Editing Setting:Unified Setting/Drow (section)

==Government==
The Wila Republic is a bustling, confusing place to many outsiders. Every individual, family, business and city-state seems to have their own agenda and plans which they pursue in direct opposition to the schemes of every other individual, family, business and city-state. The land itself is also varied, containing the empty and barren tundra of the north and the booming, cosmopolitan trading ports of the south.

The independent city-states are each ruled by a House, usually a council of the most powerful factions in town. In other cases it is a democratically elected body, a collection of hereditary nobles or other arrangement. The most powerful Houses (called Great Houses) have influence, if not complete control, over a wide area. 

Note: The term city-state refers to the domain controlled by a House. However in the northern reaches there are few cities worth the name and the scattered villages and trading posts serve only as meeting points for the mostly nomadic Drow living there. The term city-state will continue to be used for simplicity, even in reference to the northern "barbarians."

The government of the Drow Republic is the Great Council of Houses (sarcastically called the Council of Great Houses due to their influence). This is a meeting of all Houses to decide on matters affecting the Drow. The Republic requires almost unanimous assent to make a decision and there is little the Houses will agree upon outside of war or an urgent foreign policy matter. The Republic mostly serves as a place for the Great Houses to jockey for power and influence against each other, but it has been known to take quick and decisive action in the past (notably during the rise of [[Setting:Unified Setting/Sergal|Sergal]] Empress Rain).