I thought I'd seen the worst in rulership; a capital city with only 4 shops inside the walls, 7 outside, all of them without merchants. After I confronted the vampire law-giver and added his brains to my figurine, I went to the third major city I could find on the map. Every block was filled with General Imports shops and one House. Every. Single. Block. With the exception of the marketplace, which was completely vacant. I took a closer look and found every building populated with identical generic merchant, none of whom were from there. And no furniture, so no clothes to scrounge. At the Keep I found two faction leaders who also weren't native, and two citizens without proper names.
According to Legends, this is the single largest city in terms of population, 3500 humans, but it's not actually in any civilization. Every city in the civ was destroyed by an elven nation over 900 years ago. The last lawgiver died of old age just before that, and between hydra rampages and hostile elves, they were pretty much demolished, and the last of their populations were executed. Then people came back in and settled, possibly because it's central to a heavily trafficked trade route. The elves didn't come back to claim anything, so this has become a merchant hub above ground and a haven for outcast groups underneath.