I'm glad that you, dear Kryvar, finally realized Hashan is need of
drastic change. Too bad it didn't dawn on you sooner, like when you
were a Regent of the city, for example.

Yes, Hashan does not evolve, it never has and it never will and
that's what got it where it is today. The city has no goals to
achieve, no ideals to defend and nothing to strive for. It simply
sits there, an empty shell shut out from the world affairs in its
little forest, with many inhabitants only being there because they're
required to.

In the beginning the city was first a home to members of the Dark
Order, but within years it became much more than that, a truly
Neutral City, appealing to those who wanted to be neither Good nor
Evil. Yet as time passed by, Hashan failed to answer challenges that
it brought.

In my opinion, three major factors affected why it came to this. The
first is simply that Hashan was never intended to be a guardian of
one or another ideology, such as Shallam or Mhaldor, so it never had
a clearly defined purpose in the first place, except to be a home for
its guilds. The city served a purpose until the formation of Cyrene
and Mhaldor, with which it lost its advantage of being the only
alternative for people who wanted none of Good vs. Evil, Chaos vs.
Order debates.

The second factor is indifferent citizenry and the third and probably
the most important one is incompetent and self-serving leadership.
There can be no progress in a city that sets itself no goals, that has
no vision of what its future should be like. The people will sink into
a stupor and there will be little sense of belonging and team spirit,
as demonstrated well by the city's performance in CTFs and similar
events. Instead, Hashan tries to enforce this loyalty and sense of
commitment by requiring their guild members to hold citizenship and
eventhough years of experience have shown this is the wrong approach,
they are not to be swayed.

The reason nothing ever changes is that they all, the city leaders and
the citizens themselves, know they have their backs covered. They can
get away with it. The city leaders know the citizens are apathetic
and they try their best to keep it that way as it guarantees security
for their position. That is what makes it possible for Regents to hold
positions for decades upon decades without accomplishing anything.
That is what makes it possible for them to wave one or the other of
many obsolete documents into the face of those who request and desire
the city to change. Of course, they are not so quick to pay attention
to those rules and laws when it's their own skin at stake, at
which point they will let themselves off with a fine of 1000 gp
after having commited a serious breach of both the Common Law and
the Canon.

The citizens know there will be no reprecussions for their inactivity
and slumber either. Sure, the Divine will sometimes express
displeasure with the role and state of Hashan, even to the point of
leaving the city. Other denizens of Sapience may laugh at their
performance in the inter-city events and the general irrelevantness of
the city in the world affairs, but that's really a small price to pay
for the luxury of being as apathetic as possible. It's a small price
to pay for the luxury of holding to a Regency seat for a hundred
years.

I still love Hashan, eventhough I'm no longer a citizen, it's still
my city. But people who care seem to be giving up on it. In the short
time (less than 2 years) since I left, several former prominent
citizens of Hashan have joined me in my new home, Ashtan, a city that
was successful in making the transition that Hashan so blatantly
failed to make. And I have no hope it will ever change. The departure
of a Patron and the Founder-God had no effect, so why would the
departure of some prominent citizens have any? Or the arrival of a
new Patron?

It will not change, Hashan will continue to stifle the potential of
its citizens and guilds for all eternity. Unless perhaps the Garden
someday comes up with a plan to do something about it, because the
city is beyond mortal help. Or at least permits that the guilds who
actually have some ambition and strive to achieve something not to
be supressed by it anymore.


Tarkhaat Azon

Penned by my hand on the 12th of Mayan, in the year 343 AF.