Ack, showed up for this discussion a few days late. Anyway, it's not a direct answer, but back before the ELH, my group had an interesting thought; where do high-level players retire? Sure, some would want to run kingdoms and such, but not all. Some would want to retire to their homelands, but not all. And really, having low-levels fawning all over you could get tiring, and once you get to near-Epic status, do you REALLY want to live in a town where every random person asks you for help, getting their cats out of trees or raising their dead relatives?
So, we whipped up something that ended up being a bit like Union. A town, located at a particularly inaccessible part of the world, surrounded by dangerous wildlife, and where far more of the people were high level than normal. Why? It's a quality of life issue; if you're a Fighter, you have to admit that there's an appeal to being someplace where True Resurrection is easily available, or where people could Teleport you to see your relatives, but where you don't have to feel the burden of being THE hero in town.
The thing was, it wasn't just a scaled-up town. If you've already accepted that a half-dozen adventurers could wipe out an invading army, then what do you need a standing army for? Just hire the locals as needed. If a diviner could figure out exactly who stole an item, do you really need a big police force? If a spellcaster can Fabricate anything in moments, do you need lots of craft guilds? And if everyone already has tons of money and the ability to create food and water with magic, why even bother selling produce in the market? (Unless it's really rare stuff, of course). Basically, then, this became a loosely-run CN town that held together because most people who lived there accepted that it was a good setup for them; someone high-level breaks the rules, and EVERYONE tracks them down.
When I first heard of Union, I thought it was going to be like this, but more so. Instead, we got what we got.
