My fellow precious Lokans, it's that time of year when I speak out against the maniac named Dhanri. This time, I have more evidence and logic to support my claims, which the admin team dismissed last I posted. After carefully studying the Aladran Island, including its suburbs near the Artifact, the Museum, and the new Ocean Content. This will also include a thorough analysis of the geography of Aladra, as well as the industries and services that are on the island. We won't leave anything undiscussed, including the political and cultural landscapes that have formed over the past 8 years since the first Slicers traveled to Char activating the artifact.
Eastern Artifact Range I would like to point to as the Mountains here aren’t normal, I believe that right here is a dormant volcano, and the top blue off a long time ago, just to be resealed as time continued on, before the Volcano moved further south towards the Central Range, exposing a large cavern underneath to the sea, which eventually seeped in, Something eventually created the Artifact later on. This is only a theory, but one to be tinkered with further.
One last thing to note, the cliffs of the Northern Mountains take an abrupt turn when they meet the ocean, with a beach normally preceding such endeavors.
The range is separated into these three different mountain clusters, as the mountains in these clusters are often in a slightly curved line. The Central Valley section mostly separates them, as this is the land which, while still hilly, is separate from the mountains that soar around it.
Based on my theory, the dormant volcano under Aladra has moved under this range. It is likely positioned directly beneath the Central Valley, with smaller parts extending towards the three mountain clusters, resulting in their stunted appearance. All the mountains still have jagged peaks, unlike the Artifact Range, as they are still relatively new.
The two major bodies of water include a small lake that is formed by a waterfall forming from the inside of a mountain (how? No one can tell, possibly from the Artifact’s crazy properties). The second body of water is a larger lake at the bottom of the largest valley, it is unknown how water seeps from this area out, as the lake remains at the same fill without overfilling into anything else.
There are three valleys, two small and one major. The Major valley is in the center of the Region and holds the lake. Holding two separate depressions, however, one is negligible and has an amount of sand in it that makes no sense for it being there. The first minor valley occurs just northeast of this major valley, the valley contains no evidence of a lake or any form of erosion. The second valley is where the water from the westernmost lake in this region is retained before flowing into the Bay of Aladra.
Finally, there are three major hills in this region that don’t include the slopes towards the two mountain ranges. The first is a small yet noticeable bump in the land between the two lakes that separate the two valleys, how this came to form is unknown, however, it could be due to the lava outflow from the Volcano theory. The second separates the major valley from the Eastern Half of the island and the coast of Eastern Aladra. This hill is the biggest on the island. The final major hill is on the eastern side of the Region, just east of the Artifact Range, its not the slopes of the mountains as it rises to a height not possible due to rain erosion, and could’ve been a possible continuation of the Range before the Volcano moved.
I divided the area into three separate sub-regions, the Grand Valley, which is everything east of the biggest lake, the Eastern Slopes, which include everything in the North Eastern Portion of the land, as it all slopes down to the ocean, and the Hill, which consists of everything else.
The Northern Foothills consist of all the non-level land of the area, while the Western Flats consist of the very leveled land. Several rock formations dot this area.
The area would be divided into four different sections, the Plateau, Plateau Reach, Bay Coast, and the Western Peninsula. The Plateau would consist of a flat piece of elevated land fitting snuggly between the Central Ranges. The Plateau Reach would be everything south of the creek and reach until the Plateau. The Bay Coast would consist of almost everything north of the creek, while the Western Peninsula would account for all the land that extends into the Bay of Aladra
With this all mentioned, it is time for the next topic, do not fret, I will bring up why this is useful later on.
Speaking of modern tools, it is noticed that any tools that could be provided to the lumberjack aren’t there besides a crane just south of his lumber mill. No carts or replacement axes or saws seem readily apparent when the KOSG (Kaleno Occupational Standards Group), and the only way the lumberjack seems to make money is by selling his own patented bows, which is rare and far in between as no sane Loka Player will buy a leaf cutter.
It is safe to assume that the lumber mill and the logging industry, in general, are woefully under-equipped and have very little opportunity for growth in the stagnant Aladran economy. It would also be safe to assume that the lumber mill is currently in heavy debt that is being subsidized by the state.
Although it has more equipment than the Logging industry and can easily produce products, it would barely break even, due to the events that the only fisherman hosts, which is endorsed by the state of Aladra. The resident fisherman Frodii hosts fishing tournaments every three days that take taxpayer dollars to keep up to standard. It is very hard to assume that one fisherman is able to hold the entire cost of these events, and is not running a deficit.
Due to this, the industry is running a deficit that can’t be fixed unless by government subsidies. This creates a stagnant industry that barely grows as time goes on.
Being quite understaffed and undertooled, the industry isn’t working to its most efficient state, although it could easily be assumed it is at the very least breaking even unless if the land is being rented, which I heavily doubt it is. It is able to give some money to the government, but not enough to justify its expansion in the eyes of Aladra.
He also sells armor, however, it is unlikely that anyone purchases this armor on such a scale as his Ancient Ingots, which is his Bread and Butter. It isn’t unreasonable to assume that the extreme profits made here help to keep the other businesses afloat in Aladra.
This means that only 79.5% of Aladrans have a bed to sleep on, and of this 79.5%, only around 31.9% of the population has access to bedding that isn’t a sleeping cot or bad sprawling across the ground or out in the open. That means only 25.4% of the total population has adequate sleeping conditions.
For Occupations, of the 67 Aladrans, we know 43 of them at least have jobs, leaving 24 with occupations unknown. It is heavily unlikely that all 24 Aladrans don’t have jobs, however, it can be easily assumed a fraction of them are jobless. I haven’t seen Mason ever get off that mountain after all. Of the 24 Aladrans, most belong to the shipping service, but their jobs aren’t stated, leaving us with a possible 4 Aladrans with no job, or roughly 5.9% of Aladrans having no job.
First, we need to understand how towns run, and how the leaders remain in power. The most important aspect of government is the money, and the keys to power. For this, Aladra definitely has money, not only does the sale of resources to Neven by the Continentals help to raise a large amount of treasure, but also the sale of ancient ingots by Lenrith. These two would be Dhanri’s most important keys to power, after all, they get him his money. Neven buys the resources way below market value (a diamond is worth like 74 shards on the market).
Lenrith on the other hand, would like to keep his money, but he sees the importance of having no competition, so he bribes Dhanri to keep the citizens poor. After all, the Aladrans don’t buy his armor; the continentals do. He wants little competition so he can keep his prices high, so a decent cut of his sales goes to Dhanri.
Now that Dhanri has the money, he now needs more keys to power, and that's where the service providers for Aladra come in. Three main keys keep the mayor in power: the military, the previously mentioned money-makers, and the continentals. Each of these keys to power has interests which Dhanri has easily made sure to provide for and more.
The first key is the military, which is seen to be quite large (25+% of the town population), and quite well-armed. Each soldier is provided with a full set of iron armor, chainmail, and leather, not to mention swords, shields, axes, and shovels. This high budget is to satisfy the army and make sure it doesn’t attempt to overthrow Dhanri. Dhanri would throw another piece of candy to the military by giving them an entire military outpost just west of the main city.
He would make sure the Guards are properly hidden, as in you can’t see who is hiding beneath the helmets, to create a more cohesive military, and dehumanize them. This is to make them more likely to attack those who threaten his power, as well as threaten the citizens into compliance. If your enemy doesn’t seem to have emotion, you wouldn’t wish to fight them, especially if they are in large enough numbers.
The second keys are both Neven and Lenrith, both provide the money to dictatorship. Lenrith wishes for no competition, and Dhanri is making sure of this, by providing Lenrith with the necessary tools, while stripping any industrial competition of theirs, which is why Frodii is one of few people able to succeed in this environment, he doesn’t provide a fair enough competitor. Neven is a plant for Dhanri, he simply gives money away to those who give him goods, which are then sold on the open market at highly inflated prices. This gives a great profit to Dhanri with some going to Neven.
The third key, is the continentals, aka the people who don’t reside on Aladra, (from Garama, Ascalon, and Kalros). The reason the continentals are key to power is because they all recognize one person as the true Mayor/leader of Aladra, and this power gives him a sort of credit that even if every single Aladran hates him, he will still be in power. So he tries his best to keep this large set of keys loyal, with many extra services given to them.
An example of these services is the daily blocks, which is an extremely costly endeavor, blocks aren’t free, yet he gives them away to all continentals who bother to go to Aladra and collect them. He also provides free shipping to all, it would be extremely costly to run a free shipping service between continents since most boats crash on foreign shores, but this enterprise is free except for time for the continentals. They can transport pretty much anything on these boats at no cost.
Frodii’s Tourneys is another great showing of this, it keeps continentals from realizing the true dystopia that Aladra is in, by focusing on a competitive event between them all, with opportunities to win cash and rare items, even titles. The Fishing Tourneys aren’t cheap either, as constant heavy maintenance has to be done as they are located on the rejuvenating resource isles. Melchiott’s free bread is even a service that is offered to players to help keep them loyal.
The Library, market, museum, Cap Halls, and even the blacksmith are more examples of services offered to players that keep them entertained and unknowingly distracted from the more distraught parts of the island. Of course, Aladrans can use all of these services, but they don’t, and that's because they are being held hostage on this island by the military to keep rumors from spreading about the deplorable conditions that they inhabit.
The reason why he wants to keep this key to power loyal, the continentals could easily overthrow his measly island in a fight, even if just one of their PvP-inept towns like Tican or Vinovia. This is working, as whenever quests occur, who do the players normally talk to first? Dhanri!
With the control of these three keys in his pockets, he’s effectively able to ignore the common of Aladra, letting them live in these disgusting conditions because he didn’t care about their well-being, they didn’t provide him power, but they can still take it away, so he restricts much of their social mobility so they remain poor and unable to rise against him. This explains why he's been in power for so long without any re-election.
Now here comes the argument against him, and why I think he is refusing to move forward. He has several opportunities to expand all businesses, but only one business expands during the Slicer Occupation of Char, and that's the blacksmith. This is because of a recent questline that was released where if you explored ruins and brought back those weird gold trinkets, Lenrith rewarded you.
Some examples are expanding the agricultural sector by utilizing the vast stretch of land across the Bay of Aladra, which could be ranching, farming, or possibly both, however, it isn’t used.
- Connecting roads to the two outlying suburbs, roads can go a long way to improving the economic situation anywhere, especially if roads do not exist there already.
- Build a dam and reservoir in the Valley’s Region, water will rack up there, and the resulting energy can be used to power farms and industry or provide fresh drinking water in case anything happens with the Artifact.
- Allowing immigration, the population of Aladra barely grew during these years, despite the populations of the continents increasing, more people equal more money.
- Diversify the industries, have a stronger mining and lumber sector, and perhaps have a factory or two to help convert raw resources into more exotic goods.
- Improve the education and political institutions on the island, a more educated and interactive populace will help to build forth a better island and promote healthy relationships within.
Dhanri could’ve done any one of those things over the last eight years, he even rebuilt Aladra, but nope. He didn’t, the situation arguably got worse for him. After the Arrival, a newly created Slums District was built, which really signifies the horrors of finance that are ongoing between citizens and government.
Dhanri has built Aladra to his dream, however, it doesn’t stand as a Utopia, instead it stands as a Disaster waiting to happen, built on a house of cards waiting to fall over in the case of any economic situation collapsing, whether that be a trade embargo with the continentals or a military uprising. Aladra is on thin ropes, it could easily fall into an economic depression which would be hard to build itself out of whilst having Dhanri retain his reputation as the friendly neighborhood mayor. Aladra is in a ton of financial trouble if a leg collapses, and would easily witness either a military coup, or Dhanri being thrown out of office literally.
Do not believe a word of the Master Manipulative Mayor, for he runs a house of lies and deceit, a dictatorship underneath the robes, one that ruins the lives of everyday Aladrans, and makes it more difficult for them to move on. Fight for a Better Aladra, and take down the Establishment! Long Live Preksak!
Any questions? Feel free to ask!
Geography:
The Geography of Aladra, is both a curse and a blessing to the people who live upon it. The Island consists of many mountain and Plain Regions, and each plays a critical role for the island. In describing the land, I will ignore all artificial features, including paths, tunnels, bridges, and buildings. However, I will consider them at the end of the section..Northern Mountains
Aladra's Northern Mountains are the highest on the island, with six main peaks and some smaller plateaus. Inside the Mountain range is a large hollowed cavern where the Artifact conveniently places new people. The Artifact is also placed here, helping to form. The "Artifact Range," as I will call it, is divided into two sections: a larger western section and a smaller, but taller, eastern section..Eastern Artifact Range I would like to point to as the Mountains here aren’t normal, I believe that right here is a dormant volcano, and the top blue off a long time ago, just to be resealed as time continued on, before the Volcano moved further south towards the Central Range, exposing a large cavern underneath to the sea, which eventually seeped in, Something eventually created the Artifact later on. This is only a theory, but one to be tinkered with further.
One last thing to note, the cliffs of the Northern Mountains take an abrupt turn when they meet the ocean, with a beach normally preceding such endeavors.
Central Mountains
The Central Mountain Range of Aladra is the largest mountain range on the island and consists of ten major peaks across the entire range. No major plateaus exist unless you count the fabricated ones with several ponds dotting this range. Due to the central location of this range, I will be referencing it as the “Central Range”, with four major formations taking charge. The Northern Central Range, the Eastern Range, the Southern Range, and the Central ValleyThe range is separated into these three different mountain clusters, as the mountains in these clusters are often in a slightly curved line. The Central Valley section mostly separates them, as this is the land which, while still hilly, is separate from the mountains that soar around it.
Based on my theory, the dormant volcano under Aladra has moved under this range. It is likely positioned directly beneath the Central Valley, with smaller parts extending towards the three mountain clusters, resulting in their stunted appearance. All the mountains still have jagged peaks, unlike the Artifact Range, as they are still relatively new.
Valley Region
The Valley Region of Aladra is the area of hills, valleys, and lakes that are between the two major Mountain Ranges. There are two major bodies of water, three major valleys, and three major hills in this region. The area is also noticeably very forested with tropical treesThe two major bodies of water include a small lake that is formed by a waterfall forming from the inside of a mountain (how? No one can tell, possibly from the Artifact’s crazy properties). The second body of water is a larger lake at the bottom of the largest valley, it is unknown how water seeps from this area out, as the lake remains at the same fill without overfilling into anything else.
There are three valleys, two small and one major. The Major valley is in the center of the Region and holds the lake. Holding two separate depressions, however, one is negligible and has an amount of sand in it that makes no sense for it being there. The first minor valley occurs just northeast of this major valley, the valley contains no evidence of a lake or any form of erosion. The second valley is where the water from the westernmost lake in this region is retained before flowing into the Bay of Aladra.
Finally, there are three major hills in this region that don’t include the slopes towards the two mountain ranges. The first is a small yet noticeable bump in the land between the two lakes that separate the two valleys, how this came to form is unknown, however, it could be due to the lava outflow from the Volcano theory. The second separates the major valley from the Eastern Half of the island and the coast of Eastern Aladra. This hill is the biggest on the island. The final major hill is on the eastern side of the Region, just east of the Artifact Range, its not the slopes of the mountains as it rises to a height not possible due to rain erosion, and could’ve been a possible continuation of the Range before the Volcano moved.
I divided the area into three separate sub-regions, the Grand Valley, which is everything east of the biggest lake, the Eastern Slopes, which include everything in the North Eastern Portion of the land, as it all slopes down to the ocean, and the Hill, which consists of everything else.
Plains
The Plains Region of Aladra can be easily separated into three sub-regions which are large enough to have their own sub-regions. The majority of these plains take up what is the remaining land of Aladra, and takes up mostly the South and West of the Island. There are three major regions of the Plains, the Western, Southern, and Eastern PlainsNorthern Plains Peninsula
This area of the Plains is by far the flattest of the two, but also the smallest. The area is quite forested with tropical trees and is divided into two main sections. The Eastern Foothills and the Western FlatsThe Northern Foothills consist of all the non-level land of the area, while the Western Flats consist of the very leveled land. Several rock formations dot this area.
Southern Plains
The Southern Plains can be easily defined by its semi-forested land, and it being the least flat of the three major plains areas. The area can also be defined into three separate areas, the Roughs, the Southern Shore, and the Flats. The Roughs consist of everything East of the Eastern Range, this area is also not forested. The Southern Shore consists of everything south of the Central Range and is semi-forested, it is also the steepest of the major plains area disregarding the obvious foothills. The Flats is everything else and is not forested.Western Plains
- Before I begin, this is the hardest section of Aladra to get with 100% accuracy due to the high development of this region.
The area would be divided into four different sections, the Plateau, Plateau Reach, Bay Coast, and the Western Peninsula. The Plateau would consist of a flat piece of elevated land fitting snuggly between the Central Ranges. The Plateau Reach would be everything south of the creek and reach until the Plateau. The Bay Coast would consist of almost everything north of the creek, while the Western Peninsula would account for all the land that extends into the Bay of Aladra
Major Water Features:
Aladra is an island, and therefore it is pretty obviously surrounded by water, the Radiant Tides Ocean. There exist several lakes and ponds across the island, however, one big water feature stands out, the Bay of Aladra, which is surrounded on both sides of its entrance by the Northern Peninsula and the Western Peninsula.With this all mentioned, it is time for the next topic, do not fret, I will bring up why this is useful later on.
Development
Aladra is a far cry from what it used to be before Dhanri arrived. The island has seen numerous developments including several industries, services, and housing.Industries
The health of any town or nation can be easily identified by how diverse its industrial system is, and in this regard, Aladra has several industries to choose from.Logging
The logging industry of Aladra supplies one full-time Lumberjack with a sawmill to undersee the necessary requirements for maintaining the city of Aladra, however, it should be noted that the industry doesn’t see further growth as forestry on the island is heavily limited, and in places, it is hard to reach with more modern tools.Speaking of modern tools, it is noticed that any tools that could be provided to the lumberjack aren’t there besides a crane just south of his lumber mill. No carts or replacement axes or saws seem readily apparent when the KOSG (Kaleno Occupational Standards Group), and the only way the lumberjack seems to make money is by selling his own patented bows, which is rare and far in between as no sane Loka Player will buy a leaf cutter.
It is safe to assume that the lumber mill and the logging industry, in general, are woefully under-equipped and have very little opportunity for growth in the stagnant Aladran economy. It would also be safe to assume that the lumber mill is currently in heavy debt that is being subsidized by the state.
Fishing
The Fishing Industry of Aladra supplies one full-time Fisherman to undersea the safe and secure job of providing seafood to the populace. (It should be noted food isn’t a necessity in Aladra due to the Artifact keeping everyone’s stamina high.) The industry is very small for an island-based economy and has no dry-docks or dockyards to maintain and construct a fleet of boats.Although it has more equipment than the Logging industry and can easily produce products, it would barely break even, due to the events that the only fisherman hosts, which is endorsed by the state of Aladra. The resident fisherman Frodii hosts fishing tournaments every three days that take taxpayer dollars to keep up to standard. It is very hard to assume that one fisherman is able to hold the entire cost of these events, and is not running a deficit.
Due to this, the industry is running a deficit that can’t be fixed unless by government subsidies. This creates a stagnant industry that barely grows as time goes on.
Farming
Despite food not being a necessity for most Aladrans, in part due to the Artifact, it is still an industry on Aladra. The Agriculture Industry of Aladra supplies one full-time farmer to tend the three main fields and berry bush farms across Aladra. The industry is still very small for a population of 60+ NPCs, and wouldn’t be prepared if anything occurred to the artifact that erased their over-dependant and privileged lives.Being quite understaffed and undertooled, the industry isn’t working to its most efficient state, although it could easily be assumed it is at the very least breaking even unless if the land is being rented, which I heavily doubt it is. It is able to give some money to the government, but not enough to justify its expansion in the eyes of Aladra.
Culinary
The Culinary Industry of Aladra is very small, consisting of only Melchiott the Baker, however, due to his business philosophy, he is most likely receiving heavy dividends to be able to keep his business afloat.Fashion
The Fashion Industry of Aladra mainly only focuses on allowing players cool-looking banners, and would be assumed to be breaking a profit, although with how small the field is, and no dedicated shop, this is to be assumed a near non-existent state of breaking even. Supplies one Fashion Designer for the island, and is mostly aimed at foreigners.Military
The Military Production Industry, which provides tools and weapons to the Aladran Military is severely lacking, as it consists of one employee located in the Slums. The Weapons and armor sold do not justify anywhere near the profit of after breaking even due to political factors I will jump on later.Blacksmithing
The Blacksmithing Industry is one of the few Industries that I would argue breaks a profit, due to Lenrith’s creation of the Ancient Ingot, he was for a while able to afford an apprentice who helped him expand his industry, this industry makes the most money for Aladra, and is most likely lightly taxed by Dhanri.He also sells armor, however, it is unlikely that anyone purchases this armor on such a scale as his Ancient Ingots, which is his Bread and Butter. It isn’t unreasonable to assume that the extreme profits made here help to keep the other businesses afloat in Aladra.
Services
Free Shipping
The Shipping Service is by far the most expansive service Aladra provides, as over 8 ships bring Players from around the world to Aladra and other islands, connecting them in one unique spot making it easier for everyone to interact and trade. The shipping service is free despite the costs of running 8 ships with 20 people working to make sure everything and everyone makes it to their destination on time and without hassle.Dailies
An initiative that provides hundreds of players with free items every day, this is not a cheap endeavor, as expensive items such as gold, iron, and diamonds are given away here for basically free, along with other rare items such as glowstone and prismarine.Library
A Fully-fledged four floor Library filled to the brim with books, 5 Librarians, and a staffed team that checks to make sure the books are suitable for everyday consumption. Another costly endeavor to maintain and run.Museum
The Aladran Museum holds artifacts from previous worlds for others to see, it is staffed by a museum curator and a pair of guards.Capital Halls
Three giant palaces of Stone and wood sit up top Aladra overlooking the city and its slums, the area is kept clean by a presumed gardener and is protected by elite Aladran Guards who stand uptop the Palaces watching as towns trash the Capital Halls. Due to this, it can be easily assumed that these ensure a heavy cost for the government of Aladra.Graveyard
Aladra hosts a graveyard, albeit mostly useless now due to the lack of permanent death, it is still a cheap service that is provided to Aladrans, that even hosts its own graveyard keeper.Military
The Second Largest Service, the Military of Aladra consists of 18 troops of multiple tier that guard Aladra from the outside, due to the size of the military compared to the size of the population of the island (67), it is assumed this requires a heavy military budget.Trade
Aladran Trade is by far the most numerous than any other alliance put together, it is the meeting place for most deals and has the only known worldwide market.Living Conditions
The minimum acceptable living conditions for the state of Aladra would be the requirements for bedding and shelter, and at this, Aladra fails miserably. Of the total population of Aladra, 67 NPCs, there are only between 48 to 56 beds in Aladra. There are a total of 40 known beds, however, several buildings don’t have interiors so I just took the average, which would be a total of 53.28 beds in all of Aladra.This means that only 79.5% of Aladrans have a bed to sleep on, and of this 79.5%, only around 31.9% of the population has access to bedding that isn’t a sleeping cot or bad sprawling across the ground or out in the open. That means only 25.4% of the total population has adequate sleeping conditions.
Financial Health
The Financial Health of most Aladrans is to be quite frank, appalling, ¾ of the population not having access to basic bedding should be a wake-up call to the situation that many face, as they have to deal with deteriorating conditions in the Slums or homelessness. It can easily be assumed that at least 15% of Aladrans are homeless, and this includes those who live in tents.For Occupations, of the 67 Aladrans, we know 43 of them at least have jobs, leaving 24 with occupations unknown. It is heavily unlikely that all 24 Aladrans don’t have jobs, however, it can be easily assumed a fraction of them are jobless. I haven’t seen Mason ever get off that mountain after all. Of the 24 Aladrans, most belong to the shipping service, but their jobs aren’t stated, leaving us with a possible 4 Aladrans with no job, or roughly 5.9% of Aladrans having no job.
Culture and Society
Culture
Aladra is a nation of people who wish to be separated from the bloodbaths of Garama, Ascalon, and Kalros. They are people who don’t wish for conflict and often try to stray towards ideologies that favor that. They are politically isolated but economically tied to the rest of Char. They don’t have a special culinary tradition as the other continents do, due to a lack of any requirement to eat. They do however believe in a national redoubt, where they will become a fortress if necessary, as noted by the size of their military and Military Production industries compared to the total population of Aladra (18+1/67) (28.4%) of the total population, as well as including the equipment and budget to pay these people.Politics
The political scene in Aladra is practically non-existent as no one wishes to challenge Dhanri, or they are simply unable to. No election has happened since the Slicers first arrived 8+ years ago.Conclusion
Now that I’ve discussed the Geopolitical Landscape that is Aladra, I will speak of why I wrote about this, I see Dhanri not as the loving mayor everyone cares for, but as a dictator, plain and simple. Now that I’ve said all the needed background, it’s time to connect the dots. It is plain as day that Aladra is in a very poor condition, this is undeniable.First, we need to understand how towns run, and how the leaders remain in power. The most important aspect of government is the money, and the keys to power. For this, Aladra definitely has money, not only does the sale of resources to Neven by the Continentals help to raise a large amount of treasure, but also the sale of ancient ingots by Lenrith. These two would be Dhanri’s most important keys to power, after all, they get him his money. Neven buys the resources way below market value (a diamond is worth like 74 shards on the market).
Lenrith on the other hand, would like to keep his money, but he sees the importance of having no competition, so he bribes Dhanri to keep the citizens poor. After all, the Aladrans don’t buy his armor; the continentals do. He wants little competition so he can keep his prices high, so a decent cut of his sales goes to Dhanri.
Now that Dhanri has the money, he now needs more keys to power, and that's where the service providers for Aladra come in. Three main keys keep the mayor in power: the military, the previously mentioned money-makers, and the continentals. Each of these keys to power has interests which Dhanri has easily made sure to provide for and more.
The first key is the military, which is seen to be quite large (25+% of the town population), and quite well-armed. Each soldier is provided with a full set of iron armor, chainmail, and leather, not to mention swords, shields, axes, and shovels. This high budget is to satisfy the army and make sure it doesn’t attempt to overthrow Dhanri. Dhanri would throw another piece of candy to the military by giving them an entire military outpost just west of the main city.
He would make sure the Guards are properly hidden, as in you can’t see who is hiding beneath the helmets, to create a more cohesive military, and dehumanize them. This is to make them more likely to attack those who threaten his power, as well as threaten the citizens into compliance. If your enemy doesn’t seem to have emotion, you wouldn’t wish to fight them, especially if they are in large enough numbers.
The second keys are both Neven and Lenrith, both provide the money to dictatorship. Lenrith wishes for no competition, and Dhanri is making sure of this, by providing Lenrith with the necessary tools, while stripping any industrial competition of theirs, which is why Frodii is one of few people able to succeed in this environment, he doesn’t provide a fair enough competitor. Neven is a plant for Dhanri, he simply gives money away to those who give him goods, which are then sold on the open market at highly inflated prices. This gives a great profit to Dhanri with some going to Neven.
The third key, is the continentals, aka the people who don’t reside on Aladra, (from Garama, Ascalon, and Kalros). The reason the continentals are key to power is because they all recognize one person as the true Mayor/leader of Aladra, and this power gives him a sort of credit that even if every single Aladran hates him, he will still be in power. So he tries his best to keep this large set of keys loyal, with many extra services given to them.
An example of these services is the daily blocks, which is an extremely costly endeavor, blocks aren’t free, yet he gives them away to all continentals who bother to go to Aladra and collect them. He also provides free shipping to all, it would be extremely costly to run a free shipping service between continents since most boats crash on foreign shores, but this enterprise is free except for time for the continentals. They can transport pretty much anything on these boats at no cost.
Frodii’s Tourneys is another great showing of this, it keeps continentals from realizing the true dystopia that Aladra is in, by focusing on a competitive event between them all, with opportunities to win cash and rare items, even titles. The Fishing Tourneys aren’t cheap either, as constant heavy maintenance has to be done as they are located on the rejuvenating resource isles. Melchiott’s free bread is even a service that is offered to players to help keep them loyal.
The Library, market, museum, Cap Halls, and even the blacksmith are more examples of services offered to players that keep them entertained and unknowingly distracted from the more distraught parts of the island. Of course, Aladrans can use all of these services, but they don’t, and that's because they are being held hostage on this island by the military to keep rumors from spreading about the deplorable conditions that they inhabit.
The reason why he wants to keep this key to power loyal, the continentals could easily overthrow his measly island in a fight, even if just one of their PvP-inept towns like Tican or Vinovia. This is working, as whenever quests occur, who do the players normally talk to first? Dhanri!
With the control of these three keys in his pockets, he’s effectively able to ignore the common of Aladra, letting them live in these disgusting conditions because he didn’t care about their well-being, they didn’t provide him power, but they can still take it away, so he restricts much of their social mobility so they remain poor and unable to rise against him. This explains why he's been in power for so long without any re-election.
Now here comes the argument against him, and why I think he is refusing to move forward. He has several opportunities to expand all businesses, but only one business expands during the Slicer Occupation of Char, and that's the blacksmith. This is because of a recent questline that was released where if you explored ruins and brought back those weird gold trinkets, Lenrith rewarded you.
Some examples are expanding the agricultural sector by utilizing the vast stretch of land across the Bay of Aladra, which could be ranching, farming, or possibly both, however, it isn’t used.
- Connecting roads to the two outlying suburbs, roads can go a long way to improving the economic situation anywhere, especially if roads do not exist there already.
- Build a dam and reservoir in the Valley’s Region, water will rack up there, and the resulting energy can be used to power farms and industry or provide fresh drinking water in case anything happens with the Artifact.
- Allowing immigration, the population of Aladra barely grew during these years, despite the populations of the continents increasing, more people equal more money.
- Diversify the industries, have a stronger mining and lumber sector, and perhaps have a factory or two to help convert raw resources into more exotic goods.
- Improve the education and political institutions on the island, a more educated and interactive populace will help to build forth a better island and promote healthy relationships within.
Dhanri could’ve done any one of those things over the last eight years, he even rebuilt Aladra, but nope. He didn’t, the situation arguably got worse for him. After the Arrival, a newly created Slums District was built, which really signifies the horrors of finance that are ongoing between citizens and government.
Dhanri has built Aladra to his dream, however, it doesn’t stand as a Utopia, instead it stands as a Disaster waiting to happen, built on a house of cards waiting to fall over in the case of any economic situation collapsing, whether that be a trade embargo with the continentals or a military uprising. Aladra is on thin ropes, it could easily fall into an economic depression which would be hard to build itself out of whilst having Dhanri retain his reputation as the friendly neighborhood mayor. Aladra is in a ton of financial trouble if a leg collapses, and would easily witness either a military coup, or Dhanri being thrown out of office literally.
Do not believe a word of the Master Manipulative Mayor, for he runs a house of lies and deceit, a dictatorship underneath the robes, one that ruins the lives of everyday Aladrans, and makes it more difficult for them to move on. Fight for a Better Aladra, and take down the Establishment! Long Live Preksak!
Any questions? Feel free to ask!
