Stygia
On the far western edge of the world sits an ancient city whose burges stretch for miles along a cold cliff-lined coast. Its towers of seamless iridescent stone and strange colored glass are all that remain of a continent-spanning empire. Its citizens now live on in the shadow of past glories and impossible monuments to forgotten ancestors.
Structure
Modern day Stygia is an expanse of urbanized land loosely organized into a state by the consortium of allied guilds, each dedicated to the preservation and practice of an art or craft from the days of ancient empire. These guilds lend out their members to the rich and powerful of foreign lands, demanding enormous prices for skills unknown in the wider world. Most powerful and famous of these guilds are the Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence1, the Order of the Speakers for the Voiceless2, the Brotherhood of the Preservers of the Silent Word3, the Worshipful Company of Smiths for Wood and Flesh4, and the Shadebinders5.
There guild masters make all city wide decisions through discussion in conclave, but if an agreement cannot be met before one of the members has to leave they simply draw lots to determine the decision. As a result the laws of Stygia are extremely complicated and often mutually contradictory.
1The torturer's guild
2The witches' guild
3The guild of scribes and librarians
4The guild of carpenters, shipwrights, and animal breeders
5self explanatory
2The witches' guild
3The guild of scribes and librarians
4The guild of carpenters, shipwrights, and animal breeders
5self explanatory
Type
Geopolitical, City-state
Demonym
Stygian
Government System
Sortition
Related Ethnicities
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