Marfa Medina

The nation of Mooringsland is made up one of one large port and a relatively small amount of river-fed farmland around it extending northwards.
Marfa Medina is that port city, and it makes up roughy half of the entire population of Mooringsland.
Outside of the Island of Lunatus, Marfa Medina is the best natural harbor in Scarterra, providing shelter to ships from storms and providing a narrow defendable bottle neck against naval invasions.

Government

Tengku #5 by Zeta Gardner

-Eknok, tengku merchant and native hatched citizen of Marfa Medina

"Marfa Medina and by extension all of Mooringsland is ruled by a hereditary ruler called simply a 'Prince' and advised by 'the Council of Wisdom'.
On paper, the Prince is not that different from most other hereditary nobles in Scarterra. Male primogeniture, humans only of course. Highborn, blah blah blah.
The 'Council of Wisdom' is actually 'council of a bunch of rich people who like to play petty politics' and by 'advise the Prince', it really means 'bully the Prince into rubber stamping all their decrees.'

How does the Council of Wisdom decide on their decrees amongst themselves? By horsetrading favors and bribes, of course.
It's not as bad as it sounds. There are enough different factions that if one faction comes close to coming up with a scheme to ruthlessly dominate all of Marfa Medina, the other factions will unite against them.
If there is a serious problem, all the factions stand to see their purses get lighter, so they will put their differences aside to fix the problem and let them get back to their petty bickering.
I guess I should point out the Prince is also 'the Grand Admiral of Mooringsland', and that is not a nothing title. The Prince and all his heirs train religiously in personal combat, seamanship and tactics, so the Prince is actually a good commander in times of war.
if a state of war is declared, the Council of Wisdom is suppose to get out of his way and let the Prince defend the nation uimpeded, at least until the threat has passed. It is possible, albeit unlikely, that the Council of Wisdom will refuse to declare a state of war and not turn over power to the Prince.
This hasn't been tested in a major way since the armistice with the dark elves, but has been tested in a minor way.
We had a surge in piracy a couple decades ago, and the Council of Wisdom gave the Prince enough latitude and resources needed to deal with the problem handedly. Also, two members of the Council with alleged ties to the pirates suffered mysterious accidents and a third decided to emigrate to Uskala.
As much as people gripe about the Council's corruption, the system works."

Defences

The mouth of the harbor is guarded by ballista, catapults, and raisable floating chains making it easy for the army and navy to keep the people safe.
During the Great East Colassian War, dark elves blockaded the harbor many times but were never able to even attempt invasions without suffering massive losses.

Industry & Trade

Marfa Medina is the busiest port in the Colassian Confederacy and is the gateway to the rest of Scarterra.
It's also a major linch pin in the trade between the Colassian Confederacy. A majority of the Confederacy's nations are coastal but the East Colassian coastine doesn't have many ideal ports, so this the major hub for trade between the coastal powers.
Marfa Medina has a wide navigable river flowing south into harbor, and this river is the major trade artery between the coastal members of the Confederacy and the inland members of the Confederacy. The port imports a lot of food and textiles from Mariverlandia and Midlandia and uses the same river to export manufactured goods back to the Confederacy's agricultural heartland and by extension to the Greater Mereshnari Tribe.
Specialized tradesmen are more concentrated in Marfa Medina than anywhere else in the Confederacy though reagents are fairly hard to come by here, so magical trades and magical adjacent trades like alchemy are less concentrated here than in Meraland and Magicland.

Guilds and Factions

by me with Hero Forge

-Gaatha of Musseland, Lantern of Zarthus

"During the great war against the dark elves, the Mooringslanders were united with each other and with their brothers and sisters in the Confederacy.
Years of peace has changed things.
Now that the threat of being killed or enslaved is a lot smaller, the Mooringslanders are more focused on making money than on defending themselves and this has caused a sort of guild-based tribal economic warfare as everyone is trying to one-up their neighbors.

There are over a hundred trade guilds in Marfa Medina, some legal, some illegal, some in the grey area. There are roughly four or five so called "Port Confederacies" made up of alliances of guilds and other groups. Individual members of the Port Confederacies play turncoat and switch alliances often, creating a Byzantine mess of infighting that even a dark elf would be impressed by.
This is why I don't like stay in port more than four or five days. If you stay any longer, someone will try to recruit you into their faction."

Climate

Warm with lots of rain.

Type

City

Location under

East Colassia

Owning Organization

Mooringsland