Aian

Aian is a mercantile settlement located within the kingdom of Milave.

Background
Known by some as the City of Merchants and by others as the City of Beggars, Aian is only tenuously part of Milave, maintaining as much independence as it can. The city-state has a population of perhaps 30,000. Ruled by an elected senate, Aian is one of the prominent republics in the Steadfast. As its monikers suggest, it's a city of commerce and trade, a gateway between the Steadfast and the lands to the south. Its markets are filled with exotic goods, and wealthy merchant clans maintain burgeoning warehouses here.

The Aian saing "Those not rich are poor" is used to justify avarice and ruthless business practices. In other words, if you don't fight to get all you can, you'll have nothing. The saying is also a fair assessment of the city's class structure. Those who aren't wealthy merchants, clerks, accountants, salesmen, or even caravan drivers are extremely poor, working for scraps as laborers, bearers, or porters - or worse, without employment at all, living as beggars and thieves.

Rumor has it that the Amber Papacy doesn't believe in democracy, and that agents of the Order of Truth work against Aian in the shadows of the city. If this gossip is true, the agents likely work with the Beggar Queen and her network of spies. She hates the oligarch council and the merchants who elect them. No one knows much about the Beggar Queen herself, but she has three lieutenants that are biomechanical hybrids with the ability to become invisible and kill with just a touch, thus ensuring that her power remains unchallenged.