Merchant Republic of Qarth

## Merchant Kingdom of Qarth

The cities and ports of the Merchant Republic of Qarth

The Merchant Republic of Qarth is a collection of mercantile-city states East of Slaver's Bay on the Jade Sea. It span from Port Yhos to the small island of Qal, between the two is its capital, the ancient port city of Qarth. They control all the Vaes Roads, connecting into the main Sand Road that leads beyond the Bone Mountains, one the Silk Roads to the far east Kingdoms. This allows them to profit from any trade that comes through the road and the Summer Sea. It resulted in Qarth and its surrounding cities becoming one of the most prosperous areas in Essos.  Currently, the Merchant Republic is contested for dominion by three main factions: The Pureborn that act as the nobility and royalty of Qarth, The Thirteen, the cities law makers, and the Ancient Guild of Spices, the cities largest merchant guild. Currently, however, its trade routes are threatened by the Ghiscari Empire, resulting in bitter relations between the two realms, to the point where war is almost definite.

## Geography

   Located on the Jade Gates to the South, the Red Waste and Lhazar to the North, and the Bone Mountains to the East, the Merchant Republic of Qarth have mostly city ports that connect to the Summer sea, asides from a few other cities located further north. The largest city in the Merchant Republic is Qarth, followed by Qarkash, port Yhos, and then the surrounding cities. Most of these areas, including Vaes Tolorro, Vaes Qosar, Vaes Shirosi, and Vaes Orvik, are ruined and abandoned, and have been for hundreds of years. In recent years, plans of inhabiting the closer cities such as Vaes Orvik were proposed by some of the Pureborn, but this idea was soon abandoned due to the political conflict of the Republic.

Because of Qarth's position, it acts as the main gateway between Westeros and the west of Essos to the Empire of Yi Ti and other eastern realms of Essos. This has helped the city to be described as the center of the world, and grants them almost total control of the Jade Gates, and any vessel that journeys through them, thanks to the harbours located on opposite sides of the island.

The Merchant Republic's landscape is generally arid, with little wild vegetation outside of the cities, besides the devilgrass or stunted trees. This is akin to the landscape of the Red Waste, though not as barren or uninhabitable.

## People

The only known descendants of the ancient Qaathi people, the Qartheen are a pale, tall, and slim people, that express their sophistication through displaying great emotion and politeness, to the point where weeping is seen as a display of civilisation. Fashion is also seen as a very important part of Qartheen culture, as it is custom for all women to garb themselves in Qartheen gown, and men wear silken skirts.

There are many diverse races in the cities of the Merchant Republic, such as the Asshai'i, however the majority of them are slaves and servants of the Qartheen, preforming almost all of the physical labour, entertainment, and trading with other cities as a currency. They count as almost half of the entire population of the cities, and are enforced by the Civic Guard, brutally quelling any sign of rebellion within the realm.

The merchant guilds of Qarth are extremely rich families that profit off the trade of the cities - due to there being many of these merchant guilds, each one tend to focus on one source of profit as the main source of coin for their family. In light of this, some merchant guilds are strictly involved in the business of slavery, while others tend to the trading of exotic goods that can only be found in Qarth.

It is not uncommon to see that most of these dynasties (especially in Qarth itself) have rivalries with one another, competing to control entire shares of the market. The most esteemed, powerful and wealthy members of these guilds are known as Merchant Princes, who are involved not only in the economics of the cities, but also the political aspects. The most powerful of these Merchant Princes are members of The Thirteen, a powerful group that competes for control of the Republic against the Pureborn, and the Ancient Guild of Spices.

The Pureborn are known as the direct descendants of the old kings of the Qaathi, who migrated further south of the Dothraki Sea and established the Merchant Republic with the city of Qarth. Ruling from the hall of a Thousand Thrones, the Pureborn maintain order and deal with the more internal factors of the republic, such as keeping the peace and commanding the fleets and Civic Guard. However, in more recent years, their power has greatly diminished as Thirteen and Ancient Guild of Spices began to command more ships, take more profit, and undermine their authority. Now, they act mainly as figureheads in Qarth, with some Pureborns taking orders from the Merchant Princes directly to act upon their will in their own name, usually by means of bribing, and intimidation.

## Economy

The Merchant Republic are involved in almost every market that results in great profit - from precious materials such as silk, to slavery, to an assortment of rare spices, and even exotic creatures such as elephants and leopards. When the Red Plague devastated the rest of Westeros and Essos, the Merchant Republic strived from striking loans with the free cities, and turning a greater profit than ever before. Having avoided the Red Plague thanks to the structure of their cities with layers of high walls and isolating themselves from any outsiders.

The high demand of essential supplies such as food and workers from the less fortunate realms of Essos had even caused Merchant Princes to invest into agriculture, some even converting their lands into fields of wheat to meet with the demand and sell to the highest bidder. Slaves were also highly sold, as many kingdoms and cities had lost a majority of their population, and thus required more working men. Inadvertently, the Merchant Republic had caused Essos to be repopulated much faster than other continents, such as Westeros, due to the amount of slaves that were sold and spread amongst the realms. Overall, the aftermath of the Red Plague could be considered the Golden Age of the Merchant Republic, as many merchants were made richer than ever, and Merchant Princes had their power grow substantially.

In more current times, the Merchant Republic still prospers from the profits they had made from the Red Plague, and even have merchants travelling and trading with Westeros and the free cities more frequently, providing luxuries that were now much more affordable than ever to sell off.

## History

Qarth originates as the sole surviving city of the Qaathi people, who migrated from the Dothraki Sea and established many cities in what is known today as the Red Waste - as the land was raided by the Dothraki and turnt into the Red Waste, the Qaathi cities were ruined and abandoned, leaving only Qarth and Qarkash as the last remnants of their people.

   With Qarth's geographical location, the Pureborn, who were decendents and the original rulers of Qarth, constructed a fleet to take control of the Jade Gates, and thus jumpstarting the trading business of Qarth. Over hundreds of years, their influence has grown wider, as more merchants live in the city and more trade flows through their grip. A trading port, located west of Qarkash, called Port Yhos was built to further direct more trade and merchant vessels without overflowing Qarth and Qarkash.

Within the cities themselves, internal struggle began to brew as the merchants of Qarth grew more wealthy, and started involving themselves in the governance of the Merchant Republic. Many merchant guilds were formed, each striving for control against one another. One of the most powerful of these guilds is the Ancient Guild of Spices, who seek to control the cities under absolute oligarchy. Extremely powerful merchants, known as Merchant Princes had also begun to compete against other guilds in a political and more importantly economical war. Amongst these factions, the Pureborn had to compete to keep their titles, and ensure their fleets and armies would not be outmatched by the forces of the Merchant Princes. This struggle between the three faction would go on for hundreds of years, with bribery, intrigue and deceit being the main tools used to further their influence over the cities, and other merchants alike.

When the Red Plague had stuck Westeros and Essos, the Merchant Republic quickly took action to close down all their ports and isolate themselves from any merchants that would arrive during this period, excluding . Living off their own supplies, they had managed to be one of the only realms in the world to not have been affected by the Red Plague itself. When the plague declined, and the borders of Qarth began to open up once more, merchants found massive opportunity to provide countless resources to the kingdoms and cities of Essos and Westeros, supplying food, crops, slaves and other essential items. Because of their trading, it had greatly helped the people of Westeros and Essos recover, but left the realms overall much poorer, as lords would take loans and spent their coffers on these supplies to ensure what was left of their states managed to survive.

Because of the trading of slaves, Essos managed to recover slightly faster in comparison to Westeros and other non-slaving areas, as slaves would quickly populate and become the workforce of many cities, forced to rebuild and live in the lands of their new masters.

With greater wealth than ever before, the Merchant Republic prospered. It was deemed the Golden Age of Qarth, especially for the Merchant Princes who had invested heavily into slavery and agriculture. With this newfound level of wealth, came greater power and influence - soon, the Merchant Princes and guilds had begun to overshadow the Pureborn, who had not profited as much from the Red Plague, as they had to ensure peace in the cities and supplies were stocked from the kingdoms to the East, who were not affected by the plagues either. Had it not been for their efforts to maintain Qarth in its isolation, the city surely would have fallen victim to the Red Plague. However, their efforts would prove to be the catalyst for their decline in power, as they could not catch up and compete with the Merchant Prince's sphere of influence over the Merchant Republic.

Plans to rebuild and repopulate the city of Vaes Orvik were brought up between the Pureborn, seeing the potential in a new port for Qarth - this plan was backed by a few Merchant guilds, and resources were prepared to be sent to the area to begin reconstruction of the abandoned city. However, the idea was forgotten and abandoned overtime as the internal conflicts between the Pureborn and Merchant guilds did not allow enough cooperation to allow the plans to continue.

In current years, relations between the Ghiscari Empire and the Merchant Republic of Qarth had been down-spiraling heavily, as conflicts on the trade routes of Qarth resulted in the looting of caravans by the Ghiscari slavers - Qarth sees the intersection of trade caravans as a major act of agression should they persist further, while the Ghiscari Empire begins to enforce demands and heavy tolls upon the caravans, almost provoking them. Whispers detail of a Ghiscari fleet being built, and intent on intercepting the merchant fleets directed to Qarth, and cut off their main source of supplies and trade - should this happen, it would no doubt mean war for the two nations.

## Government

In the last few years, the Pureborn have become nothing more than figureheads for the Merchant Princes, and various guilds, voting on laws and arresting rivals of the princes, all for the sake of coin. It now acts as a competition to see which Merchant Prince can get the most Pureborn in their pockets, even if they no longer command the higher number of fleets, or the profit of the Jade Gates which now the Merchants had a major cut in.
While the Pureborn not as powerful as before and not proving to be as much of an threat, the rivalry between the Thirteen and Ancient Guild of Spices still holds strong, as well as the other rivalries of the other guilds. They compete even more than ever to gain the upper edge against one another; within Qarth, their rivalry is almost cutthroat, with assassins being hired and sent out more frequently to quell ambitious or powerful merchants.