The City is all cities. Here wander the ghosts of the greatest cities of the worlds at their heyday: Ancient Rome, New York City, Hamokera, Cartoril, Nineva, and Babylon. The Great Pyramid of the last mighty redoubt of man in the Night Land. Through its alleys one may leave to any great city in the world. But once you leave, it is exceedingly difficult to find your way back.
“Here, there are two cities, or rather, an infinity of them. Here you may find every great city of the worlds, and see the people of those cities as ghosts in the corner of your eyes.”
“…that great city, descending out of heaven, her light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. It had a wall great and high, and four gates, and the wall of the city had four foundations. The wall of the city was of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall were garnished with bright stones. The first foundation was sapphire; the second, emerald; the third, onyx; and on the fourth an amethyst. And the four gates were four pearls: every gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”
“The city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. There is no night there; and they need no candle. The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.”
“There is a pure river of water, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the city. Over the streets of the city, and on the other end of the river, is the tree of life, which bares the nine fruits, and yields her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations.”
The First City: The walls
The walls are festooned with flowering vines, “like a bride adorned for her husband”.
“You come to our city with dust caked upon your boots and a mind filled with purpose. Let us wash the road from your feet, and draw down your moon-bright goal.”
Map of the city
Quarters of the City
The city is 1.6 miles in diameter, and so about two square miles. Originally composed of four quarters, the temple quarter has been destroyed and crusted in salt and brine. The Anubis Quarter is where the mananubi and the Twins live. It was once the arts quarter. Beachside was once an area of commerce and technological development, and filled with craftsmen, and remains the source of what remains of the city’s wealth. Those caught within this quarter are imprisoned unless they can pay a fine; the mananubi only enter this area when they wish to imprison someone or collect more fines.
Most people live within the People’s Paradise, which is thus crowded, with narrow alleys—the old glass buildings remain, but between them structures of wood and stone fill in the gaps. Market Square is where all public trading occurs. It is filled from six to seven and empty otherwise. There are no public stalls: all trading happens within the tents and after much verbal dancing to ensure that neither side will turn the other in.
A place of power and the Pax Urbana
The city is a +4 Place of Power, Order. The Pax Urbana applies throughout the City, and Willpower rolls to violate it are at a penalty of 4.
Buildings of the City
The city is filled with magic glass that flickers and flows around you; no doors are necessary in buildings made of this glass: you just walk through the glass.
The First City: Encounters
Within the City, they will meet many people. Roll for two encounters every day and one encounter every night. Encounters occur on a 40% chance. After a week in the city, encounter chances switch to per week. After a month, they switch to per month. Hopefully they don’t stay longer than a year. Some important encounters are:
| 01-25 | Mananubi (d6) | 25% |
| 26-45 | machine shrine | 20% |
| 46-59 | resistance messenger (d4) | 14% |
| 60-69 | Amethyst dragon | 10% |
| 70-79 | Salt dragon | 10% |
| 80-87 | Resistance priest | 8% |
| 88-92 | Traveler (see sidewinder table on the Phoenix Highway) | 5% |
| 93-96 | Tawake-awahim | 4% |
| 97-00 | Here-atahura | 4% |
Here are some sample names you can use for people in the City:
| Male name | Female name | Family name | |
| 1 | Aranthur | Arathia | Apucu |
| 2 | Arnza | Arria | Arathenas |
| 3 | Aule | Corona | Calisna |
| 4 | Cuinte | Culni | Cecni |
| 5 | Kavie | Fastia | Fanacnei |
| 6 | Larce | Larcia | Latithe |
| 7 | Laris | Larthi | Hathli |
| 8 | Metie | Messia | Muthikus |
| 9 | Nerie | Panatia | Hermenas |
| 10 | Numesie | Perca | Nesithva |
| 11 | Pesna | Pevtha | Pumpli |
| 12 | Plecu | Pinaria | Larania |
| 13 | Sethre | Semni | Papni |
| 14 | Spurie | Seianthi | Saties |
| 15 | Teitu | Vela | Tarna |
| 16 | Thefarie | Thiphilia | Teithurna |
| 17 | Thucer | Thanusa | Uchsie |
| 18 | Velthur | Velthuria | Velcha |
| 19 | Venel | Tita | Satlana |
| 20 | Vulca | Vivinna | Visnai |
Back alleys
You can shift from city to city by following the back roads and alleys. Look for small signs at first—an icon of Ishtar in the dust, a minaret in the haze in the distance, a shadow in the corner of your eyes—and follow it; if you find further signs, follow them; if you are on the right path the signs will grow, and you will come out of the alleys in a new city.
If relying on dice, this is a difficult perception roll.
Finding your way back is a lot harder, but the same process: you must look for signs of the city; this is more and more difficult the longer you wait. Each extra day means a penalty of 1 to your perception roll.
The First City: The River
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the City.”
The river exits the Millarium Aureum and goes to Drasoli. It is, however, currently dry. When the tablets are restored, water will start flowing from the Aureum to the Tree. The more tablets, the more water. The people of the city pretend that the water is still running; they will be angry if water actually does begin to run again, unless the characters convince them of the water’s benefits. “Something is polluting our water.”
Millarium Aureum
A golden pillar that marks the center of the city, and, thus, the center of all the roads of the world. This is where the tablets must be laid out, in the open, facing the full circle of the world. They must have at least three of the tablets for the tablets to be protected; it takes three points to make a circle. There are nine tiny alcoves about five feet up encircling the golden pillar.
There is but one tree, one art, one road to travel.
There are nine fruit of the tree.
A gate for every road.
The aureus is of two parts. Inside at the street level is an ancient, stone dome. The tower is gold, and built around the aureus.
The Hall of Mirrors
On the seventh floor of the Millarium Aureum, within a lily-covered pool, is the circle of conflict, the hall of mirrors. Within the circle are seven mirrors around the center, which reflect the most perfect swords: Excalibur (Light from the Stone), Elessar Elessan (The Starlight Sword), Narsil (flame of light, later Andúril, flame of the west), and Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (The Storm Clouds of Heaven) among others. All are swords of rulership wielded by earthly races: they are the engines of civilization. Excalibur (separated from its scabbard of healing), Elessar Elessan (broken in battle), Narsil (broken in battle) are all “twins”, swords shattered into more than one part.
Only warriors may enter the circle of conflict—and only they can see it. Others see a wide circular garden, with benches and vine-covered columns. Four thin bridges lead to the center.
If they bring a great sword that they wish to rid themselves of, such as Elessar Elessan, there will be an empty place for it. (There can also be an empty place to encourage them to search for the missing sword.)
The Circle of Conflict in the Station of the Sun was a debased interpretation of the true Circle. Strength and Peace are necessary for each other. Here, the warrior must face their demons, must know the riddle of the sword: that without war, there is no peace, only slavery and oppression. That without peace as its objective, war is brutal and endless without victory. The men who inhabit such a world are but animals, faithless, lost. The riddle is inscribed on a wooden trunk in the center of the circle.
For what do you fight?
If you do not fight, what will you have?
The answers are “peace” and “war”, respectively, although any answer that fits the riddle is valid, at least for the second question—slavery, blood, oppression, for example, are good answers. If these two questions are answered correctly, the trunk unlocks. One of the swords appears within it, but it may not be removed without answering the final riddle, spoken as the character perceives the sword.
Warrior, in all your travels, who has been your most dangerous foe?
The answer is “myself” or “I have”. If answered correctly, the warrior may take the sword from the trunk. If answered incorrectly, the sword disappears. In either case, if the sword they wish to be rid of is placed in or on the trunk, it will disappear and appear in the mirrors. The sword they take will remain in the mirrors even if they successfully take it. It will be theirs for as long as they need it and no longer.
Here-atahura lives here, on the central dais, but as a non-warrior, it cannot enter the circle. Here-atahura will be here 90% of the time unless already defeated, driven away, or otherwise occupied. If Here-atahura is known to be elsewhere (such as giving the daily address) then it won’t be here; immediately before or after the speech there’s only a 40% chance it will be here. You can otherwise adjust the chance as needed.
If not here when they reach the seventh floor and if Here-atahura is still within the City, the dragon will arrive d6 minutes after a warrior enters the circle. While the dragon cannot enter the circle it does know if the circle is occupied. It will attempt to expel or kill anyone who is otherwise on the seventh floor and will wait to attack and steal the sword of anyone leaving the circle. When a sword is removed from the circle, this disrupts the Pax Urbana for d20 minutes; Here-atahura and Tawake-awahim know that they will have a window of opportunity to make start any attacks they wish immediately after a sword leaves the circle.
The Blasted Temples
The temples of the city have been destroyed by wind, ice, and desiccation: by the cursed breaths of the regents of Tifá. But the priests of Ishtar remain in the catacombs beneath the rubble, as the only opposition to the twins.
The rubble is filled with desiccated wood, salt-encrusted stone, and rust-infused dust.
The catacombs also have access to what remains of the old library, which was also part of the temple quarter.
The Mananubi slaves
Between the hours of 6 and 8, only mananubi servants walk the streets, performing their service for rich and poor alike. Between 8 and 9:30, there may be some humans on the streets if they have early appointments or such, but they’ll be embarrassed by needing to keep a schedule. It’s so servant-like. But the Crystal Express Metrorail has long since stopped running, they can’t even use the tunnels as shortcuts—the mananubi say that there are monsters in the subterranean way and so only mananubi are allowed into the Crystal tunnels.
No human in the City works. They all rely on the mananubi, who are shared equally. No human has the rights to the service of any one mananubi, they take what they can get.
Mananubi bring food into the city; they prepare food and bring it to each household; they clean the streets and the houses (there are garbage dumps in the devastated temple square).
Officially, all food and goods come from the mananubi. However, much of the food and goods come first from the craftsmen and workers who surrender it to the mananubi if they are caught Beachside.
The Gods of the City
In the City, they no longer look to the ruins of their old gods. They worship the erratic machines of their past as gods. They hold ceremonies at the base of the great crystal spire—and the priests perform their rites while rising to the top as the crystals light.
They make pilgrimages to the garden of delights, the place where all dreams come true, if only for a few moments.
They lay offerings for the rolling eyes and abacus snakes that swarm in and out of the city’s center, the great central abacus that monitors and cleans the sewers and aqueducts.
They kneel before the newspaper stand, that shows the city’s past (no one now reports on news for the city) in words and pictures, and if they are wealthy enough to own one of the artifacts of the city, they make alcoves with candles and wreaths to store their newsroll. Many hang old newsrolls on their walls, but these icons rarely work. They occasionally flare into light with hazy images of the City of the past; the household usually finds a reason to be outside when this happens. It’s frightening.
Even the giant newsrolls at the Aureum and around the City squares break in and out while the Twins congratulate the City on its good fortune and how well it’s doing.
They pray before the great globe of storms, that sometimes in the lightning shows scenes from far away, and sometimes shows an ancient lady cackling in a tent.
If asked about some technology or mechanical thing in the city, the denizens will say that the servants know how those work; though if examined closely it will be obvious that the technology is poorly understood, and much of it failing.
