Iest

**Iest** was a city-state located where the Chesmi River and the Oesis River met the Feld River. It was central to the Feldwar States and was located east of the Red Marches, west of the lands ruled by Khaidoge the Ungovernable, north of Palnu and Onliu, and south of the Hsifan Khanate.

The primary city of Iest was divided into two sections, Lower Iest, and "upper" or "Greater Iest". Greater Iest was located on a flat plain on the top of a conical mountain. This mountain was the remains of the Black Tower of ancient times. The upper and lower cities were connected both by a spiral roadway, and by several long staircases. One of these staircases was over 1324 steps high. The mountain was carved with skulls and demon heads. Iest was somewhat decadent. Red Sophia spoke of "selling her old chain mail bikinis to perverts in Iest..."

## Government

The Iestan legislature consisted of 113 elected representatives (101 after 1413), headed by a Prime Minister. This Prime Minister was elected by the legislature, and required a simple majority of the votes. This election was apparently held every four years.

In the 1413 election, the votes were allocated, not to single influential politicians, but proportionally by the number of votes each candidate received in a general, republican election. See *The True History of the 1413 Election* for more details.

## Districts of Iest

* *Greater Iest*: 20 representatives.
* *Iest and Suburbs*: 19 representatives. Six each were assigned to Oldham, Harbourside, and Nelson with the remaining going to East Chapel. Consisted of the area south and west of the Feld River that was not part of Greater Iest or Lower Iest.
* *Grace District*: 15 representatives. All were allocated to Good Abbey located on the intersection of Sepran Road and Grace Road. Flanked to the west by Fort Grace, Fort Hartin and Fort Redemption.
* *Blakely*: 12 representatives. All were allocated to Blakely, birthplace of the first Prime Minister of Iest.
* *The Docks and Area*: 10 representatives. Six went to the Docks, two to B'arn, and one each to Grace and Dunham.
* *Oldcastle*: 10 representatives. All were allocated to Newcastle, located at the end of Oldcastle Road.
* *Garrison*: 7 representatives. Six went to Fort Chesmi and one to Fort Garrison. Also had Fort Gort, Fort Hermes and Fort Iran.
* *Lower Iest*: 5 representatives. One to each of the five Boroughs: Borough of T'Agath, Borough of Harne, Borough of Mann, Borough of Kiel and Borough of Mercer.
* *Northbell*: 5 representatives. All were allocated to Storm'send Manor located on The Oldcastle Road.
* *Parmoor*: 4 representatives. Three went to Fort Tory and one vote to Fort Cleese. Also had Fort Palin, Fort Dead Parrot, Fort Trof, Fort Frot, Fort Torte and Fort Grit.
* *Tana and District*: 4 representatives
* *Rivershore*: 2 representatives.

## Destruction of Iest

The destruction of Iest occurred after Cerebus' and Cirin's Ascension. The city was devastated when a convulsion shook the bedrock between the Chesmi and the Oesis Rivers that opened a chasm miles north of the city that then filled in with water from No Man's Sea creating a large lake. The lake was called Dead Salt Lake, and there were a series of locks called the Dead Salt Locks that connected the Dead Salt Lake to the Feld River.

One of the nearby areas was called Northbelle Park. Unknown what connection this site had to the previous Northbell district of Iest.

## Dave on Iest

* "The merchant class is very much like today's corporations. More and more of Iest's assets are in the hands of the Import-Export traders. Consequently, although the Iestan crown is worth less because the government is printing paper to represent gold it doesn't have, a larger and larger share is staying with the middleman, who, being a cautious sort (which is how he's managed to stay afloat) raises his prices while paying his suppliers less. As his taxes are increased to service a larger and larger government debt, he raises prices even higher as everyone competes to stay ahead of inflation. Because he is determining the flow of money on the basis of his business instincts, we see the first instances of investment money being drawn to certain city-states with pro-business policies (i.e. Palnu -- "Gouge the people and we'll back you to the hilt.") and repelled by city-states with anti-business policies (i.e. Iest with the Inquisition burning wealthy merchants as heretics). The money supply dries up. . .bread costs twelve times as much as it did last week. . . .rents skyrocket, the value of the currency goes down because no one wants it. The business people who stay behind to operate the black market are all buying Palnan currency so they don't get overwhelmed as things go from bad to worse. Rare antiques, gold rings, objets d'art are traded for bread and soup, and are sold elsewhere in preferred funds -- Palan, T'Capmin, etc. when times are tough, the big fish just get bigger as they devour more fish."

* "Women are not permitted to vote, but Grace District has been run by a Hereditary Matriarchy for hundreds of years. They are left alone, by the Eastern Church, in exchange for not actively proselitizing (sic) within the borders of the Iestan city-state. They were a major factor in the Cirinist rebellion in Upper Felda, though.

* + **RM:** How do you pronounce "Iest", anyway? "East"? "Yest"? "Yayst"? "Ice-st"?
	+ **Dave:** Ee-est. Sometimes Ee-yest. The ones from the Lower City tend toward the latter pronunciation.

## References

 1. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 27, page 1
2. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 31, page 15
3. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 10, page 15
4. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 42, pages 7 & 14
5. ↑ *Going Home*, "Chasing Scott" commentary by Dave Sim
6. ↑ *Going Home*, page 358
7. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 44, "Aardvark Comment"
8. ↑ *Cerebus* No. 56, "Aardvark Comment"
9. ↑ 1992 USEnet Interview