Government and Law

The ‘leaders’ of Anatos are the members of the Elder Council which consists of six people from a number of backgrounds within the city. The council rarely meets and only does so when a conflict or argument cannot be resolved by any other authority, but otherwise the city’s laws are decided and enforced by the city’s various communities.

The Council’s authority to overrule others, even the guilds, stems from their wisdom and ability to find compromise. The people of the city often take their judgements to heart, but those who don’t are often invited to make their case as often as they like to change people's minds. Famously the Elder Council even managed to end the Guild Wars by getting each of the guilds to agree to the ‘Compact of Peace’.

When a member of the council passes away the others take a vote on who should fill the seat, but the method they use to pick possible applicants is unknown. While all of them are considered equals Datos, their oldest member, holds the most influence and his judgements are almost never challenged.

Outside of the Elder Council authority to run and protect the city mostly falls to the guilds and the people of the city themselves. There is no official guard or police force in Anatos, if someone witnesses a crime it’s not unusual for a group of civilians to dogpile the offender. The guilds have their own guards which they use to protect their areas of influence, or keep their interests guarded, but otherwise any major armed presence would be considered an affront to the cities values. Crime does exist in the city but it’s always been regarded as something that happens out of sight, as people struggle enough as it is to survive in this flooded world without turning on each other.

Currency

The people of Anatos trade in two types of currency, Gold and Rations. In the cities earliest days all trade was solely done with Rations, which are small bars of oats and nuts coated with oils to help persevere them for a few seasons. The Ration system is useful because the bars can be split into smaller denominations, perish eventually so have to be spent, and are always useful since they can just be eaten.

Each citizen of Anatos receives an equal number of Rations based on the size of the seasons harvest, and while this gives everyone an equal share of the cities ‘wealth' it caused a number of problems for the city’s craftsmen and merchants. In good times the Rations were near worthless but then in bad times they were worth too much and any merchant trying to horde them always ran the risk they could ‘go off’ before they could sell them.

In order to provide stability to the markets the trader guild, the Maravan Hierarchy, created the Gold Standard. About a million gold coins were created, with small holes in their centre so they could be carried in hoops, and their value was set to be worth a ‘days’ labour. It took a long time for these coins to be accepted by the city but eventually the currency began to see wide use between the guilds and those bartering for more luxurious goods.

Most people still trade in Rations for essential goods, leaving Gold to be used for luxury items or services. For this reason it’s not uncommon to see richer individuals wear the coins as decorations, either attaching them to earrings or bracelets, in order to show off their elevated status.

Common Magical Knowledge

The people of Anatos are no strangers to magic, flashy illusions, potions and enchanted items are common sights throughout the city. While most people are not familiar with magical incantations they would recognise what kind of spell is being cast, nobody freaks out if someone starts casting benign spells in a tea house but they would try to defend themselves if an obviously aggressive spell was being cast their way.

This means that people in the city are a bit more savvy than normal when it comes to magical tricks. Traders often shake hands to check if someone is wearing a magical disguise, a good guard would think twice about investigating something strange just in case it was an illusion, familiars don’t always act like natural animals and keen people are able to identify them, and there are even rumors that powerful figures have magical items that can see through almost all forms of magical trickery.