Difference between revisions of "Negav"

Revision as of 07:24, 21 November 2015

Negav
Inhabitants	humans, nekos, elves, tinies, micrats, pteroks, mapets, shock beetles, warp roaches, swallower walls
Population	Officially 750,000. Probably much more.

General content: | Felaryan fauna | Felaryan flora | Races | Characters | Locations | History and Lore | Science and Magic | Culture and Customs | List of all available articles

Negav content: | Negav main | Negav's Lower Tier | Negav's Middle Tier | Negav's Higher Tier | Negav's Underground | Negav's surrounding area | Negavian factions

A map of Negav. The full picture can be seen here: [1]

For the humans living on Felarya, Negav is more or less their current capital. An oddity in the wilds, the seemingly impregnable fortified city has withstood whatever dangers the jungle has thrown at it. It has been partially destroyed, rebuilt, conquered, flooded, struck by fire and lightning... and yet it continues to stand. While most humans settlements in Felarya are tiny and secluded to avoid the hungry gaze of its ravenous fauna, Negav boldly lets its presence be known, like a challenge to the face of Felarya and its voracious inhabitants. Due to its perceived invincibility, Negav serves as a haven and oasis to the many travelers arriving in Felarya, usually through the dimensional gate located next to the city. Negav is like a magnet for mysterious planar travelers, shady vagabonds, slayers of mythical beasts, scar-covered swordsmen, heroes bearing magical swords, temple defilers, ruthless thugs, and intrepid explorers who, despite its incredible dangers, are drawn to Felarya by the prospect of fabulous treasures, glory and adventures.

Geography and Infrastructure

Negav is situated directly south bank of the Motamo river. The wide river surrounds the the city on its north and western borders, and parts of the eastern flank, serving as a natural moat of sorts. The city itself is built on a somewhat low hill covering an area of well over 110 square miles. As it lies in such close proximity of the Tolmeshal region, Negav experiences a strong tropical climate all year long and rarely experiences overcast weather. Thankfully, the presence of the Motamo river helps keep the hot temperature down to relatively bearable levels for those unaccustomed to the jungle heat. Rainfall occurs at an approximate recorded minimum of once a month, though Negav is no stranger to the occasional storms and downpours.

The Great Wall of Negav

Negav is surrounded by a massive wall, aptly named the Great Wall, a marvel of craftsmanship and magic combined. It towers hundreds of feet tall, protected with powerful cannons and other weaponry. The city has only two entrances: the Victory Gate, which leads north of the Motamo river across Asianas Bridge and is the most frequently used entrance, and the Watchers' Gate, which leads to the south. Both are heavily guarded not only by weapons and diligent Isolon Fist soldiers, but also all manners of detection devices and identification spells to ensure that nothing unwelcome sneaks in. The gates can also be sealed off in an emergency, with massive reinforced doors able to close very quickly. The architects chose not to reveal all of the walls' secrets, but one of them is that they appear to be covered by almost pure Xythium, a very rare and extremely hard metal. The area immediately surrounding the city is home to a few farmlands and access to a number of underground shelters. Directly to the east of Asianas Bridge is Negav's Dimensional Gate.

The southern walls ( pending image upload )

The City

Within the walls, the city of Negav is a sight to behold. All manner of gleaming towers, imposing temples, bustling markets, noisy taverns, mage academies, and exotic shops can be found within this busy city. It's not an exceptionally beautiful city, but it's swarming with life. The congested and busy streets are full of noises, shouts, and buzzing with thousands of conversations, offering a striking contrast with the rest of Felarya and its untamed wilderness. Space in Negav is however lacking in Negav. As the city expanded, buildings were built closer and closer together, practically touching each other in some parts, if not outright fused together. As such, most of Negav is built vertically rather than horizontally, with multi-layered buildings and households being the norm rather than the exception. Some neighboring buildings are even connected from across the streets via bridges, allowing one to head directly to the floor of another building from the one they are currently at.

The city itself is heavily fortified. It not only boasts natural defenses such as the river and the hill it is built on, and the Great Wall of Negav, but also several inner walls. These inner walls are modeled directly after the Great Wall and are almost as heavily guarded, though they are noticeably thinner than the Great Wall and are defended by comparatively weaker turrets and defense systems. The inner walls divides the city into three major districts called Tiers, each with their own sub-districts, as well as an underground area.

• The Lower Tier is situated at the foot of the hill and is the closest to the Great Wall. It houses many buildings designed for defense, barracks for the Isolon Fist and the Negav Police, the Great Foundry, and the Hydromancers' Guild headquarters. The Lower Tier has the largest number of inns and taverns, and is the part of town where adventurers and off-worlders usually meet and congregate. Negavians who live in the Lower Tier rely mostly on adventurers and explorers for their livelihood, with many shops selling weapons, magical scrolls, artifacts, and various items an adventurer may or may not need in their quests.
• The Middle Tier is situated higher up the sides of the hill and is where the majority of Negavian citizens have permanent residence. It is where most of Negav's major public services such as markets, banks and the Healers' Guild headquarters can be found. The Middle Tier is also home to a variety of public squares, parks, temples and churches, and places of entertainment.
• The Higher Tier is situated at the top of the hill in the center of the city. Though smaller than the Lower and Middle Tier, it is where the Magiocracy's holds its administrative buildings and where the Ps'isol Council's Isolon University of Magic is located. The Magiocrats' mansions and the Vishmitals' headquarters can all be found in the Higher Tier.
• The Underground is located in the ancient tunnels beneath the city. Much of Negav's major functions such as graveyards, prison, sewerage, and water treatment are managed in facilities underground. The Underground is also home to the slums, where people who can't afford housing aboveground call their home, and have their very own communities and markets.

The Isolon Eye

In the center of the city, in the Square of Hope atop the hill's summit, lies a large, spiraling marble tower. At the very top of this tower stands a large purple crystal, roughly 20 feet tall, known as the Isolon Eye. It was created by the Ps'isol mages as a testimony to their formidable power. It's a little marvel of magic and very few understand how it works, but what matters is that it keeps many gargantuan monsters from coming in proximity of the city. The Eye does not project some sort of tangible force-field, rather it creates magical vibrations that repel man-eating creatures over an enormous radius. Some researchers have established that the larger and more voracious the creature, the more pronounced the effects are. For example, the naga Crisis or the succubus Menyssan, both infamous for their enormous appetite for humans, would be stopped at a large distance away from Negav while a smaller, less voracious pantaur could venture closer to the city. The effects are gradual, and the closer a predator gets to the Eye, the more difficult it becomes to bear its effect. Moreover, if for some reason a predator was made immune to the Eye's effect, brought close to it, then their immunity removed, they would most likely die from the sudden unbearable repelling surge. Some rare beings, however, seem to be much less affected than others by the Eye, and fewer still appear completely immune at all. The reason why remains a mystery. Interestingly, fairies appear to be the most affected by the Eye, as unless they absolutely do not see humanoids as food, they will be repelled regardless of their current size. The Eye is, of course, guarded constantly by the most elite members of the Isolon Fist and surrounded by a shell of some of the most powerful warding enchantments one could find in Felarya , as the entire city could potentially be overrun by ravenous predators, especially flying ones such as harpies should it be damaged, destroyed, or stolen.

Magic and Technology

Technology in Negav is closely intertwined with magic, often referred to as Magitechnology, or Magitech for short, and make good use of the special properties found in lot of the resources of Felarya. For example, Scintilla stones are used for making lighters, ovens, and furnaces. Boraloupes, Negav's equivalent to freezers and refrigerators, are a type of insulated box coated with Boralite to preserve food and keep it cool. Actinite in conjunction with Mazhir gems are used to power many things such as lamp posts and street clocks. Once depleted, the gems can be taken to a Mazirite, a mage specialized in recharging them. This provides Negav with a virtually endless source of electricity with none of the encumbrance of a power plant and a web of electrical cables. The downside, however, is that the while it releases a steady amount of energy, it's still quite low and extended over a relatively long period of time. Mages and scientists are researching for ways to make the mazhir gems release their stored magic instantly. It's worth noting that a select few important buildings are linked to a more traditional back-up power grid in case of emergency.

Transportation and Telecommunication

Due to the streets being so narrow and always bustling with activity, traveling around Negav in a ground vehicle or on a mount is next to impossible. Public transportation is instead handled by a network of portals, which are modeled after the Dimensional Gate, though much smaller in scale. These portals are found at stations in specific districts, much like a train station, and like the Dimensional Gate, they change which station they are connected with every few hours based on a specific schedule. Emergency vehicles such as ambulances, and some military vehicles like Jetbikes, are built partially out of Eidoron Rocks, allowing them to fly above most of the traffic and head in a straight line to their destination. Oddly, Negav has no form of public telecommunication, being reserved exclusively for the military and law enforcement instead. Plans to bring a telephone service to the public are underway, but considered a low priority.

Demographics

Negav boasts an official population estimated at over 750 000 inhabitants and a population density estimated at 6818 people per square mile. These numbers, however, don't account for all the travelers, adventurers and underground residents, causing Negav to likely be the most crowded settlement built by human hands. Negavians form a very cosmopolitan society, coming from worlds from all around the universe. Curious adventurers, greedy treasure hunters, foolhardy warriors, ruthless thugs, stranded travelers, self-proclaimed heroes... they all came there with the prospect of becoming fabulously rich, retrieving legendary artifacts, becoming stronger, living a peaceful and eternal life, or simply ended there by accident. Even with so many varied origins however, living in a world such as Felarya gave Negavians some commonly shared traits. They form a hardened and rather fatalistic people, practical and quite cynical. They frown upon wastefulness and will often try to take what is apparently broken or damaged and either repair it or turn it into something useful. They are not very easy to impress and difficult to cow. Wise magiocrats know their rules on Negav cannot be too tough and must remain bearable, unless they want to have their heads on a pike. Negavians have revolted many times in the past, and have gone trough many catastrophes but, like their city, they are still there.

Negavians tend to complain a lot about life on Felarya, but at the same time, they hold a sense of pride in being there, on what is widely recognized as one of the most dangerous known worlds for humans. Moreover, living in Negav feels like being in the center of things, with so many different people passing through, carrying with them rumors, epic tales and, sometimes, fantastic treasures. Negav is the city where adventures and legends are born. Many people who have lived in Negav for several years, but decided one day to leave Felarya, find themselves irresistibly drawn back to the city a few years later. They say that life does not have the same flavor outside Negav. As the saying goes: "Once a Negavian, always a Negavian."

Non-human Races

While Negav's population is predominantly human, an important community of nekos, inus and elves live there, as well as a few humanoid species from many worlds. Negavians are naturally cautious of non-humans. With so many beings coming from other worlds, they have developed at least a certain tolerance toward them, but they aren't welcoming them with open arms either. For example many taverns and bars would refuse entry to creatures with too many arms or inhuman features. The situation is even worse for tauric beings. Simply entering Negav nowadays is very difficult for them, and the few who are admitted in can feel an acute and unrelenting latent hostility all around them. There are some debates whether or not these laws should be lifted or at least alleviated. Those who are in favor of the lift cite that the inhabitants of Motamo Docks having stood in close proximity of the Isolon Eye without ill effects for generations is a proof that they are no more harmful than other humans, and that their unique abilities could strengthen the city's forces. Those against it argue that Negavians would never come to trust small predators, and that even if they did, households would have to be designed specifically for their unique body types and other needs, an impossibility in their opinion given the city's lack of space and a waste of government funds.

Religion

Being a melting pot of cultures from countless different worlds, it comes to no surprise that Negav is home to a wide variety of different religions. Over 200 different religions are estimated to be practiced within the city walls alone. Some worship major deities revered across many worlds and enjoy great recognition, or infamy, while others worship minor, relatively unknown gods. Most religions in Negav are actually small cults who prefer to hide in the shadows than spread their faith from within the cloisters of lavish temples or cathedrals. Many such groups worship living beings on Felarya, such as the Seekers of Sineria or the Sleeping Darkness, two cults who seek to revive Empress Sineria and Queen Déméchrelle respectively, or seek infernal power by worshiping and praying to demons for personal gain. Although such cults are technically illegal in Negav, the magiocrats turn a blind eye on them, reasoning that they are more likely to fight each other and that their meager numbers pose no credible threat to them whatsoever. Negav's major religions include the likes of the zealous and technologically advanced Cult of Oth, the secretive Followers of Khord, and the conservative Cult of Minalca.

The Isolon Eye

So far, plans to expand the city toward the Ascarlin mountains to the west have been constantly delayed, as the ground is crumbly in this area. Projects have also been made of implanting several smaller versions of the eyes around Negav, in order to increase the zone of safety around the city. It raises some problems though, both practical and political as creating an eye is a long and complex process, and some of the magiocrats are nervous at the idea of over-expansion, worrying the city could suffer the same terrible fate that befell Ur-Sagol long ago. The question creates heated debates among council members, although the prudent faction is the clear minority.

The Eye is the key foundation of the Magiocrats' power and allow their rule to remain essentially unchallenged for as long as it exists. Should a better substitute be found though, their legitimacy would probably be seriously put into question.

A view of the Isolon University of Magic in the higher tier of Negav

The City

After the Great Destruction that took place under the reign of king Tonho, Negav has been rebuilt in all of its former glory, and excesses. All manner of gleaming towers, imposing temples, bustling markets, noisy taverns, mage academies, and exotic shops can be found within this busy city. There is even activity beneath the ground, with many levels of subterranean dwellings. The crime rate is high in Negav. It's a harsh place and in its poorest and most violent districts, where streets are dark and narrow, one's life expectancy don't go much higher at night than... say the calm parts of the Felaryan jungle, which means it's very dangerous. The city is largely protected from the local fauna though, and the only predators you will typically find in Negav are of the criminal type.

Negavian People

Negavians are naturally cautious of non-humans. With so many beings coming from other worlds, they have developed at least a certain tolerance toward them, but they aren't welcoming them with open arms either. For example many taverns and bars would refuse entry to creatures with too many arms or inhuman features. The situation is even worse for tauric beings. Simply entering Negav is very difficult for them, and the few who are admitted in can feel an acute and unrelenting latent hostility all around them.

Language

One can hear a multitude of different languages and dialects around when walking the streets of Negav. The Translation spell would allow you to understand them with ease when spoken. However when they are written, you are on your own! The dominant language in Negav is the Mexhyli, a liquid and vowel-rich language from the home world of Lord Thelandros, the founder of the Ps'isol magiocrats. It's the one taught in most schools, and used on every important informations and signs in Negav. In some of the northern and western districts the more musical Palayam has taken roots, while in the Cremona maze and other southern areas you hear a lot of Dogrish, a complex, dense and fast sounding language that quickly convey a lot of informations. With it's wide range of inflexion and tonality, the Kalil is the preferred language of many merchants and storytellers alike, allowing to quickly catch and captivate the attention of an audience.

History of Negav

Education

Health

Infrastructure

Under construction

The Galfam-Abh MURCOWIH describes Negav as a thriving type7 pre-industrial society, although some would argue it's evolving rapidly. Technology in Negav is often closely intertwined with magic and make good use of the special properties found in lot of the resources of Felarya. For example, a small Scintilla stone can make a very convenient lighters and Boraloupes are a type of box coated with Boralite used to keep food cool and conserve it. actinite is used to power many things such as lamps, with Mazhir gems providing an excellent catalyst to make it works. Once depleted, the gems can be taken to a Mazirite; a mage specialized in recharging them.

This provides a virtually endless source of energy to Negav, although the downside is that the amount of energy released, while steady, is still quite low and extended to a relatively long period of time. Mages and scientists are searching for a way to make the gem release its stored magic instantly. There is no electricity network in Negav. Some buildings are linked to a power grid of sort but they are typically rare and few and limited to small areas.

Worth mentioning is the network of portals linking various districts between them. It completely redraw Negav's map and the notion of what it means to travel inside the city.

Economy

Policing and Factions

The city is currently governed by the Ps'isol magiocracy, a council of very powerful mages. An intricate power struggle exists however, between them and a part of the military which remains in the hands of the Vishmitals, an advanced race that arrived in Negav shortly after the Great Destruction. For more, read the list of the different Factions and groups of Negav competing for power.

Criminality

Districts
Negav can be divided as such :

• Negav's Lower Tier : The lower tier of Negav is the one closest to the walls. It thus has many buildings and constructions designed for defense, as well as Police and military buildings. It has also the largest number of inns and taverns and is the part of Negav where adventurers usually meet and congregate. Some say that the number of adventurers here often surpasses the number of actual Negav citizens. Negavians who do live here rely mostly on adventurers and explorers for their livelihood, with many shops selling weapons, magical scrolls, artifacts, and various items an adventurer may -or may not- need in their quest.

• Negav's Middle Tier : Slightly higher than the lower tier, the Middle Tier is where the majority of actual Negavians live. The markets, banks, temples and most other such public buildings can be found in this tier, as well as public squares, parks, and entertainment places.

• Negav's Higher Tier : The Higher Tier is smaller than the other two, though significantly elevated, having been built on a hill in the center of the city. This is where the Magiocrats and Vishmitals have their headquarters and hold council. It is also where the mansions of the very wealthy and influential Negavians are built. At its centre is the Isolon Eye, around which are the administrative buildings of the Magiocrats, and their university.

• Negav's Underground : The "other" area of Negav. This includes houses for some of the more lower class citizens, as well as cheaper markets and shops. Those too poor to even afford an underground house live in the Pit, the slum of Negav. Lots of the functions of Negav, like handling of the dead, sewage and wate are managed in facilities in the underground.

• Negav's surrounding area : The immediate surroundings of Negav, within the Isolon eye range.

• credits to Servomoore, Jaette-troll, Veeshan 123 for their ideas to develop Negav and to Shady-knight for rewriting the entry.