Merkonus (Mer-koe-nus)
The Home of Invention
The Home of Invention boasts the largest and most widespread adoption of mechanical advancements over the years and is responsible for the development of nearly all of them. Many of these innovations have spread to varying degrees to the neighboring city-states and helped revolutionize standards of living, trade, travel and of course combat to fight against the dragons.
The Frontier of Discovery
Merkonus’ largest priority is constantly pressing the edge of invention further and creating newer and greater inventions. Their most famous invention, the airship, is seen as the epitome of their progress and acts as the symbol for their technological revolution. Merkonus uses the airships as a constant supply of leverage against its rival city-states, as each of they have all grown rely on their airships to perpetuate travel, trade and transportation of goods. Each of them paying hefty sums or offering generous deals in exchange for continued access to these ships. While magic is not outlawed, its presence is very small and quite rare within the city. Magic is widely seen as a tool of the past and a practice that will soon become obsolete. For now, it is tolerated as a temporary necessity. Prominent inventors are seen as celebrities within the city and is seen as the strongest way to rise to prominence within the government’s hierarchy. The city's most recent discovery of processing black powder and invention of guns has created a small, but extremely expensive black market to ship these weapons and powder to whoever has the coin. Merkonus is led by the state Engineer’s Federation. The Federation acts as a guild of inventors and engineers that congregate to collaborate and develop new ideas to push the state forward in progress. Only the most talented of inventors are allowed to join and the most prodigious of this body rise to leadership roles and take on duties in maintaining the city-state. Roles range for standard stately affairs such as infrastructure and defense to creating and enforcing codes for allowable experimentation and development practices.Science Over Sorcery
With such little magical presence in the city, fools will underestimate the city's strength. Their technological advancements being so much greater than their neighbors and much more widely adopted by it's people has compensated for this lack of magic to a powerful degree. The mighty airship is not only capable of great civil benefits, but mighty military benefits as well. The fleet of airships enable to the mortals to challenge the dragons for aerial supremacy and strip them of their largest advantage over them. These militarized airships are equipped with powerful canons, reinforced hulls and crews of gunmen. These powerful ships are fearsome, but also extremely expensive and the loss of one is a large setback. Beyond airships, the Merkonus has begun advancing other military technologies with experimentations using the relatively new substance known as black powder. The Merkonus government has kept a tight leash and control on the distribution and use of this explosive substance as well as the weapons known as guns that use it. It has slowly spread through the city and to its rivals who seek more to bolster their own strength. The overwhelming majority of the weapons and substance remains under tight lock by the Merkonus government. The technology still remains in its early stages, but are still very potent and the potential for such weapons are clear to anyone who can get their hands on one.Dragon Slaying
The city government is staunchly anti-dragon, but does it’s best to enforce the standards of the treaty. Hunting dragons is seen as a distraction from their true calling and greater purpose. Fighting dragons when needed is acknowledged as a reality to keep them safe but the Federation does not consider it a long-term issue. Many believe that the dragons will simply become a problem of the past once they have managed to invent their way through or around their scaled enemies. Due to the relative indifference to dragons and dragon slaying there is a moderately sized dragon slayer presence that operates with some comfortability; however, they must be careful not to act too brazenly as the city-state will arrest anyone blatantly violating any part of the treaty with no hesitation.
Type
Geopolitical, City-state
Trade Partners
Merkonus remains begrudging trade partners due to the regular large shipments of metals and ores needed for the city's horde of mechanical projects. Reg'naat is happy to provide these materials for large profit and keeping trade channels open for easier means of smugglers to deliver precious black powder products and weapons. Merkonus is aware of this illegal trade and works hard to stamp it out, but must work with hands partially tied to keep the flow of materials running.
Non-aggression pact
The two city-states have no open disdain for the other or hostility. Moderate trade is conducted between the two cities, but not much else can be said. The opposing nature of the two city-state's goals and values place them at arm's length from one another and both prefer to keep things to business as much as possible.
Non-aggression pact
Merkonus and Dracheim interact very little, with only small amounts of trade going back and forth. The two city-states largely avoid one another. Merkonus views Dracheim and its people as traitors but chooses to focus its energy on their own projects. Dracheim is aware of their view on them, but is ultimately just content to have Merkonus not acting against them.
