Commonwealth of Aureum

### Borders

A roughly triangle-shaped area, reaching from the westernmost tip of Vernalwood down to Primarborea and up again to Eastgate.

### Demographics

Mostly Aureates, with a notable minority of Gieldans, and a robust mix of other cultures.

### History

The High River delta was rich in natural resources and short on organized resistance, and so it attracted entrepreneurial explorers and prospectors from the Argent Coast. This was the height of the expansionist phase of the Radiant Empire, but would also mark the end of that era.

As these pioneers and seekers of fortune grew wealthier, they began to resent the demands and taxes of a faraway bureaucracy. The trade guilds had formed a parliament to coordinate the exploitation of the region, and now found that they wielded power over Empyreal markets. They recruited mercenaries to face the imposing armies that marched in from the west, and armed with their deep understanding of the importance of logistics the Parliament’s strategists managed to deny the Empyre the gains that they needed to maintain morale. Eventually, a grudging peace won out.

While Enkindler culture focused on tradition and ambition, the emerging Aureate culture concentrated on efficiency and exploitation of weakness. Instead of military power, they wielded power bestowed by enormous wealth. Guilds and individual merchants competed furiously for who would be the wealthiest, and it did not take long before this led to violence - arson, intimidation, assassination all became a common occurrence in the luxurious streets of Plethora.

An all-out civil war was brewing when an unlikely character stepped onto the stage. Kullas was a young entrepreneur whose plain street clothes looked humble, almost raggedy, compared to the finery of the merchant lords whom she addressed at a meeting of the Parliament. Her words were as plain as her appearance, but carried the weight of conviction, inescapable logic, and sheer commercial genius.

Kullas preached that merchants should not sink to thievery, but rather embrace the core of trade: the mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services. She was an unknown quantity and was laughed out of Parliament by the loudest influentials, but her arguments would stay even with the most obstinate commercial pirate. Opinion gradually shifted in her favor, however, when people saw just how capable she was. Without anyone having really noticed, she had come to run a business empire. She had no home and no office, instead going where the business was, “unfettered by possessions”, as she put it. Everyone she dealt with saw their fortunes improve, and this was a mighty incentive to emulate her.

Individual possessions became more a burden than a point of pride, and the grand palaces of the merchant lords were turned into museums, temples, libraries, and other public spaces. It became custom to display one’s wealth and success through the funding of public services.

Around the Commonwealth one can find the rich and powerful living in small - albeit very comfortable - dwellings that are surrounded by monuments of artistic creativity they have funded.

The Commonwealth welcomes everyone who accepts the precept that transactions should benefit all involved. People from the farthest reaches of Venturia have made their home there, turning the nation into the most diverse collection of peoples on the entire continent.

### Notable Settlements

Plethora, Lakehold, Hamelinna, Glint, Wealthvein, The Mint