The CEU

The Cooperative Elven Union - most commonly called The CEU - isn’t a country so much as it is a collection of different city states on Seishun that have long worked together. Although The CEU is known to be wary of non-elven political entities, it overall has a cooperative culture that’s welcoming of anyone.

Most of The CEU is found on a region along Seishun's western border known as Merchant's Coast. Although Merchant's Coast has a temperate environment that most would find pleasant, it borders a massive desert that the locals know to avoid.

Semdrali

As the city-state lying on the eastern coast, Semdrali has had more exposure to Vindral and Kalshan than either of the other two city states. While it remains distinctly elven in comparison to those two nations, Semdralians have a royal family with celestial heritage and other parts of foreign cultures have bled into their own. So whether someone is looking to leave or enter The CEU, Semdrali is often their first stop.

Long ago they were under The Celestial Emperor's control, but in the modern day they are independent.

Sights & Fashions

Semdralians like to wear breathable clothes with layers, which is normally made out of materials like cotton. Blue outer layers with white inner layers seems to be the current trend, but people wear clothing of all colors and often import their clothes from elsewhere. They tend to prefer simple jewelry and the wealthy overall aren't known for showing off their wealth, though naturally some do.

Many of their buildings are made out of wood, but a significant portion of limestone is used as well.

Economy

While Semdrali itself isn't known for any one export in particular, it is a place of thriving trade. As the CEU city-state most connected to the other nations, it's well known that gold flows through Semdrali any time a vessel docks in its ports.

To those living in The CEU, it's the best place to find foreign goods like guns. Meanwhile those from Vindral or Kalshan often find themselves interested in local elven goods from Venlara or Esalona.

Venlara

Sequestered within Verdant Valley, Venlara is often called The City of Flowers thanks to the many colorful flowers found all over the city. The people here revere nature above all else and have long worked to live in harmony with it, which is why animals, leshy, and other nature spirits are abundant within its borders. Perhaps this shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the city is largely ruled by a council of druids who follow a leader known as The Flower Monarch.

It's believed that Verdant Valley is blessed by nature spirits, which is why flowers and other plants grow in such abundance there.

Sights & Fashions

If someone were to describe Venlaran fashion in a single word, perhaps it would be "rustic," because even the wealthiest Venlarans tend to prefer practical clothes that were made out of natural materials found within Verdant Valley. While this can oftentimes mean furs from hunted animals, it's also common enough to see a Venlaran wearing a cloak woven from leaves. Since Venlarans largely don't dye anything either, this has meant that earthy colors are quite common there.

Houses are traditionally square or cylindrical structures made out of wood. Their sloping roofs traditionally have a thin layer of dirt on top to grow grass, flowers, and other plants, while each building is surrounded by a garden. Some Venlarans have a proper walkable rooftop garden, though this is a bit less common.

While some Venlaran gardeners cultivate foreign plants, plants native to Verdant Valley seem to thrive even without a gardener's help.

Economy

Amongst the elven city-states, Venlara is easily the poorest. The city-state itself is land locked, which has certainly deterred visitors from Darjal or overseas locations. But even many traveling over land see it as nothing more than a detour on the road from Semdrali to Esalona.

Yet despite its overall lack of trade in comparison to its neighbors, Venlara is famous for being home to unique herbs and elixirs that can't be found anywhere else. This has made it a popular location for alchemists, scholars, and even the chronically ill, who sometimes arrive in the region seeking a miracle cure for their afflictions.

Esalona

As the city-state bordering the Seishunese West, Esalona is largely responsible for defending the people of Merchant's Coast from the wilderness. While considered a pleasant place to live, only those with a Citizen's Mark - a magical tattoo signifying their citizenship in Esalona - are considered citizens and afforded the privileges that entails. Nonetheless, Esalonians will welcome any non-citizen with money within Esalona's walls and anyone without is welcomed outside of them.

Sights & Fashions

Within Esalona's walls, even the poorest citizen tends to prefer clean clothes that are brightly-colored and loose-fitting. Rich people who want to show off their wealth might wear gaudy jewelry or clothes of much higher quality material, such as silk. However, some particularly ostentatious individuals have been known to wear robes made of materials like gold or even dawnsilver.

This preference for cleanliness does seem to extend to more than fashion. While Esalonians can be quite forgiving of foreigners visiting their city, a person covered in filth can still expect to be prestidigitated at some point. They are preoccupied with cleanliness enough it's been said before that if a drunk were to piss in an alley late at night, it will have been cleaned up by the next morning.

But while things can seem overly sanitized within Esalona's walls, the sights outside of them are far more standard for what one might find elsewhere on Merchant's Coast. Not every farmer can be bothered to dye their clothes bright colors and non-citizens simply aren't held to the same standards citizens are, so while loose fitting robes are a bit of a staple throughout the city-state, the cleanliness and bright colors are unique to the city itself.

Economy

Despite being a coastal city, Esalona's location makes it so that it rarely receives visitors from overseas. Instead most coastal trade is done between between Darjal and other coastal settlements in The CEU.

Thanks to being possibly the biggest exporter of dawnsilver in all of Asha, the city of Esalona itself is very wealthy. However, because most of Esalona's profits are invested into the city itself, the places outside Esalona's walls tend to be much poorer in comparison.