Shrazeria

Shrazeria is a city-state located on the north coast of Arrakis at the mouth of the river Estor. It is downriver and north of Narut, with the nation's docks managing both ocean going trade across the Inner Sea as well as sending barges to upriver settlements. It's capital and only city is Shrazeria.

History

The city-state is widely believed to be located on the same site of the long-gone Shariz Sultanate.

The famed explorer Marco Descamisaro visited the country in the 1050s AIC.

Politics

Shrazeria is an oligarchic republic, being led by a ruling Great Council of some 100 members which appoints and balances a single Nomarch. Membership within the Great Council is hereditary, with current members bearing the same family names of past members. New families are admitted into the council only in times of economic hardship, where membership can be bought through buying votes. However, most families are not at all extravagantly wealthy. Members of the Council and the Nomarchs themselves do not have to be male, though they almost always are.

The entire nation of Shrazeria is treated as the estate of the Nomarch. Slaves, and the fields surrounding the city that they work on, become the personal property of the Nomarch upon election. However, since the Great Council has the power to replace the Normarch at any time, the Normarch is incentivised to placate the council with their newfound wealth.

Both the Neogaranid Empire and Montebianco have embassies in the city-state.

Economics

As a city-state, the economy of Shrazeria is based entirely around the similarly named capital city. The city is filled with craftsmen and traders, with finished goods and raw materials flowing both upriver to Narut and out to the Inner Sea. The state taxes the trade, acquiring much of its income this way. The fields around the city ensure the state is self-sufficient in basic foods, usually fruit grown in the floodplain. The fields are almost always tended to by slaves, which are usually always criminals serving a lifelong sentence - the sentence for most crimes being slavery for life. If a slave severely breaks the rules, the traditional punishment is to tie them upright in the river Estor in such a way that they won't drown, resulting in death by crocodile or infrequently death by eagles picking out their eyeballs.