Anzen

On the water to the North you'll find a haven. A place to find work, a place to sleep, a place to find work. Anzen is all of these things to the weary traveler.

Overview

Where many cities relied on technology and Invocation to be their ward against the Malignancy, the people in the Northern area of Anzen simply saw fit to take to the water. What was once a small town on the water's edge has now become a sprawling market city, all afloat on the back of wooden rafts. Buildings are stacked, one atop the other, seemingly precarious until you see how unaffected the locals are.

Market City

The primary mode of Anzen, as a city, is its dedication to trade and shipping. Anzen and Tuluyan are the only two cities that are built along both a railroad and a river, and Anzen utilizes this accessibility with famed effectiveness. In its composition, Anzen is an organized area comprised entirely of commissioned workers. There are mercenaries, chefs, doctors, crafters, artists, engineers, scholars, and lawyers. Every single person who has something to offer, or, wishes to be able to have something to offer, is allowed to carve a place for themself out of the city of Anzen. And if there isn't room, well, it sure is good that the city is filled with skilled architects and construction workers.
This doesn't mean, of course, that the average worker doesn't have a place in Anzen. Due to the simplicity of its construction, Anzen is also the fastest growing of the cities, and is able to house an increasing number of people from the Wastes of all backgrounds and skillsets.

Staunch Protectors

Of all of Albietha's pockets of safety, Anzen is perhaps the most welcoming. It is considered by many to be a Utopian gathering place. A messy, smelly Utopian gathering place, but a Utopian gathering place nonetheless. While Invokers are freely allowed in the other major cities, Anzen is the only one to explicitly declare the city a place of refuge for those capable of Invocation. This is not merely empty words of sovereignty, either. The city believes in this tenet to such a fierce degree the mercenary groups that run the city in have actively fought against the corporations of the Wastes to defend Invokers who have incurred their ire.
Along with their express protection of Invokers, while all of the cities have expressed an explicit distrust of the corporations of the wilds, Anzen is the only city to actively declare war on the corporations and refuse their aid. The city prides itself on taking no assistance from corporate powers, and relying instead on its large mercenary network and its connection with the other cities.

Layout

The outer miles of the city are comprised of the artificial islets that have become the city's iconography. Wooden rafts that hold stacks of smaller buildings, supported by steel and thick wooden support beams and accessible through winding stairs, ladders, and rope and iron carried elevators. Travelling further into the city will find sturdier ground and reveal that the city-goers have constructed large wooden and concrete boat-like structures in an attempt to devise more structurally sound living spaces. Much of the city's more official gathering places, as well as the few pockets of industry that doesn't occur outside of the city are relegated to these dwellings.

The Mercantile City

The ruling structure of Anzen is unique in that there are truly no leaders of the city. The mercenary groups that provide much of the city's stability and income act as a council system. All officially registered mercenary groups have appointed arbiters who meet to discuss the issues and objectives of the city, as well as the goings-on of the wilds. Due to the fact that much of the work the mercenary groups take on directly lends to the success of the businesses of Anzen-Sei, the mercenary groups have, over time, become unofficial congress members for the city.

Mercenary Groups of Anzen

Prowler Boys


Road Burners


Red Shoe Lillies


The Dashing Calotls


Shepherds of Light


The Fifteen


Lightning Chasers

The History of Anzen

The town of Anzen was founded by the United Cities of Somber in 1562 AE as a way to further ensure the safety and security of Fishers from the larger towns. Initially nothing more than a waystation, the location grew over the years to become a township in 1617. After the fall of the United Cities in 1682, the town suffered a great deal of economic hardship, until Erziehen built a railway station leading Westward past the town. From that point, Anzen started to grow exponentially as one of the most prominent providers of both Ice from the ocean and Lightning from the coastal winds.

The Malignancy

By the time of the Malignancy, Anzen had grown into one of the largest townships in the Somber Lands, and when the interior cities began to fall, many of the refugees drifted Northward to Anzen, and the people of Anzen started to built upward rather than outward. Converting the exterior of the town into a series of walls and defensive mechanisms, and expanding on their shops and boat-houses with series of towers, stacked shops, and elevators, Anzen started its path on becoming the haven it is today.

Type

Large city

Location under

Somber Lands