Hello hello hello, as Senor Herp mentioned I'd like to try my hand at the earthquake ravaged Hightower. I'll roll with what's already allotted to Hightower: humans will remain the majority and wheat and wine are perfectly fine for trade goods.

Until I have a little more free time, probably later tonight, I'm just going to get some of my basic thoughts down regarding the nation. It's probably better that way, since if I screw something up or if something's a no-go we can catch it before I invest myself into building up a sheet.

So Hightower, as I intend to make it, will be something of a city-state which will be governed, at least officially, by a convention of prominent landowners and delegates from semi-independent boroughs. In practice things are quite different. Hightower's gendarmerie, which make up the bulk of its military strength, are under the direct control of the city's 'Imperial Castellan'. The holder of this title traditionally, in Imperial times, would act as a viceroy of sorts. An executive of imperial law and a go-between for local nobility and the Empire's rulers abroad. In modern times the Imperial Castellan is more of a dictator, however, and without a clear means of succession, such as appointment by an Emperor, the title has flip-flopped through hereditary succession to election and then right back to usurpation by force or intrigue. The relative instability at the top of the Hightower political hierarchy has not done the city-state any lasting harm just yet. After all, it takes a shrewd man to cling to the title. A fool who doesn't act in accordance with the position's mandate, as the defender of the city and its people, is unlikely to last long. It'd be self-destructive to utilize the title for personal gain, simply put, but it is coveted all the same due to the prestige and power it confers on the holder, and because it is vogue amongst the nobility to be seen as a champion of the people and the empire, even despite the empire being long defunct.

Hightower, due to its fairly strategic position, was, up until the collapse of the empire, an imperial demesne. It was from Hightower that, centuries ago, the nascent empire launched its forays into the deserts to the south and east and the jungles to the north. Hightower itself is an extremely mountainous country, particularly in the south, while the north is characterized by vast, humid, and temperate basins, valleys, and hills which have been cultivated into some of the most productive farmland in the known world. The mountains of the southern stretches of the country are a blessing in many ways, given that they are both a natural barrier against invasion and also act to keep an excess of moisture from escaping south. I figured mountains made the most sense, given the topography on the map, in which relatively green Hightower juts outwards into what is otherwise an arid, desert region.

And you're welcome to try and come over and kill us! Hightower didn't survive centuries with the neighbors it has by being populated by soft, sedentary people.