Modern Korvosa
Door: Michael van Gemen
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30 Oktober 2017 | Nederland, Velden
They consider confidence and competence the greatest of assets, and they deride or heckle those who display weakness, indecisiveness, or lack of ability.
Korvosans are quick to judge and slow to forgive.
They like to capitalize words, and many feel this minor trait gives their works and creations an air of greatness and importance.
In addition to power, Korvosans love predictability. They like to regulate their lives, creating strict regimens for themselves that they then can slavishly follow.
Upsetting a Korsovan's routine can ruin his entire day and is likely to make him cranky and belligerent.
To this end, Korvosa militantly enforces its laws (which often have harsh punishments far in excess of those of other nonevil governments) and rewards those who play by the rules.
Regulation and law dominate daily life in Korvosa.
The city's charter, an officially sanctioned document created by Emperor Halleck IV of Cheliax in 4406 AR, bears 247 amendments.
These amendments add to and complicate the city's myriad laws (which no leader can modify, except by additional amendments) and are considered as binding and official as the charter itself.
In addition, a thick, multivolume body of work spells out Korvosa's many other regulations, as well as the punishment for violating them.
The complexity of Korvosan law is in some ways akin to the language of an infernal contract; overly convulated and easy for a person in power to abuse for their own needs.
By charter amendment, Korvosa does not allow, merchants, laborers, or artisans to form guilds (yet it ironically does allow for a thieves' guild, currently the Cerulean Society).
This practise prevents these groups from price-fixing and allows the city to maintain control over much of the labor force.
Most workers within the city are self-employed or work for a master to whom they apprenticed in their youths.
The city relies on these cottage industries and the skilled workers who make them profitable, so of course it has one entire volume of laws, and regulations devoted to the protection and rights of workers.
Thanks to the Korvosan drive to succeeed, though, the city's merchants also do well for themselves.
Korvosa, like any city, has its share of undesirables.
Cutpurses, thugs, thieves, burglars, assassins, and lowlifes of every sort can be found in waterfront slums, creeping in the sewers, or hiding in the tangled rooftopscape known as the Shingles.
The Korvosa Guard does what it can to keep the city's criminals from causing too much harm, but the cold reality is that crooks will always outnumber the law.
And that means some crimes go unpunished and some criminals see great success.
The worst of these, perhaps, are the city's crime lords.
Dozens of them operate in Korvosa today, from the scheming leader of the Cerulean Society all the way down to the Varisian Sczarni thugs who preside over a gang of a half-dozen friends and cousins.
These minor crime lords are often, ironically, the ones who do the most damage to Korvosa's law-abiding citizens, as larger organizations have little need to bother commoners.
One such undesirable is Gaedren Lamm, a despicable wretch who missed his chance at being somebody big in Korvosa's murky underworld.
Well past his prime, the decrepit thief abducts orphans and forces them to support his parasitic lifestyle with petty crime.
Many members of Korvosa's lower class have had dealings with Lamm, and even a few of the citys middle class and nobility have had their lives complicated by this foul old man.
Yet no matter what he does, he always seems to slip away from the guards and avoid answering for his crimes.
Gaedrens Lamm's luck is about to change, though.
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