Dundulgur

*Written by* Joebromcdude*.*

### Territory

The city of Dundulgur is located at the easternmost coast of the Commonwealth and is split among three small, crescent shaped and rocky islands within an archipelago. Those "openings" of the three natural bays lie towards the mainland which gives them protection from the waves.

The islands are unfit for agriculture. However the archipelago and the surrounding ocean are home to a vast amount of fish and other seafood which is sufficient to feed the population. In addition to food, the archipelago is also home to different kinds of bioluminescent algae which give off different shades of blue and greenish light at night.

The climate is tropical and the sea is calm most of the time. Occasionally though, huge storms occur and massive waves wash over the area. Since the islands themselves don't have much space to build houses on and the storms would devastate them anyway, all "buildings" are carved directly into the stone.

### Important Places

* **Dundin** - A part of the city on the largest island that functions as the seat of government.
* **Whakadhir** - The main harbor-district on the central island and the biggest trading hub within the city.
* **Timarodhor** - A smaller harbor on the smaller southern island that is mainly used for fishing purposes.
* **Morudhon** - A heavily guarded district on the smaller northern island where precious goods like wood or metal are processed.
* **The Tunnels** - A vast underground tunnel-system that connects the three islands. Most houses, public amenities and entertainment-establishments are found here.
* **The Depths** - Mostly indistinguishable from the tunnels, the depths are areas that are still under construction for future housing. Stoneworker-workshops also tend to be found in areas bordering the depths since they don't need to haul their material very far that way. Because of that, those workshops migrate further down as the city expands.

### Society

The city is governed by a democratically elected council of seven representatives and everyone who lives inside of the city and is of legal age has a right to cast their vote. Each island decides on their own representatives. The bigger main island gets three representatives while the smaller two islands get two representatives each. The period of office for each representative is seven years and the change of office is staggered, so there's an election every year to replace or reelect one of the seven council members. Proposals within the council are decided on by majority vote.

People in the city pay a high amount of taxes, but get high quality public amenities in return like public bath houses and kitchens, a universal basic income to cover their basic needs, and free healthcare.

Since building space is limited, there are no prisons in Dundulgur. Perpetrators of lesser crimes are thus usually punished with mandatory community service under supervision while perpetrators of more heinous crimes like murder or tax evasion are branded and exiled to the mainland. Should a branded individual return to the city, the guards are ordered to kill them on sight.

### Culture

The people of Dundulgur live off the sea, so a large portion of the population are fishermen, seaweed farmers or pearl divers. There are also large man-made basins within the bays of the islands which can be sealed off from the sea to produce large quantities of salt by letting the water evaporate. This salt is the most exported good in terms of quantity and ships run by the traders union regularly leave the port of the main island to trade seafood, salt and pearl-jewelry with the other cities for precious goods like metals and wood.

Wood and metal workers are a rare sight in Dundulgur, but they are a highly regarded profession essential to the city. Most of them learn their craft in other cities and return to Dundulgur once their training has ended. To make room for the growing population, the city is in constant need of tunnel diggers and stone carvers. These professions are an integral part in the expansion further down and most of the people in these fields are directly employed by the government.

The tunnels of Dundulgur also offer different sorts of entertainment. The most popular forms are the water dance theaters which offer a sight that might seem a little strange to outsiders: The performers in these theaters dress in colorful wide clothes and cover them partially with the bioluminescent algae. They then put on weighted belts and are submerged in aquarium-like tanks for the audience to see and support the story told by a trained narrator with their expressive dance. Since they need to hold their breath for minutes while performing physically straining exercise, it takes them years of training to be able to perform on the big stages and most of them are former pearl divers that wanted to explore their artistic tendencies.

To make building easier, homes in the city are standardized. All of them have two rooms each: One for sleeping and one for other activities. Things like restrooms, kitchens and baths are all public and the government makes sure that every living quarter has ample access to these amenities. The public kitchens especially are well liked by the population since they are great for socializing amongst each other. At set times, people get together at these locations to cook and eat together while sharing the latest gossip and discussing politics or talking about their daily lives.

Since every room is underground, the tunnel engineers came up with the concept of building small pools of water at set distances to each other in which the bioluminescent algae are carefully cultivated, so there's enough light for everyone to be able to see where they are going.

### People

Most of the people in Dundulgur or "Dundees" are easygoing and open minded. They put the public interest before their own and enjoy socializing with others. The ones that work outside on a daily basis look very tanned while those who live deeper down in the mountains are usually more pale in comparison.

### History

The archipelago was originally discovered by a tribe of nomads. Due to the vast amounts of maritime resources found there, the tribe eventually settled down on the three biggest islands of the archipelago. Not everyone was willing to give up on the nomadic lifestyle, however. Not wanting to part with their brethren for good, these individuals offered to lead trading caravans in service of the new settlement in order to procure precious goods like metal and spread the word to attract migrants who would bolster their forces.

A few months after the establishment of the settlement a huge storm washed over the islands, destroying most of the settlement in the process. Instead of giving up on the location, the people of Dundulgur looked for solutions to prevent similar incidents in the future. With the help of the migrants who had experience in quarrying they started to carve out the island for housing instead of building on top of it, which proved very effective in mitigating storm related damages and thus this style of building was adapted for the entire city.

When the Commonwealth was founded and demanded the subordination of Dundulgur, the city submitted without a fight under the conditions that their people would not be subjected to tyranny and they would be allowed to continue their traditions.

### Playing as a Dundee:

Dundees typically regard other people as equals and think of hierarchical structures as strange. In their opinion everyone, including government officials, should work to better the lives of the community and not to enrich themselves or another person. As they are used to amenities being public, they view private kitchens and such things as a luxury. Most dundees are stone workers or fishermen while other jobs are more rare in comparison.

Since the people of Dundulgur are descendents of migrants from different parts of the world, there aren't any typical features that would distinguish a dundee from a person from another region as their looks are diverse. The one thing an onlooker might be able to guess at first glance however would be the individuals field of work since the ones who live and work deeper down the mountains are relatively pale while fishermen and dockworkers are usually very tanned due to their constant exposure to the sun.

Dundulgurian names tend to have influences from a multitude of cultures while typical names of the original nomadic tribe that founded the city are Maori-inspired.