Free Cities of Ulek
Type Republican compact
Founded 4648 AR (Free Cities Treaty)
Seat Ulex City — administrative center; host of the Committee of Committees
Member Cities Ulex City, Nordwall
Former Members Highport (occupied 4724 AR; status unresolved)
Religion The Keymaster (Ulex City branch)
Status Functional but weakened; Nordwall independent; one city lost

Overview

The Free Cities of Ulek formed when the last pieces of the Ulek Empire's southern core stopped pretending an emperor was coming back. The Free Cities Treaty of 4648 AR — signed nearly a century after Prince Eltram's sealing — created a compact of nominally equal city-states that shared trade agreements, mutual defense obligations, and a loose administrative framework centered in Ulex City.

The word "free" in the name does not mean what it sounds like. It means free from imperial authority. Free from Sandstone's claim to succession. Free from the fiction that the empire still exists. The compact is not particularly democratic — Ulex City's Committee of Committees governs through bureaucratic inertia and procedural paralysis, and the citizenship tiers that existed under the empire mostly survived the transition.

What It Replaced

The Ulek Empire at its height ran from the southern coast to the northern trade roads. When the empire collapsed, three factions emerged from the wreckage:

  • The Free Cities took the position that the empire was over and the surviving cities should govern themselves through negotiated compact
  • The Kingdom of Ulek (Prince Eltram Landing) held that legitimate authority resided in Eltram's sealed bloodline, and built an institution to preserve that claim
  • Theodor Crane (Sandstone) took the position that the empire was not over — it just needed a new emperor, namely himself

The Free Cities regard Crane as an illegitimate usurper and the Kingdom faction as a pious fiction. The Kingdom regards the Free Cities as republicans who threw away the only legitimate succession. Crane regards both as obstacles.

Member Cities

Ulex City — the administrative heart. ~15–17k city population, ~50k with surrounding settlements. Horizontal spread, double-walled. Committee of Committees runs the day-to-day. Living Ledgers track all citizens in real time through Keymaster church infrastructure. Four citizenship tiers persist from imperial days.

Nordwall — the northern edge. Half-destroyed by Slavelord attack (4724–4725). Declared full independence from the Free Cities in the aftermath, under Mayor Lyriana Valeris. Still cooperates with Ulex City on trade and intelligence but no longer formally bound by compact obligations.

Highport — the lost city. Highport was a Free Cities member and the compact's primary maritime power. The Slavelord occupation in 4724 AR cut its representation. Ulex City's Committee of Committees has not formally resolved whether Highport's seat is vacant, suspended, or transferred to the exile community.

Governance

The Committee of Committees in Ulex City is the compact's primary administrative body — a layered council system inherited from imperial governance structures, now running without a crown to give it direction. It functions. It does not inspire.

Decisions are made by subcommittee, referred upward, debated, tabled, revised, and occasionally enacted. The system is deeply resistant to crisis response. When Highport fell, the Committee spent three weeks in procedural debate before issuing a statement of concern.

Living Ledgers — magical registries maintained by Keymaster clerics — track all citizens in real-time across Ulex City and its territories. This makes the Free Cities unusually well-informed about their own population and unusually slow to respond to anything outside it.

The Keymaster Split

The Keymaster church split after Theodor Crane forced the Sandstone branch to crown him in 4701 AR. The Ulex City branch refused to recognize the coronation and has operated independently since. This makes Ulex City the seat of what the church considers legitimate Keymaster doctrine — which gives Lady Annabelle's legacy institutional weight even after her death.

The Keymaster doctrine of "embrace your fate" is used in Ulex City to justify its citizenship hierarchy. This is not considered a contradiction by the Committee.

Current Situation (4724–4725)

The compact is functionally reduced to one city. Nordwall is independent. Highport is occupied. Ulex City's committees continue to meet, refer, and table.

The city still has genuine institutional infrastructure — the Living Ledgers, the church network, the trade relationships — and Lady Annabelle's legacy gives it moral authority it has done little to deserve recently. It is not about to collapse. It is also not about to act.

Connections