The Coin-Lords of the Iron Coast

The Iron Coast is a loose confederation of independent city-states, each ruled by a Satrap whose authority is derived from sheer economic leverage and trading savvyness. This is the Plutocratic Concordat, a political system where citizenship is purely based on your earnings, and laws are drafted as contracts. In the gleaming, brass-clad cities of the coast like Duria and Xer Tha, everything has a price.

The Satraps are not kings; they are the Chairmen of massive, state-spanning guilds, a position obtained via the gradual but absolute control of a city’s infrastructure, submitting it to their will purchase after purchase. Justice in the Iron Coast is purely transactional, with most crimes being punished by debt bondage instead of prison. A murderer does not hang; instead, their victim’s “future value” is assessed, and the killer is thus forced to work off the sum in the dangerous deep-sea mines of the region.

This pragmatic system extends to warfare. The Satrapies rarely field standing armies of their own citizens; instead, they rely on the Gilded Legions—armies of mercenaries who are paid in Jolari, a currency that is only valid within the specific Satrapy that hired them, ensuring their loyalty is as binding as their hunger.

The true power of the Iron Coast, however, lies in the so-called Contractual Magic, a mystical art perfected over the centuries, and masterfully practiced by the local scribes and lawyers. They weave binding spells into the very ink of their ledgers, and even a handshake deal in the Iron Coast is physically binding; break a contract signed, and you might find your hand withering to dust or your tongue swelling to fill your mouth. This makes the Iron Coast the neutral ground for the world’s most dangerous negotiations. Kings and warlords from rival nations meet here to sign treaties, knowing that the magic of the Satraps ensures that no truce can be broken without a terrible, visceral cost.