[b]Note:[/b] Read the history section first.

[b]Name:[/b] Carssos
[hider=History]The land of Carssos is barren and unarable, not replete in any sort of precious materials or resources, and is devoid of any tactically significant topography or, in fact, any kind of geography other than gently rolling hills. The first indigenous peoples there were descended from the exiles of other nations, and they survived the wastes only by forming tight-knit bands of people with disparate backgrounds. This practice eventually led to the development of their system of apprenticeship through oral tradition. Every individual was expected to pull their own weight, and often those lacking necessary skills were made apprentices to those who could teach those skills, or else sent off to join with other bands. In time, these roaming bands established a central forum site, the eventual location of the Lyceum, where the old and experienced would stay and educate the young sent to them by the roving bands - both in diverse skills, and in the oral tradition of the Carssos wastes.

Over time, as the peoples of Carssos grew more populous and spread back into the surrounding lands, they brought both their manner of teaching and oral tradition with them. Masters would not tolerate a useless, bumbling apprentice wasting their time, and would instead send them to the forum site, and thus the first foreign peoples began to cycle through the Carssos form of education and were ingrained with the oral tradition. With them resources began to trickle in to the forum, which became large and developed enough to serve as a stop for those traveling across the wastes between nations. Over the ages, as the peoples of the surrounding lands came and went through the wastes of Carssos, their accumulated knowledge and ingenuity accrued at the forum, which became ever more expansive and sophisticated.

Hundreds of years later, modern Carssos stands as the center of all academia in the land of Goethrael. It has few native people, its populace being made up of diverse casts drawn from every surrounding province. The Lyceum stands as the largest and most complete store of knowledge in the form of scrolls, tablets, books, and written text in the known world, and as the premier center of education and knowledge. The best craftsmen and most learned scholars in the land gained much of what they have from the Lyceum, and the greatest and cleverest of them teach at there, thus reinforcing the Carssos oral tradition in perpetuity.[/hider][hider=Government]A group of twelve Praetors are chosen from amongst a limited pool of recognized master academicians amongst the Carssos people, who aid and advise a single ruling Pedagogue. The Pedagogue serves for one year, and the next pedagogue is always the senior-most Praetor. In this way, every ruling Pedagogue is intimately familiar and knowledgeable with the machinations of governing the city-state by the time they ascend. Upon the end of their rule, a Pedagogue may then re-enter the Praetor council as the junior-most member, if there are no suitable replacements. Praetors are traditionally chosen by the headmasters of the Lyceum.

The Pedagogue wields only moderate authority and control over the affairs of Carssos. They are able to control city-wide zoning, allocate funding and resources to particular institutions, and regulate internal trade. They have no military authority and are actually lower in the government structure than local militia-members. The greatest source of their political power comes from their ceremonial role in the internal politics of the Lyceum, and thus the dramatic influence they have over general educational policies.

The Praetors, when they are not directly assisting the Pedagogue, often busy themselves with external fund-raising and outreach efforts and engage in correspondence with prominent figures across the land Goethrael. The majority of their influence comes from the vast network of friends, allies, accomplices, conspirators, and agents they are expected to establish and maintain throughout their career.[/hider][hider=Military - 0]Carssos has no standing military due to the nature of its dispersed populace. The city itself maintains a professional militia, and the Lyceum has its own private guard, but these forces do not even qualify as an army when combined. Carssos relies largely on its massive cultural sway and ironclad grip on the realm of higher education to ensure its safety.[/hider][hider=Culture - 5]Carssos is known to produce the best craftsmen, the greatest artisans, the most learned scholars, the most gifted mathematicians, the most innovative engineers, and the wisest philosophers. The Lyceum is the largest library and center of learning in all of Goethrael. The disparate peoples of Carssos are drawn from the heritages of the surrounding provinces and nations, bound and drawn together by the Oral Tradition of Carssos. The Oral Tradition is a grand and widespread philosophy unto itself, imposing upon the individual standards for knowledge, expertise, skill, talent, and the proper way in which all such things should be taught and passed on. The ruling body of the Pedagogue and Praetors maintain an extensive correspondence network with influential individuals and peoples throughout the land.[/hider][hider=Wealth - 1]Being a center for education and knowledge for the entire land is great, except for the fact that when you live in a barren wasteland with no indigenous people, it's hard to function autonomously. Nearly all wealth produced by Carssos through the efforts of the Praetor council, Lyceum patronage, and various government commissions is used up simply maintaining and improving upon the vast infrastructure of the Lyceum itself. What little is left over is used to purchase goods and materials from neighboring states. Carssos' economy has been kindly described as a disaster by most calculators, even within Carssos and the Lyceum itself. This is particular noted in Carssos' lack of official currency, with various forms of coin and money from surrounding territories being interchangeably used (often resulting in highly confused and disorganized logistics).[/hider][hider=Technology - 5]'All knowledge known to man can be found and taught in the Lyceum.' This is known, and so it is. The sheer concentration of experts and masters of nearly every science and philosophy in the Lyceum alone ensures that its many forums and theaters are filled with arcane devices and assemblies. Most of the annual net income of all of Carssos combined can sometimes be seen in the contents of its many classrooms, lobbies, galleries, and vaults. However, most of Carssos' technological superiority is purely abstract, or else relegated to quaint prototypes isolated in the Lyceum. There are few widespread technological innovations in the surrounding wastes. Most evidence of their prowess can be seen being put to well-appropriated use in other city-states which actually have the wealth and resources to employ such things.[/hider]
[b]Leader:[/b] Pedagogue Lucrepides

[b]Geography:[/b] Barren, desolate, unarable wasteland consisting mostly of rocky soil. The climate is temperate with both rain and snowfall, and there exist a number of rivers and large lakes which nonetheless are completely devoid of life save for migratory fish. Gently rolling hills form completely uninteresting bowls and ridges in some places. The only advantage the land possesses is its relatively central location.

[b]Religion:[/b] The religions of Carssos are all taken from the surrounding lands, and is possibly the biggest single source of contention present. The Lyceum encourages 'canalized' educations for individuals with restrictive religions that run contrary to enlightened educational paradigms, and otherwise espouses that religion is an affair private to the individual, to be observed but handled separately to the course of teaching within the Lyceum.

[hider=Strengths][b]Not Worth Conquering:[/b] Carssos is a barren wasteland. While the Lyceum itself has many great works of material wealth, these ultimately pale in worth compared to the accumulated wealth of works made by Carssos specialists in other nation-states. Its position is not tactically significant or advantageous except, perhaps, from a cultural standpoint.

[b]Diverse Natives:[/b] The populace of Carssos is made up almost wholly by the diverse heritages and peoples of the surrounding regions. The 'native' inhabitants of the land are in fact an ethnic minority. All knowledge, religions, practices, traditions, and more flows into Carssos, which renders the prospect of casual genocide somewhat difficult.

[b]The Glory of the Lyceum:[/b] The Lyceum is widely considered to be the single greatest wellspring of human knowledge in all of Goethrael. If there exists a published text, you can likely find at least one copy somewhere. If there is a profession, there is at least one Master teaching it. If there is a philosophy, there is at least one great speaker for it. 

[b]The Learned Man from Carssos:[/b] "You were taught where, my friend? I am sorry, but that will not do. It is known, the best in your field are taught in Carssos."

[b]Oral Tradition:[/b] The Lyceum teaches a self-reinforcing philosophy of learning and knowledge which binds the learned together, united by their knowledge and wisdom, in order to scorn indolence and promote the enlightenment of all mankind through the centralized depository of information that is the Lyceum. Most individuals who receive an education at the Lyceum become insensitive to their native culture and become proponents of the Carssos education system.

[b]Praetorian Network:[/b] The Praetors maintain an extensive network of informants and allies through Goethrael - what little influence they have over Carssos itself, they make up for by having pull with the right people.[/hider][hider=Weaknesses][b]Decentralized Government:[/b] The government of Carssos, compared to the governments of other city-states, is a joke. They have little to no tangible authority, and the diverse nature of the populace means that Carssos has little internal control or stability.

[b]Wasteland:[/b] Carssos is barren. Nearly all resources needed to sustain the city-state and the Lyceum need to be either purchased or traded for wholesale from neighboring powers.

[b]Disastrous Economy:[/b] It turns out having no major exports other than 'education' is bad for producing wealth. Carssos has no official currency, regularly mixing and interchanging currency from surrounding regions. Amongst other problems, this results in extremely disorganized shipping logistics and a low overall standard of living for those who actually have to live outside the Lyceum.

[b]Inflammable Semantics:[/b] Carssos has no standing army. The Lyceum is a large, sprawling structure without much fortification or garrison. The entire affair could be knocked over, pillaged, and then burnt to the ground by a half-organized warlord.[/hider]