JesseLowe/WhitePines

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White Pines is a city of middling size (nothing to compare with great metroplises like Nexus or Great Forks) in the East. It is in that small clump of forest (Calrushan Wood) directly south of the Gossamer Stockade. It is both on the ground and in the trees, although not nearly as much as Haltan cities are.

Note: I've made use of S. John Ross' Medieval Demographics Made Easy for some ballpark figures. Raw numbers put into the formula are that White Pines is the center of a demographic area with a density of about 15 people per square kilometer (rather low) that stretches about a hundred miles in any direction from White Pines (i.e., about 22167 square kilometers).

History

White Pines grew out of a trade meet at the place of the five white pines near the edge of Calrushan Wood. Here, the forest dwellers of the wood would meet and trade with the nomads and the plains people who surrounded them. Over time, it grew into a town and eventually, the center of local culture. After the Contagion, the area fell under the protection of a powerful spirit, Ancient Spindle, and retained its importance. It is now the local Guild hub and general trading center.

Recently (i.e., since the campaign started), White Pines successfully repelled an assault by a Fair Folk lord named Jawara in a battle that involved four Solar Exalted and quite a few summoned creatures.

Law, Politics, and Economy

Politics: Independent city-state ruled by a council of elders. (Technically, by all adults, but in practice by the four or five most popular adults.)

Economy: Dependent on trade with the Guild, exporting a variety of forest products and such.

Military

About a dragon's worth of militia and a scale's worth of regular infantry (the officers). Fights as four talons.

Religion

Religion: Ancestor cult + careful reverence of local gods.

There are five outposts surrounding the city, each about five miles away. Each outpost is on the edge of the forest and is built around the lower branches of a colossal pine tree and manned by two fangs of militia. They primarily function as border guards and watchposts, and can communicate fairly quickly with White Pines by way of (very carefully tended) signal fires and lanterns atop each tree.

Aside from White Pines itself, there are numerous small villages and settlements, rarely more than five families large, scattered throughout the forest. These are mostly small farming and pastoral communities, and there are about twenty to thirty of them.

A couple notes on White Pine's "law enforcement:"

Peacekeeping duties have, over the last few centuries, devolved from the official Serene Bureau of Right Conduct to being carried out by the clans themselves. The council of elders determines what is unlawful, based on tradition, necessity, and politically expedient. In matters of law enforcement, Clan Keoshian has the most clout. There are no detectives, no forensics, or similar. Actual law enforcement is carried out by patrolling squads of three to four "officers" who usually carry truncheons and have a tendency to get in fights with patrols from other clans.

At present, the Serene Bureau is almost defunct and consists solely of a trio of clerks and a doddering old bureau head who is in quasi-retirement. They do little more than keep records of the troublemakers brought in and make futile efforts to try them. Actual judgement is usually carried out by clan leaders and higher-ups. (Note that White Pines has no concept of trial by jury; they're accustomed to a magisterial system.)

Punishment is almost never imprisoment (that's expensive!), but is instead either corporal, capital, exile, or fines. We can work the details later, if you've got any suggestions. As a rule, minor crimes (or crimes committed by those in protected positions) are punished with fines or short exiles; major crimes, such as assault, rape, and impressive theft are punished by lifetime exile (perpetrators are branded) or mutilation, or both. Murder is usually punished by death or exile, or (if it's getting to be that time) sacrifice to the King of the Wood.

The system works better than might be expected because the clans are (despite their public posturing) tightly entwined and because the community has a strong tradition of justice. It wouldn't take much to topple the apple cart and plunge White Pines into a morass of corruption, though.

White Pines has nothing like a secret police or a military intelligence agency as a whole, though the clans might very well have something.

New Plans:

Each of the following branches answer directly to Kuro Haku. Old Cedar will function as his assistant.

Serene Bureau of Right Conduct (Malkhous Dachjian)

Police Force - Order of the Eagle's Talon - One dragonblood (Garsey) and four recruits from the military head up the newly combined force of the patrols from the clans. The plan is to slowly phase in patrols made up of members from the different clans.

Judiciary - Ministry of Illumination - This is made up of three clerks that were previously part of the Bureau. For the most part, there are no trials. If the police bring them in, they must be guilty. In the rare case a trial is needed, Malkhous Dachjian would be the judge. There are no juries or lawyers.

Bureau of the Perfect Strike (Sanasar Jernazian) - One dragonblood (Seven Fire Cat) and four recruits from the military. These units will interface heavily with Hotspur's troops as well is with the Bureau of Crystalline Acumen. This allows them to both know the enemy and know our troops and make the most effective recommendations. They will also begin making intense studies of the surrounding areas to better understand the terrain and make determinations as to the best places for battles.

Bureau of Crystalline Acumen (Ghadam Dachjian) - One dragonblood (Vanil)and four recruits from the military. This bureau will begin by conducting operations in the surrounding towns to keep a pulse on the size and deployments of their military forces.

Bureaucracy

This is the currently atrophied official machine of government. It's been replaced by a system of patron / client relationships. It should also be noted that the bureaucracy was once quite a bit too large for a city of White Pines' size, this being one of the reasons for its downfall. (If everyone's pushing papers, no one's growing food.)

Moribund bureaus only exist on paper. Any budget allotted to them is usually graft.

  • Department of City Affairs (Home / Executive Office, headed by Avedis Keoshian)
    • Serene Bureau of Right Conduct (Justice Department, headed by Kuro Haku, run by Malkhous Dachjian)
      • Order of the Eagle's Talon (Police Force, headed by ?)
      • Ministry of Illumination (Judiciary and Penal System)
    • Bureau of the Treasury
    • Bureau of Streets and Sewers (Public Works) (Moribund)
  • Department of Inevitable Victory (War) (Headed by Vartavar Shabazian)
    • Bureau of the Perfect Strike (Military Intelligence, headed by Kuro Haku, run by Sanasar Jernazian)
    • White Pines Militia
    • Bureau of Military Supply (Logistics) (Moribund)
  • Department of Merchants and Artificers (Trade) (Headed by Perouz Noubarian)
    • Bureau of Just and Fair Taxation (Tax Collection)
    • Guild of Clothworkers
    • Guild of Victualers and Lodgemasters
    • Guild of Smiths
    • Guild of Carpenters
    • Guild of ... etc.
  • Department of Distant Lands (Foreign Office)
    • Bureau of Crystalline Acumen (Intelligence Service, headed by Kuro Haku, run by Ghadam Dachjian)
    • Bureau of Fortuitious Words (Diplomatic Corps) (Moribund)
    • Signal Office (headed by Lusentak Keoshian. Brand new, runs the Calrushan Wood Signal Relay.)
  • Department of Righteous Propitiation (religion and god-bribing, headed by Kohar Aleksanian)
    • Temple of Aum Cho
    • Temple of Ancient Spindle and Sidia
    • Temple of Bogdash
    • Guild of Honorable Burial and Reverence (Ancestor worship, undertakers)
    • Priests of the Unconquered Sun (Headed by Si Lu)
    • Appeasers of the Immaculate Order (Technically followers of the Immaculate Philosophy; come to forefront any time Realm-affiliated Dragon-Blooded visit town in order to make things look good. Would be considered heretics by any true Immaculate monk.)

Major NPCs


  • The Clans
    • Clan Keoshian (The populists)
    • Clan Aleksanian (The priests)
    • Clan Shahbazian (The warriors)
    • Clan Noubarian (The merchants)
    • Clan Yaghlian (The ancestor cultists)

Map of White Pines

Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

The city of White Pines hypothetically levies taxes equal to about 20% of the GNP. In practice, it brings in about 5% to the coffers; the rest is avoided by bribery, corruption, violence, and simple evasion. Some examples:

  • The head of the Tax Bureau is feted widely every month by the clan leaders; as a result, many clan assets are untaxed.
  • Tax collectors are typically threatened with violence in many neighborhoods; as a result, very few are willing to enter these areas (or even to be tax collectors).
  • By a law some twenty years old, Guild merchants are not taxed at all; rather, they pay an 8-dinar fee every time they enter the city. Most Guild merchants do business outside the city gates, in a semi-permanent encampment.
  • Taxes owed by the manors that are loyal to White Pines (and typically clan-controlled) are usually under-reported and rarely, if ever, paid.

Current Monthly Budget for the Serene Bureau of Right Conduct (as of Descending Fire, RY 767)

  • Salaries
    • Bureau head (Kuro Haku) (100 dinars a month)
    • Assistant Bureau head (Malkhous Dachjian)(40 dinars a month)
    • 1 senior clerk (25 dinars a month)
    • 3 junior clerks (14 dinars a month each; 42 dinars total)
    • 1 chief constable (20 dinars a month)
    • 10 constables (7 dinars a month each; 70 dinars total)
  • Building maintenance (10 dinars per month)
  • Clerical supplies (30 dinars per month)

Total: 337 dinars per month

Projected Monthly Budget for the Bureau

  • Salaries
    • Bureau head (Kuro Haku) (100 dinars a month)
    • Assistant Bureau head (Malkhous Dachjian)(80 dinars a month)
    • 1 senior clerk (head of the Ministry)(50 dinars a month)
    • 10 junior clerks (18 dinars a month each; 180 dinars total)
    • 1 chief constable(head of the Order) (50 dinars a month)
    • 9 senior constables (25 dinars a month; 180 dinars total)
    • 40 constables (15 dinars a month each; 600 dinars total)
  • Building maintenance (10 dinars per month)
  • Clerical supplies (150 dinars per month)

Total: 1,400 dinars per month (one talent of silver)

Fortification of White Pines

In RY 766, the people of White Pines hastily erected a wooden wall around their city in response to the threats of the Raksha Jawara. This wall was enhanced by the efforts of the Solar sorcerer Tsumi-Yomi, who summoned elementals to dig a ditch around it.

The wall is fifteen feet high, built of two rows of pine logs, rammed into the earth a yard apart. Between them is a layer of packed earth. The outer row of logs is crenellated and provides cover to soldiers on the walls, rising five feet above the packed earth. Each row of pine logs is about a foot and a half thick.

On the city side of the wall are ladders and stairs to reach the wall; also, some buildings now abut the wall, using it in their construction. On the forest side of the wall is the ditch. The ditch is ten feet wide and ten feet deep, and is a U-shape in cross-section. Across the ditch from the wall, the excess earth has been shaped into an embankment that rises another five feet, meaning that attackers face a drop of fifteen feet once they climb the embankment.

Access to the city through the wall is by means of three gates: The River Gate, the North Gate, and the Westgate. A sturdy wooden bridge crosses the ditch to each gate. All the gates are constructed similiarly: ten feet wide with a foot-thick pine door that may be raised on a horizontal pivot (like the gate in Princess Mononoke). They are opened by a counterweight system, and are only closed at night.

Unfortunately, the fortifications have several problems.

  • The gates restrict the free flow of traffic into town, since they are only wide enough for one cart to pass through at a time.
  • The walls were not constructed with proper drainage, and are already showing signs of rot. This will only get worse in the upcoming season of Water, with the regular rains coming.
  • While they worked admirably against the rabble that Jawara brought against the city, the walls are completely insufficient against a disciplined force, especially one with training in siegecraft.
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