Difference between revisions of "Negav"

Revision as of 08:32, 29 August 2009

Danger: Very Low
Sub zones: neko village
Inhabitants: humans, nekos

To the humans living on Felarya, Negav City is more or less their current capital. An oddity in the wilds, so far Negav city has withstood whatever dangers the jungle have thrown at it. It has been partially destroyed, rebuilt, conquered, flooded, and struck by fire, but it's still here. While most humans settlements in Felarya are hidden or discrete, Negav boldly shows itself, like a challenge to the face of Felarya and its voracious inhabitants.

Due to its perceived invincibility, Negav serves as a crossroads and oasis to the many would-be travelers, adventurers, mages, and traders that find themselves on Felarya. The nearby Ascarlin mines has caused the city to rapidly grow, covering over 90 square miles. An important community of nekos live there as well as humanoid species from many worlds. Typically, the only predator you will find in this city is of the criminal type.

Structure

The city itself is surrounded by a massive wall, a marvel of science and magic combined. It towers hundreds of feet tall and is covered with powerful cannons and other weaponry. The entrances to the city are few, and most are far too small for something like a giant naga to fit through. In addition, these entryways are heavily guarded by not only weapons, but also all manner of detection devices and identification spells, to ensure that nothing sneaks in that isn't welcome. The entryways can also be sealed off in an emergency, with massive reinforced doors able to close in the blink of an eye. The architects chose not to reveal all of the wall's secrets, but one of them is that it appears to be made from almost pure Xy'Thium, an incredibly rare metal.

Within the walls, the city of Negav is a sight to behold. It's not an especially beautiful city, but it's swarming with life. The congested and busy streets, full of noises, shouts, and buzzing with thousands of conversations offer a striking contrast with the rest of Felarya and its untamed wilderness. After the Great Destruction that took place under the reign of king Micolon, 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 archives of artifacts can be found within this busy metropolis. There is even activity beneath the ground, as there are many levels of subterranean dwellings.

The Isolon Eye

In the center of the city, on the top of a large marble tower, stands a large purple crystal, roughly 20 feet tall, known as the Isolon Eye. It was built by the Ps'isol magiocrats who currently rule the city, as a testimony to their formidable power. Very few understand how it works, but what matters is that it seems to keep many gargantuan monsters at bay, through some unknown magic. In fact, some researchers have established that the Crystal effect is related to both the size of a creature, and to if it's prone to eat humanoids or not. In clear, the larger and the more voracious the creature, the more pronounced the warding effect is.

For example, the naga Crisis or the succubus Menyssan, both known for their enormous appetite, could hardly even cross the edge of the area protected by the Eye, while a smaller, less voracious pantaur could venture in the vinicity of the city. There is exception to this rule though, and some rare beings seems to be much less affected. The reason why is a complete mystery.

The crystal is of course guarded constantly, because should it be damaged, destroyed, or stolen, then the entire city could be potentially overrun by ravenous predators, especially flying ones such as harpies.

The city is currently governed by the Ps'isol magiocracy, a council of very powerful mages. A power struggle exists however, between them and a part of the military which remain in the hands of the Vishmitals, an advanced race that arrived in Negav shortly after the Great Destruction. 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 and some of the magiocrats worry that expanding the city would be crossing the line and would doom the city to the same terrible fate that befell Ur-Sagol long ago...

Districts and Landmarks

Adventurer Guild

The Guild is housed in a long, low building with a distinctive red peaked roof. Inside are shops selling equipment, a bar and meeting lounge and various offices of specialist Adventurers. The Guild was set up by a group of seasoned adventurers who were concerned with the high death rate among people outside of Negav. They created the Guild to impart the knowledge of the oldest Adventurers on Felarya. There are various ranks of these "Masters". The highest level include some adventurers that are over 100 years old! Ranking is determined by age and/or distance travelled from Negav. The Adventurers Guild is a well respected institution, known to build some of the best survival gear, often modified to be more effective in Felarya.

Venmys-Pieaug Library

Danger: Very Low to Hazardous
Inhabitants:

under construction

An unknown accident once caused the area this library is built on to become distorted. At first it looks like a regular library, its huge shelves stacked with books, but then you might notice that the shelves appear endless.

The further you follow them, the stranger your surroundings become. It's very easy to get lost.

In some places, the shelves are ridiculously huge, resembling cliffs rather than shelves. The Venmys-Pieaug Library has a fauna of its own. It's rumored you can even find some dryads in places, who have got used to reading books. Many mages believe the Library is a self-expanding plane.

The library's fauna appears to derive from creatures drawn or described in the books themselves.

Underground part

The Pit

A part of Underground Negav, the pit is a large cavern that has an equally large depression in it. The pit was dug out by the inhabitants - at one time there were magnificent crystals growing across the ground - sadly they were consumed in the need for more real-estate. The Pit is a good name - it is generally accepted to be the area where the poorest of the poor live and is often nicknamed the "Skyless city". The area is a mess of shanties and tents, run by an incredible collection of gangs, mobs and mafias. Life is extremely hard and dangerous in the Pit, and the only law there is that of the dagger or the shotgun.

People have even started to nail shacks onto the walls of the cavern to give more room. The pit gets deeper as people excavate it for more room. There are even starting to be a few adventurous nekos who have built dwelling that hang from the ceiling ! The only proper "building" in the pit is a shrine to Oth, the Sun God. It's a white building with a series of golden mirrors on the top. In an act of charity, this temple magically radiates stored sunlight during the day. The priests also give donations of food and blankets to the needy, usually along with free scriptures of Oth.

On multiple occasions the government has tried to stop development of the pit, worried that the expansion of the cavern could destabilize the buildings above it. Others worry that something very bad and hungry might be dug up if the Pit is dug too deep. Already, the Pit has the highest rate of unsolved disappearances in the city. Most assume this is just regular murders or people leaving without telling anyone. Others claim that something nasty has already been awakened and when the temple of Oth turns off the light for the night, it comes out to feed on those who won't be missed...

Nekomura

Danger: Very Low
Inhabitants: nekos

While a sizable population of nekos now live within Negav, a much larger community remains outside the safety of the city's walls in the Nekomura village. Nekomura has a somewhat rustic feel to it, with simple dwellings on the ground and various structures built into the sides of the great trees that surround them. Interestingly, instead of traditional rope bridges linking the tree dwellings together, there are merely straight ropes! Given the amazing balance and agility of nekos, sprinting across a half-inch rope is as easy as running across a wide stone bridge. The people here are mostly content and feel relatively safe even though they are outside the protective walls of Negav. This hasn't always been the case, however.

History

For nekos, living in Negav among humans has never been easy. Even under the reign of Micolon, the neko king, tensions simmered between the two races, with nekos being often on the receiving end. During the Great Destruction, when a good part of Negav was destroyed, and Micolon eaten, the local neko villages suffered badly as well, with many of their inhabitants devoured. In the aftermath, neko survivors helped the humans rebuild and reinforce Negav.

The humans were grateful, and when the dust of destruction and rebuilding settled, many nekos remained in the safety of the city, feeling welcome at last. Several years later, however, racial tensions were again running high, in part because king Micolon was held by many negavians to solely responsible for the catastrophe that destroyed so much of the city.

When the Ps'isol magiocrats took power, they "encouraged" nekos to leave. A large number of nekos followed their advice, feeling that proximity to humans wasn't doing them any good. They set out to construct a separate village a short distance away: Nekomura. Under the term of the agreement, Ps'isol magiocrats offered the nekos a crystal of the same kind as the Isolon Eye in Negav, as a sign of "eternal friendship".

The neko's crystal, however, is a mere shadow of the original, as it stands less then 5 feet tall. It does more or less the same things as the Isolon Eye: wards away large predators that might otherwise feast on the village. However, unlike the eye, this crystal must be regularly recharged by the mages of Negav, which they do for a fee. This treachery has kept tensions high between Nekomura and Negav, however the nekos still dutifully pay the fee as they know the crystal is the only thing keeping ravenous predators at bay. There have been recorded instances where the crystal weakened enough to allow a giant naga a large enough window to snatch some villagers before finally being driven back by the magic.

Thus the two populations don't interact very often, save for basic trade, and sometimes knowledge sharing. A large number of nekos both within the village and within the city will frequently offer their services as scouts in the jungles of Felarya. In fact, the nekos scouts are so well known and respected that even the isolationist Delurans have turned to them on more than one occasion to assist in their scouting duties.

• credits to Servomoore and Veeshan 123 for development idea of Negav, to Jaette-troll for the Pit and Adventurer guild idea, and to Melancholy-Melody for the Venmys-Pieaug Library.