The wilderness of Thule may be majestic and deadly, but so too are the continent’s civilized regions. Thule’s city-states are ancient and often magnificent in their monumental architecture and barbaric splendor. Golden palaces and rich gardens sprawl behind towering walls manned by proud warriors in jeweled harness, while mysterious temples and the minarets of astrologers and sages soar to the sky. Yet for all their wealth and beauty, it must be told that the civilizations of Thule are frequently cruel, warlike, and oppressive. Despotic overlords rule by whim and caprice, showering rich rewards on their favorites and ruthlessly laying low any foes or rivals who attract their suspicions.
By their very nature, despots come and go swiftly in most places. An influential nobleman, a high captain in the army, or an unscrupulous high priest manages to secretly gather the support needed to topple the old ruler, and takes the throne for a few years—or perhaps a decade or two—until someone else successfully deposes the deposer. The nature of this transition varies from city to city and culture to culture. In martial Lomar, the road to the Lemurian throne lies in reuniting the empire of Kalayan the Conqueror—by leading his legions to victories and atrocities abroad. In mercantile Quodeth, wealth is the way to power; its Lemurian princes are blue-blooded figureheads, and those who seek to rule the City of Thieves vie to claim the position of High Vizier through bribery, extravagance, and the occasional assassination. Thran, the City of the Black Circle, belongs to the most powerful magus of that dark order, who holds it until a challenger defeats him in a battle of spells. In Thule, might confers legitimacy.
Unfortunately, the brutal politics of power are not the only problems Thule's civilizations face. In this age, the social compact is rough and incomplete. Cities are hard and heartless places where the strong oppress the weak, corruption runs rampant, and the most wicked entertainments and practices are simply routine. Each of Thule’s cities seems to harbor its own fatal law, an injustice or social ill that cries out for redress. For example, Quodeth is beset with thievery, usury, and fraud; all the problems of a society in which gold reigns unchecked. The crimson-walled cesspool of Marg is no better than a giant slave market where human life is bought and sold for a handful of coins, while the last Atlanteans who dwell in the dark hospice of Imystrahl are mired in the waking dream of “the Black Milk”, hardly caring whether they live or sleep forever dreaming.
To put it another way, every city-state in Thule is marked by its own brand of wickedness. Travelers who blunder into strange cities unprepared might soon have reason to wish they had remained in the monster-hunted jungles.
The City-States of Thule
The island-continent of Thule is mostly wilderness, and cities are few and far between. While there are a great number of small settlements, barbarian villages, and trading posts scattered throughout the land, true cities—or anything that can even claim to be a city—are not common at all. Most scholars would name perhaps sixteen to eighteen cities in Thule and the surrounding lands, depending on whether one would call a place like Ur-Ghom a “city” or not.
The cities of Thule include:
Akal-Amo. A distant and mysterious city on the great northern island of Hellumar.
Droum, the City of Tusks. The people of Droum are abandoning their city in the face of Nytharian raiders and the approaching glaciers, leaving behind a plague of restless dead.
Ikath, the Hive City. Built upon the ruins of a great Myrmidon hive, Ikath is the Lemurian gateway to the Dhari jungles and their rich trade in lumber, spices, ivory, gems, and hides.
Imystrahl, the Bastion of Doom. An ostensibly impregnable stronghold where the last Atlantean immortals are holding out, Imystrahl is falling into ruin under constant siege by its neighbors, and the influences of an opiate known as the "Black Milk" introduced by a pernicious cult.
Jomur, the Place of Spirits. The meeting-place of many Thulean tribes in the North, Jomur is virtually abandoned for three-quarters of the year. The exceptions to this are whenever tribal shamans gather here to make communion with the nature spirits.
Kal-Zinan, the City of Starry Nights. A cloudless mountain refuge of innumerable ascetic and spiritual cults, where the Wardens of the Dawn—a warrior cult of the goddess Asura—make their nighttime stands against Starspawn invaders who fear nothing but the Sun.
Katagia, the Free City. A zealous, draconian Vrilerinnen city of the southern coastal plain, where crime and "decadence" is forbidden. Scores of criminal offenders are imprisoned and set to work (not slavery, but "re-education") in the great cavernous dungeons of her mad royalty. To be fair, those who are able to follow the strict Katagian Code tend to lead prosperous lives here, with fertile soil to tend many crops—that's if countless raids from the city's long list of enemies don't stop them.
Lomar, the City of Triumphs. Self-proclaimed the cultural and economic heart of the Lemurian people, Lomar is an impregnable fortress located at the junction of two rivers emptying into the Kalayan Sea, where a natural moat forms. The city has no royalty, instead ruled by an autocratic and militant Despot who claims stewardship of the throne. His legions represent the strongest armed force to be found in Thule, forcing many neighbors to pay tribute or face their wrath.
Marg the Crimson, the City of Slavers. Home to the Crimson Slavers, Marg is a cruel and oppressive place whose cheap slave markets are filled with wretched captives—often the victims of barbarian raids, and occasionally wars waged by city-states near and far.
Nim, the City of Reavers. A lawless and brutal harbor on the northern coast, Nim is the refuge of the Reaver Kings of the boreal seas, known for their raids on all shores of Thule.
Nith, the City of Ghostly Fires. During the Atlantean Expulsions, the holdouts at Nith self-immolated, knowing they could no longer hold off the constant sieges. But instead of passing into the afterlife, they remained restless and vengeful at night—as ghosts. A mortuary cult has since settled in Nith, bent on restoring the haunted city to its original splendor in hopes of putting the ghosts at peace. But in spite of their progress, some fear the cultists' intentions are far more sinister.
Orech, the City of Mazes. Cloaked in mystery and madness, Orech is an isolated city under the influence of reclusive yellow-clad priests who worship an unspeakable god believed to walk among them.
Quodeth, the City of Merchants. Largest and richest of Thule's cities, Quodeth was once a great Lemurian stronghold—until its princes laid aside their warrior traditions in favor of luxury and decadence. They allowed commerce to flow freely from her great seaports, and appointed a powerful eunuch called the High Vizier to govern their state for them. Since Quodeth is now overrun with mercenary companies and thieves’ guilds, some name it the City of Thieves instead of the City of Merchants.
Ren Shaar, the Immortal City. Since the turmoil of the Atlantean Expulsions, Ren Shaar has changed hands and banners countless times in history. Today, its diverse populace claim independence and elect their own monarchs. Ren Shaar’s economic importance is easy to see; it connects the southern coast to Thule’s interior via the Torchbane Tunnels beneath the Starcrown Mountains. Surrounding city-states all wish to conquer this bastion of trade, but they still fear the Ren Shaari people cannot be tamed, given their reputation for bloody resistance.
Rime, the City of Ore. Laid against the shade of the mountain god, Kang, this Lemurian mining city falls at the doomed doorstep of the Pale Death. Rime is the head of all ore production in Thule: its deep mines are a prime source of copper and tin for bronze, coal and iron for steel, gold and silver for coins. So too can diamonds and other precious gemstones be harvested from Kang's sacred rock. Discreetly but not secret, all city-states (especially Lomar and Quodeth) vie for control of Rime's exports, and would pay handsomely for corsairs to ransack the trade-ships carrying ore and slaves from her ports.
Ruritain, the City of Vaults. This Vrilerinnen stronghold is known for its catacomb vaults, sealed shut and abandoned since the Atlantean Expulsions. The contents of these vaults are unknown but for the eerie sounds that vibrate from them on occasion. Inexplicable cases of Ruritainians going missing are sometimes blamed on the vaults, putting the locals who dwell above them on edge.
Thran, the City of the Black Circle. Remote and forbidding, Thran’s obsidian walls conceal the strongest and most wicked cabal of magicians in all of Thule.
Ur-Ghom, the City of the Beastmen. Hardly a city at all (in the human sense), Ur-Ghom is the seat of the brutal beastman Cur-za-cur, or Chief of Chiefs. Folk of other kinds enter at their own peril.
There are rumors of hidden cities concealed in Thule’s vast jungles or in the trackless mountains, but these places remain undiscovered for now and have no dealings with the known cities of the continent.
Wealth and Social Station
In Thule, personal ambition and ability are the final arbiters of how high one might rise. Thulean society can be surprisingly meritocratic, and it offers many chances for upward mobility—if one defines “meritocratic” as permissive of advancement to anyone who can bribe, strong-arm, or assassinate their way into the upper classes. People with ability (and perhaps a great deal of personal ruthlessness) acquire the means by which they can buy their way upward. In fact, many mercenaries and freebooters take up their dangerous profession in the hope of someday winning a high appointment or noble title.
At the top of the social ladder, naturally, stands the monarch, although the exact title might be king, queen, despot, overlord, warlord, or tyrant. There is no such thing as a constitutional monarchy in Thule; the monarch wields power without limit. With a word, the monarch can sentence any person to execution, send a city to war, strip titles and wealth from a rival, or decree a month-long festival. The only check on the monarch’s power is what the city’s nobles or officials permit—a monarch who rules capriciously or ineffectively becomes too dangerous to leave on the throne, and therefore ripe for deposing.
Beneath the monarch are the nobles. These families control hereditary offices, monopolize rich trades or commodities, or own vast estates in the surrounding lands. The qualifications of nobility vary from city to city; for example, in Lomar, “nobility” refers to whether one can trace descent from great conquerors and defenders of ancient Lemuria. Nobles have vast reserves of wealth and live in opulent palaces. They command personal armies in the form of their household troops, keep hordes of loyal retainers and advisors, and own hundreds or even thousands of slaves who work their fields, labor in their quarries, or crew their galleys. Nobles often enjoy virtual immunity to the laws of their home cities and need only fear the censure of their peers or the direct action of the city’s ruler.
Nobles wield great power, but the monarch who holds the ultimate power in a city does so by maintaining the loyalty of the next social class: the officials. They hold titles such as vizier, magistrate, general, consul, or panjandrum. In the name of the city’s ruler, they enforce law, command the army, supervise public works, and regulate taxes and duties of all kinds. High-ranking officials are every bit as powerful and influential as the great nobles of a city, and often vastly wealthy—control of an important office gives an official plenty of opportunities to become rich. Many viziers and panjandrums are, of course, quite corrupt, but others are honorable and forthright civil servants.
Most cities in Thule are also home to large and influential orders of priests. Temples are rich and powerful institutions, and often control estates and troops that rival those of the strongest noble houses. Like noble houses, temples can often be quite jealous of their privileges and position. Cloaked in mystery and ancient traditions, temple hierarchies serve as a balancing force of sorts, countering the most oppressive practices of monarchy or nobility, but also defending the status quo against the resentment of the lower classes.
The merchants constitute a large middle class in most of Thule's cities. In fact, in some cities, there is very little distinction between a wealthy merchant and a wealthy noble. Merchants include shipowners and caravan masters who engage in trade with distant cities, moneylenders, shopkeepers, and even skilled artisans and craftsmen. Anyone who owns a place of business and practices a trade for himself or herself—even independent landowners with rich vineyards or orchards—is counted as part of this class. Soldiers and servants make up the lower classes; there are exceptions to this, but only for the most skilled fighters and charmers among them. They are free men and women, but they work for whoever can pay them. In many cases, the “pay” is simply the privilege of belonging to a household and having room and board provided to them. Warriors often take service with a noble house and serve loyally for decades with no expectation of pay beyond a few silver pieces every now and then to gamble away or spend on drink and revelry. The best masters look after servants who grow too old to continue their labors. It’s not unusual for a noble to reward an old and faithful servant or guard with an easy retirement and a gift of enough money to make the servant comfortable. Regrettably, not all who employ servants are so kind-hearted.
As one might expect, slaves are near the bottom of the social ladder—but they are not quite the bottom in practice. The conditions of slavery vary widely from owner to owner. Slaves may be kept in wretchedness and misery, put to hard labor and discarded once they are no longer useful, or they might simply be tenant farmers who live on the land they work for their owner, enjoying lives not all that different from a poor member of the servant class. Beggars are regarded as the lowest of the low, beneath even slaves. After all, if someone is a slave, it’s because someone else thinks they’re worth owning and feeding. Beggars, on the other hand, are so wretched that no one cares if they starve or not.
Thieves, smugglers, assassins, and other scofflaws occupy a curious position in society. Thievery is considered a trade of sorts even in the face of the sternest laws against theft and extortion, as unlikely as it may seem. Therefore, guildmasters, and master assassins are generally regarded as members of the merchant class, while the average guildmember holds a position similar to a laborer in an artisan’s workshop and is considered a servant of the guildmaster. Only the most vile murderers and criminals are truly outside society.
Dark Delights
These are cruel times, and the entertainments and diversions of Thule’s cities would shock the sensibilities of a different day. Civilized folk think nothing of watching men and women die in arena fights or seeing criminals put to death in spectacular and grisly executions. Gambling dens, brothels, fighting pits, opium houses, and hidden shrines where forbidden deities are worshiped with debauched rituals can all be found in the crowded precincts of the typical city-state.
The wantonness and hedonism of the typical city-dweller are one of the primary reasons why rural and barbarian tribesfolk dislike and distrust civilization. A bloody-handed ice reaver might hurl himself into battle against a hundred foes without a moment’s hesitation, but blanches at the wicked displays that are all too common in Thule’s cities.
Naturally, the basest forms of entertainment tend to collect in the poorest and most desperate neighborhoods. Some sort of slum quarter—a crowded, crime-ridden district of extreme poverty—can be found in almost every city. Some are ghettos walled of from the more prosperous districts nearby, some are bad neighborhoods that anyone might wander into by mistake, and some are actually buried streets built over and forgotten by the city officials, but these impoverished districts are all riddled with crime and thievery, and nearly every city has one.
The slum quarter of a city is a world of its own, a city within a city. Here, the city guards do not venture. Vicious gangs of ruffians, bands of slavers, beggar brotherhoods, and of course thieves’ guilds rule over each street or block. It’s no place that anyone with a better choice would willingly choose to live, but the wretched masses have few other options—a life of poverty and desperation within the city walls seems preferable to a swift and certain death in the wilderness.
Law and Order
Systems of law and law enforcement are not very well developed in most of Thule's civilizations. There are no constables, police, or city watch officers in Thule’s cities. Instead, laws are kept by the city’s soldiers, who only enforce whatever laws the monarch wishes enforced, and only in those districts the monarch bothers to protect. Justice is often for sale, and a noble or wealthy priest can bribe magistrates or guards to take action against anyone who offers offense, whether the charges are legitimate or not.In general, simple vices are ignored—peddling exotic drugs or establishing a brothel are not against the law in most places, although trying to avoid the taxes and gratuities city officials and guard-captains collect can bring down the heavy hand of the authorities. City guards only step in when a crime is especially serious or when they catch the perpetrator in the act. Crimes that generally provoke the attention of the city guard include:
- Murder (although dueling or consensual fights do not count as murder).
- Assault or theft (when the victim belongs to the higher classes).
- Arson, rioting, or general mayhem.
- Rebellion or resistance to the monarch’s soldiers.
- Practice of dark magic (although few lowly guards would dare hinder a known magus).
- Worship of forbidden deities.
Punishment for crime tends to be swift and harsh. With the (ironic) exception of Free Katagia, prisons are virtually unknown in Thule’s cities, although most garrison buildings and magistrate courts have cells for holding accused criminals until the authorities can determine punishment and see it carried out. These punishments include flogging, fines, maiming or marking, enslavement, exile, or death.
Warfare and Rivalry
Relations between one city and another are even more tense than the relations of the various factions and powers within each city. Distrust, suspicion, and vicious rivalry is the typical state of affairs between Thule’s civilized states. The Lemurian warriors of Lomar despise Quodeth’s naked mercantilism. Quodeth resents Katagia’s celebration of Vrilerinnen heritage and superiority. Katagia is repelled by all things her Code deems "unnatural", including the cheap slavery of Marg and the narcotic decadence of Imystrahl. The cultural divides are deep and difficult to bridge.Despite these differences, open warfare between cities is rare, simply because most cities are so far apart that it is nearly impossible to attack one another directly. Lomar lies three hundred miles from Quodeth, with rugged mountains and deep jungles covering most of the intervening terrain—any Lemurian legion that sets out for the City of Merchants would be decimated by starvation, disease, and the endless attacks of jungle tribes by the time it arrived.
By riding the down-current of the Quosa River, Quodeth’s mighty fleets could bring a Quodethi army to Lomar’s shores more easily, but they would be outnumbered three to one by a combination of Lomar’s tributary navies and matchless phalanxes on land. For now, these two enemies can only watch each other and wait for some turn of events to change the basic strategic considerations. Similar difficulties challenge most of the other civilizations, and limit their ambitions.
Since long marches across Thule’s wilderness are so difficult, cities find other ways to compete with each other. Proxy warfare is quite common in this land; when a city falls into civil warfare or disorder, its neighbors eagerly funnel arms, gold, and mercenaries into the fighting, hoping to pick the winning side and gain influence over their neighbor. Likewise, cities in the same region vie with each other to win the allegiance of the stronger barbarian tribes in the area, in the hopes that they can goad hordes of wilderness warriors into taking the fight to their rivals. Competition between merchants of different cities is absolutely ruthless, as various cities compete to control especially valuable or strategic trades—skirmishing, raiding, and piracy are common mercantile activities.
While Thule’s cities spend a good deal of time and effort interfering with each other, they also keep a wary eye on the rise of barbarian tribes in the wilderness. Barbarians have no love for civilization, especially civilizations as corrupt and hedonistic as those of many cities. But the combination of rich treasuries and luxuriant livelihoods is an irresistible lure to many barbarian hordes. Over the centuries, more than a few cities of the Kalayan or the Lands of the Long Shadow have been laid to waste by waves of berserk warriors. Pragmatic cities simply bribe the strongest tribes to trouble somebody else, while more hostile cities such as Lomar, Ikath, or Thran viciously punish any such incursions into their lands.