The Bazaar

The Bazaar was formed some three hundred and sixty years ago after Ruin ravaged seven entire towns lining the coast. The survivors came together but such were their numbers that no town or city could take them all in. They survived by scavenging and fishing until they came to the edge of a salt-water swamp where they met a Faun named Argon who took pity on the starving lot.

The faun allowed them to forage within his grove and called fish and other sealife to the water lines. He came to love many of the peoples, but knew that he could not support their numbers forever. So he decided to show them a secret; something that he promised he would do, as long as he was always allowed to have a vote in their decisions and to be able to follow them where they went. They eagerly agreed and so he showed them to a relic, the remains of a ship that had been thrown inland by a tsunami years before. Much of the goods had rotted away, but there was enough still held in air tight barrels and chests to make the group wealthy. They traded it away and bought tents, horses, all they needed to continue their wandering existence, which by this time was all they knew.

As most villages and towns had fled to Forest Heart or lived in continual fear of travel, this raggle-taggle group walked freely beneath the open sky. They began to be paid as couriers for goods between towns and villages and the capital. Their numbers swelled, taking in peoples from hundreds of different societies.

They became known as the Bazaar, or the Roaming City, though many began to call it Banzar in slang.

Banner/Colors: The symbol of the Bazaar is a waving blue line above seven triangles of differing colors representing the seven villages that came together to form the Bazaar.

Population: 6,000-8,000; 45% human, 20% wild children, 10% mongrelfolk, 10% maenid, 10% darfellan, 3% shifter, 1% angelican

Primary Language: Chat: a common/sylvan hybrid tongue

Year of Establishment: YoF (Year of Frost)

Government
Government: The Bazaar doesn't have a government as such, but are instead lead by the Council of the Binding Confederation of Merchants. This council tends to be the wealthiest and most influential of the Bazaar who decide when and where the Bazaar will pack up and leave to.

This decision is usually based on who has the most to gain from such a move, and often towns and villages will make bids to bring them to their area. Many simply call it bribery, but there are nuances involved that many are not privy to. For instance, the Bazaar, despite its wealth, is well schooled in their beginnings. Often the Bazaar will visit Ruin-torn areas to recharge its economy even at a loss.

Argon the faun is the oldest and most influential of the Bazaar, since he was there are the inception. It is said that he is truly the one who chooses the council members by manipulation of economy and rumors.

Government Popularity: Money silences most qualms, but as those who direct it are responsible for all the others living within their city, even the most greedy council member is unlikely to risk the safety of the community before himself, if only for the reason that most will shun him, refusing to buy his goods until he can no longer pay the fee to remain a council member.

Army:  Banzar has a security force paid for by the combined council members, though most merchants also have their own security. This security force can be bought by the councils in a moment to fight for the good of the Bazaar instead of for the person.

The captain of this paid security is no less than the famous Garkin, known in story and song as the Heart Weary Soldier. A paladin of freedom whose entire town was razed to the ground by Ruin. Despite this he and a small contingent of other young men from his town managed to fight off the cult. He is said to have wandered for many years, going from town to town as a sell-sword before finally being hired to the Bazaar.

The Order of the Epiphanies, a religious sect of Saga devoted to studying starfall and combating the Ruin that worships it, also lend a hand in protecting the Bazaar. The Supreme Inquisitor is the General over all of Longhouse's forces.

Defenses: It's adaptability is the Bazaar's main defense. They are rumored to be able to pack up and be ready to move within ten minutes of the sighting of hostile forces. They also are also forced to practice many different tactics without notice. Those who do not join in the exercise or are exceedingly slow are heavily fined until they improve or can no longer afford to remain within the city.

They can scatter, regroup and scatter again, and native Banzarians are raised from the cradle to identify the needed movements.

Primary Enemy: The cult of Ruin is Banzar's famous nemesis, and the only city so far to have withstood multiple attacks without any great losses.

Fighting Style: Drunken boxing is a notorious discipline amongst the Bazaar, using the chaotic, unpredictable stratagems to defeat their enemies, much like the city itself does on a far more massive scale. As well, Banzarians are said to be able to make a weapon out of anything, and even most of the military carry no standard weapons but use whatever is at hand.

This dirty, no-holds-barred method of fighting has earned much scorn from honorable men, but its effectiveness silences naysayers - if only because of their broken jaws.

Society
Common Banzar Style Though now a wealthy town, the many years of scrounging and making use of every item they found left its cultural mark. As such, much of their style, both worn and architectural, seems ramshackle and built of old odd ends. Everything patchwork and recycled. Very little in Banzar is thrown away. They are especially fond of entwining items within their hair, having some personal or familial meaning. Makeshift masks and veils of all varities are also commonplace, the harder for outside forces to recognize individuals. The poor are only different than the wealthy in that their items and attire are of higher quality materials.



To the Pure Races the city is considered the penultimate example of mankind's whimsical insanity, from its ethnically diverse peoples possessing no completely human blood to its individualistic and free-spoken ways and mores. Dwarves very rarely visit Banzar, finding the imaginative, unstructured chaos of Banzar unbearable.

Common skills of inhabitants: The unkind would claim larceny and peddling, but in fact Banzarians are amongst the most expert economists upon Hearth. Their main craft is making useful of anything they find, even if turning it only into jewelry. Many a wealthy man of the Baazar is seen digging through a trash heap or haggling a farmer over his rusty equipment. In addition to this they are particularly well known for their crafts in glass blowing. As all it requires is sand, heat and cheap chemicals they could produce themselves, all things plentiful along the coast they roam. Competition for improving upon glassware quality is extraordinarily fierce.

Saith, originally of Banzar, is famous for his discovery of a mixture and blowing technique that brings glass nearly to the quality of iron without detracting from its beauty or transparency. It was his selling of this technique that is said to have allowed him to construct his fabled skyship.

Slavery: It is said everything can be sold in the Bazaar, and this includes other sentients. The councils puts these markets down when they can, but they always seem to spring back up. Many of the fishing fleets are crewed with at least a few purchased sailors.

Constabulary: Peace is kept primarily by a special force of men known as the Quaff. They are masters of drunken, and have taken their discipline to an entirely other level. It is said that they can be called upon dead drunk, hungover and with a bottle shoved up their butt and still take on the most callous thug. As they can appear as any staggering drunk on the streets or a beggar lying in his own vomit, it is almost impossible to know which is official and who is random street trash. They are fond over undercover and deception, though are said to be exceedingly strict and honorable in their dealings with the populace. They have no wish but to keep the peace, and have even arrested council members, ignoring the bribes offered. A Quaff have a limitless tab at every tavern they visit, paying for it by their presence. A tavern where a Quaff drinks is unlikely to suffer thievery, fights or similar, where they will put a quick end to it. Also, the Quaff, connoisseurs of liquors, tend not to visit locales where they water down drinks, so their presence is also a symbol of quality.

Method of execution: Lesser criminals are incarcerated in sweat houses; they are buried up to their necks in sand and given only tiny tents just big enough to shield them from the sun. They are given a thin gruel or soup for meals and water for a time determined by their crime.

Those worth of execution do die from this, buried so long the city picks up and leaves, leaving the criminal to slowly die of thirst and exposure if they cannot dig themselves out.

Organized Crime: Many unkindly regard the entirey of the bazaar as one giant organized crime, but true crime is very uncommon. Most of those within the Bazaar know well their neighbors, and while a filching here, and a 'borrowing' there, is common and overlooked, anyone new to the area is watched suspiciously.

Those wealthy enough tend to bribe or blackmail their way out of a good many crimes, though even that is not as common as the other human cities.

The notorious slaver marketers are the main organized criminals, arriving out of nowhere and disappearing just as fast.