City

Cities are the social, political, cultural and economic centre of every Shard. Whoever controls the City will control the Shard... though, of course, doing that is easier said than done. With its high walls, ensorcelled defences and armed guards, any attempt to take over a City is going to be a momentous task.

Trade
A trade route will only start paying out once its Secondary Goods reaches the City. For each unit of goods that it is importing, the City will pay out 30gp per week. This is further divided into 20gp per unit per week to the owner of the Secondary Trade Route (between the Town and the City) and 10gp per unit per week to the owner of the Primary Trade Route (between the Village and the Town).

A City will only import goods that it currently has a Demand for.

Population Size and Demands
Cities are usually described by its population size, a value that ranges from 1 (very small) to 15 (very large). Every City will have a base Demand for 10 units of Materials, 10 units of Food, and 10 units of Luxuries. For each size increment, its Demand for all good types will rise by an additional +10.

A City of size 5 will have a Demand for 60 units of Materials, 60 units of Food, and 60 units of Luxuries just to maintain its current population size. To maintain its current population size, it must import 50 units of each good type; failure to do so will cause the City to starve and, after a while, drop to a size of 4. If all of its Demands are fully met, however, the City will begin to grow and, after a while, increase to size 6.

A City will only import goods that it currently has a Demand for.

For the purposes of growth and starvation, the exact quality of Secondary Good a City imports is, in most cases, unimportant: Grain will fill a City's Demand for Food just as easily as Fruit will. However, events may occasionally cause certain Secondary Goods to be more or less profitable, thus making it always beneficial to diversify one's investments whenever possible.