Absalom

For more than 4,000 years, Absalom (pronounced AB-sah-lahm)  has been the City at the Center of the World, a metropolis-sized showcase of the greatest treasures in all Golarion. The importance and influence of Absalom upon the Middle Sea can not be overstated. The city not only holds a key strategic position for both commercial and military endeavors in the region along with the Devil's Belly, but encompasses the site of the ascension of four deities and claims to have been founded by none other than the Last Azlanti, the god Aroden. This great city even extends beyond the Material Plane; although a pale reflection of its namesake, Shadow Absalom is the greatest city on the Plane of Shadow, inhabited by fetchling, other humanoids, and undead.

Economy
Absalom's great wealth is driven by trade, so the city's rulers strive to craft policies favorable to commerce (and their own interests), but otherwise take a relatively laissez-faire approach to regulation. Taxes in the city are very light, although Siege Taxes during wartime may be significantly higher. There are no property taxes, although the city charges for access to roads, sanitation, and other public infrastructure. Modest taxes on foreign merchants and docking fees, are generally sufficient to supply the city's needs. Taxes are also generated by protected passage through the Flotsam Graveyard.

Absalom's economy can be divided into three basic parts: craftsmen, who manufacture goods; traders, who buy and sell physical goods; and laborers, who provide services. While craftsmen and laborers are organized into guilds that provide legal and illegal products and services, traders are prohibited from organizing to prevent collusion and price-fixing. The city's laws require that goods to be sold must be owned by a single merchant, who may operate a single commercial outlet for them.

Due to Absalom's size and scale, beasts of burden are important elements of the city's commerce and transport. Regular bench-wagons allow commoners to ride around town for a copper, and halfling porters with dog travois can be hired for a similar price. Consequently, the most prominent beast of burden is the camel, often imported from Sol Kusar; farmers use them for agriculture, drovers use them to pull wagons and chariots, and many district guards field a camel cavalry. Camel barding is more commonly available than barding for horses in the city. After camels, axe beaks are most common mount and beast of burden, faster and better able to defend themselves than camels. Dogs, lizards, elephants, and monstrous centipedes are also found; before the establishment of Hackamore House, much saddle and tack had to be custom made or ordered from dozens of shops due to the diversity of animals used in the city.

Government
Absalom is ruled by the Grand Council which is chaired by the primarch, a position currently held by Lord Gyr of House Gixx. The Council has twelve high seats (including the primarch's) and a variable number of low seats. Most of the city's administrative positions are filled by members of the Council, the more sought after titles going to members of the High Council. The position of primarch is held for life and decided upon by the High Council. It has additional privileges unique to the position granting the holder considerable power over the Council, and by corollary, the City at the Center of the World itself. Much of the day-to-day administration are handled by the district councils of Absalom. The district councils are headed by a nomarch, who is appointed by the Low Council with the approval of the primarch.

Geography
Absalom is the largest city in the Middle Sea region and quite possibly the entire world. The ice-capped peaks of the Kortos Mounts are among the highest known in the world, stretching high above treeline. Countless abandoned siege engines and constructions of war from the numerous failed attempts throughout history to take the city by force lie scattered throughout the surrounding countryside in what has become known as the Cairnlands and the wreckage of armadas of unsuccessful attempts on the city from the sea all but block the wide harbor in a mass known as the Flotsam Graveyard, which lies in the strait between Absalom and the Devil's Belly.

Districts
A city the size of Absalom could not function as a single cohesive unit, thus it has been divided or split naturally over time into a handful of distinct districts, each a city unto itself both in terms of sheer population and overall atmosphere, and each having its own district council to run its day-to-day affairs. From the high-class havens of the Petal and Ivy Districts to the dangerous and destitute districts of Puddles and Precipice Quarter, Absalom's neighborhoods run the gamut of both the economic and social spectra.

Holdings
More than just a city, Absalom controls holdings in and around the Isle of Kortos (though much of the isle remains wilderness). Although still under the control of the city-state, they function as independent communities.

Diobel, the smaller of the two settlements, is a bustling port town located on the western coast of Kortes. The town is a center of trade in its own right, acting as a hub for fishermen, traders and smugglers wishing to bring illicit goods into the City at the Center of the World via overland caravan instead of through the closely watched harbor of Absalom proper. Because of its important position as an alternative shipping route into the city, control of Diobel is very valuable and rising factions wishing to gain power in Absalom can often be seen first across the Isle in Diobel. The city is currently ruled by Scion Lord Avid of House Arnsen, a rival and childhood friend of Absalom's own Lord Gyr.

Escadar is a vital military town located on the Isle of Erran off Kortos's northern shore. Originally founded as a shipyard and warehouse to aid Absalom against naval blockades, the town quickly grew as workers and naval officers moved to Erran. Beyond its continuing function as a reserve navy for times of siege, the fair-sized military base operates throughout the Inner Sea. Escadar's governing body, the Lesser Council of retired ship captains and young relatives of members of the Absalom Grand Council, has also been known to grant letters of marque to civilian ships committed to fighting piracy in the waters around the Isle of Kortos itself.

History
Founded in 1 AR by the god Aroden when he raised the Starstone from the depths of the Middle Sea, there is nothing ordinary about Absalom's history even from its very first day in existence. Its whole-cloth creation allowed for a quick inhabitation and Aroden tasked the best and bravest from throughout Inner Sea region to protect the Starstone and prevent any from moving it.

But given Absalom's tactical positioning and its undeniable influence, countless ambitious nations or greedy warlords have set their sights upon the walls of the city over the millennia, and the guarding of the city and the Starstone within has never been easy. For centuries on end the city was besieged by one army after another, attempting to bring Absalom to its knees and wrest control of it from all others. Despite the relentless onslaught, the city has never fallen. Relics of these ongoing wars still litter the plains of the Isle of Kortos surrounding the city and sunken warships clutter the harbor.

Inhabitants
Absalom plays home to every conceivable type of inhabitant. While primarily a human settlement, members of all races, religions and homelands can be seen in (and under) the streets of the City in the Center of the World. The specific demographics of each individual district vary greatly, but there are few (if any) peoples who are not represented somewhere within the city, even the mysterious gillmen of ancient Azlant and travelers from other planes.

The earliest inhabitants of Absalom were wise and brave nobles, merchants and adventurers from the lands nearest to the Isle of Kortos. Elves are relatively uncommon in Absalom, mostly consisting of adventurers or outcasts; more common are their half-elven descendants, many of whom can be found around the Pleasure Salon of Calistria.

Many of Absalom's residents organize themselves into houses, which are similar to clans organized by national origin.

Religion
The most common faiths in Absalom are, of course, those of the four ascended gods: Aroden, Norgorber, Cayden Cailean and Iomedae. In addition to these churches, temples and shrines to Abadar, Nethys, Sarenrae, Calistria, Irori and Shelyn can be found throughout the metropolis. Abasalom is also the only civilized city where the worship of Norgorber is tolerated aside from the Devil's Belly.

Symbols
Absalom's many centuries of immigration have provided it with a dizzying array of guilds, houses, religious and martial orders, and other organizations, each with their own symbols. Absalom as a whole, however, has a number of common symbols. The city's colors are golden yellow (for the Starstone) and green (for the sea and the island's lush pastures). Absalom's mascots are the hippocampus, a horse that has fins instead of hooves, representing the island's naval power and Sea Cavalry, and the mother-sphinx. Absalom's mother-sphinx is typically presented as a winged lion with a female human head and upper body, and occasionally shown pregnant, astride a wave, or with human hands holding a scale and scepter or scroll. The city's motto is "Ex Prothex", which is interpreted to mean "From the First" or "First Among Equals". Absalom's hybrid nature and long history are reflected some of the in the foreign names for it: the Patchwork City, or the City of Buried Treasures.