adventurous seek appointment to the the Engineering Command, the branch of the service that handles the stellospheric ships that allow flight between worlds.

Foreign Relations

Rothilimion used to be cautiously neutral, working to avoid being part of fights between other countries, counting on the rough terrain and the strength of its armed forces in the event of an attack. With stellospheric ships, Rothilimion has the technology to be confidently neutral, and enforce its desire to be left out of nearby wars.

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The Long View

The long lives of the elves of Rothilimion have given them an appreciation for things made to last and decisions made with care.

Excellence in All Things

Excellence matters here. Soldiers, crafters, merchants, farmers, all Rothilimion hold themselves to high standards, even in seemingly mundane details. The city is tidy and clean. Goods crafted in Rothilimion are almost universally of very high quality. The streets of Rothilimion may not be paved with gold, but they are paved well.

Rothilimion Engineering Command

The Rothilimion destroyer is a flying ship of war that can overwhelm most ground defenses all by itself. A squadron of prototype craft was enough to finish the last war with Dornia's unconditional surrender. They've only gotten better since.

Rothilimion Ambassadorial Service

"Flying war ships" means a lot of people ask the Rothilimion ambassadors for help (for instance, in border skirmishes with Motsaandu), but they rarely say yes. Rothilimion prefers to stay neutral in the affairs of other countries, especially now that it has the means to enforce that neutrality.

Type

Geopolitical, City-state

Government System

Technocracy

Power Structure

Autonomous area

Economic System

Market economy

Ice Elves

An elvish people who have spent so long away from the sun that they have lost most of the color in their skin. They prefer to live in the cold, dark places of the realm: deep underground on Liggjavard and in substantial colonies on Skadivard, the coldest and darkest sphere in the realm of Hvatvetna.

The Low Road

The trade 'highway' leading down into the rock from the mines of Rothilimion to the territory of the Ice Elves. It is said that one can take the Low Road all the way to the mines of the Dwarf Lords in Hertenland, if one knows which tunnels are safe.

DRAFT

This article is currently a work in progress and may be incomplete or subject to change.