Raam

The mansabdars are Raam’s police, city watch, and soldiers. They are a mundane part of the civil administration, supervised as needed by the templars. Their main duty is to enforce the Grand Vizier’s laws, but their ranks teem with corruption. Most mansabdars are on the payroll of warlords or wealthy merchants and spend their time watching out for their patrons’ interests. Other mansabdars shake down commoners and artisans in their districts, work for criminal gangs, or arrest whomever they’re paid to arrest. Given the malfeasance of the mansabdars and the breakdown of templar authority, Abalach-Re relies more and more on the kuotagha – an organization of secret police – to enforce her will. Like the mansabdars, they are an arm of the civic government, loosely overseen by the templars. Little better than assassins, the kuotagha hide among the populace, striking without warning to eliminate undesirables.

Raam’s nobles are known as nawabs, families of high caste that have amassed wealth and property over the centuries. From their estates (which are fortified with mercenary guards), the nawabs wage war against one another to crush opposition and rally supporters. Each family is an armed faction, and all are little better than bandits, demanding tolls from anyone seeking to use the roads crossing their lands. Each mansabdar, mercenary, criminal gang, and commoner in Raam swears allegiance to one of the nawab warlords; to do otherwise is to risk enmity from all. The leading warlords include Nawab Maarham, a human demagogue who is virtually a crime lord with control of the gangs in the poorer quarters of the city; Nawab Urdun-Mor, a militant dwarf who controls the arena and many mansabdars; and Nawab Shialha, a female elf with strong ties to elven tribes outside the city.

Each Raamite belongs to a caste, and most remain in their social class until death. Custom disallows marriages between those of different castes; even casual interactions between such individuals are brief and irregular. From highest to lowest, the castes are as follows.

Priest

Mystics known as saddhus hold the respect of all Raamites. However, their esteemed rank has been compromised by the less worthy priests of Badna.

Nawab

This caste consists of the noble warlord Families.

Vizier

Viziers include public servants, bureaucrats, and other officials. All viziers wear colorful silk robes to denote their office. Abalach-Re refers to herself as the Grand Vizier, although she does not consider herself restricted by traditional caste boundaries.

Warrior

Mansabdars, mercenaries, and other soldiers belong to this caste.

Merchant

Those who buy and sell goods created by others belong to this caste.

Laborer

The laborer caste includes common artisans, farmers, herders, and other poor free citizens. This caste is by far the most populated and most disaffected.

Slave

The slave caste is unusual in that upon gaining freedom, a former slave can assume a new caste.

Unclean

The most wretched caste is known as the unclean. Any who make their living handling carcasses or corpses fall into this category.

The citizens of Raam have withdrawn into themselves. Worry creases their faces. They walk with heads bowed, eyes focused on the street, nodding furtively to acquaintances but rarely stopping to exchange words. Friends share a communal stew or pipe of tobacco in silence. A Raam social engagement tends to resemble a funeral service more than a party.

The city suffers from poor medical care, a tragic consequence of the shaky relationship between the citizens and their leaders. The sorcerer-queen and her aides seem indifferent to public health. Sewage systems go unrepaired; vermin infect the food supplies; hospitals opened one week may close abruptly the next. Chronic diseases plague slaves and artisans alike. They die in the alleys and streets, and garbage collectors haul corpses to the crematory.

In this atmosphere of misery, visitors to Raam feel understandable surprise to find citizens friendly and polite. Oddly, they react more openly to strangers than to each other. They commonly view outsiders as sources of relief, rather than bringers of conflict. They ask, quite courteously, for a scrap of uncontaminated food, help with hauling a dead relative to the crematory, or advice for treating an ailing child.

The prevalence of fine art in Raam also shocks visitors. Citizens struggle to create their own beauty, and the results appear everywhere. Ornate murals decorate mud huts of slaves. A silver bracelet bearing strikingly lifelike images of birds and cats dangles from the wrist of a withered crone. A filthy child carries a gleaming ti-shi, a bell stick covered with tiny brass chimes. The music of lutes and tambourines wafts from open windows, offering an ironic counterpoint to the misery in the streets.

In sharp contrast to the elegance of the ivory and alabaster palace of the sorcerer-king, the rest of the city's buildings look functional and simple. Due to occasional mild earthquakes, they build with light, cheap walls of wood that minimize harm to occupants should they collapse. Affluent citizens raise their homes on stone supports, elevating them a few feet from the ground. The air circulating beneath provides some relief from the heat of the day. Slaves live in tents of animal skins stretched over long poles. Destitute citizens sleep in the streets.

Raam has two police forces. The public enforcers, called the mansabdars, do a lackadaisical job, and corruption rules them. In contrast, a secret police force called the kuotagha brutally enforces the city's laws. The kuotagha move freely among the populace, indistinguishable from ordinary merchants and artisans. Chosen for their bloodthirsty nature and deputized to administer justice as they see fit, the kuotagha induce terror in law-abiding citizens and criminals alike. They presume all suspects are guilty and treat them accordingly; the kuotagha aren't interested in hearing excuses or weighing facts. They may arrest any suspect they feel will interest the sorcerer-queen, but more often they execute the prisoner immediately. The kuotagha carry special weapons called ghi, braided strands of leather with thick knots in the center. A kuotagha approaches a suspect from behind, and quickly loops the ghi around his neck. Before the suspect can respond, the kuotagha yanks the ghi tight while kneeing the suspect in the back. The knot in the ghi crushes the suspect's trachea, while the kuotagha's knee snaps his spine. Most suspects die instantly, and the kuotagha then disappears into the crowd.