Freiburg
No city in Eisen captures its beating, complicated, wounded heart as much as Freiburg, the Free City.
Born as a social experiment by its Eisenfürst, Niklas Träge, Freiburg is a city with few rules and a mostly disinterested government to keep it functioning. Träge saw the horrors of the War and dreamt of a city where a person could live without a yoke around her neck, without the burden of authority, and used what power he had to establish Freiburg before sitting back to watch what happened. And what came about was perhaps the most brilliant, impossible city in all of Théah.
Träge took a city, which had fallen into near ruin and with the assistance of his sensechal, Wilma Probst, he laid the foundation for merchants, architects, thinkers, scholars, organizers and powerful individuals to carve the city out amongst themselves, without any religious influence. It now stands as one of the most populous cities in Theah and is seen across the continent as city of opportunity where anyone, no matter their social standing, can go to find their fortune. Of course they can equally, and far more frequently, find a knife in their back down a back alley...
Trage is, in theory, the absolute ruler of Frieburg with unlimited power. In practice he is an extremely hands off ruler and leaves what little governing actually takes place to his assistant, Wilma Probst, who through sheer willpower and administrative genius just about keeps the city running. Fortunately this process is simplified by the fact that taxation is virtually non-existent and laws few and far between (the entire Freiburg code of laws feats neatly on three pages). The state provides only two real services for its people - a limited attempt at central record keeping and the City Guard.
Given the limited funding the City Guard are heavily reliant on donations from the wealthier citizens of Freiburg leading to very much a two tier justice system with the areas of the wealthy having personal police forces (in addition to their frequently extensive own armed servitors) and the poorer areas being largely unpoliced. Justice in Freiburg tends to be swift and brutal - there isn't the central funding for a large prison system.
For significant threats to Trage's personage or the city itself then there is also his Iron Guard, the Wachhunde. Heavily armed and armoured at all times they are fiercely loyal to Trage and Freiburg itself and are formidable opponents to any who would do the city harm.
The city itself is a sprawling affair divided into six separate districts. It is divided in half by the mighty Rostrom river which connects it to much of Eisen and even the edges of Ussura. The centre of the city is marked by it's most famous symbol, the Wachtturm, a two hundred foot high tower of bleached bone (legend would say the bones of the Drachen themselves) which has existed for longer than anyone can care to remember. It is from the top of this edifice that Niklas Trage spends his days watching his grand experiment bubble away beneath him.
