League of Althos

The League of Althos is a union of city-states in the region of Althos in Eastern Oleran.

Overview
The league is made up of 53 city-states, each with their own unique systems of government. Some are larger than others and many of the smaller states are protectorates of larger ones. The city-states all control some amount of land surrounding their main city on which peasants farm. Some states also have smaller suburbs in their domain though each state has one dominant city.

Purpose
The league was established primarily for the protection and expansion of free trade within Althos and with the rest of the world. When the League was established, a new and universal system of currency was created for all of Althos. New trade laws were created to make trade safer and more efficient. No laws are made for the entire league that do not apply to protection of the realm or trade. Anything else is up to the individual city-states to decide. Some city-states are democratic while others are oligarchic, tyrranic, plutocratic, republican, theocratic, and so forth. Some states allow women to be political actors while others ban this practice. Although there are some that call for a more united Althos with a universal law code applying to more than trade and military, most people wish to retain their local customs.

Beyond protecting trade, the purpose of the league is also to provide a strong military that protects all of Althos. The military is run by the entire league so that no one faction can control it.

Organization
Each city state has one representative for every 10,000 members of their state. Members are any living humans, male, female, adult, child, free, or enslaved. The states may choose their representatives however they deem fit. These representatives meet to determine the leader of the league, called an Archon. The Archon's duties are primarily military but also include diplomatic functions as well as overall administration of infrastructure and maintenence of roadways. He is responsible for running the beurocracy of the League which is considerably smaller than that of other governments given that the League does not have a central power base.

Military
The League of Althos has one of the most unique militaries in the world. All states in the league controbute in some way to the army and watch eachother carefull to make sure no single state has too much control. All soldiers in the army were recruited in childhood and only rarely are recruits accepted after the age of 15. The soldiers are trained at an early age to be expert warriors. They are also taken in childhood so that the individuals do not feel any special connection to one state. They are taught when they are recruited that it is their duty to protect Althos, its people and their trade.

Although the army is quite small, the soldiers are more than capable of dealing with most threats that they face. Beyond guarding the frontiers the soldiers are also used to protect trade caravans that travel all over the continent.

Most city states have their own militia forces for policing their own districts. These forces are mantained out of fear of the military becoming too powerful. Each city-state has a maximum number of levies they are allowed to have, depending on the size of their state.