2. Places
2.1 New Cardeth
2.1.1 Description – New Cardeth is located on the northern portion of the Illos landmass. It is a huge city state that is run by a supposedly Democratic government but in truth it is ruled by The Authority. The city covers many miles of land with many districts that fill its walls. In general the city is fairly flat with only a few tall buildings. It is surrounded on all four sides with natural barriers. To the east are the Wastelands, a large and desolate land where few creatures live. To the south there are the massive Revel Mountains which stretch far to the south, almost toward New Babylon. To the East lies the great Ismouth Sea that is rumored to have a mysterious landmass on the other side of it. To the north is the looming Landrie Cliff, which stretches high about the city.
2.1.2 Districts – The city is composed of several key districts. Each one of these have sub-districts in them, but those are not considered as important as the key district itself. To the eastern portion of the city lies the Merchant district which also houses the docks. This district is full of color and sound as shops offer everything from the mundane to the bizarre. To the north is the Whitehall district only the very wealthy and the politicians live. In the center of the Whitehall district lies the capitol building where the politicians make a spectacle of running things. Set into the cliff that lines the northern part of the district is a structure that The Authority uses as its base of operations. The reason that the Whitehall district gets its name is because of the large white archways that line the streets, giving the illusion that you are inside a hallway when you are on street level. This is one of the few areas that have gas lamps to light the streets and pathways. To the west is Low-Town, a massive sprawl where the poorer citizens live. The streets in Low-Town tend to be muddy and worn while the buildings are rundown shacks that are constantly having random pieces of junk and scraps of metal added in order to keep them from falling apart. Low-town is also one of the few parts of New Cardeth that actually has a wall that forms a barrier against the outside world. On the other side of the wall are the fields that supply a large amount of the produce that New Cardeth citizens consume. To the south is the Mining district where all of the ore that is mined from the mines in the Revel Mountains. This ore and metal production is the lifeblood of New Cardeth’s economy when it comes to trade with the rest of the world.
2.1.3 The People – The people of New Cardeth come in all varieties and all walks of life. The wealthiest tend to stay in the Whitehall district where they indulge themselves with the newest technological advances in clockwork, steam power and gas power technologies. The poorest of the population tends to stick to the Low-Town and Mining districts because that is closest to the areas that they tend to labor. The people of these districts are some of the happiest and most fulfilled people in New Cardeth. They tend to be inventive, creating new gadgets that they then use to improve their lives. The merchants in the Merchant district tend to stick to the areas where they set up their shops. Merchants come from all over the world to trade in New Cardeth and because of their presence the city is booming economically.
2.2 Ib
2.2.1 Description – Ib is a massive metallic city that is located in the center of the Wastelands, to the west of New Cardeth, far across the Thane River. It has massive wall of blackened metal that surround the city to protect its citizens from the dangers of the Wastelands. All along the wall are towers where the Ibians can keep watch, looking for miles out into the wastes. The only way into the city it through one of four massive metal gates that are several feet thick and require a complex mechanical system to open. Once inside an observer would find the streets lined with black and grey cobblestones while all the buildings are made out of the same type of metal as the wall and gates. The odd thing about the metal that the structures are built out of is that the metal seems to be seamless. There is no evidence of any kind of cutting or wielding on any of the metal. The city has no discernible districts within its walls and all the buildings, home and businesses seem to be evenly placed around the city as if no one really had a plan when working on the layout of the city. The only area that really differs from the rest of the city is in the heart of the city. It is a huge court yard that is about a mile across and has only one key feature in its center, a massive monolith that is carved with murals depicting the Yggdrasil and the story of Sephira. The main feature of this monolith is a depiction of Sephira in which the original Moonstone is mounted in.
2.2.2 Districts – Ib has no real discernible districts because all of the citizens are considered as equals and when the city was formed the leader at the time felt that creating districts would separate and divide the citizens of Ib. Because of this, everything seems to be scattered out, with no truly discernible order to the layout.
2.2.3 The People – The citizens of Ib are a strange lizard like race that are extremely technologically advanced though knowledge of how to use most of the technology has been lost over the years. Only over the last two hundred years have the citizens started to try to learn about the technology that they possess in an effort to regain their past. This has given them an edge on the rest of the world technologically which is not a bad thing for them considering how the Ibians are viewed in most places. The Ibians also have a strange form of speaking which confuses most humans due to the way that they twist and rearrange words when speaking. It is difficult for humans to tell the difference between male and female Ibians, therefor the Ibians tend to wear clothing that matches their gender at the time. Ibians are also able to swap their gender as a method for keeping population levels at the correct level. The Ibians reproduce by laying eggs and their young are born able to eat solid foods. Ibians come in a large variety of color combinations that make it easy to distinguish between individual Ibians.
2.3 New Babylon
2.3.1 Description – New Babylon is a towering city comprised of an intricate mix of stone and wood. It is located far to the southwest of New Cardeth and southeast of Ib on the southern side of the Revel Mountains. The city sits on the edge of the Great Manid Plateau, where it borders the Ismouth Sea. The City itself is an impressive sight to see as it stands so tall that the top levels are sometimes hidden from view on the ground by clouds. All along the inner and outer walls of the city are colorful hanging gardens that fill the air with the light delicate scent of flowers. Once inside the city, there is an impressive system steam powered pulleys that operate hundreds of elevators that allow for travel between the different levels of the city. All throughout the city all of the wood and stone that is not covered by plant life is instead covered by intricate geometric carvings. On the side of the city that faces the Ismouth Sea, there is a dock for seafaring merchants. From the dock it can be seen that the city extends far below the surface at the top of the Great Manid Plateau since a portion of the city is exposed at the base of the huge cliff formed where the plateau meets the sea.
2.3.2 Districts – The way that New Babylon is set up when it comes to districts is actually the way that most people would think that it would be set up. The lower the tier of the towering city that you lived on, the lower your station in life. The lowest of these tiers being the subterranean portion of the city. This underground section of city houses all of the steam machines that power the city and all of its workings as well as provides heating during the cooler seasons. The tier above that, the one that is on the ground level as well as a few levels above, are home to a massive market area where the merchants and traders from all over come to sell their goods. Above that is the first tier that is considered for civilized use. The higher you go up the towering city the larger and more extravagant the housing units become until you reach the very top which sits high above the clouds. This tier is reserved only for what are considered the best of the best, with the very top level belonging to the royal family. It is here that the royal castle sits high above the earth.
2.3.3 The People – The citizens of New Babylon are very focused on class. What tier a citizen was born on can dictate their entire life. There is no moving up in New Babylon no matter what, where a citizen is born is they have cast their lot in life, with one exception. If a citizen commits a crime and is found guilty, they can be shifted down to a lower tier. If this were to happen, that individual can expect to have everyone who they have ever known on the tier that they were in to treat them as if they had never existed. This would mean that they would lose all family and friends that they had known their entire life. Each citizen that lives on each tier look at the people on the tiers below them as little more than animals. The one exception to this is the ground level where the merchants and traders are. They are always treated as equals to all tiers due to that fact that they are the life blood of the economic machine that keeps New Babylon running. The people on the subterranean tier are treated the worst of all. They live their lives for the sole purpose of keeping the giant steam engines hot so that they can utilize the sea waters to power the city. They slave in the heat of the engines for twelve hour shifts so that those above them can live in comfort. The lowest tier is run like a prison and in order to be sent there a citizen would have to of committed an especially heinous crime, otherwise they are the people who were just unfortunate to have been born on the lowest level. As for the upper tiers, little is known about what exactly they are like as the people who live on them feel that it is beneath them to socialize with those from a lowers station in life. There rumors from the lower citizens that the citizens on the upper tiers have been working on a massive ship that is said to sail the skies.
2.4 Charne
2.5 Westerfield
2.6 Yggdrasil
2.7 Sila
2.8 Illsa
2.9 The Wastelands
3. Key Events (coming soon)
3.1
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