Malyen

The oldest of the City-States, Malyen has stood on the bank of the Edonel, under the Golden Ridge of Solyadoon, for as long as history records. It has been a place of interaction between humans, wemics, dwarves, and sometimes elves for time immemorial.
The great antiquity of the city has created an almost reverential attitude in its citizens, many of whom superstitiously believe Malyen itself to be aware. Urban druids are relatively common on its streets, and some even believe such traditions originated there.

Government

Malyen is ruled by the Seven Eternal Autarchs, mysterious individuals who only appear in public to hand down new laws, and to pronounce judgement. Though their assemblage is not unchanging, over long stretches of time, when one of their number is replaced there is no fanfare, and such a replacement often goes unremarked for years, even decades. How they select the new member, and even the fate of the former Autarch, are unknown. The Autarchs themselves have, over the centuries, claimed to be separate incarnations of the same person, though this does nothing to explain their apparent longevity, nor the obvious extreme differences between some of them. (While women have been in the minority, as far as any records say, there have been members of both sexes within the ruling body, for example.) Their story cannot be entirely dismissed even by the skeptical, however, given the number of times they have made rulings or proscribed individuals with seeming prescience, implying some of the Autarchs are indeed future incarnations of the others.

Alternative Name(s)

Malyen the Yellow, The Ur-City, City of the Painted Dog, The Tanners' City, City of a Thousand Epithets, Malyen the Eternal (or just "the Eternal City"), The Topaz of the West (archaic), The Topaz of the Valley (even more archaic), The Crown of the Edonel

Type

Metropolis

Inhabitant Demonym

Malyenar

Location under

City-States of Edonia