Port Calum

Nearly every sentient race is represented among the populace of Calum, with no clear majority to be found.

The Guilderot

  Calum boasts a unique system of government, to say the least. The numerous and varied guilds fulfill different functions of the city and govern sections of territory. They police the streets, collect taxes, drag children to school, dispose of corpses, transmute waste, monitor trade, conduct trade, rob, steal, kill, and sabotage one another. These guilds are the ladder by which an aspiring citizen can climb towards power. Distinguish yourself and your guild, and there is much to gain in the coastal metropolis.   At the pinnacle of the guilds are the Protectorate, a coalition of the most powerful among them. They bring order from chaos, and keep the squabble for supremacy from tearing the city apart. To join a Protectorate guild is to ascend into the upper echelons of society, where magic and wealth flow freely.   To be recognized as a guild, you must be sponsored by a guild of the Protectorate. Each Protectorate guild has a quota of new guilds they must sponsor each year. Once your organization has become an official Guild of the city, you gain the right to control territory and collect dues from the businesses who operate their. Those who reside in a guild's territory but are not full members of the guild are called "territorial members". The process of becoming a full member of a guild varies wildly between them, everywhere from obstacle courses to essays to deadly combat.   Generally:  

1. Each guild extracts guild dues from the territory they control and the members they compose.
2. Guildless individuals are taxed based on their property or business. This process is carried out by Guild Calum.
3. A portion of these dues are delivered to the protectorate guilds.
4. The protectorate guilds then decide how to spend and distribute these dues among the city.

 

Citizenship

  The primary means by which the Protectorate exercises it's control over the populace is by means of extending and retracting Citizenship.   Citizenship in Calum carries with it a number of privileges. For one, it entitles you to aid from the Protectorate if you are in dire straits while in a foreign land. A system of single-use sending tablets can inform you of the nearest branch of the Protectorate, if one exists on your plane.   Citizenship also entitles you to travel throughout the city, whereas non-citizens would have to slog through checkpoint after checkpoint, filling out applications all the way. Certain areas will even allow you to wear weapons if you carry the crest of a citizen, though this privilege is easily and often revoked for even minor crimes. City mages may only be petitioned and commissioned by citizens of Calum, and certain churches will be more willing to hear your pleas if you carry a crest of citizenship.   The easiest way to become a citizen is to join a guild and pay dues for three cycles (15 months). Unguilded residents of Calum generally gain citizenship by owning property and displaying an ability to pay taxes. Unguilded citizens enjoy the same privileges as guilded citizizens.

Walls and battlements trace their way through the city in erratic and confusing patterns, though most are along natural boundaries such as rivers, hills, and cliffs. Only the wealthiest of guilds can afford to construct walls around their territory, and thus the outer sprawl of the city is relatively unprotected. A guild called the Limiters run checkpoints at the outskirts of the city, keeping the worst of the riff raff out. As one might imagine, though, they are hard pressed to patrol all of the ever-expanding borders of Calum.   In times of need, guilds each field militias loyal to their Guildmasters and, by extension, their sponsors in the Protectorate. An army of such confusing command structure has never been deployed offensively, though warriors of Calum have been called upon to defend their homes on numerous occasions.   War is an uncommon sight between the larger Guilds, and outright conflict has not occurred since the earliest days of Calum. Plenty of smaller skirmishes play out between smaller guilds, but the city is so large that a full-blown war could occur at one end of the city, and those more than three districts away could be none the wiser until news filters through days later.   The most organized of Calum's defenses come in the form of the Barrier Isles, and the fleet of warships commanded by the Githyanki Admiral Ralzel Nouxknith Vervloquath Etc. The Barrier Isles are natural land formation that have been transformed into aquatic chokeholds around the edge of Brothers Bay. Once the peaks of submerged mountains, the barrier isles are now all that is visible of the sunken lands upon which Calum was built. After being settled years ago, they have been slowly reinforced to become the first and best line of defense on Calum's naval front. Aquatic gates, submerged bowbiters, magical traps, stockpiles of supplies and unknown numbers of secret passageways litter the perimeter of the Barrier Isles. It serves not only as a source pride for the residents of the city, but a reminder for those who pass within that the otherwise affable port is ready to fiercely defend its interests if pressed.

Trade is the lifeblood of Calum. Several fleets worth of ships pass through the barrier isles each week, laden with all manner of cargo. The exotic variety of foods that is frequently in supply on the streets of Calum have warped the culinary tastes of its residents to a large degree, leading to more gourmets in one city than most countries can boast. For example, in no other city on Saheim is the fiendish delicacy Onkoir available on every other street corner.   Calum is fed primarily by two sources: fishing from in and around the Brother's Bay, and farming from the hinterlands to the west. Maintaining the aquatic ecosystem is one of the most crucial duties of the Aquatic Territories. Their careful stewardship of the sea life has led to incredibly strict laws regarding fishing, and being caught fishing without a license could spell a swift end at the hands of a merciless Triton seaguard.   The sprawling farmlands of the Hinterlands are where the boundaries of Calum become...fuzzy. Nowhere is the unorthodox relationship Calum has with their Aertan overlords more clearly on display. Aertan tax collectors regularly contend with Guilded Lawmages and Horticultists over rights to crops and tithes. Feeding more than two million people is no mean feat, especially when it must be done by farmlands barely a third of the size of the Four Spokes. While the echo of guild culture is faint that far away from the heart of the city, the weight of that many lives is clearly felt.

The numerous guilds, conclaves, organizations, fraternities, families, cabals, syndicates, outfits, and companies found in Calum are too numerous to name in one place. The most prominent of these factions are, of course, the many guilds. The only way to be recognized as a guild is to be sponsored by one of the guilds of the Protectorate. Thus, those sponsored by a Protectorate guild owe them some manner of allegiance. Eagerness to please their Protectorate patrons make these underling guilds fiercely competitive with one another.   For an ever-growing list of guilds, their guildmasters, their purposes, and their allegiances, pursue The Molybdenum Tablet.

The common myth perpetuated regarding Calum's founding is titled "The Tale of the Black Water Brother's". A somewhat self-congratulatory tale portraying a trio of brothers who sailed to Sableheim's shores seeking riches and fame. An abbreviated version follows as such:   Three brothers, sons born each under black and bleeding stars, cut through the dark waters in a nameless and silent bay. Under the waves they caught glimpses of a fallen kingdom, spires that reached for the surface like hands clutching for aid. Seeing these, they knew they had finally arrived at the land their father had spoken of, the land cursed and scarred by the rampaging gods. The land of the Seal. They made shore by eventide, their feet finally upon firm ground after months of battling the tumultuous waters. A thick mist greeted their arrival, obscuring all features of their new home save the silhouettes of a few slim trees. They had landed at the mouth of a vast river, so wide across they could not make out the far shore.   The eldest son burned to travel inland, to catch some glimpse of their new life. The middle brother grew nervous, and thought to move on and find some better place to land and make their fortunes. Only the youngest preached patience, arguing that they were tired from their journey and should rest the night before making any rash decisions. So the brothers relented, and the three laid down to sleep.   At least, one of the brothers did.   The eldest brother awoke two hours before dawn and, seeing his two younger brothers still asleep, arose and took the boat they had arrived on, sailing up the river to pursue explore the land he wished to know and conquer.   The middle brother awoke an hour before dawn and, seeing their elder had alighted, made his preparations to depart as well. They had with them a well-bred mare bartered from natives on a nearby island. The beast was quickly saddled, and the middle brother departed to the south, towards the wastes littered with the riches of three dead empires.   The youngest awoke alone and well rested, rising with the sun. He looked for the missing boat, then the missing horse, then for his two missing brothers. Nodding to himself as he confirmed their absence, he stood alone and surveyed the treasure that had been left to him:   The land that had been obscured by mist the night before. The land his elder brothers had been all too swift to abandon. A wide, clear river, a sheltered bay safe from storms, fertile soil washed clean by the rain. His patience had made him the sole claimant to this paradise, and upon it he built the greatest city on all of Sableheim.

The most prominent feature of Calum's sprawling landscape is of course the bay, a well-sheltered expanse around which the grand city rises. Near the southern-most end of the city, the Tyne breaks out into the sea. It's delta is beyond the limits of the city, and the outpost-city of Ourus is charged with defending it.   Another notable feature of the Calum area is the rather sharp cliff that separates the city into two. it cuts diagonally through the city, starting at the sea and extending about two miles inward. Atop it rests Breacadh, the seat of Calum's power and a veritable city unto itself. Northwest of Brecadh's dense sprawl is Serenity, a forest-district utterly off-limits to urban development. It is a sanctuary for all natural things.   Several hills gracefully swoop up and down throughout Calum, often serving as markers for the beginning and ends of certain districts. Small off-shoots of the Tyne and a handful of other rivers trace their way through the city as well, providing a ready supply of fresh water.