Great Trench

Arguably the economic capital of Tirisea, the Dwarven nation of Great Trench has remained a pillar of commerce, power, and stability throughout the ages.

## Quick Facts

* **National Language**: New Common (Dwarven)
* **Government**: Hierarchy of Trade Unions
* **Current Leader**: Trade Lord Council currently presided over by Dolaan Ironhead of Ironhead & Sons Enterprises
* **Land (climate)**: Hilly plateaus (warm temperate, dry)
* **Demographics (*includes visitors*)**:
	+ 70% Dwarves
	+ 30% Other
		- **Breakdown of non-Dwarf visitors**:
			* 50% Laputi
			* 20% Orcs
			* 10% Gnomes
			* 10% Sun Elves
			* 5% Humans
			* 4% Halflings
			* 1% Elves and Half-Elves

## Overview

   The Dwarven Nation of Great Trench is a hilly area and is so named because the entire city is below the ground but still visible from the outside from wide open tunnels (trenches).  Its borders are made up of a large trench dug in around all side in which there are fortifications as well as guard houses galore.  After having gone through the border trench, a visitor would see that the rest of the city is a maze of trenches that run deep into the ground.  The entire nation is more accurately a single grand city state politically and while each company, guild or union looks over its own area independently; the greater land is ruled with cooperation and representation from each of the organizations.

#### Trade Lord Council (TLC)

As a result of these separate sectors, there subtle differences in trench layout and culture between certain neighborhoods depending on the local company policy but all are subject to the same over-arching laws passed by the Trade Lord Council (TLC).  The subjects are treated fairly and for most denizens, quality of life couldn’t be better due to the opulence afforded to the Dwarves from centuries of economic dominance on the continent.

The council itself is comprised of Trade Lords from each of the trench owning companies. While this discounts small business owners and denizens, each company vies for the greatest approval from its home trenches and will stand up for issues that affect is people. A Trade Lord is most often not the head of their company, but a delegate to represent their company and its interests. The very term Trade Lord is honorary and given to those currently sitting on the council. Which issues of the day are discussed and order of the council are at maintained by the presiding company's Trade Lord which rotates each month.

#### Law and Crime

That said, shrewd rules are kept in place to keep order.  Thievery of any scale not tolerat

ed likely results in imprisonment and beard shaving (a mark of dishonor) upon release.  Crimes damaging the economy are most severe (smuggling, counterfeiting, murdering corporate officals etc) where other serious crimes (littering, destruction of non-corporate property, murder of boring people etc) are looked into but not as quickly.  They are not often seen as laws so much as rules and are each enforced by each company independently.  (No Federal government, but the biggest organization that lived near you polices the area and lays down the law)  The government is transparent to better insure that no one organization is corrupt by inspection from peers.  This transparency has proven popular with the public (for almost all of whom are somehow employed by a trade company) so few complain.

## Societal Divisions

In addition to sectors being separated by the financial rulers or each area, trenches that make up Great Trench are so deep that each division of height developed a culture and hierarchy.  Each are separated by mechanical elevator.  The highest up are usually the shipping levels.  From here goods and people alike are moved throughout the top level of the trench from moving mechanical conveyors.  This is where the border guards and mounted rangers patrol and live.  It is an honorable profession and they receive moderate thanks from their community and especially from the Council.

    The second highest section of the trench is the “small markets.”  It is here that most consumers and common shopkeepers do business.  As a result of it being local and not heavily regulated, it is here that most crime occurs.  While not a defining aspect of the small markets, gambling halls and crime organizations also do most of their business here.  Most lower class residents as well as wealthy criminals would live here.

In the middle of the depths there are the main trading halls.  It is here that most offices, bureaucracies are and as a result is the most heavily trafficked.  It is where the fantastically wealthy are the majority but those that merely do well enough for their own family live together peacefully.

The one of the lower areas is the specialized area of craftsmen and other educated workers.  Known as the “artisan’s quarter”, it is here that gems are refined, academies teach valued skills, goods manufactured for the whole continent and warriors are trained.  This is an especially clever community but largely ignored with either disdain or dislike by those that make the laws.  As such they are treated averagely by the rules of the land but nothing ever happens to make them complain loud enough.

And the bottom of each trench is the industrial and mining areas.  Here the mineral wealth of their land has been a seemingly never ending source of wealth and it is here that the trade companies focus most of their attention.  Each organization interested in how much they can get for each little lump of metal they raise.  To work and live this close to the fires of the earth and to be the direct reason for the prosperity of the whole city, those who toil this far down are looked upon with respect by even the richest of Trade Lords.  For this reason, they are thanked by living almost as well as craftsmen do and for this reason not many would want to leave such a hazardous job even if they could.  Those that work are mostly Dwarves still using pickaxes and advanced mining machinery but more and more often are a few companies are beginning to employ geomancers from neighboring magical civilizations.  This receives mixed feelings from those who see it as going against tradition and perhaps even hurting their bottom line somehow.

## The Golden Center

In the center of Great Trench, you would find that many trenches lead to an enormous Golden Center: an opulent park surrounded with golden statues and reliefs that contains is a center of government.  In the middle of this park (though nobody who has been there would refer to it as simply as a “park”) is where the council of senior Trade Lords from each of the companies makes decisions that affect the policies of the city as a whole.  It is at this council that they determine foreign policy matters and settle disputes between organizations as well as address issues of the day.  Because it is held in public, anyone is allowed to witness their government in action and voices can be heard in approval or disapproval.  Whether or not they are listened to is a separate matter.  The TLC has recently decided to change a price fixing loophole that benefitted the Northhole Mining Group (NhMG) that was giving them an unfair advantage during a recent boom in copper sales.  Needless to say, the Council didn’t have much time to address common domestic issues but the meeting was still hailed by the city as a success they weren’t corrupt.  They all played fair but the general populace had often saw small grievances that just wouldn’t get addressed unless they could do a special favor for some at the company they worked for.  This wouldn’t be seen as corruption in the Great Trench sense any person that expects something from someone (including the government) would have to earn this somehow.

The Golden Center was designed to work in layers.  (Imagine Gondor but only the very top reaches the surface.)  However unlike the rest of the kingdom which is divided into its own unique divisions, the further down, the more impressive it got as it was a showpiece.  There is no mining or other operations but simply residential features, parks and buildings of leisure with the deepest part of the Center is the most absurdly lavish area in the nation if not the world.  Golden moving statues adorn the walkways, dining halls filled with food from all Tirisea, small palaces line the avenues and other signs of extravagance abound.  To stay here is reserved for the most important in the kingdom and guests such as dignitaries and potential trading partners who are almost always so impressed with their experience that the terms, treaties or reason they came there for in the first place, always seem a world away.  Most dwarves, even the wealthiest who resided in them, don’t care for the showing off due to a heritage of not caring for aesthetics (living underground for centuries will do that to you) but recognized the impact that it had on those in the outside world when they saw it.  It is probably the fact that they had such little taste in design themselves that it became so full of grandeur simply because the dwarves themselves wouldn’t know where to stop.

#### Famous Tales

One famous yet common story about the Golden Center, originally spun by the Bards of Mura'kesz:  Once a Half-Orc warlord come to threaten Great Trench into paying his tribe tribute or he would raid their caravans.  When invited to talk it over, the warlord was determined to scoff at any peaceful solution that resulted with himself not being paid.  After merely spending a night at the Golden Center where the warlord lived briefly in luxury, dined on meats he never heard of before and saw the most beautiful blades he ever could have imagined brought before him, and helped himself to jewel encrusted chalices he had gotten smashed with the night prior…the Half-Orc warlord returned to his tribe convincing them to guard the caravans instead for free on just for the privilege of being able to return to the center just once again as a welcome guest.

Stories like this are quite common around the center and this system of classy bribing has been one of the not so secret keys of Great Trenches political success of late. Mura'kesz Bards frequently visit the Golden Center for further inspiration, and Great Trench is happy to advertise themselves through these lyrical Sun Elves.

## Trade

Great Trench is the mint of all nations--trading *everything*.  They export gems and are among the greatest industrial craftsmen.  As a result, mechanized equipment, digging machines and other items come from their holes.  They import skilled people from other lands as they know the magical academies above ground are more prestigious.  Dwarves here send raw material to Half-Orcs who are the greater armor and weaponsmiths and buy the finished product back.  That said, the most illustrious auction house, trading floors and commodity charts throughout the land are all in Great Trench and there probably isn’t a financial meeting in any nation that doesn’t mention their city.

## Magic

The advent of magic has revolutionized transportation in the city as all elevators and moving platforms are powered through enchantment provided by city enchanters.  Also, due to the nature of business requiring a personal touch, portals to other cities, allow for dignitaries and merchants to enter through the Golden Center of Great Trench.  Inside the deep parts of the trench the fires provide a luminous and warming fire so all are comfortable.

## Relations

While all are welcome, the population of most citizens and all of the Trade Lords are Dwarven.  With the exception of Goblins which are seen as a nuisance, Dwarves do not discriminate as all people’s money is good.  The population in general is happy with outsiders and are amused by newcomers’ reactions to their city.  They take pride in it if they are working class or craftsmen.  Only if a resident of Great Trench have been put on the losing side of the bureaucracy for some reason, would they have a problem with their society and it is from there that crime organizations (mostly human/halfling) arise.  Dwarves are considered distant as most can only see the rules that they must follow and only see things in an exacting way.  Their tendency to put profit over most other things puts them conversationally at odds with other races in a non-financial affair.  The dwarves are nothing if not busy and always thinking of the next thing to do.  If you bumped into one in a hurry, they might say everything on their mind before remembering where they are. (“…OOOF! Must remember to ask commerce board about – oh excuse me.”)

#### International

*See Pact of Stone, Mountain Brotherhood and Mountainsong Alliance*

The diplomatic problems of all nations are quite warm with Great Trench as a result of their importance in the world’s economy.  Only the Elves (who are unimpressed with their Golden Center and would decry it as boring, garish and a waste) and the hermit nations that attempt to remain secretive cause the Dwarves of Great Trench a reason to distrust but for the most part they enjoy warm relations to other nations.  The travelling merchants are Dwarves but usually have at least one member of their target city’s native population accompany them for political purposes.  These traders go by a system of protected caravans and wagon trains that are more and more often being expedited through magic.

## Religion

*"The merchants and the traders have come; their profits are pre-ordained..."*

*- Sri Guru Granth Sahib*

The vast majority of the population carries on their business in the spirit of Granth, a greater pantheon deity dedicated to prosperity, order, cooperation, and respect.  The Guilds all hold these tenants dear so all of their members are happy to keep them worshipped at work and in their home.  In the Golden Center there is the largest Granth Temple in the world with imagery of affluent looking workers creating a statue of Granth.  It (like the rest of the Golden Center) blends in with all of its golden features and marvelous imported artwork.

## Military

The military of Great Trench is a rainbow coalition consisting of warriors from every company known as Trench Guards.  Not every company warrior represents the whole of Great Trench but every company pitches in to supply soldiers to the Trench Guards.  These are those who make up the city guard and enforce the common laws (not those of their native company) and are well respected for upholding order.

In the few times of crisis (you can’t trade with your enemy; believe me, they tried) the Trench Guards shore up the patrol level and mount extraordinary defensive measures studied by Tirisean military historians the world over.  Going to war only to provide defense for itself, Great Trench lacks the need for siege equipment, recon and general offensive measures instead relying on their unassailable outer trench and massive fortifications.  For this reason Great Trench proudly claims that it has never been occupied by a foreign force.

#### Guardsmen's Oath

While not considered particularly religious, Trench Guardsmen must swear an oath before their first day wearing the grey green armor:

“As a Guardsman of Trench I will do my utmost to ensure prosperity of the homeland.  This prosperity is only accomplished through the rigorous order that I will maintain in my duties.  This order is achieved only through cooperation, so I will put my trust in my fellow Guardsman as they put their trust in me.  This cooperation is only possible through mutual respect for my fellow Dwarf which I will strive to show.”

These guardsmen are sometimes called “Dwarf paladins” though the guardsmen would not understand this since paladins serve a Deity and they only serve ideals that make their city (in their eyes at least) the greatest in the world.