To help alleviate the concerns over commodity shortages a bit, I've gone ahead and changed it so guards no longer cost commodities to hire. Instead, they will cost gold at a rate that's 4x the cost of their maintenance costs. (i.e. a high guard that requires 90 gold to maintain will cost 360 gold to hire initially). The maintenance cost that goes out each Howling remains the same.

This should release some of the burden on cities for needing large stockpiles of comms, and allow you to open up to selling more of your stock reserves to the general populace.

Penned by my hand on Falsday, the 13th of Chakros, in the year 463 MA.