#city-state

[arthurdrakoni]

Flag of the Free City of Hong Kong

This is the flag of the Free City of Hong Kong.  It comes from a world where Britain handed over Hong Kong to Taiwan rather than the People's Republic of China.  British leaders were able to convince both of the Chinas to allow Hong Kong to hold a referendum to decide its fate.  The overwhelming majority voted to join Taiwan.  The PRC demanded a recount, and Taiwan agreed to hold another referendum.  This time, however, Hong Kong voted to become and independent city-state.  America and Britain agreed to defend Hong Kong's independence if it were ever threatened.  Tensions ran high for a few days but, reluctantly, the PRC agreed to respect Hong Kong's sovereignty.  Though they also built a large wall along their border with Hong Kong.  The PRC claimed this was to keep Hong Kongers out, but almost everyone knew it was really to keep their citizens in.  

Hong Kong is an economic powerhouse just as it is in our world.  It maintains close relations with Taiwan.  The two nations operate a mutual immigration policy, colloquially referred to as the Free China Corridor.  As a result, Hong Kong is slightly less crowded than in our world.  Hong Kong also maintains good relations with Britain and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 

The flag symbolizes Hong Kong's mixed Chinese and British heritage.  The stripes harken back to the flag of the British East India company.  That they also resemble the America flag, and thus act like a middle finger to the PRC, is a happy coincidence.  The lotus flower represents Chinese influences on Hong Kong's culture. 

Link to the original flag on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/09/flag-of-free-city-of-hong-kong.html?m=1

[lusifernocturne]

City of Atolla

The City of Atolla is a city-state located on the Eastern coast of Lothian.

Size: City with around 24,000 within the walls and surrounding farmland. 

Attitude toward Travelers: Fairly welcoming. 

Attitude toward Players: Neutral/a little nerves 

Architectural Style: Tudor 

Visual features and quirks: Lots of sea glass and pretty smooth stones, dirt roads despite being a city, a large cave system, massive coral reef nearby, and the ocean quickly gets super deep. 

Prominent buildings: Council building, meeting house/city hall, 3 guildhalls, 1 large temple to multiple gods, 1 large temple to the god of the sea, a druid's grove in the nearby forest, and a public arena(with a strict no kill policy for fights) 

Majority Race (or melting pot): Melting pot, but has a high concentration of draconic races(kolbolds, half dragons, dragonborns, and even dragons) and outer races(Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi, ect.). Low number of humans. 

Common language(s): Common, Aquan, and Draconic are most common. Abyssal, Celestial, Infernal, Sylvan, and the other elemental languages are fairly common.

Economy Major trade in the city? Yes. 

Major exports: Elemental Crystal / Ore(water and lightning), fish, sea based gemstones, spices, local flora, and lumber. 

Major imports: Adamantine, Furs, Inks, granite, dyes, incense, exotic meats, and supplies for farming, fishing, and mining. 

Overall wealth: Fairly high

Taxation: Normally fair, but if the city is majorly damaged by a storm it can get kinda high until everything is fixed. 

Leader(s): The Council of Atolla

Police/Guards and Crime: Decent amount of guards and they mainly deal with petty crimes(thieving and vandalism). But there are still murders and such on occasion. The biggest problem is the gnolls that attack the outlying farms. 

Crime rate: Between Medium and Low 

Can they be bribed? No really, it'd be a very hard thing to do. 

How organized are they? How well-trained? How strict are they? Fairly well organized, pretty well trained, and semi strict.

Primary god(s): Mostly worship Abelus Saloninus but also worship The Phoenix Queen, The Raven Queen, Mask, and Pan.

Culture Unique traditions? Pray before ship travel. If a crew is going on a long voyage they hold a gathering at the harbor to set off the crew with food and well wishes. 

Important holidays?

They participate in the Festival of Pan from the 1st- 7th of First Seed. The Day of Tricks on the 31st of Harvestmere. Festival of the Ancestors in Wintermarch form the 20th to th 22nd.

The only fully unique event is The Festival of Atolla during the last week of Highsun(aka the last 9 days, from the 22nd to the 30th) to celebrate their independence from the Cloud Empire.

Factions

Guardians of the Vaults 

A major merchant's guild with plenty of members but few bases/guildhalls. It's main focus is to help new merchants set up and help one another grow through trade and tips. 

Allies: Shiphaulers 

Rivals: None

Shiphaulers 

Otherwise known as the sailor's guild, it is a decent sized group made up of those who spend much time on the seas. 

Allies: Guardians of the Vaults

Rivals:  Hallowed Berserkers

Hallowed Berserkers

 A small mercenary guild with a guildhall outside of the city. They don't often allow new members and are thought to worship Eve but no one is sure. What is known, however, is that they have attacked many ships. 

Allies: None known 

Rivals: Shiphaulers and Memories of the Sea 

Memories of the Sea 

A group that worships Life and Death. They make sure the families of sailors are informed of the lost or disappearances at sea, as well as make sure those loses are honored and if possible makes sure the person is laid to rest. 

Allies: Guardians of the Vaults, The Fallingstar guild, and Guardians of the Vaults(who frequently make donations to make burial possible) 

Rivals: Hallowed Berserkers 

Inns and Taverns

The Lazy Bowl tavern and inn(located in the shopping district on the higher area)

The Grim Kraken(a tavern and inn right by the docks)

The Port's Hole(A tavern, inn, and brothel all in one, located on the far western side of the city)

[mahmoud0qassas]

I am Mahmoud's wife. Unfortunately, I wanted to inform you that my husband Mahmoud was injured in the head, which caused a skull fracture that descended onto the nerves of the brain and affected the nerves of speech, hearing, and sight.

Mahmoud's condition is very critical and he must go abroad for treatment. He was injured 3 days ago and underwent surgery to clean his head. The doctors are telling us that he needs to undergo a major operation to remove the shrapnel or fix it to the skull bone so that no nerves in the brain are cut off.

Please donate and share this post widely so that we can get my husband out and receive treatment abroad.

[musicofthenightphantomoftheopera]

URGENT UPDATE ON KOSA.

This is exactly how they were finally able to pass the tiktok ban after trying for 3 years. And this is exactly what I was worried about them trying as a result. Again, all info and resources for fighting KOSA are in the pinned post on my page. Plz spread the word. Even if you don't live in america, Share this with any american friends and mutuals you have. We can still fight this bill we still have a chance at stopping it just like we have in the past. The only reason it hasn't passed yet is because we keep fighting it. Don't forget that. make sure your reps and senators don't know a moment of peace

[thoughtportal]

[finemealprompt]

DP x DC Prompt #16

When Hal had asked him which town he protected, Danny was more than happy to tell him, "Amity Park!" When Hal asked Danny where it was, Danny hadn't thought the response, "At this moment? Or where it was last week?" would've caused such chaos in the meeting.

Danny knew not everyone's town traveled across the country, but he didn't think it was odd enough to warrant this kind of reaction.

[breathtakingdestinations]

New York City - New York - USA (by Diana Robinson)

[potofsoup]

Guess who's excited to get their ballot in the mail tomorrow? Me! So I slapped together a quick comic, as well as a map based off of this and this. A list of when same day registration is available is at the bottom of this article.

But also: wow, early voting stuff is so confusing! For example, I get my ballot in the mail tomorrow, and I can immediately mail it back. But if I want to drop it off in person, I need to either go to a special ballot drop box by city hall, or wait for early in-person voting sites to open, which isn't until Oct 22nd for my state.

Or like, early voting in Louisiana is apparently from Oct 16 to Oct 29th? And then there's a week of no voting, and then polls open again on Nov 5th? Or like how the only day you can register and then immediately vote is Oct 26th?

Anyway, best way to figure out the info for your area is to check your state and county's election website. I've found usvotefoundation.org to have clear fact sheets for each state (including ID requirements, polling location finders, as well as direct links to state election websites): https://www.usvotefoundation.org/state-voter-information . You can also jump to each state's election websites via usa.gov, or by searching directly, though some websites are more confusing than others.

Happy voting!

Oh, and here's the voter registration deadlines map from last time, in case you haven't registered and want to register. Oct 7th is the last day for a bunch of states!

[hellenhighwater]

Genuinely being a single woman in my thirties, living alone, is such a mixed blessing sometimes. I do love my house and when I'm here I literally never want to leave. But on the other hand, I do get tired of leaving to go hang out with people, even though I love seeing them. Especially because I have such a great group of friends but they live all over the place, geographically, and therefore most of them don't know each other. And I actually really love hosting? But I never have people in my house because logistically it's always more practical for me to go to them than vice versa.

But sometimes I buy new old dishes and wanna just have a little fancy wizard party, but all my guests are far away. Please may I have the teleport spell. Or a high-speed commuter rail system.

[destielmemenews]

"Adams has consistently said he is cooperating with the investigations and has denied wrongdoing through the steady drumbeat of searches, seizures and departures of top members of his administration.

But as news of the indictment spread Wednesday night, he began to mount a defiant defense that he was being targeted by the federal government for his political views, adopting language similar to former President Donald Trump and other politicians accused of crimes."

"The indictment alleges illegal actions stretching back to 2014, from when he was Brooklyn Borough president.

“For nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him,” the indictment reads."

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[aestum]

(by Ismaël Jean)

[mahmoud0qassas]

A warm request to all our followers, and to everyone who can help us by donating and sharing the post

Tomorrow is Friday, which is a holy day, and I need you to stand with us because we do not have money to provide food for tomorrow. Also, my brother is injured and has been released from intensive care. The doctors asked that we feed him chicken meat to heal his wounds inside the abdomen.

This post I published is about the condition of my brother who was injured in the abdomen

Please donate and stand with us to provide food for my injured brother in the Israeli army, and also provide food for my tent and my family’s tent because we do not have any money at all, and put a smile on the faces of our children as they eat nutritious food and avoid eating spoiled canned food.

Again, if anyone is able to donate, please contribute to the following fundraising campaign:

[somepinkthing]

"Hector was a good man" "diomedes was an honorable man" BZZZT WRONG. Diomedes was there to steal, burn, and wage war same as the next person. In fact, he was pretty adamant about it. Hector had no issue with the greek's actions, merely that they were directed at him—I mean look at what he wanted to do with patroclus's body, only to then cite respect for funeral rites when it was his own turn to die. Hector also owned slaves within his own city walls—people that he likely took from their homes during troy's own conquests. All that seperated him and the greek warriors was which side they were on.

The Iliad isn't a story about morally upstanding men. Sure, it has men who have honor and perform honorable acts, but these are not good samaritans. It's is a story about war and grief and the real victims of fights between so-called-honorable men and gods. The urge to find a "good guy" in this story is wasted. Hector doesn't have to be morally good just because achilles isn't. Troy didn't lose because they were more or less evil than the greeks. It all just. Is. Because of fate? Because the gods said so? Because people will always make disastrous mistakes and it will always end up biting not only them, but everyone else around them? Who knows? In the end though, doesn't it all feel so pointless in the face of the endless amounts of grief and destruction that war leaves behind? Maybe that's the whole point

[anarchywoofwoof]

we really need to make it clear that there is no place for a “Cop City” anywhere in this country. otherwise, you’ll be living next door to one before you can blink an eye. they absolutely will not stop at New York and Atlanta.

[mythalism]

ummmm hey guys. the fade prison is.... the black city, right? the fade prison is the black city. we know that the fade prison is the black city. or at least part of the black city based on what we saw as rook when we were inside. we know the evanuris were locked in fade prison..... which is the black city. solas and lavellan are in the fade prison. solas says he is going there to study and try to heal the blight. they are in the black city together except when we see them there in the epilogue the background isn't black its......

[folklorespring]

Before it was razed to the ground by russians, Bakhmut was famous for its roses.