City-State of Gulg

The sorcerer-queen of Gulg, Lalali-Puy, is called the oba by her subjects. The oba is an absolute monarch whose name means "forest goddess" in the language of her people. This is not a title she assumed herself, but one that her subjects thrust upon her. Lalali-Puy can command anything she wishes and know that she will be instantly obeyed by her people. In their eyes, she is a goddess they attribute her long life to immortality, and they believe that only a being of supreme power could have the abilities that she displays. Lalali-Puy is perhaps the only city ruler who enjoys the popular support of her subjects. Gulg is engaged in an ages-old territorial war with Nibenay, the city at the other end of the forest. As terrible as their oba is, the inhabitants of Gulg are convinced that she is all that stands between them and being totally enslaved by Nibenay. In this, they are undoubtedly correct. Gulg is not a city in the ordinary sense of the word. It lies at the southern tip of the Crescent Forest, more or less in the center of the territory portrayed on the Map of the Tyr Region. The outer walls of the city consist of a thick hedge of thorny trees. The branches of these trees grow so tightly interwoven that it is impossible for anything larger than a halfling's fist to penetrate the barrier. While most of the inhabitants of the city live in circular mud capped by roofs of thatched vines, Lalali-Puy herself lives in a small but magnificent palace built in the highest limbs of a huge agafari tree. Her templars, who oversee the military, economic, and agricultural matters of the city, live in well appointed huts in the lower limbs of the tree. Although the particular level of a templar's hut bears no direct relationship to his status, one can tell a templar's approximate rank by counting the number of necklaces he wears. Lalali-Puy's most trusted advisor, and second in command, wears ten necklaces. The lowliest templars wear only one. In Gulg, the nobles are not landowners, for the templars, city-owned slaves gather the city's food supply - wild fruits, nuts, and berries - from the forest. instead, the nobles are composed of an elite class of hunters who are selected from the general population at an early age and laboriously trained in the arts of tracking, moving silently, and surviving in the timberlands for many days without foods or water. As you might suspect, nobility is not inherited in Gulg, for only the most capable youths are selected to undertake the grueling training required to become a hunter. Like all property in Gulg, the food that the hunters and slaves gather is considered to be owned by the oba, who then redistributes it so that the basic needs of citizens are met. Of course, this makes it difficult for merchants to operate in the city, but the oba has solved this problem in a very efficient manner. In Gulg, the senior agent of a merchant house deals directly with a templar assigned to his emporium, who barters on behalf of all the people of the city. These templars are well known as hard bargainers, for more than one merchant house has gone broke trying to trade in pepper, kola nuts, and exotic feathers with the merchants of Gulg. The warriors of Gulg are known as judaga or head hunters. They are half-hunter and half-fighter, depending upon stealth to ambush their enemies and bows and arrows or poisoned darts to slay them. Their name comes from their habit of claiming the heads of fallen enemies to prove their boasts of combat prowess.