/lit/ - Literature

>>7077682
The world is divided into thousands of competing city states. No city state has a population exceeding a hundred thousand. Half the population lives in the capital city while the others live in nearby towns and villages that economically provide for the city.

City states engage in ritualistic warfare with each other every year to ensure the virility of the populace. The wars are fought with pre-gunpowder era weaponry. The loser has to pay a tribute to the winner, but there are no territorial changes, and no state subjugates another - the other neighboring states ensure the status quo.

Every city is ruled by a council of elders, the wisest citizens over the age of 60. Voting is restricted to citizens over the age of 40. Citizenship is only given to males who have engaged in ritualistic warfare in their youth - every year from their 15th to their 30th birthday. Only citizens, their families and property are allowed to live in the city. Indentured servitude exists and people can sell themselves to slavery to clear off their debts, but only criminals can be forcefully enslaved - a child of a slave will not become a slave.

Each city states develops its own language distinct from its neighbors and its own culture. Every city has its own religion - it can either be a native religion or a denomination of a world religion, but there is no religious authority that surpasses the borders of one state.

I think this about sums it up.