The Free Republic of Urr has about 8000 citizens (both in the city and on the fields in the vales). The Republic is governed by two Captain Regents, which are elected for a term of office of half a year from the members of the Grand Council. They have the power of vetoing each other. The Grand Council of Urr is a democratically elected unicameral parliament. The elections for the Grand Council take place every five years.

Within the city, an order exists that practices magic. They are called the Temple Hermits. The Order is mixed sex. The person who represents the Order in the Grand Council of Urr and the rest of the outside world is called The First Speaker, as he is the first that speaks during conventions. The First Speaker is a spokesperson and not so much a leader. The member of the Order with the best understanding of magic is called The One Blessed by Moonlight. The order has members and lay members.

The center of Urr consists of two squares. One is the Grand market of Urr, while the other was called the Town. When Urr was young and more of a direct democracy, the citizens gathered here to make policy. When government became a representative democracy, decision making moved to the buildings around the Town and it lay empty. A dozen odd years ago the Temple Hermits built The Great Ziggurat of Urr on this square at great government expense. Locally, this temple has the reputation of being of being an insane boondoggle.

The evil empire. They like having the mountains as a border better than having us as a border state. So now the Dark Emperor has sent his decadent son with an army of mercenaries and at least one other evil wizard.

The Longbeards are a rich, traditionalist, isolationist, Dwarven nation. They are governed by a High King. The Redbeards are an openly communist* Dwarven nation and are ruled by a Comrade Prince. They engage with the outside world a lot, to the point that there is a large guest worker program in Urr. Their political learnings and weakness to bribery makes them somewhat suspect though. The Gnomes are a bit odd. They are ruled by a female emperor who claims to be a goddess. For some inexplicable reason they claim to be our great friends and seem to mean it as well. A generation ago the graduating class of Lady Wanda's prep school for tweens of good character was on its way to visit the Gnomish vineyards for their first wine tasting. They got intercepted by a large Orcish war party looking to practice umm.. let's call it white slavery. They were rescued by the Gnomes in a dazzling display of combined magic and military might. The Gnomes have close ties to the Temple Hermits and have something to do with that stupid Ziggurat. Recently they & the Hermits installed a weird network of overground pipes that run all over Urr. They claim it is intended to fight fires. We'll keep using the fire brigade, thank you very much.

*Dwarves are natural communists: they are all workaholics, obsessed with achieving high standards of quality and somewhat penny pinching. So they all collectively work very hard, to create magnificent stuff and accumulate great wealth, which they then admire, while not using it and that makes them very happy.

They call themselves the Free Folk. They are a basic band of lawless roving barbarians living in the hills. They make halfway decent soldiers, maybe hire them ourselves, before the invaders get the idea. Some of them live in the City though and serve to clean the sewage pipes and the like…