Aetrimonde

Picking up where I left off previously, today’s Gazetteer post will cover the government and society of Caras Elvaren, the magical post-hardship nation of the high elves.

Government

Caras Elvaren’s government has been described variously as “vestigial,” “impotent,” and “as close to anarchy as anything called a government can get.” The foundational principle that the nation should have no rulers has manifested in a system of government in which it is very difficult for anyone to exercise authority or accumulate political power.

In principle, Caras Elvaren is a direct democracy, in which every citizen has a vote in the National Assembly. Of course, since actually attending sessions of the Assembly and casting a vote is more time-consuming than most elves would like, the House system has stepped in to fill the gap. As the smallest unit of political organization in the country, one of a House’s obligations is to aggregate and cast votes in the Assembly on behalf of its members. The exact mechanism by which a House does this is allowed to vary, and is generally written in to the House’s bylaws. Some merely act as an intermediary, aggregating the votes of members by ballot and reporting the totals to the Assembly. In others, the membership chooses a delegate trusted to make decisions on their behalf, and throws their collective voting power behind the delegate’s decisions. Many Houses exist for the sole purpose of providing members effective representation in the Assembly, and make no claims on their members’ share of the golem or magic ration except what they need to conduct accurate polls and organize votes.

The Assembly nominally has the power to pass laws binding all Elvaren citizens, but given the anti-authoritarian leanings of most Houses, it rarely passes any but the simplest and least controversial laws. Murder, theft, arson, and other straightforward crimes against the person or property are naturally illegal throughout Caras Elvaren, and those committing these crimes are investigated, detained, tried, and sentenced by Arbiter Houses that have been recognized by the Assembly to be temperate and even-handed arbiters of justice. Many Houses have laws of their own, but these govern only their own members, and they cannot impose prison sentences or corporal or capital punishment. Punishments for crimes within a House are most often social or financial, with the harshest possible punishment being ejection from the House with the nature of the criminal’s offense being publicized for the benefit of the general public. Minor crimes between Houses, if the victim does not receive satisfactory compensation from the perpetrator’s House, can be taken to arbitration by one of the Arbiter Houses for a small fee.

The Assembly also historically had the power to determine the level of support the elven people would grant the Magisterium, in the form of labor, food, and other supplies levied from each House, and the amount of magic the Magisterium would return to the people, in the form of mage-hours. Since the development of the ley taps, the nature of this power has changed: since the golem labor force supplies virtually all of the labor underpinning Elvaren society, the Assembly instead negotiates with the Magisterium to determine the balance of golem-hours and mage-hours the Magisterium will grant the elven people. While both have steadily increased over the years, in general when the Assembly requests an increase in mage-hours to support the magic ration, the Magisterium counters by reserving more golem-hours for itself as compensation. The Assembly also determines how golem- and mage-hours will be allocated, dividing them between the common rations granted to all citizens, and additional grants given to Houses that perform needed and beneficial work for the good of the nation, like the Arbiter Houses.

The Assembly is led by an elected Speaker, who in theory has the power to make demands of any House in the nation, or even the Magisterium itself. However, this power is essentially useless, because a House can at any time withdraw its support of the Speaker: if the Speaker made any demands that the Assembly did not already agree upon, they would promptly cease to be Speaker. Speakers’ actual power, such as it is, is limited to conducting Caras Elvaren’s foreign and military affairs, and even then, they are subject to close and contentious oversight by the Assembly.

Outside observers have noted that Elvaren society rests precariously on the political neutrality of the Magisterium. If the elven arcanists had any political ambitions, they would be able to withhold both golem labor and the magic ration, grinding the nation to a standstill. Those with a closer viewpoint understand that the Magisterium, in its dual functions as educators and guild for Caras Elvaren’s arcanists, actively promotes a culture of detached disinterest in worldly affairs among its membership. From their enrollment as students onward, members of the Magisterium are encourage to enjoy the material comforts that their membership offers, delve into esoteric magical studies, and seek advancement in the Magisterium’s convoluted system of ranks and grades. And if all else fails, they can always be embroiled in interdepartmental rivalries and bureaucratic red tape to keep them too busy for actual politics.

An often-overlooked third arm of government is composed of Caras Elvaren’s military Houses. Because Caras Elvaren does have a military, even if it is small and almost as anarchic as the rest of its government. Most of the nation’s armed forces are citizen militias, organized as joint ventures between the Houses of various townships, but these are trained and backed by a solid core of professional soldiers belonging to a handful of militarized Houses. These Houses are trusted with powerful arcane weaponry, including enchanted arms and armor, potent war-golems, and other destructive magics not known to the public. But they are entirely dependent on the continued goodwill of both the Assembly and the Magisterium, who can cut off the flow of supplies or magic if a militarized House shows signs of going rogue.

Political Situation

At present, there are three contenders for the de facto Elvaren head of state, each one representing one of the three arms of government. Gwetheir ap Wridd is Archmage of the Magisterium, and largely preoccupied with operating the ley taps and golem corps and ensuring that they continue to meet the growing demands of the citizenry. Melianthe Cerunna is Speaker for the Assembly, and is largely responsible for this preoccupation, having rallied the Assembly to demand a steady increase in the golem ration. The third member of this triumvirate is Brynmor, Princeps of House Meilyr, which is one of the largest militarized House.

The largest political problem facing Caras Elvaren is the reappearance of the Sidhe, and their attempts to reassert their dominion over the elven people. Of particular import is the Autumn Court, which has taken the utopian abundance of Caras Elvaren as a grave affront. The Court has made several attempts, of increasing scale and success, to sabotage ley taps and subvert golems. The most recent of these saw a labor golem cadre used to breach security at a major ley tap and send it into an intentional overload. Although it was prevented from detonating by the efforts of its Magisterium operators, at the cost of their lives, the tap still underwent a meltdown that left large parts of its city magically irradiated and uninhabitable.

In the aftermath of the meltdown, at least one House secretly took a once-unthinkable step, and entered into a pact with the Winter Court to prevent any further attacks by the other Courts. Winter’s first act after the pact was sealed was to disclose to the Assembly the presence of numerous agents of the other Courts in various Houses–though not, of course, their own. Nor has the House that made this pact come forward, or been named by Winter. The existence of so many Sidhe-sworn agents in their midst, including an entire House sworn to Winter, has broken much of the trust among the Houses at a time when a unified front is most important. The Archmage, Speaker, and Princeps are each pursuing their own contingency plans to deal with the attacks by Autumn and the pact with Winter, but since they cannot be absolutely sure of the others’ allegiance, are not cooperating and often working at cross-purposes with each other.

Foreign Relations

Caras Elvaren is on broadly good terms with each of Aetrimonde’s other major polities, but is not close with any. It was instrumental in brokering the peace at the end of the Wars of Smoke and Steel, having remained largely neutral throughout, but remains aloof and hands-off with the rest of the world.

This is largely because of the country’s use of the ley taps: other nations would eagerly adopt the technology that powers the elves’ high standard of living…but the elves are painfully aware that the same technology can be used to create enormously destructive devices. More to the point, they are loath to let details of the technology spread outside the Magisterium, in fear that this knowledge could be used to sabotage their own ley taps. Caras Elvaren is therefore incredibly cautious about letting foreigners even lay eyes on the inside of a ley tap, and has collectively decided that the best way to keep the technology to themselves is to hold themselves apart from the rest of the world.

That aside, the high elves are generally altruistic, even philanthropic, in their dealings with other nations. They export vast quantities of healing potions, produced with the aid of the ley taps’ magic, alongside other humanitarian magics, and they do so at or below cost in many cases. This earns them a certain amount of goodwill, even as foreigners grumble and protest their unwillingness to share the underlying technology that makes them possible.

Society

Elvaren society is one of leisure and self-fulfillment: with no real need to work, most citizens spend long stretches of their long lives engaged in arts, self-improvement, or just plain idleness. They move between Houses often, based on which one best serves their current interests. Virtually all citizens eventually find a calling, whether that is art, scholarship, service, or some other field, and devote themselves to it even if they do take frequent sabbaticals.

In Caras Elvaren’s earlier history, members of a House generally lived under one roof. This is no longer generally the case, although most Houses have a headquarters compound where the House leadership resides, and a House whose members are all engaged in some joint activity (like artists’ colonies or sporting teams) often has them living together. But for the most part, members of a House can obtain its benefits without all living together.

Architecture

Caras Elvaren is heavily urbanized, but with much attention paid to making its cities fit seamlessly into their surroundings. Many Elvaren cities are located in the middle of forests, with tall, graceful towers artfully built to pierce through the canopy without unnecessarily disturbing the trees. Elvaren city-dwellers largely live on top of each other, with the tallest towers stretching to twenty or thirty floors of living space.

However, the tallest structure in any Elvaren settlement is invariably the local ley tap, which while not always the center of the settlement, is generally close by. Despite many efforts by Elvaren architects and ley engineers, it is impossible to disguise the distinctive hourglass shape of a ley tap without compromising on its efficiency. More modern installations have attempted to place ley taps in depressions and surround them with towers to minimize their impact on the skyline, with mixed success.

Economy

While Caras Elvaren’s golems perform most of the drudge labor that supports their post-hardship standard of living, this does not supply everything that people need or desire. A citizen can draw on their basic ration for raw materials like timber and cloth, and even some simple manufactured goods like eating utensils and clothing, but everything the golems produce is utilitarian and unadorned. The artisan economy consists of skilled and even hobbyist craftspeople who transform golem-made materials into finer goods for the discerning customer, or provide services (like musical performances or specialist education) that the golems do not.

While the basic ration has a monetary value, and for ease of accounting uses the standard gold, silver, and copper pieces to set “prices” for the various goods and services that the golems can supply, it is purposefully difficult to convert the basic ration into hard money instead of a value in a ledger. Citizens can sign over fractions of their ration to merchants in exchange for goods and services, but to get cash for it requires redeeming it for goods and then physically transporting them to a merchant who will pay for them, and this is technically fraud (although there are so many ways around this law that it is seldom prosecuted). Actual money in Caras Elvaren nominally has to be earned, through labor performed for other people or by doing something that the Assembly has allocated grant funding for.

Many Houses are formed to give a group of citizens a legal framework to pool their resources in a common enterprise as part of the artisan economy. When joining an Artisan House, citizens are generally required to sign over a percentage of their basic ration on an ongoing basis, which the House can then put towards its enterprise. Usually, this means buying tools and workspace that the members share, but in larger and more established Houses it might also be spent on continued professional training for members, or subcontracting other Houses to do less specialized work.

Religion

For a society with such heavy emphasis on the arcane, citizens of Caras Elvaren are surprisingly devout. Part of this is simply that with so little need to toil, they have more time in which to contemplate spiritual matters…and part of it is that the largest religion in the nation is the worship of Deum Reveling, god of among other things art, music, theater, and what might be loosely termed “living the good life.”

If one were to pick a date and an Elvaren town at random, it would be virtually guaranteed that there was some kind of religious festival (probably for Deum Reveling, who is also the god of festivals…) going on there, or at the very least, in a neighboring town. High elven religious practices tend to lean toward lavish ceremonies rife with symbolism, allusion, and interpretive performances, and are very light on dogma and liturgy, which makes them opaque even to fellow-worshippers of the same gods but different traditions.

Plot Hooks

Caras Elvaren offers a variety of ways to work it into a campaign:

Encounter Hooks

• An inexperienced ley golem handler has given their charge some incredibly conflicting orders, and it is now running amok through a busy market. As customers trying to shop in that market, the PCs must either figure out how to break the golem out of its cycle of ill-conceived instructions…or just hit it until it stops moving.
• An arcanist among the PCs has grievously offended a Magisterium arcanist, who complained and got the PCs blacklisted by the entire Magisterium…just as they were hoping to buy some magical equipment. The PCs must find some way to resolve the grievance, which might involve doing the arcanist a favor, or alternately, showing them up in a formal arcane duel.

Adventure Hooks

• The PCs have been hoodwinked by a past employer, who has paid them in Elvaren ration scrip…which can only be redeemed in Caras Elvaren, and only for goods and raw materials for which they have little use. They must find some way to convert the scrip into hard cash, which will likely involve a trip to Caras Elvaren.
• An Elvaren artificer has broken with the Magisterium, and is selling advanced weaponry to the highest bidder…and they claim to know how to build a ley tap. Nobody wants that kind of armament getting out in the wild, and there is a price on the artificer’s head…for anyone willing to fight through their now very well-armed customers.

Campaign Hooks

• The pact with Winter has insulated Caras Elvaren from the depredations of the Autumn Court, but Winter’s influence is no less dangerous. The PCs belong to an organization that wants to rid Caras Elvaren of Sidhe influence, which will mean exposing and neutralizing the agents of Winter who swore the pact…and then fighting off Autumn and any of the other Courts that renew their operations. Ultimately, it may even mean breaking the Sidhe’s source of power, or gaining such an advantage over them that they can be forced into a pact that constrains them.

Up Next

Next week, I’ll be wrapping up this series on Caras Elvaren by revealing some characteristically Elvaren foes, including a variety of ley golem. Stay tuned!