Kitsunebora - 狐洞
"Foolish little man. You claim to be a man of science, a man of alchemy, the practice of One equals Another, of soul and mind mirroring the flesh, and yet you dare to presume that your world exists singularly in isolation?"On the surface, Kitsunebora is a humble lumber town within the Senman forest to the west of Kaguya's island chain. While it's enjoyed the infrastructural march to modernity most of Kaguya has adapted to, it remains small and relatively meek in the grand scheme of things. Buildings hardly go over two stories, and looking around you'll see the ordinary salt of the earth type of people. But, that is Kitsunebora on the surface. Its name, meaning Fox Den, holds the truth of the city. It wasn't made just as a mortal settlement but as a connecting place between the Material Plane and a demiplane, a liminal realm of phantasmal creatures, known as The Rivers Reflection. While Kitsune is a word that refers to any Fox, it also refers to a species of shapeshifting illusionists and mystics, capable of assuming many forms and many abilities. The Kitsune of the Senman forest use this city as their mortal hiding spot, and also as their door to the liminal passageways to their true home, all under the nose of many, if not all, of the mortal population that lives there.--A Fox's lesson to a Kaguyan alchemist
Demographics
Most people in Kitsunebora are Humans and Elves, and mostly older folk who've either been in the forest for the longest time or moved there in their later years as a quiet retreat. They mostly belong to the Dalsup people, who've resided on the island long before any city was made on it, although Kaguyan and Yuèyuè make up the next largest demographics.
For the mirrored half of Kitsunebora, most of the residents are the eponymous Kitsune who slip to their mirrored lands or remain in the shadowed corners of the city. Many of their cousin species are also welcome in the city and its mirrored counterpart, although the Kumiho favor it more than the Huli Jing and Yêu Hồ.
Government
Kitsunebora is run by the local mayor, as all cities within the Kaguyan federation are. Following that, since Kitsunebora is on the smaller end, there aren't any district managers or delegated positions, as Mayor Shichō Iseul Moon runs the city smoothly.
While the Kitsune of the town do not recognize the authority of a lowly mayor, they do recognize someone that keeps their beloved cover city running and stable. No use for a curtain if it's worn and torn after all. No one on the surface knows how the Kitsune government works, as they view the creatures as free-wheeling hedonists. But, in each city within the Rivers Reflection space, there is an honored leader known as a Tenshitsune, who takes on the duty of enforcing and creating laws and limits, and their authority is higher or equal to a mayor or even larger regional leader.
Defences
Kitsunebora mainly relies on the forest to remain protected, as they are close to the middle of the Senman forest, which is notably thick and unruly to travel through. They did have a wall erected during war times, but it has since been disassembled. Other than that, they have their guard units and their responsibilities. Although, not everyone within the city is safe around a mostly Kaguyan guard.
The Reflection is there specifically because it is guarded by the main city, although should the moment call for it, there are enchantments in place to either seal off the Reflection or, if that wouldn't be enough, turn the reflection of the city into a winding maze, intended to be inescapable. There are also plenty of artifacts present, as well as the Kitsune and their kin alike, all quite adept at magic.
Industry & Trade
Kitsunebora's greatest industry is Lumber. They know the Senman forest the best and are able to navigate it, know which areas are ripe for cultivation, and know how to properly nurture and heal it afterward to keep the cycle flowing. Carpentry, woodworking, carving, and Artifice are all industries that are popular via connection with that populous resource. They also engage in a healthy amount of fishing via their primary river and agriculture, but not as heavily as other cities on Senman Island.
Infrastructure
Kitsunebora is a humble lumber town on the surface, but the city has moved into the modern era with plumbing, food storage, and some common luxuries via the Magical Energy network powered by the local river. Its buildings, roads, homes, and outside planning remain on the simple, natural side. This is partially done to work more around the natural forest that they utilize and nurture, and also due to the smaller space of its territory.
The Reflection of Kitsunebora largely follows the actual city structure, although the Kitsune in their phantasmal realm can afford to be more ostentatious and daring in their designs and constructions. Sometimes, when a structure created within the Reflection becomes too grand, its presence bleeds into the material plane, causing a curious wrinkle in the fabric of the veil that can have interesting effects on either realm.
Districts
Kitsunebora isn't large enough to have massively distinct districts. The outskirts of the city, more towards the thick Senman Forest, are more sparsely populated, mostly just by dedicated woodworkers and druids. The south of the city tends to have more houses, while the north has more bureaucratic buildings.
The Reflection of Kitsunebora has more districts but in a less traditional sense. While common city districts are based around the kinds of businesses or residences you'll find, Reflected Kitsunebora it's mainly focused on the hobbies and obsessions of the long-term denizens of the space, which means they often change rather frequently. What might be the District of Oil Painting one week might be affected by the cultural zeitgeist and become the District of Abstract Poetry the next.
Assets
Kitsunebora has the typical stores you'd expect of a town its size, financially and materially. They also have quite a lot of lumber they keep prepared for emergencies and city-provided tools in case people need replacements on the fly.
It's Reflection is a...strange case. Kitsune don't necessarily value money as much as they value, well, value. So, if one were to venture into the Reflection looking for riches, well they wouldn't find a lot of physical gold or platinum, although there would be plenty of shiny objects. Instead, they'd find priceless gowns, dazzling paintings, diligently prepared meals, and pieces of esoteric wisdom and philosophy.
History
Kitsunebora has almost always been populated, even if it wasn't an officially recognized village. Originally a clearing within the Senman Forest on the island of the same name, the people who lived on that island would come to build upon it and expand it as the years went by, as the powerful waves around the island prevented a lot of early ships from the other cultures around them from interacting.
So, focusing inward on their island, the Dalsup People would eventually form the city and begin building it up. The would-be founder of the city, renowned cleric Seo-Hyeon Gung, broke the first ground to build a temple, as she felt that would direct the rest of the city in physical and spiritual ways. What she was not expecting was for herself to fall through the ground as if it was water, falling into a city already created, lit by eternal golden sunset.
As she rose to her feet, she sat before a council of women, each hiding their faces with masks of various cultural stylings, some of which she was familiar with, as a powerful, enchanting Kitsune made her presence known.
Seo-Hyeon had fallen into Rivers Reflection, specifically into a sanctuary formed by those who had run away from the pre-existing cities within the Reflection, for their own various reasons, to start their own. The mother Kitsune, raising her eight tails high, gauged the intentions of the would-be founder, making her desire to devour the woman evident.
But, Seo-Hyeon stood fast, putting her faith in her gods, and believing in her conviction to make a home that is safe for the people of the island, far away from the threats of the beach and its storms, or the thinner areas of the forest where beasts and monsters crawled. While the mother's cohorts giggled and mocked behind their masks, the mother did not take this so lightly and realized that, if a town was going to be created, then this woman wasn't going to be the end of it.
Thus a deal was made, no Kitsune would interfere with the creation or safety of this new village, but they must, in turn, keep the Kitsune, and all Phantasmal Spirits who wished to stay there, safe and most of all secret from the outside world. If Kitsunebora would fail in this task, then the threats Seo-Hyeon feared were promised to quintuple in intensity, and the entire island would sink beneath the water.
Finding the deal amenable, the city was officially founded as Yeougumeong upon her return, and its task as a secret tunnel into the Rivers Reflection began.
There are little grand stories about the city from then. It grew to its large, albeit restrained, state it carries to this day, and eventually, it suffered the weight of Kaguyan imperialism the same as all islands now in the Federation, but the dangers of the waters and the forest meant that Kitsunebora was largely left untouched, although the enforcement of Kaguyan language would change its name, along with that of the Senman Island and Forest as a whole.
In the modern day, with the formation of the Federation post-Border Wars, while Kitsunebora still retains its Kaguyan name and a more varied population of people culturally, it still serves its function to the world of the Kitsune and their kind, who've made their own grand settlement in the meantime, collecting power and status as a haven for the isolated and counter-culture who balk at the strict rule of the Tenshitsune elsewhere who wag their nose at freedom and hedonism.
Points of interest
Outside of the natural environment around it, the biggest point of interest in Kitsunebora is the temple in the center of town. While not as extravagant as some temples elsewhere, it is an elegant and symmetrically designed, open-air temple with three stories made with local wood, delicately varnished. The chimes within the temple are always kept in top condition, and the bell above that serves both for prayers and warning is kept similarly maintained.
Tourism
Kitsunebora doesn't get many tourists. While modern ships are more capable of piercing through the rough waters around them, people tend to only visit if they wish to set up business for their lumber shipments, or if they're on a retreat to nature and wish to be immersed in the deep, green forest. It's not exactly a place for spontaneous vacations or lackadaisical sightseeing.
Architecture
Houses in Kitsunebora mainly use wood from the surrounding forest as well as clay from the shores. Most people prefer flat roofs, although many include slants to some degree to account for rainfall. Either way, people tend to enjoy open-air concepts for their home, at least on one floor, to let the air move through the home better.
Geography
Kitsunebora was built on a clearing in the Senman forest. While it's grown beyond its initial boundaries, the land around has remained relatively flat, with only slight elevation changes within its limits.
Climate
The southern half of Edda's area is moderately temperate, leaning a bit more toward warmer temperatures but staying rather cool. With the thickness of the forest and its canopy, all of Senman island stays rather cool no matter the season, although can become a bit frigid in the winter months.
Founding Date
411 PE
Founders
Alternative Name(s)
Mirror Frame
Type
Large town
Population
6,028
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
Ahoy! I love how on the surface the settlement doesn't seem like a very important place... But then it turns out its a massively important connecting place to the Material Plane and The Rivers Reflection! The concept of structures from one plane bleeding into another stands out well, I feel. Lovely ideas.