Edric (city)
Capital city of Backbone and seat of Queen Rathwyn's throne. Named in honor of Backbone's premier mage, Edric.
The Present Status of the City-State of Edric
As of the winter of 1105
Returning citizens have been augmented by unwanted citizens from Rota (not official policy by Rota, of course). Thus, the crime level is higher than anticipated. Queen Rathwyn is working hard to organize people to rebuild the city. There is still a slum section that emerged in the heavily-damaged area south of the temple. The walls have been repaired to a functional level, but require much more work. The treasury has been looted by orcs and the queen was forced to impose heavy taxes on foreign currency.
To curb crime, an arena has been established where criminals given the death sentence may go. If they win, they are exiled. If they lose or choose not to go, they die. Criminals convicted of misdemeanors can avoid their sentence by volunteering for outside patrol duty, while felonists can only avoid the jail sentence by surviving the arena once for every year of their sentence. Many are willing to take the chance and several have stayed on as regulars.
The orc problem is very bad. To encourage citizens to fight the orcs rather than each other, a reward of 1 silver piece is being given for each orc killed. Their heads must be taken to a spot well outside the city limits in a small unused castle.
Merchants in the city are ordered not to accept non-Backbone coins. Some do anyway, but charge double due to the 50% tax on trading them in. New coins have been minted since the return and there is finally a decent supply. The exchange rate for internal coinage is as follows:
1 copper = 1 ounce of copper 3 coppers = 1 round (a large copper coin) 4 rounds = 1 cat (a small, silver-copper alloy coin) 4 cats = 1 silver (one ounce silver) 10 silvers= 1 crown (silver-gold alloy) 5 crowns = 1 gold (one ounce gold) 8 crowns = 1 dragon (one ounce platinum)
3840 coppers = 1 dragon
Trade agreements are being sought by the dwarves, but this looks slim due to the orc presence.
In honor of the late archmage Edric, the city (originally called Backbone) has been renamed after him and while the entire kingdom is still known as Backbone, it is the city-state of Edric where everybody lives. Most of the city's guards patrol the farmlands to keep orcs out, do within the city, policing is at a minimum. Fines and penalties are severe, but there are no mutilations and the death sentence is given only by the queen and only rarely.
Rathwyn has adopted Edric's castle as hers, while the castle of King Scardore is the guard station. Bast is the officially recognized and officially sanctioned religion, however others are tolerated and lesser temples include Odin and Zeus. In an agreement with Rota and Spindrift, one-third of the Dark Mage's fleet was given to the city. These are being torn down and re- built. It is expected by the summer of 1106 that the city's naval strength will be at an “acceptable” level.