While it’s not polite or accurate to simply call a thing evil, it would be fair to say that the Triple Cities are engines of human suffering. And also pretty damned evil.
Ransein, Xagrit, and Kessennetta sit across from each other at the confluence of the Great Rivers Kess and Rannetta. They have always been rivals, and even now their governments and walls remain separate. Yet they have grown into and through each other, and a thick network of bridges across the rivers has merged them into a single metropolitan area known as Triskelion.
The three cities of Triskelion have long focused on ways to reduce the need for humans – the upper classes, at least – to perform labor. Competition between cities and a warped or absent moral code has taken this focus to unsettling extremes. Where other cities might emphasize trade, or technology, or magic as a means to make human lives easier, the cities of Triskelion have developed more dubious labor-saving techniques. To be specific, Ransein is the world’s largest slave-trading hub, Xagrit builds and sells mechanical golems powered by consumed souls, and Kessennetta raises hordes of undead – often recycled from Ransein’s slaves. All three of these techniques cause significant problems, both practical and ethical. Each city is quick to point out the problems caused by the moral and practical failings of the other two.
The Pale Necromancers rule Kessennetta from the white Bleached Tower, the Artificers’ Guild rules Xagrit from the Black Tower, and the Slavelords rule Ransein from the gray Bleak Tower. Triskelion’s thoroughly corrupt Lawkeepers (the city watch / police) operate in all three cities, though there are different laws to enforce in each. Each city has a vast and distinctively-flavored army; Kessennetta has its undead horde, Xagrit its weeping battle golems, and Ransein its Shackled Legion. These unusual armies unite in times of war, unless of course the war happens to be within Triskelion itself.
Though the cities are bitter rivals, the three-way rivalry between equals keeps squabbles to a minimum, since any conflict between two of the cities would most certainly be exploited to dire effect by the third. And the third city is more likely to sabotage the victor, to maintain balance. Nowadays, a thoroughly intertwined economy and culture also help curb intra-Triskelion violence.
Heritage:Xagrit: 3rd Wave Ustrachi, Dwarven, and Gnomish, plus sentient constructs. Ransein: free citizens and Slavelords are predominantly 2nd & 3rd Wave Sunder & Vasa Lothran; slaves are very diverse but mostly 2nd & 3rd wave Norrish & Vasa Lothran, plus some misc. non-human races. Kessennetta: 3rd & 4th Wave Norrish, plus some elves and sentient, free-willed undead.
Population: 255 (10). Kessennetta: 50 (plus 60 worth of undead, mostly skeletons). Xagrit: 55 (plus 20 worth of soul-powered golems). Ransein: 150 (120 of whom are slaves).
Cultural Influence: 3. Some publishers and agents say that evil is sexy, evil is marketable, evil sells. But they’re not talking about the evil in Triskelion, which is powerfully unattractive and has been nothing but a turn-off to the rest of Terra Trema. Triskelion gets quite a lot of bad publicity – all well-deserved. It doesn’t help that most of this negative commentary comes from within Triskelion itself; each city’s worst critics are its two nearest neighbors.
Slavery, Souls-as-fuel, and (to a lesser extent) necromancy are all highly distasteful to most of Terra Trema – perhaps because they were common in the Old Lands for much of its history, and represent the reason many cultures migrated to Terra Trema in the first place. (To get AWAY from slavery, souls-as-fuel, and necromancy.) To the extent that Triskelion is culturally influential, it is to serve as a negative example; a “what not to do” - sinister shadows of the Old Lands that Terra Trema’s people thought they’d left behind ages ago. To be fair, some of these practices do occur elsewhere in Terra Trema, but never in such great concentration and with formal government support.
Economic Influence: 13. Given the rest of Terra Trema’s disdain for Triskelion, one might be surprised to find that Triskelion’s exports – even its various immoral labor-saving devices – are in high demand. Sustainable necromancy spells, benign skeleton labor, and pre-fueled disposable golems are traded openly. Slaves are sold as well, though generally in secret; slavery is illegal (or at least strongly discouraged) in most of Terra Trema. Various boycotts of Triskelion have succeeded in tarnishing its reputation – but not in slowing down its evil-fueled economy.
Military Influence: 16. Triskelion’s labor-saving techniques double as the means to amass incredible military might. Though very few non-slave humans serve in Triskelion’s three armies, these armies are, independently, the three largest fighting forces in the world. Well, largest in terms of total number of human(oid)s: slaves, undead, or constructs. Vastly superior numbers have brought Triskelion many victories; quantity is the new quality, and if there’s one thing Triskelion’s armies have a lot of, it’s quantity. Scary amounts of quantity. Not to mention, unconventional tactical options made available thanks to a casual attitude toward self-preservation.
Win or lose, Triskelion’s generals sacrifice much of their armies to a battle. Yet their ranks are swelled by victory: Ransein assimilates and ensorceles more slaves, Kessennetta raises dead foes to fight for their former enemies, and Xagrit harvests the souls of the defeated to grant greater power to its battle golems.
Triskelion’s three armies are independent, and have historically battled each other on many, many occasions. Yet they are surprisingly keen on uniting for long campaigns, or at least working together in a sort of productive rivalry. All three need to harvest more human parts; they frequently work towards these goals together, but in competition. The three armies have become more desperate lately, as they have conquered and harvested all of the easy targets; the only large source of human capital nearby is Uchuul… which, well, doesn’t really count, and isn’t worth it. Uchuul has been a thorn in the side of Triskelion for some time, but so far Triskelion’s armies haven’t found a way to deal with it.
Not all of Triskelion’s constructs, undead, and slaves are human-shaped. Ransein’s slave army has trolls, giants, taurfolk and merfolk under its command; Kessennetta has undead dragons, whales, and behemoths; Xagrit’s battle golems are built in an impressive number of frightening shapes and sizes. Of course, the larger fighters require more food, discipline, necromantic energy or soul-fuel, but victories cannot come without sacrifice.
Ransein’s slave galleys double as a river-boat navy. The cargo, propulsion system, and soldiers are all the same thing. All rulers of Triskelion relish evil little efficiencies such as this.
Defense: 4. Three words of advice to Triskelion’s enemies: divide and conquer. Kessennetta, Xagrit, and Ransein have three strong but separate city walls. Each city knows the weaknesses of the other two, and their rivalries are profound; any invading army will find at least one ally in Triskelion.
Defenses are more considerable when the three-part city is unified – however, this almost never happens when Triskelion must be defended. Triskelion is much more likely to unite in aggression than in defense.
Cultural stats of Kessennetta, Ransein, and Xagrit (in that order):
Government: 3 separate governments for Ransein, Xagrit, Kessennetta. Ransein’s Slavelords have a council, where voting influence is proportional to the number of slaves owned. Xagrit’s Artificer’s Guild is more of an evil scientific society; egalitarian at its upper levels, with the post of High Artificer abandoned for over a century because the non-stop assassinations weren’t worth it. Kessennetta’s Pale Necromancers have a private council; the inner workings of their government are a closely-guarded secret.
Most Common Criminal Acts: Freeing or stealing slaves, constructs, or undead servants. Kidnapping, Public disturbance, theft, being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Justice: Draconic justice; fate worse than death for most crimes. Exceptions for oligarchy.
Climate: severely continental, warm average. Frequent fog from the great rivers.
Nights: Pretty good lighting in Ransein – and especially in Xagrit, where the lights are powered by burning souls. There’s lots of bad, unclean fun to be had at night. For example, Ransein has some legal (but obviously evil) slave clubs. However, nights can be dangerous in Kessennetta, where the undead never sleep and the streets are poorly lit. There are… hungry things there, stalking the night.
Food: You don’t want to know. No, really. It’s even more disturbing than you’d expect. No no, it's not just cannibalism, it's worse than that. Never ask what you're eating, and choose the meat that twitches the least.
Clothing: xxxx
Festivals & Holidays: xxxx
City Appearance & Architecture: Many tall towers - but otherwise different styles in the three different cities. Ransein is bleak, dirty, loud, crowded, an unadorned except for the palaces. Its style is grotesquely modern: mostly function-over-form stone boxes. Kessennetta looks impossibly ancient, with a curved and sinuous style; it looks like a petrified Elven city. Xagrit is a magepunk nightmare of twisted metal and glowing archways.
Common Sounds & Smells: xxxx
Governance Buildings, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: The Bone Tower (a.k.a the Bleached Tower. White; Kessennetta), The Bleak Tower (Gray; Ransein), the Black Tower (a.k.a the Blank Tower. Xagrit), the Meat Market, the Bone Market, the Soul Market, the Palace of Illicit Delights, the Terrorium, the Bane Tower, The University of Xagrit (lots of good wholesome steampunk-like engineering techniques and practices being taught here – though also how to extract souls and use them as fuel), the Pit, Watersmeet Tower (in Ransein, at the exact location of the rivers’ confluence), the Altar of Transcendence, the Mortality Machine, the Dome of Negative Energy, St. Ixion’s Sanatorium, The Harvest Spire, the Pillar of Efficiency (a more modern “stock exchange” and testament to cooperation between the three cities, where souls, skeletons, and slaves are all traded. The motto: “waste not”.)
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: The Hunting Range (on the outskirts of Ransein; a twisted theme park where semi-feral slaves are hunted for sport) the Kessennetta Cryptway, the Ransein Sewers, the Xagrit Maintenance Tunnels, The Recycling Ward, The Birthing Ward, The Boneyard (wastes on the outskirts of Kessennetta where useless bones too worn to reanimate are dumped), the Flux Fields (entire fields on the outskirts of Xagrit used to store magical energies and captive souls. Dotted with sparking lightning towers and tesla coils.)
Produces, Exports: slaves, constructs, undead servants, cheap manufactured goods, textiles, wheat, fish
Demands, Imports: expendable humans (dead or alive), steel, gold, gems, arcane materials
Satellite Cities & Towns: all sacked and depleted of their living populations.
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: xxxx
Plot Hooks:
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Uchuul is definitely a city yes.
People say Uchuul only pretending to be a city and is actual Elder Thing. Nonsense! Silly claims hurt Uchuul’s feeling and have no basis as reality. Uchuul not Elder Thing, that silly talk. Elder Thing would not have lots of buildings and little hooman pieces walking around. Elder thing would have eyestalks and pods and tentaclies. So okay Uchuul does have some of those but only because hoomans build them as decorations in their hooman city.
Uchuul is for real a hooman city. It has real hooman buildings that hoomans live in! Well some of them sag sometimes and get bendy or backwards but only because hoomans build them wrong. You hoomans, you always… I mean, we hoomans always build such weird things! All part of the diversity of different culture. Some hoomans make buildings that lean over a bit or have eyes on them, and accidentally digest people sometimes. Haha, weird, haha! But that has not happen here for years now.
Uchuul want more hoomans to come visit and live in Uchuul! Uchuul going to be best city there is, in all the cities! Uchuul is already full of lots of hooman economy and culture; at least three economies and maybe four or five of the cultures. And Uchuul has some militaries and fighting boats and army hoomans like most hooman cities have. And also Uchuul has budded, uh, hoomans have built school-house for the little hoomans, and doctor-house for the malfunctioning hoomans, and eating places for hoomans to talk about their hooman lives while they eat hooman food. There is even a dog park! Uchuul promises hoomans who move to live in Uchuul not get digested! Probably. Accidents happen sometime. Uchuul working on fixing that.
Uchuul Hoomans: Many of Uchuul’s hoomans come from Uchuul. They are pieces of Uchuul, but only because Uchuul not find enough normal-born hoomans yet so Uchuul get impatient and make its own hoomans. Some other hoomans come from other places in recent time, and that is good. People say some of Uchuuls hoomans actually elfies or dwarvens, but Uchuul not know what that mean. Are those a type of hooman?
Population: 1 (35). 30 of this is Uchuul pieces. But at least Uchuul make pretty hooman pieces now! Uchuul getting better at hoomans! Uchuul learn how many limbs and holes and eyes hoomans have now. Sometimes Uchuul forget, but mostly not.
Sometime Uchuul's hooman pieces complain with words like “how can I be so much smarter than my creator?” and another words, “Why am I cursed with this existence?” Uchuul not sure what that mean. Uchuul not tell its hooman pieces to say those things. Making hoomans out of self is weird. Maybe Uchuul give hooman pieces less mouths to complain with next time. If Uchuul human pieces complain much then new other hoomans not come for living in best city Uchuul!
Cultural Influence: 1. Uchuul has all the cultures! Uchuul is gathering all best cultures and being great at culture and everyone will love Uchuul and say Uchuul is best city for culture and they will give Uchuul lots of ponies to eat.
Economic Influence: 2. Uchuul sell things! Uchuul sell things found in swamp. Swamp have many useful shinies! Uchuul enter great into all the national economies! Much growth and prosperity in Uchuul. Now Uchuul sell outsiders to swamp roots and trees and touristisms, but later Uchuul sell everything! Uchuul have three or seven economies and is good at money.
Military Influence: 12. Uchuul have hoomans in armor and hoomans in boats and these hoomans can go kill other hoomans that don’t like Uchuul. But Uchuul is nice city and doesn’t want to hurt hoomans. Uchuul only sends its fighter hoomans to make wars if bad other hoomans attack Uchuul.
If Uchuul need to fight really good, Uchuul can use, uh… Uchuul has really very good army of scary things if Uchuul wants. But the scary parts of Uchuul army make hoomans unhappy so Uchuul keep them in hidden place until they needed to fight really bad things.
Defense: 9. Uchuul have big wall once, but it get droopy and hard to keep up when Uchuul is tired and sleeping, so Uchuul say no more wall. Uchuul – uh, hoomans living in Uchuul build… interesting towers that can hurt people who would want to fight at Uchuul. They work in weird way that hoomans not like seeing. They digest hoomans, but really fast. So Uchuul not use those things unless it very important, because Uchuul not digest hoomans anymore. Hoomans not enjoy that, and Uchuul want hoomans to like Uchuul. Uchuul is best city to live!
Uchuul Culture Stats: (note: pieces of Uchuul not always behave like normal hooman.)
Government: Uchuul rule self of course. But Uchuul listen to hoomans who tell Uchuul what they want. That is why Uchuul not digest hoomans now.
Most Common Criminal Acts: injure part of Uchuul, hurt Uchuul's feeling, theft, kidnapping.
Justice: Uchuul EAT YOU! Wait no, Uchuul not eat hoomans now. Uchuul has moral now. Um… leave Uchuul now? Bad hoomans go leave Uchuul.
Climate: Intensely humid tropical, for what hoomans like best.
Nights: Uchuul-hoomans don't need much sleep, and wander through night. Eyestalk lamps are good for make light to hoomans.
Food: Uchuul know what hoomans like to eat! Hoomans like foods to eat! So Uchuul make interesting foods happen for them. Sometimes hoomans say “That isn’t food!” Uchuul still learning what is foods.
Clothing: Sometimes Uchuul forget to put clothings on its hoomans, but mostly now it remembers. Clothings are shiny and good and sometimes made of Uchuul and sometimes made from shiny fun things find in swamp.
Festivals & Holidays: The hooman holiday where hoomans stare at shiny big star (Solaria, hoomans call it. Uchuul do Solaria perfect and good and normal like normal city do it.) Holiday where Uchuul birthcycle is celebrate. Holiday where hoomans eat food. Holiday where hoomans drink normal human alcohol drinks. Festivuul where hoomans do dancings.
City Appearance & Architecture: Very normal and good everything fine
Common Sounds & Smells: Uchuul have distink smell. It smell like normal hooman city smell! A distink smell of normal.
Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: The Capital Blobling, the Eyestalks, Pod-sprout Tower, the Normal Hooman Fortress, Doctor-House (for malfunctioning Hoomans), School-Learn House (for little hoomans), The Glistening Spire, The Temple of the Mind, the Embassies of the Gods, Normal Hooman Hotel, Normal Hooman Feeding Place, Uchuul-Piece Recycle Place, Bad Hooman Trap and Punish Place, the Sad Monument to Innocent Hoomans Accidentally Digested and Uchuul is Sorry, the Tesseract.
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: The Bending Towers, the Pod-Homes, the Impossible Geometries, the Street of Friendly Smiles (exceptionally creepy; smiling buildings), the Buy and Sell Stuff Square (actually a pentagon), Happy Drinking Hooman Friendship Square (sometimes, a square, sometimes a cube, sometimes mind-wrackingly impossible what is going on), the Red Light District (and the Brothels of Madness), the not-Uchuul dead tree building place, the Five-Dimensional District.
Produces, Exports: cheap quasi-manufactured… goods? Random stuff from the marsh, fish, shiny rocks.
Demands, Imports: Things made by hoomans, culture stuff, ponies to eat. (But only ponies that are bad and mean and hurt hoomans. Uchuul not to eat good nice things who are innocent.)
Satellite Cities & Towns: xxxx
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: Important Hoomans is all pieces of Uchuul, unless Uchuul make outside hoomans live in Uchuul.
Plot Hooks:
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