Gepesh

Strength in Skill

The City of Markets is alluring, but dangerous. Watch your purse. What the pickpockets don't get with stealth, the merchants will take with guile. For a trader people, the Saveen are oddly misanthropic, though they'll put on a friendly show to get your coin. One may purchase the most vile items, the most degraded services, and the most immoral spectacles. But for all that, I guarantee you will find wonders in every corner, providing you know how to look.

Gulshan's Guide for Wanderers

Gepesh is not the largest island in the Singing Archipelago, but it is the most visited. It is a study in contrasts -- brilliant wealth and filthy poverty, wide avenues and cramped alleys, ancient edifices and fresh construction -- mingling together in astonishing, wonderful confusion.

Demographics

Saveen - 85,000
Vessuna - 12,000
Gherau (Bearfolk) - 10,000
Borrowers - 6,000
Eswe (Bearfolk) - 5,300
Other - 1,700

Government

Nominally, Gepesh is a meritocratic state in which the Captain of Coin is chosen based on strict qualifications which are judged by an elected body of representatives. In practice, the last three Captains have been related and corruption, bribes, and schemes are accepted practices.
Under the Captain of Coin there are Ward Guardians who oversee city districts with the help of local bureaucracies called Vicinages, which refers to both the government bodies and the districts.
Only Saveen permanent residents may be in the government. Both Vessuna and Gherau regularly attempt to overturn this law, with little headway made thus far.
All residents, permanent or otherwise, are required to pay taxes. Permanent residents, who must have undergone a lengthy application process if they were not born in Gepesh, pay fewer taxes than those without that status. Anyone wishing to attain permanent residence status must submit to a visible tattoo (often on the forehead), and this is part of the coming-of-age ceremony for native-born children. Everyone else must register with the local Vicinage. Visitors may do so at the city gate, paying a small fee to receive a simple arcane mark on the palm that fades in a week or a month, depending upon the amount paid. Non-permanent residents pay a much larger fee to receive an arcane mark that fades in a year, at which point they must renew to remain in Gepesh.

Defences

The island has the greatest navy in the known world. Pirates are a staple of the surrounding islands, always looking for that one big haul from a taken ship, so sea patrols are frequent and well-armed. The Captain of Coin takes seriously the welfare of the traders who come to do business in Gepesh, for without them the coffers would quickly deplete. The funding of the Gepeshien Navy is never far from the top priority. This has the side effect of making the island a less tempting target for direct attacks from mainland nations as well.

Industry & Trade

Everyone comes to Gepesh to trade. Salt, spices, magic services or items, cloth, gems, metals, wood, and even some rare animals may be bought or sold in the markets. In addition to materials, raw or otherwise, there are finished products: ceramics, weapons, clothing, food, medicines, etc. Almost anything one might think of that is legal and desired across Iouran are either on a merchant's shelves or in the list of things he might attain for a slightly larger fee. For commodities illegal or shameful, in the alleys and dark corners of the city one may also find slaves, corpse amber, brothels, and drugs. Streets bear the names of the predominant trade, either officially or unofficially: Silk Street, Necro Alley, Pickle Avenue, and so on.

Infrastructure

There are nine major markets in the city, three of which are on the coast. The ports are astounding, with massive numbers of ships docking and leaving regularly throughout the summer and autumn.

Guilds and Factions

There are dozens of guilds, and one merchant may very well belong to several.

Architecture

The noble and market vicinages sport wide, paved avenues and grand buildings of wood and stone, interspersed with statuary and public parks. In the slums, however, the streets are claustrophobic fire hazards, with second and third stories overhanging the streets to such a degree that walking below them seems more like spelunking than strolling through a city. In a few places it's so bad that one can climb across the street, from the window of one building into the one facing. The streets here are usually dirt, the buildings stone. (Wood fetches premium prices since it is usually imported.)

Natural Resources

There are two things Gepesh has that no one else has: velespar and wormallow. It was on this that they founded their status as the trade center of Iouran.

Type

Metropolis

Population

120,000 permanent residents