The city of cold stone, cold steel, cold hearts, and conquest. Centuries ago, cities began transitioning from simple castles, to castle towns, to the sprawling urban centers of today. But while Neven is a large city, it will have nothing to do with that modern style; it is, instead, a single enormous castle. The largest castle in the world, in fact. The city-castle is nearly as tall as it is wide, with sky-scraping towers on the walls and interior keep. Neven is a cold city built on a cold mountain next to a cold bay - and its towering close-spaced walls prevent sunlight from reaching the floor of the city except during high Summer. (The shadows of the nearby mountains don’t help, either.)
Neven is ruled by the Neverending Warlord; his (or her?) control over the city is absolute. The Neverending Warlord has never been seen outside of his massive suit of armor – at least not for a few centuries – and his voice is muffled, metallic, and strangely inhuman. However, for a heartless despot the Neverending Warlord’s rule is just and fair. (Though not exactly forgiving. Especially not to outsiders.)
The Neverending Warlord can be found in the central keep. Other places of note are the weapons market, the combined prison / shooting gallery (note: you do NOT want to go to prison here; you don’t last long) the feasting grounds, and the Tower of Proving. (Where you quite literally go if you have something to prove. Usually something along the lines of “of course I could kick your ass!” or “I could fight a lion bare-handed!” This place is a favorite of drunken idiots, and also the Warlord, whose quarters overlook the Tower of Proving.)
Taxation in Neven is in work-hours, not goods or currency. Most of these work-hours involves time in Neven’s formidable army, which is focused exclusively on training for battle – none of this “help rebuild stuff during times of peace” nonsense. Neven’s army has never lost a land battle throughout its history. Its naval track-record is a much different matter; Neven is geared for overland conquest, not naval campaigns. The regions surrounding the castle-city of Neven are checkered with narrow straits & wide rivers separating islands and peninsulas. The success or failure of a Neven military campaign has often depended on how fast the locals can demolish their bridges.
The Neveni are more egalitarian than outsiders might assume of an aggressive warrior culture - yet the politics of gender and sex are complex. A woman earns her right to bear children by slaying her first foe in combat. After this, she may mate with whoever she chooses. Men have little choice in the matter - renowned warriors are more likely to be picked as fathers, but a woman-who-has-killed may choose a poet or a foreigner without shame; she earned her birthright when she took a life. Men must fight their entire lives, but a woman who has earned her birthright may choose motherhood as her occupation. There are few old men in Neven, but many old women.
Neveni Heritage: 3rd Wave (Ustrachi), and very homogeneous about it. Technically the people here don’t look like regular Ustrachi. Hyperactive, violent selection pressures have weeded out all but the largest and strongest from the population. A typical Neveni is nearly twice the size of an average human. (Mostly just thicker, but also a bit taller.)
Population: 1 (25x). “Natural” selection and limited resources keeps numbers down.
Cultural Influence: 1. The outside world believes that Neveni are war-mongering savages, or perhaps just thralls to their warlord. Either way, “high culture” doesn’t exist here in any form, and few take any stock of Neven’s art, music, dance, or theater. (Actually, there is no theater here, dancing is just sparring and/or sex, and the “art” is mostly limited to war paint or imported tapestries.)
Economic Influence: 3. Outsiders do begrudgingly trade with the Neveni – though it’s not exactly a large market. Still, they sell ironwood, whale oil, and furs at prices too reasonable to pass up, and they pay handsomely for fruit and weapons-grade adamantane.
Military Influence: 18. This is what Neven does. This is its purpose. Nobody lives in Neven who isn’t a warrior; “natural” selection sees to that. Nobody lives in Neven who doesn’t take orders well; again, “natural” selection sees to that. When others might be crafting or farming, Neven’s warriors are practicing war – or, more commonly, actively engaging in war. (Note: this is true only of Neveni in the city proper, and other citizens. The people of outlying communities are required to supply Neven with food and ore – except for those granted Neveni citizenship.)
Neven’s military influence would be assigned maximum rank if not for the fact that, in a land riddled with various waterways and seas, Neven has no navy to speak of; just some makeshift rafts it uses to ferry troops across rivers and narrow channels. Its capacity for power projection is excellent… so long as no bridges are out.
Defense: 13. Neven’s defensive structures (or structure, singular, since the city is one great castle) is breathtaking. Its walls keep stretching upward; necks aren’t meant to crane that high. Neven is only rated lower than a 20 – significantly lower, in fact – because Neven almost never USES its walls. Typically when faced with an enemy army, a fortified city or castle will attack it at range from the relative safety of the walls, and brace for a siege. Not so with Neven’s soldiers, who rush outside the walls to embrace invading armies in glorious melee combat. And they’re good at it, of course – but really not as good as if they’d just stayed behind their mighty walls and shaded their enemies with arrows. Neven has, in fact, been sacked (though never successfully occupied for longer than a day) more than once, due to some sort of psychological inability of its warriors to use their majestic wall for its intended purpose.
Neven's supplies are typically insufficient for a protracted siege.
Neven Cultural Stats: (Note that “work” and “play” are very similar, and violent, in Neven.)
Government: Absolute rule of The Neverending One, a (supposedly) undying warlord. An efficient, fair, but unforgiving ruler. Face never seen; helmeted.
Most Common Criminal Acts: stealing food, honor killings, rape, banditry, desertion
Justice: Justice extremely swift, severe, and autocratic. Death is common. Fighting to the death in gladiator-style battles is also common. (This may or may not be a punishment.)
Climate: cold temperate maritime, slushy
Nights: NIGHT IS FOR SLEEP OR SURPRISING ENEMIES. GO TO SLEEP OR GET A SURPRISE.
Food:Lavish feasting after great victories. Otherwise just simple rations: gruel and meat, plus citrus fruit to prevent scurvy and rock cabbage for fiber
Clothing: an inordinate amount of casually-worn armor. Otherwise simple undyed cloth, or military uniforms (lighter armor).
Festivals & Holidays: celebrations are typically limited to victory feasts, and impromptu celebrations at the Tower of Proving if someone pulls off a particularly incredible feat. Note: the Neverending One has supposedly never had a beginning either, and thus has no birthday to celebrate.
City Appearance & Architecture: Giant. Castle.
Common Sounds & Smells: Neven is not so primitive as outsiders assume. The giant castle-city may have an outdated look, but the sewage system is highly efficient, and thus the city smells of different sorts of bodily fluids - specifically: blood, sweat, and tears.
Governance Building, Iconic Structures & Landmarks: The Warlord's Keep, The Weapons Market, the Assembly, The Feasting Grounds, the Shooting Gallery / Prison, the Tower of Proving, the Corner Towers. (N, E, W, S). (Neven's construction is very simple and featureless for a city.)
Districts, Sectors, Zones, Regions, Wards, and other big places: Unproven Homes (Underwall), Glory's Forge, The Yard (center-ground level of the enormous castle), the Dungeon District (literally huge castle dungeons), the Veterans' Homes (wall-level), the Legends' Homes (high towers). “Shadeside” is a direction term commonly used by Neven's inhabitants; it means the direction shadows (most notably the great shadow of Neven) are pointing.
Produces, Exports: ironwood, weapons, steel, granite, meat, whale oil, furs, armors, fish, gems, boats. The Warlord frowns on slavery but does not strictly forbid it. When a conquered people has offended Neven (or the Warlord specifically), can offer them no resources as plunder, and Neven is in need of coin, the conquered may be sold to traders from Ransein (in Triskelion) as slaves. This is considered a fate worse than death and not done lightly.
Demands, Imports: wine, food (grains, fruit), helium, adamantane, mithril (aluminum), tapestries. Neven prefers plunder to trade, but deals honorably with traders. (They do not STEAL, they PLUNDER. There's a difference.)
Satellite Cities & Towns: NEVEN CONQUERS ALL! NEVEN PLUNDERS ALL! But Neven does not administer at all. That would be tedious.
Highly optional game-related or story-related material:
Important People: THE NEVERENDING ONE
Plot Hooks: WHO IS THE NEVERENDING ONE?!?
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