The Four Cities 4. The Ash Blanks

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

City 4: The Ash Blanks

Descriptors: Arcane, Compact, Decaying, Hierarchical.

Concept: A junta of battle mages ruling from the central, intact, core of a war-torn city.

 

Flaw: Cruelty; they mistreated their subjects and eventually were overthrown.

Lenses: Wild magic, Public health, Warmongering, the Subjugated.

Epoch 1

Keystone: Is the rule of law present?

Wild magic: In isolated pockets, the laws of reality are malleable and unreliable.

Public health: Access to food and clean water is tightly controlled. Otherwise laws are lax.

Warmongering: Martial law is in effect throughout the core. Anarchy reigns outside.

The Subjugated: Obedience is expected in all things. Disobedience is severely punished.

Flashpoint: The city’s stability is balance on a knifepoint.

Epoch 2

Keystone: What is beautiful here?

Wild magic: [R] The Crystal Array shimmers and emits fluctuating waves.

Public health: [R] The Private Gardens of the elite are oases of green in the ruins.

Warmongering: Martial discipline preserves a bastion of order among the wider chaos.

The Subjugated: [R] Dissidents meet in the shell of the Oubliette Tower to plot liberation. 

Flashpoint: Martial law protects only the elite, the poor suffer.

Epoch 3

Keystone: How have we changed?

Wild magic: [R] The old gods send blessings to those who feed the Stone Circle.

Public health: [R] Automata Schematics are found and fuel a trend of augmentations for the arcane elite.

Warmongering: [R] Stolen Wealth is discovered in the ruins, funding mercenary raiders.

The Subjugated: Oracle cults have begun to form, offering hope to the masses.

Flashpoint: Old faith and old science fight for dominance.

Epoch 4

Keystone:What have we discovered?

Wild magic: Wild sorcerers gather in secret to work against the ruling hierarchy of mages.

Public health: A plague devastates the camps outside the core. The elite fear infection.

Warmongering: The secret police uncover increasing numbers of rebel plots and sorceries.

The Subjugated: Oracles cults preach the fall of the ruling elite and the liberation of the city.

Flashpoint: The elite are overthrown and sorcerer-priests reign.

Downfall

Ancient gods and wild sorcery consume the city. Knowledge and culture are sacrificed to on the altar of ecstatic liberation, ancestor worship, and divinatory practices.

Remnants

The Stone Circle where blood was shed in ancient rites at the centre of the burial grounds which have been studied and preserved that the ancient gods have returned to.

The Oubliette Tower where dissidents are imprisoned the historical archives are stored and sealed rebel sorcerers plot revolt.

The Crystal Array that harnesses the aetheric currents that power the city has been isolated and preserved pulses with surges of wild magic.

The Ossuary Eternal where the dead are given voices that has been repurposed for secular use.

The Automata Schematics which have been locked away in a vault discovered and used to augment the elite.

The Private Gardens where nature flourishes in peace and solitude.