LOCATIONS:
1. Cities-
a. Ganymede (by Fellguarde) – or ‘The Hive’, as it’s often referred to as by both those inside and out – is, succinctly, a shithole. Supposedly, the original ‘Ganymede’ was a very different city, but after years of industrialized urban sprawl and the paralytic decay of economic disaster, what little remains of the Old City is long lost beneath layer upon layer of dark, cramped architecture. There are few who bother to speculate on what those reaches might look like, fewer who care, and even less in number those who actually ever manage to make the long pilgrimage down through the dust and gloom. Ganymede is built like a cake with far too many toppings – so many, in fact, that as time stalked by they eventually came to comprise more of the city than its actual foundations.
The uppermost layers can almost pull the wool over a visitor’s eyes and trick them into believing that Ganymede is, for the most part, an acceptable place to live if you can take care of yourself. But stay longer than a day, and the truth sinks in. Poverty lines the streets with beggars and thieves. Public welfare is nonexistent, no governmental presence having dipped its fingers into the thick ichors of Ganymede for years – what social services exist are disorganized bands of civilians, and they do little to clean up the city as a whole. Even the few hospitals dotted around are run either by amateurs or eccentrics from outside, there being little opportunities for a child of Ganymede to ever receive any sort of formal education. There is no standing army or police force save for a scattered militia of sorts, and for the most part, they are kept far too busy by the predations of Lyonnesse’s* capricious aristocrats and merchants (who view Ganymede as a perfect picking-field for the slave trade and organ market), and thus have no real effect on the numerous other crimes perpetrated by Ganymede’s citizens. Even the Lyonnesse issue is handled less-than-ideally – the Ganymede militia is vastly outclassed by the outsiders in terms of equipment, and as such, it generally ends up hunting down citizens perceived to be working in league with them, usually with a witch-hunt code of conduct in mind.
Almost nothing new is ever built in Ganymede, and most of the buildings have been standing for decades without proper maintenance. The colour of rust is an almost omnipresent one. Despite this, however, the disrepair of the upper levels pales in comparison to what awaits a visitor to Ganymede as they descend further into the city’s depths. The streets become claustrophobic halls and tunnels, where for a few levels down, thongs of people move like blood through fattened arteries, living amidst conditions even worse than those above. Beneath that, the corridors are ever-more winding and lonely, eventually the labyrinth can only be described as lifeless. The descent takes one through a faded map of generations past, the architecture constantly changing in its design and consistency. A lack of structural integrity and occasional tectonic activity have come together to create an environment in the lowest reaches that is scattered with inexplicable edifices and dead-ends, where levels of construction have shifted into one-another. A visitor can be stalking through the uninhabited ghost of a vast apartment-complex one moment, and then find themselves standing in the grounds of what was once a church the next.
If it weren’t for the no-passport-no-exit policy imposed upon it, Ganymede would have long ago become a desolate skeleton-city.
b. Lyonesse - (by Caleb) Out of all the cities, Lyonesse is by far the most diverse. Being a smorgasbord of people of varying sizes, colors and beliefs it, like all other great cities of their time thrives off competition. Like an apple the corruption that racks the city begins and ends at the core. The elected officials pretend to represent the ideals and interests of the masses while truly catering to the wealthy and politically invested companies, organizations and agencies that wield by themselves as much power as smaller governments. The large businesses and organizations dominate the city entirely. Even the law enforcement agencies that makeup the different districts of the city have been poisoned from the top down with officers that rarely have their hands clean concerning any illicit business. Honest cops like all other low-level civil servicemen and women will never climb the social ladder and if they don’t go insane from the ill-fated circumstances they usually die of unknown and uninvestigated reasons. These subtle purges maintain the masquerade of deception that veils the true nature of the city is kept and that any whistleblowers are dealt with in accordance. Very few of the nobility are actually noble by blood, but have instead purchased their titles with the fortunes they’ve made with questionable and dishonest methods.
Most ominously of all are the vague rumors that are quietly whispered among the upper-class that speak of a group of individuals who manipulate the course of the economy and the direction of the government. With terror and intrigue the ladies speak of their immense and unnatural wealth and their inhuman attributes that are akin to those of vampires and other supernatural beings who scavenge the sewers and stalk the streets at night. These however are mostly likely the fabrication of women who are bored and unsatisfied with their husband’s natural qualities. Such romanticized gossip has always been common among the well-to-do ladies.
The city itself is like a many petaled flower. The hub of the city is almost entirely comprised of lustrous towers and buildings that take the form of cone for the building in the center is highest and slowly slopes down in size as they extend further away. The long shadows of these buildings stretch across the various districts that are sprawled unceremoniously alongside the cortex of the city and at any time of the day at least one other district is eclipsed entirely in shadows. Four main streets come together to form the nerve center of the city. Built just bellow the underbelly is a massive hollowed chamber with interconnecting rooms that has been transformed into a sparsely decorated Hall of Commerce where, the current Mayor Alexander Borgia and his fellow civil servants, employees and counterparts govern the daily affairs of the city as well as attending to the concerns presented to him by his generous benefactors. The only other manmade constructs beneath the city is a complicated network of pipes and sewers that are only fully known to those who have zealously spent time consuming hours studying maps of them. In the last war with Celesteria the sewer system was proven to be of strategic importance as a brilliant commander and now highly decorated Lyonesse General used them to transport military personnel to different parts of the city in times only possible during war that would have otherwise been impossible on the clogged streets aboveground. Afterwards they were restricted to government use only. The law is generally ignored and rarely enforced except when groups of soldiers descend to escort inspectors or repairmen in which case a kill-on-sight order is issued for their safety.
Branching out from the heart of the city the pipelines and sewer system extends to the eight districts that surround the inner-city. Each district has a plethora of houses, apartment complex’s, factories, convenient and grocery stores along with every other essential part of a local infrastructure. The outskirts of the city are for the most part either wooded areas or verdant fields where several prominent mansions and estates reside. These daring aristocrats have little to fear for further out are high electric fences built around the circumference of the city and defend the area between the occasional gated entrances. While the fences are only serve to bar the entrance of marauding bandits, ferocious animals and even supernatural creatures that are looking for their next meal – any capable force will be able to penetrate this defense but will be meet by the Lyonesse army who are among the most well trained and well equipped militaries in the area. The army rarely exits the borders of Lyonesse, since the government instead prefers to hire mercenaries to skirmish outside the city and defend the important roads to and from Lyonesse. Even with such wards bandits rarely risk attacking their caravans for an unspoken truce has formed between the merchants and them. The truce is in truth because most of the merchandise the bandits loot end up in Lyonesse’s markets whether it be flawlessly crafted furniture or jewelry from Celesteria or human organs from the kidnapped citizens of Ganymede. Any craving, fetish, or desire can be fulfilled in Lyonesse, so long as you're ready to pay the price.
c. Celestaria - (by Masque) A modern-day Camelot, Celestaria is a shining beacon of hope amongst the refuse that surrounds it. What few refugees that find their way to its gates are welcomed with open arms, though it is generally accepted that corruption runs deep and not many outsiders can accustom themselves to living in accordance with the city law. The structure of the government within the city works much like an oligarchy- a select group of politicians make up a council- but Arturius Fairchild is acknowledged to be the man with the greatest influence. Their streets are kept clean from crime and corruption by their upstanding constables. The ordinary citizens are required to serve in the military for a span of four years and do so with pride.
The city itself is constructed of stone and white spires and littered with ancient, twisted trees that are sustained by canals brimming with crystalline waters. A wall divided by battlements marks the limits of Celestaria- a guarded titanium gate is the only visible way into the city, though there are several hidden ways out to be utilized in the unlikely event of a siege. The council is well aware that they are the power in the eastern territories, but prefer to whittle their dealings with the outside world to curt, necessary negotiation. The councilmen are often at odds with the aristocracy of Lyonesse, but they see no reason to interfere with their unsavory methods, instead turning their eyes inward. If Celestaria had a fault, it would be an overwhelming awareness of self and little care for the suffering of those that cannot escape the labyrinth of their own poverty.
Cavalry guards travel the lands between Ganymede, Lyonesse, and Celestaria as an offensive method of preventing conflict before it can reach the city gates. They are the law of the land- and they rule with an iron fist. Prisoners are not kept for life, as offenses worthy of this verdict are written off as death sentences. Executions are conducted by firing squad. Mercy is saved for those that the constables deem as pure of heart.
The Celestarians as a people are sturdy and beautiful with fair features and bronze skin, usually lofty in height with dark hair. Light eyes are commonplace, as are an affinity for craftwork. Their society is thick with stonecutters, blacksmiths, gunsmiths, and carpenters as well as artists that produce finer works by canvas or by needle. Just as their manual skill produces keen workers, it produces keen fighters. Most children are drilled and proficient with both sword and rifle by the time they enter the military at eighteen.
d. Foundry - (by Seth) The large, looming factories, electric stations, power plants, and clean, orderly streets of Foundry have stood as a gray testament to human progress since before Celestaria had been anything more then an outpost. The home of the Society of Engineers and Technicians (SET), the large city is accentuated across the river from Ganymede, and is best defined by a bridge that doubles as a hydroelectric dam between them, producing the lions-share of electricity supplied and utilized throughout the three other cities, and supplemented by a vast farm of photoelectric arrays surrounding it. SET, from Foundry, holds a monopoly on electricity for the surrounding area, and through it, a monopoly of complex industry, be it microchips, nanotech, or large fabricated devices of significant complexity. To the outsiders, such as the poor of Ganymede, whom the wealthy elite are careful not to allow to go to work in Foundry in great numbers, lest they allow competition to arise in many fields, Foundry is viewed as a beacon of progress, and a land of plenty and promise. Unbeknownst to most except a techncocratic inner circle of autocrats within SET, however, is a horrible secret that threatens to ruin all of them. Though SET remains unchallenged in its plethora of fields, and has great reservoirs of wealth, both in materials and debts owed to it, as well as its means to produce more of both, with time the technicians that fully understand a great many of its more complicated systems have become fewer and fewer, and a projection was made a year ago indicating that irreparable, catastrophic failure of certain key systems may therefore become an issue affecting their standing. An initiative has been set in motion to scour the globe for persons of sufficient competence to fill necessary positions. This effort is dogged by the fact that such people are often considered the property of other organizations and city states, as well as already employed, usually by the Lyonessians. Crime rarely occurs in Foundry, although the SET Administrators do indulge in behavior that could be considered criminal. When civil bargaining fails, bothersome individuals will often disappear. SET maintains an extensive Secret Police apparatus aside from a heavily armed set of border guard patrols, and has never been afraid to use either. Intrinsic to this is a rumored secret prison facility running the length of the half-circle city, from north to south, as runs the bridge-dam, and beginning at it.
