People of Athenapolis

Athenapolis is a city of close to 100,000 people. The vast majority (about 70%) of the inhabitants of the city are the common workers necessary for the smooth operation of the city. Innkeepers, longshoremen, teamsters, tailors, shoemakers, shopkeepers, tinkers and many many more common people who live relatively ordinary lives in the city. This group includes the common merchant families who deal primarily in everyday goods. Nearly all the mundane merchandise that is imported, stored and distributed to the population of the city is handled by these citizens of Athenapolis. It is these people who ensure the smooth flow of goods like the tons of grain, meat, fruit and vegetables that are needed to feed the inhabitants of the city as well as cloth, raw iron, wood and limestone needed by the craftsmen of the city to function.

The number of slaves within the city walls of Athenapolis is relatively small (about 10% of the population), and most of these are owned by the powerful noble houses. Many of these slaves are used for manual labor, (cleaning out sewers, carrying heavy loads etc.) but lately more and more of these slaves are kept specifically for the pleasure of their masters.

The remaining 20% of the population are people of more importance. These include merchants who import luxury goods from all four corners of the known world, the noble families who own plantations outside the city with vineyards, orchards and great fields of grain, but who live in the city, and of course the holy clerics that run the many temples of the city.

Much of the city's wealth comes from the worldwide trade with other city-states and far away countries. These trade goods include Jade, Spices and sugar from the Eastern Islands, gold, gems and drakes from Kalion, furs and marble from the North, exotic animals and ivory from the Southern (Nubian) continent and meat, grain and silver from the Western part of the continent. Athenapolis sits at the juncture of two main trade routes, the city straddles a river that leads to a calm inland sea allowing easy shipping to the North, South and East and at the base of the major pass Westward through the high mountains leading to the high plains. On these plains huge herds of semi-domesticated cattle are raised and then driven down to be fattened on the lush green grass and grains of the lowlands before finally ending their lives at the slaughterhouses and tanneries of Athenapolis.

A relatively new commodity has become a significant economic **** in the past twenty years. Mostly through the influence and wealth of several trading families the sale of slaves has become prominent with Athenapolis becoming the center of the **** trade in the Hellenistic city states. Traditionally, slavery in the Hellenic Cities consists of those men and women captured in war or the families of debtors are unable to pay back loans, but in Athenapolis a whole infrastructure has grown to go along with these traditional (and relatively small) sources. The combination of military raids whose primary purpose is to capture and enslave whole populations and large-scale breeding and training facilities have made it affordable for even moderately successful families to own slaves. With the number of slaves growing among the common folk, the wealthiest families of Athenapolis have turned to more exotic slaves, further increasing the demand for slaves that are unique in some way like skin tone or hair color, unusual stature (either little people or giants) or in specialized training.

Lately it has become in-vogue to own beautiful young noblewomen from other cities and trained them to serve these wealthy families. The higher the former rank of the captured women, the more valuable the ****. Athenapolis has become the center for the training of these once proud noblewomen, and often the bribes sent to the rulers of neighboring cities include the daughters of their rival city states. These unfortunate young women are captured, broken and then trained to serve the enemies of their homelands as submissive pleasure slaves. The rise in demand for this special kind of sex **** has led to two of the most powerful families of slavers claiming seats on the High Council, and created friction between them and the more conservative Regent, Lord Aegricion.

The last King of Athenapolis abdicated his thrown and disappeared over thirty years ago. With no known heir, the power to administrate the city fell in the hands of the city High Council who appoint the Regent from one of the noble houses to rule in the king's name. Many people suspect that the king met with foul play and that the abdication was nothing more than a bloodless coup lead by these powerful merchants families. Unlike the ordinary merchants, the elite merchant families have great power, in many ways even more power than the aristocracy that nominally rules Athenapolis; the wealth to pay mercenaries and control the flow of food into the city gives the High Council of Athenapolis the power to veto the decisions of the Regent and his courts.

The current Regent, Lord Aegricion is from one of the great ancient ruling families, but as an appointee of the High Council has been running the city with the guidance of the merchant families. Because of the power of these great families, many of the Noble families have married their sons and daughters (usually in exchange for a large sum of money) to the children of these merchants. Aegricion has no son to pass on his power to, just a spirited young daughter, Sabella, who has already turned down multiple offers of marriage, so the jockeying for position among the other houses is intense. There are several hundred noble families who live within the city of Athenapolis, but of all these only ten to fifteen noble houses with strong ties to the wealthy merchant families have true power in the affairs of the city.

The last powerful group in Athenapolis are the temples. The Temple of Athena, as the patron goddess of the city is the most powerful of all the temples, other powerful gods served include Hermes (god of traders and thieves) Apollo (god of light and law) Zeus (father of the gods) and Demeter (goddess of wheat and hearth). Other gods have smaller competing temples, including Aries, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hades and Poseidon. The Temple of Helios was abandoned when news of the imminent siege reached the city.