The largest city in all of Terra Trema, New Harmony is a bustling metropolis and an engine of cultural synthesis and progress. The city is known for its diversity; New Harmony has a little bit of everything, and a little piece of everywhere. But New Harmony is most famous for its series of recent contributions to culture, and its growing importance as the cultural capital of Terra Trema. Diverse styles of art, fashion and literature continually blend, percolate, and give birth to the strange and new. Each person, building, and food is a unique experience. Most structures are made of wood from the lush forests that surround the city, but otherwise there is little similarity between them. New Harmony boasts the tallest wooden structures in the world – these lofty structures require their wood be kept alive (as if they were one large hollow tree) via the Elven plant magics of Quistria.
New Harmony’s history is turbulent; it has experienced massive recent population growth, and only within the past decade or two have ethnic and cultural tensions largely melted. Even now, tolerance is only normative, not universal. Over the span of a generation, New Harmony has been invaded and occupied by its two smaller neighbors: Tekotah and Wigtop. It has also suffered from civil unrest, unequal treaties with foreign powers (most notably Alba), and frightening acts of terrorism and arson. The city’s democratically elected leaders are still struggling with the proper path forward in addressing past grievances and growing the geopolitical power of New Harmony. The city is the world’s dominant cultural powerhouse, but barely recognized as a military or diplomatic force.
New Harmony is also known as the “City of Flowers”, as half of the cleared land surrounding the city is used to grow edible flowers; a staple of the diet of some of the older subcultures of New Harmony. The rest of the farmland is dedicated to various grains (especially rice) – and all other land is dense, foreboding forest. Despite New Harmony’s intimidatingly large population, much of the surrounding forest lies unexplored, or at least uninhabited. Most of the wood from the surrounding forest is not particularly well suited for construction unless combined with elven magics, so logging and deforestation proceeds only slowly. Furthermore, it is said that the forests have powerful druidic protectors.
“Harmonian*” Heritage: Exceptionally diverse; settled & ruled by successive waves of migrants and invaders, but didn’t become a big city until the recent influx of immigrants (5th Wave) from all across Terra Trema.
*(note: no formal moniker for the people of New Harmony has yet caught on, though the awkward “Harmonian” is used semi-ironically. Since most people are recent immigrants to the city, the people of New Harmony frequently identify by their birth-home ethnicity (e.g., Tekotan or Fortunese) or ancestral Old-Lands race (e.g., Mirran or Norrish).)
Population: 20 (500x) – New Harmony is the largest city in Terra Trema. Only about half of the current population was actually born in the city; there has been a huge influx of immigrants seeking the opportunities and freedoms that New Harmony provides.
Cultural Influence: 19. By some measures, New Harmony is the most culturally influential city in the world. None can rival New Harmony’s prolific output of literature and paintings, and few can keep up with its ever-evolving styles and ideas. New Harmony’s engine of creativity is fueled by a volatile mix of diversity, freedom, and generous patronage. Nearly half of the famous singers, playwrights, and artists in all of Terra Trema make New Harmony their home.
And yet, New Harmony still ranks a close second to Peloria. Religion – specifically, sun worship – is important to many of Terra Trema’s people. Peloria is the central nervous system for all organized forms of sun worship (most notably the Faithful of Pelor). New Harmony is nearly the opposite of a religious hub: religions in New Harmony seem to fade away or become diluted by the city’s secularism and cultural melting pot.
Economic Influence: 15. New Harmony has a LOT of people, and thus a LOT of customers. It also has a lot of people who have grown very rich as authors, singers, and artists – or the managers, publishers, and marketers of authors, singers, and artists. But the per-capita wealth of the city* is a bit lower than average. People immigrate here for opportunity – but despite the city’s free-wheeling economy, there are more people than there are opportunities.
*Not the same thing as Influence, which is not corrected for population.
Military Influence: 5. New Harmony is not a significant military power. What little military strength it has comes from the size of its population. It has unequal treaties with other cities that limit the allowed size of its military and navy – but it hasn’t reached these quotas yet, and its military influence is expected to grow over the next decade.
Defense: 6. Much of the terrain surrounding New Harmony is forest, and the New Harmony Defense Force receives good forest and urban training. New Harmony is a sprawling city comprised almost entirely of wooded structures. The enchantments used to grow the wood into tall buildings also makes them resistant to fire (most of the wood buildings are technically sort-of living trees) but not immune. The lack of stone construction or a city wall is a significant strike against New Harmony’s capacity for defense. It has been conquered or raided multiple times in the past century.
New Harmony Cultural Stats: (Note: this is just an average; New Harmony is very diverse.)
Government: Increasingly inclusive constitutional democracy. Currently led by President Wyonna Foz.
Most Common Criminal Acts: mugging, smuggling, smugging (hybrid mugging/smuggling), burglary, street cons, long cons, short cons, medium cons, pickpocket, putpocket, cutpurse, gluepurse, strong-arm robbery, medium-arm robbery, strong-leg robbery, protection rackets, pyramid schemes, protection schemes, pyramid rackets, counterfeiting, profeiting, profiteering, plagiarism, identity theft, identity gift, and thousands of other very creative, diverse, new, interesting crimes which defy classification.
Justice: Evolving justice system; mostly fair and good, but some corruption. Often overwhelmed; always at least whelmed.
Climate: subtropical, wet
Nights: City is well-lit (in most districts) and has an exceptional nightlife. Also crime.
Food: Everything - but well known for edible flowers, rice, beans, and wild-harvested fruit. Meat is too expensive for regular consumption.
Clothing: Everything
Festivals & Holidays: All of them
City Appearance & Architecture: Diverse, towering, sprawling. Almost entirely made of wood, or living trees. Bears some resemblance to Quistria, in that it blends into the surrounding forest (on the East side).
Common Sounds & Smells: All of them
Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: Chamber of Harmony, Melody Hall (Opera Hall / Jazz Hall), Hall of Masks (Theater), Hotel of Five Heavens, Novar Museum, Bookbinders’ Tower, Shadowlight Theater, Studio Nada, Jiro's Arthouse, the Gearhouse (huge factory), the Smokehouse (sauna and food drying center), the Big Water Tower, the South Water Tower, The Peoples' Palace, Trolleystop One, The Presidential Platform, Voter's Square, the Last Stone, the Crimson Tree, Rainbow Stadium, Fortress of Service (Garrison of the City Watch)
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: 13 different enclaves of various peoples from the Old Lands and/or Terra Trema, the Printers Towers, the Dining District, the Teahouses, the Barges (canal docks & port), the Rainway (raincatcher aqueducts that link buildings), the Slimeway (sewers), The Tree-forts (Elven / Quistrali enclave), the Gears (factory district), Stonetown (Dwarven enclave and forge / metalworking district).
Produces, Exports: literature, rice, flowers, sugar, maps, ships, medical tools, paper, dyes, art, hats
Demands, Imports: luxury goods, fruit, meat, glass, whale oil, carriages, ships, clocks, lorebooks
Satellite Cities & Towns: xxxx
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: xxxx
Plot Hooks:
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The City Made of Airships. Tekotah’s people are masters of the sky; theirs is the only society structured around readily available air travel. The city is built atop the world’s richest helium vent, and there are other good vents nearby. Thousands of years ago, the nomadic tribes of the plains inadvertently discovered how to capture and refine the “spirits of the squeaky voices”, and harness the power of flight. Nowadays, Tekotah boasts the largest air force in the world.
Aside from its unimpressive ground level, Tekotah is effectively a vast assembly of docked airships. (Albeit mostly clumsy ones.) The upper levels of the city – a mix of clumsily floating structures and proper airships - shift around on the whims of the various occupants and tribal owners. The city’s palace, courts, major institutions, and dwellings of the elite make up this large floating upper level. These floating buildings descend to ground level (or roof-level of the ground-built buildings) during storms. If a very severe storm is forecast, over half the city - “buildings” and all - may simply flee.
The floating buildings and platforms look much like the simple ground-built structures below. In fact, they are somewhat smaller and much lighter – a requirement for being held aloft indefinitely by the massive float-sacs that rise above them and shade the city. For this reason, the rulers and administrators of the city live simpler lives, in sparser and smaller quarters, than the commoners below. This fits with the city’s culture: equality is paramount, and wealth disparity is strongly frowned on. This is one of the few places in the world where visitors will be treated WORSE if they’re very rich.
Though Tekotah has many trade agreements with foreign lands, very little here is actually for sale. Trade contracts can be negotiated, but these are all high-level affairs between Tekotah’s major tribes and large foreign trading guilds or governments – there’s little reason for a small-scale individual trader to visit this city, except to take in the sights. But so long as shopping isn’t on the docket, Tekotah is a fabulous place to visit, and the people are eager to take outsiders on exciting air tours of their land – unless they try to pay for it.
There are three refuge cities on three large buttes to the west of Tekotah. These massive cities are not made of wood (like Tekotah) but carved from the stone of the butte – like smaller, simpler versions of the mountain-city of Muwanga. These refuge cities lie almost completely empty. This is intentional; these are the cities Tekotah’s airships and people flee to if Tekotah or the surrounding countryside is under attack. Tekotah proper is a fragile, rickety wooden city with vulnerable float-sacs and no innate defenses; it doesn’t even have a wall. But the refuge cities are made of impervious stone, and cannot be accessed except by air. The largest of the three (in the center) is for the people of Tekotah proper; the smaller refuge cities to its north and south are for the people of the northern plain, and the people of the southern town of Tornado. Tekotah and the surrounding countryside have been conquered and sacked multiple times, but its people simply return and rebuild after the invaders give up shaking their fists at the sky, unable to reach the refuge cities. Tekotah’s ground-built level has burned to ash more than once, but the blazes were all set by its own airships to incinerate occupying armies.
Population: 2 (35x)
Tekotan Heritage: Early 2nd Wave (Vasa Lothran & Ustrachi; Central Alduin). Small Dwarven settlements in the northern mountains.
Cultural Influence: 5. Tekotah is smallish for a keystone city, and culturally overshadowed by its popular neighbor to the north: New Harmony. Outsiders often don’t “get” Tekotan culture; it has more of a somber, reserved feel than is typical for Terra Trema. So Tekotah’s cultural output is mostly for local consumption. Tekotah and its people frequently appear in the stories of other cultures, because air travel is so exotic and oft-romanticized. However, their portrayal is often highly inaccurate and stereotyped.
Economic Influence: 7. What little purified helium Tekotah sells to outsiders fetches a high price. Tekotah is well-integrated into the international economy, but they aren’t major players. Business deals typically happen at the levels of guilds, tribes, and nations - individual merchants and investors have little opportunity for profit here. Conventional forms of wealth are not respected here.
Military Influence: 6. Tekotah’s military strength is derived almost exclusively from its uniquely powerful, well-supplied air-force. Even the most powerful militaries, like those of Alba and Neven, can boast only a handful of small airships or flying carpets, which are difficult to maintain without ridiculous amounts of magic or helium. Tekotah has access to more helium than the rest of the world combined, and it puts it to very good use. But Tekotans don’t have an aggressive or militaristic mindset, and so their “army” consists only of the small Home Guard, and arguably the Relocation Task Force (the group tasked with keeping order over migrations of Tekotah’s people between the city and its sky refuge to the west.) Thanks to its fast and nigh-untouchable airships, Tekotah has better capacity for power-projection than any other nation; it just doesn’t have all that much power to project. And it has to be especially careful against the magitech of the Wigtop militias; a single well-aimed shot from an energy rifle is enough to disable or even destroy an entire airship. (The airships occasionally explode, since they carry flame dust for firebombing their enemies.) Wigtop’s magitech even managed to destroy portions of the Tekotan refuge cities, but the Wigtop militias quickly marched home once they heard news that Tekotan airships had set every building and plant in and around Wigtop on fire.
Tekotah and Wigtop have seen extensive war with wide-ranging mutual destruction. Yet both sides rebuild quickly. There is peace now; the scars of the great struggles of the past century have largely disappeared from the land.
Defense: 12. The defensive capacity of Tekotah is difficult to measure accurately; they’re simultaneously the most and least well defended major city. Tekotah proper is laughably “defended”. It lacks a wall, its construction is flimsy and flammable, and most of it is levitating on fragile air-sacs. It’s actually less well defended than its neighbor, Wigtop. (Which is saying something.) However, the city isn’t meant to be defended; it’s meant to be easy to disassemble and rebuild.
The refuge cities (also known as sky sanctuaries) to the west are entirely unassailable; the notion of anyone conquering one of these cities is absurd… though it’s possible that Wigtop’s magitech could destroy them, given enough time. The refuge cities are accessible only by air, carved from the sturdy stone of towering buttes, and have multiple redundant, overkill defensive mechanisms – including enormous catapults and collapsing passageways. Unfortunately, they’re also highly inconvenient for travel, trade, and resource distribution - even for flight-loving Tekotans. Not to mention, they’re cold and windy most of the year. So Tekotans live in Tekotah proper most of the time, migrating to the refuge cities only when their city is threatened.
Tekotah Cultural Stats:
Government: The All-Judge, elected /5 yrs. from the Storm Lords, who are elected by their tribes. Modern tribes are defined by region, not family ties.
Most Common Criminal Acts: airship theft, horse theft, embezzlement from the tribe, air piracy
Justice: Limited justice system; social shaming used to keep people in line.
Climate: temperate continental (warm, dry, extreme seasons but Winter and Summer are both blessedly short)
Nights: Floating lights in the sky above the city. Gorgeous. Citizens regularly stay up late.
Food: xxxx
Clothing: xxxx
Festivals & Holidays: xxxx
City Appearance & Architecture: xxxx
Common Sounds & Smells: xxxx
Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: Tower of the All-Judge, (the) Cloudgate (airship dock), Stormscar Tribe Homeship, Kestrel Tribe Homeship, Zephyr Tribe Homeship, Strongbolt Tribe Homeship, Cloudherd Tribe Homeship, Tornado Dock (for visitors from the southern town of Tornado), The Effervescent Spring, Floatgas Refinery #3, Floatgas Refinery #4, Yatlin's Shipyard, Stairs to the Sky, All-Banner Tower, the Lightning Pole (arguably the world’s tallest artificial structure; just an enormous metal pole), the Eagle Eye, the Desecration Site (formerly the Temple of All Spirits, destroyed and desecrated by Wigtop Militias).
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: The canals (aqueducts and sewers; lowest city), the Wallows (muddy runoff from the Effervescent Spring), Stuck City (Ground Level; large homes), the Floaters (Sky level; smaller airship homes), the refineries, Tribesmeet, the Ladders (links between Stuck City and Floaters; includes a few level-bridging towers like the Tower of the All-Judge.), The Thunderworks (curious "factories" that operate only when lightning strikes the Lightning Pole.)
Produces, Exports: helium, airships, air orbs, corn, industrial-grade dreamcatchers, feathers, ballistae, meat, horses
Demands, Imports: wood, fruit, wine, armors, leather, textiles, chemicals (fire powder), medical tools.
Satellite Cities & Towns: The Sky Sanctuaries, The Northern Plains, Town of Tornado, contested villages on and near the Sweet Waters.
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: xxxx
Plot Hooks:
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A post-apocalyptic shantytown without the excuse of ever having a proper apocalypse.
A sprawling chaos of ramshackle squalor, Wigtop hardly looks like a keystone city. Indeed, it has (arguably) the lowest population of the keystone cities. Its people are considered crass and uncultured, its economy and government unsophisticated to the point of barbarism, and its architecture a barely-load-bearing joke. Half of the city’s structures are taverns; in fact, a disturbing percentage of the population have no homes, and simply sleep on the floor of a different tavern every night. Wigtop is an important player for a single reason: weaponry.
Wigtop was settled 150 years ago by an unusual sort of people, hailing from a place thought impossible: the settlers were the only people to have visited the Forbidden Continent and survive. Not only did they visit; they successfully settled the Forbidden Continent in large numbers (tens of thousands), and when they finally fled, they stole boatloads of unthinkably powerful technologies and devices from that off-limits land. Though they haven’t managed to reverse-engineer them – or even understand the principles on which they function – Wigtop’s people have been able to use these devices to great effect. Most notably, Wigtop’s barely-organized militia(s) is armed with weaponry of inconceivable power.
It should be noted here that the only people who escaped the Forbidden Continent were a sizeable contingent of convicted criminals. Their descendants – the current inhabitants of Wigtop - tend to keep this part a secret. Or they would, if they were good at keeping secrets.
Five generations ago, Wigtop’s settlers violently wrested their territory from the land’s longtime inhabitants (same Old-Lands racial heritage as the newly empowered settlers, but culturally very distinct, and – more importantly – not armed with ultra-lethal magitech). Most survivors fled to New Harmony or other lands. Wigtop’s militias sacked and burned Tekotah and Tornado multiple times (though never its refuge cities), and they even invaded and occupied New Harmony for five years. (They technically never stopped occupying the city – but the occupying militia decided that Wigtop was lame and they were never coming back home. They liked New Harmony much better because it had fancy pretty things and yummy food and everything was so coool. They decided to establish themselves as rich folk in the big city rather than answer to the Big Man of Wigtop and return to their squalor back home.)
Though Wigtop is still somewhat of a chaotic liquor-soaked mess, it is slowly growing into a real society with something like an economy. Though Wigtop does not allow its trove of foreign magitech to leave the city, it has developed other exports which are slowly integrating it into the regional economy at large – notably cotton, firestone (coal), moonshine, and actual wigs.
Technically, on the books, the full name of Wigtop is “Higgins’ Hill”, but since the name of the city is typically only spoken aloud while drunk, it has been rapidly bastardized into the barely recognizable “Wigtop”. Oddly enough, some locals decided to grow cotton and sell wigs because of their city’s historically inaccurate name.
The outlying towns are a bit better off than Wigtop proper; the locals here live more orderly lives devoted to farming, and are a mix of recent settlers and the original inhabitants.
Wigginsby Heritage: Recent (late 4th Wave) Prisoner-Settlers originally from Norraine, but by way of the FORBIDDEN CONTINENT. Nearby regions are also home to some 2nd wave Norrish, and ethnic Tekotans (Vasa Lothran/Ustrachi mix).
Population: 1 (20x) Barely a keystone city, not just in appearance but also in populations.
Cultural Influence: 1 People do occasionally read Wigginsby literature or perform Wigginsby plays, but only ever in an ironic context. Classic “so bad it’s good” territory. The culture of Wigtop does little but inspire derision and mockery from outsiders.
Economic Influence: 2 Wigtop is just starting to figure out what it means to have a functioning economy. It even has exports! And some kind of trade agreement with something-or-other, and a tariff or two! That’s what economical cities have, right? Trade ‘greements and tariffs? And some of its people livin’ in fancy rich cities send money back home to their families in Wigtop, so that’s all economical and such.
So Wigtop isn’t exactly an economic cornerstone of the world economy, but at least it’s… part of the world economy? Aware of the world economy, at least?
Military Influence: 9 Two words: hyperadvanced magitech. These words are balanced by one other, very important word: DISORGANIZED. There's a reason Wigtop’s armed forces are called a militia (or more accurately, militias) rather than an army. Still, no person or structure wants to be anywhere near the business end of a Forbidden Continent energy rifle. And, lucky for the Wigginsbys, most of the energy rifles feature bio-locks and auto-return mechanisms - ensuring that they can never fall into the hands of Wigtop’s enemies.
Defense: 1 Wigtop’s “architects” have yet to master the concept of “load-bearing”, let alone the principles behind effective defensive fortifications. Wigtop’s only defense is its offense.
Wigtop Cultural Stats:
Government: A Big Man (always male). Typically whichever prominent citizen kills the previous Big Man and can enforce his claim to be the new Big Man. Government style is “post-apocalyptic despotism”.
Most Common Criminal Acts: Murderin' folk, stealin' everythin', then murderin' s'more folk. Burnin' down homes. Tryin’ to steal a superweapon -that’s real bad, that’ll get ya double murdered for sure.
Justice: Vigilante Justice! Yee-haw!
Climate: temperate continental (cool, wet)
Nights: Poor, erratic lighting. Nighttime is BAR-FIGHT TIME!
Food: most Wigginsbys, including children, consume the plurality of their calories as beer. The remainder is mostly mystery meat* and (when times get tough) tree bark or the semi-edible planks from their homes.
*Occasional cannibalism.
Clothing: Lots of burlap and rough-spun cotton. Plenty of semi-intentional nudity.
Festivals & Holidays: Festival of Alvis (drinking and revenge), Raid Time (a “festival” that happens in late Winter, when the food stores run out and Wigtop’s citizens must raid neighboring farms and villages.)
City Appearance & Architecture: xxxx
Common Sounds & Smells: xxxx
Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: The Big Man's Big Mansion, the Blunderbuss Towers, the Big Barracks, Big Betty Cannon, Jeb's Lumberyard, Higgin’s Head (Big Founder Man’s Monument; just the head), The Mudpuddle, Uriah's Triple-stacked tavern-on-a-tavern-on-a-tavern, the Top-Secret Armory of Crazy Weapons, the Disintegration Range, Doubletap Distillery, the Church of St. Alvis (Revenge Chapel & Tavern).
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: The Tumbledowns, the Follies, the Stumblehomes, the Burnstones (ruined district, still littered with charred corpses, firebombed by Tekotah), Cottontop, Founder's Hill, the Wallows, the Dry Inns, the Shootin' Range (not to be confused with the Disintegration Range, which is basically the same thing but for beam weapons), the Flagstones, the Moonshines, the Failed Sewers, the Sleeping Ditches.
Produces, Exports: cotton, wool, hemp, wigs, corn, meat, wood, earth orbs, fruit, liquor, firestone (coal)
Demands, Imports: steel, copper, carriages, ships, weapons, whale oil, hats, wine
Satellite Cities & Towns: xxxx
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: xxxx
Plot Hooks:
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