Geim

**GEIM**
 Nation
 Size

A nation of intricate construction and refined artifice, the dwarven Queendom of Geim lies beneath the mountains that connect southern central Ureda with the eastern reaches of the continent. Sometimes called “The Cavern City,” Geim is widely regarded as one of the wonders of the world, and minstrels and craftsmen alike often aspire to visit at least once.

## Architecture

### Visual features/quirks

Built into the underside of several adjoining mountains, Geim is essentially a massive cavern. Several tunnels (protected by steel and iron bars) stretch from the ceiling of the cavern to the edges of the mountains in a similar style to an anthill, these provide light to certain wealthier areas of the cavern city. Architecturally, Geiman craftsfolk never allow function to invalidate form, and with the exception of tier 1, the most poor tier of the city (see below), even the most basic constructions are masterworks of marble and flagstone.

### Residential districts, and the tier system

Residential buildings have been dug straight into the walls of the cavern, lavish multiroom affairs with gravity-fed running drinking water from reservoirs in the upper reaches of the mountains. More expensive homes also features a smokeless fireplace that doesn’t rely on magic, allowing residents to heat their dwelling without polluting their air. These homes all feature fenced-in balconies that jut out of the cavern wall where they connect to bridges that grant access to the main walkways and non-residential districts of the city-state. There are 100-foot “tiers” to the city of Geim, including the residential districts. So, the upper tier (closest to the surface) would be known as tier 10, and the “tenth tier” residential buildings ringing the outside of it would be the cheapest real estate. 100 feet lower a creature would find tier 9, with another ring of residential buildings and access to “ninth tier” businesses.

### Non-residential districts

The non-residential districts (like the Guild’s District, The Political District, The Commercial District, The Industrial District, and others) are all suspended in the Cavern City. They hang from massive steel cables, anchored with large masterwork braces. In the upper tiers 10-7, structures are made from repurposed chunks of the mountains. A given stone chunk might house 8 or 10 medium-sized one-room buildings. These pendants as they’re called, can be traversed via a series of bridges that stand like massive aqueducts and stretch from the residential districts ringing the cavern towards the center. They create a large, interlocking network of streets, each wide enough for two carts to pass side by side. Each pendant then has a “balcony” of the same width extending outwards in a ring that connects to these bridges. The arches of the bridges also become the anchor points for the cables suspending the structures of the next tier below. This means that as one travels closer and closer to the first tier (the Royal tier), there are more and more of these marble and flagstone pillars stretching vertically out of sight. These pillars are ornamented and decorated, with each tier celebrating a different gemstone, which has given the 10 tiers of Geim a set of nicknames, as so:

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 10

A creature might therefore direct a friend to find them by saying “I work in the Jasper Guild District” or “I live in the eighth tier residential district”

### Travel between tiers

Tiers can be traversed vertically using one of a small number of spiral staircases connecting walkways (these descent wrapped around the vertical supports of the aqueduct-like structures), elevation change machines anchored to pendants (these are accessed through a trap door that allows creatures to drop vertically into a carriage suspended from the underside of the pendant, and contain a flag to indicate whether it is safe to open the trapdoor or not), or through a number of footpaths carved into the space between residential districts on the walls (these paths extend deeper into the wall and are encased on all sides by stone, and lit by torches that must be carried by creatures traveling through the stairways. There is also one large ramp that begins near the center of the tier and extends towards one of the walls of the cavern, while descending one tier’s height. This is the way that large carts or beasts can be moved from one tier to the next. The ramps are constructed to be long enough that there is no danger of a “runaway cart.”

### Prominent buildings

There is a building on each tier, constructed from that tier’s stone or gem, and located in the political district. This building functions like a town hall, and can be used for a number of purposes, from holiday celebrations to masterwork showcases, from sporting competitions to musical concerts. On the first tier, known as the Clockwork Tier, is the castle and residence of the royal family.

## Demographics

* **Demonym** - Geiman
* **Majority Race** (or melting pot) - Majority dwarves (varied), second majority Hematition
* **Common Language(s)** - Dwarvish, Common, Goblin
* **Socioeconomic Distribution of citizens** - The wealth mirrors the tiers, with more “common folk” near the tenth tier and nobility rarely visiting tiers beyond the 3rd.

## Economy

* **Major trade** - Mining and Military, which are inseparable from each other as the mines delve ever closer to the underdark and uncover all kinds of monsters and civilizations.
* **Major imports/exports**
	+ Export: Craftsmanship. Exquisite timepieces, delicate instruments of measure, and fine jewelry can all be found at their peak within Geim.
	+ Imports: Foodstuffs and vegetation. The royal family keep a “moongarden” at the base of the Cavern City, but have it filled with plants from the surface and tended by druids.
* **Overall wealth** - immeasurable. Between the raw materials, master craftsmanship, and the sheer amount of platinum and other gemstones that reside in the royal vaults, Geim is easily the wealthiest city-state in all of Ureda.
* **Taxation** - The mining efforts (which are sponsored and staffed by the royal family) provide a 15% payout of their revenue to the royal family. Craftspeople give a 5% portion of their income, or may instead optionally provide services from a list maintained by royal staff to the city-state instead (for example, a mason might opt to repair a damaged walkway for a few weeks this year instead of paying her taxes). These notice boards are easily accessible and constantly have work that needs completing, both for the good of the city-state and also to satisfy the whims of the Royal Family.
	+ Those who are not craftspeople pay no taxes to live in Geim, but must instead be registered with the politico of their tier. The politico makes note of the age, family status, and various “raw” abilities (such as strength and dexterity) of each person. It is understood that in exchange for living within Geim free of taxation, that citizen may be called upon to serve the nation by their tiers politico, or by the royal family, in times of need. Such times might include a large cleanup effort after a public event in the gem hall of that tier, or aiding in national defense in a time of war.

## Government

* **Leader(s)** - Queen Sailyn, who has reigned for 143 years and has personally overseen the boom of industry within Geim. Her most noteworthy act was the immediate response of her military to the darkening, when she at once intuited the potential consequences for the fallen ALF tower and the Etu civilization on Xinir’s peak. What few Etu survived that calamity have been taken in with open arms by Geim, and devices that replace what magic once did for many have become a large export in recent years.
	+ Before that, she is noteworthy for making peace with the Hematitions when a Geiman mine dug into a hematition-drow battlefield. Sailyn herself walked into the middle of the active fight, surrounded by a cadre of her personal Gemstone Guardians, and negotiated peace on that battlefield. While tensions remain between Hematitions and the Drow, their age-long war has ended.

* **Description of hierarchy**
	+ **Sailyn, Queen of Geim,** appoints a politico to oversee each tier of her city-state. She also appoints a high general and selects each of the 8 Gemstone Guardians, incredibly talented knights who serve as her personal honor guard. Beyond these, she keeps a court of advisors that is notoriously hard to bribe access to - being a creature of keen intellect and sharp wit, Sailyn vets intently any she would keep in her counsel.
	+ The politicos oversee the more mundane aspects of governance over their tiers, and have relative autonomy (although their authority is under that of the High General or the Gemstone Guardians).

## Police/Guards and Crime

* **Crime rate** - low for a city, but active.
* **Corruption** - varies from watchman to watchman, but in general corruption is low.
* **How organized?** - Politico’s assemble a watch that includes captains and watchmen. The captains work in shifts, the watchmen are “always on” in that they go about their lives as they would, but interfere if they notice a disturbance. Each watchman carries a whistle to summon others in the event they have a need, and wears a small ring on their right pinky that will tighten, then loosen, then tighten, then loosen when the watch captains are summoning them.
* **How well trained?** - This varies.
* **How strict?** - Varies from guard to guard. Mostly they are trying to “keep the peace” more than anything else.

## Religion

* Majority Religion/Primary Gods - Xinir
* Each tier features at least one temple to Xinir somewhere on it

## Culture

### Traditions

Geim is a place of elegant dress, and even on the tenth tier where materials are inexpensive and a creature might patch the same set of trousers for her whole life rather than buy new ones, effort is taken to appear “presentable.”

It is therefore considered uncouth and barbaric to have any more skin exposed than hands, shoulders, neck, and face. Feet may be uncovered if the creature’s feet are not conducive to wearing shoes (hooves, talons, and the like), but otherwise are expected to remain hidden beneath well-cared-for boots or, on the upper tiers, sturdy cloth wrappings.

Remarking upon the value of an item outside of a transactional conversation about purchasing that item is another major social faux pas. It is considered akin to accusing the creature of falsifying that item’s value or else doubting the authenticity of the item in question (for example, accusing a creature of having installed pyrite instead of gold, or questioning whether a sculpture was really made by a particular artisan).

For all their dignity and delicate handling of financial matters, the creatures of Geim are a hardy folk not sensitive in the slightest to violence, gore, or warfare, and often regard those subjects with dark humor and direct tones. It would not be uncommon for friends joking amongst themselves to say something like “Say that one more time and I’ll rip out your tongue, lash it to your toes and feed you ankle-first to mine-goblins!” and then continue laughing and move along with their day.

Geim is also a place where a creature grows up quickly - although the family relationships are important for the duration of a creature’s life and children still tend their parents when they reach old age, creature’s don’t feel much loyalty or obligation to a “family unit” before that time. It is perfectly acceptable for a dwarf to marry “up” to a creature from a higher tier despite his fiance being poor, or for a hematition to pursue a career of her choice rather than take up the family business.

In Geim, more than your family name, your personal reputation is your strongest currency. Most citizens of Geim aspire to be known for something, such as being a master of sword-smithing or sculpting. Because of this, there are very low levels of entitlement in Geim - creatures are comfortable with and willing to work for what they want. Where entitlement is lacking, however, pride abounds. Citizens of Geim are easily offended and quick to challenge offenders to a duel on the spot, to first blood - elegant clothing and all.

### Holidays

Being a nation that is largely made up of master craftspeople, there is no shortage of elegant celebrations throughout the year. State-wide celebrations mark each solstice, each equinox, the holy week of Xinir, the first harvest, and the first day of each season. All of these are celebrated with lavish dinner parties and parades organized by the tier’s Gemstone Hall that feature musicians, orators, and actors and which went their way from one end of the tier to the other past rows and rows of vendor carts where merchants market their best wares.

There are also a number of personal “milestones” worth celebrating in Geim, including birthdays, commissioning ceremonies (which mark the receipt of a royal commission to perform work of some kind within the state and officially become a citizen of Geim), celebrations of various achievements (for example, the construction of a new dwelling or the purchase of a particularly fine item that needs showing off), marriages, and wakes upon a creature’s passing.

## Factions/Organizations

**The Gemstone Guardians**

**Skail and Sons**

**Tier Watchmen**