Ki-Ah'La

The Ki-Ah'La are one of the two dominant Ah'La nations along with the Het-Ah'La. The name Ki-Ah'La is that given to them by the Het and other Ah'La groups, the inhabitants refer to themselves as Ah'La or Ah-Tenn'La (True People of the Water) when they need to distinguish their nation from the wider Ah'La culture.

History
The Ki-Ah'La are the oldest settled Ah'La group, claiming as their capital Ah'La'Ki-Ken - the first Ah'La settlement.

Once the Ah'La settled on land it was not long before they began to spread out from the city. At first all the settled Ah'La recognised Ah'La'Ki-Ken as their capital but eventually a group of river traders constructed another settlement to far north to be effectively governed from the city, forming the seeds of the nation that wold come to be known as the Het-Ah'La.

In their early years the Ki-Ah'La prosepered with as their skilled traders brought wealth from all the coasts they could reach, of particular importance was the trade in salt bought from the Q'orok-Tara and sold, either pure or as salted fish, to the Het-Ah'La to the north.

The first real threat to the Ki-Ah'La was a group of seabourne raiders from undiscovered lands to the east. Although the raiders managed some initial successes their skills were no match for the natural seamanship of the Ah'La who built a great navy to drive off the raiders.

Lom'Jalna
Like most other Ah'La groups the Ki-Ah'La are ruled through a form of direct democracy known as the Lom'Jalna. Any adult may speak at the Lom'Jalna to propose policies the Ki-Ah'La shall pursue.

The wide range of expertise available through such an open political process allows those best suited to lead the discussions on any particular topic. As such decisions made by the Lom'Jalna tend to work out very well, of particular note are three decisions made early in Ki-Ah'La history in response to the raiders.

A decision was quickly taken to take the unprecedented step of constructing an armed fleet for the defense of Ki-Ah'La ships and coasts and raising armed men to patrol the coasts and trade routes for any raiders or bandits. A point was raised that the raising of such a fleet would require vast amounts of canvas for sails and that any military would be poorly equipped due to a lack of bronze or precursor metals within the domain of the Ki-Ah'La.

As traders are highly respected among the Ah'La the views of the traders present at the Lom'Jalna carried a great deal of weight so the solutions to the two resource problems were, of course, based on trade. To solve the canvas deficiency the Lom'Jalna authorised the release of funds to subsidise the Ki-Ah'La's greatest river trading Jhorum to travel up river and purchase flocks from the barbarians north of the Het-Ah'La and bring them back to be distributed among Ki-Ah'La Jhorum.

As bronze is a non-renewable resource and the closest sources were further away a different tactic was required to acquire sufficient stocks of the vital metal. To attract the bronze trade the Lom'Jalna instituted a subsidy for purchase of bronze, tin and copper by Ki-Ah'La smiths and traders whilst simultaneously placing hefty export duties on the same metals. These policies worked perfectly and soon the Ki-Ah'La were in possession of more bronze than even some smaller producers.

The Future
Although naval policy has driven away the raiders from Ki-Ah'La territory and ships their raids have just shifted to other coastal nations, reducing the number of foreign merchants coming to the markets of Ah'La'Ki-Ken. The Lom'Jalna are expected to decide on a policy to increase the number of merchants coming to the city soon, in addition to tightening the security situation within Ki-Ah'La settlements.