Greetings!
Have you developed great, diverse trade cities in your campaign? Have players lived there or visited such fantastic places? How influential are such cities in your campaigns?
I'm thinking of some historical examples of such fantastic and wealthy cities that were not just large or well-fortified, or otherwise famous and renowned, but also embraced a distinctive cosmopolitan nature of different ethnic groups, different cultures, different religions, and besides trade networks, were also focal points of knowledge and cultural exchanges. Such examples were particularly noteworthy for being especially tolerant--and relatively successful--at integrating and accommodating diverse ethnic and religious populations.
Xingqing, the capital city of the Tangut Empire, was a large fortified city, fabulously wealthy from an advanced economy and rich trade along the Silk Road, connecting a major trade nexus between the northern steppes, the Jin Empire to the east, the Song Empire to the south-east, the kingdoms of Tibet to the south-west, Central Asian kingdoms to the west, and also to the lands of India, further to the south-west. The city's main religion was Buddhism, though the city also embraced Taoism and Confucianism from China, and certainly some also embraced Tengri, of the steppe tribes, as well as Islam.
Palermo, a great and wealthy city on the island of Sicily, ruled by the Normans. Palermo was a cosmopolitan trade center which embraced a diverse population of Latinized Christians, Orthodox Byzantine Greeks, and Muslims. Jewish populations were also present and influential. Sicily, being located in the central Mediterranean Sea, served as a crossroads between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Samarkand, a huge fortified city in Central Asia, to the west of the Fergana Valley, and a huge trade nexus centered on the Silk Road, connecting culture and trade from the Kievan Rus to the west, the steppeland tribes of the north, the Tangut Empire and the Jin and Song Empires to the east, Persia to the south-west, and the lands of India to the south. Samarkand embraced a huge variety of religions, from Tengri and Buddhism, to Christianity, Islam, Taoism and Confucianism.
I'm always inspired by such cities and fantastic cultures, as they not only mixed and blended various ethnic groups, but also blended economic systems and cultural customs, architecture, laws, and even religion and philosophy.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK