Maronwatch

Government

As capitol of Jinsarai, Maronwatch acts as the seat for the powers that be. Though officially a feudal organization of baronies, Jinsarai is for all intents and purposes ruled by the eight Advocates of Cotjan to the northwest.
Day-to-day affairs are handled by the measured intents of the nine magistrates. Their responsibilities vary and cover the gamut of all aspects as they are important to the handling of the riches merchants, traders, academics, and riffraff that pass through Maronwatch. Thanks to tradition these magistrates are obligated by rule to give hearing on cases and mediate justice on behalf of the wronged party.
The history of this position is based in the eight advocates of legend, heroes of time lost who led the first freed human slaves into the Pridelands. Stories say they were led by the goddess Dalet, champion of justice who took pity on humanity and the plight they faced from the eons of slavery. Symbolically, this is applied with eight magistrates to enact justice in court, with a ninth magistrate who can be appealed to if the decision of the magistrate is in question.

History

To its citizens, the city of Maronwatch is known as many things. The sleeping giant. The battleground of minds. The greatest show on Sudar. Some call it the anthill for the way that, when stirred, seems to expel every man and woman into the streets. Others know Maronwatch as the lady they fought to free during the apartheid of 674.
Maronwatch, named after the Maron militia, was first founded in the year 2,932 Aevum Quartus. Once a small trade outpost, it served as a hidden settlement known only to the humans. Before the Stratosmachta Accords of A.Qu. 3,018 no band of slave hunters survived contact, thus hiding its presence long enough to become the city as it is known today.

Maronwatch and the Bronzehills

In more recent years the strategic and economic changes catapulted it onto the world stage largely in thanks to the catalytic Bronzehill trading companies. Almost two hundred years ago the distant kingdom of Dumuldal was put to rest after its capitol city, homeland of the Bronzehill dwarves, was finally recaptured and cleansed of the Riven that had inhabited it like termites.
By the end of the summer of A.Q. 506 the Bronzehills had no more use for their weapons. More than a thousand years of familial martial tradition were challenged when king Moradin Bronzehill set his sights on economic diplomacy, aiming to facilitate more trading among the nations as they exist. By subsidizing extro-political infrastructure in adjacent nations (and thanks to an advance made by the queen of Dwemler), king Moradin established the most profitable trade deals known in recent history.
By the time that king Moradin reached out to the human nations of the Pridelands in A.Q. 586, he had the backing of almost a dozen nations. Maronwatch was then a respectable but small harbor city. When king Moradin offered to turn his golden eye on the small port city the whole continent knew what would happen next.
For the next century and a half, trade companies, suppliers, and merchants flocked to the city of Maronwatch. The city quickly grew beyond the walls of its single ward (now the royal ward). The city walls became clogged with shanty towns, which in turn became their own respectable wards as the city put up more and more walls.
The first evidence of what would become the Venenatus can be traced within the decade of Moradin’ announcement of intent. By A.Q. 590 at least two small competing magician’s colleges vied for the public eye. The school, now shrouded in tradition, sits as one of the most respectable and well-researched institutions for the magical arts in the known world.

Geography

The city of Maronwatch is divided up into 7 major wards: the royal ward, the Venenatus, Alchemists’ Hill, the Hollows, the High Ward, the Gamer’s quarter, and the old trade stations now known as the Closed Ward. Unofficialy another dozen smaller divisions exist towards the edges of the city but are not recognized as official wards as they exist outside the walls of the inner city and because their construction is continually evolving. Maronwatch’s growth has no signs of slowing down and so it is likely that in another 30 years these sections of the city will have their own dileneations.