Laws, Government, and Demographics
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2021 11:11 pm
*Governance*
The God-King CORE has the ability to veto any movement. His word and guidance presides above that of the Cee-All, his council. These days he allows much to be delegated by the Cee-All and focuses mainly on spreading knowledge and managing the Academy. He may step in for broader issues and offer historical advice but for the most part CORE is a ceremonial figurehead more so than an actual political figure.
The Cee-All are the council that presides over Dagrun officially. They are voted in biannually and act as the judge and jury over all of Dagrun. There are eight Cee-All’s and they each reside with an equal voice in the council. They are chosen for fairness, generosity, and work-ethic. Some of the most prolific Cee-All had been humble farmers. While the Cee-All are there to make decisions there is a once per cycle Dyn-ner, town hall, where citizens may come and speak to host an opinion for a change or levy their own opinions on recent changes if any. Dyn-ners are a massive discussion between the regular people of Dagrun and the Cee-All often going into a debate. Cee-All mark down these suggestions, vote on it, and then pass or veto decisions made in these Dyn-ners.
*Laws*
The laws here are in truth rather lax. Being an academic city, they didn’t have much in way of crime until recently. When crimes do happen the Praetorians, the city watch and lawmen, are quick to quell the trouble-maker or evil doer. Praetorians are always clad in intricately decorated full armor made from dunairium, a glittering-deep orange and light weight material tougher than steel, and wielding guns or electronic sticks used to incapacitate individuals by stunning them. The Praetorians' coat of arms, a great mushroom with a wurm writhing above, is emblazoned on their chest pieces.
Those who find themselves in Dagrun’s jail will be there for a long time. The process of deliberating time for judge and jury from the Cee-Alls, who are the sole people to pass judgement on lawbreakers, is a slow one, as they see the punishment of any crime partly in your penitence. With that said, even for petty crimes, lawbreakers can be in prison for longer than a cycle as the Cee-All’s go through each criminal in order of time the crime was committed rather than severity of the crime.
Depending on severity of the crime, things such as public shaming and humiliation, temporary or permanent removal of body parts (in the case of gnomes this will be their metal augments), imprisonment, or in the very most extreme cases exile from Dagrun. While death is a punishment given out in Dagrun, it is rarely enacted. If an execution order is given, the Praetorians are told to kill on sight rather than a staged public execution. Punishments for crimes tend to be creative, sometimes verging on cruel, to get their point across with an eye for reformation and absolution.
Laws include the near-universal prohibitions of things like no theft, no bodily harm to another living being, no public drunkenness, but also go into more minutiae for white collar crimes, being an academic city. Things such as plagiarism, graffiti, or destruction of property are punishable by public humiliation. The laws are very fluid and often made up at the whim of the Cee-All and CORE, their view being that they are just in their punishments and view of crime.
Order must be kept and should it not be upheld, Praetorians will don their armor and weapons to protect the city. A generous portion of the Praetorians' job is simply patrol the streets of the Din, outskirts of Dagrun venturing into the Cauern Wulds, and also the entrance from the unsavory influence of outsiders. With the low rate of crime they are often sent to kill monsters. While the Praetorian are respected as per the gnomish hospitality the Praetorian can be the butt of jokes of the hardworking gnomes, in private called lazy and a semblance of safety-- rather unneeded.
In order to become a citizen of Dagrun, one must work. Getting a worker's permit is easy and essential. Found in the Cee-All Hall you may file for paperwork proving you will work; what your trade and experience is most importantly, a list of what goods you own, your properties, livestock, and extended family with you in the city must be provided. Once you sign this contract, your information is filed away and you are given a scroll to prove you are a citizen of Dagrun. The process is free and open to all.
Those who become bankrupt and no longer have a trade to ply have their citizenship revoked. People who do not create for longer than five years have their citizenship revoked. Five years is given in consideration for people who are masters of their craft and take a longer time to complete their projects or work. These artisans will bring out their works and have great fanfare greet them every time. If your citizenship is revoked you are no longer able to own property in the city. You will not be removed, but will be expected to live as a lodger somewhere, instead. Beggars are not tolerated in Dagrun and are removed from by force if they don't go quietly. People who are not citizens of Dagrun are not allowed to sell goods in the city.
An era spent under the rule of the Empire has created quite the impressive military for Dagrun. Most of their ancient automata and machines lay dead, dormant, or have been disassembled and reassembled into new items; what remains is a marvel of technology. While they have no attackers or real threats to defend themselves from, remnants from the Age of Man remain as testament to time. These creations are worthy adversaries to rival even current armies now. Some are displayed as statues, many are kept in warehouses “just in case”, others are used for study. Regardless of their use, the leftover machines from a by-gone age stand as relics to power.
These automatons are called wisdam and are full suits of anthropomorphic robotic, gear-laden armor controlled from inside the vehicle. They rarely shoot projectiles, favoring large bats, swords, or axes, and are clumsy, clunky things as most of the schematics have been lost to time; no one is quite sure how to make them fully functional. Should these be reactivated, the gnomes would be a military like no other on Atharen.
*Economy*
Exports: tech, fungus, dunairium, basic metal, art, gems
Imports: spices, cloth, perfumes
*Demographics*
80% Gnome
15% Human from various parts of the world
5% Other
*Language*
Kaedic is the most popular, then common, then various other languages in the different cultural grottos in and around the city
