Kang Ketai
Kang Ketai is a city on the banks of the Asukei river, and sits astride a natural ford. Because of its placement, it is a natural trade hub for overland voyages, as well as portages from the Suremesh river. For this reason, paths have been cleared through the jungle in order to facilitate the movement of ships.
Demographics
Kang Ketai is a diverse city, sitting as it does on a boundary between Eredhis and Qikuo. Additionally, many Tsukimoto come upriver to trade, and Zhangpa from the mountains coming downriver for the same. As a result, the place is something of a melting pot, an eclectic city of a thousand architectural styles and a thousand languages.
The majority of Kang Ketai's population is Human and Elven, but Vishkanya, goblins, hobgoblins, and samsarans are also common. There is even a relatively sizeable dwarven quarter, thanks to the proximity of Mount Kuzair and the dwarven city of Kurin Damgaraz, making it one of the few places on the surface world where dwarfcraft items can be acquired with relative ease.
Government
The government of Kang Ketai is an oddity in the modern age, as it has no Dong to oversee it, at least technically. Rather, it is still run on the basis of imperial bureaucracy, with administrators appointed from Fenghuang to oversee the running of the settlement. However, due to the impotence of the central government, the appointees have largely become autonomous, and dynastic succession is not uncommon. The Lord-Prefect wields complete power over the city, although the wealth and power of the merchant-guilds often allows them to oppose his decrees. The current Lord-Prefect, Huyi Sak, is widely considered to be incompetent and weak-willed, and the guilds have gained enormous autonomy under his reign. His chief consort, Yamana Norie, is widely considered the true power behind the throne, and her connections with local business means that it suits her interests for them to continue to grow powerful under Sak's weak leadership.
The independence of Kang Ketai from any Dong's rule is tenuous at best, however. Both Saiku Leh and Hu Ling Bao vie for control of the strategically important city, both due to its economic value and its location along a major ford in the Asukei river, which separates their domains. However, neither dares to move against it directly, at least for the time being, as doing so would invariably cause it to side with the other. Only if they are sure of swift and immediate victory will either warlord attempt to actually conquer Kang Ketai. Instead, they play politically, trying to ingratiate themselves with the Lord-Prefect in the hope that he will side with them. Norie, however, has no illusions about their true purpose, and has so far masterfully played them off against eachother.
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