Alright here we are down to Ebon-Gray and Black. Black is completely surrounded by Ebon-gray, which is a rather unusual setup for Adama. The politics between these two cities reflect their physical setup. The culture of Black is rather like that of ancient Athens. Ebon-gray is their Sparta. They have very similar cultures, but focus causes tension. They just happen to have a slightly more artistic and scholarly bent than Sparta.
The main reason Black manages to stay independent is that they are the only real land in the whole area. Plus they are very rich, and not shabby soldiers themselves. Black is a plateau of black shiny rock with grass on top. No buildings are on the plain. The whole thing is reserved for gazing cattle. The city itself is built into the interior of the plateau with the richer areas being the outside, air facing bits. Its odd in that way that the farther into the city you get the poorer it gets. unlike the other cavern and caves of Adama, these are entirley manmade, and usually less than expertly. They are smelly, stale and gross. No real method for waste removal or sanitation. Lights are rare. Its a very dank dangerous subculture in the center of the plateau.
On the outside it is a beautiful city. Shining carved black rock, with classic motifs and Ionic columns. The monied are really the only citizens that are counted. The youths put in there time in school, then in the military, and by 30 retire back home to marry and help mom and dad with the cattle business while settleing down to whatever research or craft they have chosen and the business of produceing the next generation. The generations are rather regimented, broken into 5 year blocks. Because women(they go through the same school, military schedule the men do) wait so long to have children they have fewer chances. They tend to be healthier and survive better than their younger counterparts, but it is not unusual to only have one child naturally. A form of 'adoption' is common, but is basically buying children from the poor. They are not treated as second class children or citizens either. It is also not seen as any sort of stigma against it. It is not uncommon to see a family unit where the child is clearly not related to the parents genetically.
There is a whole market for theses 'adoptions' to take place. And rather than it being shady, it is very well regulated, so as to 'protect' the children. It does actually manage to make sure slavery isn't a real issue. Families who want to adopt must be citizens of Black. They must be at least a married couple. (Group marriages and same-sex marriages are not the norm, but they are not exotic and have the same rights as any 'traditional' marriage) The adoption must be registered and the child registered in the records as a new citizen.
Unlike our world, children are more often adopted, rather than infants. Parents like to chose children that demonstrate some sort of inclination toward an interest of there own, possibly to find someone to inherit the family business if a biological child does not seem interested. Or just trying to find a talented engaging child. Competition to be that child is fierce. The monetary reward for your biological parents, plus the privileged new life is a hefty goal. Often an adopted child will hire some or all (depending on how many there are) of his biological family as servants when they reach adulthood. But before that, they don't get contact with them. Once adopted the new family is the only family.
Ebon-gray has a similar problem with their women of birthing age. This is made worse by their slightly more war-like disposition. Few want to retire from active duty and incidents that result in sterility are much more common. Unlike Black , there is no pool of poor to draw from for adoption. They resent black for closely cultivating there little starving section to pick gems from. They also resent the lack of access to it. There had been an instance of testing allowing families from Ebon-gray adopt from the pool(100 to be exact), but they didn't adhere to the strict tracking that was required. Further investigation found that in some cases the children were being put to work as slaves, or were not even in residence. Some 20 children were never accounted for and were believed to have been trafficked out of the area and and sold. That put an end to that experiment. Black needs the pool to have hope for better things. It is what keeps them tractable and controllable. If rumors had got back in that bad things were happening to the adopted ones, the whole balance could have come crashing down around the government of Black. This is the main source of conflict between the two cities.
Ebon-Gray is a moat-like lake all around Black, throughly freckled with small dark gray rocky islands. These are where the buildings are. Some are as small as a single family home others as large as New York City block. The largest can be walked across in less than 15 minutes at a leisurely pace. Few islands are further apart than 50 yards. It is almost like having a very through canal system rather than a bunch of islands on a lake.
ugh, this will have to be cont. later guys.
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