acryn [Memento Mundi]

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====== The City of Acryn ======
=====Acryn=====

Acryn was the largest city on the continent before the Upheaval came, and is now both that and the centre of the largest swathe of Consensus that has been encountered. Sitting on the coast of the Eastern Ocean, the sprawl of the city spans nearly three miles, and the docks are the most extensive in the known world.

The Consensus around the city extends to the horizon as can be seen from the city walls, providing ten miles of land that has been re-purposed into farmland, clerics of the Tender and the cities finest mages working day and night to keep it fertile in the face of the salty sea-wind. The Consensus upon the sea extends a similar distance, and the waters are filled with fishing boats for the first few miles. However, few dare to sail much further - the sheer monotony of the ocean means that identifying the boundaries of the Consensus a tricky task - usually only achieved by accidentally leaving it, all familiar terrain vanishing as the Flux embraces you. 

===== Politics and Economics =====


Acryn is governed by a council supported by and elected from a mixture of nobility and the merchant class. The city was once a monarchy, but a rebellion co-organised between the lesser nobility and the merchant guilds overthrew and ended it around sixty years ago. Nobility, in theory, no longer grants any particular privilege or rights, but in practice, the fact that the noble families have accumulations of wealth and political power ensures that they continue to be a major force within Acryn. The dominance of the city by these forces has only increased in the wake of the Upheaval, as their stockpiles of goods and control of the city watch made theirs the only authority capable of quelling the rioting and instituting rationing, which in hindsight can be seen by most to have been a necessary evil, though many hated it at the time. Goodwill towards them is far from universal, and there are rumoured to be active revolutionary groups working to attempt an overthrow of the council, but for now control rests firmly in their hands. However, the massive increase in the difficulty of trading has shaken the balance of power between the nobles and merchants somewhat, as the latter have found their ability to generate wealth severely undermined.

By land, trade still happens, of course. The great roads between Acryn and the other city states of the continent are almost universally within Consensus, thanks to the many thousands who have travelled up and down their length for near their entire lives. Trade in basic foodstuffs has dwindled dramatically, but the rising scarcity of luxury goods and foods has made them valuable indeed, and trade in them a lucrative business, though far more risky than it once was, due to the increased attractiveness of their cargo to thieves and bandits, and the risk of...things happening on the stretches where the Flux encroaches closely on both sides.

Trade upon the sea, on the other hand, has nearly completely ceased. Since the Upheaval, there has been no reported successful crossing of the ocean, cutting off the Eastern and Southern continents, and rendering most of the trade fleet essentially dead weight. As many small and medium sized ships as possible have been refitted for fishing, while other, larger hulks have been turned into accommodation for refugees, and some very limited ship travel along the coastline still occurs, but the value of a boat has plummeted since the Upheaval, and the merchant houses focused on shipping have found their political power on the ebb.

===== OOC: Centre of the Game =====

Acryn is the core of the setting, and it is assumed that the majority of characters will live in or around it, and that the majority of adventures will begin in the city, or serve the interests of someone living in. This should not discourage you from playing a character from elsewhere however - Acryn was and is a truly mighty power in the world, and there are any number of reasons why a native of another city could be living there.
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