Xiāngchéng

Xiāngchéng is governed by a Council of Merchants, a body representing the city’s foremost spice traders, river barge captains, and guild elders. This merchant oligarchy operates under the nominal authority of a Commissioner, appointed by the court of the Queen of Grain and Floods and charged with ensuring loyalty to the Empress. Temple priests of the Queen hold an advisory seat on the council, their sacred rites and harvest prophecies informing major policy decisions. Together, these institutions balance private commercial interests with the city’s spiritual obligations, creating a pragmatic yet ritual-infused system of civic administration.

Guarding Xiāngchéng’s prosperity are stout limestone ramparts lining the river approaches, reinforced at chokepoints by granite bastions and watchtowers. A permanent river fleet of sail-rigged junks patrols the waterways, their decks armed with ballistae to ward off corsair raiders. The city militia, drawn from resident halfling, elven, and orc clans bound by vows to the Queen, mans the ramparts and fields rapid-response units for riverbank patrols. In times of civil unrest or external threat, merchant-financed gunpowder reserves and bulked stores of preserved spices serve both as deterrent and asset, ensuring Xiāngchéng can weather sieges without crippling food shortages.

The backbone of Xiāngchéng’s economy lies in its elaborate canal network, which channels the Jade River’s seasonal floods into terraced spice gardens and rice paddies on the city’s outskirts. Floodgates and weirs regulate water levels, protecting low-lying markets from monsoon surges while irrigating cinnamon groves and turmeric banks. Covered arcade markets and raised stone causeways allow commerce to continue unimpeded during high water, and dozens of arched stone bridges, each named for a local spice or herb, link residential quarters to trading districts.

Xiāngchéng’s skyline is a harmonious fusion of red-clay brick and lacquered timber, crowned by the scalloped copper domes of the Temple of the Queen of Grain and Floods. Grand traders’ houses stand two stories tall, their broad eaves gracefully curving upward to shed monsoon rains, while spice warehouses perch on elevated stone pilings above the canals to guard against floodwaters. Market pavilions feature openwork lattice screens that admit cooling breezes, and residential alleys are shaded by rows of fragrant citrus trees. Throughout, decorative motifs of sheaves, waves, and spice pods, carved in wood and bronze, celebrate the city’s dual devotion to commerce and the Empress’s bounty.