The City is a bustling, barely controlled
free-market. The majority of people work in the mines or in the fields. They take the Jaderail out to their workplaces at the beginning of the day, and then again to return to the city in the evening. No one lives in the surrounding countryside as the land is too valuable for mining and farming. The city borders have not expanded much in the last forty years. After the expansionary period they just stopped allowing the build outs, creating an abrupt cut off be- tween urban sprawl and nature. Virtually all expansion since then has either been upwards or built out onto the bay.
Most folks come to Kausao City seeking to “strike it rich”
by discovering a new jade vein somewhere in the mountains or building a market empire. While that is possible, only the most dedicated and ruthless have ever managed it. The rest end up dying alone in the mountains or working their life away in someone else’s mine, farm, or market stall. Most of the city is rookeries, slums, and ghettos inhabited by generations of immigrant workers. The rest of the city is warehouses, markets, refineries, and manors for the rich.
Kausao City Aspects
Everything is for Sale Only the Shrewd Thrive
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At the start of the day, whether that is a literal day or just the beginnings of a shift, a worker is awakened by an upknocker rapping at all the windows and calling the time. They then head off to work an average of twelve to fourteen hours. If they are slightly better off, some will have a job in government infrastructure, making sure the sewers still work, the roads are repaired, or the accounting is done “correctly”. The hours are worse than a miner or farmer, but the pay is better and there is a certain respectability to it.
Above those are the middle class. They generally work as specialist artisans or managers of the work force. There are never very many of them. Above them are the various aristocrats, nobles, business owners, and sundry rich folk. Above the rich are those who truly run things: the officials and the Council of Nine.
Languages
There are four dominant tongues in Kausao City: Túyangan, Aerish, Naramel, and Kaiyumi. Túyangan is the common language of the city. Everyone speaks it a little, and most speak it quite well. The mixing of these four languages has led to much cross pollination of terms and sayings from one language to another. This mix of culture and language marks a native of Kausao City as an outsider in their moth- erlands. With the level of corruption in the city, newcomers learn swiftly to adopt the lingo or mark themselves as fresh meat for confidence men and thieves.
Social Strata
The upper class live around Loch Mythus and the various markets throughout the city. They are the aristocrats, city officials, mine owners, and foreign investors. They make the rules and live in a world of constant political games and deadly intrigues.
The middle class are artisans and the overseers of the working class. They are the ones making sure the Jaderail runs on time, that the upknockers and hour-call- ers announce the various shifts throughout the neighborhoods in the city. They watch over the refineries, mines, farms, and most market stalls. Most of all, they look for an opportunity to move up in the world. They are eager and seek advance- ment in all things. Many of the horrors corruption brings are often carried out by men and women of the middle class who just want a better life.
The working class exists at a level just above destitution. Much of their life is spent working, and when they aren’t doing that they are typically eating or sleep- ing. Kausao City runs on the backs of these oppressed people, many of whom are indebted to their middle class employers, who don’t pay them enough to live on, much less make payments on time. The largest percentage or Kausao City’s popu- lation are members of the working-class.
The poor are mostly former working class who were fired from the mines or market stalls. They failed to pay on their debts, caused trouble for their employers, or otherwise just couldn’t cut it in the working world. Now they are reduced to the lot of beggars, mudskimmers, and stilt walkers. Most citizens of the city turn a blind eye on these individuals, though more than a few fear they are desperately close to joining them.
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Education
Most of the lower classes are educated in temples or churches. The rich hire private tutors and the middle class go to private schools. Most are educated until they are between ten and fourteen years of age. Only a few, even among the rich, will ever go to a university or a library to earn a Certificate of Education. That is changing more and more every year, but it is slower in Kausao City, as the city’s primary focus is on the jade industry.
Oddly, parents who have struggled their whole lives to get to Kausao City des- perately work to send their children to one of the Túyangan universities, hundreds of miles away. But the difficulty of even so simple a thing as feeding those children make this a pipe dream, at best–something everyone says they are going to do, but rarely happens.