The floating city; the wandering armada and urban hub of the merfolk. Lailan is a vast fleet of barges, sailing ships, and floating platforms covering miles of open water. Most of it can disassemble and re-form; the city is constantly shedding and accumulating pieces. Mostly this is just large houseboats that come and go, but sometimes entire block barges, harbors, and sail towers leave or re-join. The Floating Mountain and most of the underwater Merfolk District stays put – though even this can scatter should the city need to disperse.
Lailan is a sprawling vista of floating wonders. Sky-scraping tower-masts rise hundreds of feet above the ocean, undulating on the backs of the rolling waves. Enormous sails dyed brilliant colors propel the city across the seas at surprising speed when it needs to migrate; otherwise, building-sized anchors keep it in place. At night, sun-bright lights lure fish to the merfolk district, illuminating the surface districts with an eerie, rippling glow. The city is, quite literally, a different place every time you visit; the block barges constantly shift, and even the “Floating Mountain” (the pumice-and-resin heart of the city) can be partly disassembled and rearranged.
The grand chandelier – the source of the city’s lights – forms the enormous, blindingly-bright underbelly of the city. This underworld is called the Merfolk district by the surface-dwellers – but it is nearly as big as all the districts on the surface combined. In fact, the Merfolk divide their brilliant under-city into separate districts, and call everything on the surface “the Surface District”. Part of the merfolk district (the dangling district, beneath the Floating Mountain) is made of separate structures and submarine vessels – mostly grown from glowing coral. But the bulk of the merfolk district(s) is just an underwater extension of the surface barges and harbors. Thus the pieces of the city that attach or detach from Lailan bring their merfolk with them. Or, more commonly, migrating Lai merfolk bring their human surface-dweller Lai with them, when they move their neighborhoods. The synergy between the ocean-harvesting merfolk and the surface-harvesting humans is worth the conjoinment. Both sides (above and below the surface) are fond of wandering, and they enjoy wandering together. Not to mention, Lailan would be dark without its merfolk. The merfolk must feed their coral lights and keep them below the surface in order for them to maintain their intense brilliance. The merfolk also retract and/or streamline their underwater homes and light-corals when the city is under sail. (They can also help push it along, which is why the city can move with such unexpected speed during emergencies.)
Lailan is one of the oldest cities in Terra Trema – yet most pieces of Lailan (the surface halves, anyway) have been freshly built. (Most ships and floats are 5 to 50 years old; their glowing coral underbellies are often much older.) Surface materials don’t last terribly long in the ocean, with the exception of some ancient pumice floats, treated with special resins to keep water from invading the rock’s pores.
Despite its age, Lailan has only been in Terra Trema for just shy of two hundred years. Its people (humans and merfolk) were among the many who left the Old Lands to start anew in Terra Trema – except that they didn’t leave their city; they brought it with them. (It was a permanent port city at the time, but enough of it was made of docks and ships that they just brought all the pieces they could move.) Lately Lailan has been stationed in the Crescendo Sea, in the shadow of Mt. Cryosa. There is a permanent weather feature in the Crescendo Sea that helps stabilize Lailan’s position: a benign vortex, with Lailan at the center. This allows Lailan to repair its anchors but remain in the open sea where it belongs.
Of course, Lailan is in many other places, too. Its many pieces wander the seas as trading posts, fishing platforms, scavenging hubs or just breakaway neighborhoods that eventually coalesce back onto the main hub. At night, these pieces are instantly distinguishable from other vessels and docks by their brilliant, eerie bottom-lit glow. Some of these pieces of Lailan form independent micro-cities, but so far most of them have dispersed or re-attached to Lailan proper. (Some have formed small coastal villages that may be permanent “buds” of Lailan.) Civil war could tear the city apart, but so far nothing like this has come; the Lai peoples simultaneously place great importance on both freedom and cooperation.
Lai Heritage: 3rd Wave Sapphire Islander / Vasa Lothran / Sunder. (A people of unique heritage – Lai - originally from the peninsula on the triple boundary between Old Vasa Lothra, Sunderland, and the Sapphire Islands. They took their city with them when they left the Old Lands.) Also a significant minority of merfolk, who represent the other half of the Lai culture. There are an improbably high number of interspecies marriages, culturally not only accepted but encouraged. Offspring have an even chance of being merfolk or human. (There are no half-way hybrids – with the exception of some occasional webbed hands or feet.)
Population: 2 (35_ at any given time. Of these, 10 are Merfolk – who are also called Lai. Total dispersed Lai people (plus other humanoids or merfolk who share the Lai cultural values and live among them) is closer to 55; the city can ebb as low as 25 and swell up to 50.
Cultural Influence: 6. Outsiders often romanticize the Lai way of life, and many seek to visit the city to experience its wonders first-hand – especially the merfolk district. (Merfolk are rare elsewhere in Terra Trema – or more accurately, they shun humans.) Lai culture is simultaneously insular and mainstream. The Lai people are culturally in-tune with Terra Trema at large, and their culture (or the face they put up for foreigners, at least) seems anything but alien or strange. However, the Lai people don’t care much for the idle entertainments of the mainstream cultures. They prefer their own songs and styles, which they have no intention of sharing with others. Some Lai songs can only be sung underwater; merfolk are naturals at this of course, but many human Lai have learned how to add their voices to the chorus.
Lailan is a great hub for gossip among sailors of all nationalities, and many sailors meet there. (It doesn’t hurt that Lailan has great beer and grog.) The city has been used as a neutral meeting place for politicians as well, and three wars have been ended in the Core Dock’s Treaty Room.
Economic Influence: 8. The economy of Lailan is focused on fishing, whaling, scavenging from remote shores, and – most importantly – acting as a waypoint for ocean traffic. Its pieces – mostly ships, but some barges and harbors as well - disperse throughout the seas of Terra Trema and act as way-stations and trading posts for Terra Trema’s various seafarers. Many of the Lai trading ships are independent and rarely a part of Lailan proper, but they consider themselves Lai (ethnically/culturally) and think of Lailan as home. (Not to mention, they all have some glowing coral to light their undersides at night, and typically some merfolk. In fact, some Lai sailing ships are crewed mostly by merfolk, with just one token human to handle the sails.) Lailan itself acts as a stopover site for ships as well, as it is typically positioned in busy shipping lanes. It’s rarely a non-Lai ship’s ultimate destination; more of a rest-stop or resupply station. Lailan is typically awash with traders and sailors from around Terra Trema (especially from Yozai), but the flow of goods and gold is less impressive than the flow of people.
Military Influence: 4. Lailan is a scavenger and a meeting ground; it is not geared for war. And yet, when provoked, the Lai people have used amoeba tactics to envelop and claim small coastal towns. (The locals woke up one morning to find their city was much bigger than it should have been, and stretched out well past where the ocean should have started, and why is there some foreign guard patrolling the streets and what’s with all the screaming?)
Lailan’s military has no formal organization; technically it’s just made up of hundreds of ship crews and shopkeepers who are intimately familiar with harpoons and are accustomed to coordinating with each other – and with their resourceful merfolk husbands and wives. Lailan’s amphibious attacks are legendary, and its merfolk excel at breaking blockades and sabotaging ships at harbor. Yet it can’t stand against a powerful navy, and shies away from aggression.
Defense: 5. Lailan uses scatter tactics, dissolving itself to avoid destruction. If an overwhelming naval force, massive sea monster, or raging fire threatens the city, it simply disperses and scatters. The city’s pieces can be captured individually by a persistent and resourceful foe (e.g., the Albish navy) but Lailan can’t be occupied in a traditional sense; it simply ceases to be, for a time. Whatever parts remain after the attack coalesce into a city again over the next few months, and pieces that were destroyed or captured are rebuilt – so long as some corals land-based resources are available. Lailan has existed for many centuries and has been rebuilt at least four times over.
Lailan’s pieces are ultimately vulnerable to enemy naval forces, but it’s impossible to attack Lailan without a reasonably powerful navy or air force. Simply ferrying troops to the city won’t do, since the city will move and disperse – or actively engage and sink the troop transports.
Lailan Cultural Stats: (human and merfolk Lai have essentially the same culture)
Government: Council of Elders, chosen at the Fleetsmeet. The Executive is appointed by and beholden to the Council. The Council is half merfolk.
Most Common Criminal Acts: Causing floods, stealing floats, cutting ropes, breaking deals, assault, breaking coral. Rarely: drowning humans or stranding merfolk.
Justice: Reasonably fair, yet some capital punishment. Worst offenders become mulch.
Climate: Varies by location; usually warm, mild maritime
Nights: Amazing, bright lighting from below. (The Great Chandelier in the Merfolk District.) Tops of platforms and towers have fainter torch lighting for safety and navigation.
Food: almost entirely seafood. Protein poisoning is a concern.
Clothing: xxxx
Festivals & Holidays: xxxx
City Appearance & Architecture: Waterworld
Common Sounds & Smells: Ocean, fish, salt, waves.
Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: The Kingship, The Floating Mountain (includes the Core Dock & the Treaty Room), the Windfisher, Wavetop Tavern, Primavex Tower, Pumice Harbor, Steel Harbor, Bamboo Harbor, Rubber Harbor, Glass Harbor, Silena's Barge, the Refinery, the Processing Plant, the Scavenger's Museum, the Merfolk Market (partly underwater), the Grand Chandelier (AKA Gran-Shan; underwater).
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: Merfolk Districts: the Dangling District (partly retractable, beneath the floating mountain), the Great Chandelier, the Anchorline Shops, Anchortown (depends on location; doesn’t always exist), the Market District (partly above water), Dangledown, Deepdown (the detritus and settlements on the ocean floor beneath Lailan). Human Districts: The Flagwalk, Dryscape, Salvage Yards One through Seven, Mountaintop.
Produces, Exports: every possible thing from the sea, ropes, navigation tools, merfolk artifacts, gossip, objects scavenged from the ocean bottom.
Demands, Imports: buoyant objects of all kinds, timber. Lailan tends to scavenge coasts as it migrates.
Satellite Cities & Towns: There are literally fragments of Lailan all across Terra Trema’s many seas – though most of them are small trading posts and ships, not true towns in their own right. These pieces don’t tend to hang out near Lailan; they’re either established at oceanic trade routes far away, or traveling to/from Lailan, or physically attached to and integrated with Lailan.
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: xxxx
Plot Hooks:
Okay, first of all, don't say "hooks" - it's offensive to the merfolk.
-xxxx