First Walls

The first and oldest wall of Arbor, which has been standing for centuries to defend the city against enemies. Today, it serves more as a historical landmark than a functional defensive wall.
The wall is built with Great Tree Fiber, which makes up part of the mortar in its construction, and is still standing strong as a testament to its original construction. Hidden underneath the wall is a train track maintained by the Black Hands organization, and there are entry ways into the underground stations located at key points along the wall.
The wall serves as a point of pride for the city and also separates the First and Second Rings, which are areas where different classes of people live. Over the years, much of the wall's makeup has changed, and it is now less of a defensive structure having been repurposed and internally restructured to create apartments for the middle class.

"Behind the towering wall that separates the high class from the middle class lies a cruel truth: that the system is rigged, and that wall is just a symbol of the insurmountable divide between the haves and have-nots. It's a reminder that in a world where money talks, the voices of the majority are silenced. But let us not be fooled into believing that this wall is impenetrable. For the truth is, it's nothing more than a fragile facade that masks the inherent flaws of a broken society." - Noah Decker Head of the Dockers

Appearance

The ancient walls of Arbor are a marvel to behold, a monument to the ingenuity and craftsmanship of its creators. While much of their original design and construction has been lost to time, what remains is a sprawling network of interlocked apartments that stretch for miles along the outer edges of the city.
From the outward-facing side of the wall, one can see a vibrant and bustling city beyond. Balconies festooned with flower boxes and bright banners jut out from every apartment, offering a dizzying array of colors and textures that seem to blend together in a kaleidoscope of beauty. Windows of all shapes, sizes and architectural styles look out over the Second Ring, offering glimpses into the lives of those who call this place home.
But on the inward-facing side of the wall, a different story is told. Here, the apartments give way to a solid stone construction, a bulwark of defense against the lower-class areas beyond. The residents of the First Ring take great care to maintain their carefully manicured gardens and homes, and they will tolerate no prying eyes from the unwashed masses.
At certain points along the wall, towering turret structures rise high into the sky. These structures serve as entrances into the labyrinthine network of underground railways that criss-cross the city, allowing travelers to journey from one end of Arbor to the other in a matter of minutes.
Along the top of the wall runs a grand walkway, once used as the battlements of the outer edge of the city. Today, this walkway is a mishmash of pipework and chimneys, a testament to the resourcefulness of those who call this place home. Passageways along the walkway lead to a maze of apartments, their halls smooth and rendered, and illuminated by the soft glow of electric lights.

Construction

As noted previously the wall is less wall these days and instead is a maze of apartments carved out of the original structure though some of this still remains. Originally it was composed of large stone blocks quarried from The Garden Wall held together with a mortar composed of clay from Silver Leaf Lake and Great Tree Fiber that truly gives the walls its incredible strength.

History

The wall was initially conceived by an Ester Wallace of the Wallace Family shortly after the Reconciliation though no work was started on it until the Year 100 P.R. . Construction of the initial wall took a total of 4 years and was mostly done with carts, a small amount of magic and human labor. In the time that followed there were multiple attacks against the fledgling city of Arbor once word spread of the Great Tree and its effects on the surrounding area. The wall stood resolute in that time deflecting arrows and spears, and even catapults and trebuchets would merely have their missiles bounce harmlessly off the resilient structure. In time though, the population began to grow too large to be housed just behind the great wall and eventually a second would need to be constructed.

A new purpose

With the Second Walls's construction the first walls purpose as a defensive structure was less important. Talks about destroying the wall to make room for more housing or even salvaging much of the stone for building work began to emerge in The Silver Council. However the historical importance of the wall came into play and many felt it was a good buffer to keep the riff raff out of the inner parts of the city. Instead, the cities Stonemasons The Stone Keepers suggested they could carve out homes within the wall and turn them into domiciles for those that could afford such things. Originally, the plans were to have windows on both sides but the Old Families squashed that idea, insisting that the common folk not be allowed to look into their homes on a daily basis.

Today

Today the Wall stands as both historical reminder of what the world was and the ingenuity of those that took what they could and made their homes here. Instead of the poor and downtrodden though, the apartments are filled with the working middle class, many of which are employed by those in the First Ring. A great irony that they go home to look out on to the city only to be brought to heel under the boots of those they work for the next morning, unable to even dream of being a part of that world.

Founding Date

104 P.R.

Alternative Names

Wall Ester

Parent Location

Arbor

Owning Organization

The Silver Council