Juche

Politics

Governor: Gemstone Jade.

Juche is a major city, capital of Juche Prefecture. Every Great House has some presence here, to keep a finger in the pie of industry and mining that is the Prefecture, but none dominate it: instead, through the favour of the Empress over the centuries, the Gemstone patrician clan has emerged as the most powerful political force within the city. Their patrician status, and sometimes acrimonious relations with House Nellens, mean they guard their powerbase carefully, and have built a powerful bulwark of connections and wealth to do so even in the face of the Dynasty.

The Imperial Ministry of Jade Management and Mountain Folk Relations maintains its sprawling headquarters here, and Thousand Scales bureaucrats from other ministries are also found here in quantity.

Juche is home to an embassy of the Mountain Folk, where three Jadeborn ambassadors maintain permanent residence to represent the people beneath the Imperial Mountain in dealings with those who rule its surface.

Economy

Juche is a city of natural resources and craftsmen: it is home to vast smelters and factories for the processing of metals, stones, and jade from across the Prefecture, as well as the artisans who take such materials and transform them into works of art, armour, and architecture. In addition to its large population of citizen labourers and craftsmen, significant quantities of slaves are kept here to work the smelters and mines nearby, though the markets for their buying and selling are found along the Eastern coast closer to the Imperial City.

Water is a valuable commodity in the city, as the large population and industries both demand a great deal of it, and the city is not located close to major rivers or groundwater. City wells are often strained providing needed water when the First Age aqueduct systems slow to a trickle, as they are prone to do for days at a time every few months.

Culture

The culture of Juche has two pillars. The first is hard work, required of denizens both free and enslaved, with no time for nonsense. The second is greed, merchants and prospectors hoping to tap into the riches of the Prefecture. The city is kept clean and buildings are functional, those who find extravagant wealth moving elsewhere to spend on luxuries while those who fail utterly find little toleration of the destitute from Juche residents. The Immaculate faith is weaker here than elsewhere on the Blessed Isle, further reducing charity upon which the downtrodden can rely.

Geography

Juche is built in a circular pattern, according to the traditions of the First Age, rather than the rectangular layout of a Shogunate military camp. At the center is the Governing District, home to the large Thousand Scales offices. Ringing the district is the High District, home to Dynastic and patrician estates, including the ancestral residences of the Gemstone clan. Down a slight slope can be found the Low Districts, residences of poorer patricians and citizens, and home to the workshops of artisans. The city wall surrounds the Low Districts, with gates opening North, South, East, and West. Outside the wall can be found a sprawling expanse of smelters, factories, slave pens, and warehouses.

Juche is well connected to the road system of the Blessed Isle. The West gate opens onto the High and Winding Spine of the Dragon which leads west through the mountains, linking Juche with Lord's Crossing. The South gate opens onto the Earth Dragon Road, which curves eastward along the Great Tail of Juche Prefecture to reach the Scarlet Prefecture and Imperial City. The North gate opens onto a road leading northwest to the Steady Foundation Pagoda at the base of the Spine of the Amaranthine Dragon which leads to the summit of the Imperial Mountain. The East Gate opens onto a road which follows an ancient aqueduct system northeast to the Palace of Plunging Cataracts.