Urban culture. A few cities have such long histories and such prestige that they attract people from all over the world. These metropolises are much like states of their own, few citizens have any need to ever visit outside the walls. The populace is clannish, there is little interest towards news from the outer world when local gossip can be found. Intrigue and corruption is a way of life and one is nothing without a network of contacts. Religion is but one small part of the myriad temptations of the city, a way to power for some, or escapist entertainment for others. The universities in these cities gather together learned men of even the rarest fields of study.

Most urban metropolises are found in Muslim areas (Cordoba, Alexandria, Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus), the fewer Christian cities include Constantinople, Venice, Genoa, and more recently Antioch. Wizards, sages, and bureaucrats usually belong to metropolitan culture.

Power and prestige is determined by knowledge and contacts. Behind the scenes scheming is often preferred over visible governing, and a skilled master of intrigue has usually more influence than a government official.

• +1 INT, +1 WIS, -1 STR
• +1 skill point per level
• 2 automatic languages (any)
• bonus languages: any
• +2 racial bonus to bluff, sense motive, knowledge (history), knowledge (religion) and profession (engineering)
• metropolitans cannot select the Gaian philosophy