Abernord
This city-state officially declared its independence from the Principality of Pelshtaria last year. It had never been tightly bound to the principality largely due to distance and cultural influence. The nearby Kingdom of Brounthia is often wracked by civil strife, and refugees from its internecine conflicts often flee south along the coast or make the perilous crossing of the northern plains of the Buntesveldt to reach Abernord. This has left the city-state with a large Brounthian population.
The city is a blend of local nomadic, Irkainian, Ammuyad, and Brounthian cultures. Architecturally, the old city shows the influence of the caliphate with its broad avenues, large open-air markets, and stonework. The outer city that grew beyond the old city walls is largely Brounthian in origin, with stone and timber buildings thrown up with little central planning, unpaved streets, and many tight alleyways. Fires are common in the outer wards, and the city watch despairs of keeping these boroughs in order.
While this merging of cultures is behind the split from the rest of the principality, internal divisions are also great. The wealthier merchants and older families live in the walled old city, while the descendants of refugees dwell in the warrens outside. The Brounthian population tends towards skilled artisans with a large class of urban poor. This has spurred more than one riot against the “foreign” higher classes in the city. It is the middle classes of petty merchants, artisans, scholars, and military officers who have successfully blended the two cultures and from where the impetus for independence comes.
Increasing the strife is the sheer number of impoverished and outcast Brounthian nobility who make the city their home. It seems that nearly every Brounthian can claim descent from one nearly extinguished noble house or another, and no small few pretend to have royal blood. Plots and intrigues abound that hope to put some distant claimant back in power. Many of these are little more than fantasies, but some manage to gather enough power to present trouble for the city and their neighbors.
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