Axis
Every road leads here; every step takes you closer to the Axis.Located on a rare confluence of Gates, Axis is as much a city as you'll ever find in the Shadow. Maybe a hundred or so souls have made Axis their permanent home, while many others pass through every day. The residents grow Reagents here, exploiting the flow of arcane energies from the gates.
That's where the name came from, as the spokes of a wheel, centering on an axis.Splattered across a good square mile or so, Axis consists of clumps of buildings here and there, collected by well-kept streets and pleasant roads. Street-stalls and vendors run by Mules offer residents and visitors with some creature comforts without even having to leave The Shadow. The mules here are well-stocked, able to use the gates to travel widely across the world.
There's not much of a government in Axis, but a disparate collection of factions, usually connected to whatever end the Gates connect to. They get along well enough by necessity more than anything else, as such a prized location attracts all kinds of scoundrals and lowlives. More than once, Axis has had to rally together to fight off some attempt of subjugation or another.
The central gate, the Axis around which the rest of the city revolves, leads right into the Beyond. Every now and then, something from there pops its head into Axis, causing trouble and mayhem until the locals can put it down or drive it off... Or it gets bored of playing with them.
They've got great food and magical dulce de leche! Does that tempt you?
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.