Al-Tab City, the national capital of Ser, is a huge city with up to 120,000 permanent residents.
It belongs to the province of Eltaba and is located on the shores of Lake Seremba to the east of the Serre Mountains. It not only has abundant fresh water resources and convenient river channels, but also has extraordinary political significance.
Whether it is the governor, the nominally highest administrative and military officer of each province, or the red-robed chiefs who stand at the apex of power, they will all have a residence of their own here.
Although they certainly will not live in the crisis-ridden capital for a long time, they can use this to express a clear political attitude, that is, no matter how the country holds back each other, the top level can always maintain a state of fighting without breaking up.
Like many large cities in Serre, the most famous specialty of Eltab City is slaves. Its huge and prosperous slave market puts it beyond the reach of Kalin Shirt, which has practiced slavery for thousands of years.
If calculated on a per capita basis, each citizen of the city owns an average of three slaves, and the number of slaves is even three times more than the permanent population.
Of course, everyone who knows how much water is “per capita” will understand.
The real situation is that not only are the lower class residents unable to afford slaves at all, but they may also become one of the slaves due to debt problems.
Most slaves are owned by nobles, bureaucrats and red-robed mages.
Some red-robed mages keep hundreds of slaves in cages to conduct cruel necromantic magic experiments.
And even if you accidentally die in an experiment, the corpse can be sold to the undead faction or used as a zombie, skeleton, or ghoul servant by yourself, without any waste at all.
This is why slaves are always in short supply in this country.
In the streets and alleys of Ser, the most common sight is that of red-robed mages traveling with a large number of slaves, undead and guards behind them.
Since the foundation of the founding of Cyre was against the theocratic rule of Mulhorand, the churches of various gods here are like dragons that you have to coil up, and if they are tigers you have to lie down.
Otherwise, the red-robed mages will definitely not tolerate your bad habits. They will be expelled when they should be expelled, and annihilated when they should be exterminated.
Especially for gods like Lathander, Lord of the Dawn, who are extremely averse to undead creatures, their faith has basically been uprooted long ago.
Not to mention Lathander, even the goddess of magic and the god of mages, which are commonly believed by mages, do not have much influence here.
If you want to find an area with the weakest belief in the gods in the entire Faerûn, it must be Thelmer ruled by the red-robed mage.
At least that was the case until Sazastan bowed to Bane, the god of tyranny.
In addition, in terms of politics, unlike many people who think that Serge is a red-robed mage who directly goes down to rule ruthlessly and brutally, the country has adopted a very interesting separation political model.
Although the red-robed mage holds the actual highest power, he does not really waste a lot of time and energy on building the country and dealing with various complicated troubles.
Quite the opposite!
They delegated power to the governor and the administrators under the governor, who were then responsible for specific matters such as the transportation system, public health, military defense, drinking water supply, and maintenance of law and order in a certain area.
The red-robed mages put more energy into studying magic and improving their status within the organization.
The governor is usually chosen by officers who have performed well in the war or wealthy nobles.
Occasionally, there will be wealthy businessmen who have proven their abilities, or red-robed mage who want to use this position to expand their wealth and influence.
However, once the red-robed mage chooses to serve as governor, it means that he voluntarily gives up his qualifications to continue to advance in the original organization and even become chief.
After all, becoming a governor requires handling a lot of government affairs every day, so how can you have time to calm down and do magic research and continue to improve your spellcasting level?
In addition, the appointment and replacement of the governor must be nominated by the chiefs of the eight factions, and finally a vote must be held.
Therefore, behind every provincial governor, there are often one or even several faction chiefs.
They obey the words of the chief to whom they are loyal, otherwise they will not be able to secure their seats.
Therefore, strictly speaking, the eleven provinces of Serre are indirectly controlled by the eight red-robed chiefs.
Although the province is nominally an administrative system independent of the red-robed mage system, it is closer to a semi-independent small kingdom.
Among them, as the most powerful chief of the necromancy department, Sazhastan controls two of the richest provinces, while the other seven chiefs each control one.
As a naval base, the province of Araul adheres to the principle of neutrality, and has always held the position of governor-general with naval generals, and does not get involved in the internal fighting among the chiefs.
The province of Pleafront, adjacent to Agolalon, is an independent region ruled by the Church of Kossus, the God of Fire.
Although it belongs to Serge in name and will also pay taxes to it, it is independent in terms of military and political aspects.
To sum up, after the development in recent hundreds of years, the current internal situation of Serre can be said to be both complex and simple.
The simple thing is that all power is highly concentrated in the chiefs of the eight factions, and their attitudes directly determine the future of this country.
The complexity lies in the fact that each of the eight chiefs has his own agenda.
Except for Saznarstan, who has made his attitude clear, and Aznar Srul, who is firmly against him, no one knows what the other six chiefs are thinking in their hearts, and whether they will choose to jump at the critical moment.
Anti.
At this moment, as the chief double agent and wall-rider, Demetra Vlas is receiving a special visitor in his mansion in Eltab City.
This is a typical female red-robed mage with all her hair shaved off, and you can clearly see the huge magic tattoo from her forehead to the back of her head.
From her delicate facial features and thin lips, it is easy to tell that she is not very old. She is probably only between nineteen and twenty years old. She was definitely a rare beauty before she shaved off her hair.<
/p>
Even according to the current painting style, there is a beauty full of coldness, mystery and darkness.
"Have you visited your mother?"
Demetra Vlas was the first to break the silence, raising her head and staring into the other person's creepy red eyes.
The reason why I say it is creepy is because the eyes of this young female red-robed mage are not piercings or the irises are red, but the whites of the eyeballs are filled with a strange blood-red color.
And this color is not caused by the dense blood vessels, but by the high concentration of magical energy.
Generally speaking, there are two reasons for this situation. One is definitely due to the bloodline of alien creatures without asking, and the other is the result of an accident during a magic experiment.
The woman with strange eyes nodded slightly: "Yes, mentor, I have already visited her.
As you might expect, my mother is now addicted to Game of Thrones.
He was even stupid enough to try to resolve the conflicts among the chiefs by himself.
She strongly advocates expanding the scale of foreign trade and seizing a larger market and earning more profits by exporting low-level magic items.
And not long ago, she just chose to marry the Supreme Sword of Mulmaster, hoping to expand her network and influence.
As everyone knows, in the eyes of many people and even the chief executive, she has become an eyesore and needs to be eliminated."
It is not difficult to see from the almost cold words that the red-robed mage not only has no affection for his mother, but is full of disgust and contempt.
However, this is obviously not an exception among the red-robed mage group, but a common phenomenon.
Because like Halua, the country of wizards, Sel also implements compulsory magic education for all, and it is also compulsory.
They will test children of appropriate age, and once they pass, they will be immediately taken away from their parents and sent to various academies and mage towers for closed and strict training for several years.
During this period, the children are completely isolated from their parents.
By the time these children became official mages and were allowed to leave, it would have been six, seven or even ten years since they had grown up, and each one of them was forced to become both cold and cruel by the cruel competitive environment.
They missed the most precious time of enjoying family affection with their parents, and as a result, they also lost their sense of belonging to their family. They may even never return home to visit their parents, brothers and sisters again throughout their lives.
"Haha, time flies so fast, fourteen years have passed in a flash.
I clearly remember that your mother, now the Governor of Eltaba Province - Demidra Fres, came to the door with you when you were still a little one, and asked me to help her cover up her unmarried relationship.
The scandal of childbirth.
At that time, Dimitra was still a novice who had just graduated from the academy, and her eyes were full of fear and nervousness.
Because if this matter spreads, then she and her family will become the laughing stock in the aristocratic circle.
As for your romantic father who just wanted to taste the taste of the red-robed witch, after learning about this incident, he immediately set out overnight and chose to escape, for fear of being caught and cut into pieces.
But it is a pity that he could not escape your mother's crazy revenge in the end.
A few years later, this man who couldn't control his lower body was captured by your mother and tortured to death, and was eventually transformed into a ghoul slave.
I'm curious, what was the scene like when you mother and daughter met for the first time after so many years?"
When saying these words, Demetra Vlas raised her head slightly with a playful expression.
Because when she originally chose to take in this poor little guy in front of her, her motive was actually not simple. She wanted to seize Dimidra Fleiss' handle, and then use it as a blackmail to make him a puppet at her mercy.<
/p>
This is a common trick used by many high-level red-robed mages to secretly control their subordinates.
But what surprised Demetra Vlas was that the girl standing in front of him actually showed extraordinary talent in her future studies.
He had just turned twenty and obtained a spellcasting level of LV14, which was only one level lower than his mother.
To be continued...