Mahrwa

"Crops are wealth, and wealth is power"

The city of Marwha is home to the richest merchants in all the lands. It's situated in the fertile soils at the centre of the Three Rivers, which provide it's people with sweet and delicious fruits and vegetables unavailable to the surrounding nations.

Population: 100,000+ Imports: iron, precious metals, and procurement of magical artifacts

Exports: Fruits, vegetables and lumber

Government: Meritocracy. The leadership of Marwha is composed of a senate whose members are comprised of the owners of the city’s critical industries (Farming, hospitality, clothing and construction). These families are essentially regarded as nobility, as their wealth and lands are passed down from generation to generation.

The Meritocracy:
 * Eldon Gobblefirm, an elderly gnome.  Owns North Farms and hospitality industry
 * Dustin Bottoms, halfling merchant . Owns Clothing industry
 * Diviner Aleki Kahale. Diviner is the principal position in the Clergy. The Clergy (not unlike the rest of Marwha) is very business and owns the West Farms. The Diviner inducts members into the Athea’s Council, who vote once every 10 years on their leader.  Kahale has been high priest for 29 years.
 * The Granthems.  The South Farms are owned by two quarter-orc brothers and a sister (each have one third ownership). Chuck, Maurice and Julie. Their half-orc great-great-grandmother Yevelda was an honored warrior and founder of Mahrwa. The family name has been fondly viewed by the Supplyshield as best representing their interests.
 * Fargrim Orcfoe is a religious dwarf merchant that owns the construction industry in Mahrwa. His wife Jarana Orcfoe is a priestess of Irmorom.

Other Factions
The Courts: Legal positions are determined as needed by the senate (as opposed to the monarchy in Ramoha and Oaltava). As such the laws serve to protect the possessions of the senate (farmland, guild exclusiveness, taxation on trade etc).

The Senate: Representatives of nobles described above meet once per month to vote on policies which affect the city but don’t fall under the direct property rights of any of the families. Examples include appointing judges to the court system or allocating funds for shared services like street cleaning, gardening, and the city guard.

Military (The Supply Shield): Marwha’s military is known as the Supply Shield; a highly organized mercenary guild that also hunts, makes expeditions into the Bogwood for lumber, and into the Serpent Spine crag for stone.

This large group of lumberjack mercenaries serve Mahrwa in it’s logging of the Bogwood. The Bogwood is a murky woodland fraught with peril and the city’s only source of lumber. (see Bogwood for more details on this treacherous wilderness). This is not their only function however, they are also hired by merchants for escort services in transporting their caravans to Ramoha or Orix and would be called upon to defend the city should it be attacked.

The Supply Shield are composed of hundreds of small bands of men and women. These bands are usually 5-10 people, but it is common practice for them to group together for larger jobs.

The SupplyShield leaders who are known to be able to organize the largest groups for the largest jobs are regarded by the nobles and senate as military generals politically, but in reality the large scale organization of the SupplyShield is lacking and is not truly set up for war. That being said, these warriors are regularly fighting off trolls in the bogwood and are among the most seasoned warriors of all the land.

Role of the Church & University:

The University is funded by the church and focuses heavily on scripture and magic of the holy domain as well as having a school of law from which many of Mahrwa's judges obtain their certifications. This is not to the complete dismay of other factions as more often than not laws that protect the churches industries do just as well for the industries of others businesses

Arcane magic is not forbidden but the merchant leaders of Marwha make no effort to promote it, and it wouldn't be altogether inappropriate for them to fear competition from powerful magi. There is but one mage tower in Marwha however and that belongs to the Elven ambassador, a position currently held by Arch Kalewyn.

Mahrwavans primarily worship Dimos, the god of trade, wealth, comfort, charity and social status

Elven Ambassador to Humans:

Although not a popular opinion among the Meritocracy and it's inner circle, the people of Mahrwa have held the Elven ambassadors in high esteem and see the position serving a ward against any plots of neighboring nations. Historically the elves had sent an ambassador every 200 years, however the last scheduled replacement did not occur.