Every five years, the citizens of Urr elect the members of the Grand Council of Urr, which is a democratically elected unicameral parliament. This parliament then elects two Captain Regents from its own members who govern the City and Vales together. The term of office of a Captain Regent is limited to one year. Since they must cooperate, both have the power to veto each other's proposals. It is possible to be reelected as a Captain Regent, but after two consecutive terms, one term must pass before reelection is allowed.
The Captain Regents are assisted by several other members of the Grand Council, responsible for various tasks in the City, like judiciary, trade, etc. Together they form the City Executive Council. The troops inside the City are commanded by the Captain Regent of the City, while the troops outside the City are commanded by the Captain Regent of the Vales.
The founders also knew that there may be cases when an immediate decision is needed, for instance when both Captain Regents oppose each other in the Executive Council. The Chief Judge, highest ranking official for the judiciary, then casts a final vote for a decision, when the Executive Council deems it is necessary that an immediate course of action is required.
Only a month ago, the Grand Council elected a new Executive Council from its members. Currently this Council has the following members:
Urr is under threat of starvation and has to cope with the stress of being besieged by an actual evil empire. The siege does not last long enough for people to be actually horribly weakened by starvation. But if the rulers of Urr fail to adequately feed the population, Urr will swiftly reach the rat on a stick and tree bark soup stage of a food shortage. Urr needs to spend 8 food tokens per week/Strategic Turn. If you cannot, the Panic Track will rise and you do not want the Panic Track to rise. There are the following modifications to look out for.
The list of available food at the start of the game:
The stocks of the traders are not owned by the city and are of better quality than the minimal ration. The default value is 2.5 gold piece for one ration.
The crops on the fields are owned by the farmers. They hope to harvest about 400 food rations but if they harvest this early they will only get 100. So they will expect a really high price. Also if you harvest this now you will not get much food until next spring!
Crops will crow with a factor of 1.25 every week until turn 3 (6 weeks). You are able to harvest 50 food rations a week. Please make a plan for your first 4 weeks because that is one turn.
You can buy the food from the stocks of from the fields from the umpire or claim it through a law.
The list of available gold at the start of the city:
You can't buy anything with treasure. You have to sell them to other players or the umpire. But of course prices for treasure items will drop hard if you start selling them. Don't expect a 1 to 1 ratio.
The gold and treasure of the citizens are theirs. But you could confiscate them by passing an emergency tax bill.
The city can claim property from Citizens by law. This requires a unanimous vote of the city council. Still the citizens won't like this law and panic level will raise.
Especially the traders and the guilds will be against this law. So expect opposition from the “The master of trade” and “The master of guilds”. On the other hand the red beards will love this law and will believe that Urr has found the path of truth!
Commanded by the Captain Regent Fabian of the City:
Commanded by the Captain Regent of the Vales:
Informally known as the 'Valley Guard'. These troops usually patrol the valleys and are allocated to watch towers and other small fortifications, along the 3 caravan roads towards the city.
Commanded by the Master Mason:
The following are very unofficial:
All 4 Made up of young brash folks of questionable backgrounds with more courage than sense.
Urr is more integrated than its cousin Yendor, which has formal Dwarven and Orc Quarters, that are more or less self governing. Still, most Free Folk live in the South East quarter and most Redbeards live in the West quarter. On top of that, the third regiment of the Noble Guard of the Council Great and General is basically an all Redbeard foreign legion of Urr.
If push comes to shove:
The Dark Empire. They like having the mountains as a border better than having us as a border state. That's why the Dark Emperor has sent his decadent son with an army of mercenaries and at least one other evil wizard.
The empire is run like a political experiment trying to combine Feudalism and Totalitarianism into one system. It doesn't seem to work very well from an economic perspective, but only the peasants truly notice that and caring about their suffering is uncool. And Being uncool is grounds for a summary execution.
The only good thing about the empire is that it is a desirable trading partner. They need lots of stuff only we can provide and don't hinder our trade with the lands beyond their borders. I wonder how that is going to go if we manage to win the coming war.
The Princedom, is the nation we are economically closest to in the world. Dependable folks who actually strive to make stuff people actually need. Instead of starting at: “We think it would be kewl!”, like the Gnomes, or: “Expensive kitsch is good, pompous expensive kitsch is better.”, like the Longbeards.
Lots of Redbeards live inside Ur nowadays and there is an ongoing debate, if their status should switch from a recognized minority with one representative appointed to a specific high office that has been set aside for them, to ordinary citizens and what that would have to mean for their ties to the Princedom.
Where to start? They have more money than the dark god Mammon. They lean heavily on our infrastructure to ship their precious goods to the 8 angles of the known world. It truly offends them, that they have to contribute to the upkeep of our trade network. Especially ludicrous, because they have almost certainly benefitted more than anybody else from our presence.
There is a massive tunnel connecting the basement of The Weigh House of our fair Urr and the King Durin X Undermountain loading dock under the Metal Mountains. Wether this is a great problem, or a great opportunity in the current circumstances remains to be seen.
This Dwarven nation is a bit odd. They are ruled by a female emperor who claims to be a goddess, but on closer inspection their actual governmental structure seems to sit halfway between that of the Redbeards and our own.
For some inexplicable reason they claim to be our great friends and seem to mean it as well. The Gnomes have especially close ties to the Temple Hermits and have something to do with the construction of 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.
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.
Gnomish trade goods have attained cult status. Not just their weird mechanical inventions, also their weird fruit based products. Why is Gnomish wine bright blue? If it was less peculiar it would probably sell better.
Orcs, your basic band of lawless roving barbarians living in the hills. Would you let one marry your sister's dog?
Mmm… To disrespectful…
Let's begin anew.
The Free Folk, a nation of proud savages living on the hills The Redbeards live under. Nowadays also a common presence in our fine city.
And yes there is an ongoing debate, if their status should switch from a recognized minority with one representative appointed to a specific high office that has been set aside for them, to ordinary citizens and what that would have to mean for their ties to the other Tuaths. A complicating factor here is that While the Redbeards are a model minority, hardworking, high-achieving and all that other stuff. The Free Folk not so much…
Wild Free Folk make halfway decent soldiers, maybe hire them ourselves, before the invaders get the idea.
Look we are in a bit of a pickle here. We are 1 small city state, the other side is an entire empire. We need help. An alliance with a race of immortal powerful entities is just what we need. So it is either those guys, or the dragons. And unless you want to start paying a tribute in human sacrifices and Longbeard crafted gold, it is going to be with the group that at least declared itself the foes of the Dark Empire.