United Cities: Difference between revisions

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|established_date1 =  915

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The '''United Cities''' was a state that existed in northwestern [[Corumm]] and parts of [[Canpei]] from 915 to 1215. Emerging during the death throes of the Chen dynasty and the Four Great Impostors crisis, it was originally created as a confederation of city states, the main aim of which was mutual protection, eliminating bad governance, promoting the slave trade and evading imperial taxation. The original members were the cities of [[Heng]], Sho Battai, Brink, Heft and Stoat. The economy of the United Cities was reliant and heavily dominated by the practice of slavery, only a few decades after its founding did its political system come to be dominated by powerful slaver interests, effectively creating a highly corrrupt and despotic plutocracy. The United Cities would fall to [[Corumm]]ese Zhong dynasty armies in 1215 but many of its trade and societal practices would continue in the territories that it had ruled.

== History ==

The reigning Chen dynasty of [[Corumm]] saw a succession of revolts and uprisings starting in 877. The rise of the Four Great Impostors who sought to claim the imperial throne posed an existential threat to it. The second of these pretenders, Tengu Peg Leg, first rose in the city of [[Heng]] in 896. Claiming descent from the last Shang emperor, he and his supporters took over the city administration by force and gained the support of its citizens by abolishing taxes for three years and promising to give every citizen five slaves from towns he conquered. Other cities in the region expelled their imperial garrisons and approached Tengu for protection and relief from imperial taxation . With these defections the territory controlled by Tengu's loyalists grew to cover all of the Corummese northwest. He declared himsef emperor with [[Heng]] as his capital and styled his domain as ''Northern Shang''. The loss of important economic centers like [[Heng]] and control of important trade routes to the north represented a heavy blow to the Chen dynasty's finances and hobbled its capacity to respond quickly.

[[File:HengSlavery.jpg|thumb|A depiction of slaves building fortifications. Slaves were the main workforce on all major construction projects]]

Secure for a time against his most dangerous external foe, now Emperor Tengu would spend the next decade attempting to centralize power and have a greater power over the cities and local taxation. Feeling they had exchanged an autocrat far away for one at home, the elites of [[Heng]] and many cities began to resent Tengu's rule and withold funds from his tax collectors. In the winter of 915, a mob of peasants paid for by Heng's nobles attacked Tengu and his attendants on the streets. While Tengu's outnumbered guards attempted to hack their way out of the mob, a farmer with an axe hewed the emperor's peg leg below the knee causing him to stumble to the ground where he was stabbed to death. After merely 19 years in power, the childless emperor and his dynasty were overthrown as suddenly as they had risen. New Magisters drawn from the old nobility rose in every major city, agreeing to maintain their ties as a loose defensive union that would collectively come to be known as the United Cities.

== Geography ==

== Climate ==

The predominant climate of the area covered by the United Cities is cold semi-arid, featuring warm, dry summers and freezing winters with temperatures dropping below zero. Winters usually see light to moderate snowfall.