The City can be compared to an
organism. It is self-supporting,
healing itself when damaged, and uses and discards materials it requires for
growth and the sustainment of life.
Like an organism there is a brain, organs responsible for its
well-being, and other types of materials from which the organism is composed. It is this complexity that makes the City so
hard, and fascinating to study.
The government of the City could be summarised as a feudal
monarchy with limited democratic elements.
The hereditary ruler of the City is known as the Baron, a title whose
origins are lost in antiquity. Despite
the low nature of the title, the Baron possesses all the powers and
prerogatives of a prince or king, and outranks the Dukes and Archdukes amongst
the nobility of the City. The Barony
has passed through several noble families throughout its history, as lines died
out or intermingled their blood with other noble lines.
Although the Baron possesses ultimate power in the City, a certain
amount of influence is vested in the City Council, a body of nobles and
commoners that can be called on demand to advise the Baron, grant subsidies of
money, or to present grievances to him.
The higher chamber of the Council is known as the Inner Circle, and is
where the nobility sit. The lower
chamber is called the Outer Circle, and is comprised of commoners elected
whenever a sitting of the City Council is called. The term ‘commoners’ is misleading – to both stand for election
and vote for a candidate a person must be male, over the age of 30, and have a
substantial independent income. In
practice this means that the Outer Circle is mainly composed of rich merchants,
lawyers and other professionals, as well as very minor nobility and other
gentry. The lower classes, the plebs,
have no voice in affairs of state, and only gain attention through riots or
other expressions of displeasure at the policies of the governing elite.
In times of the Baron’s absence he appoints as his proxy a Regent
Council, who is usually a trusted family member such as a sibling or
offspring. The Regent Council is guided
and advised by the Regency Council, a body of several powerful nobles who are
also appointed by the Baron. The Regent
Council possesses many of the prerogative rights of the Baron, including those
of taxation and legislation, but ultimate authority is still vested in the
Baron.
Nobles have been a constant feature of life in the City. Many centuries ago, when the City began to
expand, the Baron appointed from within his own family to control the new
districts. The nobility has since grown
as later barons ennobled trusted advisors or sycophantic friends. A noble is defined as someone of noble blood
in possession of a district – an area of land whose exact definition is
elastic.
Old, established noble families such as the de Perrins, de
Ravencourts and de Navans control many of the larger districts of the City,
which are known, due to their history, size and importance, as Greater
Districts. Ennoblement has caused the
need to create new districts for the new nobles, leading to the creation of
smaller districts, sometimes only tens of feet square, to satisfy the criteria
for nobility. These small parcels of
land are known as Lesser Districts, and are usually regarded and represented as
a part of the Greater District they have been carved from.
As the ruling authority of their districts, the nobles act as the
judiciary for them, judging cases on evidence presented before them. They preside over Courts of Higher Pleas, as
Chief Justices, which are used in cases involving commerce, nobility or other
important factors. Cases of lesser
importance are dealt with in smaller courts presided over by commoners elected
to the Outer Circle. As well as
advising the Baron, such commoners act as Magistrates in the district they have
been returned from even when the City Council is not sitting. Magistrates sit in a series of courts known
as the Bench of Common Pleas, where ordinary citizens may bring legal action
against others for small, civic grievances.
Commoners have a right of appeal, and more experienced magistrates sit
as Lesser Justices in the Court of Common Appeal.
When not sitting on the City Council, some of the commoners and
nobility have posts in government.
There exists a Commissioner of Taxes to collect the prerogative tolls,
customs and levies that the Baron is entitled to, and Commissioner of the City
Guard to control the constabulary of the City.
In addition, the Department of Public Works provides employment for
some, overseeing the repair and maintenance of the City’s infrastructure. Finally, the Census Bureau is the central
library and archive of the Baron’s government, storing documents, manuscripts,
transcripts, maps, graphs and other items of administrative importance. The Bureau has several Halls that divide
responsibilities amongst themselves – the most important of them all is the Hall
of Records and Licenses, which issues licenses for everything from building
construction to ship ownership to trading privileges. Due to their poor salaries the clerks and registrars are eager to
supplement their income with bribes, and the criminal fraternity gain many of
their maps, permits and documents from corrupt employees of the Bureau.
As a monarch, the Baron possesses certain prerogatives that are
not disputed by any in the City. He has
the right to levy tolls and customs, and set import taxes to raise money or
control trade. He can also raise money
through direct taxation, but this prerogative is limited because new taxes must
be passed by both circles of the City Council.
The Baron also gains income from lands he controls in both the City and
the area around it, and businesses that he owns. Until recent times the Baron could also depend upon the
substantial income from the Order of the Hammer, but the recent divorce between
the two has deprived the Baron of this source of revenue.
This combined income, known as Ordinary Revenue, is expected to be
enough for the Baron to rule with. In
times of crisis, such as war or famine, the Baron can call a sitting of the
City Council, and there request a grant of money, known as a subsidy. This grant of money is levied on both
commoners and nobility, and is based on income and wealth. Subsidies are known as Extra-Ordinary
Revenue, because they are outside the normal income of the Baron. The Baron is usually reluctant to request
Extra-Ordinary Revenue because it necessitates calling a sitting of the
Council, where grievances the people have against him can be aired.
Many of these grievances are of a minor nature, concerning certain
aspects or elements of policy. Both the
Baron and the City Council are united in their desire to ensure the peace and
maintenance of civic order in the City.
The plebes represent a dangerous force, and, where possible, measures
are taken to ensure that they are given enough bread and beer to remain
disinterested in politics.
All of this great drama takes place within the physical
environment of the City. Occupying a
low-lying floodplain, the City developed from a village built around the lowest
bridging point of the great tidal river that bisects the City. Urban development has covered over most of
the flood plain, and docks and warehouses extend down the mouth of the channel
towards the sea. Every area of the City
is distinctive, the style of its buildings dependent upon both age and
prosperity. Rich districts contain
broad, straight roads, with large mansions surrounded by walls and gates. Middle-class districts contain buildings of
a smaller size and lower quality, although the size remains reasonable and the
more prosperous have large homes that are large enough to justify walls and
gates. Poorer areas are slums, with
small dwellings made usually of wood, and rarely of brick or stone.
Through these great conglomerations of buildings run numerous
roads, thoroughfares and highways. The spine
of the City is the Blackbrook to Cyric road, which runs from west to east and
crosses the river at what used to be its lowest bridging point. From this road run major thoroughfares such
as The Baron’s Way that cut through the heart of the City’s districts. They are usually broad and flat, metalled
with cobblestones or paving stones, and continually choked with burrick-drawn
carts and wagons and pedestrians.
Enterprising merchants set up stalls to sell food and small items to
passers-by.
Branching off from these main tributaries of commerce are smaller
roads such as Grandmauden Road. Smaller
in size, they are also paved, and are kept in a reasonable state of repair by
the Department of Public Works, which has overall responsibility for all public
ways. Carts pass along them, but only
just, and the roads are normally thronged with people. The constant traffic wears out the cobbles,
while the carts eventually wear deep ruts in the roads where no repair is
carried out.
However, the majority of the streets in the city are narrow
alleyways and roads, that grew organically and without any forethought or
planning. Most are too narrow to bring
carts down, and twist and turn to such an extent that it is easy to become
quickly lost. The absence of street signs
of any nature means that guides are advisable.
A great majority of the roads are paved with cobbles, but in poorer
districts, or where crime is too rampant for Work Orders to venture, the
citizens must struggle through roads of mud that are dusty in summer and muddy
rivers in winter.
Along these streets are found all manner of things. Streets and roads open into small plazas or
courtyards, with space for small markets or statues of important but forgotten
figures. The river that runs through
the City had many tributaries in the days before urbanisation spread the City
across its flood plain, and these occasionally surface as pools or streams
before disappearing underground. When
the Hammerite built the sewers they roofed over and otherwise channelled these
streams, leading conduits into them to carry sewage to the river outflow. Wooden walkways or stone bridges carry
people over these intermittent obstacles, although their nature as sewerage
conduits makes them unattractive places to linger. Other streets lead to canals that wind their way around
Shalebridge. Built on low-lying, marshy
ground, the district is drained by several canals, which doubled as transport
arteries in the days when the district was mainly warehousing and industry.
The sewers that citizens see occasionally flow primarily below
ground, carrying the wastes from privies, sinks and industry to their outflow
in the river. Small pipes below
residences empty into larger conduits – many of them former streams – that
carry the sewage through chambers and holding tanks. The Hammerites built sturdy sewers, and the Department of Public
Works normally has no need to concern itself with anything but
maintenance. Basins and chambers store
overflow water to prevent the system being overwhelmed, while holding tanks
have gates that can be closed to cause backflow of water into storage space in
conduits in times of high demand. Many
sewers have entrances from street level, although enterprising criminals have
been known to tunnel into the sewers from beneath their residences. The sewers are the haunt of many criminals –
they provide an easy means to move undetected around the City, and some, such
as the Downwinder Thieves Guild, have converted sections into bases. Maintenance workers know to steer clear of
such areas, while the constabulary know better than to chase criminals through
the maze of sewers. The sewers spread
out beyond the City, built in anticipation of future urban development that never
occurred – even buildings as far away as the Mage Towers have connections with
the sewers that reach all the way back to the City.
Crime in the City is a perennial problem. Organised crime is controlled by a cabal of
powerful criminals known as the City Wardens.
Each controls a Ward of several districts, from which they extract
protection money, control criminal activities, and otherwise carry out illegal
acts. Although there is frequent
competition between them, self-interest has meant that on occasion the Wardens
co-operate to frustrate a concerted attempt to put paid to them. The three most powerful Wardens are Ramirez,
Raputo and Webster, who, between them, control almost the entire City. Smaller Wardens control much smaller wards
within the City, or tracts of land outside its walls. Most Wardens adopt the guise of rich and
successful merchants to avoid suspicion.
The Wardens often have a controlling interest in various criminal
guilds – organisations of certain types of criminals who gather together for
mutual self-interest and protection.
Many are semi-independent, working for but not controlled by the
Wardens. Independent criminals are in
the majority, and the best work alone.
There are infinite varieties of criminals, ranging from the master thief
Garrett to the very bottom of the pile.
Street crime is epidemic in the City, with cutpurses and muggers alert
for an unwary citizen who dares to wander the shadowed streets at night.
Many of the streets are lit, either through powered lamps or
torches. There are several patterns of
lamp; a closed and open filament version.
Light is produced through the mixing of several phosphorescent chemicals
across a catalytic filament – the catalyst produces a reaction that emits a
strong light for a large distance around it.
Older lamps have open filaments, where the chemicals are sprayed onto a
central filament, and there react to create a powerful but diffuse light. Closed filament lamps are a recent
invention; early attempts to create one failed after the chemicals persistently
caused the element to explode. Modern
lamps have valves that emit small amounts of chemicals into a glass bulb where
the filament catalyses the reaction to create a brilliant white light. The pattern is similar to that employed in
domestic lamps, although such lamps have a more yellow tinge to the light due
to the refractive properties of the different types of glass used.
The chemicals for these lamps are pumped underground under high
pressure in conduits that run from plants within the City. Large engines, such as those in the South
Quarter, pump the chemicals along pipes that are tapped by the streetlamps and
those who can afford the expensive apparatus necessary to utilise the
chemicals. Few can, and powered lights
are restricted to those rich citizens who are able to pay for the pipes,
valves, filaments and upkeep of such a complicated lighting system. However, the benefits outweigh the costs –
the light provided is brighter than that of torches, and less vulnerable to
wind, rain and thieves with water crystals.
The lights are turned off by wall-mounted valves that cut off flow to
the lamps, draining them of reactants and causing them to go out.
Beside the houses, apartments, shops, factories and warehouses of
the City are the organs of commerce, governance and culture. The North Quarter is home to established
banks such as the First City Bank and Trust, owned by powerful families that
have often lent money to the Baron in times of need and received favours in
return. At the mouth of the River is
the Customs House, an impressive edifice sited to collect taxes and tolls from
ships travelling upriver or docking in the City. Smaller customs posts at the main gates of the City, especially
along the Blackbrook-Cyric road, collect tolls from those with carts or pack-burricks. These tolls have led to a thriving smuggling
operation controlled by the City Wardens.
The district of the Old Quarter contains the City Guildhall, which acted
as a centre of commerce before the development of the Newmarket Exchange. The district of Newmarket is the central
commercial site of the City. The
Newmarket Exchange is a forum for commerce and the buying and selling of
goods. Trading privileges have led to
the formation of several cartels that hold monopolies on some products. Machines, metalwork and other raw materials
flow out of the City; meat, greens and money flow in.
Other notable landmarks are mainly concentrated in the older
quarters of the City. The Grand Library
is the closest the City has to a university – the vast complex houses miles of
shelves of books, manuscripts and maps in a collection that is only rivalled by
that of the Keepers. The Library has
developed something of a reputation for investigating magical and exotic
phenomenon, causing it to be looked on with something approaching suspicion by
the Hammerites. The Opera House, owned
by Lady Valerius now, is the centre of the cultural life of the City, providing
entertainment for the upper classes.
Those with less refined taste congregate at the City’s playhouses.
Finally, there are the grand buildings of governance. At the heart of the Old Quarter lies the
Baron’s palace. Expanded over many
years, it is a vast, rambling complex of buildings that is not just a
residence, but also a chamber of governance, armoury, mint and prison. The City Council conducts its sessions in
the Meeting Hall, while the Census Bureau has several large halls in which it
carries out its work and stores its paperwork.
The largest of the halls is, naturally, the Hall of Records and
Licenses. The army of the City is
administered from the palace, while both the Commissioner of Taxes and the
Commissioner of the City Guard have offices here. In addition, the palace contains its own forge and armoury, where
weapons are produced and stockpiled.
Money is minted in one part of the complex, where coiners issue coins
stamped with the Baron’s arms. In the
basements, sub-basements and cellars of the palace are deep dungeons where
those who the Baron wishes to disappear are left to rot. More luxurious detention is sited above
ground for those enemies of a high social standing.
The Order of the Hammer owns substantial areas of land within the
City, and is one of its major landlords – the Baron being another. The centre of Hammerite worship is conducted
in the Hammerite Temple, situated in the Old Quarter, and is the residence of
the High Priest. The former focus of
worship, the Hammerite Cathedral, is beyond the reach of the living, standing
in the middle of the desolate space that is the Closed Area. Beyond the Barricades are the undead, and
the area has gained its own set of legends and myths that deter almost all from
even going near the high stone walls.
Scattered around the City are smaller Hammerite temples that are often
no more than small chapels, possessing a priest and several guards, and enough
space for a small congregation to worship.
The recent decline of the Order has left many such chapels undermanned,
while falling revenues from rents and bequests have caused the Order to begin
to sell off substantial chunks of land to gain enough money to continue
functioning.
The nobles that occupy the court of the Baron live in luxurious
mansions in the districts surrounding the palace. They are several stories high, and cover a wide area delineated
by a high wall. The nobles have powered
lighting, running water, rooms of art, sculpture and antiquities, and the
rarest of all assets: gardens. To have
a garden is a sign of extreme wealth – to have a garden devoted to plants
rather than food and herbs is a sign of conspicuous consumption that few are
wealthy enough to display. The nobles
protect their mansions with hired guards who are usually either rejects from
the City Guard or returned veterans from the City’s army. When not in residence in their mansions, the
nobles retreat to country manors from which they control their estates. These estates give them both revenue and
enjoyment – many have excellent hunting, which is a favoured noble sport.
Infilling the spaces between noble mansions in the costlier
districts is middle-class housing.
Space is at such a premium, and land so costly, that most middle classes
live in smaller houses that are packed closely together. Many run their businesses from their homes,
and it is not unusual to see an apothecary or office on the ground floor of a
building, and living quarters on the stories above it. Most middle-class families have at least one
servant. The children are not educated
by private tutors, as is the case with the richer classes, but are often sent
to small schools where the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic are
taught. Most sons, of all classes,
follow their father’s profession, and serve apprenticeships that teach them the
relevant skills. Most girls are denied
education.
Those who join the Order of the Hammer receive different schooling
to any others. From an early age the
novice is taught theology, astronomy, engineering and mathematics. The education is stringently conducted, and
only the more accomplished become Elevated Acolytes, destined to become priests
and scholars. Less accomplished pupils,
or those who join the Order in adulthood, become Acolytes, and serve as guards,
craftsmen or police. Priests acquire
rudimentary spell-casting abilities, although the origin and purpose of this is
unknown.
The Hammerites, once a potent force in the City, now have only
vestiges of that authority. Hammerite
patrols still walk the streets, attempting to shut down the cash pits and
gambling dens that they frown upon.
Criminals acquitted by the secular courts remain at risk of being
arrested by the Hammerites and imprisoned in Cragscleft. However, their influence is on the
wane. The cellblocks at Cragscleft are
emptier than ever before. In many
districts there is no Hammerite presence at all, and in others it is only a
token one. In only a few places are
there enough Hammerites to cause trouble, and opposition from criminals,
nobles, commoners and the constabulary means that these will probably soon
disappear too.
Regardless of whether or not the Order of the Hammer declines into
obscurity, it has left a proud legacy.
The sewers that they built have greatly improved the sanitary conditions
of the City’s inhabitants, while the water pipes have reduced disease and led
to better living conditions. Despite
this, disease is still rampant in the City.
Filthy streets are breeding grounds for plagues that sweep the City at
frequent intervals, while the air and water pollution from the heavy industries
of the City. Healing potions are
effective cures, but are rare and expensive, and those who can afford them
usually live in areas clean enough that the plague rarely strikes there. For the others there is no cure, and to
sustain the high mortality rate of the City massive immigration from the
countryside surrounding it is necessary.
The rich suffer less from plague due to better living conditions,
cleaner water, and more varied food.
For those worried about plague, there is a ready market in the highly
rare and very expensive air crystals imported from Blackbrook. Formed through elemental magic, the crystals
act to freshen the air around them, and they are widely believed to combat the
plague. There is a great demand for
other crystals as well. Water crystals
purify water, while earth crystals are excellent fertilisers and promote
extensive plant growth. Fire crystals
can be used as firelighters, although they are fragile and prone to
catastrophic breakages.
Fires in the City are a major cause for concern, although
primarily in the poor districts where the main material of construction is
wood. There exists no means of putting
out anything fiercer than a small fire.
Buckets and small pumps cannot combat a house fire, let alone one
devouring an entire block of housing.
In extreme circumstances houses can be pulled down to create a
firebreak, but the usual tactic is to wait for rain, or allow the fire to burn
itself out. Fires are most common in
summer months, when wood is dry from many months of minimal rain, although many
fires occur in winter from the fires burning in the homes of almost all the
inhabitants of the City.
The fires are necessary to combat the intense cold of winter in
the City, where temperatures drop below freezing, and snow falls on the
City. It is sometimes a dark, dirty
snow, polluted with the smoke of hundreds of furnaces that give the City its
prosperity and its blanket of smoke. In
many ways it is an apt symbol of the City – powerful and prosperous, yet also
dark and grim. There is much that is
dark in the City, and we must forever be watchful so that the Balance should
not be upset.
None can predict the future with certainty. Even we are blind at times. None in the City besides us could have
foreseen what the past year has brought.
As part of his dark project the Trickster brought into the City beasts unknown
here since the days of darkness before civilisation. Panic descended upon the citizenry, and law and order collapsed
in several places before the Baron managed to restore order to his realm. Combined with the aggressive actions of
Blackbrook, along with the fall of the Order of the Hammer and the rise of the
Mechanist Order, it is no surprise that the face of the City has been radically
changed.
Among the most obvious changes are those of construction. Several areas were razed to the ground in
the chaos surrounding the Trickster’s revelation, and rebuilt in a greatly
improved manner. In Dayport, along The
Baron’s Way, the widespread adoption of the elevator in construction has led to
the creation of buildings many stories high.
What were once valleys between houses are now canyons, and the new
Mechanist tower – “Anglewatch” – in Dayport a mountain to rival those outside
the City. Other parts of the City have
been rebuilt in brick and stone, replacing the wooden structures consumed in
the conflagration.
These improvements owe much to the rise of the Mechanists, under
their revered leader Karras. Although
not yet fully accepted by the nobility, the commoners have whole-heartedly
embraced the new Order, which attracts converts from both the Hammerites and
the laity. The technological focus of
the Mechanists has led to many new inventions – as well as the popularisation
of the elevator, the Mechanists have developed a new model of lamp that is a
practical fusion of the torch and powered lamp. Containing a reservoir of chemicals, the lamp has the
illumination of a powered lamp, but the convenience and economy of a
torch. Advancements in the field of
alchemy and clockwork, as well as more arcane branches of knowledge, have led
to the development of security cameras and turrets that have revolutionised
policing. The imminent arrival of the
Children of Karras, large automatons that combine the features of the two,
promises to further change the face of policing.
However, there are some who would say that policing has changed
enough. Disgusted with the corruption
and incompetence of de Navan, the former Commissioner of the City Guard, the
Baron dismissed him, and appointed an ambitious new Sheriff called Gormon
Truart to reform the corrupt Guard. His
reforms went beyond anything the Baron could have foreseen. With his lieutenants Hagen and Mosley,
Truart instituted a thorough purge of the City Guard that eliminated the
corrupt, incompetent and potentially argumentative. The other Sheriffs were sidelined, and total control over the
constabulary vested in Truart.
He proceeded to virtually eradicated crime from the City. The City Wardens were chased down and
imprisoned. The criminal guilds were
raided and attacked until they disintegrated.
Frequent patrols of the streets cut down street crime, while Truart’s
tactic of arresting the middlemen of the criminal world caused the collapse of
entire networks of criminals, leaving them destitute. Although many would applaud Truart’s achievements, some are
beginning to worry about serious infringements of common-law rights by the
newly renamed constabulary, now known as the City Watch.
The Order of the Hammer has now almost entirely discharged its
self-appointed task of policing the City.
Token patrols still roam a few streets of the vast metropolis the
Hammerites were once feared in. Now
they are mocked by many, who take pleasure in the fall of an Order that was for
a long time a repressive influence in the City. Cragscleft is almost deserted.
The factories and forges lie silent and rusting, while in the Hammerite
Temple, the centre of the Order, the hallways are still. Many have defected to the Mechanist Order,
who treat the Hammerites with distain as “hoary forbears” that now have no
relevance in the modern age.
The disorder in the City presented a golden opportunity for
Blackbrook to make good on territorial claims.
Sporadic fighting has been a feature of border areas for many years –
now Blackbrook marched into the City’s territories with an army. Recognising the threat, the Baron assembled
the City army and raised the militia, and marched out to meet them. In his absence he has appointed his brother
as Regent Council, and a group of powerful lords such as Bram Gervasius to
advise him. Both the Regent and his
Council are wary of the power Truart wields, and so have not tried to interfere
overmuch in his actions. The City
Council, called in the aftermath of the Trickster’s return to grant funds for
repair and renovation, has been dissolved after those funds were instead directed
into raising an army, and will now not meet until it has been called next.
Looking over this list of changes, it is hard not to find one
aspect of life in the City that has not been changed in some form. Many are still adapting to this new age,
which we Keepers know to be the Metal Age.
The fall of the Woodsie Lord has opened the way for the ascension of
Karras. The weights in either pan of
the Balance have become heavier. Once
again we are forced to rely on Garrett to bring the City to rights.