Dimela

The Republic of Dimela is a confederation of merchant dynasties in the southwest portion of the mainland. Aside from its wealth, it is known for its plasmic looms, or "flesh pits", where the remains of living beings (or simply living beings) may be turned to servile constructs.

Territory

Dimelan territory is largely comprised of a chain of city-states along the Casavis peninsula.
While the Casavis region may not be particularly large, Dimela's population density is very high, and its cities very developed. Little thought is given to the cultural architecture one would find in Aldrastian cities - Dimela's urban centres are constantly sprawling outwards, building up, down, and out in whatever manner the ruling dynasty deems most cost-effective.
Dimela's expression of power has historically been largely through trade influence across the mainland, and this hasn't changed, with its merchants being found in the majority of ports of call around the world. While the nation has yet to colonise any of the Altar Isles, several merchant dynasties have been eager to negotiate purchase of colonial land (or even wholesale colonies) from the powers that have existing holdings there.

Politics

The republic's government takes the form of a senate, with seats in the senate allocated to the merchant houses based on their capital proportional to other houses. To avoid a single house coming into ascendancy and developing an unassailable advantage over the others, a council formed of the owners of the five wealthiest merchant dynasties rules above the senate, in lieu of a single autocrat.
There is no voting for representation in Dimela; the best way to affect the state of the senate is by earning more money for one's house, though the vast majority of the republic's population is incapable of significantly affecting the balance of power singlehandedly. Votes are equal parts bureaucratic and bookkeeping, as representatives are expected to uphold their votes; if a senator votes to enact a programme, they are expected to aid in funding and running it. In effect, a vote in the Dimelan senate is a commitment to invest in a particular national initiative.
The Council of Five rotate responsibility over sessions of the senate every time a session is called. In matters of national emergency, such as war, disease, and famine, they directly convene to bypass the lengthy process of a senate decision. As the only unifying interest of the Council is the protection of their own assets, their otherwise absolute power is only brought to bear in such situations; all other attempts to bring the Council onto the side of a prospective project simply meet too much resistance.
As with all powerbases in Dimela, the senate and even the council are fraught with labyrinthine scheming, blackmail, all forms of manipulation, and even assassination attempts. The incompetent and naive are quickly filtered out of the ruling class.

Demographics

The Republic of Dimela is overwhelmingly comprised of scarai. Humans are second, but the difference is vast - the majority of human immigration is in the form of the wretched and desperate, the majority of whom are effectively used until they burn out and are consigned to the flesh pits. Skilled labour, usually in the form of experts or particularly exceptional artisans, tends to only enter the country on a brief and contractual basis, rather than immigrating fully.
That is not to say it does not happen - but offers of permanent tenure in Dimelan merchant houses are rarely accepted, leaving a mere trickle of a handful of immigrants per merchant house every year. Most of these migrants are humans, but occasionally skilled demihumans are sufficiently tempted to leave their enclaves for a life of profitable toil, and eventually luxurious retirement.

Culture

Dimelan culture is ruthless and highly individualistic. Its citizenry come to be without a family unit or similar anchoring group, able to rely only on themselves, and their circles of concern generally include only themselves as a result. Even when acting in tandem under the banner of a merchant house, individual scheming and betrayal for personal gain are common and tolerated - so long as they do not affect the bottom line.
Much of Dimelan culture is a product of its unique economy - in lieu of traditional agricultural trading, all hunted animals and grown crops are directly fed to plasmic looms. Instead, one's access to sustenance and continued life is the standard around which the currency is based - deemed the Plasmic Standard, currency may be directly used to retrieve biological materials of any kind from the plasmic looms (including the plasm it's named for in the case of scarai, and all forms of edible material for most other races). This, paired with the fact that bankruptcy is almost universally an indicator of one's imminent status as fuel, makes currency a rather literal lifeline for all citizens of Dimela - one that the overwhelming majority of citizens hoard jealously.
"What you agree to is what you get" is not a bug of the Dimelan culture, but a feature. The First Loom that births all scarai does so at its own pace, one that happens to result in population growing faster than the republic's ability to sustain its population. This leads to a zero-sum society where all rises in station are at the cost of others' own resources or standing - or, in many cases, lives.

Merchant Houses

Merchant houses are the backbone of modern Dimelan culture, adoptive "dynasties" of merchants that make up the bulk of the ever-expanding republic. The merchant houses form a hierarchy identified, if not defined, by relative wealth. At the top of the hierarchy is typically found a merchant prince and her council, the most wealthy - and hence cunning and ruthless - of the organisation.
Below each of the council members is the part of the house that they hold domain over, of which the highest-ranking merchants, and the Auditors - the military branch of the house - hold the most prestigious positions, being given the best the house has to offer, if for no other reason than that it enables them to better perform their respective duties.
At the base of the hierarchy remain the workers and various unproven members of the house; insignificant and expendable. Aside from headhunted foreigners or competitors of great skill, all who join a house, whether through contracts of indenturement or of scarai "childcare", begin here and must claw their way up.

Freelancers

Not all who avoid joining a merchant house end up with a limited lifespan outside of the system. Freelancer groups are always eager to snap up newborn scarai, and with the merchant houses seeing them as a necessary evil, are recognised as being able to grant citizenship in this capacity. Most scarai that make it further than a week without the guiding hand of a house do so through becoming freelancers.
The majority of freelance outfits in Dimela are small operations whose population can be counted on one hand, and perform extremely dangerous work the houses do not wish to risk their own assets (or reputation) on - though some rogue trading outfits have been observed. Turnover is high without the safety net of a merchant dynasty, but life in a freelance outfit comes with much more freedom than with a house, and usually without a liquidation clause should your performance be deemed unsatisfactory.
Many freelancer outfits are nomadic, moving from city to city, or even nation to nation, in search of profit - and other things, as freelancers are often much less culturally tied to Dimela as a whole, and hence on occasion learn to enjoy such comforts as trust in one another and long-term relationships. Foreign adventurers and caravans also enjoy a form of citizenship by default while they stay on Dimelan lands, as freelancer licenses are available to all such groups.

Type

Geopolitical, Country