La'Collet

La'Collet is the newest of the members of the Olivaan Union. Its founder began as a simple business owner who showed true prowess for deals. They originally started their business in Veritan where the current Capital resides. At the time, Timoria and Veritan were at odds, skirmishing and shifting their borders back and forth. The Founder began negotiating with Timoria on their own, offering their goods and attempting to setup trade even with bans that Veritan had placed. Timoria's leadership was amused and impressed by the bold maneuvers of La'Collet and began trading exclusively with them. Veritan sent troops to cease this and Timoria fought on behalf of La'Collet. Before the battle took any lives, La'Collet convinced every soldier in the battle to instead sit down and enjoy a meal. The Soldiers spent the next day drinking together.

La'Collet turned what should have been a bloody battle between rivals into peace talks. Within a month La'Collet had single handedly solved a conflict that had been raging between the two nations. In the process he gained a huge amount of wealth due to all trade flowing exclusively through them between Timoria and Veritan. Within a year he had bought up half the cities property and allowed citizens to continue living there. Another year and they were voted mayor.

Over the course of 5 years, this young business owner had control over a chunk of Olivaan larger than Idiir. The people within this region all requested to become a neutral entity outside of either Timoria or Veritan in Order to keep peace into the future. La'Collet was decided upon to lead this region obviously. A generous gift was offered to both Timoria and Veritan to allow this. Both accepted and the Nation of La'Collet was created. La'Collet continued to buy up land from each Nation until the last document was signed when they reached the Olivaan Union Border.

At this time the Olivaan Union suffered from the calamity of adding another Nation to the Union as the city condensed in Order to allow La'Collet to join. While La'Collet was not willing to cancel the deal, they were very generous in donating time and money to the recovery of the Union Capital. Along with hiring the best architects and builders to build out their section of the Union. La'Collet's district is the most lavish of any Nation's because of this.

Geography

The Nation is nestled in an ideal location, connected to two of the large fresh water lakes along with a large river that outlets to the ocean. The river flows along the border of Timoria and Veritan and its shared status allows La'Collet to use it with minimal conflict. With the added benefit of them trading along the river. They have no mountains, though scattered cave systems give access to some minerals and precious gem stones. Their land is very fertile as well allowing for the massive plantations they are known for.

Government

La'Collet is owned by La'Collet themselves, however they do allow people to invest in the Nation through buying stocks. La'Collet maintains a commanding amount of shares in the Nation, so their vote on any matter is often the deciding factor. However they do frequently abstain from voting to allow other stock holders to have influence over the direction of the Nation and their actions. Individual towns have a similar system of voting, La'Collet also holds a controlling stake in every town founded within the Nation's borders, however it is extremely rare for them to participate in any vote on anything that doesn't affect the Nation as a whole.

Due to this system, each town can be governed VERY differently than the others. Though all of them generally follow the golden rule, Rule through Gold.

Society and Culture

Due to the nature of La'Collet's founding, business and trade are the focus of the Nation's attention. It's very rare to find any person in La'Collet not working at least 2 angles to get wealthier. While this has led them to have the best of the best in most trades and businesses. It has also led to a sizeable portion of the population being targeted by scam businesses. Pyramid and Ponzy schemes are extremely common. Most working class citizens have fallen for some scam that has put them into a position where working is all they can do to get out of debt. That won't stop them from trying to side hustle their way out though.

Generally their motto of 'Rule through Gold' is the clearest way to see the people of this Nation. Laws will rarely be put in place to stop a way of making gold. Meaning things that may be illegal in most Nations, probably have a store front somewhere in La'Collet.

Economy

Rule through Gold. The cities are full of every type of business you can think of. People travel all of Miramai to buy and sell things in La'Collet. It's mere existence has started to frustrate some traders of Ehriil. As even though they are the standard for trade in Miramai, the freedom in the laws of La'Collet has started to pull some of their business. Banks are happy to offer loans to people, and have some of the most intimidating collectors. Sometimes offering loans out with the sole purpose to force a person into indentured servitude tot heir other businesses. It's not uncommon to see a person with a magical brand on their face of a bank's emblem. They are forced to work in an affiliated business until their debts are payed. Large apartment complexes are built by these banks to house their indentured servants. They fullfill their basic needs, only to remove any question of where their earnings should be going.

Military

A military made entirely of mercenary groups. La'Collet has never had reason to wage war. It's founding was through business transactions and treaties. Any bloodshed has always been between other nations on behalf of La'Collet. That does not stop them from maintaining a personal guard that would make most royal guard cower. It's believed that their personal escort has former members of many of the most powerful factions in all of Miramai.

The towns and cities of La'Collet tend to pool money from the various businesses to hire mercenary groups to act as guards. Each handles this differently however. Some do a bidding process and the lowest bid gets the position, leading to high crime rates (mostly from the losing mercenary groups). It's common for Bounty's to be posted as well and in some cases the bounties could be for as little as a copper for turning in someone who litters in a town where the fee is 2 copper for the offense.

Allies & Enemies

La'Collet walks a thin line with all relationships. They maintain wonderful trade connections with every other Nation and the Union itself. However due to their intense business practices most are not thrilled with the often intense negotiations involved. La'Collet continues to prove that they are worth more than the frustrations of dealing with them however.