final two cities

Alright here we are down to Ebon-Gray and Black.  Black is completely surrounded by Ebon-gray, which is a rather unusual setup for Adama.  The politics between these two cities reflect their physical setup.  The culture of Black is rather like that of ancient Athens.  Ebon-gray is their Sparta.    They have very similar cultures, but focus causes tension.  They just happen to have a slightly more artistic and scholarly bent than Sparta.

The main reason Black manages to stay independent is that they are the only real land in the whole area. Plus they are very rich, and not shabby soldiers themselves.  Black is a plateau of black shiny rock with grass on top.  No buildings are on the plain.  The whole thing is reserved for gazing  cattle.  The city itself is built into the interior of the plateau with the richer areas being the outside, air facing bits.  Its odd in that way that the farther into the city you get the poorer it gets.  unlike the other cavern and caves of Adama, these are entirley manmade, and usually less than expertly.  They are smelly, stale and gross.  No real method for waste removal or sanitation.  Lights are rare.  Its a very dank dangerous subculture in the center of the plateau.

On the outside it is a beautiful city.  Shining carved black rock, with classic motifs and Ionic columns.  The monied are really the only citizens that are counted.  The youths put in there time in school, then in the military, and by 30 retire back home to marry and help mom and dad with the cattle business while settleing down to whatever research or craft they have chosen and the business of produceing the next generation.  The generations are rather regimented, broken into 5 year blocks.  Because women(they go through the same school, military schedule the men do)  wait so long to have children they have fewer chances.  They tend to be healthier and survive better than their younger counterparts, but it is not unusual to only have one child naturally.  A form of 'adoption' is common, but is basically buying children from the poor.  They are not treated as second class children or citizens either.  It is also not seen as any sort of stigma against it.  It is not uncommon to see a family unit where the child is clearly not related to the parents genetically.

There is a whole market for theses 'adoptions' to take place.  And rather than it being shady, it is very well regulated, so as to 'protect' the children.  It does actually manage to make sure slavery isn't a real issue.  Families who want to adopt must be citizens of Black.  They must be at least a married couple. (Group marriages and same-sex marriages are not the norm, but they are not exotic and have the same rights as any 'traditional' marriage)  The adoption must be registered and the child registered in the records as a new citizen.

Unlike our world, children are more often adopted, rather than infants.  Parents like to chose children that demonstrate some sort of inclination toward an interest of there own, possibly to find someone to inherit the family business if a biological child does not seem interested.  Or just trying to find a talented engaging child.  Competition to be that child is fierce.  The monetary reward for your biological parents, plus the privileged new life is a hefty goal.   Often an adopted child will hire some or all (depending on how many there are) of his biological family as servants when they reach adulthood.  But before that, they don't get contact with them.  Once adopted the new family is the only family.

Ebon-gray has a similar problem with their women of birthing age. This is made worse by their slightly more war-like disposition.  Few want to retire from active duty and incidents that result in sterility are much more common. Unlike Black , there is no pool of poor to draw from for adoption.  They resent black for closely cultivating there little starving section to pick gems from.  They also resent the lack of access to it.  There had been an instance of testing allowing families from Ebon-gray adopt from the pool(100 to be exact), but they didn't adhere to the strict tracking that was required.  Further investigation found that in some cases the children were being put to work as slaves, or were not even in residence.  Some 20 children were never accounted for and were believed to have been trafficked out of the area and and sold.  That put an end to that experiment.  Black needs the pool to have hope for better things.  It is what keeps them tractable and controllable.  If rumors had got back in that bad things were happening to the adopted ones, the whole balance could have come crashing down around the government of Black.  This is the main source of conflict between the two cities.

Ebon-Gray is a moat-like lake all around Black, throughly freckled with small dark gray rocky islands.  These are where the buildings are.  Some are as small as a single family home  others as large as New York City block.  The largest  can be walked across in less than 15 minutes at a leisurely pace.  Few islands are further apart than 50 yards.  It is almost like having a very through canal system rather than a bunch of islands on a lake.

ugh, this will have to be cont. later guys.

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3 more cities to go...

I want to do Black and Ebon-gray together and I have a really good idea of what they are like and it will take me a whole day to put that together, so that is not on the board for this lovely Tuesday. (Any one else looking forward to Raid Night? Yea, server resets) 

So this afternoon I will attempt to spit something out about Summer-sky.  The problem is that I haven't had any ideas for this area at all.  None.  It is bordered by Tiger-eye,  Rose, Green, Ebon-Gray, and Opal.  That's a lot of borders...it is also near half the highest population centers, and most of the trade centers...A Bazaar!  It is the trade city!  Miners form Tiger-eye, wood from Green, imports from Opal, cattle from Black!  Its even not terribley far from Yellow!  Oh and the fact that Yellow is on the other side of Black from it is great for one of my already planned sub-plots!  Brainstorming for the win.

Alright then.  How about a slightly Indian feel to this one?  Saris and piles of spices, Silk tents over the boats,....and the whole thing is a huge lake!  So that scene in  Aladdin where Jasmine is walking through the marketplace?  Like that but on boats!  ...must find refernce pic, hold on a moment...


Back, ok so this:

Image © Walt Disney Animation

Mixed with this:

Not mine, just click through to see where I got it from.

Good right?  At night you look out at the lake and it is clear and calm with hardly anyone on it, the nighttime activities being restricted to the villages at the borders where everyone retreats at the end of the day.   This is also where the inns are, and residents live.

During the day the whole lake is filled at the center with neat rows of shopboats, lashed together with their neighbors in streets to form the  traditional lanes, like Potters Lane, and Shoe Street.  You can even walk down the 'streets' across the fronts of the boats.  There is a border fee that helps cover the cost of employing organizers that mark out the lanes, make sure all shops are in there proper place, which helps the shoppers find them.  There is also a local police force patrolling the city.

A fairly wide berth is left around the edge of the lake for traffic and some sections of the bazaar are separated from one another, such as clothing, cloth, leather and such are grouped together with the vendors of leather goods being closest to animal section but still separated by a fairly large water way. (for smell purposes) Likewise, bulk raw leather dealers are on the edge of the upwind edge of the animal section.  So on and so forth, so that is is organized neatly and conveintly, but also according to the weather. 

Perfect!  Another great idea, a family with a talent for weather prediction, a bunch of weather witches...Now what to do with them...

Sometimes you just gotta sit down and say, 'I will do this' instead of waiting for the inspiration to come to you.

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Thar she blows!

Alright, with Yellow we have a return to the western-style culture, with a lot in common with early America.  Think Moby Dick.  But just a hint of that, more like a traditional, vaugley mideval campaingn setting but a very coastal flavour to it.  Taste the salt on the air.  Omnomnom.

Whales.  They hunt whales.  Go read.  They also farm fish.  Why do they farm fish?  Cause the natural population is somewhat limiting.  It's more as a middle of the line luxery item.  Regular people eat brim and bass most days.  On a special occasion such as a bonus check or just for a change of pace they get a redfish or somthing of that calibur.  Remember, beef and pork are a bit rare because of the lack of avalible land to keep them.

Yellow also raises chickens, feeding them leftovers from the fish farms and whale harvest.  Chicken tastes kinda fishy in Adama.

The people are a bit run down; whaling is hard on people.  They have money though.  The main character in this area will be a young woman who is trying to get them to stop whaling.  Promting the chicken farming and fish farming for making a living, and trying to introduce seaweed farming.  She is going to be half mermaid and talk to fish. (Maybe her hair will be kinda greenish, ohh, and her lips are kinda puckered like a fish?...and she can sing very well?)  She realizes the whales are sentient.  Other fish, not so much.  Not sure how to turn this into an avdventure yet.  Need to also bring in the Stone Man.  It's a start.   And need to keep the girl from getting too Disney Princess-ish.

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Gray, short post i'm sleepy

Gray is connected to green by a tiny little border, but it is one of the most active borders in the whole Territory.  That is because of the mass wood trade that goes on there.  The majority of the business of Gray is boat building.  Everything from tiny pirogues all the way up to large ships.  Wood from Green and papyrus reeds from inside the city.  The whole area is covered in a plant much like cyperus papyrus from our Egypt.  Biggest difference is that they are half again as big.  These grow from 15-25 feet tall.  They grow in a fashion that forms natural pathways in a maze like fashion.  The locals harvest them in a thinning pattern that does not ruin these natural waterways.  The reeds are used in much the same fashion as the ancient Egyptians did and the people are culturally very similar.  The biggest difference in the lack of stone and Pyramids.


The baddie will actually be here physically, before the Flight.  He will be elsewhere afterward.  I have the idea for him to be spreading some sort of sickness to the papyrus causing them to petrify at a unnatural rate.  Then his minions gather the stone reeds and build pyramids.  I'm gunna have baddie building these things all over the place.  I need to figure out what they are for now...

Here there be dragons...

Purple dusk has the most land of any city state.  It is also the only one not to currently be represented on the Council.  There is enough land that our heroes will actually benefit from leaving their boat overnight.  Rocky, with extensive cave formations.  These caves are huge.  As in dragon huge.  As in if you haven't guessed yet, home of Draca and her mate huge.  If our insipid adventurers decide to explore these caves they will meet the legendary pair..

There isn't much else to say about this area...I'm thinking of making the rocks kinda swirly.  Kinda like this.  Once in the caves they will start to notice the purple glowing moss, large gold spiders, webs and such.  The spiders' bodies will be about the size of a large man's fist.  The webs they weave will have different purposes.  Most will be variations of traps.  Some traps will be for the mind, others for the body.   These are the original Black Widows.  The traps for the mind will be another post. I think for them I will randomize it, having some sort of rolling system and  and question and answer thing for the player.  Should come up with some sort of  puzzle for them to figure out.  I'm not good at that sort of thing.  May have to find something online to borrow.  Wish I had some reader to give me ideas.  Ideas Internet!  Any way back to the show...

The deeper into the caves they venture the more crystals they will find scattered on the ground, till they come to a cavern where the floor is completely covered several deep in crystals.  If they bother to dig through them in this space they will discover that the room is actually in the middle of an underground river.  The crystals are piled so high that you can easily walk through the room and never know you were over a river, except for the pleasant rushing sound of the water.  (The water actually comes up in Tiger-eye, carrying crystals with it.  That is why it seems as if the supply in never ending there.)  Even though the current is constantly carrying away crystals the room is still covered.  This is because the supply is constantly being replenished.  Welcome to the dragon's lair.

Blue skies

On the surface Sapphire appears barren and abandoned.  There is even less land here than other cities.  Jagged rocks pierce the surface, and huge whirlpools come and go.  The water is extremely clear but dark, making it difficult to see to the rocky bottom.  Sometimes as one is gazing into the depths bight lights blind the watcher.  Some of the larger rocks projecting form the water have caves leading down, deep beneath sea level.


No people appear to live in the territory, but without fail every year, proper taxes and records are brought to the council via representative.  This representative comes from the Traders Guild, and is extremely closed mouthed, never giving any information on the city.  The paper work is always very detailed, but somehow always makes the mystery worse.  Population, marriages, sales, imports, exports, and all other relevant facts are listed, but no one lives there....


The actual population of Sapphire lives in underground caverns made of crystal.  The bright light sometimes blinds sailors is the light bouncing around these crystals.  Even though it looks dark down there, the crystals do a magnificent job of collecting what light does get down there and concentrating it into the caverns, creating a twilight effect.  Coupled with many species of bio-luminescent creatures that have been culminated.  What few trusted traders that are allowed down there would tell you its like swimming through the stars in the sky, if they were inclined to speak about it at all. 


The population are mermaids, if you hadn't figured that out yet.  I have an idea of what they will like like, a cross between the mermaids in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and traditional ones.  If any one has read these books, it will be most like the fish people in Wren's Quest.  Entrances to their caverns are the large sea caves mentioned before and the whirlpools mentioned  above.


Only city-state to have a monarchical form of government.  It is an matriarchal electoral monarchy.  Will be the only area that they visit that have little or no problems with the Stone Man (which is what I have decided to call my baddie.)


The mermaids, along with the unicorns from Green will also receive Jewels when Draca Flys.

Rose Red

 Anyone paying attention to the map may have noticed that the Red and Rose areas on my map have the same textureing.  This is by design.  As mentioned earlier, they have pretty much the same culture, although the governments and landscape are not.

Red has a good bit more volcanic activity than anywhere else in the Territory, except maybe Opal.  But where Opals is due to being near highly active volcanoes, Red has much more subdued but constant activity similar to places like Yellowstone's mud-pots.  These mud-pots are mixed with the water flowing through the area.  The water is dark and dirty.  Depth varies and is difficult to determine visually.  Sort of like oases floating in a desert of muddy water there are abundant hot springs, with lots of low lying greenery.  These oases are all inhabited with people, who mostly run spa like inns, with Japenese like-onsen.  The buildings, instead of being made of ricepaper walls, have screens of woven reeds, in patterns similar to carved cedar screen from India.  Small rice farms are also scattered throughout, where the pools are not large enough for baths.

Rose has the same culture, but more farmers and no onsen.  The volcanic activity dies off and the warmed, mineral rich water flows into the area from Red.  Plant-life flourishes.  The scenery is similar to southern Florida's mangrove swamps.  They provide most of the food for Red.

The two territories are very close, with most inhabitants having family in both areas, and marriages and moving between the two being regular and easy.

Inhabitants are friendly and welcoming, if a bit formal.  Not sure what the plot is going to be in the area.

That's it for today.  Ja ne!


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