Uthâri Guild of Merchants
The Uthâri Guild of Merchants are the ruling class of the City of Uthâri. Made up of the Guilds of the city, they reside in the inner city, walled off from the rest of Uthâri. The Guilds rule as an Oligarchy, with the political leaders chosen from the upper ranks of each guild. The Leaders of the People are those who are elected, and they have absolute power over the city.
There are no limits of where Leaders can come from, so lobbying for elections are a big deal. The only balance to prevent one house from swarming the election is that those who are elected as a Leader must cut all ties with their guild’s operation for his or her term. This is strictly enforced, since breaking it would give the breakers guild much more power.
A head of the Leaders is elected internally, and the position is called the Duke of Uthâri. The position does not give the holder more power than the other Leaders, rather it is there for someone to lead meeting and audiences with the public.
Structure
The Structure of the Guild is as follows. At the head is the Duke of Uthâri, who is considered the ruler of the city. He is a member of the Leaders of the People, who are elected from the merchant guilds of the city. The Leaders hold the bulk of the power in the city. Beneath the Leaders are the guilds, who make up the upper class of Uthâri. Their needs are proposed to the Leaders, who then act accordingly. The citizens of Uthâri can be considered the lowest rung, but they hold no power in the city government.
Public Agenda
The Guild agenda is a simple one. They work to increase profits of the merchants in the city, no matter the cost. This is mostly done through city guard protection of the roads through the outer city, and cheap prices for shipping by land and sea. The guild taxes are low on trade, making the state money through sheer volume of trade. The tradeoff is that the sin tax in Uthâri is very high. The wealthy trades who come through will pay the prices nonetheless, as cold beer and a cigar are a well earned pleasure after a long journey.
