The Jeweled Republics, as the five cities of Ebony, Emerald, Opal, Ruby and Sapphire are collectively known, is a rather interesting trade confederation. I mean that in both senses of the word: it is both a fascinating place to study as a scholar and an utter cesspit of lethal political intrigue. Each of the five cities is controlled by five matriarchal ‘Great Houses’, for a total of twenty-five across the entirety of the Jeweled Republics. They rule by committee: five per city, headed by the Domina, who also make up the ruling council for the Jeweled Republics. The head of this council is called the Serene Domina, a jest at the facade she must always put on in the public’s eye…

Prior to the Westmarch War, the Great Houses were aristocratic in nature, and ruled by hereditary right and knives in the dark known as Silencers. After that war, which not only utterly gutted the militaries of Opal, Rubay, and Sapphire, but also introduced the thought of a successful popular revolt the original twenty-five Great Houses had something of a violent shake-up. Only one house actually fell: the Gilardi family, whose matriarch had been the Serene Domina behind the Westmarch War. The aggressively mercantile Lo Bello family rose in their stead, and all of the other great houses adapted to one degree or another by shedding aristocratic trappings for mercantile and / or populist ones. Indeed, all five cities were reforged in the fires of a (minor) revolution from a loose trade association into a formalized trade confederation. One that is ogliarchal rather than truly republican or representative and dominated by the Great Houses despite the name…

It is worth noting that all twenty-five Great Houses are human, as is the majority of the Jeweled Republics’ population. As with many of the short-lived races, and with humans in particular, ambition if oft the watchword of the day. This does much to explain the intricate dance that the Great Houses endlessly perform. Groups of five, striving for the Domina’s chair, and the five Dominas scheming for the Serene Domina’s throne. Ever since the Westmarch War, that struggle has become both cleaner and more secretive as the Matriarchs of the Great Houses have learned all too well the power of the mob. They take pains to maintain strong and upstanding public images, even as their Silencers and Agents work ever-deeper in the shadows.

--Lady Ilelahne SiDabolo, in an excerpt from her work Commentaries on the Mortal Planes