How many citizens are in Three Bells? Are they getting along with their neighbors?

There are about 35,500 people living in the town itself of Three Bells. About three times more, across the whole polity. It's hard to keep an exact count, naturally. They don't have any trouble with their land-based neighbors but have some on and off again conflict with distant seafaring groups and pirate cliques.

Is 35,000 people enough that they have trouble having kids?

The king calls for someone else to answer that in more detail-

They estimate fertility in the city is 40% lower, but people who live in smaller towns for at least 3 years seem to get it back. They've been growing steadily for a while.

Cool. And their level of growth has not caused any wild animal related problems?

They had a spate of shark attacks until they figured out a better waste treatment system that didn't use sulfur.

Oh, interesting.

And they have to be careful not to overfish and with polluting industries like smelting. But otherwise, this level of development seems perfectly fine.

How much fish can they take without an issue?

They have to summon someone else for this- The king shoos them into a side chamber so he can get on with other things- The First Fishing Chief is happy to tell them about their fishing habits. While they don't really have exact figures they're much smaller than industrial fishing, and mostly stick close to shore for it. They feed about a third of the population with fish.

What else do they eat?

Lots of fruit, lots of vegetables, some grains, some hunted and some domestic meat. If something happened to their food supply they'd intensify fishing and fertilizer use for a year or two and deal with the animal warnings.

A different functionary is eager to tell the Amentans about how they're trying a thing where the farms are carefully disguised to still look like wilderness and people can wander through, to see if that helps with fertility! People living in that place seem to have more kids, but there's arguments over whether that's the farms or something else or just coincidence.

Ooh, that's clever. How do they disguise them?

Avoiding obvious paths and fences, scattered naturalistic placement of fruit-bearing trees and bushes, free-roaming livestock, placement of other crops in small patches without rigid rows. Unfortunately they're pretty expensive to run, though people do seem to enjoy them a lot as parks.

They sound pleasant! But yeah, not that efficient to harvest.

Someone hauls in a copy of the laws. It's one short scroll no bigger than the map- No slavery. Citizens are guaranteed food and have mandatory militia service, if called up. Taxes in the form of a corvee, waived for coin at the King's discretion, and entry tolls for non-citizens also at the King's discretion. Laconic descriptions of penalty ranges for murder, fraud, theft, assault, and environmental crime. Anything can go to one of the King's arbitrators for a trial, but use of that right judged 'unnecessary' will get you punished too.

Where do the entry fees come up and how big are they? Also what are the boundaries of environmental crime and how will that affect science experiments? Will long term Amentan visitors who are there for a few years count as citizens for tax or militia purposes?

The entry tolls are a way to capture value from being a safe trade center and pay for fleet and facilities maintenance, the law-bearer explains. They get changed but right now are just one small copper coin per head (person or animal) and per wheel (on carts and such). And environmental crime is ignoring the administration's directions regarding the environment. Any diplomats certainly wouldn't count as citizens if they don't want to, that's an established policy, and they imagine that alien visitors could have something similar worked out probably involving a fee.

Okay, cool. They were hoping to be able to move lots of Amentans to a new planet but it seems like this one isn't suited for that, but there will still be a tourism industry and science stuff, so it's good to work out how that will play out when they scatter buildings all over the planet.

Buildings outside of civilized areas will tend to get attacked, by the way. They can only speak for Three Bells but if they're paying some sort of taxes the army will defend them just as much as anyone else.

The Amentans are willing to have their own security if they build out in the wilderness - which they might, since there's not much wilderness to see on their planet - but appreciate the option of having resorts and science based in safe places and are happy to pay for it.

They will make sure the king also considers how to handle Amentan long-term residents. The diplomat and their team can come back tomorrow to see the plot of land they're being assigned.

Okay! How big is it going to be, about?

That depends on if they want bigger or closer to the center of town.

Bigger. They can have bicycles for getting around if the distances are annoying.