The Four Cities 1. Aurath

A series played using Palimpsest. This post is published under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 licence.

City 1: Aurath

Descriptors: Arcane, Mundane, Peaceful.

Concept: A utopian city where magic is widely practised and nobody wants for anything.

Flaw: Passivity; they refused to take action, trusting fate to protect them.

Lenses: Astromancy guild, Street prophets, Aetheric currents, City infrastructure.

Epoch 1

Keystone: What is daily life like?

Astromancy guild: Rituals at dawn, noon, dusk and midnight. Bells, prayers, smoke at regular intervals.

Street prophets: Street corner doomsayers, underground oracle cults, sanctioned augury by stars.

Aetheric currents: Flowing across the city from the four corners. The city a confluence of forces.

City infrastructure: Automata hauling goods for studious citizens. Silent traffic between libraries.

Flashpoint: Astromancers foresaw signs but failed to act in time, too constrained by ritual.

Epoch 2

Keystone: What has been overcome?

Astromancy guild: Disorder. The guild calendar brings order and structure to the citizens’ lives.

Street prophets: [R] An ancient Stone Circle where the gods were appeased with blood.

Aetheric currents: Mortality. Vitality floods through the bodies of the city. Renewal and rebirth.

City infrastructure: Gravity. Towers and bridges stretch up and across the city, above the swamp.

Flashpoint: The people’s hubris angered the forgotten gods.

Epoch 3

Keystone: What conflicts are brewing?

Astromancy guild: [R] Oubliette Tower where dissidents are exiled. We must not look at it.

Street prophets: Tighter restrictions on cults lead to black market seers taking root in the depths.

Aetheric currents: Wild magic surges are more frequent, mutations are being reported in children.

City infrastructure: Flickers of sentience are taking hold among the older automata.

Flashpoint: They tried to harness power beyond their means.

Epoch 4

Keystone: What is beautiful here?

Astromancy guild: The firmament lights the darkest night until the sun’s triumphant return.

Street prophets: Dreams come more often and herald a return to a primal state of bliss.

Aetheric currents: [R] Crystal Array of focusing lenses and lines of gold and silver.

City infrastructure: Automata whisper of the birth of a new god who lead them to freedom.

Flashpoint: Old gods bring ruin and a new god brings revolt.

Downfall

The swamp consumes much of the city and the automata leave to find meaning in their own community. The region is shunned for close to a century before settlers begin to edge their way into the dead city.

Remnants

The Stone Circle where blood was shed in ancient rites.

The Oubliette Tower where dissidents are imprisoned.

The Crystal Array that harnesses the aetheric currents that power the city.