Grey
Dialectical Hermeticist
| I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words Alfred de Vigny, Stello |
A World Without Sun
The City is often called simply that; The City. The thanatocrats call it Umbra without a trace of irony, and well, they would know, one supposes. It is found on no map, and some say that by the twisting, arcane nature of the place the idea of mapping it is a hopeless dream besides - it sprawls endlessly inward from the dark sea and the lights of its towers can be seen far beyond the furthest known street.
The streets are cobbled, in various states of repair. The buildings are tightly packed, often two or three stories tall over narrow streets, the monotony broken by dismal parks, unsettling monuments, and civic institutions long abandoned. Some streets have gas street lamps, a few electric. Rats, cats, crows, and feral dogs are common.
The sun does not rise, in this place. Only moons of varying size and colour to give any living rhythm to the place. Surprisingly, this seems to have no physiological effect on the people who live here. Unsurprisingly, no scientist remains unchanged by their new home; either driven quite mad by the revelation that much of the natural sciences seem to collapse in the City, or inspired to dark brilliance by the possibilities.
Strangers In A Strange Land
There are two kinds and a few affiliations of people in the City, living mostly in the district of Providence at the heart of this inhabited region. The first kind are the outlanders; those taken from the outside world by the Privateers and left to fend for themselves. The oldest have been here thirty years, the youngest less than a month - and as young as twelve, in some cases. The outlanders are the largest group of mortals, and most are slowly spreading out and refurbishing the City under the guidance of the Reclaimers Guild and the Governor. The Royalists are content to serve the masters of the City, while the Anarchists prefer to strike out on their own.
The Strange are the other kind of people; the children born in the City. The eldest is twenty-four, now, a young woman best known as The Witch of Isley Row. The Strange are young, yet, and still mostly in whatever group to which their parents belong, but they’re easily recognizable. The moniker is well-deserved. The Strange are paler than their parents, with darker eyes, and hair in abnormal hues. Sooner or later they demonstrate a kinship with the shadows of the City, a talent for becoming unseen or finding their way in the dark.
Understandably, relations are somewhat tense - and who is comfortable fearing their own children?
As Children Fear The Dark
Umbra is a Thanatocracy. On Lily Hill live the elite of the City; the lich-lords in their finery and funeral masks, their stately sepulchres and mortuary-mansions. The Dead Who Rule.
The Reclaimers Guild and Governor exist with their support; if the outlanders refused the Dead openly, they would receive no finance, no supplies, no mercy.
Masters of necromancy, the Thanatocrats enforce their will with subtle magics of decay or hulking knights of bone - though more commonly a few indentured vampires and loyal mortal serve as their agents.
They rarely descend from their palatial and silent district of the city.
The Docklands are controlled by the vampires, the Ab-Dead, or Dead Who Reave. Sailors, thugs, and pirates, the vampires are tenuously under the command of the liches. When the night is without a moon, the vampires sail out to kidnap new tenants from the world left behind. A share is taken in slaves, pets, playthings, minions and companions, but most captives find themselves in the City proper. Outlanders can often trade blood to the vampires in exchange for items wrested from the wider world. The Docklands are probably the most bustling and vibrant part of the City known.
| He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man. Samuel Johnson |
The Botanical Gardens, sprawling for a couple of miles to the far west of Providence, are inhabited by the Thropes - beasts that walk like men. Dissidents against the lich-lords’ regime, fraternising with thropes is harshly punished. Yet they cannot seem to remove them from the Gardens, and they can easily disguise themselves as mortals to walk among the outlanders, and assisting the Anarchists.
