Cedrych Brightbough Guildmistress Selena Harbeck in Zobeck has recently been rumoured to be quite skilled in such crafts, and seems like the perfect person to such a task (see below). Unfortunately he doesn't have any free time to work on the collar this week. Salazar di Fioretti Salazar discovers that most people don't really know exactly what happened, and hence The Cohort isn't particularly blamed. It's a far off thing to them. He discovers some general information about the government: Zobeck's government is a many layered nightmare to visitors seeking to bend it to their own purposes, but familiar enough to locals who know just how to get things done. For the most part, it serves the master merchants with security and safety for trade, the common people, with justice and fair dealings in the markets, and the poor with work as conscription or ditch-diggers. The Free City Council The Free City Council replaced the Stross-era Praetorian Council after the Revolt. Once composed of hand-picked noble allies of House Stross, the Praetorian Council general deferred to their lord's wishes in running the city and spent most o their time scheming and plotting against one another. They pilfered money from the city to fund their own projects and interests, ruinously taxed the city's bourgeoisie, restricted trade with tariffs on good entering the city and exist fees on goods leaving the city, and used the Watch as their personal enforces to settled vendettas, illegally detain or imprison citizens, and seize private property. Their flagrant corruption laid the groundwork for the violence that destroyed the old aristocracy. After the Great Revolt, the rebels imprisoned or executed any Praetorian Council members they caught. The Revolt's leaders created the Free City Council to administer the city as the Praetorian Council should have done. Its standing Consul members were citizens who helped lead the Revolt and who held strong interests in the city; mostly guildmasters, priests, and even kobolds. The Council is charged with ensuring the welfare of the city and its citizens, protecting Zobkec from all threats to its freedom, and maintain the flow and profitability of commerce within the Free City. The Lord Mayor The sitting Consuls choose the Lord Mayor from among their peers to serve a 10-year term, though most have held the position for life. The Lord Mayor oversees the administration of justice by appointing all of Zobeck's judges, establishing and provisioning the army, appointing all knight-commanders of the Citadel, and commanding the Free City's militant order; except the paladins of the Order of the Undying Sun. The order predates the city's independence and this chapter only serves on the condition that their commander answer to no one "not of noble blood." In practice, the Order of the Undying Sun acts as an independent military force. The Current Lord Mayor Olleck The newly chosen Mayor Constantia Olleck represents the growing dwerren influence in the city, though it has limits; she has sworn to serve a single 10-year term. She took over after the old mayor, Karillian Gluck stepped aside. Constantia showed great courage in commissioning several efforts to drive the fey out, or at least limiting their influence to the undercity and a few of the outlying districts. She speaks wit the shadow fey ambassador, but the two will never be friends. Mayor Olleck is a cheerful, smiling, and hardworking dwerren who knows every alley, every tavern, and every honest (and less honest) person of influence in Zobkec. In her prior mercantile life as a mule driver, Olleck had a way of making any donkey follow her, gentle as a lamb, over rock and declivities and through brambles;l this, wags aver, was excellent practice for working with the Zobeck Council and the Praetors. As a younger dwerren, she spent twenty years making a small fortune as a muleskinner, leading mule trains up to the Oberatal Freehold and through the Silbertal into the Ironcrags. Bandit attacks were rare as she marched into the Ironcrags loaded with grain, timber, and fine brass gearwork; on the way back, bandits attacked for her mule train's silver, metalwork, and sometimes bars of gold, which she usually brought safely back to the city forges, shops, and mint. To this day, matters of trade and banditry are uppermost in her mind, though she also has forged a strong alliance with neighbors against the Mharoti after the fall of Illyria. Consuls Generally descendants of the great Revolt's leaders, the 12 Consuls serve for life or until they receive a 'silent office' (a retirement sinecure). Sitting Consuls fill any vacancies from among the city's most prominent civic leader, typically guildmaster, merchants, or powerful members of the priesthood; but once in awhile, the Consuls choose an adventurous individual seeking a quieter life. By tradition, the Free City Council always includes the Guildmaster of the Arcane Collegium, and the Kobold King of Kings. During the Revolt, the leaders gave the city's Watch commander a lifetime council seat, but secretly decided that, unlike the deal they struck with the kobolds, and the Arcane Collegium, this 'seat for life' would only extend to that individual. Upon his death, the Council did not give the position to his successor, but added a second seat for a cleric of Rava. To this day, this 'betrayal' remains a point of contention between the Council, the Watch. The Watch's current captain, Horvart Edelstein, is bent on regaining his 'rightful seat' on the Council. Current Consuls: Ondli Firedrake: A dwerren priest of Ravan (and Volund), Ondli has served as First Consul, or Council House Chairman, for 30 years. His consul peers selected him to guide the meetings, recognizing him as the most patient and fair-minded among them. Orlando: Guildermaster of the Arcane Collegium, and Consul and member of the Free City Council, Orlando has withdrawn from many of the Collegium's affairs and is spending many days of summer and fall with Aldona Silberhof, a whip-smart sorceress who serves as a Captain in the Runkelstad Wands. While his enemies gossip about his lack of attention to Zobeck's affairs, his friends seem pleased that Orlando has found an equal in arcane matters. Lector and Consul Radovar Streck: Radovar, the city's most famous alchemist, has been promoted to Lector of the Collegium, a title usually reserved for those times when the Guildmaster is otherwise engaged. And indeed, he has promulgated a number of edicts in Orlando's name when the titular Guildmaster has been out of the city. In addition, he seems to be investigating the alchemical properties of shadow with help from a handsome young shadow fey apprentice named Frost, and he enjoys occasional visits from a dust goblin bringing needful items from Maillon and the Goblin Wastes. Sir Jorun Haclav: Field Marhsall of the Free ARmy, Captain of the Zobeck Hussars, Consul, an Master of the Citadel, Sir Jorun continues to expand the hussars and has sent a company of 200 human light infantry to stand with the Magdar on the border of the Dragon Empire. Quetelmak: Kobold King of Kings and Consul to Zobeck, Quetelmak seems like a kobold king who might stick around for more than a season; he has weathered two years since his ascension to the position and consulship. This seat's consul fluctuates with the rapid rise and fall of the Kobold King of Kings in the Kobold Ghetto. Melancha Vendemic: Melancha is the golden-voiced consul, capable of moving rhetoric in the defense of causes and law and security. Her arguments are often carried out through mocking songs in the taverns rather than confined to discussion with other consuls. She has a great ear for what discomfits or worries Zobeckers. Kekolina of the Derry Mine: Kekolina is a long-serving kobold; rather an oddity, but she represents the mine gangs that provide silver and wealth to the city. She is honoured among the mine gangs as having the ear of St. Piran, the local patron saint of miners. She keeps kobold interests always in view. Myzi I. Myzi, called the Mouse King, and Lord of the Undercity, is a consul and (most believe) a corrupt rogue. He has a drooping mousetache, and a twitchy nose, and he seems to always have the news from the docks, the smugglers, and the riverfolk. Lady Wintesla Marack: Lady Marack is beloved as a priestess of Lada for her healing of the poor and the sick. She is also well-connected merchant, selling timber, wool, and tin from Zobeck to the dwerren, the Magdar, and especially in Perunalia. The amazons of the duchy find it more congenial to do business with a woman, so her oxcarts and barges carry much of the Zobeck trade to and from Perunalia. Halsen Hrovits: Halsen is the fourth of his name, and the Hrovits family founder was once known as the 'merchant to the noble House Stross' (an honour they've not mentioned in generations). Hrovitz deals in finished dwerren weapons and armours, as well as raw copper, fax, sheep, mining tools, and he also trades heavily with the kobolds of Lillefor (unusual for a human merchant) for mythriall, iron, and precious gems. Selena Harbeck: Guildmistress Harbeck keeps the weaver's guild disciplined and extremely productive, building, weaving spider automatons to create cloth an d tapestries at a rate no other town can match. Selena opens the guildhall each day with a prayer to Rava, and she is on excellent terms with Consul Hrovitz and Lady Marack, her principal supplies of raw wool and flax. Guild tapestries are especially popular in Bemmea and the Seven Cities; Consul Harbeck often visits both sites on extended business tours and as an unofficial envoy for Zobeck's interests in the south and west. Kazimir Volkov Kazimir spends some time forging, and generally helping the fledgling nation out. Whilst his efforts are important, and well appreciated, luckily Lady Mispera's strength is the main line of defense. Zook Zook beings learning how to dodge, duck, weave, and dodge from Skag. Unfortunately Skag nails him right in the head with a hammer, and he realizes he'll need more practice before bringing his new skills out on ventures for The Cohort Arcanum. Skag Skag thinks about things whilst he trains Zook. Yaara Mielahoney Coming soon(tm) I promise.