Triumvirate

How it started

Around a century after the arrival, the amount of powerful and motivated emergents finally reached a critical point. A wizard by the name Sławomir Bala, together with his two personal friends, cleric Arthwr Howells and captain Murata Michinori formed the original Triumvirate. All three of them were fairly famous in the adventuring circles and commanded enough influence to step in after the Cradle city council made the mistake of attempting to apprehend all the adventuring parties that were resting within city walls.

The trio quickly realized the potential of city council's mistake and completed the revolution by adapting the political system to the nature of the world of Hexpanse. They've planned and executed a complex set of reforms, rebooting the failed economy, that almost collapsed by that time, due to inflation caused the fact that gold and silver could be just found in a directly usable form in the hexmazes. Combining the forces of Cradle and Red Hill, they organized a gradual move from the feudal bureaucracy to a completely new system based on direct, rather than assumed power.

The Handshake

Only after stabilizing the situation between the three settlements, Cradle, Red Hill and Direwood Hold (a mere camp at the edge of Enchanted Forest back then, that would eventually become an actual town and the power seat of Maréchal) the Triumvirate was able to direct their attention outward. The dwindling amount of travelers and messengers from other settlements was becoming a concern and as Cradle's city council documents suggested, was already an issue before the revolution. Triumvirate dispatched adventuring parties (the term "hexraiders" was actually a name of one of them, that later became a general word to describe the parties) to investigate. The parties were able to assist some of the towns and settlements besieged by the environment, but a number of them were lost (though some of those were successfully evacuated). After securing what's left, the Triumvirate gathered their authorities and described their vision. After some debate, they agreed to gradually transit to a representative government thus creating Arcane Council, Exarchate and Maréchal. The Triumvirate kept their authority as the executive branch, being appointed by the common committee of the three power groups.

Current Officials

Triumvirate

• Arcane Council's representative, Xaevan Nash, D.D.
• Exarchate's representative, rev. Ahto Oivio, aspect of Light
• Maréchal representative, gen. Tanweer Jatrana

Arcane Council

• Convener Vladimir Ivolgin, I.D.
• 8 tradition leaders
• 4 representatives of other arcane ways

Church of Creation Exarchachate

• Exarch Kipli bin Biru, aspect of Life
• 2 Exarch's personal Viziers, aspect of Knowledge
• 10 Vice Exarchs

Maréchal

• Commander-in-chief Rumwold Voss
• 10 generals
• 2 admirals

Seats of Power

Cradle

The largest city and de facto capital of Triumvirate's domain. The name comes from the convenient mountain plateau on which it was built. The waterfall cascade nearby, facing south, origin of the Twin River, provides the city with running water and additionally an artificial reservoir was created later on the plateau, dubbed the Bright Lake. The plateau is large enough to have fertile soil, though major part of local vegetation was lost to our own agriculture. Later, the farms were moved to lower plateaus leaving more space for the urban sprawl. An abundance of igneous rock determines the sturdy and rugged masonry of the city's main part. The Arcane Council spire and the dirigible port tower were built with addition of imported white stone, as were peripheral cottages and estates. Recent inventions prompted construction of elevators and funiculars and the city now expands up and down the White Mountain slope.

As a seat of power for Arcane Council, Cradle hosts the research institutions and facilities, as well as more traditional libraries and a University. It is the bank of Cradle that was the initiator of the shift to arcane currency, not tied to noble metals that are rather abundant in this world and thus are not much valuable.

Red Hill

The second largest city, situated in the hills beyond the end of Cockatrice canyon, more than hundred miles west of the Cradle and the mountain range it is built on. The names comes from the peculiarly colored clay, abundant in this region. White stone quarries are another local feature, giving the city a distinct look. The rough circle of relatively old and small buildings, surrounding the central keep, is often referred to as a Mushroom Circle. The city started as a monastery, created by the faithful that were dissatisfied with Cradle leadership and wanted to have a domain of their own. It is here, at the common gathering of the followers of different pre-exodus gods it was decided that the Creation is much larger and complicated than their particular doctrines were claiming it to be and thus the Church of Creation was born.

The city grew with the influx of refugees from smaller settlements and finally, in year 351 p.e. it rivals the Cradle. It is wider and less dense than Cradle, and the central keep, only slightly shorter now than Arcane Council's spire, is the Exarchate main residence.

Direwood Hold

A base camp for adventurers, looking to venture into the Enchanted Forest, grew rapidly after the Handshake and the understanding of the Emergence. One of the easiest places to raid, especially on its fringes, Enchanted Forest soon became training and proving grounds for all of the emergents' types. This infrastructure grew, and now this is the third largest city in the Triumvirate's domain. The name comes from the set of original wooden fortress, built to repel forest creatures and provide shelter and supply caches for the adventurers. Eventually, the territory calmed down and the forest was significantly pushed back. The military branch of the Triumvirate, the Maréchal, does not have an actual external enemy to contest with and thus is mostly responsible for border security against untamed lands and hotspots. The internal security is provide by a combined force of the Triumvirate to maintain trust between the different parts of our society. The Maréchal headquaters are situated in a castle, slightly offset from the city proper on the biggest hill they could find in this rather plain region.

A 'city of youth' as Direwood Hold is now often called, is the place to go when you are looking for entertainment. Though Bardic Colleges are scattered across the Triumvirate's domain, a common Palace-in-the-Clearing is their own proving and training grounds for practicing their various arts. Various theaters, dance halls, inns and taverns dot the sprawling city. The zoo, displaying the most weird creatures that were found and brought from the raids is maintained as a joint project of Maréchal and Arcane Council.