Thorp, Barovia, Jade, Praag, Pheonix, Vornheim, Grimheim. The city has gone by many names through history, for it is not one city but hundreds, built atop of each other over millennia of building and razing.
From afar the city resembles a lone, man-made mountain, its foothills ancient, moss-cloaked ruins from ages past and at its peak the spires and towers of today.
From afar the city resembles a lone, man-made mountain, its foothills ancient, moss-cloaked ruins from ages past and at its peak the spires and towers of today.
Around the Crumbling Gate, a city of shanties fills the ruins of an ancient palace. Rickety constructions of wood and rope perch atop colossal columns. Laundry lines span huge bulwarks of concrete blackened by the flames of some ancient sacking.
Watch your bags here, for thieves are known to hang from the boardwalk above to snatch possessions.
Watch your bags here, for thieves are known to hang from the boardwalk above to snatch possessions.
Above the stinking streets of the human city tower the forbidding shards and spires of the vampire palaces, each competing to be the most awe- or vertigo-inspiring. At their bases they open onto the streets with parlours, brothels and dance halls.
In the centre of the city, atop a volcanic acropolis, sits the Castle. Its construction predates the earliest records, and it is from here that the Pale King rules. At its base stand the old palace and cathedral, claw shaped constructions from the last iteration of the city, now rusting and overgrown.
Sometimes there are gaps between the buildings, and you can peer down into the crevasse of civilisations past. Strata of styles are built and burnt on top of each other, layers of soot and rubble interlaced with beautiful pillars and the remnants of ancient houses, a vertical map of the city's timeline. The city's declines, dark ages and rebirths pile one atop the other endlessly down into the abyss.
Many of the most recent strata of city are still accessible from the surface: houses have basements and second basements, old temples and squares repurposed for storing wine or foodstuffs. Some are interconnected; many link to the sewage system that was once the city's streets. This underworld is an important place of refuge for criminals and non-vampires, who traverse the old streets and blocks to evade their inhuman oppressors above.
Many of the most recent strata of city are still accessible from the surface: houses have basements and second basements, old temples and squares repurposed for storing wine or foodstuffs. Some are interconnected; many link to the sewage system that was once the city's streets. This underworld is an important place of refuge for criminals and non-vampires, who traverse the old streets and blocks to evade their inhuman oppressors above.
Some believe, if you closely read the oldest maps of the city, it is possible to find ways down into older, deeper levels. Few venture more than two or three levels down; it becomes ever more difficult and unpractical, and only the basest, most desperate tiers of society occupy these deep places. But the Pale King sometimes sends expeditions to descend to the lowest levels, seeking the underworld's secrets and forgotten treasures. It is then that reports of primordial beings filter into public knowledge; men with the heads of snakes, fungal colonies and their thralls, gargantuan cultic temples to a baboon-headed god.
