Here in the streets of the city of Augusta Menapiorum, in the Roman province of Belgica, we see two Germani amber merchants trying to sell off one of their own into slavery. The prospective buyers are of the wealthy Julii Pantherulae, who can trace their ancestry to a chimaera slave created for Lucius Julius Caesar.

Augusta Menapiorum was one of the first chimaera colonies founded after Caesar Augustus relocated most of their kind from the city of Rome. The Roman chimaeras were originally created by Atlantean genoitores (genetic engineers) as custom-made luxury slaves for the upper class of the capital. However, because of technical limitations, they were incapable of being crossbred with one another—even chimaeras based on the same species were unable to have children together.

Eventually, one enterprising Roman managed to produce a female chimaera that could reproduce asexually and reached adulthood in a mere four years. He and several others would go on to apply the same technique to many other chimaeras. While this made them very wealthy in the short term, in the long term they ended up creating a fast-growing population of non-human women.

Having grown up in the homes of the Roman upper class, the chimaeras were culturally Roman. Despite this, freed chimaeras frequently came into conflict with the human population in the capital. The upper class treated them either with condescension or contempt, while the lower class viewed them as abominations created by a decadent elite. Lynchings were common, but as the chimaera population grew these turned into riots or street brawls.

Figuring that he could kill two birds with one stone, Caesar Augustus relocated the majority of the chimaera population in the capital and had them found colonies—this served to ease tensions, give the chimaeras some degree of self-determination, while also helping to Romanize the provinces. Despite having the same culture, religion, and government as any other Roman cities, the chimaera colonies’ female dominance sharply contrasts with the extremely patriarchal societies of the former.

Since its foundation, Augusta Menapiorum has grown into a major city that could one day rival Alexandria both in scale and grandeur. Because of its proximity to the Roman border, its people frequently trade with the northern barbarians, who are all too eager to buy Roman spider silk, genetically engineered produce and animals, as well as medicine.

However, since Rome's conquest of Atlantis, it has become increasingly more difficult for the northern tribal peoples to trade with or even plunder from the Romans. Atlantean auxiliaries, and later chimaera super-soldiers, ended Rome's reliance on foreign mercenaries. And thanks to the Atlantean vital arts, Roman latifundia produce more than enough food to feed the Imperium's ever growing population. Because of this, the only things the northern tribal peoples can now offer in trade is amber and slaves. Previously, slavery had been rare or even non-existent among the Germani, but now their economy depend on the trade, which in turn is gradually weakening them.

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