Pallas is the country on a peninsula on the northern shore of the Logathriad Sea, and its capital is Rann. It is the richest and most powerful country on the Logathriad Sea and possibly in the world.

Pallas collects magical knowledge and teaches it. It commits large forces to The Wall, so it keeps peace with its neighbors and patrols the sea lanes. Merchants and scholars work in Pallas because it is safe from monsters and usually safe from invaders.

Location

Pallas runs about 500 by 850 km. A neck of land joins the peninsula to the mainland at the north, about 340 km across at its narrowest, and the Wall runs its full length.

The interior rises into the Penthis mountains. Rivers run from the Penthis to the Logathriad Sea, and the largest of them, the Kephis, reaches the sea at Rann.

The People

Pallas is mostly human, and city elves are the largest minority. Dwarves, orcs, and Hakaan live in Rann and the ports in smaller numbers, and the inland country is almost entirely human and city elf.

Government

Pallas is governed by councils drawn by lot. Every citizen's name goes into the draw, and those chosen serve one year.

A councilor is examined before taking the seat and audited after leaving it. The examination establishes that the person is a citizen in good standing and fit to serve. The audit reviews the councilor's decisions and accounts, and a councilor who fails it is fined or exiled.

Pallas draws a national council at Rann, and each city draws its own.

Treasurers hold the only seats filled by vote, in the nation and in every city.

The Wall garrison sits outside the system. Its officers are professionals who serve for their careers rather than one-year terms, and they answer to a council that changes every year.

The Two Armies

Pallas fields two forces with different enemies.

The Wall garrison fights monsters on a fixed line. Its enemy resists ordinary weapons and uses magic. The garrison fights with armor, blades, crossbows, and alchemy. It is the harder and deadlier posting, and it carries the highest prestige in Pallas.

The field and naval forces fight people. They defend Pallas inside its own borders.

The two forces depend on each other. Defeat in the field pulls troops off the Wall and cuts its supply, and a breach in the Wall loses the country. Both forces treat Wall service as the harder duty.

Trade

Pallas grows nearly all of its own food, in the Kephis delta and the river valleys.

Pallas sells magical technique and the training that produces it. Scholars, artisans, and engineers trained in Pallas work in ports around the Logathriad Sea. Penthis marble goes out through Rann.

Living in Pallas

Pallas holds every settlement it has founded. A village inside the Wall occupies the same site it has held for centuries, and Pallas builds in stone.

Most households have a member who has served on the Wall or been drawn for a council seat.

Character

Pallas argues about every expense but still pays it.