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.

The Four Cities 3. Neo-Arcadia

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

City 3: Neo-Arcadia

Descriptors: Arcane, Ethereal, Prosperous, Sepulchral.

Concept: Mystics seeking lost ruins for scraps of otherworldly lore to sell for profit.

 

Flaw: Avarice; they put profit above risk and took foolhardy chances that ultimately felled them.

Lenses: Inspiration, Merchants, Archaeologists, Wealth

Epoch 1

Keystone: What is of value here?

Inspiration: The lore of at least one lost civilisation can be mined for new insights and products.

Merchants: A foothold in new lands means access to new markets.

Archaeologists: The ruins and artefacts we can recover. Knowledge is the true value here.

Wealth: Everything here will be assessed, valued, and made into profit. No exceptions.

Flashpoint: The city was only ever seen as a resource to exploit.

Epoch 2

Keystone: What have we discovered?

Inspiration: [R] Ossuary Eternal is uncovered and becomes a space for meditation.

Merchants: [R] Crystal Array is stripped for metals. A mana overload quietly builds.

Archaeologists: [R] The Stone Circle and burial ground teach us about funerary practices.

Wealth: [R] Oubliette Tower’s records hold no value, the tower is sealed.

Flashpoint: The treasures of the past were mercilessly looted.

Epoch 3

Keystone: What price have we paid?

Inspiration: Our dreams are haunted by visions of angry ghosts who want their revenge.

Merchants: Start-up costs which have been recovered with vast amounts of interest.

Archaeologists: Preservation of the burial site came at the cost of many further excavations.

Wealth: Random equipment loss and failure occurs. No source can be found.

Flashpoint: The city begins to feel the first stages of its haunting.

Epoch 4

Keystone: What will we preserve?

Inspiration: [R] Sleepwalkers breach the sealed Oubliette Tower. No bodies are ever found.

Merchants: [R] We bury our Stolen Treasures for our children to one day recover.

Archaeologists: [R] We place the Crystal Array in our finest museum for preservation.

Wealth: [R] We discover Automata Schematics from an ancient vault and file them away. 

Flashpoint: Riots among the poor as the rich save themselves.

Downfall

The city becomes too tempting a target for invaders and is laid siege to. The rich flee, leaving the poor to become the servants of the invaders. After a short conflict of mere months, the city defences fall to the invading army.

Remnants

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

The Oubliette Tower where dissidents are imprisoned the historical archives are stored and sealed.

The Crystal Array that harnesses the aetheric currents that power the city has been isolated and preserved.

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.

The Four Cities 2. Slagate Refuge

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

City 2: Slagate Refuge

Descriptors: Ancient, Hopeful, Mundane, Sepulchral.

Concept: A growing community of exiled nomads looking for a place to end their days.

 

Flaw: Fatalism; when the end came they accepted it without resistance.

Lenses: Remembrancers, Grief, Veterans, the Dead.

Epoch 1

Keystone: What drew us here?

Remembrancers: Needing to store the scrolls of dead names for future generations to preserve.

Grief: [R] The Stone Circle is the focus of a growing array of burial plots.

Veterans: Wanting a place to rest, to lay down arms and try to find peace.

The Dead: Reliquaries of bones and scrolls of names. Blood and memories in the living.

Flashpoint: Homes and sanitation were low priority, disease spread.

Epoch 2

Keystone: How have we changed?

Remembrancers: [R] Oubliette Tower is now a vast archive of our histories. We look in awe.

Grief: We have time and space to grieve. We build memorials and perform our rites.

Veterans: We forge tools, instead of weapons. We march in pride, not toward death.

The Dead: Our numbers grow but at a gradually slower rate. The living speak to us.

Flashpoint: A growing ancestral cult takes root, progress stalls.

Epoch 3

Keystone: What goals do we pursue?

Remembrancers: A full record of our histories so that we will never be forgotten.

Grief: Honouring the dead to be sure they are always present in our lives.

Veterans: Forgetting what we had to do to survive. Preventing future conflicts.

The Dead: For a second chance at life so that we can experience all that was stolen from us.

Flashpoint: Stasis continues, the focus shifts to the past.

Epoch 4

Keystone: Is necromancy the future?

Remembrancers: The past shouldn’t be just memories, we should try to restore our dead to life.

Grief: Grief is natural process. We should not seek to prolong or deny it.

Veterans: Making tools of the dead is only a short step away from making them weapons.

The Dead: [R] Ossuary Eternal where the first words were spoken by the dead.

Flashpoint: Division leads to conflict and eventual civil unrest.

Downfall

The living underclass, subject to disease and other risks not prioritised by the necrarchy, slowing wane in number until finally there are none left. The city is shunned for centuries and much of it sinks into the swamp.

Remnants

The Stone Circle where blood was shed in ancient rites at the centre of the burial grounds.

The Oubliette Tower where dissidents are imprisoned the historical archives are stored.

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

The Ossuary Eternal where the dead are given voices.

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.