The Eternal City

There is only the City.

The City is ancient, vast. The City came before everyone in it, and will remain after everyone is dead.

At the centre of the City is a mountain, and upon the mountain is the Palace, and it can be seen from the Walls. Inside the palace is the Queen, though very few alive can claim to have seen her. She rules the City with an iron grip. The Queen's Mandarins carry her decrees to the Court and represent petitioners for her mercy. They go about masked and none know their true identity, and they never leave the Palace. Much is whispered about the Queen, though never within earshot of Her Constables.

Surrounding the Palace is the High City, a district of wealth and culture, where dilletantes carouse with courtesans and merchant princes shuffle wealth amongst themselves like pieces on a chessboard. Their villas are tall and luxurious, festooned with lights and banners. Every day is a festival in the High City, and its lights glitter across the waters of the Moat. Courtiers are drawn from the High City, doting on the Queen and on each other, and carrying Her rule outside the palace. In the sewers beneath, some say, dwell the roden - rat-people who live off the discards and detritus of the wealthy.

The Moat is deep and dark, in some places flowing swiftly between islands and in other places dank and stagnant. People live here, in boats and stilt houses, fishing the waters and occasionally disappearing under them. They sell their fish and their crafts and are in much demand as guides and ferries, though they are forbidden from landing in the High City. There is only one bridge across the Moat, and it is guarded by Her Constables day and night.

Beyond the Moat are the Villages - communities of varying sizes where the vast majority of people live, farming crops and raising animals over the dust and detritus of ages past. It is said that if you dig deep enough, you can come across Villages, buried long ago under newer Villages. If you are very lucky - or perhaps unlucky - you can find ancient tunnels and caverns. No-one knows the full extent of the dark beneath. Some say that there are tunnels that lead all the way to the Palace, or outside the Walls. In the very depths, it is said that dwarves still reside.

The further towards the Walls you travel, the fewer Villages there are, until you reach the Desolation. The Walls themselves are impenetrable, unscalable. No-one knows what lies outside. Some of the most ancient stories tell of a vast ocean beyond the Walls, but no-one other than the scholars remember those stories. Other stories tell of great monsters and dragons, but those are merely childrens' tales. Her Constables never come here.

The Desolation is a land of ancient ruins, deep chasms and eerie forests. In some places great stone edifices rise above the land, and in others the rain pours into bottomless sinkholes. In still others, strangling vines choke the life out of anything that dares to share their demesnes. Under all can be found the ancient and ruined remains of previous inhabitants. There are places where it is said that elves once dwelled, though none know what happened to them.

Bands of orcs roam the Desolation at night, making war on each other and conquering new territory. Children learn early to listen for the war drums and horns of the orcs, and to run and hide when they are heard. New settlers sometimes reclaim these areas after the orcs have passed on, but life here is precarious and dangerous. There is very little here for civilised people, and from time to time great monsters appear.

The City persists, endures. The City has always been, and will always be. The City and its Queen are eternal.