One of the Nine Free Cities
The Free City of Akkad
Gold on every surface.
At a Glance
| Founding House | House Akkad, the original line, whose founders still look down from the murals of the central palace |
|---|---|
| Ruling House (present age) | House Faroe, a usurper house. Six generations ago a minor name; rich enough, by the sixth, to marry into a founding house in decline. The Faroe heir wed the last descendant of House Akkad, and that line did not outlive the marriage |
| Karthaav (present age) | Leopold Faroe |
| Trade | Markets and mercantile trade, including the open trade in slaves; the Akkad Mercantile Exchange |
| Sigil | The golden sun |
| Standing | Among the richest and strongest of the nine; Leopold makes a point of hosting the Table of Nine in his most impressive hall |
Overview
Akkad is the eastern Free City of gold, and it wants you to know it. Its lights glitter at night like scattered coin, its central palace is a hall of soaring ceilings and gold-leafed columns, and its architecture, the arched doorways and cool stone corridors and singing courtyard fountains that the Continent calls Akkadian, blends the tastes of east and west into something built to impress. When the karthaavs of the nine cities gather as the Table of Nine, Akkad's karthaav makes a point of hosting them in his most impressive hall, and of making sure they notice.
Akkad bears the golden sun, and it is one of the richest and strongest of the Free Cities, a power built on its markets, its Mercantile Exchange, and a slave trade it does not trouble to hide. The murals in its palace still show the founders of House Akkad in heroic poses, and they are very nearly the last trace of that line. Six generations ago House Faroe was a minor name the city would not have troubled to learn; by the sixth it was wealthy, and House Akkad, for all its founding blood, had fallen into a decline it could not arrest. What followed was not a siege. The Faroe heir married the last descendant of the founding house, a son was born to them, and the line of Akkad ended with her. The Faroes have held the seat ever since, and the murals have never been taken down. In the present age the karthaav is Leopold Faroe, a man of expanding girth and heavy rings, who rules Akkad as his family has: absolutely, arbitrarily, and with the complete certainty of a man who has never been told no.