A couple of days after the visit to the dam, Leo sat in his new house’s bedroom, on a well-made and comfortable wooden chair, studying a copy of Circle Against Sickness: A Body Wielder’s Guide to Imbuing for Health. He needed to make sure that his cities didn’t turn into the equivalent of the medieval cesspools of his own world’s Dark Ages.

            His door banged open without so much as a knock, and Lily, her silver hair blown out behind her with the force of the door opening, came bounding in to his room, her white-and-green dress flowing behind her as she did.

            “Leo, it’s finally arrived!”

            “The McRib’s back?” Leo asked, widening his eyes to comical proportions.

            Lily laughed, her blue eyes sparkling. “You know your colloquialisms aren’t going to amuse anyone, so why, in Eturia’s name, do you spew just so very many when instead you should be giving inspiring oratory?”

            “It’s amusing to me.” Leo smiled. “I apologize, though; you wanted to regale me with amazing news before I waxed colloquially sardonic?”

            Lily furrowed her brow, then relaxed. “You’re still waxing sarcastic for reasons I’m sure I can’t fathom, beyond ‘you’re male,’ but enough of your inane chitchat!”

            She grabbed Leo by the arm and yanked, and he allowed himself to be pulled out of his chair, dropping his book to the seat and laughing as he was dragged out the door.

            “This way, most mouthy of rulers,” Lily said, yanked him along through his extremely modest log-cabin-style house. The bright sunlight and pleasant woodland odor that surrounded Elgin Isle greeted him, as well as waves from the few people here.

Elgin Isle had become the temporary seat of his new empire, but Leo could already tell that decision likely wouldn’t last, for multiple reasons. The eventual tree that would connect worlds and the main palace was in Star Port proper—the old capital on the east side of the empire in Old Calasti. But most of his people lived in Wheat Town, about four miles up the west side of the Blue River, or in the smaller settlement of Green Apple Grove, also on the west side of the river but nearest Elgin Isle.

            Elgin Isle was temporary, and proving to be a bad first landing site. It had no farmland, and its docks were only on the riverside, and small. Leo was going to need to move into the ruins of Star Port in the next few weeks, once he had enough of a military force to clear some of the ruins. It would be an interesting settlement for quite some time. ‘Interesting’ in the Chinese curse sense of the phrase.

Lily pulled Leo toward the government building across the street, past the ghost wolf, Helwo, who was lounging half-asleep and upside down near the wooden door into the magically worked stone building.

He found George, Felix, and Val already there, the two humans and the half-elf waiting for him, surrounding a large, wooden table with the outline of a stylized eye etched into its top. Next to it, all lashed together with twine, were seventeen crystal rods.

“Say hello to the Omnieye, which lets you look at your realm’s status sheet!” Lily said, smiling at Leo. “It’s a fascinating tool, really, especially for researchers into how mortals live together. But it can be used in my specialty as well, tracking, to a degree, populations of magical beasts, like the reintroduction you’ve been conducting—”

“It gives a status sheet, that’s true,” George said, cutting in. “But what’s important to remember is what it can’t do. It can’t pierce any illusion, invisibility, or defense against divination. Only completely undefended targets can be accounted for. So, if the Omnieye tells you that you have a base four crime rate, but you have a master Eclipse mage in your realm, you might be losing far more, with no way to even know.”

“And it only tells you the aggregate for each zone it monitors,” Felix said. “If it tells you that you’ve got a fifteen percent modifier to agriculture, it might have averaged the soil and irrigation rates. A third of the town might have only five percent, and two-thirds twenty percent, and the one-third’ll be angry about the two-thirds.”

George smiled. “Exactly. So don’t come to rely on it too much. It’s a very good baseline, but you’ll want talented ministers working, and occasionally, using your own gods-given two eyes.”

            “How does it work?” Leo asked.

            “Put your hand on it, and it’ll attune to you,” Lily said, cutting back in excitedly. “Then it’ll just show you status sheets.” She suddenly burst into laughter. “It isn’t switched for your personality, so you probably won’t get an insulting status sheet, at least.”

The others blinked, and then George and Felix chuckled. Val didn’t, telling Leo she was either very kind or, more likely, hadn’t done enough study to know about status sheets that were created by magic not from the Servants of Telos, and hadn’t gotten the kinda-joke.

“We already dropped the lashes off in Wheat Town, Apple Grove, and the center of Star Port, so it should be able to read everything you have interests in,” Lily finished.

            Leo had nothing else to say, so he stepped forward, touched the surface of the table, and focused. Almost immediately, a massive amount of information entered his mind.

Star Port Metropolitan Area		Founded year 9973 after the cataclysm of the Dark God Cyl, month of Storms, day 17.
Regional Modifiers
Blue River		+2 Trade Level This river connects the Inner Sea (and by extension, the continent spanning the Split Sea) with the Ten Lakes region, and by extension the Blue Lands. The city of Star Port sits astride the Blue River, controlling its mouth. Potentially an important trade artery.
Cliff Pass and the Great Marble Road		+1 Trade Level (Currently defunct) The only pass from the middle lands into Inner Sea region of Beldin. The elves constructed a massive, thirty-foot-wide marble road about a hundred miles to the pass and over it, as well as great bridges over the few rivers in the way.
Marble Web		+1 Trade Level (Currently defunct) A massive network of local roads connecting the lesser cities throughout the Forest of Averia with Star Port.
Calasti Tree Node		+100% agriculture for orchards. +15,000 base gold in Wyld crystals annually. +11,250(9000 base) gold in magical plants and animals base rate, unmodified by cultivation or overharvesting. A tier-3 Wyld node, this famous node is almost entirely beneficial and also allows for truly rare and magical trees in the form of treating the node area as a Tier-2 magic world for tree growth purposes only.
The Ashti Sun Node		+20% agriculture for all (increased sunlight per square foot). +1000 gold in Light crystals annually. +1000 gold in magical plants and animals base rate, unmodified by cultivation or overharvesting. A tier-1 Light node, this node is more famous for its riverside beaches than anything else.
Ygg’drasil		+1 renown. Rumors of this great wonder of the world, however weak currently, have begun to be whispered around the Inner Sea and Ten Lakes region.
City Areas
Wheat Town			A small town focused almost entirely on field farming. Node +20% additional agriculture rate locally.
	Dam and Water-Tower irrigation system				+20% agriculture locally
Green Apple Grove			A very small town focused on orchard agriculture. +100% additional tree agriculture rate locally.
Elgin Isle			A very small town focused on administration and being a safe staging area for resettlement.
Central District, Star Port			Empty but for an average of 13 transient adventurers every day.
Regional Magical modifiers
Temple of Iluvin Eturia with a Tier-1 Temple Stone			+10% agriculture rate, +25% magical beast and plant rate in Wyld nodes
Special or Magical Resources
Administrative Modifiers
George Orsini – Genius administrator, trade focus, low level			+10% trade income, +2% to all industry, +2% per capita income
Numerical Representation of the Star Port Metropolitan Area
Population (mortals and allied magical beasts)		City Size 1 (-.1% growth rate)		1309 citizens (next tier at 2000 citizens roughly)
Growth rate		+2.41%		2% base + modifiers
Domestic product		173 silver per family (50 silver base)		566 gold / year, +30% accrual rate
Tax Level: Extremely Low (0%)		0 gold / year		+.5% population growth, +20% age accrual
Industry Modifiers Metropolitan and Surrounding
Agriculture		+10% base
Mining & Quarrying		+0% base
Commercial Construction		+4% base
Luxury		+8% base
Entertainment		+0% base
Magical		+0% base
Other special
Trade Level		2 (port of note)		+.2% population growth, +4% commercial, +8% luxury, +2 happiness, +8% per capita income
Renown		1 (mildly known)		+.01% population growth
Crime		4 (base level)		-.2% population growth, -4% per capita income
Happiness		42 (30 base, 10 temp for levels gained, will fade, 2 miscellaneous)		+.1% population growth, +3% tax tolerance, +1% per capita income
Maintenance		Base		100% cost to maintain all
Effective Age		0 years / +50% accrual		No benefit
Special
Average Level: 2.3		+65% productivity increase average

 

            Leo examined the chart for quite some time, his eyes, he was sure, fuzzed out. A lot of potential here, if I’m seeing this right. This could be a veritable agricultural cornucopia, the breadbasket of this entire greater region. Although I don’t understand some things.

            “Why does it tell me I have these huge agriculture rates, but then say my base rate is ten percent?” Leo asked.

            “Base rate,” Lily said, obviously excited, “is just the rate effecting your whole region. Since the sun node has a base increase, but it only affects Wheat Town, it doesn’t get included. The temple of Iluven Eturia gets included in that number because it’s affecting everything.”

            Leo nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

            George rapped the Omnieye lightly with his cane. “That’s a further reason that you need to pay attention to the details.”

            Lily scowled. “Again, it gives you a great overview. I strongly recommend that you focus on increasing all the numbers, however.”

            Shifting to a different topic, Leo asked, “What’s ‘age’ and ‘age accrual’? How would you accrue age faster? That seems like an oxymoron.”

            “Get married,” George said with a chuckle, but no one joined in his laughter.

            Lily started walking around the omnieye, tapping one delicate finger to her chin as she did, her voice contemplative. “‘Age’ represents the effective time the city has grown unmolested, as best I can explain it. Here on Toth, because of the magic, families and businesses slowly accumulate magical items. Maybe some family saved and scrimped for years, carefully, and the patriarch of the family, a hard-working farmer, got a sleepless ring. Now he can work sixteen or so hours a day instead of twelve. So he makes more money, pays more taxes, etcetera. The things you want as the leader of a metropolis.”

            Leo rubbed his chin. “Makes sense by itself, but again, why ‘average age’?”

            “Well, our researchers have determined that cities seem to gain those magic items at a pretty standard rate. And since magic items don’t break down or decay, cities accumulate basic improvements to the populace over time.”

Felix chuckled. “Or gain rapid one-shot increases from raiding.”

Lily grimaced. “Or that. But the process of gaining magic items occurs faster in extremely rich cities, and in cities with low tax levels. But low tax cities can’t pay for services needed to grow, frequently, so it’s a bit of a balance.”

            “It’s also lost by cities that are sacked, the real reason for taxes,” Val said, her green eyes intense. She lightly smacked her right hand into her left palm. “Defense before affluence.”

            Weird, we have the same saying.

            “Well, I suppose armies are a good reason for taxes, but I was thinking more of universities and research facilities,” Lily said, frowning at Val.

            Leo figured he already knew the arguments for that, so he cut in with, “Why don’t the percentages of the family tax add up?”

            George beamed at him like a proud father. “Good eye. It’s because there are deeper levels on that statistic, involving the actual industries people are employed in. Since you have huge agricultural modifiers, and about two-thirds of the population is already growing food or commercial agricultural products, those modify the family’s income. But it can’t be distilled to a single number easily. If you focus, you can break out more detailed numbers by section.”

            Leo decided to pass on that for now.

            “So, the trade modifier is a huge benefit,” Leo noted. “But it says some of it is ‘defunct.’ Again, why?”

            Lily stopped her pacing, hanging her head slightly. “Part of Calasti’s income came from a near monopoly on trade into Stonehaven and the mid regions. But Stonehaven has gone silent. And some of the trade value came from the surrounding region, which was filled with smaller cities and towns, which have all been destroyed.”

            Note to self: Figure out what happened to Stonehaven soon and get trade with the dwarves going again. That will add considerably to the town, it seems.

            “So, what would you all advise as my next moves to increase the town’s progress?” Leo asked his council.

            George, Felix, Val, and Lily all exchanged glances with each other. Leo could already guess their preferences to a degree. But they quickly answered, dispelling any question of what they wanted.

            George harrumphed. “Agriculture and trade were what made Calasti great, and they’re what will make Star Port great. You should focus on continuing to expand the population, creating farmers with huge productivity rates.”

            “I think you should put together a magic school, perhaps on Elgin Isle once you move, and train people,” Lily said.

            “We need soldiers to protect against the Blood Tribes,” Val contributed.

            “I think you should expand your dam project and build more roads,” from Felix.

            Yeah, about what I expected.

            “All right, I’ll think about it,” Leo said.

            Val held up a finger. “You don’t have any taxes set. How do you plan to get money?”

            “We’re small enough that adventuring could theoretically fill that need,” Leo muttered. “Lily, Hugh, and I are all Level Nine, and god help me, Zir is Level Six now. I’m hoping that’ll do the trick.”

“It’ll work for a small amount of time, but that’s it,” Val said. The others nodded sagely along. “Or maybe just with a small amount of people for a long time. But if we grow, you’ll need more.”

Leo shrugged. “I’m also going to be working out deals with the Adventurer’s Guild, and I’m going to be imposing tariffs on the people using the river. That’ll easily keep us afloat till we’re larger. I’d rather keep low taxes for now, drive growth. We’ll move to a higher tax model when we have to, not a moment before.”

“Hm.”

Leo rubbed the back of his head. “I’m going to go see how our dragon is doing. Anyone need anything else?”

Lily frowned. “Is something wrong with Hugh?”

“No, but I need to think on all this, let my hindbrain mull it over. And Hugh is great for getting the main part of my attention onto stupid things.”

Lily smiled. “I suppose he is.”